A FREE DAY

I have so many unrecorded events I get to catch up on this month. As I anticipated my Saturday filled with the blessing of watching General Conference and also trying to accomplish my normal Saturday errands, I remembered a beautiful day a couple of months ago that had "no hands on it." What could we do with it that would be special? Casey had just had her foot surgery and was totally laid up. So we picked up Mackenzie and Kayla and headed to the newly opened "Mormon Battalion Museum" in San Diego.

They have positioned this covered wagon so the back is open to the big veranda in front of the Mormon Battalion building and you can walk in and imagine that you must live out of this space for months on end.

The first thing we did was visit Old Town in SD which is the area the Battalion building is in. We went quickly through some of the displays and shops and had lunch. Here Mackenzie and Kayla danced on the Fiesta band platform while we waited to eat. Mackenzie is so thoughtful and kind to Kayla--the perfect big sister most of the time.

The Museum itself has been totally redone to resemble the old government building the Battalion helped to construct once they reached San Diego. Inside we were so pleased to see that besides the interesting displays and artifacts, they had a wonderful presentation that looked like they had borrowed some Disney Imagineers to help them use technology to make the show interactive. It was very good and entertaining. We have a real interest in the Mormon Battalion because two of our ancestors that we know of participated in this march: Philander Colton and his young son, Charles, who stowed away to become the youngest member in the Battalion. To our surprise, these two were specifically highlighted and part of the true story told during the presentation. It made it all the more special for us.

Kayla is trying to figure out how you pump your own water. It was a very warm February day and a little splashing felt good.

Mackenzie is trying to get water in another way from a well. The Battalion members helped dig wells that were used for years by the settlers here.

Battalion members were dismissed in San Diego and made their way north eventually meeting with the Saints in Salt Lake or going all the way back to Winter Quarters as Philander Colton did to get their families. Some of the men stopped at Sutter's Mill to work and earn their way home. A few of them participated in the discovery of gold. The Museum has its own stream to pan for gold. We even found a couple of nuggets. Mackenzie's bright eyes mostly found the tiny bits among pebbles and rocks.

Here is an observation tower where once they observed who was approaching their building, friend or foe. Now you can look out on Old Town and see the different landmarks on all sides.

Kayla pans for gold. The apron helped a little.

She liked this little gold rock better than any of the other stones. Who cares what it is worth!

Papa gives Mackenzie a hand. Once she found gold she was quite persistent.

The statue honors these hardy men who made this long march under terrible conditions. We would recommend a trip to this place to anyone who has a free day or wants to combine it with other sights in the San Diego area. Allow about 1 1/2 to 2 hours for the full museum experience.

At the end of the day, we couldn't resist buying the girls the thing they had begged for at the very start of the day. They were so good and so fun to take on our little trip.

Mom had a less stressful day and was all smiles when we got home.

Ethan didn't know that he had missed out on a fun day and we brought him a little present, too. We are very grateful to our ancestors, that sacrificed so much that the church could prosper and that we could have the gospel such a strength in our day.

Good Morning!

We have been morning walkers for many years. It has always been good exercise, but I haven't noticed either of us losing much weight by doing so. As good as the fitness is for us, the walking time is of greater value. We start our day with a time to talk, plan our day, discuss our problems, philosophize, and just be together. It has worked wonders for our marriage. It is a safe time to share. I recommend it at whatever time of the day couples could work it in.

I love the early morning hours, sometimes with the sun just coming up over the hills. The day stretches out clear and promising.

I will quickly tire of pictures of me, so I better find some other subjects. The end of the walk in our neighborhood is the hardest by far...

...the first mile is downhill, the mile back is uphill, and the last quarter is steep. Anyone that has run our neighborhood hates this hill. Walking is bad enough for an old couple with bad knees! Luckily, it is beautiful most mornings in San Clemente, and never cold enough for more than a sweatshirt.Mornings are extra bright because we come home to this cute Bailey just in time for breakfast . Her dad drives her and a couple of neighbors to middle school. She is another bright ray of sunshine to start our day!

MY NUMBER ONE!

So I told Sam I would follow Lindsay's excellent example and do a post a day for all of April. So this is my first. Unfortunately, I am not clever or funny and I don't have a houseful of cute and humorous little kids to blog about. So I am going to have to be as creative as I can get at night, seeing as how I am totally a morning person. I know, I know: do it in the morning. Mornings are so busy.

Well, I decided I should do my first post on my Number One: my husband, my best friend, my constant companion, Alan.

We met on an airplane and nine months later were married. What an adventure! He has kept my life, that would have been boring, filled with variety and interesting adventures. Little did I know what being both a cowboy and a hunter (to quote our grandson, Toby) would mean in our lives.

We have lived in three states, but traveled through much of the US together. He's been a wise and loving father. He's honored his priesthood and magnified his callings. Like my father, Alan has had the gift of healing which has blessed our family in so many ways.

Alan loves his grandchildren and shows it in so many ways. I think they love him back, too.

Alan is definitely a little quirky. He loves to hunt and seldom misses an opportunity to traipse through the wilderness to shoot something. He prefers to go bird hunting. I have never had to worry about his success since he is a natural marksman. I finally had to give him his own room to put all his trophies on display.

We have had more breeds of dogs over our 41 years than most people have even heard of. I have been trying to keep our number at 2, but no one can imagine how many times a month he finds another dog he just can't live without. I finally gave in to a third, a Wheaten Terrier. I am not happy about it, but he committed to me he would walk the other dogs daily and spend a half hour each morning just playing with all of them. I have a few other deals, but they will come out later. I actually surprised him with this dog. I can't believe we have a house dog. He will be tired of it soon, but it is really a sweetheart, so far, as much as a dog can be a sweetheart. I am sure the honeymoon will be over soon. At least this one doesn't shed and seems to be housebroken.

Another quirky thing about him reminds me of my dad. He gets "car fever" less frequently than "dog fever" but he can't have a car too long. Car payments are a way of life. This is his latest. He did make an awesome deal with his car dealer client, so I guess it could have been worse.

Alan was born a century late. He should have been a cowboy or a pioneer crossing the plains. I have coerced him into the city life, but the cowboy inside keeps showing himself. He had our niece, Brooke Smart Sadler paint him in all his regalia. She caught him, don't you think?

Marriage is never simple and easy, but it is wonderful when we help each other grow, see another side of things and bring out the best in each other. I am so grateful to have Alan as my Number One.

MORE PRECIOUS THAN RUBIES

Even though I have missed seven months of events on this blog, I am just going to update on our most recent event right now. My apologies to all thos whose pictures I have taken and then not shown on my blog. I hope to da a quick recap of all that soon.

Since Sam and Lindsay's precious new baby, Ruby, was blessed in Fuquay-Varina (the actual blessing was in nearby Garner), NC, we made a quick trip back there to witness and participate in this special occasion. Ruby Marie Dickson is a darling baby and won our hearts completely. I could get her to smile and coo at me every time I picked her up! We are thrilled to have her in the family, even if she lives a continent away from us.

Sam pronounced a beautiful blessing on this loved little girl. She did her best to distract him by wailing periodically throughout, but he was unruffled and the blessed her with empathy, compassion, spirituality, intelligence, temple marriage and many other wonderful attributes. She will fit in well with her very blessed family.

Papa and Ruby after the blessing.

Sam and Lindsay's ward has just been divided and they have their church at 2:30 about 35 minutes away. Since it was fast Sunday, we were so concerned with getting home and putting dinner on the table, that Ruby was about the only one left in her Sunday best--in her case in her beautiful blessing dress--one that all her girl cousins on the Evelyn side have shared. So we failed to get the traditional family group pictures we meant to, but here are a few of our weekend to give you a flavor of what that beautiful little girl looks like and what we did together:

I especially love this picture of Ruby getting to know her dad. Does he love her!

I surprised Lindsay here. She is such a wonderful, loving Mom.

Ruby knows when her mom has her and calms right down.

Reed & Papa with Reed's shelf project.

On Saturday, Alan and I took Reed to Home Depot, while the Evelyns' took Max to soccer practice. They have a great little program at Home Depot once a month where kids can do a craft project that helps them learn basic skills like hammering, gluing things together, and following directions. He made a little shelf for his cars. Sam was speaking at a baptism and Lindsay and Ruby needed a little home time.

This is the face Max makes when you tell him to smile. He has a treat following his soccer practice.

Reed at soccer practice.

Reed had a drill where they put all these hoops on the ground and the children were to run around until told to find a hoop and then sit down in it. Gradually, they removed the hoops until it was a little like musical chairs. Reed quickly learned just to run around and around one hoop and therefore, always have a hoop with a minimum of effort.
Here is Lindsey with Ruby getting her first look at a bowling alley.

From soccer we went bowling, a great activity on a cold and wet day. Of course, many others had the same idea. We had to wait a while. But it was worth the wait.

Max cheered and jumped up and down each time his ball hit the pins. He really loved bowling. He even got a couple of spares. His ball went so slowly sometimes, though, we weren't sure it would make it all the way. He often laid down on the alley to wait for it to get there.

Reed gets a strike and strikes an appropriate pose.

Gutters aren't so bad for Max. A good place to relax while you wait for your ball to roll down the alley. Bumpers are a great invention. Nana appreciated them as well. Sometimes it felt more like pool as the bowling ball ricocheted off the bumpers.

Sam gets to take a turn with Ruby so Lindsay could bowl. He just can't resist kissing her, can he? I see I raised him right.

This picture should be a video. Max loved Wii sword fighting more than anything. He would stand in front of the TV and run his legs off waiving the controller madly. He often won. He definitely got his exercise!

Lindsay's sister Whitney with her little Olivia came Saturday night after being delayed in the NY airport about 6 or 7 hours. Olivia was such a cutie!

Last day with this little family. (Reed was already at school.) When will we get to see them again?

We leave Ruby in loving capable hands.

Precious Ruby, you are loved!

IT'S ABOUT TRUST--GRAND CAMP 2009

It was Grand Camp time again this year July 16th, 17th, & 18th. All of us were so excited! Lacey and Halle had been in town for a couple of weeks so Jessie and Sage were the only ones to fly in. Sadly, Alex and Tristan decided not to join in the fun this year. We had Mackenzie sleep over Wednesday night and got a very early morning start to LAX. Sunny uncharacteristically slept in and required a frantic last minute mad dash to the airport, but got the kids on in good order. We picked them up and headed for our traditional IHOP breakfast. The kids were so excited to be together doing fun things.

The excitement and love for each other shows in their faces.

Jessie, Lacey, Bailey, Sage, Halle and Mackenzie.
Sage didn't mind being the only boy this year. He gets along so well with his cousins.

Lots of love for Papa as we wait to be seated.

A little diversion as we wait for pancakes with chocolate chip happy faces and other wonderful culinary treats.

Being in LA we decided to go first to the Los Angeles Temple and visitors center. How were we to know the Visitors Center had been closed down and was being totally renovated? It was still a great experience. We walked around the grounds of that very large and beautifully kept temple and it became one of the favorite experiences of Grand Camp. The Family Statue was a great starting place for our adventures to strengthen this family.

A beautiful fountain with beautiful (and handsome) faces around it.

In front of the temple, too big to get all of it in and still identify faces. With the visitors center closed, no available restrooms meant three who couldn't wait any longer got to be escorted in to use the temples restrooms. We should have let them all go in to see how spacious and beautiful even the foyer is in this temple.

We found a shady, private area and let thekids ask questions about temples. They had many good ones and the spirit was strong even just on the grounds. We handed out cards with the scripture they were to memorize and introduced our theme about trust. It is:

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.
With all thy heart acknowledge Him and He will direct thy paths.

We talked about what that meant to them and that our Heavenly Father is the ultimate source of all truth and the Perfect One to lean on when they need important answers. They showed real insight and such willingness to put this into practice.

Halle and Mackenzie show their cards. Before we left the grounds many of them had already passed off the scripture. Such sharp kids and spiritual, too!

Our next stopping place was the Great Park in Irvine. It used to be the El Toro Marine base near our old Lake Forest Home. Massive plans to create this Great Park are underway. To advertise these plans and get people on board to further them, they offer free rides in a large orange helium filled balloon. The kids tried to guess what our next stop would be and we told them it was an example of trust and Papa said it rhymed with orange. I guess only orange rhymes with orange and they didn't figure it out until we were almost there and saw this big ballon waiting for us. We were all a little excited and a little nervous. However, there was quite a wait for our turn. While we waited we played kick ball...

...soccer and frisbee. It was fun but warm and getting close to lunchtime. After about 45 minutes of waiting an announcement came that it was too windy for the balloon to fly and all flights were cancelled for that day. Disappointed we went straight to lunch and then home for some much anticipated swimming.

On their own the kids had decided to do a Grand Camp Store. They had even created their own Grand Bucks to be distributed for good behavior, jobs done and special talents. With a little help from moms they had acquired fun things to stock their store and a schedule to rotate who operated it on which days. May I say it was a great success. I had lots of helpers, almost no quarrels, kids who fell asleep at the mention of Grand Buck rewards, and behavior that instantly improved with a suggestion.

The night before, Papa had driven our trailor to a campground about a half hour from our home in Casper Park off Ortega Highway. When we'd had our fill of swimming (is that really possible)and the food and gear were packed we took the truck and my car loaded up for a little camping.

We cooked dinner over the campfire and roasted marshmallows for s'mores...

...shared stories as the sky darkened, and sat around the campfire. We had lots of fun again with Joke Night. I heard Halle's joke at least ten times in the next days! We told spiritual experiences and worked together to memorize our scripture. One by one they passed it off and received their own flashlight as a reward along with Grand Bucks. Spiritual experiences topped off the evening, the first of three secret cousin gifts were anonymously distributed, and we snuggled into a still warm trailor for a welcome nights rest. We were all quickly sound asleep with only minor disturbance from a pre-dawn chill and a few squirrels who can imitate human footsteps in the early morning hours.

First thing in the morning we took a nature hike. We saw deer and their fawns, rabbits, squirrels, lots of birds including quail, windmills, horses, snake tracks, stink bugs, bobcat tracks and mistletoe to name a few. We had check-off lists, but discovered somethings not on the lists. Papa is a good guide and tracker.

This tree was great for climbing as well as posing.

Breakfast tastes better after a hike!

The girls did some tree climbing in the great trees around our campground...

...while the men took down the camp. Sage could unhook things that Papa had a hard time getting at. He was a special help to Papa.

And then he got to climb the trees, too.

Bailey, Lacey, and Jessie got to ride in the big red truck back to our house as the day turned into a scorcher.

We hoped to accompany Papa back to the Orange Balloon at the Great Park where we keep the trailor, but a phone call revealed that they had filled all the registrations for that day. So the kids helped us clean out the trailor and load the quads back in and then took advantage of the time to swim, eat lunch and have fun. When Papa returned and cleaned up we headed for the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. It was kind of late in the day, but we missed the heat, saw a bird show and took the train around the park.

Here we are getting off the train. At this point I had lost my camera, so we used Papa's good one. Unfortunately, a setting had been altered accidently and most of the pictures from here on were out of focus and a little blue. Eventually, he changed to his telephoto lens and they were better. But many good pictures became a disappointment. I eventually found my camera left above the handlebars of one of the quads locked away in the trailor at the Great Park, but not until Grand Camp was over. Age takes its toll and leaves its mark.

Here we are looking at the Wild Animal Park's $20-a-ride balloon with our Grand Camp t-shirts on showing the orange balloon on the back that we hoped to go up on. They say at the bottom of the picture "It's About Trust."

Notice the bags of cotton candy. The vendor unloaded all he had left on us almost for free. Unfortunately, we paid for it by several not feeling so well at the end of the day. In N Out burgers on the way home help a lot, though.

When I called the balloon place on Friday, they told me if we came at 9:30 the following morning we could register early for the balloon that started going up at 10 am. So we hustled the next morning and arrived at 9:15 to find that it really started on Saturdays at 9 am. We were able to go right out to the entry and soon it was our turn. Here we are waiting. The balloon was tethered but went up 400 feet. It was not a long ride, but it was worth all the anticipation.

Next ones on!

What a view! And what a thrill!

We wished it was longer, but it was so fun. It was a little hazy this day, though we could still see so much.

Innovative bicycle parking at the Great Park

We had only a little time for the beach after that, but it was still good. What is California Grand Camp without the beach. The day was very hot and Doheny beach was very crowded.

I think this is the only Grand Camp picture we have that has all of us in it that you can see all of our faces. The extras in this picture were glad we didn't stay long since we blocked their view of the beach.

We had a 3:00 pm appointment at the stables at Irvine Park in Tustin so we had to move fast.

Here are our cowpokes ready to meet their mounts.

Here are the mounts! Ready to be on the trail!

The trail ride this year was lots more fun than riding around the arena last time. All were good riders and did a good job of managing their horses.

Back from our trail ride, we pose with our horses. Do you kids all remember the names of your horses? Even Papa and I got to ride this year.

Following a Dickson family tradition, we picked up KFC and went to our favorite park and tidepools at Laguna Beach. Unfortunately, it was packed with wall-to-wall people and tents as part of a wedding taking place right then. We even saw the bride and groom as we drove. So we headed down to South Laguna and the park and tidepools at the Montage Resort that Harmon helped build. It also had an outdoor wedding going on and was crowded but not so bad. We couldn't find a picnic table so we found a grassy corner with a manhole cover for our table and enjoyed our last meal together.

The tide was so high we couldn't even get to the tidepools.

Papa and Lacey take a few moments to contemplate the great experience of being together.

The kids loved the view, the breezes, the tides and the splashes, but especially each other. They danced and sang along this burm and tempted the tides. (See the previous blog.) We have lots of great memories and trust that we will be together again at Grand Camp next year.