Oh, and just one more thing....

There is just one more thing, 

 Which one of my posterity was the one who left this present on my nightstand? I think it's going to take some real deductive powers to figure this one out.

Seventeen Spooks at our Home Tonight

 I got a fun surprise tonight as seventeen spooky grandkids showed up with their friend Kevin. They sent Kevin to the front door first. "Trick or Treat" I heard on the other side of the door. I opened the door, but the door hit Kevin (in a Darth Vader costume) in the hand and he fell over backwards, hitting his head on our concrete porch. It took me a little bit to figure out that Kevin was a dummy. Then, suddenly there were seventeen little ones who looked vaguely familiar filling our home.

 We all then headed over to my Dad & Mom's house where we found another ghoulish visitor. He almost looked like he could be Jake's older brother.

 He grabbed Elsie and I thought she was doomed, but it turned out he just wanted to dance.

 Pretty soon Elsie just melted into his animatronic arms. In the end, she figured out he didn't have a heart.

 Sam become his little little buddy after that.

Here is a group photo I was able to get of all of them. Ryan David had a Boy Wonder costume (dear to my heart. You can see all the others in their costumes. This may be the first time I have been able to get a picture of all of our grandkids at the same time. What a happy evening for a lonely dad.

Handcart Days 2012

 OK! So it is almost Halloween now. It is high time I posted the pictures of Handcart Days. Last year we went down and ran into Shon's and Heather's families. This year we ran into Brooke and her extended family.Here are Stephen and Brooke's kiddies with all their cousins. (in case you cannot tell, ours are the cute ones.)

 Steve's mom got this primo spot right in front of City Hall to watch the parade. We turned around after seeing our grandkids and saw our best friends, the Gerbers. They really did it up big with drinks and BBQ going. I didn't know people did things like that. No wonder I always thought parades were boring.When my dad worked at the main post office in downtown Salt Lake, he got us special seats on the window ledges for the Days of '47 Parade. That was pretty cool.

 Little Ryan David wasn't too impressed by the parade. He would have been content to sleep right through the whole thing, but Grandma had to keep waking him up . He is cute when he is asleep, but he is a lot more fun when he is awake and laughing.

 Then we were surprised to see all our neighbors playing in the Wasatch and District Pipe Band. Many of these neighbors are descended from members of the pipe band that used to play at our family reunions in Midway. They are one of the best bands in the world and have brought great acclaim to our little area.

 Wow! Mikey couldn't believe his eyes! Right here in Bountiful was Spidey and Johnny Depp . Both of them straight from films that his dad had worked on. I am not sure what that princess was doing in there.

 We love your guts? Come on guys, is that the best slogan you could come up with? These are same guys who were so surprised when they found out that they didn't have me fully sedated during my last colonoscopy. They didn't really believe I was awake until I reminded the nurse about the story she told the doctor during the colonoscopy. It seems no one is interested in dating here once they find our what she does for a living. What a bummer!

Finally, the highlight of the parade. Two thousand stripling warriors (well some were not so stripling) straight out of The Book of Mormon. It was a pretty impressive sight. We saw lots of young men we know. Two thousand boys is a lot of boys. All in all, it was a great time in our small town parade. We felt a lot of pride in our community - and our  family.

Lessons from an old screen door

My grandparents lived in an old bungalow home that they expanded by enclosing the front porch and creating a larger living room. The back door was at the bottom of a few stairs on the back porch. This door had an old wooden screen on it with a long spring that kept it closed. This was long before the days of hydraulic door closers, so if you weren't careful, the door would slam shut behind you.

When I stayed at their home, I would be excited to run outside after breakfast and explore the yard and neighborhood. Every time I ran out that door, it would slam shut. This was invariably followed by the booming voice of my grandfather saying "Don't slam the !#$@ door!". Every time that happened, I would vow that the next time I would be more careful. I would lie in bed at night and promise myself that I would do better the next day, but every day I would run out that door, usually remembering my promise just a split second before the door crashed shut. I never did learn to make sure that the door closed quietly no matter how hard I tried. The few times I did remember, my little brother would follow behind and I still earned the reprimand from my grandfather.

Today, I was released from my calling serving in the bishopric of our ward. I told the stake president that my time in this calling was a lot like my experience with that door. I never felt like I had mastered the ability to serve the way I felt like I had promised the Lord I would. I have loved serving our ward in this capacity. I have loved serving with two amazing men. There is something about counseling with them and being able to receive revelation together that forges a bond of love between us. I will miss the love and trust that I have felt from our ward members during the last 5 -1/2 years. I only hope that the Lord will forgive me for never learning how to keep that door from slamming, and will judge me instead on the intentions of my heart.

A Time For Moving On

The beginning of summer marks the end of the school year. The end of the school year means graduations to attend, congratulations to extend, and good-byes to be said.

 It all began with one our goofiest grandkids. (we have a few of them), Andrew, who graduated from pre-school. I like his graduation cap - and his enthusiasm.

 His teacher is going to miss this little guy. She told about one day when he was playing in the yard. She saw him stand up and suddenly run clear across the yard and into the bushes. She asked him what he was doing.
His answer? "I farted myself all the way across the yard". I think I have an idea who taught him that one, and it wasn't anyone in the Phillips family.

 Cy graduated to a new bedroom and a new basement playroom. No sad good-byes for him.

 It was a different story at the kindergarten graduation for Ping's first class at Muir Elementary. As Janene and I walk through the neighborhood, we see lots of six year old children who talk to us in Chinese. It is too bad that Ping won't be around to see the fruits of her labor.

Sad good-byes as Ping left her little college students and headed back to China and home. We sure miss her. The last time we talked on Skype, we all cried.

Joe graduated from Viewmont and a big chunk of Diane and Dan's family were on hand to celebrate this milestone. After earning his Eagle Scout award, this graduation ceremony at Weber State University was nice way to cap off his high school education. Now he is off to the working fields like the rest of us, before he heads off to college.

I always thought Dan was tall, but now both Mom and dad look up to their grown son

Laura and Isabelle both said good-bye to Valley View (Grandma's Alma Mater) as they graduated to junior high school. Janene and I never got to be in the same class with one of our cousins. These two young women  have been able to share that great blessing

Mom and Isabelle don't seem to have any regrets about moving on. My dad has something he says a lot. "onward and upward". I never really knew why he said that, but as I watch our children and grandchildren each pass these mile markers, I can't help but think about the final gatepost out there in the future. I hope and pray that it will be "onward and upward" for all of our family until that final day when we can all be together with no more sad good-byes.

What are you looking at?

During the recent annular solar eclipse, we traveled as a family to Ground Zero in the center of the path of the eclipse for a once in a lifetime glimpse of what the sun can look like.

 NASA set up some telescopes along with Southern Utah State University to get a better view. With this telescope, I was able to see solar flares and sunspots on the surface of the sun.

 We were only a few miles from Vikki's home in Kanarraville. Julia chose a spot close to the ambulance for her viewing spot. She doesn't look too worried. It was a kind of party atmosphere around here.

 Our first try at photographing this event was not too impressive. Should have brought the tripod.

 We got a little better, but not until after we had reached perfect alignment.

 We did have to wait around for a long time. Amazingly, there was still a wait for the facilities

 What a classic family photograph! It's a good thing they were wearing their glasses.

 They didn't really come prepared to see a half-moon!

 Like I said, a party atmosphere. or is it a carnival?

Once in a lifetime. We were glad we went, even though it took us about 7 hours to get home. Thanks Vikki!

Fourteen Grandkids Go Fishing

 Well, it is no secret now. Sam needed some fishing experience for his Cub Scout advancement, so he called up his Grandpa. Grandpa is a sucker for chance to go fishing. The rest of the family decided to support Sam and have a little break in the High Uintas at the same time. By the way, Sam made this card to thank me for helping him fish.

 As we headed off down the trail, we ran across the troll bridge to make sure we weren't eaten up and found ourselves in a lovely meadow with wildflowers.

Pretty soon we had fourteen grandkids with their parents all at the end of the lake with nobody else around

 At first, Sam didn't know a lot about how to tie a fisherman's knot, or how to rig up his pole, but with a few lessons from Janene on types of fish, and a couple of lessons from Grandpa on knots, bubbles and flies and casting techniques, he was ready to attack the water and bring in the wily trout. Sam is a pretty quick study and has great attention to detail and in no time at all was sending out 75 foot casts.

 Before we knew it, he had caught his first fish. He was just a little bit excited.

 By the end of the day, Sam had not only caught six fish, but he had caught four of the five different species he had learned about from Janene.

Now, the other kids were not to be outdone. Elsie learned to cast as well as Sam and caught her own share of fish. Michael caught  fish too! and got a few little snaggles in the process. Cy was a pretty patient guy and the patience paid of with several fish of his own. Lily and Andrew, and even Caleb got to reel in some fish. Stephen caught the biggest fish, which was taken home and cooked by Sam. (he loved it). Janene and Brooke caught their own fish before the hail and lightning spoiled all the fun

We can say that this was a great activity for the grandkids, but in the end, Grandpa caught the prettiest fish - a blue and emerald green Arctic Grayling that was almost a foot long. I love this country. My Grandpa called it God's Country. I have been all over the world and seen some amazing sights, but the greatest times I have ever had have been with my Dad, and Grandad, and my children and now my grandchildren in this beautiful corner of the world an hour and a half from home. Janene and I first came here together the day that Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. Janene caught so many fish that my Dad gave up fishing that day and just watched her reel them in. If Janene had not shared my love of this place, I would have been heartbroken. She will tell you she hates the place when it snows on you on the 24th of July, and the mosquitoes are eating you alive, and we have to walk out in the pouring rain, but to watch most of our family having a great time together is a priceless experience.

Phillips Family Campout 2012

 No campout is complete without good eats. Larry and his family came up with the idea to make omelets inside of onion rings and pepper rings. Holy smoke! what a bunch of work! But the proof was in the eating and we loved every different version they came up with

 Nothing like a little ingenuity. We brought the old badminton set from the motorhome along with the horseshoes. We just forgot to bring a birdie (shuttlecock for those of you who are prim and proper). So we put Janene to work and she came up with one made from some toilet paper, a plastic bag and some duct tape. Duct tape to the rescue again.

 Omigosh! Look at those eyes! (don't look at the nose)

 Two little love birds, sittin' on a bench.

 Check out her blog. I'm sure she got much bettter pictures than I did

 Of course, Cy always seems to get the dirtiest of all the kids. This mixture of charcoal, good ole' dirt, marshmallows and pine needles is unlike anything I have ever seen him do. I told him to go get cleaned up.

 Here it is,  the automatic kid washer (the Kate model). Kate worked on him for several minutes, but I think she needed a pots and pans cycle for this one.

 Here are the two baby bellies two weeks later. 

 The closest thing we will ever get to a family portrait. Just one of the kids is hidden- little Andrew in the back. Well, the babies are missing too!

 Here are a bunch of little baby robins in their Robin's nest. My, those are some hungry little critters!

 Another family portrait with one adopted son

By the end there were just a few of us enjoying the comfort of the fire, but we all had a good time. There is nothing that gives me more pleasure than to see my children and their children all having a great time together.  My own father remembers the time when all of my sisters and brother had a great time at a campout at Kalaloch Beach on the Olympic Peninsula. I felt the same at the Ponderosa campground. I know it probably can't last forever. Someone may move away from here, but I am going to enjoy every minute of the time we can all be together as a family. When we are together it's like a slice of heaven - with marshmallow, dirt and dog spit on top.