Zucchini

July 6th Emily and her kids came for a week. Nathan's family was here from Henderson too, so we had all of our kids here at one time. It was such a fun week. Tuesday we had lunch at our favorite Hurricane eatery, Dairy Queen. It was a real party!
Warrin and Gary Richins were there and Warrin gave us some of the big zucchini I have seen on their blog. This pix shows what Emily and Shella did with it.

Service Dog Training and Certification

I flew from Vegas to Cheyenne on Allegiant Airlines June 20th. Emily and Isaac and I took a nine hour van trip to Concordia, Kansas . We saw that there is a lot of corn growing in Nebraska and farms covering most of the ground between Cheyenne and Concordia. Isaac's name had been on a CARES list and he became eligible for a Service Dog.
We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express for 5 nights and spent the days becoming bonded with and
learning to give commands to and take care of a trained dog. Crosley is a 14 month old Golden Retriever. Isaac's Mom, Emily is really the one Crosley bonded with. The training of Crosley and the 19 other dogs in this group is an interesting story.
Hopefully, Crosley will help Isaac with social interaction and safety.
It was a great experience to have with Emily and Isaac and the new furry member of the family. 2o dogs were placed with kids and adults with various life needs.
I learned a lot about dog training and found that Pronsie is probably not really a dog-- and if she is, I trained her all wrong.

Darin & Leslie's Mother's Day Post

When finishing my mission my parents traveled to the Dominican Republic to escort me home. While we vacation in the D.R., I was able to share my experiences with my mom and let her see everything firsthand. I really enjoyed showing off my mom to all of the people whom I had served during my two years there. Even after 11 years I still find myself thinking about those few days that we spent together after being apart for 2 years. It was a fantastic experience!

Our first child, Logan, was born August 26th, 2001. Two weeks later my parents flew up to the Logan airport to come and see our newborn son. On Tuesday, Sept. 11th I left early for a lab at school. When I returned home to our apartment I found Leslie and my parents watching the news coverage on the terrorist attacks involving the World Trade Center twin towers. General aviation was subsequently grounded so my parents were stuck in Logan, UT. I remember how nice it was to have my mom there for a few extra days while we were still adjusting to our new lives as parents with our first child.

Another great memory came when my mom flew in to visit us in Maine on April 29th, 2003. Leslie was 9 months pregnant and her contractions started during our drive to pick my mom up at the airport. The next day Leslie and I walked down to the hospital and my mom stayed at our home with Logan. Jack was born on his due date, April 30th and my mom was there to help. She has perfect timing! My mom and Logan spent a lot of time together during her stay with us and Logan still has a special relationship with his Grammy Reeve.

(Sorry I neglected to post this before!)

Mexican Riviera Cruise April 2008

Chuck , Venna Rae & Kenneth, Carol & John --Cabo San Lucas/Land's End in a glass bottom boat. We got into the ship's motored life boats to go to shore, where Mexican tour guides descended upon us to get our American $$ and get on their boats. When the price got down to $7.00 per person we chose a boat. It was heavenly bobbing on the water where the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez meet.

Riding Buddy

This is Shandra. She sat on the back of my 4 wheeler for most of the day. We only got scared once and it was because of a steep hill of sand onto a hill of sandstone. Kristina and Ellie went before we did and they gave us the courage to follow.

Anniversary (38th)Trip 2008

Friday, June 6th, we loaded the 4 wheelers into our new toy hauler and headed for Elephant Butte.
We found a great place to set up camp about 6pm. After unloading the Rincons and leveling the trailer Chuck went through flipping switches to make sure everything was working. When he turned on the water pump it made a bad noise--like the water was empty. He said that he had checked the gauge before we left and it measured 2/3 full. (and he's sticking to that story) . He pulled the trailer back to the Sinclair Station in Colorado City and when he started filling the water tank he found that water ran out as fast as it went in. Looking beneath the trailer he found a broken pvc pipe. The story gets even better, but I won't post all of the bad luck. He brought back a plastic garbage container of water in the bathtub.
He got the trailer back to the camping spot (that I had stayed with the 4 wheelers to save) about 8:30 pm. Just enough time to fix supper and enjoy the cool evening in the cedar treed wilderness.
We spent the next day trekking over the sand trails on the ATV's. There were 7 vehicles carrying 15 happy people. It was the best weather for a fun ride and we saw beautiful off road country.
We traveled about 43 miles on the ATV's. Great friends and a great ride! Thanks Ken and Venna for planning the trip.

Kids Again on the LaVerkin Black Hill

Last Monday night we had family home evening beginning with a bar-b-q at Angie and Lyf's. We then headed for LaVerkin to Ryan and Chani's. Everyone able to climb took off for the black hill to relive memories of playing there years before. The grandkids climbed it for their 1st time. They want to go back when there is more time to explore.
Does anyone else remember playing there?