GRANDMA SNOOPY

Jody's Grandma Snoopy passed away Wednesday, December 28, 2011 @ 8.50 pm surrounded by family.

VILDA MUMFORD LLOYD

In 1919, the tenth month of the year,
Our Heavenly Father held a daughter so dear.
He said “It’s your time now to live on the earth,
You’ll live there and learn there, and oh! How you’ll work!

Through trials and sorrow, through heartache and pain,
You’ll learn to walk when the wind blows and dance in the rain.
You’ll love and you’ll laugh as you travel through life,
You’ll be a sister, a mother, a friend, and a wife.

You’ll feed the hungry, who’ve come far and near,
Your songs to your loved ones will be forever revered.
You’ll travel the countries down many a road,
But your arms will grow weary as you’ve carried your load.

When life starts to slow you, and you fall to your knees,
You’ll find solace and comfort through prayers and memories.
When all’s said and done, there’ll be many who’ll attest,
Vilda, I loved her, she was the best."

by Doran

Fall Vacation - Day 11

You wouldn't guess what we got to do so I will tell you!!!

We went to the Snowflake Temple!!

This time we knew we needed to make appointments so Danny called for us at o'dark thirty.

When we got there we were again asked to help.

One of Doran's cousins were there handing out family names so we were able to do some family names. Then after the session we were invited to do some sealings. I happened to bring one of our names just in case we got the opportunity. We were able to complete my family name also. What a beautiful, wonderful day!

 This was Cortney's first time at this temple. 

 Daddy-daughter time.

 We went to lunch after at this..yes...Mexican restaurant.

I LOVED this sign!

Most of the temple workers were there too.

This has been such a GREAT vacation!!

Fall Vacation - Day 11

FINALLY! Running time. (That's what he says anyway.)

I took Doran out in the middle of nowhere 6.2 miles away from "home". There are very few cars that come out this way. This section of road is actually busy...with poles. When he turns in 1.2 miles he will see even less poles and more...dirt. It is a very nice route though. Plenty of time to think, regroup and feel the pain because you haven't done much for over a week.

 Just making sure that he gets to the turn and then I am off. I drove back home and started out towards him. PAIN...FULLL! I made 3 miles. Someday I need to get my motivation back.

From then on the days kind of blurr right in to each other. I am SURE that we went to Wal-Mart 25 miles away this day. That is the tradition! We go there several times a week. Sometime for groceries, Christmas shopping or just plain entertainment.

Did I say this is in the middle of nowhere? What a great nowhere though.

Fall Vacation - Day 10

Sunday we attended church with Lisa and Kevin and their family and mom. We were able to hear Lisa sing a solo. They all have such beautiful voices.

Danny and Claire went on home first thing in the morning. They called and told us they were held up in one area because of an Iron Man race. When we passed hours later they were still racing. We tried to see where they were racing to or from. We saw a mile 90 at one point then we passed the "turn-around" area. They made me tired.

We got to to mom's about 6:30 and vegged the rest of the evening.

Fall Vacation - Day 9

The annual Gardner Reunion was held in Mesa, Arizona.

We don't get to go to many of them because they are usually held two Saturdays before Thanksgiving and can't make that long of a trip.

This year the reunion was held the weekend before Thanksgiving so we got to go!

Daddy and I making Root Beer.

Nathan was in charge of getting as many pictures as he could for Claire. She is so good to make reunion pages each year for the Gardner sisters.

Auntie Claire, Aunt Wanda, Grandma Shelley

 Uncle Max, Danny

 Aunt Trelva

 Game time

 Aunt Wanda, Diana, Kim, Uncle Royd, Aunt Connie

 The Treasurers

 Carol, Wanda, Doug, Trelva, Linda 

After the reunion Danny & Claire, Doran & I and Cortney went over to Steven & Ruth's home to change for the Mesa temple. What a beautiful temple! We went early enough to get pictures before and....

at night.

Then we had a yummy Mexican dinner with mariachis playing.

Nope, not tired of Mexican food yet.

Great day...Great, great day!!

Fall Vacation - Day 8

Friday we travelled from Yuma, Arizona to Phoenix. We went straight to the airport to pick up Cortney. She was flying in and driving back with us. We met Grandma Shelley, Claire & Danny and Lisa for lunch. Then we went shopping and back to Lisa's for the night.

Inbred Cat

I LOVE VACATIONS!!

Fall Vacation - Day 7

It's Howdy Doody time...It's Howd....wait, wrong song again.

It's Sham ma mooy time, It's Sham ma mooy time.

I have just LOVED this week to vacation with my best friend!!

We saved Sea World for Thursday because the WEATHER was suppose to be sunny and the RIDES were suppose to be all open. Well...it ended up being cloudy all day and a little chilly. But the best part was it was NOT busy. We were able to go to all the shows and get great seats. Since it was not a sunny day we stayed out of the "soak zones".

AND...since it was cloudy we only rode a couple of rides but it was fun.

No matter what we do we LOVE to do it together.

After closing time we headed over to Yuma, AZ for the night.

I can't believe how early it gets dark in California. There ought to be a law. We were unable to see all the "neat" sites between San Diego and Yuma, like the Mexican Border.

What a great week it has been though!

Guess where we are off to now?

We have another WEEK of fun before we head home.

But now is NOT the time to break in our house. We have our killer cat, family and neighbors taking care of everything at home. And if you are all good we might bring you home a souvenir.

Fall Vacation - Day 6

Day 6 started off heading towards Coronado Island by way of Seaport Village. We didn't stop at either place but headed to Imperial Beach. We walked the beach and out to this pier where the fishing was fine. We got there just in time to see these guys reel in a Thresher shark. It was pretty neat until they started taking the hook out and it was messing up the sharks eye. Eww...I had to turn away. Poor poor sharky.

Mr. Thresher had a beautiful purple hue to him.

After the entertainment we headed back to Seaport Village and walked around a bit.

Then we drove out to Point Loma to see the light house. So neat out there. You are at the end of the world out there. You can see for miles and miles.

When they first built this lighthouse they thought this was the perfect spot. It is was up on a hill/cliff area at the "point". Unfortunately they discovered that it was actually too high because when clouds or fog came in the lighthouse would be covered.

Then they built this lighthouse lower down so that the clouds and fog would not interfere.

Then we walked over to the Tide Pools to see if we could see any critters. Not this time other than the critters that attach themselves to the rocks but no star fish or octopus today. But the view was spectacular!

We were hoping to see some dolphins but we did see a bunch of sea lions.

On Point Loma also stands Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. It was an awesome site. It was on both sides of the point/road. When we drove through the cemetery you could feel the reverence. To think that this is just a sliver of the men and women that died for our country. I salute you!

 We ended our day going back to Old Town for dinner. We enjoyed a delicious Mexican meal at Miguel's. We sat outside by a fire. Who could ask for more?