I'm posting, I posted, I'm a Poster

Ok, so it has been a while since we updated our blog. Not becasue nothing, has happened, it's more like because everything has been happening. Christmas time was wonderful. We had almost the whole family home for the holidays. Nathan and Brooke were not able to make it becasue baby Gavin was so new. Ryan and Andrea were here and we loved that. We played games and had such a good time. It was sad to see them go. They gave us a Christmas present with a card on it that said, " From Ryan, Andrea, and the Baby." That was so exciting.

I spent 22 hours in the van with Jason as we drove out to Rexburg so he could return to school. We stopped in Denver for New Years with the Halgrens and Spencers. Brandon was still wrestling and could not come but we had fun without him. Vivian had gone to Utah to see the grandbaby and met us in Denver. As the clock struck midnight, I kissed her and said happy New Year. She felt a complete rush of relief as 2009 finally ended. It had been a very trying and emotional time for us all but especially for her. We started off 2009 in the hospital recovering from her surgery, then Chemo, radiation, the passing of her sister and my brother, Shalon miscarried and Gavin was born with his issues. It all seemed overwhelming at times. Now a new year has started with it's joys and challenges. We will just continue to face them all the same, with faith and patience.

2009 was not without it's joys either. We feel particularly blessed. Gavin was born, Ryan got married, my job was steady, Vivian survived and is as good as ever, Andrea graduated from college, Brandon got a job, Jason is doing well in school. We are happy and healthy again.

Viv and I are training for a half marathon and have invited all of the family to join us. We have had to change plans because of a conflict with Lexie's wedding but we are still going to make it happen. Last Sunday at dinner Vivian announced that we are going to move to utah in a year and a half. Brandon is graduating in May and has been accepted to LDS business college. He will then leave on his mission. Ben and Shalon will be out of school by then also. I am not sure how it will all work out but we would like to be closer to our families and to the Grandbabies. I guess we will have to work on Ben and Shalon to see if we can get them out there as well. It will be hard since Shalon's parents are here and so are their jobs. I guess you guys in Utah can keep your eyes open for great opportunities in the real estate market.

Anyway, that's all the news that is fit to print. We love you all and miss you. Your are continually in our prayers.

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.