Family Foto Time Again

This family photo is from December of 1998. We rented a place at Laguna - and had a fun time. Little Harry didn't make it for the photo op - he was working in LA at the time. We all had a good time. We look quintessentially California don't we??

A "Current" Family Photo

A current "family" photo would probably just be Dad and me, since we are co-habiting at present in an "empty nest." But if you define family as unattached offspring who occasionally do laundry at your house - and stay with you in hotel rooms for trips here and there - then Hannah and Noah would fit the defintion.

Outside the Bountiful Temple after Joey and Mercy's wedding on Saturday.

Noah, captured taking a solitary stroll around the grounds that day.

Hannah, feeling a little "peaked" dozing in the car as we toured Davis county and environs after the wedding - and before the luncheon!

The very nice room we had at the Hilton, courtesy of Fred's sister. Hannah, mugging for the camera.

It was fun to spend the weekend with the "little kids."

More Funny Family Photos

How many family photos have been taken under the Cozy First and Last Chance??

This isn't particularly a funny family photo - but it is pretty funny of Eliza. I was thinking I could probably find a family picture where at least one of us looks a bit goofy.

This was the weekend Phoebe and David came down to have an engagement photo taken - or it was the weekend David came to meet us.

Either way, Harry wasn't there.

It's from 1998 anyway.

Funny Family Photos

It's not that this is an especially funny family photo, but it does capture a "moment in time" - one where just about everyone got a short haircut - notable exceptions being Harry F. and Bruce.

I didn't like my haircut - I showed the guy a picture of a hairdo I wanted and asked him if he could do it with my hair. He said if I straightened my hair it would work. So I went through the expense and hassle of getting my hair straightened - and it didn't work!!

Which is why I'm growing my hair out for now - my regular hairdresser had a baby and isn't going to be doing hair anymore. So until I find someone I trust, I'm just getting "trims."

Long ago and far away

When you are caring for young children, those days inevitably come when you feel like you will never have a moment to yourself. You will never eat a meal in peace, go to the grocery store alone, soak in the tub to your heart's content, have a tidy house, or read a book straight through with no interruptions.


You truly feel like there is only today. Tomorrow will never come.

But I am here to tell you that tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow just keeps on coming - and as the years march on, tomorrow seems to come with alarming frequency.

And you look back on those crazy, noisy, dusty, grimy, whiny, sloppy days with a feeling approaching nostalgia and even some remorse - remorse for wishing them away and not always savoring them.

Having all the "kids" here for the weekend was a little blessing from heaven. As Bonny so aptly put it in her sweet testimony, it was a "Terrill Moment" that I think we all treasured.

After church, we all had lunch here at home and then had a Family Home Evening. We sang, we had an activity (writing additional verses for "Because I Have Been Given Much"), and then Dad gave a lesson. It was good to relate to one another in that way.


Sunday night we had a birthday party for Noah, and on Monday all the "kids" went to the beach. By Tuesday noon everyone was back home or on their way there, and the weekend was over.

But I think I knew enough not to worry about the inevitable messes in life and just enjoyed everyone being here.

I suggest it to everyone - savoring the moment!

Carpe diem!

Maybe you can't go home again, but you can have a great time talking about it!

This is me in the 9th grade at Patrick Henry Junior High School - 1959

This Judy Vergine, my next door neighbor growing up - we were comrades in exploring with our imaginations during the fifties. This is lunch hour at Patrick Henry Junior High in 9th grade.

And this is Mom, Judy and me having a little "mini-reunion" when she came to see what had happened to the old homestead next door (it's been torn down and replaced with a "mini mansion" but the garage-turned-granny-house where her own grandma lived is still there.)

We enjoyed going over the old days - how she'd come to the fence and call me in my room - usually to wake me up, how we fought once and our moms made us come to the fence and make up, how we collected paper dolls and made houses and cities for them to live in, how we'd save our allowances and go to the By-Lo on Chatsworth to see what was new in the paper doll world, how we walked to the Union station by the Women's Club in the summertime to visit the traveling library, how we walked to StarDust Liquor store for popsicicles, how we both didn't like the new girl in the neighborhood who took baton twirling lessons and was pretty stuck up - at least that's what we thought, and how even after all these years, we felt a connection.

Let's hear it for best friends in childhood!