Spring is sprung

It's Spring! Better look fast because it will be gone in a couple of weeks. We're already seeing afternoon temps in the mid-80's. The climbing roses we planted on the arch have bloomed. They have a light fragrance and look so pretty. Everything else is growing. Dad says there will be a good crop of apricots if the birds don't get them and they don't fall off.

Grandad said it couldn't be Easter without doing eggs so he and Dad did the honors.

Part of Spring is the Spring Board meeting for NACAA. This year was our last one and it was held in San Antonio during the last week of March. We got to go on a tour and I explored downtown San Antonio by trolley and on foot. We walked a good section of the River Walk and saw some historical sites. This is the Navarro House. Part of it is built of adobe and part of caliche blocks. Built in 1850 something. Very simple, very nice.

Dad at the Governor's Mansion, unfortunately closed for renovations.

Our tour took us south of San Antonio to two ranches. One ranch was over a hundred years old and still run by the same family. Part of it was still a cow/calf operation and the other part was a wild-life hunting range, wild life being deer, wild hogs, and a variety of birds. The other ranch is dedicated to breeding "true" long-horn cattle and run by the Detmer family of BYU fame.

This horse pestered anyone standing close to the fence to "pet me, pet me!" And this is a long-horn, in case you couldn't tell.

The trophy room at the wild-life range.

Okay, all you rock people. The storage for fodder for the cow/calf operation was in a BIG hole dug out of the hillside. This is what we saw inside. You can see the layers from the plants and soil on top down to the limestone underneath. Or caliche. Dad would know which.

This is the ranch house for cow-calf set-up. It was built in the 1850's of limestone quarried on the ranch. The owners just finished remodeling and restoring the building. Very beautiful with big windows to catch the breeze. Big old live oaks around the fence for shade. Love the porch.

I shall miss the trips, the places we've been, and the people we met. Spring Board has taken us to Myrtle Beach, SC, Corpus Christi, TX, Albuquerque, NM and now San Antonio. Fun times.

Popcorn Popping!!!!

It is always amazing to me how much like popcorn those apricot blossoms look. It is Spring! For us, at least.

This is the nursery out front. Dad's babies are doing well. This is the plum tree.

And this is the apple tree. Of course, with all the rain, the desert is covered with winter grass and filaree. Green everywhere for a while. : )

It's harder than I thought.

I was able to catch this moonrise. Thankfully, the rain was over and the clouds cleared enough to see it rise. Peaceful, serene.

This posting is an odd collection of images. Everything was in breathless commotion in November and December with Thanksgiving, Stake Conference, the end of school, and Christmas. And then losing Mom seemed to place everything into a surreal state. We went through the motions but were disconnected in many ways. I didn't know it would be so hard to write about the events, but it is. I feel it's necessary, so here goes.

We had the opportunity to see Frank in a different setting. We also got to see the Titan missile silo and all it's paraphanalia. It was a wonderful presentation and placed many things in a different perspective. It was daunting to think that the history Frank was relating was what we lived through all those years ago. Loved the gift shop, such cool stuff!


Melanie is a kid magnet. She seemed to gather kids for a while and then they leave. Sooner or later, they seem to gravitate back to her side. I think she has the same effect with her sibling's children. It's fun to watch. We're glad to have her in the family.

All the Gibson's (but 2 - Dad will remind me)

Mom always said that she had to wait for her sons to marry to get her daughters. She always made us feel loved and welcome and treated us as if we were her daughters. I have always been grateful that I married the man I did with the parents he had. Mom loved her boys, but she missed doing the girl things that go with daughters. She made up for that once the boys started marrying in 1976. And when the grand-daughters started to arrive, she continued. She loved taking the girls shopping, out to eat, painting fingernails and toenails, watching fashion shows of granddaughters in hats, gloves, and jewelry and listening to the stories, games and conversation of her girls.

Mom loved all her family. She enjoyed being with them. She loved cooking for them and having them visit. She loved the Savior and the gospel and she loved Dale. There was never any doubt as to who came first in her heart.

I'm grateful that Katie wanted her children to connect with their ancestors and took advantage of the opportunity presented by the trip to Snowflake.

It reads Louise Cross.

It's all about the next generation. How we love them and wish we could see more of them.

We love you all!!

You Want It Done When?

This seems to be taking forever. We spent Labor Day Weekend and the following weekend putting up wallboard so these gentlemen could come tape and texture. They did a beautiful job. They also rebuilt the wall in the backyard.
Before the texturing

This is just one of the notes, measurements, and lists that are now under paint and texturing.

Taping & texturing took a week. Then one of the construction fairies sprayed the ceiling and walls with primer and the ceiling with white paint.
Then it was our turn. We did the walls in a toasty yellow. I know, it looks brown, but it's not. We had a week. And we did it. My feet felt all of it. I got to stand on the ladder and paint the edges aroung the ceiling. Brought back memories of working at McDonald's and how my feet felt at the end of the day.

We had a deadline because the tile layers (more construction fairies, gnomes, elves, whatever) were going to be coming in to lay the tile. No tile for a week. A lot of back and forth and waiting and they were on again Halloween weekend. We went to Las Cruces for the weekend. I got to visit with Melinda and Grandma. Rick got to move wood for Grandpa. We also got to attend a very nice Stake Conference.

Back home, part of the tile went down. Monday morning, last week, (we are now at November 2) the cabinets came. Look pretty good. One thing, there is no grout between the tiles, yet.

The the electrician came Thursday. Now we have lights, fans, switches, and outlets.

There is grout in the bedroom, closet & bath. I think all the tile is in. Still no countertops. The water is not hooked up. We painted baseboards and the folding doors yesterday. Rick keeps assuring me that we will have this finished by Thanksgiving when Craig and Janessa and the kids come.

How do I know there are construction fairies? Look what they left behind!

Just for Dana

Here is a tour of Suite 1445 at the DoubleTree Portland. We had both doors open on several occasions. My only addition to decoration was several bouquets of flowers that were beautiful all week.