It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I am so glad that my husband has made a WONDERFUL yard and playground for us to enjoy and our grandchildren to explore whenever they come. You are an amazing man and we all appreciate you so much!! I'll let the pictures tell the story.....












Thank you grandpa. We love you. Keep the adventure coming.

Sunrise/Sunset

Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little girl at play?
I don't remember growing older
When did she?
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did she grow to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday
When she was small?
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and joy.
What words of wisdom can I give her?
How can I help to ease her way?
Now she must learn for herself
Day by day
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and joy.
What a feeling of happiness to have gone through the Temple with all four of our children. I have a strong testimony that parenthood is like the Atonement. There is no way we can attain perfection on our own....We can only do our best and the Lord makes up for the balance and puts it all into place. I'm thankful to know that he listens always to a parent's heartfelt prayers in behalf of their children. I am grateful for the blessings of the Temple.

COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP

COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!!!

The Apprehension
The Lock Down
The Worry
The Helicopter
The Helicopter and it's Loudspeaker

I'm slow posting this great adventure but I thought for sure Dana and Maggie would beat me to it. When Dana and the kids were visiting the other week, we always joke with them about how they need to move away from the craziness of the Southern California region that they live in and return to peaceful, unadventuresome Northern California. Well no sooner had Adam left Dana and the kids to our trusty care, than chaos knocks on our door. I was out back with Dave when my CHP nephew drives into our driveway. David stops in occasionally on patrol so it wasn't anything really out of the ordinary ....other than he drove in a little faster than usual and comes back to us and says something along the lines of "You didn't happen to see a guy with a gun come by did you?" He then explained to us that parked at the back of our property was a guy who reportedly had a long barrel rifle and that several units were there trying to track him down and that they'd be surrounding the area and try to flush him and if we didn't mind if he left his unit parked at the house. Sounded like a good idea to me to discourage anyone with a gun, so I went into the house and locked all the doors as David retrieved his REALLY BIG gun from out of the unit. Me and Maggie and Dana and the kids then went up to the balcony in the mezzanine to watch it all unfold. My Dave in the meantime, bent on completing his orchard chores, continues to go out and spray weeds as if it's a normal day..AGHH!! In fact he's sitting there spraying weeds and he hears in the grass next to him David speak up, "At least it's a cool day out here"....Scared my Dave for a second cuz he didn't even know David was there he was hid so well. Looking out from the mezzanine, we would see I think about 9 CHP and Sheriff units surrounding the property with a lone truck parked in the back of the property line next to the canal. We felt all was safe until the CHP helicopter flies over and over their loudspeaker system we hear something like, "We see you, lie flat on the ground and get away from the gun!!!" That's when we go for our cameras cuz in this day and age, the girls think...this is the perfect blog. So we get shots of the helicopter and then shots of us panicking and are deciding that if Action News comes to interview us, we're picking Maggie to be our spokesman because she just had gotten her hair cut and eyebrows waxed that morning. Anyway to make a long story short, after about an hour on "Lock Down" the suspect was apprehended. It turns out he had gotten in a fight with someone at the cemetery down the road, got out a gun and then ran when someone called 9-1-1. He takes off down the road and when a CHP spots him he ditches into the north end of our property, drives to the back and holes up there. With the report of a long barrel rifle, the police call in all they got available. After getting him, they find out he only had a pellet gun and he tells them that we had hired him to do some weeding in the back so that was why he was there....silly silly man. Anyway, I guess we can't use the peaceful country living as a reason to persuade the kids to move back up to our area any more. P.S. I didn't post the picture Dana took of David coming to the door in his full gear with gun in tow when it was all done but it was pretty intimidating. Thanks David and all the rest of the crew for protecting us....I know we made light of it as we felt safe in our home high atop all the activities, but you were all really awesome.

The Top 25 Things We LOVE About a Fort Bragg Adventure

THE TOP 25 THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT A FORT BRAGG ADVENTURE....in no particular order.
1. Finding joy in everything.
2. Being eaten by a tree.
3. Seeing what adventure lies on the other side of the tunnel.
4. Playing tag in the sand.
5. Just relaxing.
6. Enjoying the beauty of the coast line.
7. Seeing every road as something out of a story book.
8. Relaxing on the beach with good family.
9. Finding the perfect Harry Potter outfit on a Mendicono shopping trip.
10. Enjoying a picnic stop in the woods.
11. Getting a piggy back ride on Grandma's back after a long hike.
12. Sharing a good story over lunch.
13. The Poole family.
14. Taking a nice stroll to the lighthouse.

15. Feeding the birds what's left of a beach adventure.
16. Holding onto Zach!!
17. Eating your ice cream cone sculpture. (See #24 below.)

18. Driving through the Drive-Through Tree on the way home.
19. Getting that perfect picture.20. Having a Grandpa pile!!
21. Contemplating what it's all really about with Grandpa?
22. Showing off perfect balance learned in ballet class.
23. Standing on the edge of the world.
24. Every good trip to Fort Bragg starts with a stop for ice cream in Lake County where this trip we perfected the art of ice cream cone sculpting.
25. Finding out combining a really good book and a long walk is possible.

ADDENDUM: One of the favorite things about this trip I couldn't get a picture of so I'm adding it pictureless.... At night around the campfire we would tell stories and sing songs and one night after finishing a resounding farm song led by Grandpa Thomasson, we asked Katelyn if there was a song she wanted to sing and she said her favorite was I Am A Child of God which she proceeded to sing and we all joined in. Well our camp site was close to the restrooms and as we were finishing with the chorus, a couple coming from the bathrooms to their campsite joined in. Don't ask me why, but that really touched me.