Christmas Holidays

Jenny's family and Ben's family were here for Christmas Eve.  Here are some random photos. Serge took some with his ipod and put them in cartoon mode.  We decorated gingerbread houses.   I drew nativities for the kids to color.  Rylee's cousins loved her ipad.  I gave them butterfly wings and Rylee decided she was a butterfly puppy.

Jenny had fun with Ezra.

Shera & Rylee look at the gingerbread houses. 

Ezra inherits Ben's Christmas stocking.

Christina's family came down on Christmas day as Jenny's left in order to avoid the snow storm on the 26th. We got two feet of new snow and Ryan made a snow cave for Amy & Esther. 

I stayed inside where it was warm with Lena. 

Sadly for the rest of the holiday, I had a bad cold.  Jenny and Christina both said they had colds when they got home.  So we will spend the new years in bed trying to get over the colds.  

Thanksgiving

Here is a photo of our family on Thanksgiving.  I took the photo and then had Dad take one and I added myself in afterwards.  I call Esther my barnacle because lately she clings to me. It was great to have them there.  We talked with Sharissa who was at a conference and even got a text message from Jeff.  Jenny's family went camping and called the next day.  We have much to be thankful for.

Lena photos

Here are some photos of Lena and the family.  I went up and visited Christina and helped her load her photos.  We could not get Lena to smile for the camera.  She mainly looks surprised with her big blue eyes.
I enjoyed playing with Amy & Esther and holding Lena.

Visiting Jenny's family in Henderson

We spent several days in Vegas and drove out to Henderson to visit Jenny's family.  They also came to see the giant pumpkins, fountains and flowers at the Bellagio.  The kids really enjoyed it.

Olsen Reunion

Bud, Jill, Jeff, Jan, Jerry & Diana

It was great to see my brothers and sisters for a few days.  This was the first time we were together in five years.  The last time was just before Bruce & I left for China. We enjoyed the beautiful fall scenery around our home and good meals.  We talked about mom & dad and growing up and shared stories. It is nice to have brothers and sisters that love one another. We are planning a reunion next year in Oregon on the coast on July 19-21.  We need to make this an annual event.  Jan, Diana and I get together at least once a year for our sisters' lunch when Diana flies out to see Lance and his family.   We attended Lance's ward so Diana could watch her grandson pass the sacrament.  Bud got up and gave a wonderful testimony about the power of a loving family and good parents.  

Watching grandkids

I am watching the Weight grandkids, Lena, Amy & Esther for two weeks while Christina & Ryan are in London & Germnay.  Lots of work and lots of fun. 

Smoke in our Canyon

 After living through the worst fire season in Utah for years we thought we were out of danger and then smoke appeared on the mountain up canyon from our house, probably from an old lightning strike that smoldered for weeks under the thick carpet of needles and roots.  Here are photos.

Water drop from helicopter. 

Helicopter in field at bottom of canyon, smoke seen half way up the back mountain.

Smoke seen from road below our property. 

Only entrance or exit to our box canyon with the Fall brilliant red leaves showing. 

We live in a paradise, but it is not without danger.  However we never felt the fire was a threat.  We never saw flames.  Our neighbors Alex Scobell and Mitch Kay hiked up and worked on getting a fire break around it until the helicopter started dropping water.  They helped to keep it contained. The fire fighters have been working on it since Thursday when we first noticed smoke.  A crew has hiked up and the helicopter has dropped water.  It is hard to put out because everything seems fine and then the next day you can see smoke again, so they sit and watch from below and when the smoke starts getting bad they start fighting it. . 

Bruce's reunion with siblings

Bruce & me, Jeff & Leslie (Meyers), Dennis & Lana, Shelley & Peter (Harris), Becky & Paul (Terry), Julie & John (Primb) at the Taylor reunion on September 15th

Bruce with his siblings.
Once a year at least thanks to Leslie, we try to get together with his siblings and children.  This year there were less children and the visit was more with just the siblings.  Christina came down with her family and I spent most of the time watching grandkids.  Shelley showed us old photos that she had scanned of the family from the 40's & 50's.  There were some cute ones of Bruce as a kids.  We had not seen any of these photos before.  Shelley sent me the link on google +.   Bruce was a cute kid

Becky, Julie, Leslie & Bruce

Bruce the baseball player, love the socks

Bruce, the growing boy, love the turned up cuffs on his jeans

Bruce by a creek, love the spontaneous smile.  He reminds me of Ben as a kid. 

Ezra's blessing

Ezra Benson Taylor was blessed on Sunday August 26th in Lehi.  Ben and Shera's family and friends were all there.  Ben gave a lovely blessing for his son.   

Christina, Ryan and Lena, Esther & Amy also came for the blessing. It was great to visit with them too. 

Sharissa's visit

Sharissa flew out for the weekend and we drove to Logan and went to dinner with Christina, Ryan, Jenny & Serge at the Elements.  

We also toured temple square gardens on top of the conference center and the city creek center. 

Ben, Shera, Rylee & Ezra came to visit on Sat. morning. 

                                  Sharissa enjoyed holding her baby niece, Lena & nephew Ezra.

I love photography

I love photography, especially the immediate reward of digital photography.  Here I am sharing my camera with Andrew.  He likes it too.  My house is full of photos and I love being able to remember things from photos.  Shera is a talented photography and I really enjoyed using her newer camera.  Jenny also likes taking photos.  So it runs in the family. 

bees and hummingbirds

The bird bath is really the bees drinking fountain. 

closeup of bees 

The  hummingbirds are back including some golden ones.

Full lunch counter.

grandkids

I went up and helped Christina for several days while Ryan was in Boston.  Here are some photos.

Christina and Lena asleep in the hammock swing. 

Amy playing at the neighbors in their play house. 

Esther at the neighbors. 

Happy Weights now that Dad is home

 

Grandbabies

The past five weeks have been busy with the arrival of two grandchildren.  Christina & Ryan's baby girl, Lena Jan Weight and Ben & Shera's baby boy Ezra Benson Taylor. 

Christina & Lena

Ben & Ezra

Lena and Ezra were both big babies weighing around  9 lbs. 5 ounces. 

This brings our number of grandchildren to 10.  

Gardening thoughts

I have been busy helping Christina with her new baby Lena, so I have not posted for a while, but you can see my photos on Christina's blog. Also Picassa changed and made it more difficult for me to upload my photos to my blog. I always dislike have to figure out new things just when I was comfortable with doing things on the computer a certain way. I was so grateful to be at Lena's birth. I like this quote because it talks about what we want to pass on to the next generation. We should so live, so labor in our time, that what came to us as seed may go to the next generation as blossom, and what came to us as blossom may go forth as fruit. --Ruth Anderson Wheeler I really liked that quote. I think that God loves gardeners. The most important events that have happened in the world have happened in gardens, the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Garden Tomb. I love all the gardening references in the scriptures... the parable of the sower, Alma's parable of Faith as the seed, the parable of the Olive Tree, etc. Speaking of flowers, my orchids have been exceptional this year. We have enjoyed them for months and months while soaking in the tub. I think the bath water adds to the humidity.

Busy time at Easter

We went to Ben & Shera's for Easter and to celebrate their 29th birthdays.
Ryan & Christina and Amy & Esther came down for the weekend for his grandfather's 90th birthday.

Faun Bronson's Funeral

Bruce with his Bronson 1st cousins, Russel, Linda, DeeAnn, Kenneth, Richard & Pat at the funeral of his mother's brother's wife, Faun Bronson who was buried in Huntsville.  Her husband Vern passed away in March of 2008 while we were in China, so we missed that funeral.  The first time I even knew that Bruce had living relatives on his mother's side of the family was at the funeral of Evelyn, his step-mom.  That is when I first met Vern & Faun Bronson.  Faun gave me photos and genealogy of the Bronsons.  She was a really sweet person and so friendly. Vern lived to be 95 years old and was still driving snowplow for Huntsville.
Grave of Bruce's great, grandmother, Elizabeth Fisher Bronson, the grave next to it is of her child, Margaret.

 

The grave of Bruce's great grandparents, Hulda & Charles Stromberg in Huntsville, Ut.