This is for you, Nat!

Hi Nat!  You and my brother Mike may be the last people I know who are holding out on using Facebook so I know that you're not seeing all the photos that I'm posting there.  That's okay.   I'm so glad that you've maintained your blog over the years because I love to read it. Since I've been in Scotland and Ireland it has soothed my homesick soul many, many times.  I've noticed that, one by one, the people I used to follow on blogs have mostly crossed over to Facebook and Instagram.  There are one or two others but you're the most faithful blogger.  I always get into your blog via mine and it always makes me a little sad to see that the last time I posted was in May of 2014 when our family had a kind of a reunion in Florida.  I used to LOVE to blog and that has been replaced by my ridiculously long missionary letters and by my Facebook posting of photos.  So tonight I've decided that I'm going to do this blog post and I'm guessing that you might be the only person to see it! I'm just going to post a few photos and not much more because you get my long missionary epistles and you know what I'm doing.  Just wanted to surprise you next time you're blogging and you see that I've posted!  

Ireland has just started importing watermelon and I'm so glad for this taste of home!  This was a particularly yummy watermelon.   I'm doing my best to convert all of the Irish saints to this wonderful taste of summer.  Watermelon with a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Mmmmmm!

The missionaries singing the birthday song for Sister Allen, in Elder Hale style.  Seriously horrible.  Enough to make birds drop out of trees.

At an ancient castle somewhere along the east coast of Ireland.  

 Lunch with the sisters at a little crepe shop next to the River Lee in Cork.  Yummy crepes.

 A view of Cork city . . . one of the branches of the River Lee.

 This was at an ancient ring fort somewhere in our travels in Ireland.  Can't quite remember this one was.  We were with two other YSA senior couple enjoying a three day "retreat".

Another photo from the couples retreat.

The path to the Giant's Causeway. The Giant's Causeway is in the far north of Ireland.  Really unusual geologic site made up of six
sided pillars of rock.

And there you have it.  My first blog post in sixteen months.  Who knows  . . . maybe I'll do a couple more before we live the mission.  Keep blogging Nat.  I'm reading!  Til next time.

I wanna go back . . .

I want to go back to Destin and be with all of these amazing people!

It's been awhile

I have to admit up front that I have no idea where this is going to go tonight.  Simply put, it's been a long time since I've sat down to write . . . three and a half months to be exact . . . and that's just too long.  I. Must. Write.  

The last several months are a blur.  I've had to refer back to photographs to see exactly what I've been doing.

August in Parker, Colorado getting acquainted with my new granddaughter, Sarah, and

 making lemonade with Abbie, Landon and Noah and

 setting up the slip and slide in the backyard.

 Spending a September afternoon at Gardner village with Rachel and Adelaide feeding the ducks and riding a pony!

 

Grilling up a late dinner in the early fall.

 Labor day week-end trip to Denver for Sarah's baby blessing day.

 September trip to Canada to visit my family.

 An afternoon of leaf peeping and photography with Scott, Rach and Adelaide.

Early October visit from Steve and Kalli.  Leaf peeping with  Steve, Kalli, Annie and Joey  in the Nebo Loop.

 Celebrating all the October birthdays (Annie, Rachel and Joey) at Ruby River.

Not sure where this was taken . . . just loved the photo of Steve and Kalli!

On to Atlanta, Georgia to get acquainted with Charlie Brent Walker.

 Lucy and Charlie with their second cousins William, Jonathan and Emma Hale.

 Celebrating Jordan's birthday with a giant chocolate Costco cake!

 The party . . . The Sheltons, The Hales and The Walkers.

 Wee little Charlie. He's not so little anymore!

 For the last part of my visit, the rest of the family flew into town (except Annie and Joey) for a little mini family reunion and to go to the BYU football game.  How I love reading story books to my little ones.

 Papa getting acquainted with Charlie.

 Sweet Sarah.  How I love her smile!

 Everyone suited up for the game.

 Lucy, Charlie, Sarah and Adelaide.

 Home from Atlanta just in time for Halloween.

 I have no idea why I'm looking so smug (or dorky).

 Gotta love Pinterest!

 Our annual pumpkin carving party.

 Fast forward to November 17th.  A bridal shower at the Smoot's for Annie on my birthday.

 Laura, Jordan and kids and my sister Elaine and her daughter, Erin and little Adam all arrived on this day.

 Hale family engagement party for Annie and Joey.

 The rest of November is out of order but we packed a lot into one week.  A wedding . . .

 A trip to Park City the week after the wedding . . .

 A trip to Temple Square to see the lights . . .

 Hitting the rides at Park City resort . . .

More from the wedding day (day after Thanksgiving)

Charlie's blessing day at Papa and Grandma Walker's house . . .

 A baby shower for Kalli at her sister Kierstie's house (the mustache theme was awesome) . . .

 Celebrating Laura's birthday . . .

 Thanksgiving day.  Brent deep-frying a turkey.

Moving along to Christmas in Parker.  Steve and Kalli posing for a picture on Christmas Eve, completely unaware that Kalli's water is going to break the next morning at 5:30 am!  

 Kalli opening presents with us before she heads to the hospital that's over an hour away!  The roads were snowy and I was just a little nervous that they weren't getting on their way.

 Night at the Nutcracker Ballet.

Introducing Tyler Rex Hale, born on Christmas Day.

So, I guess I got kind of carried away with the photos and didn't get much writing done.  And this doesn't even include everything that happened from January til now. 

As always, I look at all these photos and can hardly believe how much has happened in just a few short months.  Four new babies, a wedding, birthdays, trips to visit family, holidays . . .  no wonder I'm perpetually tired (but very, very happy!)

Oh, and I didn't mention that we turned in mission papers on May 1st.  Our Bishop told us that we've been assigned and should get the big envelope in the mail this week.  Seriously?  Senior missionaries?  Isn't that what old people do? Til next time . . .