Ann and Bert's Newsletter

Sept. Newsletter - 08
Dear Family:This has been a very s-l-o-w month. I can't think of much that has happened, and then the things that happened were far away from us.Jill and Abbie celebrated their birthdays the 7th and first of September and the Ken and Doug celebrated theirs the 17th. That all happened without us being there in person. Imagine that! Abbie is now 4 and the rest we will leave un-numbered.We did celebrate Labor Day with a BBQ and Devin and Nicole and Brett and Marchaan were able to come over. We also did get to spend a Friday at Jeff's and we took Eli for a day in the park. We had lunch and he played on the playground equipment. He is a very bright boy and we had a lot of fun with him. Jeff tried to get some painting done. Stephanie goes to work early in the morning so she can spend the afternoon with Eli after he wakes up from his nap. Dev and Nicole got to take a trip to Nevada and take in a concert. They said it was good to get away. And guess who is trying to walk? Bennett. He has taken a few steps, but would rather have a helping hand most of the time. Brett and Marchaan are pretty well settled in - now all they have time to do is work and go to school. Ken and Lisa seem to be doing good. Their kids are back in school and Rylee and Jadyn have to get up at 5:30 to get to school on time. Rylee is in kindergarten and Jadyn takes very good care of her. Aubrey and Haley are also in the same school for this year and ride the same bus each day. They are growing up so fast. Little Kenli is walking now and is very good-natured. Tiff and Doug have been busy too. Tiff is doing a pre-school in her home and Shaley is also in kindergarten. She seems to really like school, but is pretty tired when she gets home. Kade misses her, but is making new friends at the pre-school. Jill and Pete have been on a really rough schedule - Pete has been on call a lot and they don't get to spend much slow time together. Abbie and Josh are keeping Jill busy and Kelly keeps her up at night some, so it is kind of a challenge to find time and energy to do everything they need to. Trev has spent time in the Philippines again and is here in the valley for a week doing some work for himself. He likes California - it fits his "life style" he says. We are glad he stops by to visit with us when he comes to town and he always visits with Lucille. Bert and I did get to take a day off and went for a ride up to Mirror Lake. We spent enough time there to really enjoy the quiet and a walk around the lake. It was a very soothing kind of day. I love the quiet - you could hear the fish jump and even see them if you looked in just the right place at just the right time. It rained a little and it was must beautiful. The leaves were starting to change when we drove up and it added a lot of color to the scenery. The only sad thing is that a lot of the pine trees are dying. There were lots of them that were dying or are already dead with dark brown needles. Bert dug out the lilac in our back yard that was on the southwest corner of our patio. It had bore and I had cut it down once before, but it grew back. It sure opens up our back yard to have it gone. We'll see if any of the roots grow back again. Until then, we can enjoy all the flowers, especially the ones that were hidden behind the lilac. We picked our apples because the birds were cleaning them right off the tree. It is amazing to me how they can hollow out the back side of an apple and leave it still be hanging in the tree with the skin untouched on the front side! We have had lots of tomatoes lately, but they were kind of slow coming on. They are really good but are a little different than we have had in the past. They are more of a pink color than a deep red. We also got lots of pumpkins - I thought I had planted squash and pumpkin seeds! Surprise!We hope all of you have had a very nice September. Thanks for writing - we love to hear how you are all doing. Love always, Ann