We are celebrating a year well-lived.
It wouldn't have been such an exciting year without our BIG move. We left our awesome house and wonderful friends in Virginia to move to Seattle (Southern Alaska). It has been an amazing year full of new adventures and new friends to share it with. This book contains our happy times spent together as a family.
We are living the life!
i kind of really like the Christmas card this year.
maybe it is because we were able to highlight yet again the beautiful area we live in. last year it was the beach of north carolina, before that lincoln’s monument and the year before that the washington monument.
maybe it could also be because the kids are still in their cute, young stage of life. love their faces.
for our family it was another one of those really eventful, life changing years.
we are grateful for ever single bit of 2012 and for those near and far who we got to share it with.
this is grandpa clegg,
introduced on my blog over a year ago.
they loved his visit and decided from now on he needs to live really close. closer than utah because they don’t see him often enough.
there is so much to love about him. he loves popcorn, caramel, butter, raspberry, even marshmallow. he can boil an egg. he enjoys books, intelligent conversations, the 10 o’clock news. his house is always 10 degrees too warm. he prefers ham over chicken and miracle whip over mayo. he doesn’t like Mexican food, although he had a smile on his face after sharing a café rio burrito with me. he likes the warm weather, yet his hands dry out quickly in the dry utah summers. he wears fancy black leather gloves and a golf hat on cold winter days. he would sit through my cold soccer games and cheer me on, even though he dislikes the sport. he still golfs. he is strong. he is handsome. he is smart. he knows a lot after living 90 plus years. we are blessed to have him as our family patriarch.
he has never been fearful of learning new technology. unless it is a tv remote, don’t even think about touching it, you’ll be taken out of the will. I am forever grateful to have him online emailing me and the rest of the family over the last 15 years. most of his emails are filled with a testimony about a truth he holds dear and a genealogy moment (since he is the family genealogy guru). I hope he is not offended by me sharing these, it is more for the purpose that my kids read and reread his wise words as they flip through the family blog then anything else..
i love this email response to a blog post of mine from 2009.
Monica,
My computer blewup (figuratively) last week. It is so frustrating to be without one. Your Uncle Ken installed a newer version. I m trying to learn it's operation. In doing so I was suddenly confronted under "Office Works" with a demand to get myself licensed. After sixteen pages of instructions (a legal team must have salivated over this nonsensical document) I am trying Micro's web site to define what magical title I come under as a "License device". Nowhere in that document does it define the various categories of licensees. It is worse than a Congressional bill
You might suggest that Jon look into this monstrosity to the end of simplifying it.
Well, back to your message, I can really empathize with Alexander. We just came from Church where I could barely make out a few words. The Audiologists seem to be all alike-selling a product. I enquire about Alexander's status whenever Marcia calls. You must remind yourself that as the principle caretaker you have to control your own natural desires to do your very best. Take care of yourself and so your best.
Love, Grandparents Clegg
here is one about his strong conviction of scouting, with a little family history mixed in.
It is National Jamboree this week. That dredges up some fond memories for me. Way back in 1935 there was scheduled a similar Jamboree to be located in Washington, D. C. It was limited to Eagle Scouts, at least for Utah Scouts. I was one of those selected to go. The Timpanogus Council sponsored the Utah group and paid the way. Those were depression years and most families couldn’t afford it. The week or so before the scheduled date it was cancelled due to the polio outbreak. I still have the special neckerchief they issued.
Scouting has meant so much to me. It brought high adventure and challenge to me. I was privileged to earn the first eagle scout rank, along with my buddy Miles Dillman, in Duchesne County. I still have the stash with its merit badge symbols. Quite a big deal then. You see, Scouting had only been in this country thirty or so years.
Our Scoutmaster, Willard A. Day, gave up his family vacation week and much other time to be with his Scouts. He kept track of us as we grew up and used to proudly state that “My boys have amounted to something”. I used to visit him whenever we came back to Utah and had the honor of speaking at his funeral. He did more for me in my growing up years than anyone aside from the family.
I write this to encourage each of your boys of scout age to join the BSA. You will consider it a grand privilege as you grow older. You parents of those boys should be sure that your boys get that opportunity.
Grandad Clegg
another email sharing his testimony of his gratitude for the church,
What a marvelous age in which we live! We have just concluded hearing and seeing the Church’s General Conference. Great truths and vital instructions were delivered by the speakers and the music. My mind goes back to our days of yore when Conference could only be heard on a static-filled radio even if you lived in Utah. As we traveled about we missed most of the sessions because of the lack of communication facilities. Memory takes us back to Iron Mountaini, Kenneth and a few from that Branch traveled to -----------------(Ken, help me. I can’t remember the name of the City) Wisconsin to hear the Priesthood Session. The locale was above a bar and the phone reception was not clear nor constant.
The sessions remind us all we are a favored people, blessed by a knowing a functioning God and Jesus Christ who care about each of God’s children.
They renew our testimony that the Church is true and its doctrines are understandable and for our eternal good.
We are grateful for each of you in our family. You mean so much to us now that we are recipients rather than givers.
Reed & Naomi
he is wise. he is kind.
he opens his heart to those around him and we love him for that.
hopefully the kids will one day realize how blessed they are to be able to say they know their great grandpa clegg.
“listen up america!!!
I would rather be no where else then here.”
it’s outer banks, nc.
the place where sand and sun bring us peacefully together.
our cute, adorable and completely lovable boys in 2009.
same boys. still as sweet and adorable 4 years later in 2012…let’s add a little more smelly though.
it’s peaceful until the sand fight begins.
OBX has always been a special place for our family. that explains why even after moving clear across the country to seattle the previous month we still made the trek back to the east coast for the sunny OBX experience.
it was worth every penny!
these are our OBX moments of 2012.
chasing waves.
lovin’ the sunshine.
awkward moments.
aunt alicia, don’t explain.
just-you-and-me moments.
the life of the party.
sand pit treasure hunt.
outlasting the waves.
first beach experience!
ninja shell guy.
love the water, just like the rest of them.
“just because my parents want me to take a nap, i will lick the dirty windows to show my disapproval!”
“innocent. promise.”
“some for me, and some more for ME!”
girl time.
duck donut time!
every year alexander has been the one who waits below the lighthouse in complete agony only missing the height requirement by less than an inch. this year was different. he officially cleared the height restriction and hiked all 100 steps up and 100 down himself!!!
reese certainly had a problem with being the only one left behind. “up there, graaapa, up there”.
swimsuit photo shoot.
happy moments.
my strong hero.
sand dune moments.
peaceful moments.
stinky moments.
she’s loaded her diaper. sigh.
riding the waves moments.
all cleaned up moments.
our crew.
love them all.
family.
the amazing people who made all the fun possible!
may we find ourselves on a beach together again soon.
moves are never easy.
after saying good-bye to so many friends we deeply cared for and shared our last 4 years with we are now in a new home in a new state sharing new experiences. everything may be familiar to me since these are my stomping grounds, but for my Virginia kids, it’s still not home yet. it’s getting there.
over the past four weeks we have found a lot to love about our new place.
family, friends and beautiful sunshine. they make us smile.
all. the. time.
we also love:
the mariners.
dad’s new ride!
raspberry picking….more like raspberry eating. his bucket was empty when we left.
playing at the house after lacrosse camp
snake hunts.
so far we have collectively found 11 snakes in our backyard
hanging out.
finding new friends in the neighborhood.
finding fresh air among the stinky, sweaty kids hiking the cascade mountains.
swim lessons with grandma bean!
lake day with 5 brave boys, grandpa bishopp, and me.
a new uncle
a new hair-do, her first piggy's!
visiting with friends
exploring jetty island, wa
he so kindly plopped this crab on dad’s plate for dinner.
there are books full of adventures that we have yet to explore.
what will we find next to LOVE?
