We parented, We're parents, We are Grandparents

Viv and I are so excited to announce the arrival of Gavin Thomas Gardner. Born on 27 November 2009. He weighed in at a tiny 6 pounds 5 oz. I think with a little training and dedicated effort he could wrestle at 6 pounds.

Brooke brought new meaning to the phrase "shop till you drop." She was out early (3:30) with her sisters on Friday morning to hit all the Black Friday shopping specials. She shopped for a long time and then took a nap and hit it again with Nathan. They called Vivian a few times looking for gift ideas and Brooke was really tired and was having contractions. Viv thought she had just been on her feet too long and told Nate to take her home and put her to bed so she could rest. When they got home and laid down she was still having pains and they decided to time them. Before they could time them however, her water broke. Nate got a few things together and jumped in the car. Their Dr. was in Jordan but Brooke was already feeling the need to push and so he raced to the Tooele hospital. While he was filling out some admittance forms they took Brooke to the ER. By the time he got to her side, the baby was almost there. Nate says they left home at 9:10 and got to the hospital at 9:16 and the baby was born at 9:20. Nate can fill us all in on all the details. We feel blessed that Brooke and Gavin are healthy and everything turned out so well. She literally shopped till Gavin dropped.

Nate sent a text message right after announcing the birth. I had just landed in St. Louis and turned my phone on when I got the message. I called Nate to see what was going on. He had still not held the baby yet it was so new. OK, here is a little insight into your dad...as soon as I hung up I stopped in a secluded spot and prayed and thanked God for his great gifts, then I cried like a baby as I walked to the truck, then I sang some of my favorite hymns at the top of my lungs. Fortunately it was 10:30 at night here and I was in the deserted parking lot at the Missouri Air National Guard facility so I don't think anyone detected my lunacy. Then I called mom and all you boys to let you know.

I was feeling pretty sorry for myself because I had to work over thanksgiving. Then suddenly Heavenly Father showed me again all that I had to be thankful for. I am thankful for family and the plan of salvation. I am thankful for temples and priesthood power that seals us together forever. I am thankful for a savior who is the power, architect, and sacrifice that makes all of the above possible. I am thankful for my sweetheart, her love, her sacrifice, her example, and her health. I am grateful for my mother and I miss her. I am pretty sure one of the last faces Gavin saw before he left his heavenly home to come stay with us for a while was Grandma Gardner. Likewise, I am convinced that one of the first faces we will all see when we leave this life will be Grandmas. We will be amazed at the influence she and all of our loved ones exerted in our lives.
I am thankful for the opportunity to bow myself before my creator in prayer and worship him. When you think about it, it is one of the most glorious things in life. I would be very shy about facing a king or president or ruler and asking for a special favor. Yet the God of the Universe allows me to approach him at any time, day or night and ask for the most trivial things. I have learned from experience that hears me, he answers me, and he begs me to come back more often and teaches me through his spirit to be more wise in the things that I ask for. I am thankful for a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and the restored gospel. I am thankful for my father and his example. We are all recipients of innumerable blessings because Grandpa Gardner overcame many of his families traditions and weaknesses and embraced the gospel with all his heart and taught us to do the same. His righteousness is being answered with blessings on the heads of his posterity to the third and fourth generations. I hope Gavin and all of our future family members will be able to say the same of me and that he and his children will be blessed because of my efforts to follow Heavenly Father's plan of happiness.

Vivian said I should not write like that in our blog because anyone can read it. I say, please do. Read it, think about it, pray about it. If you don't have this kind of joy in your life, ask me about it and I will be happy to share what I know. God bless you all.

Love,
Dad

I drew, I'm drawing, Im a Drawer

OK so we drew names for christmas and here is what we came up with:

Ben has Jason
Ryan has Brandon
Nate has Ben
Jason has Ryan
Brandon has Nate

That leaves mom and I off the hook. Merry Christmas. It looks like things are set to have a fun holiday here in Illinois. Everyone will be here except Nate and Brooke and baby?. I will even be here for Christmas this year. I am off from the 22nd to the 30th. Its a miracle.

Love you all. I will send more later. Got to run to church. Mom's surgery went well and she even felt good enough to go out to dinner last night. We went to the German restaurant and they had an oom pa band. It was funny.

Love you all.

I walked, I swam, I'm a Tourist

Ok, we are officially traveled out for a while. Vivian felt like during her Chemo and radiation treatments that she was confined and there was so much she wanted to see and do but couldn't.

Now that she is feeling great she wants to go and do everything. Now we have...at least for a while. We have abandoned Brandon enough for a few months. With that said, we had a great time in Cancun. Where to start?

Vivian left on Wed. the 28th and met me in Atalanta. We got up early the next morning and caught a free flight to Cancun. We were supposed to meet her sister LeAnn and her Brother Tom at the Cancun airport along with LeAnn's husband John. They all speak Spanish so no big deal. Of course you know of the Halgren curse. They are always late. Apparently there was a huge snow storm Denver (14 inches) John and LeAnn got to the Denver airport with just enough time to get on the plane. Unfortunately, they left their passports in the car. By the time John ran to the car and got them, the plane left with only Uncle Tom on board. John and LeAnn then had to decide do we really want to go or stay. They decided to go and paid walk up fares on a different airline which cost them a fortune. Both planes were delayed for de-icing. Uncle Tom arrived at about 6:00p.m. and John and LeAnn arrived about 12:30 a.m. The resort we stayed at was about an hour and a half from the airport. Vivian and I arranged for a van to take us, $100. Uncle Tom caught a taxi, $120 bucks. John and Leann caught the last bus south, $150. The story = priceless.

We hired an LDS tour guide on Friday morning to take us to the ruins at Chitza-Nitza (forgive the spelling) and then he suggested we go to Ek Balam. It was truly an amazing visit. We read passages from the Book of Mormon as we visited the sights and talked about the way these apostates worshipped and lived. It was fascinating. Some of the stuff we will have to share in person but I came away with a whole different picture in my mind of the Lamanites and Nephites 300 years after Christ's visit to the Americas.

On Saturday we went swimming and snorkeling at Turtle Bay and we saw several sea turtles a few sting rays, a sea snake, and lots of fish and coral. The water was clear and warm and we had a great time. In the evenings the resort served dinner at a central dining facility or you could make reservations at one of 4 different specialty restaurants. That first night together we at at the Asian restaurant, the next night at the Brazilian restaurant, the next was the Mexican restaurant and then we went back to the Brazilian restaurant because it was so good. We skipped the Italian place. Every evening they had some kind of program but we only went once to see the fire dancers. They were OK but not nearly as good as the PCC. We played a lot of games and just sat around in the evenings and talked.

Tom had to go home a few days before the rest of us so on Monday we went to the ruins at Tulum then went out to the forest and saw some spider monkeys and a Howler monkey. We saw a Cenote (a sink hole) that the Lamanites had used to bury some of their dead. They had skulls on a shelf down inside the hole. I played baseball with some Mayan kids about 10 years old. They had a rotted ball and some ratty gloves and they all looked at me like I was Nolan Ryan. Sunday we tried to go to church and we caught a taxi to get there. No one was at the building and when we asked our guide about it later he said, "oh yeah, it was stake conference."

We rented a car and drove all over on Tuesday and Wednesday. We went to the ruins at Coba and were able to climb the Yucatan's tallest pyramid. It had been closed for quite a while and we were lucky to be there on a day when it was open for tourists. You got there by renting bikes and riding through this rain (literally) forest. We were drenched. We saw the Stella (rock) from which they get the Mayan ca lander projection that everything ends in Dec 2012. I was not impressed. Who's going to believe a bunch of apostates anyway.

On our way to Coba we saw this big lake and a small rickety boardwalk that went out 30 yards or so. Our guide said, "hey, do you want to see some crocodiles?" Well who doesn't want to stand on a rickety pier in a jungle and see a wild crocodile? So off we went and paid this guy 10 pesos to stand on his dock. He tapped the edges with a stick and sure enough 3 big crocodiles came swimming up. Then he started feeding them chicken and beef on the stick. They came way up out of the water to eat. In fact they were higher up out of the water than the Pier so Vivian made her way back to the car. We saw several others hiding in the grassy areas. It was way cool. We needed to snorkel one last time before we came home and it was the best hour of snorkeling ever. We saw a whole weeks worth of sea life in an hour. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. We missed you all and I hope we can all go together sometime. Would one of you please become independently wealthy so all of us can leech off of you for trips like this?

I visit, I visited, I'm a vistor

OK, so here is the long awaited update on our vacation to Hawaii. I don't mean to brag but it was close to being the perfect vacation. If only we could have had all of you along with us.

We arrived on Tuesday and watched the weather that evening to see the 5 day forecast. High-88 Low-77 every day. I need to move to Hawaii and become a weather man.

I arranged ahead of time to have someone meet our flight and present Vivian with an Aloha greeting and a Lei. (I know, who cares about that romantic crap, right? Our wives do so figure it out.) We stayed at Bellows Air Station on the East (windward side of the island. Many people we met said Bellows has the best beach on the island and I agree. The beach is private during the week for Air Force only and their guests and open to the public on the weekend. The crowd on Friday night was enormous. I guess the locals all agree it is the best beach around. We walked down Waikeke beach and it was rediculously crowded and commercialized. Bellows was private and secluded and a perfect place to watch the sunrise, which we did every morning. (who can sleep with a 5 hour time difference anyway) Here is a picture of Bellows just before sunrise and the house we stayed in.

We love to hike so each morning we watched the sunrise, went on a hike and then swam for several hours. In the afternoons, we had lunch, swam some more, and visited with our friends the Brenners. They were there visiting their daghter who's husband is a Marine and just got deployed to Afghanistan for the 3rd time. She lives at Kaneohe and we spent two nights on the base there. We all went to the Polenessian Cultural Center one night for a Luau and stage show. It was great and not too expensive with our military discount. Ryan knows the fire knife dancer but he was so busy signing autographs and things that we weren't able to say hi. We climbed Diamond Head and then Koko Head which is a very steep climb but worth the view. The next pictures are from Koko Head.

You can see the steep steps in this next picture. There are 1048 of them. They are railroad ties that were once used to pull a small rail car up to the top loaded with ammunition and supplies for the guns and lookouts at the top. They must have had quite a view of Pearl Harbor when the bombs started falling on Dec 7th. They obviously weren't awake before then.

This picture (above right) is the beach at Bellows. The water is the most beautiful blue. We took several pictures of Haunama Bay which is a volcanic cone on the windward side of the island where the sea wall has reoded away to let in fish and sea life but is still secluded and a very popular place.

We went on a drive up Tantalis Rd. that has one of the most beautiful views of both sides of the island. It is above the Punch Bowl which is the military cemetary on the island. That is Diamond Head in the distance. Finally we went over to the North Shore to watch the big waves at Sunset beach. They have a beach over there where the sea turtles like to sun bathe. We ate Hawaiian shaved ice at a place that Ryan told us about. It must live on it's reputation. There were several other shaved ice places on the same road but they were all empty while this place had lines around the corner of the building. They put a scoop of ice cream in the bottom of the bowl and put shaved ice on top with whatever flavors you want. Eventually it all runs together and the ice cream makes it really creamy. Oh yeah, we ate pineapple till it became embarassing then we ate more. Man was it good. We really ate like 8 while we were there. It would sure be fun to take the whole family there someday. What a wonderful place to relax. After Eric's death and the crazy week that proceeded this vacation, I needed a break and really got one. I don't mean to overlook the fact that mom and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. It was all part of the package deal and one more element that made this the perfect vacation.

I drive, I drove, I'm a driver (not a three iron)

5,000 miles in two weeks. Not a record but it is still a lot of sitting in the car. Mom actually went the distance. I flew home from our vacation to Utah and she and her sister LeAnn finished the drive home to St. Louis. In fact, they didn't even make it all the way home before they decided to goof off. They met "me at the muni, the muni in Forest Park" (it's a jingle on the local radio stations, I thought the boys would recognize it). We watched the outdoors production of the Music Man.

As I read Andrea's blog about lyrics, I had to laugh becasue Vivian is one of the worst in the world at getting song words correct. Her hearing is not great and so she kind of hears what she wants to. As a guy who memorizes the words to a lot of old songs (and changes them on purpose) I get a real kick out of what she comes up with sometimes. The Music Man was no exception. Try this one, "Oh we've got trouble, right here in Rapid City, with a captial T and that rhymes with P and that stands for school." Ok I made that up but it is a pretty acurate portrail of what she come up with sometimes. Did I mention that I love that about her.

Vivian is doing great and feeling great and I am having a hard time keeping up with her. She is walking or bike riding every day and she runs when she can. We are going to Hawaii on Aug. 25th and will be there for our 30th wedding anniversary which is Aug 30th. We plan on sitting on the beach, eating a lot of pineapple, and snorkeling.

We talked about having our family reunion next year in Hawaii but Nathan suggested that maybe we ought to rent a house boat at Lake Powell and get some jet skis or a ski boat and just play around closer to home. Let us know what you all would like to do. I know Shalon wants to save money for her trip to Sicily and going to Utah would be a lot cheaper.

We sure loved seeing you all on vacation. I guess I need to come to Utah and give Nate and Ryan some golfing instruction. It can come in handy. I'll part with these famous words from the Sound of Music, "Sold long, faired well, all feed here's a good buy."

I'm sparkling, I sparkle, I'm a Sparkler

Happy 4th of July family. We missed being with you on this special day. Hope you all had a great holiday. I am not sure if you all realize how much I love our country. I feel that one of my greatest blessings has been to serve in the forces that defend this countries' freeedoms. ( and getting to fly while doing it is not a bad gig either.) I am a patriot and hope you all appreciate the great blessings that are ours because we were born in this land.

We went to the STL arch and watched the fireworks last night. We sat right underneath the arch on the grass and watched as they launched a great display from the middle of the river. It was spectacular. The wind was blowing slightly towards us so after a few minutes some of the fireworks were blocked out by the smoke. As the finale wound up, the top of the arch was obscured from view becasue all of the smoke formed an enormous cloud. We had picnics with several friends and played Kubb and other games. We had a really fun time with the Youngs on Friday night. We watched "What about Bob on the projection TV on their cieling and layed on our backs on couches and blankets. I jumped on the Young's trampline and was teaching the little girls how to do back flips. Mom had to go in the house. She couldn't stand the thought of me breaking my foot again. I also did some summersaults on the grass and the girls couldn't believe I could do that.

I took Brandon and a group of scouts on a canoeing trip down the Merimac river. There was a big tree in the middle of the river with a branch sticking straight up. We decided that whoever could climb it and jump off would be king of the river. The base of the branch was covered with moss and very slippery. Noone was able to get up so we boosted Brandon up a little past the moss and he was able to pull himself up and get his legs over the branch, then he got his hips on top and was able to stand up. He was the king. I was able to shimmy up the entire log from the bottom and did a flip into the water. The Gardner boys were king for a day. We went into the cave and were able to go nearly to the end. It was a good 35 minute walk in frigid water but we had a great time and there were lots of rock formations to enjoy.

Mom is in bad shape. She feels good but she has 3rd degree burns under her left arm and breast from the last week of radiation. Her skin is literally black with several blisters that are exposed and red and raw. I feel so bad but there is nothing we can do but wait for it to heal. They did intense radiation on the spot where she had no clear margin between the cancer and healthy tissue the last 8 days of her treatment. The radiation continues to burn for up to a week afterwards so we still have several days to go before it will start healing. She is all done though as of last Wednesday. They have a bell that you ring as you leave the cancer center for the last time and I went with her as she got to ring the bell. It was a touching sight. Three of her friends also went and they all went out to breakfast together that morning and then went and got pedicures. I drove to the airport and went to work.

I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of Vivian and the way she has dealt with all of this adversity. She has kept a great attitude and never pittied herself. She continued to serve as Relief Society President and never stopped serving others. She has been a great example. I hope I can be as strong when my turn comes to lay my all on the alter. Through it all God has blesssed us and we have learned again how much He loves us and that he never forgets or abandons us.

I'm Sweating, I Sweat, I'm a Sweater

It finally turned hot in O'Fallon. We have had the AC on for days but we never seem to get the temperature just right. With Vivian's hot and cold flashes, there is no way to make everyone happy. The chemo seems to have readjusted her thermostat.

We had such a great time this past week. The whole family got together for the Memorial Day weekend. Ryan and Andrea flew in from Utah and we went to a Cardinal's baseball game. I was able to get really good seats and the Cards won so what could be better? Nathan and Brooke drove in from Oklahoma City and announced that Brooke is expecting in December...that's what could be better. Ben and Shalon drove their car and we drove ours and we all piled in and went to Nauvoo. We went to several of the historical sites and then to the Sunset on the River performance. There was a Hawaiian family there that performed and then the missionaries. It was a great evening. On Sunday we went to church in Nauvoo and then to Carthage. There was a great spirit there and we had a lot of time to talk and be with one another.

Monday I helped the High Priest's put on our Memorial Day breakfast for both wards. We had a ton of food and even more rain. That just meant we had more time to visit with everyone. It was sad to see everyone go home on Tuesday morning.

Mom is doing well though she got some test results this week that concern us. We are not sure what it all means just yet. We are hoping it is nothing but we will let you all know as soon as we find something out one way or the other. For now, we are looking forward to being grandparents. Mom feels great and is starting to exercise more and more. You had all best start working out so you will be ready for race day next April. It would be sad to get beaten by a two time cancer baby on her 49th birthday.

Work, Work, Work

I'm planting, I planted, I'm a Gardner

Vivian and I finally planted the rest of our garden on Saturday. Just the usual stuff. I love watermelon so I planted seeds in about 7 different places to see which soil works best. Come visit around August and you can help us decide. My strawberries are looking great and if we have a week of warm weather, I should be able to pick the first batch.

Yesterday was Mothers Day. I am grateful that all the boys called to talk to their mom. Brandon and I got up and made her breakfast. She doesn't like to eat in bed so we made it and invited her downstairs. For dinner she said she wanted something low cal and healthy. I made salmon and halibut that I got from Alaska and then I made a glaze to go over the fish. We also had new potatoes and peas in a cream sauce, corn on the cob, carrots with butter and brown sugar, beets, and ...oh ya....shrimp. It was awesome. For desert I made an angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

Did I mention I miss my mom. You guys don't remember her too well and I haven't done a very good job of telling you about her. Maybe I will do a little more of that in these blogs. You all know she loved to cook and made us try all kinds of weird stuff; cows tongue, kidneys, liver, tripe, goat head cheese, etc. But most of the time we ate great. She was an artist and decorated cakes. Fancy cakes with kool-aid fountains in them, mirrors, and crystal glasses. I dropped the top to one at my aunt Myrtle's wedding. Mom spent the whole wedding in the kitchen making emergency repairs. She had just finished telling someone to let me carry the top because I had such steady hands. She was very spiritual and had dreams and visions that nearly always came true. She milked cows when she was young and even when I was wrestling in high school her hands were stronger than mine. She could grip your had and you couldn't get loose until she let go. She was like mom in that she could talk to anyone and they would soon be friends.

I will add more later for now, I hope that you are sweet to your lovely wives. We miss you and look forward to seeing you all soon.

When Pigs Fly

I date, I dated, I am a dater.

When people would ask, "when is Ryan going to graduate?" We would answer, "when hell freezes over." On our way to Provo to Ryan's graduation, it started snowing and the prophecy was fulfilled. Lately people have been asking, "when is Brandon going to go on his first date?" Our answer has generally been, "when pigs fly." Well, if you have been watching the news lately you saw the headlines about, "Swine Flew (flu)".

Brandon took Dana Greenwood to the Prom on Sat night and he had a great time. They went over to the Strouds and took pictures and then He and Dana and Joseph Young and his date left for the dance. They went to the Shepherd's house afterwards for an hour or so for games and then went to the bowling alley for an after prom party. He is now sleeping it off. Brandon also celebrated his 18th birthday this week. Mom made the boys a "Mans Meal" and they went to see the new Wolverine movie.

Mom is doing great. She went to the Dr. last week and he drew all over her in preparation for her first radiation treatment. They made some casts and drew lines on her with permanent ink to align the machines. It will be nice when this is all done.

I flew to Burlington Vt. this week and man is it beautiful up there. The weather was crisp and clear and we flew over lake Champlaign. I hope to go up there again and take Vivian this fall when the leaves are changing. That would really be beautiful. In the mean time, I will be watching for flying pigs.

Who let the Blogs out?

Look, I'm blogging, I blogged, I'm a blogger.
I am so bad about making phone calls that I thought maybe I would try to stay in touch with friends and family in this way. Hey its a start.

Viv has had her last Chemo treatment and is starting to feel a little better. In three weeks or so she will start radiation therapy for 31 treatments and then... we'll see. This has been a strange experience but we have felt the love and comassion of so many. If you are one of those, thank you so much. I have learned a lot, hopefully enough that Heavenly Father sees that I don't need to go back for remedial training.

We miss our boys and their sweethearts and wish we could be closer to you all. I am very proud of you guys and hope you are treating your brides with love and care. We hope to be able to see you all this summer and spend some time with you. I know you all have a lot going on in your lives. Make sure to make time for family. Nothing is more important. I didn't do a good job of that so learn from your mom and your wives who I know are a better example.

I will get better at this I'm sure but for now, its a start.