CABIN, BABY REECE, FOOTBALL , SUMMER FUN AND A "LOVELY" RECEPTION!

CABIN!

I ended my last blog with the family reunion, so I best keep going since I am on a role. After the reunion, it was home for a few days, then back to California to check on the house ( sure!!!). Heather, Steve and kids came and we managed a trip to the beach with all the kids and I went to Amber and Marin's dance recital. Sorry, no pictures as I forgot my camera. Then back to Calgary to await the arrival of Marilee, Adam & kids and Ryan and Nicole & kids. We actually met all of them at the cabin, since they drove up. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures, but Mar, Nic, & Don more than made up for it. Guess I'll have to get copies. We had a great week with the most perfect weather I think we have ever had. The kids had a ball and it was so fun. I'm just sad I didn't take ANY PICTURES.

BABY REECE!

I was home for two days then off the "Cago" to be there for the arrival of "baby girl" Brinkerhoff who remained nameless for a couple of days. July 17th was the big day!

Julie and TJ with TJ in his usual interested pose working on his computer. At least he didn't bring the play station.

Since the hospital is a teaching hospital, a lot of strange people came and went. Oh, wait!! It is actually Grandma LouAnn surprising Julie and TJ by flying in from Denver that morning. Marilee, Lindsay, Brook, Alaina and I were in on it, but we managed to keep the TJ Brinks in the dark. It was so fun to have her there. What's a baby Brinkerhoff birth without Grandma and Nana on hand? Not much fun I think!

Welcome to the world "Baby Girl"! Born at 2:19 pm, after two and a half pushes, she weighed a whopping 6'10" and was 18 inches long, almost exactly what Julie was at birth. She is so cute!

Nana holding grandchild #21. Can you believe it?

Everyone loves her, ---well maybe not Brady so much as he told his mom"take Reece back a hopital" after a few days and the novelty had worn off.

By now she has a name, Reece Annelynn. She really didn't mind her bath so much. Unusual for a newborn..

Brook and Alaina, Julie's best friends, giving her a baby shower. I just love these two!











Oh so pretty at three weeks, but not very chubby yet. She had grown over two inches and added a half a pound by two weeks, however.


FOOTBALL!!

While there, Jackson started his first year of tackle football. He is on the Cowboys and is playing quarterback, What Else?

He's trying to find his "inner rage", but with that cute little face I don't think it's working.

SUMMER FUN!

Don came to Chicago for the last 5 days I was there to see Babe Reece. We were home for about 14 hours when we got on a plane to go back to California for fun and Laura Christofferson's wedding to Kevin Redford. Don hadn't seen the house totally finished, so it was fun for him, plus we were so thrilled for Laura. We love You!!!

Heather and Steve came, of course, so while the guys golfed and dealt with a car break down, we went to the beach. We missed having the Christoffersons with us, but they were visiting friends so didn't come. Hmmm? Friends, beach? Friends, beach?

Joshie just loves the sand and dirt and even the water. He was so funny!

Tyler heading for the water. He's part fish we think.

Mr. Benjamin playing in the sand. Notice the skin tone on this kid. We call him "Paco"

Marin and Brooklynne holding hands and heading for the waves. A fun day was had by all without any sunburns.

A "LOVELY" RECEPTION!

Sorry, Laura and Kevin. I somehow missed getting pictures of the two most important people, but did manage to get the grandchildren dancing and having a blast. Guess we know where my priorities are.

Amber, Spencer, Annie, Justin and Tyler having a great time.

Marin and Garett having a twirl around the dance floor.

Even Josh got his groove on.

A grand time was had by all!!!

FINALLY!!

Hang on to your hats and buckle your seat belts. It's a long post. O.K. So all my kids have been bugging me since my last post was so long ago. It's been so long I can't remember where I left off, but I think I had just returned from China. I'll give a not-so-brief outline of travels since then and then include some pictures. It all seems a blur, but I do believe I left for California three days after returning from China. The renos on our house were suppossed to be finished as the movers were bringing our stuff from Arizona in a couple of days. Most things were done, but as usual there were a few glitches, but nothing too serious. The only bad part was my extreme jet-lag and exhaustion. Fortunately, Don came down to Cal to help with the unpacking and we were able to get it almost organized with the help of my sweet daughter-in-law, who was pregnant and sick, but hadn't told us yet. Yes, Ryan and Nic are expecting #5. I wish I had some pics of the house before and after, as the transformation is amazing, but alas, I didn't think of it.

I was able to go back one more time in May to finish the house and my mom was able to come with me and spend a few days. She wasn't feeling very well, but it was nice to have the company. I was able to get everything put together and even had the garage organized.

Then it was off to Ireland the end of May with Don, my brother Jim and sister-in-law, Sherri. We always love to travel with them. We have so much fun together. Although Ireland is beautiful, if you don't golf or do pubs, there just isn't a lot to do. Dublin is not very attractive and it was sunny (mostly), but really cold.

Here are the "Golf Fools" gearing up for the next day on the links.

This was the view out of our hotel window. It really was quite gorgeous. We stayed outside of Dublin about 40 miles at a Marriott resort.


This was at a place called Powercourt Gardens. It was a lovely day and the home and gardens were so beautiful. In fact it was so nice Sherri and I decided it would be fun to ride around the golf course with the guys the next day.

This was the next day! I have never been so cold, but Sher and I stuck it out for all 18 holes. The guy in the Pro Shop was amazed and said we must really love these guys. When we told him we had both been married for over 30 years, he about passed out. He asked us if had stayed married so long because we really liked each or if we just basically ignored each other. We really laughed at that one and told him we really liked each other.

After Ireland, Jim and Sherri flew home and Don and I were off to do the most amazing Church history trip with Richard Holzapel (sp?) that you can imagine. It was so humbling to stand where our ancestors stood and to see the places where they joined the Church so many, many years ago. It was such an amazing trip and we never realized how important the early British Saints were to the growth of the Church in North America. Don and I both were overwhelmed with gratitude for those who made it possible for us to have so much, especially the Gospel.

We met up with our tour group in London and it was fun to be with those we knew from family like Ian and Liz and Lynne and Darrly Sherwood. We also were with friends from Calgary, Clyde and Kerrie Davis and friends from other trips, John and Ruth Ann Evans from Irvine and Steve and Marilyn Rizley from Scottsdale, plus others that we had so enjoyed on our Italy trip last year. We also met many new friends. It was a great group of people!

The Tower of London on a beautiful, rare, sunny, without rain day!

We visited so many amazing places, like the London Temple, Hyde Park Chapel, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Avon-upon-Strattford, an Ancient Text display and too many other beautiful sites to mention. I must say the food was quite excellent as well. Not at all like we remembered it from 30 years ago. Wales was incredible and it was fun to phone our son-in-law, Steve, from the places he served as a missionary. As pretty as Ireland was, England, Wales and Scotland have it hands-down for beauty. We have never been anywhere so lush and green, except maybe New Zealand. It was amazing because we had perfect weather, warm with no rain.

The Benbow Farm is where Robert Harris was baptized. The pond is directly behind us.

A plaque honoring the first members with a bit of their history is displayed at the first chapel owned by the Church near the Benbow farm.

This is the spot on the River Ribble in Preston, England, where the very first members to join the Church in England were baptized in 1837. My great-grandfather, Robert McBride was in the second group of people to join the Church. He is also T.J.'s great-grandfather. Cool, eh?

A plaque honoring all past, present and future missionaries to serve in England. Steve, this is for you.

This part of our tour was definitley the most touching. To see the actual places where Robert Harris and family (Don's great-grandfather) and Robert McBride and family (my great grand-father) were baptized was so memorable. It was neat to think that so many of our ancestors knew each other including the Ellisons ( Nic and Adams grandparents).

The Preston England Temple is quite large and so beautiful.. One of our missionaries from Haiti, Elder Maxwell, is from England and his father was just released last year as the Temple President.

Our guide through the Church sites was a young man from Preston named Peter Fagg. This is him with his cute family. His wife and kids met up with us at the Temple grounds. He was so amazing and so knowledgeable. I'm sure we saw things that few others have seen. He is an amazing historian.


And of course our entrance into Scotland had to be documented. We visited Edinbourgh, St. Andrews, visited Glamis Castle where the Queen Mom was from, attended a highland game, visited Glasgow plus a few other sites.

On our last day in Scotland, Ian had made arrangements for us to have a personal driver to take us to the places our ancestors from Scotland came from. We went to Paisley just outside Glasgow, where my Scadlock ancestors came from. There are still Scadlocks who live there. This is the church that has been there for centuries.


We then visited Dumbarton, where Grandpa Miller came from. Then we drove into the country and buried a time capsule that Ian had prepared in honor of the Miller family. For anyone wanting to find it we can give directions and GPS coordinates to locate it. This is a place along a loch where we stopped. We also visited the grave site of Rob Roy and his family. It was a great day and a fitting end to our Great Britian experience.

Two days after arriving home from Great Britan it was off to Utah for my Mom's 80th birthday party and family reunion. All but one of my neices attended (there were 75 of us) and it was really a fun time. My sis, Peri organized and planned and she did just a great great job. Thanks "Pei"!!! The highlight was the MuMu Review (in honor of my mom's love for wearing mumus) preformed by the grandaugther's and granddaughter's-in-law. It was absolutley fabulous, as was the DVD my neice Shae spent hours putting together. A belated "shout-out" to Shae for the amazing finished product. I cry every time I watch it. We had family pictures taken so here is a sample.Great looking bunch of folks, don't you think? Well, that almost gets me up to date. I think I'll do a different post for the remainder of my travels. It's been fun to relive the memories. What a blessing to be able to have so many fun adventures. We truly are blessed!

CHINA-WHAT AN ADVENTURE!!

As most of you know I recently returned from a trip to China with my sisters and sister-in-law. We had a great time, it was so interesting and lots of fun, but I will never go back. It is SOOOO far away and the food wasn't that great and quite a few of us got bad colds and, well, there is no place like home (except for the fabulous shopping of course). I'm posting some pictures so you can get an idea of how cool it was.


We started out in Shanghai, where we met up with Cameron and Julie Brown (Peri's son and daughter-in-law). They are living in China where Cam is in a special program from BYU. He served a mission in Taiwan and speaks fluent Chinese. It was so fun to walk into our hotel after 23 hours of travel and see a very handsome (but bald) young man come flying towards us yelling and screaming and jumping up and down. We loved being with them!!!

Here are Cam and Julie in Shanghai. They are so cute! Here we are on the Bund looking back across the river towards the new part of Shanghai. It is amazing!


This is a really cool part of Shanghai where you can shop. We went into a side street to get Lori a good deal on a purse/back-pack. It was fun, but we were glad we had Cam to speak their language. We did get pretty confident and good at bartering by the end of the trip, however. It was fun to compare and see who could get the best deal on the same stuff. The pagodas are really cool and you can see them everywhere.

This was a park in the city of Hangzhou. It was absolutely the most beautiful city and the park was gorgeous!

Their English signage was hysterical. We were constantly laughing at how they translated, or attempted to translate things. We were surprised at how many people spoke English or at least tried to.

We took a three day cruise down the Yangtze River and one of our excursions was a ride up a tributary in a Sanpan. The Chinese guy looking at the camera in front of Bonnie Comstock, was our country guide, Edward. He was so awesome! He really took good care of us.

The people were very friendly and they loved to have you take pictures of their children who were so adorable and very fat.

The children were beautiful and so friendly. They loved to be fussed over and to have their pictures taken.


Just a sampling of what delectables were available in the markets where the people shop.

Despite the grossness of their meat and such, they did have nice looking produce and seemed to know how to display it attractively.

What's a trip to China without seeing the pandas. They are really big and cute.

This is us in Xian with one of our cute city guides, Louisa. All our guides had given themselves English names. Louisa was one of our favorites. She would sing to us on the bus.

This is the "Bird's Nest". It will be the sight of the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics in Bejing. China is such a country of contrasts. Don read that more than 2/3 of the cranes used for building are in China and believeme, it is true, as they are building everywhere we went. It is amazing.

As I mentioned, it is a country of contrasts. This is an "apartment" building in the middle of Xian, a very prosperous city in most respects.

Julie was able to meet us in Bejing (Cam had to work), and this is the Forbidden City, where many of the Emperors and royalty lived. It was huge and very interesting. Sherri and I had just read an historical novel about this place, so it was so interesting to see it first hand.

One of my favorite things was the Great Wall. It was an incredible feat and just enormous. We were so lucky to have had such a beautiful day to visit.


After all was said and done I am so glad I had the opportunity to visit such an exotic and mysterious place. It is definitely a country of contrasts. We really loved the people and whenever I travel I am amazed at how much people are alike. Cultures, customs, traditions are diferent, but hopes, dreams and desires are the same. It was a wonderful trip and I was so grateful to share it with my sisters!