Summer--the last hurrah

Too much weight on the raft with Cait, Yuna, Hyeji, Doyeon, Yuna and Nick

It's amazing how quickly summer turns to fall.  Nearly every year we go to Flaming Gorge for Labor Day weekend and nearly ever year, the pattern is the same.  It's a little cool Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then bam, fall hits and it is noticeably cooler on Monday.  Roy says that one year we even had snow in Dutch John on Labor Day, but I can't remember it.  We were able to take the boat out on Saturday, and though it was a bit windy, we had a good day.  It was a little rough for boarding and skiing, but okay for tubing.  We put a little too much weight on it the first time around-- Nick, Caitlyn, Hyeji, Doyeon, Yuna, and Ori.  Roy could tell it wasn't going to work, so he slowed down. As he slowed, the tube started to be pulled under in the front, so he started going again.  It still didn't look quite right, so he slowed again.  This time all the riders were thrown in the water.  If you know Flaming Gorge at all, you know that the water is COLD.  No one cried except for Ori.  But none of the kids would go on a tube ride again.  They did give in and play on it when it acted only as a raft.

Yuna preparing for her first tube ride.  I think she had an interesting
idea of how to use the handles.

Nick and Ori

Catharine, Dan and Yuna

Saturday night while Nick, Dan and Jieun were getting the kids down, Caitlyn, Roy and I took our favorite walk.  It was pitch black.  It would have been impossible without flashlights.  Even so it was a little creepy. We had a good time, though.

Sunday it rained off and on.  Some of us went to the visitors center during the rainy time, and of course, church kept us indoors for about 90 minutes.  It cleared completely in the late afternoon and we had a beautiful afternoon and evening.

Monday we packed up to go home.  Dan and Jieun and their family went with Roy and me on a tour of the dam.  Caitlyn, Jennie, Nick and Ori headed directly home.  I always thought my grandfather's company had built the dam, but in looking it up on the web could only find one connection--George Dewey Clyde was governor of the state of Utah at the time it was built.  There is a picture of him looking at blueprints of the dam.  I think maybe WW Clyde and Co. did build the bridge but I don't know for sure.  Does anyone reading this know?  What about the bridge at Lake Powell.  I have always claimed that one was built by my grandpa?  The internet said they built the green river bridge. This could apply to either lake.  I've been on the dam tour before, but this time it was nice and cool outside, so it was very pleasant, and of course, the scenery was beautiful. The girls really enjoyed feeding the fish.

Flaming Gorge Dam tour

When we arrived home we had a little bit of work to do picking produce.  We lost quite a few peaches because no one picked while we were gone.  We still have a few to show for our labors.
They are seriously the best peaches I've ever had--except other years from the same tree.

Peaches and plus from our garden

I had a nice visit earlier in the week with Stephen Hunsaker, my first cousin (son of Vera and Ray. Vera was my dad's oldest sister).  I always thought Vera and Ray were divorced, but found out that was not the case.  Uncle Ray died when he was in his 60's.  Two of Stephen's siblings also passed away when they were in their 60's, my cousins Connie and Duane.  Duane's wife Carolyn lives about 1/2 mile from where I live in Bountiful.  Stephen and his wife took me for tacos at a restaurant near his home.  His wife also loves to quilt and I got a tour of her sewing room and saw several of her quilts.  I told him I'd come again and bring my sisters or Roy.  He said, why not both.

Yuna and Ori, they love to help

Ori

Yuna, Ori, Doyeon, Hyeji

Catharine

Caitlyn

Dan

Nick (with mom)

Jieun, Yuna, Dan, Doyeon

Roy in his traditional Captain pose

Proof that Jennie was with us (Caitlyn, Doyeon, Jennie)

Roy and Catharine

Ori, Nick, Catharine

Hyeji, Doyeon, Yuna, Dan

Ori in the hammock

Church was interesting.  Being in the primary
room with the sound piped in made it
 a little hard for the little ones
to take it seriously.

Yuna, Ori, Doyeon

Flaming Gorge

Caitlyn, Catharine, Roy, Yuna and Jieun--at the Gorge look-out

Hyeji and Grandma

Hip Dance

Dan and Caitlyn

Happy Birthday on the 31st Gunnar ! (he's been talking about this day for months)

With the onset of school, things have changed for most of our family.  At our home, we don't see Caitlyn nearly as much. Our house is pretty quiet with her gone, and now that she's got a job, We'll see her even less. Some of our grand kids have also started school-- first grade, kindergarten, or pre-school, which makes life a little easier for their moms. 

Gunnar

Hyeji

An update on Caitlyn:  After her physical therapist massaged her jaw and got her nice and sore, she asked her what activities she participated in.  She said, ice skating and violin.  Cait continued to tell her that the doctor wants her to give up ice skating and she's transitioning out of it.  She said it would be good to focus on the violin since she'll have more time for it.  The physical therapist then dropped the bombshell and told her she should probably not play the violin either.  We're hoping there's a time frame on that, and that it's not just a blanket--never again.  Roy and I will go with her to her next appointment to try and figure out if she needs to quit orchestra and violin lessons for the time being.  Of course, this was devastating to Caitlyn.  Please keep her in your prayers.  

Roy and I spent some time in Cedar City this week. Does it show our age that we love going down and hitting the plays every year?  This year we saw Henry V, Mary Poppins, Much Ado about Nothing, and a Marx brother show called, Coconuts.  We enjoyed them all, but Much Ado about Nothing was our favorite.  It was hilarious and done exceptionally well.  It even beat out the movie of the same name with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson.  As usual we enjoyed each other's company and only felt bad that Caitlyn had to hear all the bad news about her jaw with neither of us around to comfort her.  She also had some good news while we were gone; at about 11:00 on Thursday night she got asked to Homecoming.  Since we were in the theater, we missed her text until the next morning.  

We went shopping on Saturday and we found a beautiful dress for her. 

Our house is finally looking like it may eventually be done.  All the sheet rock, and mudding are done, and much of the brick on the front of the house is done.  It is looking like a house, now.  Next up is finish carpentry and doors on the inside and on the outside, a little more brickwork, the soffit, etc. and rock to finish up. 

Roy and Matt did another Century in Logan this past Saturday.  Matt went 100 miles and Roy did 60. 

Both made it, but both suffered some leg cramping by the end.  (Roy ended up logging just under 30,000 steps for the day, too bad we don't compete on the weekends).  

Matt and Roy

Effie

Ori with her baby sister, Effie

Ori

There was a little competition on everyone's "owies"
Do boys get hurt more?  Or girls?  Ori
fell on mulch in the park

Mav pulled the game system on top of himself

Max and his Lego train

Campfire birthday cake

Finn at Gunnar's party

Maverick is already pulling himself up to things;
after all, he has to catch up with Max doesn't he?

Max and Mav beating Texas heat

Gunnar's birthday party

IT"S A BOY!!!

I was able to drive up to Logan during the week, to see Crista and attend a wedding reception for my cousin's daughter.  I had met her at the Alonzo Laker Cook Reunion that Nan had put together and had a nice talk with her.  Roy said, "When we come to your wedding reception my wife will bring you something cool that she made."  Which meant that I felt a little obligated to embroider towels and drive up to Logan to deliver them.  It was great, though.  I love visiting with Crista and Matt, so the drive was worth it--and at the reception, along with Geoff and Peggy and the bride and groom, I was able to see Randy, Roger and Vivian Smith and their spouses and some of their children; and also Bob Cook.  He came over and said, "I saw that Nan was here and I wanted to make sure that I visited with her, so I had Roger help me find you."  I said, "That's great but I'm not Nan."  Of course, I told him who I was and that Nan is LOTS older than me :)  I guess Nan and I do look a little alike.

Ruby

Ruby and Matt

I was (sort of) awakened by a worrying text Monday morning.  It was from Dan and it said, "We're going to be poor."  I quickly texted back and asked, "Why, what's wrong?"  He said, "Nothing's wrong, ask dad."  I hurried outside--Roy was taking the garbage out.  I told him what the text said, and he said, "Oh--that means it's a boy!  Knowing that Jieun was going to find out the sex of the baby on Monday morning, they devised a code.  "We're going to be poor meant that Roy was right and Jieun and Dan would owe us dinner.  Of course, if it had been a girl, then Roy would have had to buy them dinner.  Knowing Roy, he'll treat them to dinner just for giving us a grandson with the "Rasband" name.  We are excited by the news.  It will be fun to see what a boy in their family will look like!

Another fun event of the week was Cameron Cook's wedding.  He married Colette Nebukker on Friday, August 26.  The prior evening we went to the Cook home for a barbecue dinner and a fun program.  We sat down and were soon joined by the bride and groom, the father of the bride and his brother, as well as his mother and her partner.  It was fun to talk to all of them and get a glimpse of what her family is like.  Phil's backyard was beautiful, the weather was perfect, and I was able to visit with all of my siblings except Glenn, who fortunately showed up the next night at the reception with Rosilene, and Josh and his family, whom I hadn't seen since my father's funeral; and Emily and Ila, too. They had spent the week at Aspen Grove with their entire family. Jed did not come to the reception as some of his kids were sick.
The consensus in our car on the way home was that it was one of the funnest receptions we've been to--dampened only by the news that my dear brother Glenn has been diagnosed with prostrate cancer.  He said that he is planning on getting a second opinion and looking at possible treatment options.  Please put him in your prayers.

At the wedding:

Finn and Doyeon

Doyeon and Gunnar

Ollie

Catharine, Adrienne, Christy Cunningham, Charlotte's sister 

AJ, Adrienne, Crista, Matt and Ruby (Ruby loved
the dancing!)

Gunnar and AJ dancing, with Crista and Ruby
in the background

Ruby

Adrienne with Finn and Gunnar, Ollie, Ruby and Yuna

Yuna and Jieun

Saturday morning Roy and Matt were able to put in 20 miles on their bikes.  I'm glad Roy has a biking partner once in a while as it's definitely not my thing.  When they returned, Crista, Matt, Ruby and I headed downtown for lunch with Nan, Christine, Carol and Norman Wright and Alice (I just realized I don't know her last name, but her maiden name is Cook, of course.).  It's amazing the connection that you have with people just because they're family.  I can probably count the number of times I've seen these cousins on one hand.  Alice even less than Carol, but we had a wonderful visit and you could feel the love that is automatic when you share the same grandparents.  We talked of ward callings, genealogy, knitting, quilting, and many other subjects.  We visited for about 2 1/2 hours. Crista and Matt visited with us for maybe half that time and then took Ruby out to play on Temple Square.  We all had a very pleasant afternoon.

Saturday evening found us magnifying Roy's calling.  We served at the Young Single Adults Stake Barbecue.  It is fun to "mingle with the singles".  Even more fun was running into Steve and Maridel Kmetzsch.  They had both gone to High School with me and had been High School sweethearts since the end of their junior year.  We had a great time catching up and talking about all our mutual acquaintances.  Steve is in the High Council with Roy.

It's Sunday morning and I am writing this letter.  Roy is in his ward giving talk #1, and later this morning he'll give talk #2 in our ward.  I'm not sure where he found the time to prepare his talks, it's been such a busy week--I do know that last night while I was visiting with Maridel, he snuck off to the church building and found a quiet room to work on them for a little while.

For a fitting end to the week, all our family except Elise, Andy and her boys, came over--some for dinner and some just to visit.  I know some of you have Sunday night pictures, too--so send them on and I'll add them to this letter. Below the cousins are getting to know Effie.  It's the first time most of them have seen her.

Dan, Yuna, Effie and Ruby

Ori and Effie

Effie 3 1/2 weeks (her due date is today-8/22/2016

Yuna and Ori (getting along!) This picture was not from last night

Hyeji and her new cousin, Effie

Roy with Ruby, Yuna and Finn

AJ and Ollie

Ruby after church on Sunday

Saturday night walk with Ruby

 Elise sent a couple of pictures, too.

Maverick

Max and Mav

Max on the Merry-Go-Round--he's been very afraid
of them, so this is an accomplishment.