Fathers Day 2009

Boyd and Dale Lake

Father's Day 2009

For Father's Day we had a big Family Dinner. We wanted to celebrate Boyd Lake and all of the fathers in our family. We had three of Don's brothers (Blaine, Brace and Bryan) and their families as well as three of Don's children (Scott, Val and Brent) and their families. We had quite a group (about 30) and it was so great to see how well everyone gets along. All of the kids were having a blast and the the adults enjoyed visiting with each other. The older kids would look out for the younger ones and the young adults, well, let's just say they love to hang out together. Our backyard worked well. We brought our easy up canopies and tables from work and it turned out very nice. 

Don took pictures of the kids with Grandma and Grandpa Lake and then took family pictures with them as well.  Some of the kids were missing, but they turned out really good. Here are just a few.

Don & Michelle with Dale & Boyd

Blaine's Family with Boyd & Dale

Brace's Family with Boyd & Dale 

Bryan's Family with Boyd & Dale

Scott's Family with Boyd & Dale

Val & Tony with Boyd & Dale

Brent with Boyd & Dale

Madison Lake with Ryan Brown (Madison is Dana's daughter and we were so glad she came. They left before Don took the formal pictures.)

Green Garden

All of Don's hard work preparing our garden is paying off. We have a lot of planter boxes and pots that we are growing in since our neighborhood is infested with gophers.

We have green stuff growing everywhere and we love it.  Don did a lot of research on the internet and even did "refrigerator incubation" on the spinach seeds to get them to sprout.  I just water, fertilize and harvest.  It's been great to have food from our garden every day.It was so wonderful to come home from our trip to Utah/Idaho and have everything going strong.  Our tomatoes have reached the rooftop. Click here to see how they used to look.

On the side of our house Don built a planter box system that grows all of our lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, chives, green beans, snap peas and some of our strawberries. Ethan helped plant our lettuce when he was here the beginning of March.  We haven't had store bought lettuce since April. 

This is the planter box that Don designed, his dad built and Don painted.  It is lined to lengthen it's usefulness and even has a drain system that Don installed.

This is the view from our back door. Totally green and mostly edible. It looks almost like a park until you get up close and see that the greenery is really edible stuff like tomatoes and squash.

Idaho Trip

We dropped off Brent in Provo (BYU meetings) and got a "free" hotel room thanks to our points. In the morning we got up and Don said, "Let's go to Idaho and see Julie."  Thank heavens Julie didn't mind our barging in on their weekend and changing their plans.  

We had a blast with Julie and Aaron Thursday and then Friday evening we drove to Boise and picked up Athena. We got a great view of the Boise Temple on our way to pick up Athena. We stayed at another "free hotel" and then on Saturday we drove up to Idaho City to visit Isabelle, Dale and Annabelle Hope. Isabelle is one of Don's converts from his mission in France and Switzerland.

  Dale and Isabelle Hope

Annabelle with Athena and Julie

We went to lunch at the cool place called "Trudy's". 

Here we are with Trudy.

Annabelle, Athena, Julie, Aaron, Dale, Isabelle, Michelle, and Don

We visited over lunch for quite awhile before heading back down the mountain. We had a wonderful time visiting. Isabelle and Don called one of his former missionary companions, Elder Cornette and the were able to visit for a little bit. Don even got to talk to Isabelle's mother in France, whom he also baptized. We are so grateful that we were able to take a couple of extra days to visit family and friends in Idaho.