Dad Is 90 Today (yesterday by the time I got this blogged)

My dad is 90-years old today. It is a major milestone. What's more he is in moderately good health - he can get around, still drives, and loves to be with his daughters, who all live close. JoAnn and I debated coming to the celebration since it is an 8 hour drive and we have to be in another city on Sunday. However, we had no compelling argument for not coming and so many compelling arguments for being where we belonged. So, at 4 AM this morning we left Las Vegas drove southwest to Barstow and then over the Techappi mountains to Bakersfield and north to Modesto. We arrived in time to surprise Dad - and surprised he was. He had no idea we would be here.

There is nothing better than a lemon cake - at least according to Dad!

One of the great blessings of moving west 3 years ago is the opportunity we have to see our children, my sisters and their families, and my dad and his wife on a more regular basis. It means a lot to us to have the opportunity to see all of them. We have reduced the 2 to 3 day drive time from Indiana to not more than 12 hours. The end result is our ability to spend more quality time with each family. Okay, we still have family in the midwest and may soon have 2 families back there, so our travels east are not over.

You realize of course it is not an official McLean function without food!

I never thought I would see my Dad turn 90, much less that I would be 64. I recognize the influence he has had on my life over those years. I think over the last 15 years I have come to appreciate that influence more and more. All too often we don't apprecite those we love until they have passed, in part because we need to see our own famliies grow in order to truly appreciate the impact our parents have on us. I wish my mother could have lived to see how all of our families have grown, although I know she knows.

We had a light lunch, games of dominos, lemon and chocolate cakes, and more dominos. I also found time for a nap. Even at 90 my Dad is still sharp enough to beat us at dominos and cribbage.

Enjoy the photos from today. There will be more on flickr later.

Dad & Marti looking over the birthday cards.

Checkers & cribbage is the official family game.

Dad & Linzie enjoying the moment.

Dad's Going to be 90!!!

In just a few days my Dad is going to be 90. It seems like just yesterday we were all kids living at home. How life changes. Just 9 days after he turns 90 I will turn 64. When my grandparents were 65 I thought they were really old. I don't feel old and I don't think of Dad as old.

Today I wanted to post a presentation we 5 children made for Dad 10 years ago on his 80th birthday. We had a wonderful get together and families came from all across the United States to get to the reunion. Enjoy the video.

Happy Birthday Mike

It seem like just yesterday I was holding our brand new son, Michael. Yet it has been 28 years since that cold and icy day in Ames, Iowa. We remember how excited we were that we were finally going to have a baby that was not born in the dead of winter. He wasn't, just during an ice storm. And we shouldn't have been clueless when he seemed to take forever to deliver. Mom was in labor for hours and in those days labor rooms were little more than an after thought - small, uncomfortable, and sometimes forgotten by the staff. Most of the time fathers were not even allowed in the birthing room. I don't remember if I was allowed in for Mike or not. However, in spite of all of the pioneer (by today's standards) medical technology, he was born and has become a wonderful young man.

And Mike, I'm sorry that I'm a couple of days late this time, but we didn't pick a very good time for you to be born. We are "super busy" right now as my blog attests to only weekend work and then not every weekend. I hope everyone enjoys this long set of photos of our youngest son.

What is not to love in a little baby, and like all of our children (no bias here) they were all beautiful.


Mike has always had a smile on his face and even at this age was still a little short of hair.


When you grow up in a house full of girls you always have to be a little wary since you don't know what they are going to do to you next. And no girls, I don't want to know how you tormented your little brothers.


But there is always time for sleep and when it's on our favorite couch (the one we all still miss) you take full advantage of it.


And when your great grandpa Merriam comes to town you must have a photo of the event. It was the last time all of the kids saw their Great Grandpa Merriam. Grandpa was 90 in this photo.


Mike does love his sisters and in this photo with Sally and Krissie you can see that love.


But there is a bit of a funny side to Mike. Like any good boy/man he likes to have a little fun and always has. There is nothing better than a good laugh.


Or a new pose.


Or color coding a new dress code.


And time with Mom in the pool.


Mike has a soft spot for his dog - Strider. We all enjoyed her and had lots of fun with her.


And of course he has turned into a wonderful uncle (okay, some of the nieces may not think that, but even here he is softening). Calvin was his first nephew and was and is special to him. [I think they both just woke up.] He can always be counted on to take care of Suzanne's children, or just to play with them. Note how comfortable Chas is with Mike and vice versa in the 2nd photo.



Then he came home from his mission on a late evening. There were no banners, no large crowds, just Mom and Dad, but that was what was important to all of us. He was beaming and such a missionary.


And while there were other photos I could add these last two are probably the most important to Mike and for us one our proudest moments. There is nothing like the marriage of your children to excite and reward a parent. We are so proud of all of our children, but on this day we were most proud of Mike and Allison. Love ya Mike and happy belated birthday! Dad...



Even a little rain didn't dampen this special day!

And I almost forgot Mike's self portrait he sent us several years ago. This may be our best representation of the complexity of our young man.

Cruising on the Pier

On last Sunday afternoon JoAnn and I were walking on the Ventura Pier. It's been a long time since we had walked on a pier on the Pacific Ocean. It was a wonderful walk. It's about 200 yards out to the end of the pier and we were enjoying the vista and the people when a bicycle cruised by us ever so slowly. I glanced at it as it went by, then did a double take as I saw a beautiful bicycle. This custom bicycle caught my curiosity and I wanted to take a photo of it. As we continued walking down the pier we caught up with the now parked bicycle. I talked to the owner and asked about the bicycle. He had built it and he was awfully proud of the bicycle and bashful. I couldn't get a photo of him with his bicycle.

I call it an "art bicycle" because like all good sculpture it is a masterpiece. There might be those who would argue with me, but take time to look at the craftsmanship, the care and love that was taken in sculpting this bicycle. There was obvious pride in workmanship. It is a classic and was made to be ridden and admired.



Our walk down the pier turned into an adventure because it was enhanced by the beauty of a craftsman and artist.

A California Weekend

On Friday JoAnn and I headed to southern California for a homecoming, of sorts. We lived in Ventura, CA from 1969 to 1972 and in many ways it was our first real home. We were out of school, in our first job, had our first child (and second), joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All of these were life changing events. This weekend was what JoAnn described as her dream vacation. I didn't initially see it like that, but as we got into the weekend I came to the same conclusion. We spent Friday and Sunday in Ventura and Saturday a short jaunt to Solvang and Santa Barbara. We didn't do justice to either of those cities/communities so we have a reason to go back.

We kept family up to date on our adventure with postcards emailed from my iPhone. This resulted in a few jealous kids.

Ventura was a voyage of rediscovery, and no we didn't take lots of boring photos of places we remembered - mostly because they weren't worth taking photos of. However, there were lots of things we did take photos of and too many for one blog. For example last evening we went down to the beach and watched the sunset (2nd night in a row) and understand how it could be addictive. It was great to see so many people (older folks like us) who were doing the same thing. There were also younger folks down there too. More on this in a later blog.

In the short time we lived in Ventura we lived in 4 different apartments. They are all still there and we found all of them. Two of them have not changed a whit, except they are 40 years older and show it. The other two were homes or partial homes and have been remodeled. Our beach house we had to guess at. We had the right street and knew how far from the beach we lived, but it had changed considerably. They had moved the entrance to the garage 90 degrees so they could have a front yard. Good idea! The 2nd home had a back entrance and sat on a main street, but I loved it. Now it has a front entrance, stairs and a beautiful front patio. When we went by on Sunday morning there were 4 men sitting out on the patio eating breakfast.

We kept asking ourselves, why did we ever leave Ventura? We loved it and still do. But we left because we needed to grow. Some folks do this without ever leaving home, but JoAnn and I were never very good about that. We took home with us. We have the wanderlust and I think we always will. I can blame it on my parents and the military and I guess JoAnn can blame it on me. Regardless, we have loved all of the places we have lived and done so because of family and good friends. It was wonderful to go back to Ventura. We still love it. It has a great charm. It was a wonderful place to visit and when we went to Church on Sunday morning there were tears in both of our eyes as we realized that for us, this is where so much began that has made our family what it is. We are thankful for these experiences in our lives and for the joy that we have in our family.

Now we are back "home" in Las Vegas. It is our home for now and we have family close at hand (6 driving hours is close compared to 1,500 miles in the past) and many good friends. Not to mention, we also love the winters, the back patio (where I am now), and the springs and falls. The memories were good and we are refreshed, ready to go on with the rest of our daily living.

Did I fail to mention that an official holiday involves finding at least one quilt show and done or more quilt shops. I found the quilt show and a closed quilt shop and JoAnn found an open Quilt Shop, so we had and official holiday. The above art quilt is titled "Men in Ties" and is on display in the Ventura Art Museum. It is a classic piece of work and we knew Mike would like it. He has requested a full quilt for their bed (thank goodness he was kidding).

Reflections on a Family Week

This past week we were fortunate to have one of our Idaho families in town, all 7 of them with the grandchildren ranging in age from 5 months to 11 years. And what a fun time we had, from playing kickball in the garage, to exhausting themselves at what they call the dinosaur playground. The meals were noisy, the nights were short (or long depending on how you define a short night). In the end it was all fun. JoAnn and the girls made caterpillars and she can talk about that in her blog. This I do know, that the girls were so proud of themselves. They worked all week to create those caterpillars. Grandma let them pilfer her extensive fabric collection, she taught them how to make a circle pattern, how to hand sew (she has taught this before) the body and the helped them put it all together. Grandma always has a project for the girls.

Swinging is always at the top of the of fun and it's even better when Dad give you a big shove.

Of course, playground equipment is also at the top of the list along with swings, especially when you get to play by yourself.

And a friendly wave is a great "love ya gramps"!

And all too soon the week is over, the grandchildren and parents are off and back to work and school. We miss them, but we had so much fun that we know the memories are good.

Midwestern Clouds

When you live in the midwest you take clouds for granted. They are almost always there. They come in many forms and colors - or at least shades of gray if it is storm weather. In the morning they can be red or yellow or even varying shades. In the evening as the sun sets and dips below the clouds you get some really wonderful colors with a red glow rippling off the bottoms of the clouds. The tall thunderheads are equally beautiful and terrifying. At night as the full moon behind the cloud cover gives a glow that sometimes seems to fulfill the sky you know that the universe is vast and beautiful, that it is full of wonder, and that nature is beauty.

The clouds are just lifting on the mountains west of our home. Of course as I write this the clouds are back and almost as beautiful.

All that doesn't disappear when you move west, but the frequency of clouds, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and especially thunderheads are rare. We have had a wet spring in Las Vegas and as a front passed through last night and today the clouds were beautiful. When I left for Church this morning there were no mountains to be seen, they were shrouded in a cloudy mist. An hour later when I came home to get JoAnn the clouds were beginning to lift, the sun was shining and yet, the clouds had that midwestern look. It was beautiful and while I miss the clouds I have yet to miss the winter.

Looking east from our home as the front moves through gives us some beautiful clouds to look at. Some mornings we can even get a beautiful sunrise.

While driving home I was int he shade, but the neighborhood and the mountains were capturing that beautiful desert sunshine. Absolutely beautiful.