Benjamin Theodore Landon

Grandpa Robin with the latest arrow in his quiver. Yeah, like he had anything to do with bringing this great little guy! One day after leaving from the hospital, Robin gets to hold this little one.

He looks like his brother, Sam ... but is that a little touch of mischieviousness that I detect already. He promises to be a joy for our family.

He already knows that Grandma Janene loves her little baby hugs. Of course, Janene got to see him yesterday just after he was born at 7:22 PM on 30 Aug 2008. She said that he is even cuter than he was yesterday. Laura says he needed to be cleaned up before he looked really good. Laura, who is almost nine, is being a great mother's helper in taking care of Ben.

Angie is the proud mama of this cute little boy. Even though she has been sick, she is happy to have the new addition in their family and it shows on her face. Benjamin is her biggest baby so far, weighing in at 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 20 1/2" long. She looks much happier than the last three times she went through this ordeal and will probably come home tomorrow from the hospital.

Ben is Born

Angie and David's fourth child, Ben has arrived! This is late breaking news. Janene has taken Angie's other three children to the hospital to see their brother. We don't know anything yet about him and definitely have no pictures yet. As soon as we know more, we will be sure to let everyone know.He's at the LDS Hilton, just like his grandpa was until yesterday.

Driving in Ireland - Chelane Style

Imagine driving on the wrong side of the road. Now add driving a stick shift. Now add shifting with your left hand. Add three crazy girls, signs that you don't understand very well and you get a little idea of what Chelane went through in Ireland. It's no wonder she scraped the side of the car on a rock wall in Killkenny National Park. The top of the wall she hit was littered with miscellaneous auto parts left by other unfortunate drivers.

Our Wee Bonnie Lass in the Emerald Isle

Chelane gazes over the cliffs toward home longing for a better place, a better time......... NOT!!

A particularly tranquil view of one of Ireland's many castles. I think Chelane said this one was being used as an abbey.

Chelane at a very good fishing rock. Too bad she forgot to take her fishing pole. I don't think she could catch Brook Trout here since I think they are native to Appalachia.

Chelane and Rosie sitting on a petrified leprechaun's foot - again... longing for home. She is probably pining over the lost opportunity to kiss the Blarney Stone ( a few minutes after closing time)

Robin and Janene go the the LDS Hilton

As far as vacations, go this has been a doozy. Janene left town to take her mother to Oregon while I went with my parents and Tammy to the High Uintas. I had a relaxing time there, but my mother will tell you "Theres's something wrong with that boy! He slept half the time." It turns out she was probably right, since within a few days I landed in here. I had a busy week moving Chelane into her new home, helping Angie and Heather with their homes and then Friday helping our ward with the annual Zuchini Races.

It seems that Janene never goes out of town but that something major happens. Friday night after the races, I felt a little queasy and decided to go to bed and not stay up. By 1:00 AM I knew something was wrong, and by 3:30 I knew that I would have to get Chelane out of bed and have her drive me to the hospital. When I arrived, my fever was over 104, I was shaking like a leaf, and the ER staff went to work right away. Shortly, I had had a spinal tap, two IV's were inserted, and then as my blood pressure continued to drop 64/44, the doctors decided to cut a hole in my jugular vein and insert a catheter to the heart so they could dump enough fluids in me and medications (a presser) to bring my BP up.

The next thing I knew I was in intensive care while they tried to figure out what was wrong. Janene cut her trip short and brought her mom to the Reno Airport to get a standby flight back. There is a whole story about that experience. With a priesthood blessing from my sons-in-law, a visit from the Bishopric, and Janene home we thought we were out of the woods. That night, my temperature spiked to 105, and they resorted to bagging me in ice and brought in fans to cool me off . I don't have fond memories of the LDS Hilton Ice Baths, and I want to file a complaint with Paris Hilton herself. While she's of gallavanting around the world running for President their quality control is going into the toilet.

Just so everyone knows, I am feeling much better now, though it looks like our trip is only just a little over half over. The whole culprit now appears to be a little bug called pseudamonas aeregosa http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/pseudomonas.html that lurks in stagnant water. Once it enters your bloodstream, look out because there will be a battle of epic proportions going on for your body and they will need to pump lots of miniature warriors in to help in that battle. It appears the primary battle is over, but there are a few mop-up operations before we can declare victory. Thank goodness there will be no need of regime change here. I love you all, your support has been wonderful. Thank God that we will get to be together again.

Short Vacation in the Uintas

Robin spent last weekend with Tammy, Mom and Dad in the High Uintas for another short fishing vacation. The fishing was not so hot, but the campfires were great, the conversation was excellent, and Tammy's trailer performed well. Kate (the dog) enjoyed snoring in the trailer keeping Robin awake in the tent. We found a fireweed plant making it's way in the stump of a logged out tree. We will watch for this in a couple of weeks to see if it blooms before it snows again.

We were able to see lots of wildflowers in picturesque settings. You would have thought it was spring the way the flowers were blooming. Ah! Wilderness!

Here is Dad trying to figure out what was wrong with his gear as we all had a hard time catching fish at Crystal Lake. While the fishing was a little subdued, Robin was able to catch a couple of those funny looking fish with the forked tails and huge dorsal fins - graylings.

While we were up here, a couple of climbers came running down to our camp hoping we had a cell phone or a radio to call for help. A young man had fallen while trying to climb the cliff above Cliff Lake at the base of Mt. Watson and was badly hurt after falling over forty feet. We couldn't call out, but Mom and Dad knew that the campground host had a new two-way radio that connected to a repeater on Bald Mountain and directed them to the host. A signal made it out to the Salt Lake Airport and soon search and rescue crews were on site with help. Shortly after that, an AirMed helicopter arrived and landed in the meadow near Cliff Lake. After getting him off the cliff, the helicopter lifted off and headed to the hospital. What a big difference from the time years ago when we witnessed a head-on collision at Pass Lake. Robin had to drive clear to Bear River Service to get help, and it still took two and a half hours for help to arrive. There are some good things to be said about technology. It's not all bad.

Phillips Fiends Practice Animal Cruelty

What on earth is my family doing? Kate is not really Bat Dog, is she? Tammy and Mom were trying to teach Kate how to fly, but Dumbo she is not. Then to make matters worse, they put peanut butter on here nose and then laughed as she tried to get it. OK I admit, I was laughing too. Actually Kate loves peanut butter, so this isn't all that bad.

Independence Day

Cy holds a newly escaped Monarch Butterfly prior to letting it go back to Mexico

For the last couple of weeks, we have been watching the metamorphosis from egg to caterpillar to butterfly. Years ago, we used to have Monarchs visit our yard every year. They love the milkweed on our hill, but for years, the visitors have become less and less frequent until finally, they stopped coming altogether. This year Janene watched as a Monarch butterfly floated into our yard, landed on a milkweed plant and then flew off. Later when she went to look at the plant, she noticed a very, very small caterpillar. We took the milkweed plant into the house and watched the daily- even hourly, change as the caterpillar grew and became a chrysalis with little gold spots.. and then today the butterfly emerged, shook some liquid off it's wings, and took off from Elsie's hand, heading south to Mexico, where the cycle was to begin again. Isn't nature amazing!

Our Cassie Shines

Doug and Angie's daughter Cassie is featured in this Primary poster for later this year. She was only five when this was done. The artist is Serene Heiner. We are all tickled that she will be showing up in wards all over Utah later this year. She was cute then, but I think she's much cuter now. What's next? Doug on an Elder's Quorum poster?

Potty Party for Cy

CONGRATULATIONS TO CY!!! This special guy has graduated to the big time. Remember our #1 hot tub rule?
Nobody gets in the hot tub unless they are potty trained. Today marked one full week that Cy has had no accidents. He was rewarded with a family party in the hot tub. He has been looking forward to this day for months now and tonight he was able to put his training to good use. Grandma, Grandpa, Elsie, Mom and Dad got to join him in the fun. He made lots of bubbles, splashed water on everyone - including Andrew, who was exiled to the hammock while all this fun was going on, and taught his sister how to ride the rubber ducky underwater. This has been a real blessing and savings for Heather who no longer needs to buy and change diapers. Looks like it's Freedom Day for both of them. Did you notice that Grandpa's camera is working now? Grandpa decided that if it was going to cost $300 to replace the shutter, he might as well try to fix it himself. What was the worst that could happen? Since it was going to cost $300 for a brand new camera body, there wasn't anything to lose. With the help of the tools that Grandpa Phillips used to build the ship in the bottle, he was able to repair the shutter and clean the CMOS sensor. Voila! New Camera ... We be bloggin' again!