"You cannot take the sorrow out of death unless you also take the love out of life"

Our holidays were filled with sadness, and with love and appreciation for our Savior for the gift he has given us of being able to see loved ones again. At the start of the month we knew Cindy's mother's health was beginning to fail and her time on earth was drawing short. But in the middle of the month we received a phone call that Blaine's mother had been admitted to the hospital in Rexburg after being short of breath.

After a week in the hospital she passed away. The next day our nephew, Cody Jacobson, was driving to work at Kelly Canyon Ski Hill, hit a slick spot in the road and went down the embankment into the water. He was taken to the hospital in Idaho Falls but did not recover.

We held the funeral for Blaine's mother on Dec. 22nd, Cody's funeral was Dec. 23rd and the morning of the 24th we received word that Cindy's mother had passed away. Her funeral was shortly after Christmas.

Blaine's mother was born in Logan and grew up in Ammon. She spent most of her life in Swan Valley raising a family of eleven children and being a homemaker. She loved quilting, gardening, and baking. She served in many church callings and filled a mission to Cove Fort, Utah.

Cody was a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood and was preparing to serve a mission. He loved the great outdoors and enjoyed hiking, camping, and hunting. He was an avid snowboarder and snowmobiler. He achieved his Eagle Scout award shortly after his 14th birthday. He was a hard worker and was on his way to good things, but was needed for a more important task beyond the veil.




Cindy's mother grew up in American Fork and met her future husband, Mark Weed, at BYU where they both served as studentbody officers. She was an accomplished teacher, musician, artist, and journal writer. They lived in Washington, New Jersey, North Carolina, California, Louisiana, and Delaware, where Cindy was raised. Twenty-five of their children and grandchildren have served missions.

Happy Birthday, Cindy

Today is Cindy's birthday. She is a wonderful wife, mother, and grandmother. She works endlessly to make her family, church, and community a better place.

Today is typical of the schedule she keeps most days. After getting Jenn off to school she runs the dog Scamp in for his grooming. She will be helping watch her grandson Isaac while also working on payroll for about 80 employees. We have a parent-teacher meeting right after school. This evening we accompany Jenn to a Showtime Christmas performance at a local senior living center.

She is the heart of our family life and determines the atmosphere in the home. She talks nearly daily by telephone with her adult children and is always there to listen and offer support or comfort.

We love you very much!

Showtime at 2008 Holiday Parade & Festival

Jenn's School Choir at 2008 Festival of Trees

Sake's Alive, Tyson's 5!

Wow! Can you believe it? Tyson, our first grandchild is 5 years old today. As you can tell by this picture he has a great sense of humor. He is a lovable boy who is a big help to his parents and a good big brother to Ryder and Kyler.

Tyson loves dinosaurs and knows enough about them that he corrects us when we pronounce their names wrong. He also is a friend to ants. When his Mom sees them on the floor he insists on feeding them instead of letting her get rid of them.

Tyson likes to play "Spy" with his Aunt Jenni. When Tyson comes for a visit they put "Spy" hats on their heads and creep around the house trying not to be detected by the rest of us. They usually create a special hideout in one of our closets that they stock with blankets, flashlights, and treats. This makes Ryder sad because he wants to be part of the fun, too. But Tyson and Jenn decided just last Sunday that Ryder could be included in their activity and made him a "Junior Spy." That made Ryder very happy.

You're definitely growing up Tyson! Happy Birthday!

Ryder, a too cute two-year-old!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday, dear Ryder,
'Cuz today you are two!

Ryder, our "Big-Blue-Eyed" grandson. He melts your heart with his expressive eyes and smile. Ryder idolizes his older brother, Tyson and wants to do everything that he does. He is growing up to be a big help to his parents and brothers, too. We love you Ryder!

Happy Birthday Jaime!

Jaime celebrates her birthday today and it is wonderful to have a daughter like her. She is in her second year of marriage to a marvelous companion, Nate DeFries. They live in San Francisco where Nate works for KPMG and Jaime works in marketing for Williams & Sonoma.

We keep in touch nearly daily with cell phones. It is great when they are able to come visit us, or when we make a visit to the Bay area. We look forward to spending some time with them during the upcoming holidays.

Jaime leads a busy life between work and teaching seminary for the high school students in her stake. She has always been an achiever, from playing T-ball with the boys in elementary school, to practicing hard to make varsity in volleyball, to studying hard in school and going to college on a scholarship, and to the excellence she tries to bring to everything. We love you, Jaime.

Fun with Activity Day Girls

Mom and Jenn dressed up for an Activity Day Girls party today. Jenn goes into Young Women's in about five months.

Isaac's Big Day!

Isaac, grandson #3, is one-year-old today! Happy Birthday, little bug. It's hard to believe that he was born a year ago and just one day after his Great-grandpa Mark passed away. Isaac was a few days late and probably wanted to wait around to see his Great-grandpa before coming to this earth.

Isaac's name is special too. Before his birth, Jessica and Bryce couldn't decide on a name. Great-grandma Chloe and I had a part in finalizing the choice. With Dad's passing I was in Utah helping with Mom (Great-grandma Chloe). With her dementia it's hard to have a conversation with her and she doesn't respond to too many things. I was feeding her lunch on Saturday, Oct. 20th, 2007 and telling her about her new great-grandson who was born the night before. I told her that Jess and Bryce weren't sure what to name him. I started rattling off the choices. When I mentioned the name, "Isaac", Mom's eyes lit up and she said, "That's a good name." I got so excited that I called Bryce immediately. Wouldn't you know that was the name they were leaning towards! I told them that that had to be his name since it was the only one Mom responded to excitedly. It still gives me goosebumps when I think about the experience.

Jenn Tries Volleyball

Jenn has enjoyed doing her first year of volleyball. Here she is at the tournament at the end of her season.

Fall Foliage, Rutting Elk, and Yellowstone

With school out for two days we took a long weekend and made a trip to the high country. Jennifer had never been to Yellowstone, so that was our original plan. However, the trip came with two bonuses: fall colors were just reaching their peak and the rutting season caused numerous elk herds to be on the move.


Yellowstone was Yellowstone, except the crowds and bugs were mostly gone. Other than that it seems to never change. Geysers were spectacular, as usual. Wildlife was abundant.













A mosaic of colors covered the hillsides and summer meadows in both Island Park and in the Teton Range. The meadows were a blaze of yellow as Cottonwood trees, willows and other bushes and grasses turned a rich gold in color. On the hillsides, Quaking Aspen, maples, and other trees turned bright red, brilliant orange, and burnt yellow. This year was quite amazing. The best fall colors are realized when a dry summer is followed by a cool, dry fall, and this year's weather fit that pattern.













Bull elk compete by assembling and protecting a harem of 16-20 cow elk. During the rutting season bull elk bugle to warn other bull elk away from their territory and to attract cow elk. The bull elk also exhibits aggressive behavior by doing mock battles with trees and bushes. We watched two bull elk contend for a herd of cow elk in the Mammoth Hot Springs area.

Our best activity was a three-mile roundtrip hike to Phelps Lake at the base of the Tetons near Jackson Hole. Jenn’s cousin, Kallee, joined us and it was fun to have her along.

Busy As a Beaver

With fall approaching it is time to protect our trees from potential damage by beavers throughout the fall and winter. Some of last winter's beaver activity is shown here.




We have a beaver den under the bank of the creek. A trapper is hired regularly by the neighborhood association to deal with the problem. One fall the trapper removed eight beaver from the den. However, other beavers move back in. The best we can do is wrap chicken wire or hardware cloth around the trees we want protected.

In the sixteen years we have lived here, beavers have taken down dozens of our trees. Most are Willows or Dogwood and grow back. But we've also lost Birch, Quaking Aspen, Cottonwood, and even some Pine trees.

An interesting bit of trivia - a beaver can take down a 5" caliber soft wood tree in five minutes and the average beaver fells 200 trees per year.

1st Day of School, 2008

After a fun summer Jenn goes back to school today. This fall she is taking her 4th year of piano, 2nd year of choir, 2nd year of cello, and starts volleyball.

If she can find time she also has an opportunity to turn one of her stories from last year into a draft script for consideration by a television producer, a man we met on the river trip who has won 18 Emmy awards, mostly for children's TV programs. Since we've been home, though, she hasn't had any time to follow-up on his invitation.

Floating the Lower Colorado

In July our "little" family embarked on a float trip down the lower portion of the Colorado River. It was to be a 5 day trip. For months we carefully prepared for this adventure: going on hikes to get in shape, getting the proper equipment and gear, and reading about other rafting experiences on the Colorado. We were excited about the trip (at least 2 out of the 3 were :))

We contracted with a company to have our duffel bags transported to the river by mule while we hiked the 9 miles down from the Grand Canyon's South Rim. Everything went well until the boats showed up at the the bottom of the canyon without our gear! There were 22 other people plus 4 crew members on the trip and all their bags made it. Ours were nowhere to be found. Two of the crew hiked to the nearest Ranger Station to try to determine where our bags were. Upon their return they gave us the unwelcome news that our bags were still on the South Rim and there was no possible way to get them to us. Since the launching of the rafts had already been delayed for 2 hours they gave us 5 minutes to decide if we were going to go ahead and go on the trip or if we wanted to hike back out. Neither of the choices looked appealing to us but we decided to go ahead and float the river.

To make a long story short....despite the prospects of having only the clothes on our backs for the next 5 days, ...despite getting totally soaked by 3 major rapids within the 1st mile of launching, ...and despite the first nights monsoonal rains while trying to set up camp ...we had a blast! Early on Jennifer and I were not happy campers but the miserable beginning became an enjoyable experience because of the kindness and generosity of our fellow travelers . They shared with us enough equipment and clothing that we had something to wear on the rafts by day and something dry to change into for the night. It will be a trip to remember for sure.

Over the last 24 hours the news has been reporting about a flash flood on the Colorado River in the Havasu Falls area. Even though our trip had problems at the beginning I'm glad we didn't have to endure this too. As I look at this photo I wonder if Jennifer or I would have had the guts to let us be airlifted out. Yikes! It also makes me wonder, if they can pluck people out of the canyon couldn't they have delivered our duffel bags? Hmmm ...of course then we wouldn't have a story to tell.

Isaac - First Steps

What a loveable and happy little guy! It was fun to have Jessica & Bryce with us for several weeks while Bryce was doing one of his medical rotations here.

The Great Southwest

Hopefully, a slide show will be coming soon from our July travels to the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Lake Powell, Sedona, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, and other four corners sights

Freedom Festival, 4th of July, and Miley Cyrus

After spending 4th of July last year in the solitude of a lake in the northern Rockies we went to the opposite extreme - taking in a concert with tens of thousands screaming fans of Miley Cyrus, mostly 9, 10, & 11-year old girls.

Still, we enjoyed it, especially Jennifer. Jennifer says it "was awesome."

Blaine took three of the four pictures. Can you guess which one wasn't his?

City of Rocks Family History Tour

We traveled to southern Idaho for a Pickett/Womack family reunion. Claude Richard Womack, Blaine's great-grandfather homesteaded in the Raft River area for seven years before giving up and moving back to Logan. Ethel Womack Pickett , spent some of her childhood years here. It is such dry, barren country it is amazing they lasted even seven years. None of the family live there today but about 75 family members came to see that part of our heritage.

We took Jennifer's friend, Emma (W.) with us. Jenn and Emma were able to scale Bath Rock in City of the Rocks.

Believe it or not, one of the highlights of their trip was playing on the teeter-totter in Almo. You just don't find teeter-totters in parks anymore. At eleven years old this was the first teeter-totter they had ever played on.

Guess who has her 1st job?

It's the first day of summer vacation for Jenn and also her first day at her first job ever. She spent four hours wiping tables, washing dishes, cleaning sandwich unit glass, putting bread sticks on baking pans, sweeping the floor, making tuna, stocking chips and other tasks.

Her co-workers said she worked hard.