Grandma's Fan Club

This morning JoAnn received an email from Meagan saying "Please email me soon!" I saw the tag line, went into the bathroom where JoAnn was preparing for Church and said, "You have an email from your fan club."

A few moments later JoAnn responded with, "I didn't know I had a fan club?"

My response was, "Yes, and it's pretty big." Then I remembered a photo I had published on flickr and Jeni commented on, "Grandma with all of her granddaughters." (less Charlotte who couldn't be away from her Mom) and I realized my statement was more true than I had first thought. Of course this photo only shows the girls, but they do have a special bond with their grandmother.

The granddaughters with grandma!

The photo was taken in Frisco, CO at an historical center that all of the granddaughters, grandma, Krissie & Jeni went to - via bus. The girls absolutely loved the bus. When they got back grandpa treated them to ice cream. I realize I've got to buy my fan club. Grandma gets her fan club just because she is grandma. But, I'm not above a little bribery.

Sydney & Bonnie enjoying their ice cream

42 and Counting

Yes, that's the number of years JoAnn and I have been together. It's hard to believe sometimes, but then again, I can't think of a better way to spend the last 42 years than the way we have. It has been fun, challenging (mostly because of me), spiritually uplifting, growing (grandchildren), shrinking (kids at home), exciting, boring, scary, rewarding, and mostly a wonderful wonderful experience.

Every day is a new adventure. Every day we get a chance to fall in love again. Every day we live in wonder of how much we love each other. Every day we get to spend time together (almost every day). And best of all, every day we know it's a new day and we can embrace it together.

I could tell stories, but I won't. I just want to savor the day and express my joy in sharing it with JoAnn. And tell the kids thank you for all you are and all you have done.

Dad

Bonus photo of August 18, 1967 and how it all started.

And the CHAMPION is. . .

Let's look in the envelope to see who are the all-time champions of Grandpa's family photos on the flickr site it. First off, can you even believe that people look at family pictures - they do, but I've learned it is all in the title you give the photo. The more off the wall the more hits you are going to get. But the winners are real champions.

Second Runner Up at 123 hits and a family favorite is this photo of Donna and JoAnn at Wymount Terrace, BYU, 1972.

First Runner Up at 190 hits, a dead ringer, and sneaked in from the past "Tim-1982." It must be the name Tim that draws everyone to the photo. He is cute, but I really thought someone younger would beat him out. Don't let it go to your head son. Then again, it could be because it's fuzzy and everyone is trying to figure out who it is.

The Champion at 377 hits as of August 11, 2009 at 8:15 PM. After 1 look at that photo, which I titled "Tonsils!" is there any doubt who is queen of flickr? Click on the photo for a real close-up.

Up and Coming Photos that may someday become champions. It doesn't matter how good you are, there is always someone in the wings waiting to take your spot. Here are two likely contenders.

Bonnie and her boots got 27 hits in one day! Of course she does have a great supporting cast.

And Megan and Alexis got 24 hits on the same day. Time will tell, but these 2 photos may become flickr Champions.

Family Pictures are the BEST! Most of the time.

Did you ever wonder where those cute family photos come from? Not from this crowd. You can't imagine how difficult it is to get everyone to sit still for 15 seconds, and all at the same time. It's bad enough that they all love to talk, but they also all love to squirm, change positions, act out, see what they can get away with in a photo with no one is really watching.

Take for example Cole, on the right side of the photo. Why is he holding up a dollar bill? I'm not even sure it is a $1 bill, it could be more. Tim has just launched Joshua on to his shoulders and Lonita is checking out to make sure Joshua is okay. Meagan is exhausted and laying all over her brother and Sydney (alias Bear) has 2 arms around Alyssa hoping no one steals her. Jeni is trying to help Alyssa smile. Bonnie is trying figure out what all the fuss is about and Charlotte looks like she finally learned how to stand up and that's pretty good at 3 1/2 weeks. Danny has learned the cheesey smile from his mother. Ellen and Alexis always tilt their heads to the right away from the family. I've got to work with them on that. The good news is, this is one of the first family photos without the dreaded rubber neck - you know a vertical body with a head at a 90 degree angle to the body. I don't know how they do it. My doctor wishes I could.

Okay, enough fun. It was great to have all of the family together - or almost all of us together. Next time we will do better. We had a great time, breakfast and dinner together every day and then on-your-own for lunch, which was and wasn't happening. This photo was on Sunday evening about 6 pm and turned out pretty well. We had an awesome time and look forward to doing it again in 2 years.

What is it with girls and photos?

Daughter number 2 beat me to putting this photo up on a blog today. I can't believe it. That's what I get for putting it on flickr first. Oh well, the truth is I took quite a few photos of the daughters and daughter's daughters standing on the hill. Some are quite good, and then some are, well throw aways. In fact, almost every photo prior to this one was a throw away. So I started moving the camera to different angles. The result was this photo and the group came alive! Of course this is a group that is easy to come alive.


The second photo was taken a few minutes later, after we rounded up Bonnie to make sure she was in the all-girls photo. There was never a dull moment when all of the kids lived at home and when we have a reunion there are even fewer dull moment - like NONE!

Papa's Car

Our 3rd daughter's youngest son calls me Papa and at almost 2.5 that's just fine with me. Truth is he could call me anything and I wouldn't care, as long as he knows I'm his grandpa and JoAnn is his grandma.


We had a lot of fun at our reunion (more on that in later blogs) in Breckenridge, CO and on Monday morning six families began departing for different parts of the mountain west and midwest. We left about 30 minutes before 3rd daughter's family and headed west down the mountain. I figured Grand Junction was a perfect place to get gas and maybe drop by a grocery store and grab a sandwich from a deli for lunch.

We pulled off the highway, got gas for the car and pulled back out into traffic. JoAnn asked where we are going and I said straight ahead (south on a city street) to look for something to eat. Just then the cell phone rang and it was daughter number 3. "Hey Dad we're going to Burger King for lunch."

"Where are you?"

"Right in front of you." And they were! While we were getting gas they had pulled of the highway and as we pulled out of the gas station they were turning left literally right in front of us. Had the light been different we would have missed them.

"How did you see us?"

"I didn't, little Deano said, 'There's Papa's car.' And when I looked it really was you."

So we had a bonus coming home, we got to spend extra time with one of our families.

Cousin Bonding

One of the real reasons we get together as a family is to help the cousins to get to know each other better and to build long-term relationships. That has begun during this reunion. The cousins are sleeping in different condos every night with different cousins and during the day they engage in activities as a group. Two of the photos I took yesterday afternoon were of cousins 10 years apart, and yet buddies. That was reinforced today on an outing of most of the girls and some of the mother, sisters, and grandma. Bonnie (4) and Alyssa (14) were having a special moment together. Bonnie is never at a loss for words and Alyssa is a good listener.

Mid-Afternoon Break

It had been a busy day in Breckenridge by 3:30 pm yesterday. We had experienced sunshine, rain, sunshine, rain, and of course the ever present gold panning - just out of site in this photo. The streets had been walked, but shops had been shopped, the gold had been panned (more or less), and folk were beginning to gather at a main square. As I came back from an ice cream run I saw them all lined up on the bench just waiting for their photo. It's only 1/3rd of us, but it is all the bench would hold.

Panning for Gold

We are having a family reunion in Breckenridge with almost the whole gang (I think that totals up to 27 people less 1 son-in-law and 1 son). This includes 14 grandchildren ranging in age from 3.5 weeks to 14 years-old. They are all fun to have around. Yesterday, the most popular activity was panning for gold and all of the kids, except the 3 youngest. It was a hoot to watch them having so much fun. They spent hours at it. Donna's Baby was focused on finding the next BIG nugget, so he could retire at age 8. Somehow, I don't think that was going to happen.

Baby and Mac working hard on extracting gold

Bonnie took a novel approach to panning. She decided it was better to submerge the pan and see how full she could get it with river sand. Gold wasn't important, just how much she could get in the pan. And she was absolutely serious about it.

Bonnie's bandage is from a previous, non gold panning incident.

I've placed some additional thoughts below of the group panning for gold. I left out all of the dads who were panning for gold since I didn't want anyone to think their wives were bankrupting them.

When you are looking for gold it is all about being focused on the task.

Little Deano is really focused on the speck of gold

Alexis can smile and pan for gold!