Kimberly Is Home!

Kimberly flew in to the Salt Lake airport on Thursday (August 26th) and was enthusiastically greeted by Mom (me), Dad, Rachelle, Grandma Anderson, Mommer & Popper!

We didn't know that Grandma Anderson would be coming until she made last minute arrangements just a few days before!

I kept getting teased by everyone else because I must have looked anxious as I stood at the bottom of the escalator, watching for a passenger in a skirt & missionary name tag!

I had a wonderful video to insert here (and Rachelle did such a nice job), but alas, I have tried three times to download it here at the library, to no avail. Saddness... Just try to imagine Kimberly spotting me at the bottom of the escalator and trying to run down those stairs while managing her shoulder bag and carry-on luggage! At first, I thought that she was going to abandon the suitcase and let the Elder with her carry it the rest of the way!

It suffices to say she was excited to see her family!!

After the rest of us changed into dress clothes, Grandma, Mommer, Popper, Dad, Kimberly and I went to the Salt Lake Temple. This was something she had asked to do months ago!

That evening, we all met at Keith & Rachelle's for dinner. Todd & Kristen drove up from Orem and Jordan rode along with them--what a family reunion!

On Sunday, she spoke in our ward in Orderville. In addition to Jennifer (home for the weekend from SUU), Grandma, Dad and I, we had Uncle Bart and Aunt Jane there. Their daughter Mandy is starting at BYU this year and they stopped by the 'sands' on their way back to California.

Kimberly is still getting used to answering to her first name and not answering the phone as 'Sister Anderson'. She has a long list of movies to catch up on and is enjoying using the internet anytime she likes (though our dial-up makes her want to scream).

Our new RM will only be home another week and a half before she goes back to BYU-I and makes the adjustment back to being a college student. After that, you can call Dad and I official "empty nesters"! :)

Let's try this again.

I don't think I did anything different this time but let's hope it works.

Wakeboarding according to Todd

Last week a friend of mine from Rexburg, Rosalyn, invited us to go wakeboarding with her, her husband (Brayden), his dad, and his cousin (Whitney). Unfortunately, Kristen had to work that day so I had to go without her. (although she's not much of a water person anyway) Anyhoo....the weather was fantastic and I was psyched to go for the first time. That was until I found out that I was the only one who hadn't done this before. In fact, when Brayden went first, I felt less inclined to "show my stuff".

Until he did this.

Apparently Whitney had never been able to clear the wake before. Until now. (look at her face at the end)

This is kinda what MY experience was like.

It probably didn't help that my feet were a thousand times too big. But I digress. All in all it was a fun time and I hope I get to try it again. I will leave you now with a few pictures of some flying rats.

Our Baby's Gone To College

Well, today we got Jennifer to Cedar City and settled into her dorm room at SUU. She's rooming with Lindy, a girl from our ward and is excited to begin her college career. She's not excited, however to be a freshman again. She hates those feelings. Almost as much as the "first day of school picture" feelings as indicated in the second picture. Mom kept it together pretty well throughout the process and did very minimal crying. At least when anyone else was around.
Jennifer and I took one car in the morning with one load while Mom went to work with the other car load of stuff. When she got off, she headed to Cedar and met up with us, and we moved the rest up to the room. After all kinds of fun (for Mom and Fif) arranging things in the room and finding places for almost everything to live, we said goodbye and left her to it.

Jennifer is pleased with her new bed set...thank you Grandma Anderson for making the quilt!

In all fairness to Jennifer, she was antsy to get to a mandatory meeting when we were taking this picture. She had also had some last minute issues with a non-functioning room key, but Mom had to have the back to school picture.

The weirdness of not having any kids at home to worry about will only last for a week until Kimberly gets home next Thursday. But then the normality of her being home (when it finally feels normal) will end when we take her back up to Rexburg in September and we will be empty nesters for real. sigh.

New Mexico again

Sorry this took so long to get posted. I seem to have had an incentive problem lately. Probably comes from getting back to work after vacation. Anyway, I just wanted to post a few more pictures of our New Mexico trip for you. On Thursday the 5th, I borrowed Popper's Jeep Wrangler and went across the valley and into the mountains to the west to see what the "Who told you about the Falls?" Falls looked like after all the rain they've been getting. It was a fun, but bumpy, trip and I finally found my way up to the falls. They were running pretty strong, and I'm not sure if anyone would have wanted to climb up them this time or not. I know I didn't try. After spending some time and about getting my fill of taking pictures, I heard one big crack of thunder and decided it was time to get myself off the mountain and head for home. I really didn't get into any rain to speak of until I got down to the higway in Cleveland, and about that time, Mom called me and told me not to try and drive up the road into Trumbell Canyon, because they were getting flooded out.

I drove up to the turnoff, and it was sure enough flooding! The wash just to the south of the turnoff had overflowed and overwhelmed the culvert and was flooding across the road. I had to dodge a basketball sized rock that was rolling across the pavement in front of me. Shortly after I crossed the water, the traffic stopped and there were a few brave (or foolhardy) souls who went on through.

This guy in the pickup (below) was trying to pass the FedEx truck in the middle of the water until he saw the car stopped in the oncoming lane. And maybe he spotted the big rock in the road just behing the FedEx truck. Can you see it? What was he thinking? I was afraid the asphalt road was going to wash out, but it ended up OK.

Anyway, a lot of the dirt road coming down from Mommer and Poppers was washing out and getting worse all the time. Below is a picture of a little section just above the gate with the bulldozer parked and waiting for us to put it to work. You can see the water had washed up against the dozer treads at one point. All this happened Thursday afternoon. We had a stake temple trip to Albuquerque scheduled for Friday that couldn't be changed, so it was Saturday before Popper and Iwere able to do anything about the road, and we spent all day on the dozer and backhoe trying to get it smooth enough for me to drive my little, low clearance, Subaru down the road and head for home on Sunday. The high clearance vehicles like their Forester and pickup got up and down with some bumping, but we didn't think our Impreza would make it. We finally ended up driving it down on Saturday night after all the road work and leaving it at the farm. There were a few bumps and a bit of mud on the front bumper, but it went ok - it really IS a Subaru! Then on Sunday morning, after goodbyes, Mommer and Popper drove their Forester to church and we loaded up in the pickup, drove down to the farm, transferred our stuff to our car and hit the road. All in all, an exciting end to our vacation.

And finally a picture of Mom at her birthday dinner at Hatcha's. It was a great vacation and we had a wonderful time. I tried to post a couple of videos of the flooding, but for some reason, the videos wouldn't upload very well, so you'll have to come to our house to see them (hint, hint). The summer is about over. Jennifer leaves for school in 4 days, Kimberly gets home from St. Louis in 11 days and leaves for Rexburg 12 days after that. Time seems to be compressing in an alarming fashion. Which means I should wish Bryce a happy birthday before it whizzes by me. And maybe Sarah as well. You guys quit being lazy like your Dad and put up some posts so we can hear from you. Keith's trip to Montana looked awesome. Bye for now. Dad

GlassEar National Park

I've been meaning to put up some pictures of our trip to Glacier NP for a while now. I like the way Bear Grylls says it, so breath really heavy and say "glass ear" with an English accent. Anyhow, we went up to Montana about three weeks ago and had a blast. This trip was one Rachelle and I have been wanting to take since we looked at a coffee table book at the chiropractor's office several years ago. The weather was beautiful, the drive was long (we learned all of the state capitals and Canadian provinces on the way up - we are so dull), and it was everything we hoped for.

This trail followed the continental divide through the park to a chalet at the top of a ridge. Beautiful.

The marmots would lay out on the rocks and "bark" if you got too close.

Maybe the cutest thing I have ever seen.

More New Mexico

Just some more pictures from New Mexico this week. A couple of the family group pictures we took (I only have a couple because the SD card in my camera is apparently corrupted and most of the ones I took are all screwed up). And a couple of the ones I took on a photography expedition to Fort Union National Monument and La Liendre ghost town. Maybe more later from the ones Mom took on the other camera. Dad.

Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here. Dad