Wow it is really time to update!! I hope you have all been doing well. It seems like the time has been just flying by. We have been busy at our house.

Life has gotten a little funner as Becky and Mike and Nayeli and Zack have moved in with us. They are a lot of fun to have around.

It didn't take long for the ward to put them to work here, Mike is the Preist Quarum Advisor in the Young Mens and Becky is the Camp Director for the Young Women. They have both been doing great.

At conference time, Calving and I got to take Tom and Gwen with us and go to Idaho to see Natalie and Nate. We met them at Lava Hot Springs and Tom and Gwen went with them to the Hot Springs for a while. We took Sara and Nate their Birthday presents and had a really nice visit with them. We love to get to see and love on those little grandkids. I hope this summer I can get up there a little more to see them, I really miss them all. We were supposed to go camping for Easter, But instead we got 15 inches of snow! We packed everything and went out to Terra, but we turned right around and came back home because the weather was HORRIBLE; so we just all camped at home for the week. I think it was harder work to camp at home though!

We spent a lot of time in the shop and since Calvin and Darin built a smoker last fall we did a lot of smoking meat. In fact we have decided that we have taken up smoking as a habit. But it is just making us all fat. Oh well we are all getting fat together!

Since the weather finally warmed up we have been working on the yard. I think that since there isn't a park in Pine Canyon that we have decided to make our own. Mike built a double swing for the swingset and then painted the swingset black so it looks awesome. and then yesterday the family got together and built a teeter tawter to put in the yard too. I don't have these pictures on the computer yet so I'll have to get them on here later.

Well we love you all sooooooo much and hopefully I will keep this a little better updated.

Well Christmas has been a lot of fun this year, although it always is. Natalie and Nate and their family came down on Christmas eve and Tom and Gwen came over at 5:30 or so in the moring on Christmas to watch the kids open presents. Then Tammy and Darin came over at about 11:00. We are missing Mike and Becky this year. It's really wierd not to have them here, but I think they had a wonderful Christmas at home. They are talking about coming up for new years though and that would be great. I think everyone has had a good time. We cooked a Prime rib roast for dinner and we've been playing a lot of games. We got the game "Things" and that is a fun game. But Tammy bought Darin the game called "Quelf". That is the weirdest game, but it is a lot of fun to play. We have all laughed a whole lot.

Nate is heading home today and Natalie and the kids are going to stay for the week. She wants to go to St. George on Tuesday and see Becky and I think Gwen is going to go with her. They should have fun doing that.

Oh yeah, We had an explosion at our house yesterday. We were all sitting at the table eating some lunch when calvin decided to open a coke that had been outside. Needless to say he got covered in Coke along with the whole kitchen and front room and Gwen. I think it might be that first picture. It was sooooooo funny and all I could think of was "Don't move, I need to grab the camera" It took a little while to clean it up, but it was all worth it because we all got such a good laugh out of it.

Well, we hope you all have had a great Christmas!!!! It really is a wonderful time of the year.

Long time no write

Wow it's been a long time since I wrote on here, although I see that I'm not the only one. So I think it's time for all of us to update everyone on whats been happening out there. I have had a wild couple of weeks at school because one of the ladies I work with had her tonsils out (she's 62) so needless to say she hasn't been there. Tammy has been helping us out a lot thank goodness. Last week when I was taking some Chicken Nuggets out of the oven I managed to give myself a 4 inch burn on my neck of all places. It looked like someone had tried to strangle me or something. The little kids were soooooo cute about it though. They were all so concerned and I got a ton of hugs to make it get better.

I have been out in the shop working on some Christmas presents. Calvin made me a new workbench so I just love being out there now. He is the SWEETEST hubby in the world and he really spoils me bad. But I love every minute of it.

We had a very quiet Halloween this year because all of the grandkids live so far away. We really miss getting to have them come over and trick or treat so we can see them in their cute little costumes. Nate did send us a picture of them on my phone so at least I got that. We just love them all sooooo much and really miss them!!! I did send them some suckers that looked like Frankenstien hands, but it's just not the same.

Well I hope everyone is having a wonderful Autumn season and I'm very excited to be reading all of the new blogs very soon. I love you all. :)

Pictures to go with the blog

Back to the Grindstone

Well, Tomorrow we go back to school. I'm not real sure I want to go back, but I say that every year and then when I get there it's all o.k. Tammy gets to come in for six hours for the first 2 days to help us get things going and that will be good. I just worry because I haven't heard if Sara Lee got my bread order or not; they won't return my calls. It's really weird to have school starting on a monday, Calvin and I actually went in today and hung my welcome back signs and did a little work on the computer so I would be ready for in the morning.

We had a terrific last week of summer up at Elkhorn this year. We did a lot of riding all over the mountain and there was not one day of rain the whole week, we couldn't believe that the weather was sooooooo nice. We did have a little problem with a raccoon though, the little bugger kept getting into the garbage and making a huge mess. So we made sure everything was all put away and the garbage was in the back of Toms truck and the next morning we found that it had ripped our cooler we put on the 4-wheeler and it had also gotten into Nate and Natalies back pack on their bike. Nate got a good look at him and he said he was huge. He wanted to shoot it but it just stayed right around the bikes and the motorhome so he didn't get a chance.

We all got some little treasures from Grandma Jackson's house before they tear it down and haul it off so that was good too.

Well I hope you are all ready for your summer to be over and get the kids back in school. We have our first grandchild starting Kindergarten and boy is she ever excited. Way to go Sara!!!

I can't get any pictures to down load so I'll try again later. :0)

A wonderful visit

We had a terrific week and a half with our cute little Idaho grandkids. I think we did a little bit of everything while they were here. We took them to the Demolition Derby one night, and then we went to church on Sunday, We pulled out the little swimming pool on Monday and they had a lot of fun in it, They also enjoyed the sand and the swingset in the back yard. We roasted marshmallows and made smores one night with Tom and Gwen and Tammy and Darin and they really loved playing basketball. Then Calvin pulled out the lawnmower and put the trailor on the back of it so they could all ride while he mowed the lawn, That was a lot of fun to watch. We beaded some necklaces and bracelets and colored lots of pictures. Then to top off the stay we made some Pinewood Derby cars; what a blast having them paint their cars. I think the kids had as much paint on them as the cars had. We really loved getting to have them stay and I have been missing them since they went home, but hopefully we will get to see them again this week when we all go camping up at Elkhorn. I know I've said it before and I still have to say it again.

"GRAND KIDS ARE THE BEST" I love every one of them sooooooooooo much!!!

It's been a whirlwind

We had a great 4th of July. Becky called and said that her and Mike wanted to come up but they weren't going to be able to so I suggested just meeting them in Fillmore and going on the piute trail for the day. So that's what we did. Tom and Gwen and Tammy and Darin all came with us and it turned out to be a really nice trip. We missed Natalie and Nate though, They had reserved the cabin that his work owns and they were up there. It sounds like they had a terrific time too. We were able to see fillmore's fireworks from the campground so That was neat too. And the kids all had a great big water fight. They were all soaked and laughing . And Nayelli and Zack got to see Bubba. :)

I need to let you all know that I did survive camp and so did Calvin. He worked harder last week at camp than he does at work I think, but he is such a sweetheart for going with me to help out. The girls all just love him to pieces and I think that makes him feel pretty good. Things went way good and I am ready to get started on next year now. They had a challange course with 7 activities that all the girls were supposed to do. After the girls were all done doing them they encouraged the leaders to give some of them a try. So of course I had to try some. I Climbed a 30foot swinging log to a cable that I had to cross holding on to a rope and then I repelled down the other side. I thought that was the scariest thing I had ever done until the girls in a group I was going with (I didn't even really know these girls) decided I should do a trust fall. Well, the trust fall involved 8 girls holding their arms out towards each other and I had to climb to a 4 ft. tall pedistal log. I had to hang my heals over the logs and twist my arms up in front of me and then I had to say "I trust you with my life" and the girls all said "We're here for you sister Jackson" and then I had to promise to keep my arms twisted up in front of me and fall straight as a board. Then the missionary told me to say "Falling" and all the girls yelled out "Fall on" and he told me to fall backwards. It took me a minute but I finally did it screaming all the way. They caught me and I thanked them all for loving me enough to not let me fall. It was pretty scarey , but It had a great meaning and I am very glad I did it.

We got home from girls camp on Friday and then went to Ibapah to play all night on Saturday. We lasted from about 8:15 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. It was a long night and I actually fell asleep while I was playing and Calvin said I was playing all the wrong notes. It was funny I didn't think it was possible to fall asleep while standing and playing. Every one really appreciated us coming though so it was all worth it. We slept for about 3 hours and then calvin drove us home. We did stop in Wendover for breakfast though.

I'm glad to be home now and getting things all back in order. My lawn didn't fare to good with no water for a week and the grasshoppers never let up while we were gone so I don't have any flowers or bushes left in my entire yard. I really just wanted to cry. I hope they won't completely die now. (blasted grasshoppers).