Chelane is Back

Mom and Dad are glad to have Chelane back in our home again. How lucky can you be when your youngest daughter chooses to move back home for a while? We are finding out just how hard a worker Chelane can be. She got off work last night, went to her old apartment ( which she loved, by the way) and finished cleaning things up. She got home at about 3:30 AM and dutifully let us know she was home. The next thing we knew, she was up again about 7:00 AM and getting ready for work. Right now she has three jobs - one at the University of Utah Clinic Pharmacy, one at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and one at Primary Children's Medical Center. Oh -- to be young again!

A Twin Brother for your Birthday

We had a great time visiting with Marie's "twin" brother Jimmy today at his granddaughter Tehra's wedding celebration. For those of you who don't know the story, Jimmy was born on Grandma Marie's 9th birthday and she always said he was the best birthday present a girl could ever have asked for. Jimmy is nine years younger and is starting to show some of the same symptoms as Marie, but today he was happy to have us visit, and joked around with Dan and Janene like he always used to do. Barbara's daughter Tehra was lovely and happy to be married to Brian. Their whole family got together for a wedding BBQ and everyone was having a lot of fun. I think that the twins still look a lot alike

A Weekend Visit

We had a fun time visiting Memorial Day weekend with Grandma Marie, (also grandma) Mary Lynn, and granddaughter Lily. It was fun to visit with Marie after Mary Lynn and Gordon brought her up to visit. She seems to be doing pretty well with good health right now. She sang a few songs for us, was a little worried about Blaine, but her eyes sparkled every time Mary Lynn came in the room. Mary has done a great job taking care of her mother. She always has her dressed nice with her hair done up and pretty nails. Brooke always has little Lily in cute outfits and she cannot be seen without her bow.

A Utah Girl, Sir - A Utah Girl Am I

Who would have thunk it? Our little Lily has become a Utah Cheerleader. She is taking sides with her Great-Grandpa Warren, Grandpa Robin, Grandma Janene, and Uncle Shon. What a rebellious little girl! Her parents must be in total shock in their blue home. I sure hope she doesn't get a spanking for being so willfully disobedient. At least she's not a runnin' redskin yet. But that's only because she hasn't learned to crawl.

Memorial Day - 2008

This Memorial Day was the first for us to decorate Janene's father's grave. We had been disappointed when none of our flowers or the flowers in Blaine's yard were in bloom this year. In past years we have always been able to count on the peonies from Blaine's yard to help us decorate the graves. As we approached the cemetary our gaze was drawn to the crosses set for all of the veterans of past wars. We have seen this display created by the American Legion over the course of many years, but we never had a connection. This year, front and center in the display, we discovered Janene's father's name on a cross honoring his service in World War II. Blaine never talked much about his service to our country, we never heard him brag about his exploits, never heard a war story with him as the hero. The memory of his service to our country was always one of quiet contemplation, a moment of melancholy remembrance of those of his band of brothers who never returned to their families at home. We have no doubt, however, of his faithful service to all of us as one of The Greatest Generation.

I couldn't resist!

I couldn't help myself. I had to show everyone this great picture of Cy. I didn't select it yesterday, because I wasn't sure his mother would want this picture posted for the whole world to see, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought the whole world needed to be warned.

Three Kearls and a tramp

We got to spend a night with Elsie, Cy and Andrew. They decided to show off a little on the trampoline. Our little Elsie wanted us to know how a princess can dance. Of course it helps to have a great dress. It makes the moves so much easier. Cy is a regular jack-in-the box on the tramp and kept popping in for a picture. Andrew found out that we have a nice parsley plant next to the trampoline and found out that you can eat it too! Of course the parsley plant ended up a little worse for the wear, but we had a great night with our precious little ones.

The Problem with Toys

The problem with toys is that you have to take care of them once you have them. This time it was finally time to clean and drain the hot tub. We have to do this about three times a year - or after every poopy diaper, whichever comes first. So far, we have had none of the latter. It's against the rules. Robin made a suction tool and we hooked two hoses up to drain the thing, at the same time scrubbing all the Jet Packs, cleaning the filters, scrubbing down the sides, and cleaning all the glass on the deck. It was quite a bit of fun with the 102' F water, in our swimming suits on a cold evening, but the fun ended as the sun went down, the clean water was cold, and Janene slipped in the empty tub and cracked the back of her head on one of the delicately curved edges of the tub. We will have to watch her closely - it was a pretty good smack. She was dizzy for a few minutes, but now she's back to work vacuuming the carpet - another problem with toys. If we had a dirt floor, she wouldn't need a vacuum cleaner. All in all, I guess we figure the tradeoff is worth it to enjoy the toys when we can. I sometimes wonder if we let our toys and 'things' run our lives. I suppose that is the reason I will probably never own a Mercedes or some really fancy truck. I would hate to feel like I had to spend every spare moment making sure it looked nice and always spotless. That would take away from the time we have to spend with our kids, grandkids and friends. And they are a lot more fun than any toy we could ever own - or it own us.

Fun Times at Capitol Reef

THE KEARL FAMILY

OK - so it took some doing, but we finally got all of the kids to look at the camera. We had to reposition Andrew to a different hip so he would quit taking Elsie's hat off and startle Cy with a loud shout to get him to pay attention, but it finally happened. You can't blame them. Who would want to watch old gramps take a picture when you have mud to wallow in, crows that steal your lunch, waterfalls so loud your mom doesn't care that you are yelling, and best of all - friends and cousins to play with?

Three Generations at Calf Creek Falls

Lots of families have pictures with three generations of their family, but not many can take that picture at Calf Creek Falls after a grueling hike in 100' F (albeit beautiful) weather. We are wonderfully blessed to have such a great family and to have such a healthy family. Our hike to Calf Creek Falls started off a little rocky (not the trail - that was pure sand!) with a few missing participants who were mislead by GPS technology, but we all ended up together at our goal in good shape. I should point out that the Gerber family also made it here with three generations of their own. I just don't have a picture of their family to show off. I'll bet you can find one on Crystal's blog. You go girls!

Laura pops in for a visit!

We do this every year. We cram our grandkids into a hole in a rock wall and tell them to smile for the camera - and they do it. Laura wasn't the least bit bashful about showing off her unique smile (We will have to make sure we show this picture at her wedding), in fact, a person could be persuaded to believe that she actually enjoyed this

Nathan can talk - well, sorta

David and Nathan were having a little conversation in the canyon. It went something like this - (Nathan) " I'm gonna pull that goofy hat off your head, Dad" (David) "Oh, you think so 'eh? ( Nathan) "Yeah, that's right. You're embarrassing me in front of my peers" (David) "OK - I double dog dare ya to try" (Nathan) "I'll pull so hard, I'll pull your face right off - so there!" In the end, the hat stayed on, but Nathan did succeed in pulling his Dad's face off. Another tender, precious moment brought to you by our family in action.

Three Phillips Girls

Here are three of the Phillips girls on the first day of our family campout sitting on top of the world. As soon as we got there, we took off on a hike to the rim overlook. From here we could see down to our campground and home for the next three days. I tried to convince the girls that the dome in the background was Navajo Dome or Capitol Dome, but they insisted that it was Molly's Nipple. I will probably have to get a map out to prove to them that Molly resided elsewhere.

Wayne County Sheriff

On the way to Capitol Reef you always pass through the sleepy town of Loa. Not much of a town, really. A county sheriff at one end of town and another at the coffee shop. This guy at the south end of town looked a little familiar to us, so we turned around - yep! flipped a U-ey right in front of him. He never budged. No flashing lights here - no dash cam. Just the same old deputy with the same old leaden expression on his face. We ran circles around his car - snapped a few pics and were on our way ... faster than ever. You would think that the county could afford to post at least one deputy in the home town of a current US Cabinet member , Secretary Leavitt.

Heeere's Jackie!

Sorry- I know Jackie isn't part of our family, although she could be if she gets assigned to Janene and me (as Ma and Pa) for trek. We got to watch her do a great job at Woods Cross's Dinner Theater the other night. She even did a great number from Phantom in a duet that absolutely fantastic. Now we know what Sharon was like in high school.

Over the river and through the woods

For Shon and Mel it was more like over the woods and through the river as they brought their family to Grandmother Janene's house on Mother's Day in their new Jeep. Shon must have longed for the good old days in the '51 Willy's. He may remember those days fondly, but I don't after being pinned beneath it and Janene never did like it. Our love affair with that car pretty much ended with our ill-fated trip across the Burr Trail with a pregnant sunburned Janene (ask her about the crocheted bikini) when the rear leaf springs broke. That was the last straw for that Jeep ride. Shon's is much nicer, however. Of course, what else would you expect from Shon? Everything he does is first rate. Speaking of the Burr Trail .... it does just happen to be in between Capitol Reef and Calf Creek Falls. Hmmm... I wonder how the Accord would do on that trail?

Nine Mile Canyon - or - Bust! (er Flat!)

Today's adventure involved going to see a piece of property for sale at the MoonDance Ranch. It was advertised as great Uintas land. Forty acres for $30,000. Sounded like a good deal, right? Well it turned out to be some of the worst land in Utah. See the pic below. So as long as we were out there, it seemed to make sense to go to see pictographs in Nine Nile Canyon. The dirt road from Duchesne was a little farther than we thought, and then was blocked by a big snow bank, so we had to turn around. That's when we realized our tire was flat. And that the jack was damaged in the moving truck incident. And that the wheel was rusted onto the brake drum. The jack wouldn't go high enough to get the tire off so that meant we had to dig a hole under the wheel to get it off. We ended up having to limp all the way to Price to get it fixed. Janene recalled the lesson I taught her when I was sixteen about the proper procedures for changing a tire and we were on our way. Great way to prepare for Mother's Day!

Would you pay 30 K for this?

FAMILY CAMPOUT 15 -18 May

Remember all these pictures from last year? We get to do it again! Join us as we go the Capitol Reef and Calf Creek Falls. It was the Phillips family's turn to plan this year. I am not sure how well we planned , but we are going anyway. Hopefully you can find out more about this on Crystal's blog, maybe Heather's and here later once Janene and I know it all. Janene and Robin plan on going down Wednesday night and stay until Monday. Talk to us if you need any help with anything related to transportation -- or just if you want to talk to us.