Eleven Kids: July 2011

As long as we are traveling down Memory Row, we used to camp here with my family growing up on several summers. We join some of my relatives for some waves and camp up on the bluff. Dave and I came in late the first night and my nephews had already set up our tent. We were grateful for their help, but boys did we have a terrible time with aunts crawling all over us each night. When we took the tent down 2 days later we discovered that a tent stake had been driven into an aunt hill! I guess they didn't like it - me either.

My cousin Steve and his wife Susie

Jordan and Christine joined us for the last night and then we headed south to San Diego to see their adorable apartment and the grounds that Jordan has volunteered to oversee. He has a green thumb like his dad.

I have become the world traveler lately, catching visits with most of our eleven kids and grandkids (all except Wade's family). I flew to Oakland to help Nicole pack up and move from Palo Alto to Lancaster. It has got to be hard to be single and moving often, always renting with a collection of revolving girls. Nicole has worked in San Jose for the last 4 1/2 years at Lockheed Martin, so leaving her group was a bit sad, but the government project she has been working on was coming to an end. We spent an entire day packing boxes and going up and down stairs, took furniture to Goodwill, and headed out of town late one afternoon with me driving her car and Nicole in the moving van. We got to Lancaster/Palmdale the next day (the middle of the desert - about 1 1/2 hours from LA- for those wondering where that is). It was hot. She met the YSA bishop on her previous interview trip, who told her the only girl not living at home in the ward was a school teacher who owned her own house. A phone call and Skype visit later the math teacher (Becky) agreed to have Nicole rent a room from her. It seemed better than living in a new town all by herself. We dropped Nic's stuff in the garage and returned the next week when Becky was back from her vacation to unpack. Becky turned out to be a very nice BYU grad about Nicole's age and was very helpful. She has a nice 4 bedroom house (with air conditioning!) and the two seemed to hit it off well (Yeah). Nicole will finish up her masters degree this week and then start working at Lockheed Martin's Skunkworks next week. We wish her the best because she deserves it!

Growing Up: Memory Lane

I spent a whole week at Grandma Hatch's where I grew up. We moved into this house when I was 10 years old. It had been owned by our former stake president, and he wanted to keep it in the Mormon community so he made my parents a deal that was hard to refuse. A house in the city on a half acre was unusual, and we sure had a lot of parties here over the years. I spent some time just taking shots of this home built in the 1940's and let my mind reminisce about days gone by.

This is a long narrow driveway. It is how I learned to back up using a mirror. Some of you would say I still have a difficult time backing up, and it is true that most of my car accidents have to do with backing up, but I could zip down this driveway in a flash. Most of the homes in the neighborhood were built

with a detached garage in the back..

My parents grew up during the Great Depression and they knew how to make a dollar stretch. My dad was in a family of 11 kids, and food was valued. Hence as the landscaping of this yard matured he would plants fruit trees. We had plums, peaches, apricots, oranges, lemons and cumquats, as well as a vegetable garden.

Oranges year round ^

Lemons ^
Comquats (sour on the inside and sweet edible skin) =>

This small room off the kitchen was originally a formal dining room, but we always used it as a family room (David, Diane, and I just repainted it). The formal living room (below) was for Family Night and

Home Teachers.

Grandma's favorite painting by our cousin's husband, Mark Henderson.

Memories of Grandpa always included his workbench in the garage.
It was mission control for all his projects.

One of the bedrooms (Kent's and Rex's) now serves as the computer room (Grandma's mission control).

This desk in the mater bedroom is where Grandpa studied and wrote his congressman and the local
newspapers about his opinion on matters.

Now we come to the best part of living here: The Backyard

This large pool was the center of summer activity. We have had ward parties, school parties, luaus, youth conferences, extended family parties, and teenage hanging out here.

On one side of the pool was the guest room with a food storage room, and washroom/bathroom all attached to the garage.

Beyond the pool was the "sport court", swing set, and of course more fruit trees.

More time is spent in the shade of the pool patio than anywhere else. On a warm summer day, this was the coolest spot on the property (no air conditioning)