Happy Birthday National Parks

I guess we've been celebrating the National Parks 100th birthday without realizing it.  Since last summer I have come to love and appreciate them a lot more and it's been a real treat to be able to visit a few. We'll have to see how many we can visit in the future.  Since Idaho is becoming a bigger part of our lives I think that maybe Yellowstone or The Grand Tetons are next.

patience

Beginnings can be hard, but good.  It's nice that there are a few times during the year that you just feel like you can have a fresh start.  Back to school time is one of them.  Though I miss the freedom of summer, it kind of feels good to get back to some routines and practicality.

The last week or so I've been especially wanting to get back to having a scripture that we focus on for a week at a time.  I wasn't feeling especially inspired by any in particular, but we watched a video on the subject of patience which got me thinking.  According to the video, studies show that people who have or cultivate patience are very successful throughout their lives.  And patience really does have so much to do with everyday life.

 I guess I've thought of myself as a patient person when it comes to children - my own and those I work with.  But I've realized that I could definitely work on patience in other areas of my life.  For example: instant gratification.  Netflix makes it possible to not have to wait a whole week for another episode of my favorite show.  Amazon Prime makes it so that with one click I can shop for something and have it delivered to my door in 2 days.  I am so old I can remember the days when you had to get your pictures developed before you saw how they turned out - now you take the picture and look at it right away.  These are not bad things, but I'm realizing that when I can't have instant gratification it is difficult - like having to wait for a movie to come out on DVD.  Having something to look forward to is great, if you can fight off that "Veruca Salt" feeling of "but I want it now!"

Another example is patiently waiting for success, while continuing in your efforts.  Sometimes it feels like pursuing a goal isn't worth it because I can't see or feel the "fruits of my labor".  It takes patience, but if you stick with it - well, there's that success the video was talking about.

And my last example for the night is patience in suffering.  Right now I have some amazing women in my life who are great examples of that.  I honestly feel that God is real, and that - though he doesn't usually take away our trials- he does help us through them.  I know I have felt that before and come out a much better person.  But, it's easier to say that while I am healthy and strong; give me a day or two of strep throat and I am right back to wondering "what's it all for!" and "I just can't take this for one more minute!".  I wish I could say that I'm exaggerating.  But being sick plummets my view on life.  But like I said, I know some extremely strong women that are making me more resolved to be stronger and braver and more patient.

So tonight it was just me and Luke home for scripture reading.  I asked him to get out the scriptures and we would look in the index and choose one that has to do with patience.  There are so many encouraging ones about enduring, God supporting us in our trials, etc.  But the one he chose is this:

D&C 67:13  "Ye are not able to abide the presence of God now, neither the ministering of angels; wherefore, continue in patience until ye are perfected."

I asked him why that one and he said because it is so short.  But we found some inspiration in it, besides that.  We've been talking lately about being patient in learning.  Whether it is school or spiritual matters, understanding things and knowing all there is to know takes time.  You don't start at the end of the course, you start at the beginning, and as you learn and understand you move on and get more information.   I also like the last line.   I will "continue in patience" with myself, as I work on developing patience.  I think this will be a life long endeavor, since I don't see myself being perfected any time soon.  But maybe I will be a more successful person just because of the effort.

Mr. Last

We've been thinking of our son-in-law Ross today, hoping all went well as he officially started his year of being a middle school teacher.  I think there is a special place in Heaven reserved for people willing to teach pre-teens and teenagers.  We are so proud of him and wish him a year full of rewarding experiences.

dragons

Pete's Dragon - LOVED IT!

I've always liked the original which is silly, musical and fun - and my first memory of being dropped off at the movie theatre, or in other words old enough to go without a parent.  But this remake is different.  It is more of a sweet adventure, and a tribute to the woods.  The cinematography is absolutely beautiful.

Dragons have always been a very fun subject for movies and stories in general.  I think it would be enjoyable to have a dragon week and see how many movies we could come up with all about dragons.  And I'm sure we could make some great dragon art projects with the little ones.

walking in August

Lester has a whole list of interesting places to explore in the city.  So one day in August we decided to check one off.  It was fun.

Can you imagine living in one of these houses? Wow!

We then found a field perfect for running, chasing and picnicking. The following videos are

short and priceless.  Something about little ones running, wiping out and getting up again

is just adorable.

And let's call the one below: "No child left behind".

running out of time!

Time for another Normal Rockwell painting - I'm not sure what his meaning was for 

this when he painted it in 1945.  But for me it means that time is running out - 

specifically for summer and for Samantha being at home.

               I get a little panicky every now and then, but I know that everything will be great!

4 princesses

One great coincidence about the girls coming home when they did is that it was right in between Isla and Audrey's birthdays.  And since they usually like to make the rounds, visiting all of the Hanaikes, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to have a birthday party and get all of the visiting in at once, in a big way.  Most of Reggie's nieces and nephews grew up at the same time, only a couple of miles from each other.  The family get-togethers always happened for their birthdays.  It was a nice way to focus on each kid, once a year.  We haven't done this for a long time, and so it was nice to do some dejavue.  Most everyone in the family came and it was wonderful.

Cake time!

It was a princess party and the little girls dressed for the occasion.  Contrary to what the picture shows, Hannah was very happy and did a lot of twirling in her dress.  In fact I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly and at ease and not shy all of the girls were.

Present time was the most fun.  Audrey said with delight "Oh My Gosh!" at everything she opened, including the cards.  Isla was pretty quite but very content to pose with her presents.

Dr. Tarnoff

Today Samantha had her routine cardiology appointment.  We had already heard the sad news that her  pediatric cardiologist died a little while ago - soon after retirement - but we enjoyed talking with her adult cardiologist about what a special man he was.  We have always loved Kaiser Permanente and doctor's like him are the reason why.  Here are some details about his life that we always want to remember:

In 1969, Dr. Harold Tarnoff joined the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, and for the next 44 years worked as a pediatric cardiologist in San Francisco while also consulting at other Kaiser Hospitals in the Bay area - a lifelong career that he thoroughly enjoyed.  A truly gifted clinician and teacher, he taught cardiac physical examination to Kaiser residents, gave weekly cardiology lectures to Kaiser pediatricians and pediatric residents, and gave world-class care to thousands of infants and children with heart disease.  Throughout his career, he was an active member of the clinical faculty at UCSF.  As a Clinical Professor, he helped train approximately 100 future pediatric cardiologists in the technical and interpretative aspects of diagnosis cardiac catheterization and shared his extensive experience and expertise by means of clinical conference and mentorship to countless trainees and younger faculty.

It can definitely be said that his was a life well lived.  As his obituary pointed out there are thousands of people alive today because of his world-class care and expertise.  I'm sure that they, and their parents, will remember him for that as well as his comforting bed-side manner. We saw him for 17 years of Samantha's life and he always had the sweet smile that is shown in the following picture which was included on his funeral program.

On the back of the program are the lyrics from the following Gershwin tune.

Very appropriate I think.

(Thanks for everything Dr. Tarnoff)

christening the new kitchen

Even before the finishing touches were done we decided to use the new kitchen in a BIG way - by finally having our "Great British Bake-Off" contest.  My kids were into it WAY more than I anticipated.  We all know that Julia has mad baking skills, and that Luke is an up and coming contender, but we didn't realize that when Hillary & Mariah are in the mood to bake they've got real talent too.  Now Samantha - she was not interested, but agreed to be a judge along with Reggie.  I took a bunch of pictures without realizing that there was no memory card in the camera.

In the morning I ran to Safeway and bought the necessary ingredients while the kids got started, taking turns in the kitchen.  We were about half way through when Reggie called to say that he and his brother were going to be home in about an hour to finish the kitchen and so he needed it to be all clear (he didn't know about the contest going on).  So we cleaned up as fast as possible and cleared out, carrying on with what we could at the dining room table.  A few hours later, as soon as Matt left we descended on the kitchen again.  It was Mariah & Hillary's last night so we were determined to finish what we had started.

Everyone was done and the judging commenced at about 10 pm.  The kids scoffed when they realized this was one of those "everyone gets an award" kind of thing - but they were still so competitive that they are still arguing about the results!  Anyway, the awards went as follows:

Julia - Eclairs - Special Commendation Award

Hillary - Pumpkin Cookies with cinnamon frosting - Signature Award

Mariah - Chocolate Layer Cake with raspberry jam filling - Star Baker

Luke - Chocolate Cheesecake with Brownie crust - Technical Award

Nancy - St. Lucia Buns - Showstopper Award

They are talking about doing it again when we are all together for Christmas, but I don't know - I'm not sure our family can handle being as polite and proper and congenial as the contestants on the British Bake Off - we are definitely All American, with our "Oh it's on!" attitude.

and when we got home . . . SURPRISE!

Samantha and I were on our trip for a total of 10 days.  Little did we know what was going on at home.  Reggie decided to take that opportunity to overhaul our kitchen.  He is very good at home repairs and such, but for this he enlisted his brother's help, who is a cabinet maker by trade.  They built new cupboards and counters; put in new flooring, and for the first time in the history of this house installed a garbage disposal and a built in/under the counter dishwasher.  IT IS WONDERFUL!
I AM IN BAKING/COOKING HEAVEN!

Lester, Julia and Luke were a big help with the brunt-work, but also got into the spirit of things by re-painting the living room, dining room and hallway and upgrading some fixtures on the wall.  Now, after a day's hard work it is even more satisfying to sit down and relax in the living room.

Actually, when we got home the kitchen wasn't quite complete and so Mariah had the fun of hopping up there and helping with some last minute touches.

And Lester, Julia and Luke got some well-deserved satisfaction.

I can't express to Reggie enough how much I love my new kitchen and how

much I appreciate his thoughtfulness and all of his hard work.  I know he, and Matt, 

Luke, Julia, & Lester lost out on a lot of sleep in working so hard to get this done.

Though the lighting in the picture below is too dark, I actually like it because

it shows the kitchen in the morning, all clean and peaceful,

just waiting to be used! 

And I think it whispers: "To Nancy, Love Reggie".  This means more to me than he will ever know.

and so it begins

The 2016/2017 school year dawned for Luke this morning.  Knowing that he is happy to go back makes it easier to start saying goodbye to summer.  He had a great summer, but he also likes school and has some specific goals in mind.  His enthusiasm and positive attitude is contagious!  I go back in a couple of weeks.  So until then, I am a full-time, stay at home Mom - getting things done around the house, catching up on appointments, running errands during the day when the stores are less crowded, visiting with my Mom, and having cookies ready for him when he walks through the door.  I love it!  (And I have faith that in a few weeks I will love my job again and the paycheck it brings.)

and last of all

After accomplishing so much in college preparations Samantha and I headed back to Utah, taking our sweet time.  One of the main things I wanted from this trip was to have a good long visit with my Dad, who is buried in "Pioneer Cemetery" in Rigby Idaho.  This is the first time I've been to his grave sight since his burial in 2012.  Samantha and I each took turns having alone time so that we were free to do as much talking or get as emotional as we wanted.  It was very therapeutic.

 I thought a lot about his life - about the family that we come from.  He is buried near his parents, grandparents and a couple of siblings.  In 1933 his 16 year old sister died of tuberculosis; she was the sibling closest in age to him - they went to school together, youth activities, etc.  I can't imagine how hard it was losing her.  And then a year later his youngest sibling - the 12th child in the family - died after living only about a month.  He is buried in this same cemetery.  How interesting life can be - some are here for such a short time, some for such a long time.  Though I miss my Dad so much, knowing what sweet reunions he had on the other side kind of puts it all in perspective.  It was also interesting seeing my Mom's name on the headstone next to my Dad's, with only a birth date at this point of course.  I will never be ready to let her go, I'm afraid, but it does give me peace and a visual testament that when her time comes my Dad will be right there waiting for her.

In our family it has always been a tradition to take pictures with our families' headstones. Here are me and my siblings in this same cemetery with my grandparents, years ago:

 So the tradition will continue:

I am looking forward to having another visit with my Dad in September, and beyond, as I anticipate a lot of traveling to and from Idaho as long as Samantha is going to school there.

And in the spirit of taking our sweet time, we saw this reservoir near the Idaho/Utah border and decided to give our feet some well deserved cooling off - the end to a very peaceful day.

raspberry picking

I am such a city girl, it is probably pathetic at how excited I got when my Aunt Dorothy said she was going to do some raspberry picking before the sun set on the night that we had dinner together.  I told her that if she needed any help Samantha and I would love to do some raspberry picking.  So we, along with my cousins, headed over to the farm.

After about 45 minutes of hard work our buckets were full, and then my aunt combined them all and said I should take them home.  I hadn't expected this, and felt bad for about 1 minute, but then took her up on her offer.  She said they were still going to have more raspberries than they knew what to do with as more were ripening every day.  So I took them back to Utah and we all ate about half of them the rest of the week.  And yes, I packaged up the rest and brought them home in my carry on!  We ate more at home and for the first time in my life (that I remember) I made jam.  We used that on our toast, etc. but also made some shortbread/raspberry bars and chocolate/raspberry cake. Those berries did not go to waste!

Welcome to Idaho!

After our weekend of pioneer activities Samantha and I hit the open road, Idaho bound.

Samantha's college is a 3 to 4 hour car ride from the closest major airport (Salt Lake City).  So I am a little nervous for her to be so far away from all of us.  But I have a cousin that we stayed with that I know will take good car of her; and while on our trip we got some great news that some more of our  family is moving to Idaho this summer.  This is giving me great peace of mind, and confirming even more so that this is the right time and right place for Samantha.  We were able to tour the college, her dorm, the town, etc. and get a head start on her being organized and ready for classes in September.

Our campus tour took us walking all over the place in 102 degree weather.
The campus is always being expanded - new buildings, parking and housing
being built for the thousands more students they project to come
in the next few years.
It is a beautiful campus - my favorite place being the gardens pictured above.

       We are home now and doing a lot of finishing touches in packing, etc.  Only 4 weeks to go!

July 24th (& 25th)

Sunday morning Mariah, Ross & I headed back to Temple Square for "Music & The Spoken Word".  A group called "The King's Singers" from Europe performed along with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  It was great.

Because July 24th - the official holiday - landed on a Sunday, the major celebrations happened on Monday.  Mariah and Ross had headed back home by then and Andrew's company was one of the few that were still open, so it was just me and Hillary and the kids.  We wanted to go to the parade downtown, but I tried to convince Hillary that it would be too crowded and overwhelming - every year people camp along the parade route the night before just to get a good spot.  But when Hillary drove Andrew to work that morning she noticed that it actually wasn't that crowded.  So she ended up convincing me, and we went for it.  I could not believe what front-row seats we got!  We parked a couple of blocks away, which wasn't bad, and ended up watching it from the comfort of "The Beehive House" steps.  I'm so glad we did this!

A little advertisement for the fall season -
The headless horseman will be visiting key places in the city in October.

This last picture, in my opinion, is the whole point.  When I get scared of life I try to remember my ancestors and all the "faith, strength and courage" they had in order to make a better life for themselves.  I hope my descendants will think of them and carry on as well.  It's funny, because we all fit somewhere on the timeline - we are all somebody's descendent and will eventually be somebody's ancestor.  In fact, my Dad is now my little grand babies' ancestor.  He is someone they have never met, but I hope they will know his stories, and his family's stories, and gain strength from them.