Dedicated to THEA

Today is Thea's 18th birthday so today's blog is dedicated to her. As the youngest of four children Thea was always the last of an era. The last bottle to feed, the last diaper to change, the last one to attend elementary, middle and high school. The last one to be driven to seminay and the last one to teach how to drive. I have a tendancy when I know that something is the last time to not want it to end. When Thea was a baby Marla and I would just hold her and rock her until she fell asleep. We knew that it would be better for her to learn how to go to sleep on her own, but we didn't care. We knew she would be the last of our babies we could hold. She wasn't potty trained until she was three because there would never be diapers again after that. ( That actually wasn't so bad.) We moved to Gardnerville when Thea was three. She had been very sickly and only wieghed 39 pounds which is underwieght for a three year old. We took her to a lot a different doctors who wanted to do a bunch of different tests that we did not feel good about. It turns out that she was just anemic and needed some iron that was easily handled with a multi vitamin. Thea was the tag along child. Marla was very involved with the high school band as were the older kids. So Thea spent most of her pre-school years in the band room with lots of teen agers. I think she thought she was just a half sized teenager herself. The high light of her pre-school band career was when she had her own pint sized band uniform and let the band in the Nevada Day parade. Her picture made it on the front page of the Record Courier Newspaper the next day. (Much to the dismay of her older sister Jesse, who was the actualy drum major and leader of the band.

In grade school all of Thea's teachers loved her. We got tired of going to parent teacher conferences and just hearing how wonderful she was. What more could we do? She was very involved in theatics and acted in school plays and even community children's Shakespeare group. Junior High brought new friends and challenges and horses. She finally convinced me to made good on a ten year promise and get some horses at our place. I rode Zana and Thea rode GS (short for the Golden Snicth) That horse loved that girl and would do anything for her. We rode every Wednesday afternoon with our friend Sharon Blanks, a great cowgirl and horse lady. We learned a lot from her about horses and horsemanship. I mostly enjoyed the time together with Thea.

High school brought puberty, homones, teenagerhood and all of the accompaning challenges of the same. Thea sang, debated, skied, had lots of friends, dated, studied, fed horses, and found Tobie. Tobie is a great dane / labrador black mix mut. I have never before seen a dog so attached to a girl and a girl so attached to a dog. High school also brought driving. I spent lots of time in the car with Thea behind the wheel. It only took a few months for her to stop asking me which was the go pedal and which was the stop pedal. Driving did not come a naturally as riding a horse. She did get her drivers license and is a very good driver now.

I have enjoyed my time with Thea. From the rocking chair, to the band trips, to the fishing derbies, to the horse back rides and driving lessons. We have spent time singing at the piano. (Thea has perfect pitch) We have skied together for 7 years on the ski club. She is a good girl, never in trouble. She is loving and smart, beautiful and talented.

Next year she'll be at the Academy of Art University in San Franciso studying Photography. We will miss her terribly but treasure the time and memories spent together.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THEA!!!!

Love Dad

A boy and his horn make good

When we first moved to Gardnerville one of the first families we began friends with were the Barretts. They have three children, James, Dan and Rose. James played the cornet, Dan the Trombone and Rose the Violin. I think they all played the piano and sang as well. With the musical inclination of our kids our families became good friends. We would get together for General Conference every year. We would share a meal and have a little music fest in between conference sessions. (The Barretts provided most of the talent.) At Christmas time we would go caroling together with a brass choir. (Sara added her trumpet to the Barretts brass section.) Dan played his trombone with Jesse and Sara in the Douglas High School marching band and concert band. Dan and Jesse sang in the Madrigals together.

Over time kids have a way of living their lives and going their separate ways. James is in Japan, Rose is playing her violin in Italy and France and Dan is finishing a PHD in music performance on the Bass Trombone at Arizona State in Tempe Arizona. Dan was the featured soloist at the Carson Symphony in a concert tonight. He played a concerto written for the bass trombone. Not exactly a sing along type of song, but the piece is written as a competition piece for the Juliard School of Music. It featured a truely virtuoso performance on the horn. It was amazing. I think Dan is 30 by now. It was great to see him again and many of our friends who came out to see him.

Silver Beaver

Last night I was presented the Silver Beaver Award by the Nevada Area Council Boy Scouts of America. It is the highest award given to volunteers by the local Council for their service. We attended an awards dinner where seven individuals were presented the award for the year. My friend Don Dixon introduced me. I have given a little thought to my years of scouting and here is a summary.

I ave been an adult Boy Scout leader for 27 years. I have been a Scoutmaster, Committe Chairman, Explorer Leader (twice), Eleven year old Scout leader, District Varsity Scout Chairman, District Varsity Roundtable Chairman, Wood Badge Staff member (seven years), Wood Badge Course Director 2007, Assistant Course Director for the 2008 National Youth Leadership Training course, and at the moment I'm a merit badge counselor.

During my various assignments with the scouts I have worked with around 20 young men as they finished their Eagle Scouts.

Over the years I have spent a lot of time on activities with the boys. I've been to seven summer camps. I've helped to lead five 50 miler trips; three in the Sierras, one in the Moniter Range in Central Nevada and an 85 miler at Philmont Scout reservation in New Mexico. I've helped to lead two trips down the Colorado River in house boats and a week long trip aboard an 85 foot onvnverted 1929 Coast Guard cutter in the San Juan Islands. I've led three trips down the Virgin River Narrows and three Varsity/Explorer high adventure trips to Utah, Monterey, and Calaveras Big Trees State Park. There's been lots of hiking and camping in between the big trips. Right now most of my scouting time is limited to merit badge work and helping to present the Wood Badgers finish their tickets.

As a young man I wanted to be a forest ranger, but then I learned that they spent most of their time picking up trash, made very little money, and every other kid of the 70s want to be one. In college I changed my mind about being a forest ranger and thought that being a wildlife biologist would be more interesting. Unfortunately or maybe it is fortunate that I was no good at chemistry, physic, and biology. This did not boad well for an aspiring wildlife biologist. While on my mission I decided that people were actually OK and I liked leadership and organizations. On going into Finance and Business after my mission I decided I could satisfy my love for the outdoors through Scouting. Looking back the last 28 years, I feel that I have done many things out doors that I probably would not have done on my own. Some of my best friends as adults are those that have been on these scout outings.

Saturday Ski Club

For the last fourteen years I have been a chaperon with the Douglas County Ski Club. The club meets every Saturday morning for ten weeks starting in January. We load up between 70 and 130 kids on school buses and head up to Heavenly Valley Ski Resort. All four of the kids have grown up with the club on Saturday winter mornings. For the previous two years Sara was a Chaperon with me. All of the kids are very good skiers. Jared is a fairly amazing skier. I've gotten better over the years as well. This year I have no kids in the club, but I'm a chaperon anyway. I tell people it's for the "children" but it's really for me. Many of my good friends are chaperons on the club and I enjoy the day with them. Rob Pumphrey, Willie Macquellin, Bill Coverly, Clay Davis, Rob Maxwell and Tom Ingham. It's great excercize and after 14 years I never tire of the mountain, the views of Lake Tahoe, and the glories of winter. I'm sure if it weren't for the ski club I'd find other responsible things to do on my saturdays. I have great memories with the kids and hopefully they do too, a fair proficiency in skiing and love for winter and the mountains. (I probably had that before).

My Friend David Johnson

When I was five years old my mother thought it would be good for me to have a playmate in the neighborhood. She knew of a lady with a boy close to my same age (twelve days older). His name was David Johnson. We began going to each other's houses to play and then went to Kindergarten together. After that first year my family moved to another part of town and I only saw David occasionally. When we were in the fourth or fifth grade his family moved across the street from us and we were best friends all the way through High School graduation.

We did Cub Scouts, Webalos, and Boy Scouts together. David's dad and my dad were our Webalos leaders. We made wooden tool boxes together and formed a Webalos choir we performed songs from the Dennis the Menace song book like "I hate spelling" and "Some day I'll fly to the moon".
We went to Lost Valley Scout camp together. David threw up in my lap on the way to camp. We learned to have a barf bag any time we went somewhere. When we were 13 we hiked part of the John Muir Trail with our troop and our Scout Master Bob Bowe. When we were 14 we back packed the Three Sisters area in central Oregon with our Varsity Leader Bill Schackly. We were on the wrestling team together in High School. We spent two or three days a week in the summer body surfing at the beach. David had a movie camera and we made goofy movies together. We played endless games of Monopoly and Risk. We pretty much spent most of our childhood together. David is not a member of the church but we went to all the Stake Dances together and his first girl friend, Elaine Bowden he met at the dances. When we were a little older and had our drivers licenses we would go on hiking adventures with our other friend Brad Myer. We went to Ojai and the Matilija Creek for three days. We climbed Mounts San Gorgonio and San Jacinto. One summer we hiked 105 miles of the John Muir trail for two weeks. We spent the better part of a year planning our route, getting maps and supplies and organizing the dried food.

After High School I went to BYU for a year and then on a mission for the church. David stayed in California and went to school. I ended up married and in Utah for a while and David moved to the Seattle area. For years we would exchange Christmas letters. David's usually included a photo of himself on some mountain peak in the Cascades.

David is now married (just last year). His wife has two children ages 16 and 19. They were vacationing in Tahoe and he looked me up. When he walked into my office, I though it was his dad at first. We had plenty to talk about and really enjoyed the time together. We performed "I hate spelling" for Marla. We both remembered all the words. Went flying in the Musketeer. I had forgotten of David's weak stomach so it was a short and easy flight with no problems or messes to clean up. Then we talked about a little bit of everything. It's interesting how when you get older there is a desire to rekindle old friendships and how easy it is to pick up where you left off. We promised to keep in closer touch. Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures.

Christmas 2008 in Michigan

This year for Christmas we rented a large house on Walloon Lake in Northern Michigan. The Lake is a short drive from Jesse and Cori’s house in Petoskey Michigan. We traveled on the 20^th by plane to Detroit and then drove 5 hours to Walloon Lake. We had Thea and Grandma Bettie along with me and Marla. Sara flew in a day earlier to Traverse City from Salt Lake. Jared had to remain behind. He has a new job at the Rail City Garden Center in Sparks. This is the place he wants to get on with as an Arborist. For now he is low man on the totem pole and has to be on call for snow removal duty. We will miss him dearly for Christmas. The house where we are staying is right on the Lake. The lake is frozen solid so it appears that our back yard stretches out for miles uninterrupted except for a couple of ice fishing shacks in the middle of the lake. Marla and I are in the down stairs master suite and there are four other bedrooms for Thea, Sara, Bettie and Jesse and Cori to each have their own room. There is a converted loft that makes a perfect room for Grant and Grace. It is only five feet high but the furniture is child size and it has some antique toys to make a perfect little cubby for the kids. There is another loft on a third floor with a couple of twin beds but we don’t need the space. The house is up for sale, listed at $1,990,000. It has been a great place to hang out.

That’s what we mostly did. Hang out. We played with the kids, played games, ate and ate some more, took naps, watched Christmas Classic movies, (Muppet Christmas Carole, White Christmas, The Christmas Story, Home Alone and a bunch of Disney Movies). Every one read books. I read 1776 by David McCullough and Into the Wild by John Krakowe. I thought it was most appropriate to read of Washington’s Christmas sneak attack on Hessians in Trenton NJ on Christmas Eve. 1776 was an inspiring and very interesting book. It angers me that William Knox and Nathaniel Greene do not have a more important role in American History books and records. Into the Wild was an interesting read about Chris McCandlist who decided to go to Alaska and live totally off the land for the summer. He ended up dying on his adventure but it was something that probably calls to men everywhere. The call to travel the un named path, to live in the wild, to challenge yourself and nature, to be in remote unknown places. I know it calls to me but I rarely venture very far. Chris ventured off in the extreme.

Our Christmas tree was completely decorated with home made ornaments. We made paper chains and strung cranberries. I tried to string popcorn, but after an hour I only had about four inches so we gave up on that. We had the missionaries over for Christmas eve and Jesse did a great job with Grace re-enacting the nativity scene. I like this idea of communal living. We had nine of us together for a week. Everyone took turns cooking and cleaning, so there was never too much work to do. The kids always had someone to play with. It helped having a place big enough so every one had some personal space.

A Great Weekend

Thanksgiving week 2008.
This has been a pretty good weekend. We had Thanksgiving weekend with Marla's mom. She cooked a great dinner. We had Jared and Thea with us for dinner. I had'nt seen Jared since he went back to Reno in August. He seems happy in what he is doing in school and doing well studying horticulture and Arbors. He has a job working for the Rail City Garden Center in Sparks. This could lead him into an Arborist position that he is working towards. He is pretty excited to be playing drums for a band in Reno. The Darlings. It is discribed as a "Rockabilly" band. They have a CD out that he brought for us to listen to. The closest I can describe it is like Johnny Cash. Who would have thought that after all of the music lessons, it would be Jared actually being paid as a professional musician. After dinner we went to see the latest movie with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman called Austrailia. It was a pretty good movie. I was a little sad for the day. I was missing Jesse and Sara. After so many holidays together it always seems something is missing if we are not all together.

Saturday was near perfect. It started at Three AM. Up and ready to drive Marla to the airport for a 6:00 AM flight to Michigan to spend time watching grandbabies while Jesse and Cori go house hunting in Illinois. Then I had breakfast at Denny's ( French toast) while waiting for the airport hanger to open. I preflighted the Musketeer and with 22 degree tempuratures and just me in the cockpit, I was up to 11,500 over Lake Tahoe in no time. I started to get moderate turbulance and took her down over Hope, Faith and Charity Valleys and back into the Carson Valley. A squeaker landing and one more just for practice and put the Musketeer back in the hanger. Then back home for some left over Thanksgiving pie with a Sherlock Holmes movie. A few chores and some grocery shopping for me and Thea while Marla is gone. Then lunch to a John Wayne movie (Comancheros). Then some time with the horses, a little lunge work. Next prepared some turkey enchiladas that Thea and I enjoyed for dinner and a James Bond Movie.

Other than being up at 3:00 AM and having to say good bye to Marla for a week it was a great day.