The Girls go Rock, Climbing

These are some pictures that Ann passed on to us where they took Olivia, Sophie and Nora rock climbing with their home school bunch. From the looks of it, they had a real exciting time.

Here Olivia starts up the dangerous ice-covered north face of the Eiger.

Nora carefully traverses during a fierce snow storm

Sophie scrambles to rescue a fellow climber injured in the avalanche.

Ann supervises safely from the ground.

A Day at the Great Big Greenhouse

The Great Big Greenhouse is a local nursery and once a year they hold a hands-on actvity fest for kids. Mema took Clay, Tanner and Camden this year and they had a ball!

They made and painted birdhouses.

They made masks (or maybe they are hats).

We stood in line a long time wating for the balloon guy to blow.

Like this.

But all in all everyone had an absolute great time!

Aunt Janet Leaves Us

Aunt Janet from Seattle came to visit us back in October and was able to observe Thanksgiving with us. Finally, she had enough and decided it was time to return to Seattle. But first, she decided to stop in Gibbon, NE to visit her niece and nephew for a few days. We certainly enjoyed Janet's visit and the kids, especially, became close to her. She will be missed.

We decided to have a little going-away party so the kids and grandkids could say their good-byes. These are just a few of the pictures taken.

Indian Campfire Cookout

We had the little indians over for a "cookout" in the fireplace. Mema found some indian headbands, we built a fire in the hearth and the little savages cooked some 'dogs -- with a little adult supervision. Our tribe for the evening consisted of Clay, Cammie, Tanner and Rylan.

Oh wait! Not those indians!

THESE INDIANS!!!

It was a fun evening and, thankfully, none of the little indians were hurt in the fire.

A Quiet Thanksgiving

We had a small but nice Thanksgiving this year. Son Scott flew in from St. Paul, Ashley brought Rylan over, Ginny joined us and, of course, Aunt Janet is visiting from Redmond. We just kind of laid all the food out and let folks serve themselves. We are very thankful that God brought Mema through the very difficult surgery and is now healing her.


All the grans think Uncle Scott is some sort of rock star. I guess because he is from out of town and isn't seen as much.

Here, Rylan tries to figure out how to use Mema's crutch.

Mema shows Rylan some of the nicer things that can be done with Pla-doh.

Mema's Knee - Update

Mema is progressing very nicely along the road to full recovery. Her PT persons say she is way ahead of usual expectations but then Mema always exceeds expectations. I won't publish all the pictures I took but this one of her in the hospital with Eddie's bunch pretty much speaks for itself.

Tanner especially liked the "trapeze" mounted over the hospital bed and now wants one over his at home.

Meanwhile, Mema takes a few tentative steps the day after the surgery. It is now 10 days after surgery and she is able to climb steps (she isn't supposed to). It won't be long before she is back running marathons.

Mema Gets a New Knee

Mema had her right knee replaced on Nov. 14. The total knee replacement was performed by one of the area's best surgeons and he was quite pleased with himself over the results. We checked into the hospital at 0630 and, as luck would have it, Judy was the first on the slate of several patients waiting to have similar procedures. After two hours it was over. She spent another two hours in recovery and then was gurneyed to her room. We had arranged for a suite of rooms so I was able to be with her the three nights she was in the hospital.



I can't say enough about the care of the nurses for her three-day stay. They were wonderful! Now she is home recuperating and doing the things PT tells her to do. So far she is exceeding all their expectations but then, Mema has always been an over-achiever.



Our friends and family have been just great with their encouragement, show of concern, and gifts of flowers and food for Mema. She is to not ride in a car for 3 weeks; not drive a car for 6 weeks and no airline travel for 8 weeks. She will be on crutches until she feels she can graduate to a cane. Then its up to her as to leave the cane behind.

Thanks to all of Judy's friends and family for your prayers and thoughts.