My Grandpa

We all knew this day would come just as we knew that grandma leaving would come also. It is hard to see them go but knowing that they have to. We can't keep them forever here but we can keep them forever in our hearts and in our memories. And that I do have alot of, memories of my grandpa. My grandpa was a quiet man with a great big heart. He never said much but showed us all how much he cared buy his actions. Nothing excited me more than to wake up in the top of the camper and hear the squeak of the door early in the morning - knowing that grandma and grandpa had taken us fishing. Many fishing trips and vacations in grandpa's truck and camper. My grandma once told me what her favorite memory was. Daralynn and I singing to the Neil Diamond 8 track tape in the camper at the top of our lungs. Mine is of watching grandpa drive his truck and talking on his CB. I thought that grandpa was the coolest talking on his CB to other truckers and his CB handle was Corn Flakes. My grandpa and his quiet strength helped with many projects at our home. Helping mom build fireplace hearths and building playhouses, picking worms so we could go to Disneyland, and right down to helping me buy my first car. I love every moment I got to spend with my grandpa and am very grateful that my kids got to spend some time with him and know him.

BIG MAN AND A LITTLE FISH!!!!!!

This was our exciting weekend before school starts in one more week (August 31) to be exact. We drove to Hagerman on Saturday afternoon and almost got blown into the water by the wind.....no fish to be caught that day. We stayed at my Grandpa's house and got up Sunday morning to attend church in DaraLynn's ward - Kristofer turned 12 on friday - so my dad ordained him to the Aaronic Priesthood. Then we went to DaraLynn's apartment for lunch and I talked to my favorite friend Valerie VanLeuwen for about 3 hours- she is the one I went backpacking with about 20 years ago. Then we hung out at Grandpa's the rest of the day. Mondy we got up and drove to Little Wood River and as you can see from the pictures - that was the big catch of the day. Dillon started out and caught the first little fish about the same size, then Cameron and then Joe caught that one. I only had the camera when Joe caught that one so of course in the words of Tommy Boy --- "Big man and a little fish"!!!!! We then drove to Ketchum and walked and fished and walked and walked and walked some more to fish "The Big Wood River.....Well as they say "A Bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work!!!" Amen to that.

And the latest excitement for the summer

Joe got the boys interested in fly fishing and now that is all they want to do. Cameron woke up right at 6:00 am this morning ready to go -- Joe wasn't so excited about waking up that early, but Cameron has been waiting patiently to go.

The next leg of the trip

We moved on from Colorado and drove into Nebraska in yet another bad storm this time with hail the size of quarters. We went to North Platte, where Joe's grandparents were celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary. Those were a couple more action packed days of visiting Mormon Pioneer trails, catching grasshoppers and then moving on to frogs, and more thunderstorms and humidity. We took lots of pictures, visited family, rode a horse and crashed after that day. The next day was full of baseball, swimming and a little relaxing. And Saturday we took family pictures, had the big party for Grandma and Grandpa Combs and then went to "The Farm" and started a bonfire, roasted a few hot dogs, made a few smores and shot some good old shotguns. And the greatest thing looking for the buffalo in the dark in the back of the trailer. Great memories for my family to always remember.

Summer Updates

Well it has been a very busy summer and 2 weeks to go before school starts. I think my latest post was the Kerbs Family Reunion so I will just update from there. Shortly after that trip we made the trek to Colorado and met up with Joe's family in Estes Park Colorado. We drove up this huge mountain and hit the elevation at 12,000 (and something)- all I know was that the air was really thin clear up there. We saw alot of elk and a marmot. It was very beautiful and very very high -- I saw a sign on the way back down that said the drop off to the bottom was 2 miles down - I didn't really think we should test that out so we decided to stay on the road. The kids went fishing in the little lake that was close by and we were in a pretty powerful thunderstorm during those few days.