Here is part of the group that attended Virginia's endowment session on saturday the 21st. See story in next post.

This is Janelle and I at the tree in Downtown Disney. I thought I had them posted with the story in the following post.

Thanksgiving 2009

On Wednesday the 18th Janelle and I flew out to California for Thanksgiving. We spent the first part of the week in Brea at the house. Janelle loves to sleep in her room there and play with Bentley the dog. Mick flew in from Chicago on thursday evening. We were able to see all the neighbors and go to our favorite restaurants like Shang Hwa, In n Out and Taco Bell. I know you are all thinking....Taco Bell? Well they are very far away here and I crave mexican food. We went to church in our California Ward and did lots of Doctor visits, etc. We left monday evening for St George where Graig and Nicole came from BYU-I and Jamie and David came from BYU-Provo to spend the holiday with us.

We spent one evening in downtown Disney. What a busy place. We ran into Brett and Natalie Saari and their little family while there also.

On Saturday the 21st we went to the Newport Temple to be with friends from the Brea Ward and Placentia Stake for Virginia Mercier to take out her endowments. What a great event that was. We were able to be in a special place with so many of our friends from California. This is only part of the group that went.

On the way to St George we spent the night in Las Vegas. The Nelsons were there for Thanksgiving with their family so we were able to have breakfast with them. Aunt Eleanor and Jim were there also. What a treat!

Janelle and I spent one day at Disneyland. It was very crowded. We did only 6 rides in 6 hours. There were lines for Pirates I had never seen.

And of course our last meal in California has to be the same as our first.....In n Out. We left St George on sunday morning early and had the typical holiday traffic from Vegas. We got Mick to LAX in time for his flight back to Jersey. Janelle and I flew back home on tuesday Dec. 1st. What a great Thanksgiving we had.

Happy Birthday JANELLE!!!

Can you believe this crazy kid is turning 30 today!!! She is so unique and can bring a smile to your face over the darndest things.

Happy 30th Janelle!!!



Isn't it great that our children age but we don't.

And the winners are..................

We had a three way tie for the pumpkin contest. Connor Grant from Utah (he is one of my past piano students in Brea) bid 51#'s, Aaron Cuadro from California (Janelle's good friend) bid 51#'s and Cathy from New Jersey, bid 52#'s. The actual weight was 51.5 pounds!!!!! So all three of these contestants WIN!!!!!!!!!! We had over 35 entries this year which made it really exciting. Bids from 24.5 pounds to 215#'s. Oh how I wish I could have grown a 215 pounder. Maybe next year. Everyone have a Happy Halloween!!!! Your prizes will be in the mail shortly!!!

Painter Drop Cloth Curtains

Last year the Frugones in our ward had a flood in their home which caused a lot of damage to their first floor. We had great fun helping them paint and get things back to normal. One of the things Megan let me do was to try one of the ideas I had seen on a blog. It was making things out of painter drop cloths. One of the ideas was curtains. So we purchased two painters drop cloths at 9 dollars each and then I topped them with a clearance shower curtain from Target to add a little pizzaz and color along the top. We used the rod she already had and I think they turned out fabulous. Now we need to take the old curtains that got stained on the bottom, cut them down and we are going to repurpose them in the boys room. Megan is such a great sport for letting me try all these cool things I find on blogs. Don't you think my adopted grandkids are cute too. They have been so much fun. Gio made me a halloween decoration today and then they sent me a Grandparents day card last month, flowers for mothers day and I even got invited to their Halloween party. Being a grandma is so much fun.

2nd Annual Pumpkin Weight Contest

The time has come, the time is here. Send in your guesses for the 2nd Annual "Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin" contest.

Send in your guesses on the largest pumpkin. The one closest to the actual weight will win fabulous Mars products.

This picture was taken in August, so more growing took place.

Here it is the day it was harvested.

It snowed two days last week and we have had frost the past few mornings. I covered the pumpkin up at nights to keep it from freezing, but when the snow started again last saturday, I said, "OK, time to harvest the pumpkin."

Harvesting the great pumpkin!

Here we are on the scales. So send in those guesses and remember, just the weight of the pumpkin!!!

We will end the contest on October 28 at midnight and the fabulous prize of Mars candy will be sent soon thereafter.

Good Luck!!!

Visitors from Washington State and Washington DC

Ron and Karen Maxfield from Tri-Cities Washington came for a visit on October 6 th-8th. Mick took wednesday off from work and we went to Gettysburg. We drove up and back in one day. We had a super visit and great fun. It is amazing how much I learn each time I go.

Saturday we went into NYC to meet with them for a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and lunch at Tavern on the Green. I have to say that Tavern on the Green is very over rated. It was a great atmosphere and the landscaping is beautiful, but the food was disappointing for the price. We strolled through Central Park and had a great adventure watching the roller bladers who fenced off a portion of the walk and were rocking out.

This is Jamie's roomate from freshman year in the center, Abbey Rich. She came last sunday night with two Washington DC intern friends Rachel and Melissa. It was fun having college kids in the house with us. They even played games with me!!!

I Love Fall in New Jersey

I love this time of year living in New Jersey. The trees are near their peak they say. Some of my favorite things to do is to drive through a leaf storm. This is when the leaves are falling so heavy it is like driving through rain, but it is leaves. I love watching the leaves flutter behind the car. I love riding my bike in the neighborhood and crunching through the dry leaves on the side of the road.

This is the scenery I observe whenever I get in the car. Isn't it spectacular? I keep thinking I'm going to get pulled over for swerving on the road trying to take it all in.

The pumpkins are getting ready for harvest. I have three large ones this year and about 25 jack be littles.

Watch for the post on the "Guess the pumpkin Weight" contest. It will be happening next week because we have already woken up to a light frost here in Jersey. Once again the prize will be candy. We even have a box of Twixxels that never was released. I love them, but the mid-east test market, said no go.

I love decorating with the few things I have for fall. Another of my favorite things is homemade pumpkin pie.

...and don't forget the famous holiday tree!! Why do we still have the tree up you ask?

As you can see, our family room is huge and we have very little furniture in there. I love my mantle all decorated for fall.

So Mick thought it would be great to leave it up all year to help fill the space. I must admit, I have enjoyed the lights on in the evening. Plus decorating for the different seasons has been fun.

It isn't too late to book that flight and come see us. The leaves will still be here for a couple more weeks.

Mick and I had the opportunity to go to Maine for a long weekend with my Uncle Bob and Aunt Karyn. We left Saturday morning driving from New Jersey, through Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and finally Maine. We had our first lobster dinner and then headed to Portland, Maine for a inter-island cruise to see 7 of the many lighthouses in Maine.
When we started the cruise it was a cool pleasant autumn day. By the end....well you can see the picture of my aunt and uncle that says it all!!!!

This is the smallest operating lighthouse in the country. Isn't it cute. How would you like this to be your summer home?

This lighthouse is named Bug Light. The builder when he finished stood back and said, It is cute as a bug, thus the name!

Portland Head Light is said to be the most photographed lighthouse on the coast Maine.

Sunday after attending church in Maine we went on a rainy Sunday drive through 3 states to the Joseph Smith birthplace in Sharon, Vermont. This is the lane you drive entering the memorial. The church has done a beautiful job with the landscaping of the grounds.

Memorial erected for the Joseph Smith Memorial at his birthplace in Sharon, Vermont. It is 38 1/2 feet tall representing the years he lived on earth.
On Monday and Tuesday we drove up and down the coast of Maine. We were on a mission to get to as many of the top 10 lobster eateries in Maine as possible.

Some amazing scenery, even George Bush's home is seen here in Kennebunkport.

Here are a couple of pictures from Georgetown, Maine, a very scenic little seaside town.

Not quite sure what number on the top 10 Lobster places in Maine this is, but the atmosphere is unique at these outside eateries (called lobster pounds). This one posted on the blackboard that they were not responsible for stolen food....from the seagulls.

Since the number one lobster place is only open on Saturdays and Sundays the end of September, we had lunch at a little restaurant nearby. This was the view. Amazing and so quiet and relaxing. What did we have? Well Mick had steamed lobster, Bob and I lobster roll, and Karyn the lobster bisque. Delicious.

This one is #4, but as you can tell, we just missed it. They were closing up as we arrived.

On our last day in Maine we decided the best lobster was from Mike's just down the road from our place. You go in, pick your favorite lobster by size and kind and then they steam it up for you. We went to the grocery store before and bought salads and goodies for a perfect meal. We put Mike's at #1. Because we asked Mike so many questions about lobsters, he thought I should have the experience of holding one. Here I am holding a male lobster, weighing about 3 pounds, which makes him about 8-10 years old. Thanks goodness those claws are rubber banded tight. This one even has two bands.







Mike will even cook the lobsters for you in his huge steamer.















This is our last meal in Maine.
















Uncle Bob loves lobster. He was eating his and propped it up on the plate and said, "It's a monument to lobsters." Well considering we had lobster everyday we were in Maine, I guess we needed a monument. Thanks for a great time Uncle Bob and Aunt Karyn.

Jamie Jo "What do you Know"

Jamie spent her summer attending BYU spring semester, hiking to Havasupai in the Grand Canyon, and then went up to Washington state to work. She stayed with her cousin Austin to be his chauffer while his parents and sister Ashley were away at volleyball activites for two weeks. She also worked for my brother Mark and brother in law, Mike, in the bottling business. She was a sampler girl in grocery stores for their new Cascade Ice product. She also cleaned soda coolers. This is the cool set of wheels she drove around.

It came complete with a hornets nest in the door frame.

Open House in California

Saturday, August 22, 2009 we held an open house for Graig and Nicole in Brea California so Nicole and her family could meet our neighbors and friends there. As most of you know, Graig is a huge In and Out Burger fan! So we decided to have the In and Out Burger Truck come to serve burgers.
Instead of the traditional cake, we had cupcakes.

This is Derryl Hill ordering the first burger.

This is Janelle's friend Aaron and Steven who were our DJ's for the evening. They did a super job. Jane O'Brien was disappointed that they didn't play any Neil Diamond songs though. She didn't know you could request.

We had the Open House at the North Hills Tennis and Swim Club. Our neighbor Jane O'Brien is a member and set it up for us. It was perfect for a warm August evening. Thanks Jane.

We had so many friends come. This is Myron and Nancy Woodruff and their son Jason and his wife Molly. The Woodruffs were our neighbors in Houston Texas. Great neighbors and great friends. Graig was Jasons shadow when he was 2-4 years old. They had all sorts of adventures together. When Jason headed off to kindergarten, Graig would call Nancy to see if she could play when he was 3. Play the Nintendo that is. The best thing is, that she would let him and would feed him lunch!!!

We even had elementary school teachers come from good old Mariposa. This is Mrs Cotton-Martin and Mrs Zawyrucha, first and second grade teachers. Their libraian, Mrs Garrison and her husband also came.
Jamie is in the pink dress and her roomate from college Abby.

It was a super fun evening. It was so good to see everyone from California that we miss so much. Thanks to everyone who helped out to make this such a great night.