Special Arnold Visitors

In order to deal with the stress of being at my house, did she take up smoking?  I wanted to get a pic of Robin, but said her lollipop looked like a cig.  Nati decided to light it.

 

Tim, Ginny, Penny, and Walt at Little Black Mountain



Last August, I was given a sweet surprise from my brother Steve and his daughter Rebecca.  Steve flew from Oregon to Idaho to help Rebecca move to California.  They stayed with us on their way there.  Even though they were tired from the trip, it was wonderful reunion.  My family did not know Rebecca, only from my sharing occassional news through the years.  Many of my family came over that evening.  I loved hearing Rebecca laughing with my children just like they had always been close proximity instead of over a thousand miles. 

 My brother Tim and wife Ginny Arnold came for some days of fun and relaxation.  Robin came just two days after they left.  Walt and I completely enjoyed their company.  All our children and grandchildren got together for a big Saturday morning breakfast with Tim and Gin.  It was fun for them to renew family ties to my children.  Later that night, we attended the Tabernacle Choir concert which was very nice.  We enjoyed the old favorites like Battle Hymm, Shannondoah, God be with you, and others.  However, there was one song that was called Liberty or Independence or something like that.  Anyway, I think it lasted ten minutes.  I should not have sat by Tim, because when I whispered to him that it should have been named the "Never Ending Story" and he agreed.  We got a case of the giggles, at least I did.  When the people in front kept looking over their shoulder, I tried to contain it, but.....   When the long boring song finished some people went crazy with applause.  Are you kidding me?  I guess Tim and I aren't very cultured.   Another activity we shared was a visit to Little Black Mountain, a large group of rocks a few miles out of town that have hundreds of Native American writing on them that date span back 5,000 years.  Of course, we ate out almost every day, laughed and talked a lot.  It was a sweet time and we hope they come back every winter.
 
After they left, I picked my sister Robin Hollingsworth up at our new city airport.  I was planning on having Robin with us for many weeks, but her husband Don received an assignment overseas and she flew home after only two weeks.  Robin stroke recovery is still in progress.  She was talking better than last time and she has lost more weight.  One of the first things I wanted to do was get her into the new style skinny pants.  She looked so good in them.  We did something almost every day and her stamina was amazing.  As usual, my family got together for a dinner, and then later in the week we had a girl's craft day.  We set up the sewing machine, Cori had her  vinyl cutting  Circut, Sheena made a bracelet, I sewed some bibs, Nati made a pillow, and Katy did a paint project, Cori helped Robin make a very cool birthday calendar board.  Jessica flew in from Provo to join our fun.  Her little Emma was the center of attention. My house was a wreck, but with the girls help, we got it mostly cleaned up in time for dinner and a movie.  What a fun day for all.  Sadly, I put her back on the plane, but she had bought or made so many fun things, she had to pay to have a big box sent home.

Some how the camera got set on raw and the pictures would not be accepted by blogspot.  Unfortunately this is one of the few that went through.  There were some great picture of our get together with everyone in.  Oh well.....