BRIDAL SHOWER FOR JENNA ( AND JOHNNY)

Dear Family,

We had another event this last week.  Cheryl gave a shower for Jenna, who will marry Johhny H. in May.  This is the first wedding of the grandchildren.

Cheryl put on a very nice shower, well I think so although I do not remember attending a bridal shower int he past.  There were grandparents (Oma and Opa), both parents, uncles, cousins and friends.  I thought there was at least 50 there. Here is a picture of the older group.

Cheryl and others brought some goodies for the shower, pretty organic but very yummy with a salmon salad, hummus, spreads of all sorts, fruits and delicious desserts. It was well done.

Here is John H., Johnny (future bridegroom), Jenna (future bride), Jenna's dad, Chuck and Opa.  Johnny has one more year of chemical engineering before graduating from the Y.  He will do an internship with one of the large oil companies this summer.  Jenna's dad is a dentist.

Here are Madeline B., Madeline H. and Cathy, (their aunt).  Think there is a family resemblance?

Here is Opa with grandchild # 75. (Doug and Kristina's latest) She was cute, wanted to be held and was very well behaved.

The gals all pitched in and bought Jenna a yellow Kitchen Aid beater.  To celebrate this event, Suz baked these gourmet cookies, vacuum sealed each and shipped them u; from Arizona for the shower. Check her out on Facebook and hit "Like" if those cookies look appealing.

They all had a good time but after getting a quick bite and taking a couple of pictures, I quickly retreated to a distant room where Paul and I watched a movie. This was definitely a girl thing but all had a wonderful time. Nice work Cheryl! Conference next week and I cannot wait.

Love, Dad

TRIP TO SPOKANE

Dear Family,

I am a week behind in reporting on our trip to Spokane.

I went up their to se Rob and his opthamology group to improve my vision.  We flew up on a Thursday night and stayed at Jeff's.  It was great to be there again.  All the kids are getting bigger and  little Leo is talking up a storm.  Little Luke is also very verbal strong little guy.  I love our grandkids.

On Friday, Rob and I did some damage at a favorite store there in Spokane.  We had a lunch at a place featured on "Dinners, Drive ins and Dives," and then went to the eye clinic where I got the royal plus treatment.  I like going there as all are very professional and respectful which is something not found in all clinics.

Rob put me through the paces and found out that the vision had decreased since the last visit.  They decided to try intra ocular injection of a medication that cuts down on macular edema.  Rob did the injection and I did not feel anything.  We had dinner at Jeff's and Tammy must have cooked umpteen courses of her favorite recipes and it was so good.

Saturday was a fun day.  Tammy, Eva and Mom got out the magic mill wheat grinder and went to work,  They ground some wheat, used Rayanne's recipe and baked several loaves of great bread.  Eva is going to begin grinding wheat.

While that was going on, Jeff, Julius, Rob and I 
went to Rob's gourmet shooting range on the banks of the Spokane River and had a great time there.  We sighted in several rifles, had some pistol practice and just had a great old time.  My eyesight had improved over night and I was grateful for the improvement.

Sunday we went to Jeff's ward and attended the lesson he taught in Sunday School.  We had another great meal with multiple varieties of cooking excellence.  Board games were out again.  We had a nice Family Night.  You cane see the whole gang in the picture above.  Monday morning, I went back to the clinic where improvement in the Macula was documented.  I need to do this every month for three months.  The material injected usually cost $2000.00 a pop and hopefully the insurance will help out.  It is amazing how progress has been made.

Rob and I went to the range again to test out my eyes and sight in a rifle.  There you see three close shots at 100 yards with Rob's 308 grouped with my tired eye.  Not bad.

We had such a good time seeing Jeff and his family and Rob, Eva and their kids as well.  We never seem to get enough of our family wherever they are.

We love you all.

Mom and Dad 

MOAB MARATHON WITH CHERYL AND DOUG

Dear Family,

Had a spontaneous trip this weekend.  Doug and Cheryl signed up for the Moab half marathon.  This is one that Al and Mary did while they were at BYU. Cheryl and Doug rented this lodge for one night and in the last minute, Cheryl invited me to come along 15 minutes before they left.  I hurriedly packed and got into the car with Paul, Cheryl, Emily and Johnnie.  Doug took his entire family with extra friends in two waves.

This marathon is a big deal!  there were 5000 runners.  Cheryl and Mary are preparing for the Boston Marathon at the end of the month so this was good practice for Cheryl and was Doug's first marathon.  Moab is this little place that seems devoted to tourist trade, hiking, four wheeling, biking and rock climbing with special four wheel drive vehicles.  The town was packed and all these skinny kids were lined up in front of restaurants to get their carb overload before the race.  The town smelled like spaghetti sauce!

We all met at the lodge.  I was told that the race was a lower altitude than SLC but what I was not told, you had to climb 4000 feet to get to the lodge.  I survived the night!

Here is a picture of our runners before they left.  They had on their high tech stuff, wrist GPS, heart rate monitor, ear plugs for the iPhone, special belts for the water bottles, energy boasts.  So here is Cheryl, mother of eight, in her little running outfit complete with shamrocks (St, Patrick's Day) and Doug (noted vascular surgeon) looking chipper for the race.

Cheryl did not run for time but hung out with Doug as his running coach.  After two hours, here they are at the finish line.  Cheryl was very chipper and ready for another half.  Doug thought this was different than cross country in High
School.  I watched the runners come in, all these really thin people gasping for breath but looking fit.  I hung out a the EMS place as some of the older ones came in on stretchers and wheel chairs but all had a great time and I was proud of these two.

We drove around the Arches for a while while Cheryl called everyone and recounted the details of the run.  There is a science to this for sure and she seems ready for he big marathon in Boston.

We drove straight home and got ready for the next event of the day.  Madeline was is a dance group presentation at her high school.

Here is mother an daughter after the dance performance, Cheryl still glowing from her run and Madeline after her performance.

Well if we missed our family for three years while were on our mission in Germany, we are certainly making up for it now.

Next event is the visit of friends, missionary reunion and the Fathers and Sons post Priesthood meeting barbecue.

We love you all,

Dad and Mom