We have a sweet new granddaughter!

Sunday - July 8, 2012 we welcomed Ruby Grace Thomas! She is a sweet little girl with tiny features and a mellow disposition (at least so far). Tricia named her after Hal's mom! There was a bit (well let's be honest - a lot of drama with getting her here!) Tricia had a very difficult pregnancy and things were especially difficult in the week before Ruby was born. With 3 false alarm trips to the hospital and after being in labor for 9 days- they finally did the C Section and it was a good thing that they did! The placenta had begun to tear away. Ruby had a rough start with her lungs not inflating ( so it was also good that she had the extra 8 days to grow and mature a little more) and she spent a few hours in the NICU after she was born. But I am happy to report that she is doing much better now!   My friend Susan Taylor's brother delivered her and he is a wonderful doctor with a great bedside manner!

Tricia will certainly have her hands full with her 4 little children!  There is nothing sweeter than a newborn baby and we are so happy to have Ruby join our family!!

Gabrielsen Family Reunion

We all gathered in St. George for the Lyman and Dorothy Gabrielsen Family Reunion.  All siblings were present and many of the grandchildren and great grandchildren as well!  It was a great reunion!

Friday evening we met at the "Paradise Bakery" for dinner and a chance to visit.

Pam and Roger put the reunion together and did a super job!

Hoagie sandwiches, salads, fruit, baked beans, chips and best of all - Krispie Kreme donuts for dessert!

The picnic gave us a chance to be together and enjoy delicious food!

Every family was represented!

Saturday morning the "Gabrielsen Open" golf tournament was held and Ken won the senior division and was awarded the "Duck"with Tom Young winning the junior division and receiving the coveted "Swedish Boy" trophy!

Trip to Logan and Jessica's visit part II

June 4th, we travelled with Pam and Roger to Logan where we met Joan and Missy and her children to decorate Mom and Dad's graves.  This day was Hal and my anniversary.  After our visit to the cemetery we ate lunch at Fredrico's pizza restaurant and then stopped for ice cream at the Aggie ice cream snack shop.  After a quick stop at the Bluebird we travelled on to the Wellsville cemetery to decorate the Park's graves - (they raised grandma Peterson after her mother died).
There is something therapeutic about the return to Logan every year - I am glad that we have that tradition!

June 5th was our Salad luncheon/tea party for the sisters, cousins and 2nd cousins.  We prepared some delicious salads and Joan made some wonderful cupcakes.  Allison brought mint brownies, Whitney contributed yummy fruit tarts and Kelly (with the help of Treygan) made tasty lemon rolls - Treygan is a great little chef!  It was a really tasty menu! Then after lunch we had time to share memories of Mom and Dad, family weddings and visit while the younger cousins and second cousins played and sang together.   All in all it was a fun event and we made some happy memories.

Sister chefs!  Everything was as good as it looks!  We missed you Kay and Cindy!!

Gigi sampling the maple frosting for the cupcakes!  Those cupcakes were soooo good - just ask Gigi!

Cousins!

Cousins and second cousins - our younger guests!

Jessica & Gigi's Visit Part I

Jessica and Gigi came to Utah for a visit and so of course we had to have lots of family gatherings so that everyone could see them and Gigi could get better acquainted with her cousins.

Our first get-together was for a pizza party on Saturday - May 26, 2012

Evan and his fan club of little girls - they all love the  wild games and stories!


Ella, Violet and Aleeya singing a song for us


Our next gathering was on Memorial Day/Jessica's Birthday
The kids enjoyed 4 Wheeling and then we had a barbecue and celebration of Jessica's birthday.

The kids enjoyed playing in Evan and Kelly's newly landscaped yard and jumping on their trampoline - until - Sam took a tumble and broke his arm.  That pretty much ended the fun!  Allison, Jon and Sam spent the rest of the evening (until after midnight) at the emergency room.  Hal and I took Alex, Lillian and Ella to their house and stayed with the kids until they came home.  Sam now has a cast on and hopefully all will heal well!

On Tuesday, the girls went to lunch at one of our favorite places - "Gingers".  Allison stayed home with Sam so we brought her a take out falafel - her favorite!

On Wednesday we took Preston to "Sakura" (a Japanese steak house) for lunch.  He snapped this picture of Gigi at the restaurant.  Jessica is now in Layton spending time with the Craws.  She will return next week to be with us for a few more days before her return to Portland.

The deer are here!

Before I tell you about the deer in our yard, let me report that the rubber snake worked! The robins did not come back to the front porch to build their nest - in fact - they have built the nest in a nearby scrub oak! I watch them flying back and forth to their nest each day and I am glad they found a safe place for their little family!
Now to the deer (or "deers" as Gigi calls them) - we enjoyed watching them this past winter shortly after we moved into our home and then for about 3 months, they went elsewhere and we didn't see them at all in our backyard. Well, they are now back in full force! I enjoy watching them in the early mornings feeding and napping in the shade in the afternoon. We are hoping to begin our landscaping this week and once all of our shrubs and trees are planted, we may feel differently about them as they will probably feed on our plants. For now, I love watching these graceful and interesting animals. I like to stand on our back deck and look into their faces when they look up to see me standing there.  They sometimes look a bit puzzled when I talk to them.  We love living in this mountain setting!

 The yearlings are so cute and they follow their mothers everywhere.

 They seem to like the leaves of the scrub oak best with grass coming in second.  I am hoping that when our ground cover goes in that doesn't become their favorite!

 With their over sized ears, we believe that they are mule deer.

 They are losing their winter fur coats - this fellow still has most of his/her? winter look.

We even put a salt lick to attract them to the yard.  This little guy heard me snapping pictures and got a little nervous and camera shy.

Battle With The Birds

A pair of robins (sounds innocent enough) are determined to build a nest on the brick ledge of the transom over our front door. At first I thought the wind had blown the debris onto the front porch and I cleaned everything up. The next morning there was another mess on the porch and I swept everything up again. James was visiting this time and showed me the beginnings of the bird nest above the door. He took all the twigs, string, grass etc. off the ledge. The following day when I discovered yet another mess, I declared war on the robins! Every morning they have worked hard to rebuild the nest and I work hard with my broom to remove it! I feel a little guilty destroying all of their diligent efforts - after all they are just trying to build a nest in a safe place but then I remember the front porch of a lady in our Salem ward that I used to visit teach. Birds had nested above her front door and the mess was incredible - bird poop covered the front porch and was disgusting. So... my plan is to prevent them from ever creating a nest. However, this is easier said than done! They are incredibly determined - I have been going out 3 or 4 times a day to remove the mess and there they are making a new mess and so goes the battle. They watch me from the roof and the trees and I know they are plotting their next move!  I have tried lecturing them and asking them to choose a different location for their nest - but to no avail - they have plans for our brick ledge!  I just checked online about what could be done and so - I am off to the dollar store to buy a fake rubber snake which I will place on the ledge. I will let you know if this works - wish me luck!  I hope I don't scare off people coming to visit us!

          The mess I find multiple times each day!  Fallout from the nest building effort!

         Culprit number 1 - hiding in the trees!  Chirping messages to his lady friend!
          These birds look innocent but they are not!

Culprit number 2 taunting me from the roof!

Note the twig in the beak - just waiting for a chance to add it to the nest!

The Russians have come!

We have had an unusually busy past few weeks as we welcomed friends and former returned missionaries from Russia. We also hosted our missionary reunion and a luncheon for the senior couples that served with us.

Our first guest was Aleksey Simonenko now from Rostov, Russia. We met Aleksey on our first mission as we worked with the YSA. We returned for our second mission and Aleksey was then working for the church as the Physical Facilities Director for our mission. He later was hired by the Church to be CES Director for the Russia Rostov Mission and with his family, moved to Rostov. He now serves as the branch president for his branch and was very interested to see Temple Square, Welfare Square, Deseret Industries, the meat processing plant in Spanish Fork and the Bishop's Storehouse in Springville. We also took him to the Provo Temple, BYU and the MTC. He loved seeing how the church operates here and the abundance of chapels and temples. Seeing all that we have so readily available through the eyes of a Russian is humbling.



Aleksey discovered tender and delicious American steak (which is not available in Russia) and loved it! When asked where he wanted to go for lunch after the temple session, he told us: "Somewhere I can have American steak." We took him to Ruby River where he enjoyed a filet mignon.


Our second guests were Lloyd and Mary Royer from La Grande, Oregon. The Royers served as a senior couple in the city of Krasnoyarsk and were terrific missionaries - loved by the members and young missionaries alike. They came for the Mission Reunion and spent one night with us. How we love these dear people and the many happy memories we have of serving with them!



Our next guests were the young married couple - Renat and Lena Kashapovwe. They now live in Moscow but both came from the city of Tomsk in our mission. Lena served as a sister missionary in our mission. She truly was one of the best missionaries we had. Whichever city she served in had baptisms - we could count on that! Hal set Renat apart before he left to serve in the Russia Samara mission ( yes - Whitney knew him as he served as an assistant to the Mission President there). Lena and Renat were married about 1 1/2 years ago - the first couple to be sealed in the Kiev temple! They are so cute together and were a delight to have in our home. We also took them to the Provo Temple and they were thrilled to return as a married couple to see the MTC again - they even wanted to eat dinner in the MTC cafeteria! They attended the Devotional that evening with us to hear Elder Lance B. Wickman speak.






Our last visitor was Olga Landik from Kurgan, Russian - now living and working in Moscow. Olga also served as a sister missionary in our mission. She was a good missionary and worked hard during her time there. Carolyn Cropper is in the picture with Olga - a friend of Olga's and BYU student from the Logan, Utah area Carolyn also served as one of our excellent sister missionaries. We took Olga to the Provo Temple where we helped her do the ordinance work for her grandparents in an endowment and a sealing session. Olga loved the beautiful mountains of our area and she enjoyed the ride we took her on to see the mountain canyons and views. Her enthusiasm for the beauty that surrounds us was contagious!


We also hosted two dinner parties in March and April for returned missionary elders that served with us. I forgot to take pictures on those evenings ( darn it) but we love getting together with our returned missionaries, meeting their wives and girlfriends and reminiscing about our time in Siberia.

Life has calmed down a bit since these busy weeks of entertaining and operating "Hotel Mickelsen" but we truly made many happy memories and renewed many friendships.