We're GRANDPARENTS!!!

The ARRIVAL !!

Bennett Owen West

March 29, 2011

weighing 7 lbs. 12 oz.

Here we are with Megan's family in the waiting room.

Waiting...

waiting...Here's Katherine McCombs trying to listen through the wall for any sign of the birth. At 5:15 pm the beautiful, healthy baby boy makes his appearance!

Such a wonderful, happy, spiritual time we were so fortunate to share with this new beautiful family!!

Ahhh...

Thank you Owen and Megan for letting us share this day with you!

We love you and know you will be great parents.

Our hearts are just FILLED with love and joy!!

Gathering with Old Friends

We had a great evening at the Cheesecake Factory with dear friends.Carol and Don Currie came to So. Cal. from Oregon for a visit. It was just about a year ago that Don had suffered a stroke and since all these good buddies befriended him at his time of need
even though it had been years since seeing or talking to him much, the Curries wanted to be sure and get together with all these friends that have known each other for over 30 years. We had a great time catching up on what everyone is doing and how their kids are. We were asked, "How is it possible to have 4 out of 4 kids doing so well and how could they all have chosen such great people to marry?"
I'm SO grateful for my family and the gospel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It makes ALL the difference!!
Thank you: Julie, Owen, Karen and Kathy.

Thanks for being good, and kind, and for choosing to follow Christ's example in your life.
Thank you for choosing such wonderful spouses.
Thank you Daniel, Megan, Danny and Jeff for being such great people and choosing to live the gospel.
We love you all.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

We had a ceili at Los Rios Rancho in Oak Glen and I was so happy that Denise and Phil could be there!!

Thanks for coming!!Rita Ward called the dances and did a great job!!

WoooHooo!!!

Ceilihouse Band!!

The hikes

Some of our hikes in the Virgin Islands included this one near Cinnamon Bay. It was only about a 4.2 mile hike, but it was steep,...in fact with dad's watch he determined that we climbed 700 ft. (It was kind of difficult at the time, but maybe we're just out of shape.)

It was quite beautiful and very humid.

Starting in the 1600's these islands had numerous sugar plantations that were worked by slaves. This rock wall is believed to have been created when slaves cleared sugar cane fields and stacked the rocks.

We were able to view these petroglyphs and pool of water as a reward for our climb.

We were able to see our boat from the trail.

One day we met a couple who were probably in their 70s who are from New York. They do volunteer work for 3 months a year here at a camp called VIERS. (Virgin Island Environmental Resource Station.)
It was started by General Electric and NASA in 1966.
It was here that the first astronauts came and were sumerged in a tank in this bay for 90 days. Now the camp is used for students and there is a small museum which we were able to go through.

This is an old sugar cane mill.

This was in the BVI and we hiked from "Little Harbor" to "Big Harbor".

Sunrise/Sunset

I realized after uploading all our photos of the sunrises and sunsets that we were a little obsessed with the beauty of them. Maybe I'll delete some as I write, but if not, hope you enjoy just scanning through them.

At 5am, this is what the sky looked like as we left Redlands. This was the last time I saw the moon until we got back to Redlands.These pictures are in order of when we saw them although I can't remember at exactly which bay we were at at the times they were taken.

Our flight home started at 5pm and we traveled all night with a delayed plane in Atlanta, arriving in Redlands at 6am. These pictures were on the freeway entering Redlands. That was after having to call AAA for a dead battery at LAX.