A week with Zach and Austin

Our grandsons, Zach and Austin, came to visit us for a week. Calvin took the week off and we had a lot of boy adventures. Calvin is very good at finding things that boys like to do like digging in the dirt and throwing rocks in the river. One of their first projects was making a dirt slide down the back hill.  

While they were there they helped Calvin put up a raspberry trellis for my new raspberry patch.

They had lots of time in Granddad's workshop using cool tools and making cool things.

We made several trips to the Truckee River to throw sticks and rocks and do a little dam building.

One cold day we went to the discovery museum, which was full of really fun things to do including an engineering room where you could build a bridge.

They had a couple of ski days at Mt. Rose where "Around the World" was thoroughly investigated. Here are 3 generations of Smith boys skiing at the top of Northwest chair.

There were a few quiet times for chess and other board games.

The hot tub was a hit with the Smith boys and the Gabbart girls in this new generation.

We dragged out the marshmallow shooters and an epic battle began between marshmallow shooters...

squirt guns....

and even a shoe.

Saturday we went to the American Kennel Club Nation Agility Championships with Peter and Roque.

Not everyone can say they did that for Spring Break! Zach and Austin are wonderful grandsons. It was so fun having them here.

Lucy Faye Smith

Lucy Faye Smith joined our family on March 6, 2015.  I got meet her a week later.  She is a child warmly welcomed into a loving family.  We are so thankful for her safe arrival.  Here are a few pics from my visit.

My phone camera is not great indoors. Sorry Butch and Emily it is not the best of you.

Out for her first stroller ride.  I think she is going to look a lot like Austin, but this side by side didn't really work.

Welcome to the world Lucy Faye

The Workshop

I thought that I would give a brief tour of Calvin's new workshop for those that have not seen it.  Last summer we enclosed the carport at the back of the house and made an all season workshop for Calvin.  It actually turned out to be a very beautiful room with great views of the western mountains.  Calvin has been in hog heaven creating new batches of sawdust almost daily. This is the view from the backyard. We had to make sure that water drained away from the house, so that involved adding a little retaining wall and small patio.  You can see a door on the very back wall that opens into the guest room. 

Calvin is just finishing a chair project.  Roque showed him a picture of a chair she liked and he built it from the picture making his own pattern. This view is looking from the back of the shop looking west.

You can see a bit of the kayak above, but here the full view of kayak storage on the north wall.

 And here are the french doors meeting the sidewalk on the south wall.

Calvin is a very neat shop keeper and has a pretty good sawdust collection system worked out, but he still has room for a few more essential tools without getting too cluttered.

RootsTech 2015

We got home Monday night from DC and I left Tuesday morning for RootsTech.  RootsTech is a genealogy Conference.  This year there were over 15,000 attendees.

This is what the halls looked like after the keynote address.

  I always enjoy going and I learn a lot at the classes.  But I also want to get in a little research while I am in Salt Lake, so I see a lot of scenes like this.

I'm glad that downtown Salt Lake is pretty safe at night. When I am there I always think back to the years we lived in downtown Salt Lake.  I decided to take pictures of some of my vivid memories.  Sarah and I used to take a lot of walking trips to Temple Square when she was little.  One day when she was a toddle as we started our walk she picked up a rock and carried it all the way to this elegant water fall fountain where she threw it in the water. A rock tends to stand out here.

When Butch was just three days old we were cutting across Temple Square to go to a Utah Jazz game.  Along the way Calvin stopped and introduced Butch to his great great great grandfather.  

And I used to look at this statue and wonder if Butch was ever going to get that old. Time seems a little different from this end.

A Quick DC Weekend

A while back we made a quick trip to Alexandria for Clare and Garrett's baptisms.  There was a pretty large gathering of Smiths, Bordelons and other friends and we managed to pack a lot into the long weekend.

We took a walk to Old Town Alexandria. one of the perks of urban living is having so much entertainment in walking distance.

 Garret is happy, not sure about Sarah

Sometimes you need a little lift.

Reached our goal, the icy Potomac

Calvin, Rosie and I navigated the Metro to make an afternoon visit to the National Gallery.  I have no idea what this is, but I liked the look of it.

We picked up Butch Saturday night and took a Sunday morning visit to the national mall. A photo op here at the new MLK memorial.

Reliving the 8th grade trip

My pictures of the main event were mostly ghost like and scary, but Clare looked beautiful and serious and Garrett almost tolerated the affair.

Monday morning Rosie, Calvin and I made a quick trip to Mt. Vernon before we met the Bordelons for lunch and then headed back to the airport.

Great trip!

Visiting Coba

Last week we had a fun family reunion in Mexico.  The only family members missing were Emily and little girl Smith who are on a "no fly" list for a few more weeks.  

Our major outing was a trip to the ruins at Coba and then some beach time in Tulum.  All five of the grandkids were great troopers dragging around the pyramids at Coba and it was early enough in the trip that we took a lot of pictures there.

Cousin bonding

Alice love to sit on the steps

so does Rosie 

Garret got to hike the easy way

Junior Archaeologists

You can still climb this pyramid, Nohuch Mul, which is the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan pennisnsula, so it was climbed.

and then we took family pictures at the bottom

What a great family!