Grandkids here

It's great to have the grandkids here. It's great to have them here for photos.
Channing taken 8/16/09
Katelynn with her Popsicle and cute chair.
Love the smile!!
Tyler.

Channing Blessing

On August 7th, Josh gave Channing a baby blessing. Hayley's parents and sister were still in town. It was nice to have most the families together. It is a wonderful experience to see your children growing up and living close to God.


Grandma always enjoys holding her grandchildren.So does Grandpa.
Mom, Hayley, and baby.
Channing did well - without crying or fussing for the evening.
Kate found a flower for her hair to match her dress.
Family group shots.


The star of the day.
Loving parents.

Channing at 2 weeks

Channing at 11 days old. Unfortunately, Rick and Sue have been busy with commitments to scout & girls camp and with Nathan's move. We haven't been able to spend much time with them. Hayley's mother, Sue, has been a blessing. She has been helping Josh & Hayley since Channing was born and will be here one more week. We appreciate her being able to take 4 weeks out of her schedule to help.

C

Moving Nate from Logan

We drove to Utah to help Nathan move from Logan to Orange County. He graduated from Utah State University with a Masters degree in Accounting. On our way there, we spent a few days in Provo where we celebrated Bella's first birthday.

Some of Ben's family was able to attend. Patrice, Giovanni & wife, and Alex & fiance.

We don't know where Jarrod came from. He is so much taller than the rest of us.
Ben owns a scooter and let Jarrod and Alyssa practice driving it.


Not sure why she gave us this look, but it was cute photo of Lyssa.
Katelynn is getting very good at riding her tricycle.


Grandma enjoyed being with her grandchildren while in Utah.

We found a very good Mexican restaurant while there. Kate was bored in Tylers stroller when this was taken.
On our last day, we stayed in Provo and had dinner by the pool with Ben, Lyssa and Bella.

It was good to move Nathan and his family back to Orange County to be near us. We will miss Alyssa and her family more as they will be the only ones not here. Fortunately, we have the webcams.

High Aventure

This last week was the ward/troop annual High Adventure. This year we went to "Camp Owens". There is no such place is you do an internet search but this is what the young men call it. One of the leaders owns property near Sacramento that allows us to camp. It's rural and on the Sacramento river. It providers different activities for the young men. Such as:

Paint ball wars. They were up before 7am (which is quite unusual for this age group) to play a few hours of paint ball wars.


After a breakfast, (eggs, bacon, pancakes and hashbrowns the first day; breakfast burritos; and All-In-One [a dutch oven meal]), they did other activities such as tubing on the river. After a few laps they would eventually be thrown off from the centrifugal force.


Dinners were a feast as well. We had In-N-Out style hamburgers (veggie burgers for Clark); a dutch oven feast consisting of BBQ chicken, BBQ ribs, Hungry Jack casserole and potatoes; then ribs, Rib Eye steak with baked potatoes. The photo below was the Neanderthal (Cave man) dinner consisting of Spaghetti with meat balls, Ranch dressing salad and bread. This was eaten without utensils off the table. It's obvious the mom's weren't here!!!



The uneaten food didn't go to waste. It became art work. I believe this was a VanGough attempt at their girl friend.

It was also a "J" for Jarrod and "A" for Adam (though not shown)

On the river was a rope swing.

Jarrod is showing off his new hair do. Actually, this was bending over with his head in the water and flipping is up.

The kids went to bed at 10pm each night (on their own). The leaders stayed up and sang "Oldies but Goodies" from the '70s around the campfire.

Other activities included swimming in the river, fishing by boat in a catch and release pond, and canoeing. They also shot .22 rifle, .22 pistol, archery and 12 gauge skeet shooting.

The young men a great time. The leaders all returned 5-10 pounds heavier.

Channing ..... Wilbur - (maybe)

We visited Josh and Hayley's baby today. We saw Josh and Hayley when we were there too. They aren't solid on a name yet but they like Channing as the first name. It's Josh and Rick's middle name. It comes from Rick's side. It was the first name of his grandfather. His grandfather was 11 of 12. They were having problems thinking of a name. The doctor that delivered was Dr. Channing. So they used it. That's the family story anyway.

They had a difficult time last night. The baby was up most the night. Welcome to the world of parenthood. The hospital was resisting to give anything other than nursing. At 3am they finally insisted. He ate and slept. What goes around comes around. We had the same experience with Joshua. He came out hungry. These photos were taken at 7:30pm on Sunday - 1.5 days old. He was considerably more alert with his eyes open. The full collection is on the Picasa site.



Hayley's parents drove from Utah yesterday to be here with her. Her sister and husband live in the area. So there will be lots of support. The hospital was nice. Josh has stayed with her the entire time. He is sitting on the chair that folds out to a bed.The swelling on his face is going down.


His bullet head isn't as large either.