Babysitting Gig

First stop:  San Diego.  Seth/Heidi went to Hawaii for their anniversary.  Kathleen/Lauren took the first shift and we took the second.  We stayed for Thanksgiving and celebrated with another family that they are good friends with.  This is a blurry photo but I want to remember how the boys love their pop.  I'm good for the food, the transportation, the necessities of life, but Pop is the life of the party.

Jonah and I explored Seth's hospital while he took care of a short shift of work.  This boy has really grown up.  Now that Seth/Heidi are moving to St. George in February we are really going to miss this California connection!   On our flight from San Diego to Utah we flew with Mitt Romney.  Also Seth/Heidi bought a 'perfect' house in St. George but it fell through b/c of a technicality, and it was their real estate agents fault.  They are still at square one in finding housing in St. George.  

Second stop was Idaho Falls.  Lara is recuperating from an operation and it is slow going.  We felt very needed and were happy to help out.  Here is Zane and Skye checking out the squirrels.  Zane wants to shoot them, Skye wants to chase them.   We had fun going to one of Zane's swim meets.  Fun to watch him really excel. It was also our first time to see their gorgeous new house.  We slept in Daphne's room (thank you!)

Lunch with our oldest grandchild at her favorite restaurant:  Arugala.  Daphne will be 15 years old next month.  We attended two of her basketball games:  a graceful, beautiful player, and one of the high scorers (but the team lost anyway)

The musicians have a jam session.  So fun to hear them.  All nice voices.  Dan/Lara treated us to a concert:  Nashville Tribute Band. It was a fun evening and  a very talented Mormon band.  Thanks Dan/Lara!  Also thanks to Dan for treating Tom and I to lunch.  Not often you get to have that kind of one-on-one time.  It was a real treat.

Steve/Felicia and Kent live in Idaho Falls as well.  We spent the first night at Steve's hotel.  We took Kent and Levi swimming one day at the pool.  Kent has no fear.  He will jump in the water, sink, then bob back up with no problem!  At the event where this photo was taken Kent visited Santa.  Again no fear!  Fun to see where Steve works.  Very professional.  As of this writing he also got his Associates Degree!  Bravo Steve-o!

Third phase of the babysitting gig was to watch Cora and help out Colie while she recuperates from double bunion surgery.  Cora and I spent lots of time outside exploring.  I took Colie to the Dr. several times.  One appointment when stitches were taken out, Colie kept fainting and throwing up so after two hours we finally gave up and she had to go the ER via an ambulance.  Today we did a similar Dr. appointment but she was more prepared (full stomach and feet elevated during the removal of the stitches )  Success!

See Colie's big boots?  This is her first week after surgery and her first time out to the living room.  Luckily Cora doesn't really feel the difference:  just that mom is always available to read her a story!  We got to visit Jed's work at Overstock and it's an awesome environment.  Cora visited Santa at Jed's work and was perfectly happy.  Strangers are no problem.  Cora thinks it quite normal that her Gram/Pop are there every day.  We will miss that intimacy!

We visited the lights at Temple Square.  Cold and slick, and I fell and slid like a penguin.  The same evening we took Suzanne to see the production of 'White Christmas' at the Eccles Theater.

Suzanne's first time to enter her home as the owner.  Very exciting.  She wants to celebrate Christmas at 5065 S. Taroona Dr., but her new condo will be closer to Ryan/Tawny. (7901 Farm Roll Dr.) Speaking of homes.  Our home in Heber has tenant problems.  The poor couple are getting divorced.  We hired the Faux's again to manage the property while we are on our mission.  Tom took a builder up there to look at repairs.  I loved his comment:  "It will all last for 18 months and then when you get back from your mission, we will demolish the place."

During the period of babysitting we still had to make sure everything is in order for our mission.  We had a hiccup with our visa and had to hand deliver documents to the Church Office Building.  We made a special trip from Idaho Falls to Brigham City to change our TX drivers license to UT.  We had to get a Mel Priesthood certificate for Tom from Suzanne's Bishop.  We had to get a Seminary Graduation Certificate for me (didn't graduate!) so that document will have to be something else.  At any rate, we got our documents in on the deadline, so the visa is now in the hands of the authorities.  This is a photo with my cousin Gary Carpenter and his wife Sue.  They are part of the team to get Senior Couples on their mission! (us included)

This week we are still doing some Dr. appointments with Colie and helping out with Cora, but at a much less commitment level. Tom goes to Provo almost every day to gig with Larry Green.   Steve/Felicia and Kent are coming to watch the BYU Bowl game with us here in SLC.  Nicole has her 30th B.day on Thursday.  We are driving to Farmington to spend Christmas with my Mom on Friday.  And that's a wrap for the Babysitting Gig.