Our Year in Review

Calvin J born January 26
Our 16th great-grandchild

January 31
Hale Theatre production of "Born Yesterday"
with Barb, Dennis and Denise.
I did the show in 1970. Hale's "Billie" was prettier
but our "Brock" was better.

Extensive improvements on 7th East and 114th South  were finally  finished.
We now have a direct shot down 114th that takes us within two blocks of Barb's.

Discontinued DISH  satellite.
With an indoor antenna we get  all  networks, 3 BYU channels,
a couple of PBS ones, and some in Spanish.  All for free.

April 7 -- Lauren starred as "Kate the cursed" in their
school production of "The Taming of the Shrew".
I had also done that show in 1967 and the musical version
"Kiss Me, Kate!"

April 10 - Calvin's blessing.
If you click to enlarge, can you name all the people in this photo?

April 16 - Barb's annual Easter egg hunt.
Eggs and prizes for everyone.

May 7 - Celebrating Tony's Ph.D.

May 27 - Grandma Rose Ranquist passed away.
Beautiful service done entirely by family members.

 No pictures, but a great dinner at McGrath's with Barb, Dennis, Denny and Joe in June

Andrew and family came to see us in June

Grandchild #17, Claire Julia Warren, born June 28.
We now have more great-grandchildren
than Barb has grandchildren.

A double birthday bash at Chuck-a-rama with Barb, Dennis, Denny and Joe.
Love having 3 helpings of soft ice cream.

July 17 - Dinner at Little America with Steve and Shirlee.

Everyone in our building was confined to quarters on July 18th  and 19th.
while the driveway was re-surfaced.
Good test for our 72-hour kit.

August 6 - "Faith, the musical" with British and American cast.
Reagan was in the orchestra; Jane was in the cast,
scrubbing the deck aboard ship.

Emma's gymnastic class demonstrated their skills.
Everybody got to stand on the winners' platform.

Aug. 18 - Angie's family came to see us.
That tower is taller than Wyatt, but not by much.

September 10 -12 we were in sunny Southern California
for Claire Julia's blessing.

September 30 --Barb drove us up Big Cottonwood Canyon
for the annual display of fall colors.

November 24 --Thanksgiving with Barb, Dennis, and lots of  other family.
(Yes, there are advantages to living in Sandy.)

       November 28 - Birthday dinner at Chcuk-a-Rama with Barb, Dennis, Denny and Joe.
                                                               Sorry; no pictures.

Dec. 2 - Lunch and "Seventeen Miracles"
at the Sweat Family Big Screen Theatre
Film exceptionally well done.  Don't miss it if you can.

December 23 - 28 in Vancouver
for our 60th Christmas and our 60th wedding anniversary.

Happy 2012 to all you faithful blog followers.
We love you all.

Sixtieth Christmas

We celebrated Christmas and our 60th wedding anniversary with Julie and Tom in Vancouver.  Russell was there for a few days. He and Tom sang a beautiful duet at their ward sacrament meeting, accompanied by Julie. On the 26th he took off to see the" highly-recommended Megan Walker."  But shortly after he left, Ben and Jax and Avery Harper Higgins (due in March) arrived and spent a couple of days with us. On the 27th Tom drove us all up Washington Highway 14, with beautiful views of the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge, all the way to Stevenson and the Skamania Lodge, where we had a great dinner. All in all, a very festive time with family and the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Here are a few of the highlights:

We stayed in Russell's room, complete with king-sized bed and all his rowing medals.

                                                    The beautiful Nativity scene

                                                          Some of Julie's festive touches

                                                    The view from their entrance way (Note that grand piano)

                                                               Russell is a good cook!

                                                             Julie and the Christmas dinner table

                                                                 Julie made Tom their traditional Tree

                                           When Christmas is on Sunday, everyone dresses up!

                                                         The tree at Skamania Lodge

                                           It isn't Christmas without a puzzle, especially when we complete it.

                                                 Getting ready for the anniversary bash

                                            Yes, Barb, we actually hung them up.  Very nice touch.

                                                   The crowns seem to go with the occasion

                                                       We look up to our youngest grandson

                                              Ben, Jax, Avery, Julie, Tom, Shirley and Dick.at the lodge.

Thanks to all for making our 60th Christmas and anniversary so memorable.  We loved every minute of it and we love each one of you.

Happy Thanksgiving

We just got home from a wonderful Thanksgiving with children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Can't beat that. Here are a few of the traditional festivities. (And someday I will learn how to put pictures in the order I want then.)

Not one....

                                                                                                                                                       

Not two....

but three festive table

Scrabble

Mother and daughter duets

Hand made table decorations, some of which were edible

What holidays are made for

Going through the humongous newspaper ads

Calvin and his great-grandmother

The chefs at work

"When do we eat?"

"Want to see my new toy?"

Inspecting the turkey

"These olives are finger-lickin' good."

Cindy and Calvin taking it easy

Festive touches wherever you looked.

Thanks to one and all who made this, our sixth Thanksgiving in  Utah, such a   memorable one.
We love you all.

Fall back...

When I was a little boy we had three ways of knowing what time it was.  There was the kitchen clock, which had to be wound every day and ticked steadily through day and night. There was something reassuring about that sound; I knew I could count on that clock as long as it kept ticking.  Another source,, and, in my young boy's mind, the most reliable, was my dad's railroad watch, which he carried in his vest.  The Union Pacific required all railroad men to carry watches at all times and these watches were checked monthly at Pear's Jewelry, the official site for keeping the watches accurate.  When Dad was "in" (at home) I always went to him to find out what time it was.  But much of the time Dad was "out" (working).  At those times I had one more reliable source; I would call "central" (the telephone operator) and say "Time please." . In just a few moments a pleasant female voice would say "At the tone, the time will be ..." The correct time was announced, followed by a solemn tone.  You could set your alarm clock by that.

Of course that was before some government agency, with too much time on their hands, came up with the inane idea that we should all set all our clocks ahead one hour in the spring , then set them back to the "real time" in the fall.  Life has never been the same since.

Friday night I dutifully followed orders: I set our clocks back.  Here's what that involved.

Saturday morning I woke up to the realization that I had (pardon the pun) jumped the clock. We were to set our clocks back on Saturday night.  I wasn't about to go through all that again, so we lived in a sort of twilight zone the rest of the day, and I kept wondering if we had really gained another hour of sleep, and if we had, was there some way we could gain another hour?

Of course no two clocks agree with each other to any reliable degree, so I rely exclusively on the one in the first picture, which, to be honest, I didn't have to set.  In a way I don't fully understand, but which I count among my blessings, an atomic clock somewhere in the world sets it for me and keeps it accurate to the very second.

If you counted the pictures, you came up with fifteen.  That doesn't include re-setting the date and time on the answering machines on three of our telephones, which I may never get around to doing because we don't get enough messages to make it worth the bother.

Lest you think we are way overloaded with ways to find out what time it is, I refer you to another member of our expanded family who had 19 clocks to set back.

Wasn't life great when you could just call "Central" and ask her?