Camp Piuta Excursion for the Boys

The picture above is the perfect case for having a better camera. This was taken with my cell phone and it doesn't come close to showing what we saw. This was a huge field of blubells right below Piuta. I have never seen this area so green (and blue--- and yellow) Larry Gerber, Eric Holmes, Rick Tolman and I went up to Camp Piuta to open up the camp for the season. There was still snow blocking the road. Some poor stake had the job of hand shoveling the snow off the road. We got to de- winterize a bath house and fix all the shower heads and toilets. We had a great time! We all went up in Larry's work truck, so we had ladders and tools- everything we needed. We even made gaskets and washers out of electrical fittings Larry had on his truck. We had the obligatory stop at Micky D's, so we proved that guys just never grow up.

Birthday Trip for Janene

For Janene's birthday, we tried to do some things we never find time to do. We got the papers signed to transfer the lot into our name and then went up to Heber to record the change with the county. More about that at another time. We went to a great little restaurant in Midway called the Tarahumara. The food was awesome, but a little on the expensive side. The family that owns it is from the Copper Canyon area in Chihuahua, Mexico where Grandpa Morton filmed his "Misadventure" movie. We then went up to take a look at the lot and traipse the property lines. Quite a few trees are down or dead this year from the hard winter. We walked down the "trail" to the creek ( it was more like bushwhacking a trail) and got enveloped in clouds of pollen from the trees and shrubs, but we found these incredible little purple flowers that were growing everywhere on vines. I think they are a wild clematis, but I'm not sure. Once we got down to the creek, I almost expected to find a six-pack of Nehi and a couple of watermelons chilling in the stream. There were a ton of memories that came flooding back - the time Mort and I dug a badger out of his den along the creek and ran all the way up the trail to the top, expecting our next step to be our last... or the time Grandpa warned me not to touch the aspen trees because the oil on my skin would kill them... or the time my cousin Bryan and I caught our first chipmunk. What a place! It's not the same anymore. Most of the work Grandpa did on the property is either reclaimed by nature, or destroyed by the neighbor, but there is nothing better than the smell of the canyon or the sound of the buzzing bumblebees in the wildflowers to bring back a sense of place, of care and love that we felt there as kids.

Leapin' Lizards! It's Father's Day

Cy thought that Grandpa needed a present for Father's Day, so he went out behind the woodpile and captured a baby lizard for me. He was a little sheepish about holding it, but it was a good little lizard and didn't disobey his master. We had a great time, there were lots of fun presents, there was lots of good food, rootbeer floats (courtesy of the case of Dad's root beer provided by the 5th Ward Primary kids) and we all enjoyed the time we spent together. We had a busy Father's Day at church, we got to hear Heather and Joseph speak about fathers in their ward, where Heather said great things about Marty and her dad, and then we had a big old fashioned barbeque with Robin getting to use his new toys. The only bad part was that we never got any time to go visit my Dad. That had to wait until the day after, when we had a little more time. We missed having Janene's dad around, but Janene thinks he is enjoying things more where he is.

Janene - Pioneer Super Woman

These pictures are from our "practice" Pioneer Trek Janene and I got to do this weekend. The fabled "women's pull" is part of the trek experience. (I'm sure a guy thought this up!) As the pioneers headed west, Brigham Young decided that the men should volunteer for the army in the war with Mexico. In addition to proving the Saints' loyalty to the United States, the men would receive a badly needed cash allowance for uniforms and provisioning that could be paid to the families of the men. This reduced the ranks of the men needed to make the march to the Salt Lake Valley by 540 men, leaving a large number of women to head west and start a new life for their families. These pioneer women were the backbone of the trek west and without their valiant efforts, many of us would not be here today. Imagine what it must have been like with nursing babies, pregnant women, and several children in diapers as they headed to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. We all know how hard Janene works to provide a loving home for her family. These pioneer women must have been almost super human to do what they did. Janene and I got a small taste of the sacrifice they made for us yesterday and today.

Pain that cannot forget...

June 5th marks 12 long years that we have not had David's bright smile in our home. He went off for a fun adventure and we never got to say goodbye. There are so many things we wish we had said. If only we could have been given one of those big bear hugs, knowing it would be the last. If only there had been a way to know, in advance that he would leave us. We would have kept him home. But that would not have been his desire. If Dave had known what was ahead of him, he would have gone anyway, knowing that his life would be needed to provide safety for the others. There is no way to measure the pain that we feel every day. How do you measure an empty spot in your heart, your life? There is not a day that goes by that each of us does not think of him. We know where he is.. we know what he is doing, but still, it would be nice if he could stop by for a visit. Each of us has grown as we have asked God to help us understand why he was called home, and many have been touched by his example. I first heard this quote from the Greek poet, Aeschylus, forty years ago. It was recited by Bobby Kennedy the night that Martin Luther King was murdered and was from his favorite poem. It reads " and even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God". How is it that a Greek poet could know that we would be taught by the Holy Spirit how to understand, to love, to forgive and to heal? We now know that all is part of God's plan, and in the eternal scheme of things, this loss of our son will be but a moment. We now have wonderful children and grandchildren, extended family and friends who have helped to ease the pain we have all felt daily, and for this, we give thanks to our God.

The Family that Plays/Works Together...

Ok - So I know this isn't the most flattering picture of any of us except Shon, but I just wanted to show that when something needs to get done, we can count on our whole family to pitch in. Earlier this week when Chelane needed to move, Shon and Max came to the rescue and helped Janene, Robin and Chelane load up all the stuff from Chelane's apartment and haul it across town to Brooke & Steve's house. Brooke is so good to let Chelane store some (read: most) of her stuff in their garage. And we did it all with Dan's trailer. Max really did help and we are proud of our little man. Shon and Robin hope we don't have to move the armoire or the TV ( Shon was thoughtful enough to point out that they now make pretty lightweight and thin flatscreen TV's) too many more times. We are especially thankful that she doesn't own a piano yet.

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.