London Chapter 1 -- Amber's Graduation

Our trip to London was to attend Amber’s graduation from London School of Economics. This was such an accomplishment for her and we were excited to attend. I must admit it was a little entertaining. We enjoyed the British accent and the different choice of words that they used. The graduation ceremony seemed very proper. After the academic procession made it to the stage of the theater, the director declared the graduation ceremony opened. I was impressed the speaker – only 10 minutes long! He did charge the graduates with ‘FETA’ - Facts, Enquiry, Tolerance and Ambition. As each Department chair person was announced to present the students of that department, the director would say, “I call upon… (give the name) to present the graduates from the Department of… (and give the department name). It did get rather warm, and with our lack of sleep, we took advantage of the time after Amber had been recognized and took a little nap! We were amazed at the many different nationalities represented. It is interesting to think of where all of Amber’s friends and acquaintances come from – literally from all over the world. Here are a few pictures of the day Amber showing her Master's Hood.

Amber's place!! Actually, it is across the street from London School of Economics! In reality is says "Kings Chambers" But if you look at it from the right angle it says "Ambers".

Classmates, Sune, and Kasper with Amber.

Sune, Amber, and Kasper toss their graduation caps.
Hurray!! We made it!!

Alaine, Amber, and Scott at Amber's favorite park across

the street from campus.

....in her official cap, gown and hood!

Some of the school officials at graduation. Love their cool hats!

The graduation speaker.

London School of Economics. if you were able to see,

the blue rectangle above the 'W' it says the school name.

Another LSE building.

Can't Put a Price on It

One night I noticed the sunset developing. I decided to take pictures in a series every five minutes. Natural art created by nature herself (or Himself) is one of the priceless benefits of living where we do. It keeps me in awe.

Summer Snippets

Summer is going way too fast and I have procrastinated posting as I am waiting for some pictures. But I’ll get with it and do better. We’ve had a few slightly significant (perhaps only to us) events to report.


HURRAY!!
June 18 was a much looked forward to day – especially for Glenn. In the morning he got his braces off! We celebrated with corn on the cob for dinner that night! Also that night he passed his final Board of Review to become an Eagle Scout. The picture shows those who reviewed his project and Glenn with his Scout Master – his dad.

A REAL Garden

Ever since moving into our home we’ve wanted a garden. For the past two years we planted a few things in a temporary garden area. Well this year we tilled some ground and planted a ‘real’ garden. I love the Law of the Harvest – planting and reaping. These pictures show the before, during – tilling, just after planting and currently. We’ve already had a few green onions and some radishes.

Summer Projects

Another yard project that we’ve been working on is the steps to our deck. We started last summer, measured out the dimensions and framed them with wood. We started a ‘steps fund’ and got serious in putting them in this summer. We have three completed so far and depleted our fund. Hopefully we’ll be able to finish before the end of the summer. (I wonder what Scott will get for his birthday!)

Trek June 24-27, 2009 Dillon Montana

One of Glenn’s summer activities included going on “Trek’. It is a re-enactment of the Mormon pioneers coming across the plains by handcart. He had the opportunity to put himself in their shoes. The participants all wore period clothing, pushed handcarts with their belongings, ate on tin plates, set up and camped out each night, and did without electronics for the three and one-half days. This is especially meaningful to our family as my great-grandfather was in the Willie Handcart Company. Glenn chopping wood for the campfire.

Notice their mascot on the front of the handcart!

(The skull, not the girl.)

Glenn with his 'family'

Arm wrestling.

FOURTH OF JULY

It just might be true that having 3 of our children and families in one area is quite a draw. It also helps that they are closest and that Scott has been providing some of the ranch supplies that they’ve needed this summer. So Lemhi was our Independence Day destination. We planned a camp out for the evening of July 3rd with a dutch oven meal. We had BBQ ribs, fried potatoes, corn on the cob and apple cobbler AND roasted marshmallows and s'mores Yummy! The best part of the whole night was watching Weston, Kenzie, and Katie. They had so much fun and were so excited to camp out. Later they had a few sparklers and fireworks. Scott and I took advantage of a good night’s sleep at Allison and Brayden’s house and met up again for breakfast. We had bacon, sausage, scrambles eggs, pancakes, juice and hot chocolate. And I might add that the pancakes were perfect – thanks to Brayden’s cooking and the fire being just right. At noon we attend the parade in Leadore. It was a fun small town parade like many that we have in Drummond. I received the compliment of the day. I was holding Katie, my granddaughter, during the parade. One of the parade participants put a candy in her bucket and said, “and here’s one for mom”. I thought that as pretty cool to look young enough to be the mother of a two year old! We relaxed most of the rest of the day and returned home that evening.

The smoke was getting in Katie's eyes and she

was trying to keep it out.

Weston playing in the water. At times during

the evening all of the kids were in the water.

Do you think Katie enjoyed her ice cream?!

Kenzie was so excited to camp out. She really

enjoyed her roasted marshmallow.

Weston and Katie with their giant sparklers.

A great sunset to finish the evening!

Happy Anniversary!!

On June 11, 2009 Scott and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary. We were married in the Logan, Utah Temple. As we look back, a lot of time has past, but yet it seems just like yesterday. Our love has grown so much and we have become best friends. Building our house was never the challenge to our marriage that many said it would be. We worked together and made decisions to make the other happy. We love being together even if it is working on a project. We have a wonderful family and consider them such a compliment to our union. The pictures are of us at our wedding reception and then at the Draper, Utah Temple on June 12, 2009.

On Being a Grandma

I have a great family!! One of the fun things about being a mom is that you get to be a grandma at some point. I have 8 wonderful grandchildren. I am so grateful for their parents and that they are doing such a great job of loving and teaching, I am going to feature each one in this post. So who goes first? That is a hard decision. So I’ll go by families from oldest on down.

So here are Wes and Julie's children. They live in Lemhi, Idaho

Weston just completed kindergarten and is 6 years old. He has very nice handwriting and loves super heroes. I recently shared my Spiderman costume for him to pretend in. He has developed a pretty cool flip on the trampoline.

MacKenzie, age 4 in April, lets me read to her when I visit their place. She colors wonderfully and even has a cool picture on my refrigerator. She has been going to preschool this year. She loves to go to aunt Allison’s to make “tooties” (cookies). She is pictured here on her new birthday bike.

Katie is 2. She likes to think that she can do what her brother and sister are doing and yells “HEY!” if she feels left out. She wants ranch dressing on most everything that she eats. She can be quite shy at times yet sometimes assumes the role of the director, telling guests where to sit at the table. This is her new birthday cowgirl hat. (Weston and Kenzie were too excited for her to open her gift and couldn't wait for her face to be washed after lunch - sure is cute though.)

Ashlynn, Brynlee and Breyson belong to Brett and Jinni in Moses Lake, Washington

Ashlynn is 6 and also completed kindergarten this year. She is learning to love to read and can be quite imaginative in her spare time. She always says “I love you Grandma” when we talk on the phone

Brynlee is 4 ½ and has enjoyed preschool this year and being involved with Ashlynn and her school work. She has a little mischievous twinkle in her eyes when she smiles but can be a go-getter when there is a job to do.

Both girls loves being daddy’s helpers, growing their garden and being big sisters to Breyson.

Breyson is 4 months old. I am so grateful for the miracle of adoption that brought him to our family. A July court date has been set to finalize everything. A lot of things have got in the way of traveling to see him, but I look forward to our family reunion this week and hope to get some grandma time in.

Ethan and Spencer are Allen and Jenny's boys and live in Flagstaff, Arizona


Ethan will be 4 in October. In a recent phone conversation with him, I was asking about him planting a garden. I asked if he was going to plant carrots and he said, “No, just a garden.” But later he said they were also going to plant an orange tree. I hope that works in Flagstaff. He sends Grandma pictures in the mail to hang on the frig. He lives for the weekend to be daddy’s best buddy riding bikes, working on projects at home or looking for firewood.

Spencer was born on February 27. He has inherited a Mackay baby trait of doubling his birth weight in 3 months. Jenny recently sent a video of his first laugh that Ethan accidentally caused by dropping a rattle on his tummy.

The life of being Grandma Mackay!