Natalie

Natalie was kind enough to let Andrea and I spend a few days with her.  We were warmly welcomed into her home Saturday evening.  She took us out to eat at Sizzler's where we enjoyed the salad bar which included some bread pudding which wasn't too bad.  Much better than what we ate at La Piaasta in Santa Fe.  Then she took us on a little tour of some of the sites in Pocatello.  After a relaxing evening catching up with all she has been doing we were off to bed for some much needed sleep.  Thirty-six hours of driving and no sleep will do that to you.

Unfortunately, I woke up at 5:00 am again!  I hope the saying, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise," is true.  Visited with Natalie until time to get ready for church and off she went.  Andrea and I didn't go with her but stayed home and worked on some genealogy.  

After church Brandon, Breanne, Abby, Allison, Roark, and Alexa came for a visit.  It was good to see them and the kids were very entertaining.  Natalie is a good aunt and you can see they love her and like doing things with her.  Looking forward to seeing them at the reunion.

Continued to do some genealogy in the afternoon and then went to Elmer's for dinner.  My cheese, avocado, lettuce, and tomato sandwich was good.  Natalie had the same but with bacon added.  Andrea had the fish and chips.  She said her fish was tough.  We wanted to try their bread pudding but they didn't have any so we were out of luck there. After we ate we went for a walk around the cemetery.  It was a very nice walk, cool in the shade of the trees.  That was my first good walk since I broke my ankle.  Andrea and Natalie were kind enough to slow waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down and keep pace with me.  Natalie gave us another little tour of Pocatello and showed us all the places she has lived.  Then back to her house, visited for a short while and off to bed I went.

Woke up this morning around, you'll never guess what time.  Yep, it was 5:00 again.  Got up and did a little genealogy, visited with Andrea when she got up and shortly we will be off again for a new adventure in Aberdeen, Idaho.

I love the picture of the daisies that Natalie painted!

Two Mountain Dew, A Root Beer, and Half a Diet Coke

It's 5:00 am and I am wide awake!  I didn't set my alarm because I am on summer break after all! Naturally, now that I can sleep in my body won't let me and since I haven't done much around the house but the bare necessities since I broke my ankle in January, there is more than enough to do; so I hop right out of bed and set to work.

I get right to work by putting a load of laundry in the washer and putting the baseboard trim around my newly installed floor in the living room (Thanks, Tanner, Riley & Jenny).  It looks beautiful by the way!  Another load of laundry and it's time to replace the furniture in the living room.  Rex helped me move a few pieces of furniture and then he was off to work.

After strategically placing all my furniture in just the right spots it was time for another load of laundry.  I had to do all the laundry so I could pack for my trip with Andrea to see family.  Next on my agenda was to tackle the bathroom, pack clothes, and get ready to go.  Those three things accomplished, I loaded up the car with my luggage and a few things for Jake and Maria and then I was off to pick up Andrea.

We left Ramah at noon, made a quick stop in Grants for gas and a few things at Walmart and then on to Santa Fe.  We found the church where Sean was having his graduation ceremony about an hour early so we wondered around the grounds and admired the beautiful landscaping.  We were the first to arrive, but weren't sure where to sit as a lot of the seats were marked reserved.  We found a place close to the front, but at the side and sat down because we thought we would have a good view of Sean from there.  Before too long the chorus came in and we found we were sitting in their seats.  So we moved to the other side in the reserved area because Sean's mom said the reserved seats were for family.  We sat there for a little while and then they asked us to move again because those seats were reserved for faculty.  I told them I was a teacher, but it was a no go and we had to move again.  Now we are in the back because all the other seats have filled up and we can barely see Sean.

Despite that the graduation ceremony was very nice and Sean was recognized for his academics several times.  It was mentioned that his one goal is to make someone smile everyday.  That put a smile on my face.  There was a brief reception afterwards and then Andrea, Sean, Martin (Sean's girlfriend) and I went out to dinner at La Piaasta.  Food and company were both good and it was time to be off way to soon.

But off we were, Andrea and I headed to Colorado to see Sean, Anna, Noah, Johnny, and Logan in Firestone and Jake and Maria in Greeley.  Alas, things did not work out as planned.  Sean, Anna and family decided to stay a few more days in Santa Fe so we crossed that off our itinerary and drove on to Greeley to spend a few days with Jake and Maria.  Alas, again, Jake and Maria just found out they had to be in Albuquerque on Monday and two hours after we got there they were off as well.  So after driving all night we were on our way again.

Our next stop was Cheyenne, Wyoming were we had arranged to meet Evelyn and her mom at IHOP. They arrived just after we got there and it was such a joy to see Evelyn.  It has been a year since I saw her and she has grown and changed a lot.  She was a little shy at first but she gradually warmed up to her Grandma Beans.  She liked my camera and took a lot of selfies and pictures of everyone there.  I was so glad we were able to see her.  After visiting for a little over two hours we sadly had to say our goodbyes and we were off again.

This time we were headed to Pocatello, Idaho.  We set up the GPS and we were off.  I drove for a couple of hours, but by that time we were both getting pretty tired as we had  not slept since 5:00 am the previous day.  Andrea took over driving and drove for a several hours and then I drove again.  By the time we reached Pocatello we were getting a little slap happy and Natalie thought we were acting a little crazy.  I don't know what she expected after thirty-six hours without more than a couple hours sleep.  I must confess Andrea drank two Mountain Dew and I drank a root beer and half a diet coke to keep us awake!