Happy Birthday, Bethany!

Bethany is turning One Year Old today!

What a sweet, happy girl!

That first year goes fast!

Hobby Time!

Dan is having fun learning all about his new camera. 

And there is a LOT to learn!

 I'm glad I'm old enough to have lived another way so I can be amazed and astonished and grateful for all of the wonderful things in technology. 

Last night he figured out how to use his phone as a remote control device for taking pictures with the camera.  Set up the camera on a tripod, stand back and click on your phone!  

(And he is also sending a little message for tomorrow: Go Cougars!)

Fun With Grandpa!

One of the great things about Dan retiring is that he is able to spend much more time with the grand kids!

One morning we watched Daniel and Michael.

They had fun doing a marble run and building towers with Grandpa!

Then we took them to the Children's Museum for more fun!

What a cool air machine!  

A race with Grandpa!

Michael had fun in this area...

Daniel had fun trying to get the scale higher and higher by loading more groceries onto it...

And playing in water is always popular!

Van Gogh and Picasso--the early years!

And finally a mail run for Daniel!

A Little Bit More From the 90th!

There was such a nice program for my Dad's 90th Birthday party!
Thanks to the Bates family for organizing it!
Here is a short video at the beginning of my Dad's remarks:

The Bates family sang original words to the song: My Favorite Things.
It was great!!

Grandpa's Favorite Things

(To the tune of "My Favorite Things:)

Service to country as Ensign in Navy.

Married to Inez, a beautiful lady.

Traveled to Canada, Tokyo and France,

Keeping the we-eds away from his plants.

Grand Central Drug Store & working at SaveOn

Silicon Valley, Ricks Pharmacy and Upjohn

Tillamook,  Sweet tooth and Stories for all

Bishopric,, high council, answering each call...............(stay down)

Walking and biking both keep you so young.

Lunch with the Seniors is oh so much fun!

Cadillac, Buick's and Audi's each year

Temple work Thursday's for nearly 10 years!.............(go high)

When there's popcorn, Country Fried Steak, seeing Grand kids too,

There's weddings to be at , Granola to eat

Happy Birthday, let's cel-e-brate!

Theme Diving!

We invented a fun swimming activity while we were in Kansas.

The kids wanted to show off different kinds of dives and soon they were asking me to give them an idea for a type of dive.  After a while it evolved into Theme Dives. 

I would give them a subject and the group would figure out how they would use that theme as a group dive. (After they posed, they jumped in).  Sometimes each one did something individually but usually they worked together.  We finally quit when it started getting dark.

Here's a sampling:

Theme: Rainbow (Sarah and Sam are clouds)

Theme: Camping 

(You can't see Courtney but she is the campfire and Eleanor is a camper sitting on the log, Sarah, while Sam and Elizabeth are marshmallows!)

Theme: Dancing

(Each person is posing with some kind of dance they like.  There are a couple of ballerinas and Elizabeth is doing Hip Hop).

Theme: Ninjas

Here are the Ninjas from the other side:

Planning out the next dive!

And they're off!

They worked for quite a while on a grand finale.  Here they are getting started on it:

It was so spectacular and involved that I didn't get a picture:(

Theme diving was super fun for the kids and the spectators!

(Some other themes included: Soccer, Lightening, Gymnastics, Baseball, Kansas and Bowling--Yes, it was a lot of diving!)

Celebrating Forty-One!

Dan's retired!  We don't have to wait for the weekend to have an outing.

So we decided to celebrate our anniversary early and spend the day at one of our favorite places: Calaveras Big Trees!  And Dan can finally try out his new camera.

He still has a lot to figure out but here are some of the first pictures he took:

I love this one because you can barely see the picnic table--that's why they call this place Big Trees!

Below: The famous Big Stump...

North Grove hike:

Beaver Creek--he took this one right through the water.

(I am rooting for a Photo-A-Day Blog!)

Here are two I took at Beaver Creek:

And for the family: The "Hut" is in there somewhere!

Rangers told us there is too much undergrowth and it is not healthy for the forest.  

Occasional fires are actually a good thing, but now a fire would be devastating because all of the undergrowth would send a fire into the canopy.

Big, new Visitor's Center opening soon and other changes since we were last there, but still feels like a bit of heaven, and Oh the memories!

More Fun in Kansas!

I wanted to remember some of the other fun things we did in Kansas:

Sam taught everyone how to play Ninja

And we played quite a few board games including Wits and Wagers, UNO Attack, Rummikub, Continuo, Farkle, Pics and Words, and Forbidden Island:

We also took the whole crew bowling!

Love this silhouette shot of the two big sisters helping a younger sister:

We also had a fun time at the swimming pool!

Eleanor doing the splits!

Camille is almost there!

Penny:

Sarah:

Cookies for dessert after a fun time swimming!

I also wanted to remember the cute decorations in our room!

 And a very special door hanger with two sides!

There was lots of fun going on all the time from morning until night!