A year in the life of......

It's rather daunting to think about catching up on this blog for the last year+.  I was surprised to realize that it had been that long since I blogged.  I decided that the only way to deal with it is to just post a few photos from each month.  So let's get started....

(You can click on the photos to see them bigger).

July 2015

Clay was still working for LaQuinta and had to go down to Ashland to help out with the hotel there.  On the way home, he got rear-ended on the freeway when traffic slowed down but the driver in back of him didn't notice.  The truck was easily fixed and Clay had no lasting consequences, but the other hotel employee riding with him claimed she was injured so that's given us some complications, which hopefully will just be dealt with by the insurance companies.

August 2015

Jackson family reunion in Montana.  Anna was happiest when she had rocks and water to play with.

We got to help Danica celebrate her 11th birthday.

One of my bosses gave us tickets to see Garrison Keillor at the Cuthbert Amphitheater, and we really enjoyed the show.

Nathan went in with his friend Si (and family) to purchase a house.

September 2015

We went hiking with Mandi and Anna at Elijah Bristow Park and became slaves to Anna's newly-discovered obsession with wild blackberries.

Clay went hiking with Mandi and Anna at Crater Lake, where they enjoyed themselves despite all the smoke from wildfires.

October 2015

Clay said good-bye to his job at LaQuinta, where he was under-paid, under-appreciated, and overworked, and started a new job that he loves.

Couldn't resist this photo of Melissa and the children in their Halloween costumes.

We climbed to the top of Spencer Butte.  Since it had been over 20 years since the last time I climbed it, I found it somewhat challenging, but Clay was very patient with me.

December 2015

Evidently we didn't do anything in November that was photo-worthy, so we'll move right on to December.

Neil and Mandi asked us to take some family photos early in December.  I enjoyed taking some snapshots while Clay was doing the official photography.  It was a nice sunny day.

Putting together the toy we bought for Anna took the help of the whole family.

Clay treated himself to the weather station he's always wanted.

I treated myself to some new Lego sets, and Clay put them together for me.

Here's a few pictures from the Dewsnups' Christmas.

2016

February 2016

I guess nothing happened in January, so we're moving on to February.  Clay took a trip to Texas to visit the Dewsnups in February.  Neil and his family were there at the same time for part of the visit.  Clay took Danica to the zoo, and took Mira to Chuck E. Cheese's for some one-on-one grandpa/granddaughter time.

There was also a trip downtown to see the sights.

And time at the park/playground in Arlington.

 It was a bit challenging to try to get all 4 children to cooperate to get some photos.

April 2016

Spring was beautiful in Eugene, as usual.

Clay with his co-worker, Elijah.

Panorama shot from a small butte looking northward 

(experimenting with the camera on my new phone).

May 2016

I took a trip to Fort Worth in mid-May.  Melissa, Calvin and I went to the Botanical Gardens while the girls were in school one day.

Danica posed in front of the Dairy Queen door for me because Clay is so fond of their red spoons so I wanted to get a picture.

Clay and I headed south for our Anniversary weekend at the coast this year.  We stayed in the Itty Bitty Inn in North Bend, and explored the Coos Bay, North Bend, and Bandon areas.

Sunset at Sunset Bay

My first "selfie."

Shore Acres State Park.

Fish sculpture made of "fishy" things.

Coquille River Lighthouse.

June 2016

In June, our household tripled in size, as Melissa and the kids moved here from Texas (Rob having decided that a wife and kids was getting in the way of his preferred lifestyle, but at least he recognized that they needed the support system of their family so he didn't prevent them from moving).

Rob and his brother John drove the moving van up from Texas, but it had to be unloaded in a hurry so it could be turned in.  

The house looked like this for a while until we got a storage unit to put some of our stuff in so there was room for their stuff.

We celebrated the double birthday of Mira and Neil on June 15th.

For some reason, Danica thought Mira 

needed help opening her birthday presents.

I tried to get some things that the kids would enjoy playing with in the backyard, but the bigger kids kinda took over this one from the little kids.

July 2016

The best event of July was the birth of our wonderful new granddaughter, Eliza. She is Neil and Mandi's second daughter.

Here are a couple of photos taken by Mandi.  We are loving the red hair.

We also enjoyed a day-trip to the coast.  It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed ourselves very much.

The kids really enjoyed playing in the sand, 

including digging holes and burying Danica.

August 2016

We celebrated Danica's 12th birthday.

Clay had surgery a few days later for a torn rotator cuff (which was a work injury so covered by worker's comp). He is recovering okay, but it was a really bad tear so he may be off work for quite a while.  It has been a blessing to have Melissa here to help drive him around, etc., plus a blessing for her that he's home to baby-sit and also to get Mira off to school each morning.

The cousins are enjoying spending time together.  

Mira and Anna get along especially well.

September 2016

We spent an afternoon walking around the 

UO campus playing Pokemon Go (our latest obsession).

Because sometimes you just have

to try and get away from all those rats.

Mandi came over and helped the 

girls make cupcakes for Melissa's birthday.

The flames were impressive once the candles were all lit!

The girls were enjoying a soccer game in 

the backyard until Calvin stole the ball.

Clay and I enjoyed a sunset up on Kelly Butte in Springfield.

Mandi got some more cute photos of the girls.  Anna adores her baby sister.

October 2016

Danica is enjoying playing soccer.

I didn't do too well at getting pictures of the game (there was an Arctic wind blowing and I was huddled down in my chair trying to stay warm).

Last Sunday after General Conference we went for a walk in the park. We took umbrellas along because it had been raining earlier, but we lucked out and didn't get rained on (only splashed by Mira stomping through puddles with her rain boots).

Well, those are the highlights of this past year.  Maybe I'll make a New Year's resolution to blog more often....but it probably won't make a difference.  :-)