TRIP TO FLORIDA TO SEE CHRISTINA AND SCOTT AND ALL THE KIDS

Dear Family,

The Temple is closed for a month so we had time for a little vacation from all the cold here in Utah.  Mom was anxious to get down to Florida to see Christina (Bina), Scott the two girls and the new little guy, Jacob.

Scott had finished dental school at Loma Linda, went into dental practice for two years and decided to go back into training to become an oral surgeon.  He was accepted into the program at Gainesville, FL, where he will have a four year residency.  He is in his first year.

We forgot the distances in Florida.  Mom sort of remembered deriving short distances when we went there on vacation during the Michigan years. She arranged for a van rental in Gainesville and had Bina pick us up at the airport in Orlando (100 miles away).  Bina came with cute little Alison, Ashley and little Jacob who was the best baby in a car.

We drove back and made a plan.  Bina was up to driving so we decided to get tickets to Bush Gardens and go there as much as we could.  This was 100 miles away but the roads are great, straight and wide so it is not as bad as 100 miles through the Rocky Mountains. I really like Bush Gardens as there are all the animals, flowers and trees, lots of great rides on excellent roller coasters and a whole section devoted to little children.

The next day, we drove down there, got our tickets and had a ball.  It was cold, in the 40's, so the park was not congested.

Here is Bina with Alison and Ashley in the front on this little elephant statue.  Alison, (Alley) was an exact clone of her mother in appearance and speech.  She is one of those very bright grandchildren.  She reminded me so much of Bina, that when I played with her, I had flashbacks to 25 years ago when Bina was her age.  I called Alison, "Little Bean".

Saturday, Scott was off and so we all went down to Bush Gardens again.

Here is the family next to the LandRover by the lion exhibit.  We watched the smaller kids as Bina and Scott and sometimes Alley went on the roller coaster rides.

Here are Scott, Bina and little Bean on the "Log Ride".  There were shows as well and the ice show was great with excellent skaters and birds flying around.

It was fun to watch the little kids.  Jacob was the best little guy who stayed  in his car seat the whole time and just laughed and smiled.

Here is Mom during one of those little baby sitting times as Scott, Little Bean and Bean went on the rides.  That electric cart was the only ride that Mom and I went on and it is loaded down like one of our four wheel drive trucks.  Little Jacob was just a good little guy and very patient.

We ate sea food the entire time we were down there except on Sunday.  One thing I learned was not to go to anything that has "Crab Shack" in its name.  We looked for blue crabs but the weather was so cold, there were no crabs anywhere.

Here is an Oyster Bar that Mom and I found down in Ocala.  I was so tempted to eat the oysters raw on the half shell and they had good ones there.  I must be sensitized to the raw ones, maybe from eating 70 at one time with John on a previous trip. Here we had deep fried oysters and they were good and did not produce illness.  Here is Mom going to check it out.

We took the gang to a couple of good restaurants in Gainesville and Tampa.  This was at the Colonnade on the "Gasperilo Night".  They celebrate some phony pirate and the whole place goes nuts like a Mardi Gras.  Ate these great soft shell crabs while the others had Grouper as they set off a dazzling display of fireworks in Tampa Bay. We thought we should eat the Florida sea food while there.  Introduced Scott to "Hush Puppies and Gator Tail and Cheesy grits. (That is what Mitt Romney called them during the election),

We went back to Bush Gardens three times more.

We took the train ride but the train had to stop as these huge White Rhinos were crossing the tracks.

The tiger took an interest in me and it was nose to nose through thick glass pane.  Maybe he could sense that I was admiring the animal and wondering at the same time where I would put the shot.  Maybe I need some hunting detox.

We visited Bina's ward in Gainesville.  It had three sets of missionaries and there were many recent converts as well.  Definitely back in the mission field. Little Bean, 6, gave a great talkl in Primary and read the talk she repaired.  The Primary Pres. was going to help her but Little Bean said authoritatively that she could read!

So we say thanks to Bina for all the driving and to Scott who was able to come with us twice.  We thank Bina and Scott for their great hospitality and it was such a good time.

Love to All,  Mom and Dad

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014

Dear Family,

We had a riotous holiday week!  Rebecca, Paul and all their kids were staying with us.  They were there when we opened presents.

Here is Mom when she opened her present; a new iPhone 5 series.  She has been having fun with this and one great feature is that she has the scriptures on her phone  The grandkids have been showing here all the tricks of the phone.

I got a Belgian waffle maker and made a lot of waffles for breakfast during the week.  There was something always going on!

Mary, Mark, David, Kate and Gunner der Jaeger, (highly trained German Short Hair pointer) came and stayed with us as well so we had Becca and six kids and Mary and her family.  It was great!

Mary, Mark, Paul Scott and John did a lot of skiing at Brighton and Alta with the kids.  They are all pretty good skiers and the garage was filled with ski equipment.

Here is Mark with (l-r) Tilly, Juju, Abbie, Zandy,
David, Andrew, and Anthony.  John had Grant and Garret up there as well.  They even went up on New Year's Eve for a torch light skiing and most of the kids held torches.

There were of course several trips to Cablas to make use of an"Employee's Discount" I get at the end of the year.  There were almost daily trips and we looked for the sales.  Here is one gang, Grant, Spence with his camp bib overalls,  Garret. Tommy, Opa and Heidi.

New Years Eve came and we had a large group over again.  Suz, Mary and Becca essentially planned and did the main preparation.  There was great feed and all had a great time.  Johnny and Jenna were there and of course Mary and her family.

We all sat around and mentioned New Year Resolution, had a little lesson, and a had a Family Prayer.  The the celebration went on even later,

The guys stayed up late and watched an action movie.  It was wall to wall celebration.  The kids are all back to school, Mary and Mark drove back to Michigan, Becca to St. George and it is dead quite in the house.

We look forward to the New Year and we are grateful for the blessings we receives as a family.

Love, Dad and Mom

CHRISTMAS EVE CELEBRATION 2013

Dear Family,

We had the best Christmas Eve celebration with many of our kids and grandkids.  We usually put on a great dinner to which Doug and family, Emily and family, Mike and his gang, Suz and family, Rebecca and family all came with John and his family from Alpine.  I believe we had about 50 over for dinner.

We served our traditional rib roast for the adults, sirloin roast for the kids and I even had a venison roast, (from the deer I just harvested the week before), slow cooked in a German recipe sauce.  I did not tell too many what that was but it was gone!  It was really good! Doug said that was the best of all them meat dishes.  Everyone went to a lot of trouble to bring the sides, buns, salads, vegetable dishes, snacks and of course wonderful desserts.  It was a great joint service with we providing the meat course and everyone else brought an ample supply of goodies.  It was all eaten!

After dinner, we had our program which featured Mike and his family on the Bells playing Christmas songs.

We then had the reenactment of the nativity scene which has been a fun tradition over the years.  Former players in our home In Michigan now have their own children as players.

Keeping up with the times, I read from Luke and Mathew from the scriptures on my iPad.  There is Kaley in the background following the dialog on her iPhone,  Mike hooked me up to a loud speaker so I could read above the din.  (With so many Apple computers, iPads, iPhones and iPods given out at Xmas, our network was overloaded!)  Anyway, it is always a sacred time to read from the scripture about the birth of the Savior and all were respectful.

Here is Tilly and Anthony as Joseph and Mary with Annalise as the baby.  Before we started, I asked Joseph to say the opening prayer,(meaning Joseph Wirthlin), but Anthony stood up and gave an appropriate prayer.  Later when I asked why Anthony stood up, the reply was "well he was playing Joseph!"



We had a huge cast of players including Tommy with an impala hide on his back as the donkey.  Shining stars, Angles, Wise Men and Shepards were all there and it was a great time.  We sang Silent Night (I always sing it quietly in German) and it was on to the next event,

We had a visit from Santa, (this year Johnny Hickey) who passed out candy canes full of M&M's as the treat.  All maintained they were nice and not naughty for Santa.

Then there was the "White Elephant" Xmas gift exchanged.  There were some pretty good item in the pile.  The kids went nuts.  I got a bar of Naptha soap!

Becca and her family celebrated Christmas morning with us and opened gifts.  Mom got an iPhone 5 and is having a ball with it.  I got a belgian Waffle maker and have used it to feed the hungry horde. We went to Suz for breakfast brunch and later went to Cathy's for evening Fondue.  We were pretty bushed after this.  I slept for 11 hours straight. It  has been non stop family fun blast and it is still going on!

Merry Xmas to all, Mom and Dad

HOLIDAY VISITS FROM FORMER MISSIONARIES

Dear Family,

With the holiday season, we often have visits from our former missionaries.  We have known them now for about eleven years and it is always such fun to see them on occasion,  We feel almost related.

Here is Beth Webster who came down from Logan.  She was our fine sister missionary who spent the bulk of her mission in Vienna and was there so long, that the members offered to rent her an apartment if she would stay.  She earned a masters in German Literature and taught.  Now however, she decided to go back to school and get a degree in actuarial science which would be a hot item now.  I thought that was plenty cool.  We all say,"Go Beth, go!'

We had a visit from Shalayne Davis who is here from Richmond Virginia.  She was one of our fine sister missionaries in Germany and a great trainer.  She graduated from BYU, received a teaching certificate, taught and decided to go to law school.  She is in her last semester of her third year at law school in Richmond,Virginia.  She is taking her last semester at the BYU law school but has definitely turned into a Virginia Southern Belle.  We all say,"Go Shalayne, go!"

And then on the same day, we had a visit from Mary Cox and her mother.  Mary worked in Germany and Austria and did such a great job.  Since then she graduated and got accepted to Oxford College in England.  She is working on a Phd in post World War I German economics.  This year she has taken a breather from that to become a Lecturer in European history at Oxford.  I thought that was super plenty cool.  It was so fun to visit with her again and to Mary, we all say,"Go Mary, go!"

So great to see friends and family at Christmas time.  May Heaven bless you all,

Dad and Mom

CHRISTMAS CALL FROM MADELINE, (SISTER HUNTSMAN)

Dear Family,

We are getting ready for our Xmas evening family gathering with many coming.  Paul and Cheryl and family are traveling this Christmas.  They invited Mom and me to be part of Maddie's Xmas call from her mission in Dublin, Ireland.

The rules have been relaxed since we were in Germany.  The sisters are wearing more colorful clothes.  Although very discreet, the clothing rules have been relaxed.

Also there are more lenient internet rules.  This year, Maddie was given an hour to call home on Christmas.  Paul arranged with a senior couple serving in the same zone to put through a call on FaceTime.  Here is the gang anxiously awaiting Maddie's call.  We are all gathered in Paul's home office.  There is Paul trying to make the connection, Olivia, Lauren in the chair, Johnny, Emily, Annabelle and the anxious mom, Cheryl.  Paul tried  an hour and finally the FaceTime phone rang and there was Maddie.

There she was big as life smiling from ear to ear and looked just great!  Each of the kids talked to her face to face.  Oma and Opa had a chance as well and it was so sweet!  Paul and Cheryl had a private chat with her and the call went on for an hour.

At the end we sang our family night song, Love at Home, and Paul closed with prayer. We all said goodbye.  Hard to keep a dry eye.

I do not know what an Angel looks like but I would think she would look a lot like Madeline! It was a sweet way to start our Christmas celebration.  She is always in our prayers as are the other three grandchildren on missions.  Well Merry Xmas to all.  We have our big family dinner and nativity play this evening.

With love, Mom and Dad

ROB AND DAD'S MOST EXCELLENT DEER HUNT

Dear Family,

Well we had the long awaited deer hunt in the panhandle of Texas.  This was Rob's treat.  We wanted to go two years ago but I got a little sick and had to cancel so we finally scheduled for the week before Christmas.  We prepared the rifles and ammo and packed almost everything we owned.  Rob flew down from Spokane and we flew together to Oklahoma City and then drove over to Wheeler Texas.

We hunted from Tuesday through Friday.  The Texas hunts are done from blinds.  This is free ranging hunt and we hunted like we did in Michigan.  We got up and were in the blinds by 6:00 AM and waited for the deer to come out and feed.

Rob got up in a tree stand about 20 feet above the ground and had a good view of the edge of the woods and a field.  He had my sound enhancing ear protectors on and could hear the bucks fighting by the rattling of the horns.  He watched them fighting and sort of picked out the winner and bagged this nice deer at about 70 yards with the 300 WSM.  It was a real nice deer.  We got it back to the camp, dressed it and then drove about 50 miles to a butchery for processing.  We saw a lot of deer but tried to wait for the big one which was elusive this trip.

After spending a couple of days in blinds, we finally went back to the spot where Rob bagged his deer.  We had them set up a blind the way I did in Michigan, (my Taj Mahal).  Plywood floor so one would not sink into the sand, swivel seat and a little heater as it got very cold.

Rob had his deer so he came with me as my spotter in the blind.  Through those small slits, he watched with binoculars and we saw  the deer coming out of the woods into the field to feed late evening on the day before we left.  He looked them over and thought they were pretty good. He dropped the flaps so I would have a clear shot.  I decided to bring home a deer even if it was the the champ in the area.  I  got one with the 30-06.

Here is my buck which is an "eight pointer"  Rob took his deer to a processor to make sausage and jerky.  Since this was the last night of the hunt, we did not have time for this but they partially butchered this by cutting out the backstraps, tenderloins and hind quarters.  We froze this and brought them back on the plane with coolers.

Rob made a great dish of fresh deer liver, tenderloins, bacon and onions.  The whitetail deer is so much more tasty than the mule deer around here and will be much appreciated.

An ice storm came in and it was so bad, they named it.  We however throughout we would drive to Oklahoma city to catch our plane back.  Flights had been cancelled all over the place so we took a chance and drove over there slowly as the rain and ice formed.  There were plenty of big semi rigs upside down in the ditches as we made our way east.  The ice storm hit the Oklahoma City area the worst and the trees were broken and loaded with ice.  By the time we got to the Airport, the car was covered with ice.

We were glad we made it to the airport safely and here is our load: two rifle cases, two coolers with the deer meat, two huge duffel bags and two carry on bags.  All made it back to Salt Lake safely.  Rob was slated to return the next day but was able to get a late flight back to Spokane Saturday night a day ahead of schedule.

It was a most excellent deer hunt' we are mounting the horns and we brought back some venison.  Thanks Rob for this great time.

Now comes all the Christmas activity!

Love to all, Dad

BECCA'S NEW BABY BLESSING

Dear Family,

There has been a lot going on around here with the coming holidays, birthdays and church ordinance work.

Couple weeks ago, Becca and Paul and family came and stayed with us bringing their new baby (our 80th grandchild).  This was for our Thanksgiving celebration but part of the deal was the baby blessing in our Ward so many of the family could be there.  The Bishop was nice to let us do this.

Here are Paul and Becca and little Annalise Rae.  
We filled three long rows in the chapel and there were many there from the Hatch family in the back.  There were 12 in the circle and Paul did a real nice job blessing and naming there cute little girl.

Here are the grandparents so proud of this little girl.  We had a dinner after church and there must have been at least 60 there including the Hatches.  Doug and Mike could not come because of their Bishopric duties but some of the kids were over.  It was like a second Thanksgiving dinner in a matter of days after the first one.  We had two hams and a ton of other fixings and everything was devoured.  The desserts by my great baking daughters and daughter in laws were scrumptious.

Now Mom hast the Xmas tree up, the Creches are out and it is starting to look like Christmas already. Our missionaries are doing well and it is great to hear from them.  They have a certain amount of time on the internet to read all their letters, write one to the Mission President and write home.  The Missionary Department has relaxed some of these rules and have also relaxed the dress code a bit.  All are busy and teaching.

I have this picture of Madeline, (Sister Huntsman), in Dublin, Ireland.  She looks happy and well and getting ready for the Xmas festivities.  She will be in Dublin for another transfer and she is doing well there.  How could one not talk to her?
I will post pictures of the others when I receive them.

We had a quick trip to Spokane;  I got my eye injected and we went to the Spokane Nutcracker ballet.  Anna was one of the "Party girls" and Julia was one of what they called "the Bon Bons" or the gals that run out when the lady with the huge skirt comes on stage except they did not come out of the skirt.  It is always so fun to watch our grandkids in these performances.

Here is Natalie in Portugal.  She is doing great and also teaches a lot.  So proud of these two granddaughters.

 Here are Julia and Anna with their bouquet of roses and prizes after their performances.  Eva has also turned into a ballet Mom driving the girls to lessons and practices.  They were darling!

Not to be too outdone, here ls little Elena in her Michigan Cheerleading outfit that she wears almost all the time.  She wants makeup for Xmas.  We have such great grandkids.

Rob and I leave for East Texas next Monday for a Texas deer hunt.  A lot of the fun is getting ready and doing the preparations.  We had the fine tuning of the rifles and scopes.

Doug and I went to the ranger to do the final sighting in before it became so miserably cold.  Here is a 200 yard target that Doug and I shot.  Not bad for an injected eyeball at 200 yards!.

We leave next Monday  for a five day hunt in blinds and stations.  They say there are a lot of trophy whitetails down there.  Will report on the adventure next time

We are grateful for all our blessings at this time.  We wish you all the blessings of Heaven as you prepare for Xmas.  Remember our missionaries in your prayers.

Mit Liebe, Opa & Oma