Dallen's birthday and Father's Day

A couple of photos that I haven't had a chance to post.

 We drove up to Spokane one day for Dallen's birthday.  He's 20 years old.  Hard to believe how fast they grow up.  Happy birthday Dallen, we love you and are proud of you.  He's a great young man.

Also on Father's Day I got this cool t-shirt from Malachi.  I really like this picture.  Thanks Malachi, and thanks to all my other children that I got to talk to on Father's Day.  I am so lucky to have so many wonderful children.  They are all great people.

In Japan for Scarlett's baptism

We flew out to Japan and got to attend Scarlett's baptism.

 Scarlett with her whole family.  The baptism was at the base chapel and a lot of members from the Ward came.  She seemed so happy and everything was really nice.  It was very spiritual and we are so happy we got to come and witness it and be a part of it.  She was confirmed at church the following Sunday.  Way to go Scarlett.

 Another cool thing about our visit - we got to meet our newest grand-daughter Beatrix.  She is so cute.  We love her already.

 Calista playing around and having fun.

 We also had a few days to spend with them and visited some of the sights.  This giant slide is at a park that isn't too far from their home.  Penelope was the second one down.

 Scarlett coming down.  It's a long slide.

 Tucker on his second trip down riding with Leon.  Jacquelyn and I also rode down . It's picks up a lot of speed as you go.

 Some obstacles to climb over getting back up to the top of the slide.

 Scarlett riding a zip line.

 Tucker on the zip line.

 One day we took a tour of a Japanese battleship that has been converted into a museum.  The kids got to run all around.

 Calista on an anchor chain.

 Leon loves to climb.

 The four oldest posing on a cable.

 A different day we went to a nearby shrine that is within walking distance of their house.

 An interesting statue.

Leon at the rocky shore.  We had nice sunny weather the whole time and it was great getting to visit them again.

Visiting Isaac in Minnesota

We visited Isaac in Minnesota in May on our way to and from Japan and got to visit with Isaac a few days before and after.

One day we went to the Como Park Zoo in Minneapolis and that was a lot of fun.  Here we are in a parakeet estuary.

 Joslyn in the mouth of a mega-shark fossil recreation.

 Joslyn and Dorian with a giant tortoise.

 Jacquelyn with Dorian and Joslyn and a python.

Back home where they live at Como Apartments.  This is in the back of their apartment.

 Dorian just loves the toy play cars and sometimes gives Joslyn a ride.

And one day we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota and saw some cool stuff.  It was nice to see Isaac and his family.

Trip Home

We made the drive from Arizona to Washington and stopped to see children and grand-children along the way.  But we ran into snow everywhere.

Snow snow snow - in Utah, Idaho, and even Washington.  This is Nathanael at our first stop in Utah, clearing the snow off our car for us.  

 Jacob and Jonathan.  We got to spend several days with Nathanael and his family.

 We got a stuffed dinosaur for Jonathan for his second birthday.

 We had a lot of fun playing with the kids and got to attend one of Hannah's dance lessons.

We also got to visit Amery and see the new home that she just bought.  Jacob and Hannah came with us.

Agnes and Asher.   Our second stop was Idaho where we got to spend several days visiting with Joshua and his family, and got more snow.

 We watched the children for a few days while Joshua and Rebecca were off on a trip to Washington DC.  Everything went fine.  The only problem was Elliott being sick.  He spent most of the time sleeping and laying on the couch.  Poor little guy.

Asher and Jonathan both just love playing with balls.   We got Asher the same stuffed dinosaur for his second birthday.

 Julia putting on a magic show.

 Elliott and Christian playing with little people and a castle.

 We went to church with each family in Idaho and Utah and Washington respectively.  Notice the matching ties.

 We got to Spokane and there was snow there too.  We even went sledding at night with James and Ashton.

 They really like the snow.

 We did find one warm place to go, Tianna took us to an Arboretum.

 James with his good friend Connor.

 We saw some incredible orchids.

 And we watched Ashton play on his Ward team in a basketball game at the church.  He's good at the three point line.

 On the way home we also stopped in Las Vegas and stayed at the Luxor pyramid.

 We saw a show and two exhibits and walked around the Strip and also Downtown looking at the sights and had a buffet breakfast.  It was a nice stop.

 This is our hotel room, right in the pyramid.  You can see the wall on one side is slanted.

 We got home and even had snow here.  We got back in time to celebrate Spencer's sixth birthday.

 And Mallory's eleventh birthday.  They grow up so fast.

We also saw Talitha and Caleb when we got home.  It's good to be back.

Within a short period of time we saw 6 of our children and 17 grand-children. (Jacob, Hannah, Jonathan, Amery, Julia, Ethan, Christian, Elliott, Agnes, Asher, James, Ashton, Evan, Dallen, Andrew, Mallory, Spencer).

Flatiron birthday hike climb

For my birthday Jacquelyn went on a hike with me in the Superstition Mountains.  We were trying to get to the top of Flatiron Peak.

 We made it, but it was hard, one of the most difficult hikes of our lives.  The trail was three miles up and three miles down. It was more rock climbing than hiking!

The arrow points to the top of Flatiron Peak in the Superstition Mountains.  The trail started out level but quickly got very steep.  We took our time and just kept going.

 As the trail progressed we soon got a views of Flatiron Peak raising up like a giant monolith.

 The trail was rocky and often involved rock climbing.

The trail ran up along a draw and went beside and then up the back and then top of Flatiron Peak.  This picture shows the ground way way below and gives a feeling for how high up we climbed.

 Another picture from the top.  We were so happy to have made it, but totally exhausted.  Going down was just as hard as going up, and we were tired.  We were so sore the next day we could hardly walk.

A picture of Flatiron taken by a drone.  It was a super fun hike.