Taycee

Amy & Seth had there baby girl, Taycee Elizabeth Adair, on December 1, 2009.
We are so happy for them and for the new addition to our family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN ! !

Yesterday was John's 10th birthday. Happy Birthday John. We love you and think you are great. We will be celebrating again tonight with a special dinner featuring ham puffs with the his older siblings here as guests.

Here are TEN Reasons that we think John is great.

1. He has a good name
2. Fun personality
3. Loves to laugh
4. Learning to play the Bass in the orchestra
5. Loves football
6. Beautiful blue eyes
7. Has a mind for facts and figures
8. Thoughtful of others
9. Loves animals
10. Super Cub Scout

Halloween Feast

Our Gardner family tradition is to have a Halloween Dinner sometime the week of Halloween. We started this fun tradition about 10 years ago. We find recipes for spooky and gross food that is fit for a Halloween gathering. Some years we have invited another family to join us and we give them the challenge to bring some Halloween fare. Here is a collage of pictures from this years feast and some of our dinners from years past.

Halloween Dinner - October 2009

Our family at the table, John, LeeAnn, Chris & Alli

Alli, Amy, & Seth dish up

LeeAnn and Alli

A sample plate

Tape Worm Sandwiches

Bread Heads

Spookghetti and Meatballs

Creepy Insect Cakes

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Halloween 2006

Our guests, the Musgraves brought this witches hair and goblin guts

Can you believe that we drank that?

Yes, somethings are plain disgusting

Halloween 2005

Some disgusting salad - sorry I forgot the name. (It tasted great actually)

Roasted rats

Chocolate Covered Mice on Cake

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Halloween 2004

Monkey Heads

Witch's Eyeballs

We don't have pictures from all the years to show you. Nor all the dishes we made. I remember the first year though we served witches fingers (baked chicken tenders with slivered black olives for fingernails.) We have also served Chucky's Upchuck stew, and a platter of Dead Doughboy. It has been fun to watch everyone's creativity as we have thought and planned our Halloween feast. Some of the food looked disgusting or gross and tasted disgusting. But most of the dishes were quite delicious. So we Gardners may be a bit "goofy" at times, but we have a lot of fun.

Grand Canyon Trip - October 2009

This year the kids got a whole week off for October break. We decided it was time to take them on a trip to see Arizona, specifically , the Grand Canyon.

We decided to see a bit of our beautiful Arizona on our trip to Flagstaff, so we made a detour and stopped in Sedona for a picnic and a hike. Sedona has beautiful red rocks and formations.










We hiked along a trail through the trees and along the river. There was one tree that I felt was a picture taking tree so we just had to get a few shots of it.








Sedona has many beautiful panoramic shots. The city is fun too with lots of tourist shops, but we avoided that diversion. Next it was up a beautiful canyon were the fall colors were just starting to come out. We saw beautiful shades of yellow with an occasional red leafed tree. The road up the canyon climbs up some switch backs until we are at the top and we stopped at the lookout point and saw this scene.





The we drove on to Flagstaff and spent the night there in a motel. Here we are chilling after a long day at the Galaxy Diner. The food there was out of this world.





The next day we drove up to the Grand Canyon.





After we returned home I started reminiscing about my first trip to the Grand Canyon over 36 years ago. My family lived in Montana, and we were headed to Mesa, Arizona for the wedding of my older brother Harold to his bride Verla. My dad loaded the whole family in our our Chevy and we drove to Arizona. But along the way we made several stops, including Zion's National park in Utah and the Grand Canyon. We stopped at the North Rim on our way down and the South Rim on our way home from Mesa. We saw lots of other beautiful parts of Arizona and southern Utah too. Anyway, I started digging through my old photos and found this.

Grand Canyon Then - first trip April 1973 (Yes, that really is the Grand Canyon, although the photo is kinda old to tell.

Compare that to our most recent trip photo.
Grand Canyon Now - 5th trip October 2009

Minnesota vacation

LeeAnn and I went to Minnesota to visit our cousins for about a week. We went to Mall of America, Wisconsin, bowling, and to a lake. Here are some of the pictures.




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SCHOOL'S OUT FOR THE SUMMER!!

Today was the last day of school. It is a happy day for all of us. John left the 3rd grade behind having read a bunch of books this year, including all 7 Harry Potter books. Bethany, a 6th grader, left Franklin Elementary for the last time. Yesterday, she was awarded the "Outstanding 6th grader award" from the principal. Dave and I went to the school to see her receive this award. (See picture below) Next year, Bethany will be heading off to Heritage Academy to join her sister LeeAnn and cousins Anne Durfee and Shannon Jackson. LeeAnn has enjoyed her year at Heritage Academy as a 9th grader. She is learning new skills and developing talents. She helped with the school musical this spring. She has been taking Kenpo and recently earned her Purple belt.

This last month of school (MAY) has been hot, hot, with temperatures at 100 or better for 14 days in a row. But wouldn't you know it that today, the last day of school, it was only 87 degrees, overcast and raining at times. Bethany and the 6th grade had an all day swim party at a local pool. She said it was still fun. It was raining this evening though as several local High Schools held their graduation ceremonies outside in the rain. Here in Mesa, Arizona we only get rain a few days out of the year,(and we love it) but WHY did it have to rain today?

Bethany and Mrs. Householder

Bethany also received the silver medallion for her reading efforts.

LeeAnn with her new purple belt in Kenpo.

Miscellaneous

It's been awhile since I have posted anything here on the Blog. I am combining all the little things that have happened here in the last little while into one blog entry.


Puppies
Amy brought over some of her puppies for a visit the other night. They are pure breed Miniature Dachshunds. These cute puppies were a litter of five. They had fun playing in our backyard with the kids. "Does anyone want to buy a puppy?"

Mother's Day.

Every year Dave and the kids fix me a nice gourmet meal for Mother's Day. This year was no exception. We ate Asian tofu salad and grilled chicken with some special sauce over bowtie pasta. YUMMY! Homemade Lemon sorbet was dessert. It was all a surprise and I wasn't even allowed in the kitchen. Thank-you Dave!

DAD's BIRTHDAY

My Dad was here for three weeks in April & May. While he was here we celebrated his birthday. He turned 97 years old on May 7th. He does very well for a man that age. He still gets around well with the use of a cane. His beverage of choice is MILK and sometimes Rootbeer. We had a birthday dinner and party here and invited relatives and some friends. Notice there are no pictures of him blowing out 97 candles on a birthday cake. The fire marshall wouldn't approve. We opted instead to serve blueberry pie and homemade strawberry ice cream (two of his favorites.)


Here are a few pictures from his birthday.

Victor Rex Jackson
May 7, 2009
97 years old

Dad and Bonnie

Morgan, Dad, and Bonnie

Mavis Petersen (Jean's mom from Minnesota), Morgan, Jean and Dad

Chris and Jenny Robinson and family with Grandpa. (Mackay, Haley, Grant & Jack)

Look out World!

LeeAnn is starting to drive! She got her learner's permit in April and has been driving her mother crazy. Oh, I mean, driving her all over town. She loves to drive and drives her Mom whenever she can. Dave even let her drive his truck, with him of course, up to Payson and back. Seriously, LeeAnn is a good little driver and puts up with alot of "Backseat driver" instructions from her mom.

CHORES

While my Dad was here, John discovered a new, easier way to take out the garbage. Grandpa's wheelchair - "It makes any chore a breeze."

LeeAnn and Bethany

I asked LeeAnn and Bethany to pose for me in front of the rose bushes. The roses were so pretty a month ago. They are actually standing in the neighbors yard so you can see our house in the background.



Our neighbor friends, Shaylin and Alicia relax on the couch with Bethany and LeeAnn.