Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to Jacquelyn.  We had four of our children up to visit and to celebrate Mother's Day with her.  She got to hear from the others by phone.  Jacquelyn told me she had a wonderful day.    I think she is one of the greatest of moms and I am so lucky to spend my life with her and all of our super children.

Also happy Mother's Day to my mom and to Jacquelyn's mom.  We are all so very lucky to have such great moms.  There is no way to express enough appreciation for all they do for us.  Happy Mother's Day.

Moving Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad moved out of Leisure World and Jacquelyn and I went down to Mesa to help.  Mark and Angela also came out from Tulsa.

 Here is Dad and Mom in the living room of their new place.  They got a two bedroom apartment at Discovery Pointe, also in Mesa.

 Dad rented a moving trailer to move their stuff in and we help sort and move things from Leisure World to Discovery Pointe.

 Here's the front entrance to Discovery Pointe, a very nice place.  It's just a few blocks to the north between Main and Broadway.

 Apartment 118.

They have two bedrooms.  The second bedroom they set up as a study with the computer.

 Pool and patio area out back.

 Dining room   The food was excellent.  Mom and Dad and Mark and Angela.

Jacquelyn and Doug and Mom and Dad.  It was a great place they moved into and they seemed to like it there.

Easter at Nathanael's house

We got to spend Easter in Utah with Nathanael and Isaac and their families.

 Of course we got to see the grandchildren and play with Jacob and hold Hannah some.

 One day we went to a flower festival at Thanksgiving Point.  It was nice and sunny out and just great.

 Cool flower pictures.

 Don't have any idea what kind they are.

 Back at the house we had a hard time keeping up with Jacob.  He never stops.  Notice his feet are just a blur.

 He goes round and round and loves to run.

 Finally he stopped for a moment to show us how cute he is.

 Nathanael and Mary-Anne had a barbecue and an Easter Egg hunt for everyone.  Isaac and Kim came too.

 Hannah didn't really understand what was going on.

 Jacob thought it was just a game till he learned there was candy in the eggs.  Then he got excited.

 Playing Corn Hole.

 Frizbee.

 Isaac and Kim dressed for church.

Nathanael, Mary-Anne, Jacob, and Hannah.  We had a great time, thanks for having us over for Easter.

Caleb back to BYU-I

We drove Caleb back to Rexburg, Idaho for another Semester at college.

 He's going to school at Brigham Young University Idaho.

 He's staying at the Somerset Apartments just off the campus by the Engineering building.

 Unloading the car after a long drive.

 Living room and kitchen.

 His room is on the bottom floor near the corner.

 Three bedrooms with two students in each.  This is his bunk bed with desk underneath.

This is the nearby Engineering building where he'll be spending a lot of his time.  Good luck back at school Caleb.

Easter Celebration

We did a family Easter celebration in Puyallup early this year since some of the children were in town for the weekend.

 Penelope with an Easter bunny.  She was having a good time.

 Tucker, Penelope, and Andrew with some of the Easter candy they found.

 Mallory and Penelope starting their hunt for Easter eggs.

Scarlett looking for Easter Eggs.

 Jacquelyn, Caleb, and Penelope upstairs.

 Leon after he just found an Easter Egg.

 Tucker and Andrew hunting for Easter eggs.

 Everyone gathered around watching the children hunt for Easter Eggs.  Doranda, Talitha, Caleb, Bob, Tucker, Andrew, Malachi, David, and Elaine.

 David and Talitha with a fruit plate they prepared.

Layne and Malachi.

 We had Hawaiian haystacks for dinner.  Elaine, Bob, Leon, and Tucker.

 Also it was Conference weekend and in between the two sessions we made the traditional waffle ice cream treats.

All around the table, Scarlett, Leon, Mallory, Andrew, Penelope, and Tucker.  It was a great weekend.

CERT Training

Jacquelyn and I completed a CERT Training Class (8 three hour lessons) and Saturday was the big exercise where we got to test out what we learned in simulated disasters.

Here we are in CERT gear, hardhat, eye protectors, masks, gloves and hard shoes.  We are only missing the vests, which we have to order yet.

CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team.  It's a nationwide program run by FEMA and the Tacoma Stake is a sponsoring organization.  You get trained how to respond to disasters that might strike and then you are certified go provide emergency assistance to people until the professionals can arrive, which could take days in a big disaster.

 The first exercise was called cribbing.  You find someone trapped under debris and have to use a lever and cribbing blocks to get them out.  Here's Jacquelyn and the dummy victim is lying on the floor.

 When we first arrived the victim was under a pile of tables.  We lifted some off and then used a lever to slide the victim out.

 The second exercise was search and rescue.  We had to fan out through the woods and look for victims and then when we found one we applied basic first aide and did triage and got the ones to safety that could walk.  Here's a victim we found with a bloody slash across her neck.  I found a victim with his arm severed off and had to apply a tourniquet.

 The third exercise was putting out small fires.  Here we are with Jacquelyn doing the fire extinguisher and me her spotter.

 This is the victim I found with his arm cut off.  We are back inside now.  You can see he had bad bruising and abrasions on his face also.  They tried to make it realistic and it was kind of a shock to find someone like that, even though I knew it wasn't real.

(((picture removed)))

 The fourth exercise was doing head-to-toe evaluations to find injuries and then triage, where you label them for treatment:  Minor, Immediate, Delayed, or Dead.

 Here's two of the evaluators.  The first is Brother Steve Bailey our High Councilor over emergency prepardness for the stake.  The second is Scott Relaford the overall course instructor.  He's a FEMA certified expert responder and trainer.

It was great fun.  Here's a shot of one of the graduation certificates we got.   Now we know how to respond to emergency disasters for ourselves first, and then to help others.