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.