BACK TO SPOKANE

Dear Family,

Mom and I went up to Spokane to see the families there and to get my eye treatments.  Rob has been doing a good job controlling the retinopathy in my left eye with injections.  My vision is improved with each visit.

This time Rob and Eva made arrangements to rent a cabin on Priest Lake in northern Idaho almost to the Canadian border.  They had given a donation to the Spokane Symphony and apparently got the condo with it.  Here is the living room with a great wood stove for heat.  It was 22 degrees when we got there so the stove was appreciated.  The cabin accommodates several families.  Jeff and Tammy came with their 5 children and Rob and Eva had their four children and it was fun!

This was the view from the room.  They prepared great dinners and there were walks outside in the snow.

Here is Jeff reading about the Battle of the Bulge. Rob and Jeff are enthusiastic board game players and that is putting it mildly.  They played a game, Advanced Squad Leader or ASL.  Anna mentioned you never interrupt Squad!

They both play and attended Squad Leader conventions in Seattle where Rob came in third in a competition.  Rob and Jeff will take Tammy and  Eva to the next one in Seattle.

The Lodge had a loft like our home in Michigan and sure enough they set up the board game which is very complicated and played in the evening.  Mom was up at 3:00 AM and they were still at it.

I guess I did not take any pictures of the girls as we were always gone.  Mom, Eva and Tammy set up a great craft table and all were busy while we were away pursuing other hobbies.

We found a good place to go shooting and sighted in several rifles.  Anna came along and she was Annie Oakley with a .22.  Julius was also quite a good shot and with Jeff's new 45-70 and with open sights demolished a rather expensive reactive target with a dead head on hit about 70 yards away.  Just a lot of fun.  We took care of several pounds of Tannerite as well.

Here is the Dad taking a bead with the Russian 45-70 double rifle.  It was fun to shoot and great that one can regulate the barrels easily.  Rob had his in 30-06 and that was accurate.  We had a great time doing this during the day.  At night we did a little reloading and it was a hobby filled time.

On Sunday, we drove down to the Priest Lake Ward in Newport and attended church.  It was interesting; the missionaries were there as well.  The kids doubled the primary attendance.

We then drove down to Spokane to get the kids in school for their Monday classes.  It was so much fun.  Eva and Tammy planned these great meals and brought enough for an army.

Well Easter and General Conference are coming up soon.  We will have an Easter dinner in our home and hope many will attend.  It is a great time of the year and we are thankful for our blessings.

Love, Mom and Dad

FAMILY SKIING

Dear Family,

We have had pretty good snow this year and all have taking up the ski sport including the little kids.  Suz and John are here now and have enrolled tier kids in ski school.  Some get the class through their elementary school and others signed up for classes at the ski resorts.  Our garage is full of ski equipment.

I never took it up when I lived in Utah as a teenager.  My Dad was a surgeon here and he kept setting the broken legs of my friends and I decided I did not need that.

Here is a picture of Grant, Garret, Issy and Tommy up at Brighton.  Some days Doug would go and take his family and meet with John, Suz and Cheryl's gangs.

Cheryl and Paul took their eight kids for a final family trip before Maddie goes on her mission.  Paul has always liked Switzerland and here they all are with the Matterhorn in the background.  Really neat.

Mary and Mark came back from Michigan for a little Utah skiing and brought David and Katy along with Anton, their German exchange high school student.  That was fun and we cooked a German dinner for them with Brats and homemade Sauerkraut, multigrain bread with Strudel.  Anton was definitely in his zone!

I thought this was a great picture of Mary coming down the hill but it is apparently one of those things you stick your head through.  She does look pretty good!

So skiing is slowly coming to a close but it has been a great season and all have had a blast.

Alles Gute,

Mom and Dad

FIND MY IPHONE APP

Dear Family,

John was great help today in recovering my Iphone.

Here is one of the few recent shots I have of John, recently moved as a lawyer in a Salt Lake firm.  He was one of the "Chinese road crew" who put in a road on Ricks farm in California.  This is not lawyer garb but pretty good shot.

Speaking of Chinese, I took Mom to "Little World Chinese Restaurant" for our Friday night date.  They have great authentic Chinese food and is down the street on State.  We brought some goodies home for Suz.  When I got home, I missed my iPhone and tried calling it several times and could not hear it at all.

I had installed the Find My iPhone app to help Suz find hers one day.  Got out my iPad ( the grand kids call it the Opad for Opa's Ipad) and started the  iPhone search.  Sure enough it showed up on a google map and looked like it was in the restaurant.

I called the next day  but no one seemed to know anything about it.  John took my password and used his app and sure enough it was still there.  You can view this on a map or on a combined map and Satellite photo.

He went in there and speaking in English explaining that his Dad had ;left the phone there last night but, did not seem to get anywhere.  This is where the Chinese eat so it was packed at lunch time.  Since everyone did not know anything about it, John raised his voice a bit and spoke in Chinese and got everyones attention.  "Look at this satellite picture, the phone is right here in the restaurant, Where is it?" (Sounds great in Chinese!) Finally one of the Chinese men got up and reached under the cash register and retrieved the phone emitting its signal and gave it to John so he was hero of the day.

I would not want to say what they were planning to do with it.  Some said we should not go back there but the food is so good might give them the benefit of the doubt.  Will try to catch up on the blogs; our schedule has been so full lately.

Love you all,
Dad

SWEETS BY SUZ

Dear Family,

There have been a lot of projects around here lately.  Now that Suz is here we have more.  When she was in Arizona, she started a Facebook post called "Sweets by Suz".  Click on this site to see some amazing cookies.  The one on the left is her Pony cookie, "Shutterfly", (something to do with stuff you can find through Netflix) she made for a nieces birthday party.

She does this for businesses who have parties and she places the Logo on a cookie and then traces the outline for the delicate frosting.

The process sometimes moves to the dining room and is quite elaborate.  Here she has a special projector that shoots the picture she is drawing down on a cookie.  This has moved to the dinning room

Here is Suz carefully crafting one of these tasty masterpieces.  (Mom is in the background on her computer).  You need plenty of room to do this cookie art.

Then she carefully traces the outline with fine icing and fills in the color.  They are then individually packed in a little cellophane  pouch and sealed.  Necessary equipment for each stage is required.  

It is a mistake to leave these out too long as our little pack of four and five year olds will take a little nibble from the edge so they do not show too much damage but just enough so you know the little guy mice were there.

Here are the "Hello Kitty" Halloween cookies and each is an individual work of art!

Buzz Lightyear was also a hit.  You have to Look up Sweets by Suz on Facebook to see many more  examples of this cookie art form.

It is fun to see all this going on and the house has a new level of energy.

Way to go Suz, we love you,

Mom and Dad

PREACH MY GOSPEL

Dear Family.

Out two granddaughters, Madeline H, and Natalie H. will b going into the MTC soon.  Madeline reports to the London MTC and Natalie will go to the Provo MTC for Portuguese language training.  They are busily preparing, getting outfits, scriptures etc for their missions.

I have been trying to have sessions with them on Preach My Gospel, the Missionary guide. It has been hard as Natalie is in Provo and Madeline is busy with school but we get together on Sunday.  Here we are at Cheryl's going through Chapter three which is the lessons taught.  They will get it in great detail but it helps to have a little experience with it before they start.

We have gone through three lessons and hope to finish the rest.  For Family Night at Paul and Cheryl, Madeline and Natalie taught the First Discussion.  There they are like a couple of sister missionaries  leading the discussion.  They only lacked the name tags.   They looked over the lesson again, divided up the segments and taught like pros.  Kinda gave me a thrill.  Wish I could see them in action when they are out.

This missionary surge is really quite a moment in Church history.  They had had to create 58 new missions to accommodate all those who wish to serve.  Reminds me of the statement in scripture,  "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." So proud of all these young men and women who have jumped to the opportunity.

Natalie has her Farewell this next Sunday but we will be away.  Madeline's is in the last Sunday of April.  Douglas has scheduled his in May. Jake will put in his ;apers this summer. Good luck to all, we are proud of you.

Love, Dad

BINA HAS A BABY

Dear Family,

As you may have heard, Bina had her baby this morning.  It is a strapping baby boy, named Jacob.  All are doing fine.  Don't know the demensions but he is pretty bright eyed and alert.

She called us during her labor and it did not sound like she was in any pain and the baby was delievered normally.

I believe this is grandchild #77! ! It is Bina and Scott's third child.  This comes  before their move to Florida where Scott will go through an orthodontic residency program.

They are paying the residents better than they did in my day so it will not be too bad.  My top Massachusetts General Hospital salary eight years after med school was $320/month with eight children at the time.  Luckily I received Veterans benefits for two years after my stint in the Navy.

Bina and Scott will be in Gainesville so it will be a great excuse to get back to Florida now that John and Kaley have moved to Salt Lake.  Way to go Bina and congratulations Scott for this new Stammhalter.  Bina has cute kids; the oldest, Alison, is an exact copyof Bina in every way.

We have had a lot of kids around here lately.  I believe we have the busiest house on Sherwood Drive.  There is a pack of four and five year old boys including, Johnny, Timmy, Grant and Garret.  When they get together with other cousins their age, it is really something.  Here they are trying to scare me while on the computer.  They are over at our house a lot and they are full of vim and vigor and actually pretty cute.  The family is ever growing with two more grandchildren on the way that we know about.  Talk about a quiver full!

Congratulations again Scott and Bina and welcome little Jake

Love, Mom and Dad