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.

Pinewood Derby

Last week was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. John and Dave made a race car out of pine wood. John designed the car and put a driver in it with a clear dome on top. He raced the car Thursday night with the Cub Scouts and won two of the four races he was in.

John and his car.

Sorry, a lot of these photos are a bit blurry.

Our Cub Scout Pack with their cars.

On Friday night, our ward sponsored a "Open Class - anything goes" Pinewood Derby. John raced last years car there, and Dave raced a pure lead car. Everyone had a ton of fun.

Mountain Man Rendezvous

During spring break, Dave and I went to the Mountain Man Rendezvous, a Mesa District Varsity Scout event held every 2 years. Dave has been going for years and was even the Booshway (head guy in charge) there 8 years ago. This year he was the head cook, cooking for a crew (the event staff) of 250. This was my second time attending, and this year I was in the kitchen along with his cook staff of 11 other men.

The Rendezvous is a three day encampment where the Varsity age scouts (14 &15 year olds) come with their teams and leaders and participate in events that are mostly from the Mountain Man era ( early 1800's.) These events include black powder rifle shooting, knife and hawk throwing, primitive fires (flint and steel, bow and drill and just drill), leather crafts - making medicine bags (these are like necklaces with a small pouch that the MM wore.) There was also archery, bullet casting, repelling, and many others. There were over 30 events for the boys to choose from and rotate to. The boys come in teams of 2 -10 boys with 2 leaders and visit and participate in events for two days, where they learn new skills and practice them. Then on the last day they participate in a competition event, called the Colter Run. This event is named after the famous Mountain Man John Colter who had to run away from the Indians across Montana prairie, "buck naked" for seven days before arriving at a trading post. (A little history lesson there - I could go on, but you've probably already scrolled down to the pictures by now.) For the Colter run, the team of boys run to ten different events, do the required skill, run to the next event, and lastly run up the long hill. They are timed and the team with the best time won a nice prize.


Several of the men gather round the main camp. The long jackets they are wearing are called "Capotes."

A view of the upper camp, with all the primitive tents.

Primitive Camp

Russ and Trent Durfee in front of the Chuckwagon Trading Post. "Chuckwagon" is Russ's Mountain man name.

Trent plays the Indian flute.

Primitive fires using flint and steel. "Firebird" Laurie is getting ready to time the boys. Two years ago, I was at this outpost helping teach boys to start fires.

Dan prepares something in the dutch ovens.

One of the more popular events - bull riding (no its not too primitive).

The women folk. All of us women (about 20 in a field of 1000 men) got to stay in one of the nicer cabins, where we got in some good girl talk and bonding time before bedtime.

Larry stirs up a a big pot of chili, while Dave seasons the meat in the background.

The guys made the yummiest pancakes.

We had a whole family of brothers there at the Rendezvous. Five of the Riggs (Ray, Wes, Ken, Wayne, Larry) brothers cooked in the kitchen and the other brother, Charl, was camping with his team of boys.

My main responsibility was to take tickets at all the meals. Dave told me to give them a hard time if they didn't bring their ticket, but I ended up sneaking in several tired mountain men who just happened to forget their ticket back at their outpost (event station.) I received the Mountain Man name "Ticket" while I was there this year.

Laurie and Bonnie - friends for over 18 years! She's an awesome firestarting lady and has many primitive skills under belt.

More wedding Pictures

I haven't had time to write about Alli and Brendon's wedding since they got married one month ago. Life hasn't slowed down much since then, so I haven't had time to blog. Thanks to LeeAnn we got a few pictures posted earlier, but no narrative. So here's just a quick recap of the wedding day.
Alli and Brendon got married in the Mesa Arizona Temple on February 28. Dave and I were there in the temple to witness this sacred ceremony as were many other family members and friends. After the ceremony we took pictures in front of the temple and on the temple grounds. We went to a wedding lunch later, hosted by Brendon's family. Then the reception was held that evening in our home (backyard actually.) The reception was from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. After it turned dark, all the twinkly lights bordering the yard and around the trees came on, lighting the backyard up. The pool lights were on, with the waterfall flowing, all together made a beautiful site. Dave's sister Karen and husband Russ catered the wedding for us. Karen made the beautiful wedding cake. Russ made and arranged all the beautiful and delicious food. Several friends helped in the kitchen. Thanks to everyone's help everything turned out great.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Brendon and Alli

Family group in front of the temple.

Seth & Amy, LeeAnn, Chris, Alli & Brendon, John, Bethany, Katie and Robert

They were all smiles.

How the backyard looked before the reception started.

Alli checks out the backyard.

Alli and her bridesmaids, Melissa, Katie and Amy

Wedding cake made by Karen

Russ prepares the food table.

Even the pool got some decorations, we had a string of bride and groom duckies going across the pool. (Sorry, you can only see the bride duck in this shot.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE !

TODAY IS DAVE'S 50th BIRTHDAY. What a landmark - 50 years! ! I want to wish my favorite man a very happy day.

Dave in his new office.

Getting ready to weld. This is one of Dave's favorite things to do.

Dave welding.

Dave is a one of a kind guy. I guess I'm kind of partial to this guy, but I think he is a super talented man. Here just a sampler:
1. He's a computer expert.
2. He's a great cook, a creative cook, and can cook for hundreds with his cook trailer.
3. He's great working with puzzles and has quite a collection. "CONUNDRUM" is his Mountain Man name.
4. He's funny. He makes light of bad situations and can make puns of just about everything.
5. He's a welder. He has welded cook trailers, shade structures, and even the light hangy things he put by the trees for Alli's reception.
6. He's a woodworker. He made beautiful shelves for our dining room, along with the dining room table (welding involved there too), and the corner shelf, and other things in the past.
7. A great scout leader - Many scouts and other leaders have benefited from his passion and dedication to the scouting program.
8. etc, etc.

I could go on but you get the idea. Pardon me for bragging about my husband. But I feel since it's his 50th birthday I have a license to brag. I love this man very much, and am thankful to be a part of his life.

Happy Birthday DAVE!

love,
Bonnie

Hurtado Wedding