good times in the cool weather...

hey, so we are in such a great and changing time with all the coolness of weather and what's going on in the family that i just had to write today. 
things in this varied and large family life are happening in such good, hard and strange ways.  a new babe in colo, a loss of jobs for three more of the men,  girls going to girls' camps, trips being made to florida and some of the kids visiting others of the kids. neat stuff and some very hard stuff.   AND...dave going to China for 5 wks when their new baby was just a few weeks old! this is the couple they were and still are, only with 7 added to their group. dave gets home tonight and will there ever be a celebration in colo! good for them.


i want to write about the neat stuff for a while here. it has been such a privilege to know and spend time with our grown kids and then with their kids!! i love sporting around visiting them. the ones who are living right here in the same valley with us we see the least i think. they are all so busy going to school, serving in their wards, building security for their families futures that we just don't have the chance to see them as much as we'd like right now.


last year's family get together in a small panoramic shot: 
we hope to do this again this year if steph and russ are able to bring their family out again for the Fourth of July.
it's been really great to have them come almost every year at that time. and this is the last year for Ian to be at home since he will go on a mission for our church soon and be gone for two years, then college, then marriage, then end up who knows where-Timbuktu?
when our group is together Roy and i just kinda sit back and watch all the fun and activity, joking, playing games, getting wet, jumping on the tramp, and listening a lot to what they all have to say to each other. it's great.  LOVE THEM ALL!!

during the two months of travel to colo and calif i did miss the spring blooming of the daffordils, bleeding heart, the beatiful blues and purples of the ground covers, and the fruit trees in blossom. so, i am so glad to have these photos of previous year's springs to remember them. lovely Nature. so bright and cheery. 
notice Mr. Bumble Bee there in the purple ones. he knows they're sweet also. what a smart guy!
i regret sometimes not to be in depression. i feel that i am a better more honest and down-to-earth writer when i am in the introspective moods of depression. i don't miss it for a lot more reasons than that one good thing about it tho. yea! no more of it. can't really relate to it now. 

this is an intense and sunny moment. can't really see it well enough? well, i just had to use yellow right now anyway. love it

one of my fave blossoms on the planet-the simple and sweet little sunflower:

 

 i'm thinking of doing a river raft trip again. my last was too long ago when my sis and i went on he Payette together. great times. we'll go to the mts and plains of colo next month and maybe see some red, red river somewhere and i'll just go raft it. or wait for the calmer waters of late summer and drift down the local one from Barber Park. whenever and wherever i do it, i will think of wetness and cool and all the times i needed a drink after the hot heat dried out my mouth and body when i was a kid on my uncle's ranch and all the cousins would take on the long day's horseback ride to check cattle was one quart jar of water. us city kids had to wait until they decided it was time to drink-which was arbitrary, let me tell you. those were the days. days of happiness, fun, scary times in the barn at night,  heat in the NM sun, fascination with cattle work, the screw worms in their eyes, the small life of a cow and her calf, the excitement of branding and castration and then ending up with the big Cattlemen's Assc. picnic right on my uncle's ranch with the huge pits that were dug the day before and half beef pieces put in to cook and smoke overnight. the greatness of the taste of that food has lasted this lifetime so far. it was really the congeniality that has been a fond memory i'm sure. but the food was really something. on a ranch if a neighbor from two or twenty or more miles aways brings a dish of food or a cake or pie-it's just natural to fill it up and return it: double-fold to them. i loved being in the midst of all of that in the summers there. good, good times. this is the current generation of cowboy and cowgirl in that family:

         and maybe the rafting will happen...

home again...

well, i'm home again after being gone for two months. and quite the two months it was:  i was there in one state welcoming a new grandson into the world on April 15, then flew to California where my dad died on May 15, so they almost passed each other coming and going! what a surprising journey for each. lots to learn on both sides-the beginning is very hard to figure out, the middle will be full of finding themselves, and the end will be their final destiny-for the one it will be eternity and the other it will be the end of earth life. wow. how exciting for both. i think of the whole plan and circle of life as a book that has no end and endless possibilities. to explore is their determination; to fathom with the likeness of a sponge in the ocean is their tool. so very exciting and enchanting for both.

in the eternal scheme of things, when we are all finished here on this mortal realm, then we can look back with relish at the vastness of all of our lives on this, the earth of our learning, and the beginning of our grasping the knowledge to do all our Father has promised us.

~heidi and dave and their seven~

this family has seemed to settle into a place they can call home now. after 10 yrs or so of school and acquiring degrees, dave is teaching Chinese and related subjects with the Air Force Academy and likes it. so i think maybe it's permanent for them. it's such a great place to be: rolling hills all around and views of Pike's Peak everywhere you turn. and a great downtown. i'll include a long-horn cattle drive thru the streets of downtown that takes place every summer to kick off the rodeo season.
      ...had to add this one of Brighton, altho it was last at least a year ago. he's a grown-up toddler now! it's just so adorable, as all the kids are.

and introducing, Duncan, a sweet and adorable addition to this family, he started smiling at us in his first week and has kept it up! born May 15, 2010

these are the two oldest, Elijah up top, and Sebastian taken at Garden of the Gods in march 2010. Elijah just turned 10yrs and Sebastian will be 12yrs in Aug. they experiment with so many science projects, i think they will rock the world with their ideas and innovative thinking upon manhood! keep at it guys.

and we have Fiona who just turned 8yrs and making great choices in her life! what a neat, durable, capable and charming gal she is too. love her independence and ability to be interdependent with her siblings and family. love her to death! just look at how gorgeous she is....

Haven is 5yrs going on 16yrs and has the most charm about her-very petite little lady. she loves babies, princess dresses, dress-up, and her family most of all. fun and sweet as can be-beautiful inside and out. quite the mother-girl.

 sweet and fun Scarlett! love her independent spirit and strength. i sometimes forget she's 
 only 3yrs old. so wise and creative and just enchanting to be with. very much a lady, but 
 at the same time, she's rough and tumble. she has determination and perseverance beyond
 her years. 

     hair cutting day with me. such fun. i did all the kids, but especially liked this 
    one of Scarlett. so cute.

 so this is bright, bright Brighton last october...and this is him now...

...all rough and tumble boy! what a sweet heart he has, and he really holds his own when it comes to getting what he wants in this large family of people with their own ideas on what he should or should not be doing. go for it, guy!

Duncan at 1 week is so thoughtful-just listened and listened and stared and stared. such a little man in that small body! when he wasn't thinking he would smile at many things and folks. here's a couple of good examples...

he's one and a half weeks in the first one and about two in the 
second one. what a sweetie and so pleasant to be around. 
seems contented and pleased with his new life outside the sack.
i look at new little ones tho, and just see how hard it is to live and learn at this new stage. adorable!












so that's the life of Riley for this family!
but of course, not really "life of Riley" all the time.

 heidi entering full term with duncan. they hiked the Garden of the Gods this day. 
looking so good and healthy! way to go. oh, and that's one of the family i don't 
give too much credit to: willow the dog.

 this is heidi and duncan after the birth. still looking good-keeping him in her arms all the time...sweet and good.

dave is not usually a skeptic like this, but it is the Garden of the Gods. he's really a nice and very fun guy (get it, dave, fungi?!)  
here he is in his element for halloween...

but this is the real dave and heidi, being the best dad and mom on the block! and best husband and wife to each other that either of them could ever want and need...

dave does smile and laugh and joke around a lot...really! i just don't have any of those photos!


LOVE ALL MY KIDS!!

~Grant and Lotus and Family 2008/09~

Azalea is 12 yrs here and such a sweet and helpful girl. she loves animals and children and is in sports and music this school yr.  look at her go-she's actually in cross country this year too. loves it. the two boys are a joy to everyone who is around them. both so active and  honorable, wanting to do what's right.  Brigden is 4 yrs and Aiden is 2 yrs here.  fun and sweet guys.

  
this branch of the family tree has been super busy. they've moved about 10 times over the years and have a bright gorgeous 13 yr old daughter, Azalea, and two very busy and learning little boys, Brigden, 4 yrs, and Aiden, 2 yrs. what an active and fun group they are. in their moves they have known some incredible people, experienced amazing things in their lives and for now live about a mile away from us here in Idaho.



the family photo was taken at Christmas 2007. what a sweet and enduring family they are!  Grant is here with his nephew Brighton Boyd in our kitchen in summer of 2009-fun uncle.  Lotus is in our sunroom about the same time last year. i love this view of her-such a beautiful person, outside and inside.

LOVE ALL MY KIDS!!  

~Stephanie and Russell and their Seven~

to say that this branch of the family is crazy about science fiction would be true! this photo is Rose and Brenna and David ready to go to the Anime Bonzai 2009 convention. http://www.animecons.com/  there are neatly stacked(and tightly stacked so little ones aren't able to dislocate them) on bookshelves, many, many years of paperbacks along this subject that have all lovingly been read and often re-read. when Russell discovered Terry Prachett years ago and started reading to the kids in the hall by night it was a floodgate for the kids to begin many wonderful hours of pleasure in reading him and dozens and dozens of other authors. Stephanie and Russell and Brenna are authors also. the types of books has expanded greatly.
to be in their home to witness the passionate and lively debates and discussions of every subject under the sun of this planet is quite the experience.  very thinking family.

  it's a busy house with Ian finishing up his mission papers and becoming a freshman in college this year, and musical instruments running amuck, dances to go to, games to play, dramas, plays, musicals that they get involved with, etc, etc. we will go celebrate with Ian when he leaves for parts now unknown. there will be a post on the day he receives his mission call.    here we see Ian playing with a band he was with for a few years, and then running through Thanksgiving Point with David and Laurel. fun-gi!  Brenna at home and with the group that went to prom together with their dates [she's at top, left]. with  Ian driving, he and  Brenna went together with their dates to meet the group. i love that they love being together in this little family and that they are all each other's best friends.

Russell takes some darn good photos like these of David, Ivy, Laurel and Ella.

In above photo with Brenna, Russell, Rose, David and their Asplund cousin, Eve, they are in front of Cameron Falls, which Russ says is required visiting when going to Alberta, Canada, his former country.  
    Stephanie and Ivy in these last ones, taking in the myriad of people and activities at our family gathering and loving it- July of 2009...

   ...and five pirates attacking Rose-what unfair warfare! with their cousins from WA, Asher and Gavin who don't seem to claim any part in it!! and then a stitched panorama of this family, along with Uncles Matt and Russell, and various cousins, putting up the tramp for our days of fun...Laurel and Ivy and David trying it out. What a gorgeous and creative group!
LOVE ALL MY KIDS!!!