Candice and Adam visit all of us in Pine….and Happy Birthday to Adam!

Meeting the new baby in our family…..

As you can see, holding Gideon was the prime time activity for all of us!

Making good use of all our grapefruit, oranges, and lemons!

Candice and Adam brought our Summer Little Home to Pine.  The children helped her level the trailer, now to be known as our “Little Home.”

Isn’t this the way that all knights carry their swords?

 

We surprised Adam with a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

It was so very wonderful to have so much of our family together….to listen to them talk and laugh together, but most of all to feel all the love that filled our home and hearts.

My "Angel" 15 years later

15 years ago today, Vicky went to a dance on Whidbey Island..... because she loved to dance.  I happened to go to the same dance because I was testing out my newly-constructed foot.

I got to the dance, and looked out onto the dance floor.  There was this woman dancing who simply sparkled with life.

So I quickly put on my dance shoes, and when the dance was over ran out onto the floor.

My first words to her, as her back was to me, was "Can I have a dance?"

Her response was "SURE!"  "What is it?"

My response was "A waltz."

(how many people can remember the first conversation with their spouse, 15 years later?)

The dance actually was a waltz.  Sarah McLaughlin's singing of the song she wrote "Angel."  (Thank you Sarah.)

So, 15 years to the day, we danced to Angel, with me playing the piano.  We even duplicated that first conversation.

AND Vicky wore the same clothes she wore that night.  Before we formally met, I didn’t know her name, so I called her my "pink sweater lady." 

She literally swept me off of my feet, and nothing has changed about that in our 15 years. 

Here is our dance today to Angel:

The only difference in our dance today from 15 years ago, is the loving kiss in the middle of the dance that I gave to my love.

Dancing is something like many other skills.  You have to use it or lose it.  We have danced practically every week for 15 years, all over this fine country of ours...often outside of our camper when we were camping in dispersed areas (i.e., on lonely roads, not in campgrounds....out all by ourselves).  

Dancing together to beautiful music is part of our life, part of our love, part of us.

15 years ago we met.  It seems so long ago, and, at the same time, only yesterday.

We are taking the whole day to celebrate.  Actually, we will celebrate every day for the rest of our lives. 

Where did all of the fine actors go?

Would have a hard time even naming some current actors, other than Brad Pitt, who belong on this list of famous actors of the 1950s and 60s.  

 

Jimmy Stewart

Cary Grant

Gary Cooper

Gregory Peck

Sidney Poitier 

Randolph Scott

Kirk Douglas

Tony Curtis

William Holden

Ben Johnson

John Wayne

Charlton Heston

Lee Marvin

Paul Newman

Robert Redford

Spencer Tracy

Clark Gable

Montgomery Clift 

Karl Malden

Orson Wells 

Marlon Brando 

Humphrey Bogart

James Dean

Burt Lancaster

Jack Lemmon

Sean Connery

Gene Hackman

Robert Duval  

Home with little baby Gideon

Mila and Gideon spent the first night out of the hospital with us at Nuestra Casa….

Hannah, Vernon, and Robert talked to Gideon.  And they listened to Gideon’s sweet little squeaks snd mouse noises that he makes all day and night….except when he’s in a deep sleep.

Mama and child….

Owen drove Hannah, Vernon, and Robert down to the Pebble Beach Recreation Area on the Salt River, to meet up with us, and bring Mila and Gideon back home to their cabin in Pine. This scenic river park is in the Tonto National Forest just north of the Phoenix metropolitan area.  It’s on the route that we take to drive to Pine and has a great beach where the children can play and “swim,” so it’s a great place for us meet up.  

Owen was so very happy to see his beautiful wife and precious little son….and the children were so excited to see their new little, tiny brother!

Little did we know that Owen and the children had planned a party for Mama and little Gideon….with balloons for the children and Grandpa, cake made by Papa and Hannah, and flowers for Mama and Grandma!!!

Hannah wrote Gideon’s name on his birth celebration cake.

Papa and Hannah made up a cake recipe….a four or five layer cake with pancakes cooked in a pan, and decorated it with a maple and cinnamon flavored frosting.  We named it Gideon’s Birth Pancake Cake.  It was delicious!

This past week, culminating with Gideon’s family birthday party, is a memory that we will always cherish….the birth of our grandson and being included in all the joy this family shared as they reunited, and then headed back to their home in Pine.  This is what gives meaning to our lives.

We can sleep together anywhere!

 Mila took a nap at the hospital in the early stages of her labor.

So did we….on the narrow couch in the Labor and Delivering room.

Amazingly, Mila and both of us slept quite soundly for two hours!

Today God gave us Gideon

 At 12:16 this morning, 2 1/2 hours after Mila’s water broke, our 15th grandchild born.

Gideon’s first photo, that I took immediately after birth, at 12:16 am:

My dear husband and I were with Mila. Danny was with us since Mila’s contractions began yesterday morning at 9:30 and in the delivery room until the last few hours. During the intense contractions in the final hours before birth, Grandpa was right outside the door, waiting to to see his new little grandson and our sweet daughter, Mila, who had performed a miracle….brought a new life into this world!

I stayed with Mila and did all I could to assist and comfort her during her labor. Mila allowed me to cut the umbilical cord.

I had been with Rachelle and Ryan when Ida was born almost 17 years ago. I felt honored to witness this miracle of the birth of a child then and now.  

It was difficult to watch our daughters in such intense, exhausting pain, but there is no other place that I would have wanted to be. It is indescribable to see the strength and determination that Mila and Rachelle and all our girls found deep within themselves during childbirth.

It will always be one of the most moving experiences in my life.  And a mother’s reward is this vulnerable, beautiful child that God has entrusted into their care.

Gideon in his first few minutes of life….

7 pounds, a perfectly shaped head, a big barrel chest, and just over 19 inches long…a perfect baby boy!.

 

We thank God for this child that you have given to Owen and Mila, all our family, and the world.  May his life be blessed.