A photo study of "Dawson"

This isn't the hearty country breakfast my daddy told me I was going to get!

Good morning...whatever...but don't think I'm ready to smile if this is all you're going to offer me.


I'll humor Grandma and give her one of my half-effort smiles, she'll think I'm adorable anyway.

Hmmmm...who will be my next victim?

Now that's more like it -- Captain Crunch and a view of the dairy cows!

Conner Kew Reed

After almost 33 hrs. of labor(bless Cindy's heart) Conner arrived at 11:32 p.m. September 2nd. He strongly resembles the Garcia family, and that's okay because he's beautiful! Weighing in at 8 lbs. 14 oz. he's a strong, healthy baby boy. He and his cousin Brolin Bigler will be just a month apart in age. We feel twice blessed! And the McMullin twins will be right in the thick of the fun...a few years from now. Our future family reunions will have to be geared toward the interests of boys (camping, shooting, fishing, dirt, boogey boarding, bugs, etc.) Ha! Congratulations Tim and Cindy...you are a "family" now!

First day of School '08-'09

Calla and Jenny were ready "bright and early" Monday, Aug. 11th for school to begin. Jenny's bus comes at 7:05 a.m. and Calla's bus picks up the local neighborhood kids about 7:25 a.m. Calla started 6th grade, where are these years going? Jenny will continue attending the self-contained resource classroom at the high school. She enjoys the sociality there and the staff (secretaries and nurse) at the school say that her smile is the highlight of their day.

Summer ends with trip to Utah and Idaho

Mark and I and the girls drove up to Utah on Friday, August 1st and took a different route (Alt 89) thru Marble Canyon and the Vermillion cliffs. So beautiful!


We arrived in Provo and then followed Christopher and Jenelle up Provo Canyon to the Willis family cabin near Kamas. The cabin was so comfortable and in such a beautiful setting with an awesome view. Deer came around frequently. The weather was perfect.We went to a huge reservoir and canoed, played games, got acquainted with Dawson, attended church in Oakley, took naps, walked to the creek and just relaxed. Jenelle had planned yummy, simple meals. Her parents drove over from Centerville for a brief visit. Mark enjoyed hearing Corey's narrative of how their family built the cabin over many years. We stayed there till Monday, and it was kinda sad to leave.



On the drive back to Provo, there was a fire on top of the mountains above Bridal Veil falls. There were two helicopters dumping water and we stopped at the scenic view pullout and watched them in action. We settled into the large apartment that Chris and Jenelle live in, that we hadn't seen, and planned our meals and grocery shopped. They are such a sweet, hospitable couple, and Dawson is a precious boy. He is really talking, and seemed to really enjoy Calla and Jenny. We went to a local park,threw Frisbee's and Landon Woolf stopped by to visit us. He also works at the MTC and Chris really enjoys having his cousin in town. On Tuesday we girls had a "day out" while Grandpa babysat Dawson, and went school clothes shopping and saw the movie, "Kitt Kittredge, an American Girl." Wednesday, Mark and I and Jen went to the BYU Library and did some family history research. Calla went ice skating that evening with Christopher. We were grateful for Jenelle, she watched the girls for us and that was such a blessing. Thursday, Mark and I drove up to Idaho Falls, stopping in Logan to meet some new coworkers at Henderson Law Offices. Because I work on my computer at home in Arizona for them, most of them are just "names" without faces. Until now.


We arrived in Idaho Falls and spent the evening there at a theme hotel room downtown. We celebrated our belated 31st anniversary in the most elegant room we've ever had. The next morning we got up quite early and went to a session at the temple. Then attended Tyler and Brittany Klepinger's wedding. Such a beautiful couple and special memory! We went to the delicious luncheon afterwards and headed back down to Provo. Christopher and Landon had driven up for the wedding and they followed us back down. We packed everything up, slept in our clothes, and left early Saturday morning for home. We had a safe trip and arrived in Taylor, grateful for the great vacation to end our summer!

Welcome to the world Brolin!

On Friday morning, July 25th, Lathe called to excitedly tell us they were at the hospital and Brookly was in labor. We packed quickly and drove down, arriving in time to nervously pace the halls till Brolin arrived about 4:15 p.m. (He was born on Jenelle's birthday) Mark calls him "L.J." for "Lathe Junior." The Bigler genes definitely won out, and that's just fine! The girl's and I stayed down in Mesa for a few days to help Brookly with the twins and love and hold the baby.

Slizzerin' snakes!

The kids saw and screamed over a snake, luckily, Uncle Tim was there to pick it up and show them it was harmless.

Bloomin' babes

Zippin' along!

It was the 4th of July weekend, and a highlight was getting to go ride the Muder's zip lines behind their home by the creek. Here's some pictures to prove that they did it...(top to bottom) Tim, Leah, Logan, Lathe, and Calla

Jenny Jo turns 20!

Breakfast in bed
Presents: new curtains, new bedspread, stuffed lion (she wants to call "Simba"), kite, puzzle, new shirt, and a slip-n-slide
The cake she chose at DQ
The anticipated 20 swats
Phone calls from Brookly, Tim and Chris made her day!

June memories

Dad building his work bench and shelves in the new shed.

Calla waiting for a race in the Show Low pool "bull pen" (pink swim cap)

The dairy view...always interesting.

Calla having fun at the next door neighbor's hot tub. Not quite a pool, but better than nothing on a hot summer day!

New look for an old house!

Creek time!

I took Calla and Jenny to the creek a couple times in the last week. They love this spot where there's a rope swing, and enjoyed acting like monkeys on it. It's hard to catch them in "flight" so I didn't get any good shots. But you can imagine how fun it was, can't you? Of course, I'm sitting in a cozy camp chair, with a bottle of ice water, relaxing. No attempts at Tarzan swinging for me.

Calla competes at swim meet in St. John's

She dives pretty, doesn't she? They let the swimmers have a free swim for 30 min. after the swim meet and she spent all her time on the diving boards. She went off the high dive twice, but I missed both shots. I tried to upload two videos of her competing, but they must be too "large" because after an hour, it still hadn't finished. It was a beautiful day for a swim meet and even though she only got a participation ribbon, she beat her personal times in all the events she competed in. Obviously, she has lots of competiton this year, but she'll get better each week.

Happy 31st Anniversary!

There was a knock on the door this afternoon and a pleasant older man was holding this huge hanging planter, a gift from my sweetheart. Aaaah. I told the man that Mark was a "keeper." He spoils me. I love anniversaries, reflecting on our wedding day memories, even if we can't really celebrate in style. Today Mark is working a 12-hour shift and we're feeding the missionaries dinner tonight. The girl's have head colds, etc. and Calla has a fever. So they've been laying around. But I've had fun working on a blog for my great-grandparents, if you're curious, check it out: elmerandardellawatson.blogspot.com

Our Heavenly Father's Plan