Flowers and Vegetables

It's been months since we did any blogging but now we're back.  There's been a lot going on, so maybe we can do a blog every day or two until caught back up.

 Here was the last lonely iris.  They were beautiful beyond compare while they lasted.  The date of this picture was just two weeks after the last one (seen in the previous blog) when they were all in full bloom.  So it seems like they were only flowering for about a month.

 We do have some squirrels that live in the trees in our yard.

 Hungry little guy.  Didn't seem to have as many around this year.  But we did see some raccoons occasionally too.

 Tomato plants on the left, peas on the right.  Compare to the previous blog when they were just getting started.

 These are Caleb's onions on the left and zucchini on the right.  He's already made some zucchini bread and it was delicious.  Very moist and tasty.

Pumpkins and rhubarb in the corner of the yard.  Hope the pumpkins are ready by Halloween.

Spring Flowers

Jacquelyn's irises are all in bloom now.

 Each year she gets more and more.  It started out with one flower one year and eventually took over this entire small hill..  They seem to really flourish here.

  They only bloom for a short time each May.

Also we have flowers in the back yard next to our dainty Japanese maple.

 We also have flowers on the deck.

 Flowers in the boat.

And also tomatoes.  There're not so pretty, but the'll make up for that by tasting good in a sandwich.

We were surprised to see a baby rabbit in the back yard this morning.  Good  news for the wildlife, bad news for the garden.

Mother's Day in Spokane

Happy Mother's Day to Jacquelyn.  It's not easy to raise eight children.  She did a great job and we all love her very much.  She's a wonderful mother.

 We were in Spokane on Mother's Day so she got to spend the day with Tianna and Caleb and some grandchildren.  She also got to speak on the phone with Talitha, Joshua, Nathanael, Malachi, Doranda and Isaac.  What great children.

Happy Mother's Day to Tianna also - here with James.

Christian's Baptism

  We got to attend Christian's baptism in Pocatello.

Christian is 8 years old now and was baptized by his father, Joshua.

Her's all the brothers and sisters and cousins that got to come.  Julia, Asher, Agnes, Christian, Jacob, Elliott, Hannah, Ethan, Amery, Jonathan, and two cousins from Rebecca's side of the family.  It's always fun when the cousins get together.

 Christian with two proud grandparents - us.

Christian with Aunt Tianna and Cousin Amery.

 We also got to stay a few days and play with the grandchildren.  This is Agnes going down a big hill on her tricycle.

 Elliott's growing fast and can ride a bicycle now without training wheels.

 One day Nathanael took several of us out shooting.  This is Ethan with an automatic pistol.  We also shot some rifles.

 Also we got to go to a dinner where Joshua was given an award as one of the three outstanding researchers at the University where he teaches.

 The kids at a park having a big race.

Looks like Ethan is going to win.

Grand Canyon

On the way to Utah from Arizona we decided to see some sights, make it a more of a vacation drive.

 We stopped at the Grand Canyon, one of the most magnificent natural marvels of the world.

 We stopped two places to look at the Grand Canyon, the first was at this watch tower built as an artists observatory.

 This is a view of the start of the Grand Canyon before it gets really big.

 Inside the watchtower.

 The Grand Canyon.  It's hard to really picture how big it is unless you see it.

 Another view.

 One last view of the Grand Canyon.

Along the drive we saw another interesting sight.  The Grand Staircase Escalanate National Monument in Utah.

 At the park we decided to hike the Toadstools Trail.

 It was only 1.3 miles up and started out along a sandy river bed.

 We saw lots of interesting rock formations.

 This is the most famous of the Toadstools.

We actually had a fun drive.

Tianna and James in Arizona

Tianna flew down with James for a few days to visit in sunny Arizona.

 James with Great-Grandpa Swift at his home in Mesa.

  James with Great-Grandma Rucker at her home in Apache Junction.

 James brought two zig-saw puzzles which were a lot of fun to piece together.  They were hard ones.

 One day we went out to eat at Red Robin.

 There's a swimming pool at Discovery Point and James wanted to go swimming.  It was nice and sunny.

 Great-Grandpa Swift leads the exercise class on Mondays at Discovery Point.  He runs them through a vigorous routine.

James during the workout.

Joshua's family in Arizona

While Jacquelyn was down in Arizona for a month, Joshua and his family came down for a visit.  The kids got to see Great-Grandma Rucker and Great-Grandpa Swift.

 Agnes really took to her Great-Grandma and liked spending time with her at the park and at home.

 Here's the rest of Joshua's family with Great-Grandma Rucker.

 And here's Joshua's family with Great-Grandpa Swift at the park.  While they were visiting Julia and Agnes slept at Great-Grandpa Swift's apartment in Mesa and Joshua, Rebecca, Ethan, Christian, and Elliott slept at Great-Grandma Rucker's home.

Shortly after they left Jacquelyn got to visit with some friends from our Mission in the Philippines, Connie (Sister Rogers), Chris (Sister Jones), and a sister visiting from the Baliwag Ward, Philippines.