Viviane makes 14

Viviane Elizabeth Pryor, fourth child of Scott & EmmaLee was born on Friday June 11, 2010 at 9:02 pm. She was 2 weeks early but weighed 8 lbs 9 oz and was 21 inches long. She has a head of dark hair and a sweet disposition. She is so loved by her brother Luke (9), and sisters Katie(6), and Sara(3). What a cute family.



When we took the kids to the hospital to meet their new sister they were so excited. When we drove up to the LDS hospital we were on the Emergency Room side and Luke said, it's okay I may need the Emergency room I am so excited to see my new sister. When he finally got to hold her the grin on his face was literally ear to ear and he was just so thrilled to hold her and talk to her. It was very sweet to see.



Katie & Sara are so happy to have a sister. EmmaLee has to set a timer so they each get equal time holding her.





In the hospital it was kind of hard to wait my turn. I wanted to just hold her and tell her I loved her, to feel her spirit. I was patient and did get to hold Viviane while Scott showed the kids a little video of how hard she cried just after she was born. But as I looked into her alert, bright eyes I had sweet memories came to me of each of our 13 grandchildren. The longer I thought about it I could recall something about each one as they came into our family. We love our family so much. We are looking forward to watching Viviane grow and hope she feels how much she is loved.

Spring?

It has always been our policy to wait to plant the garden until after Memorial Day. An old friend told us years ago, "To be dead certain your garden will survive wait to plant until after you've honored the dead". Well this year we took the chance and planted our garden last weekend. Bad idea.
It froze both Saturday and Sunday nights and we lost our cucumbers and basil plants. Amazingly the tomatoes and peppers survived. We covered things up after the first frost with some homemade hot caps. Freezer paper works great.



I took this picture Monday morning, May 24th after it quit snowing. Earlier the branches of the lilac tree were touching the ground. The green you see (now snowcovered) to the right of the lilac bush is our abundant spring crop of lettuce and spinach. I hope they survived the frost and the snow. We have been loving such fresh greens in our diet. So much for early planting. Even though along with the wet we got some cold we are grateful for this much needed moisture. Whenever spring finally decides to arrive we will welcome it gladly.

Luke makes a "Jacob's Ladder"

Luke and I had a great time making a Jacob's Ladder toy for one of his cub scout requirements. Enjoy this little video clip of him describing our experience.

FUN WEEK

Hello everyone,
Last week was an energizer bunny week it just kept going and going and going!

To start the week off Keith worked to get a virus off the computer and I lost my e-mail address book on Juno so I changed my internet provider. If I have to be invited to view your blog please invite me using kwpryor@gmail.com and update my email in your address book.
I had the thought to use the money I got from the sale of my Dad's Cadillac to go back to college so I went and checked out a program at Stevens Heneger College, next I'll check out a program at LDS Businees College. It all feels wrong, I just can't see myself back in the classroom.
I went and helped out at Scott & EmmaLee's and had a great time starting to make a jacob's ladder with Luke for his cub scout wood project, (pictures when we get it done).
Melissa & Spencer moved last week so I tended for them a few days. We even had their kids sleep over on Friday so the "moving crew" could get to work first thing without the little ones around. On Thursday we celebrated Bransons's 4th birthday even though his birthday was Saturday.

Ryan, Corey, Kaylee Bo and Raegan came on Thursday and stayed with us over the weekend so they could attend a family baptism. We took them to Classic Fun Center to enjoy the bounce zone, jungle and scooters on the skating rink. It was fun to have them stay with us.



On Saturday I packed a picnic lunch and went to the park to use up some of the kids' energy. When we got home I made 3 cases of strawberries into jam and froze some sliced. Thankfully Keith was back from the helping with the move so he took the kids out to play in the sandbox. We had Melissa and Spencer over for dinner a couple times to help them out while they were moving and each time we put candles in Branson's dessert.
My batteries were runny low by Sunday and I truly enjoyed my "day of rest".
It was Savanna's 1st birthday day on Saturday too - unfortunately we don't get to celebrate too many birthdays with Valerie & Wyatt's kids. Does singing over the phone count?

"Popcorn is Popping" on the apricot trees around here so...


Happy Spring to you all.

HAPPY St PATRICK'S DAY

Hello everyone!
I'm not one to do a special post for holidays but I sent each of the grandkids a St Patrick's Day picture to color and ask them to send them back to me and they did! So I displayed them on the lockers in our back entry and we have loved looking at them.
Thanks to each of you special little ones in our life, WE LOVE YOU!

35th Anniversary

Wow, Keith and I have been married for 35 years!!!! March 14, 1975 - 2010.

Because Keith works in Torrence, California one week out of every month we decided I would meet him there in March and spend the weekend together to celebrate our anniversary. He picked me up at the LAX airport and we stayed Thursady night with my brother Neil who lives in Northridge. We really enjoyed our time with him. We ate at his restaurant (Pampas Cafe) YUMMY and had a great time enjoying his beautiful yard - it was so nice to be in the warm weather where people are mowing their lawns and the flowers are in bloom and the trees are all green. Spending time with Neil was good for me. Hope he enjoyed our visit as much as we did. We actually came back and spent Saturday night with him too.

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What a needed change from the drab of winter. On Friday we left for the coast. I love watching the ocean and being at the edge of the land. The day we were there it was clear we even got to watch the sun set on the ocean, an amazing sight.



We went on a whale watching boat excursion. I was so nervous to go on the ocean in a boat because the last time I did I just barfed the whole trip so needless to say I wasn't too excited. As it turned out the ocean was very calm, the boat was big, wide and very powerful so it could cut through the waves easily.



Amazingly and thankfully the time on the boat was delightful.



We saw hundreds of common dolphins, they were so fun because there were so many of them to see at once. They would jump out of the water and it was almost like they were chasing the boat. They litterally would be so close I thought the boat was going to hit them. Enjoy the video, you can see how smooth the ocean was. It was so fun to see these graceful creatures in the ocean. They seemed so playful and there were so many of them.



Over the years I have seen many pictures, postcards, jewlery etc etc of a whale's tail fin and never really understood why that was such a cool thing. Well now I KNOW! Seeing these huge animals come up for air then roll and dive down into the ocean to feed with the last sight of them being water falling off their unique tail fin was breathtaking. These pictres are ones I found on the internet that very closely resemble what we saw only closer up. Our pictures a bit too far away so to let you see better what we saw we used these instead. We saw two different sighting of whales. First the humpback whales, then the gray whales. They can identify the humback whales by markings on their tail fins. We were told it is like our fingerprint, each one is unique. We could tell when they were surfacing because of the mist of water they blow up when they are exhaling as they come up for air before rolling then going back down to feed. There were two of them and once we saw the two dive at the same time so two tail fins at once was cool. The next post shows a gray whale and their barnacles.
We actually saw the oil rigs like the one in the picture but the best was the water falling off the fin right before the whale went back into the ocean. And to think I couldn't find a spoon with a whale tail fin on it.







These were feeding close to the surface so they came back up about every two mintues. This was great because they sometimes stay down for 20 minutes or longer so we saw them surface, blow, roll and dive waving to us with their famous tail fin lots of times. It was absolutley amazing to see in person something you usually only see in pictures. We never saw them leap out of the water, just roll but that was still incredible.



After the humbacks we went around one of the Channel Islands (Anacapa) and saw a huge cluster of sea lions. Again it was neat to see them in their ocean habitat rather than at Sea World . We were really glad they took us around this island because we had planned to go out to this island the next day and hike to it's summit (154 stairs) but the next day the weather was bad and the trip was canceled. We had a certificate from our hotel so the boat company gave us a gift certificate to use within a year so I guess we'll be going back. But on our way back to the shore we saw the gray whales. Again there werew two of them a mother and her baby. These whales are brong weighing a ton and gain almost 100 lbs a day. The mother secretes her milk into the water and the baby gulps it just like it is feeding on ocean life. Talk about rich mother's milk. It was almost unbelievable to witness these animals in the ocean.

Because we couldn't go on the island tour on Saturday we went to the Ronald Reagan library and museum and saw the retired, completely restored Airforce One airplne that the Presidents use.





It was a very interesting museum and President Reagan was a people's president always had a smile on his face plus he was an honest, hard working politician. His wife Nancy Reagan was not only beautiful and gracious but such a support to him in the White House. What a good thing is was to see them married and enjoying their life together even with so much public and so little private time. We learned a lot about his life and all he accomplished. There is a piece of the Berlin Wall there and again all the spring flowers, plam trees and green grass made it even better.


They have a completely accurate replica of the oval office which was fun to see.
On our drive back to Neil's we bought some fresh picked strawberries and oranges.

Words of wisdom ?? you decide

The crew onboard our whale watching adventure were so smart about the dolphins and the whales we saw. One thing they mentioned about the gray whales was you could tell approximatley how old they were by the amount or barnacles they carried on them (sometimes up to 100 lbs). This happens because they move slowly. They migrate from the feeding/ mating near Alaska in the spring to the warmer waters near Baja of California to give birth in winter. I got to thinking about the slow moving & barnacle thing and I decided that I don't want to be like the gray whales and move through life so slowly that I allow barnacles to grow on me. Do what you'd like with that new piece of wisdom :)



Barnacles or not seeing these whales in the ocean was amazing.

Grandpa Fred Pryor turns 90

On Saturday, (Dad's birthday is actually on February 12th) we had a 90th birthday party for Grandpa Pryor. We lit 90 candles on his cake (it took 4 of us about 5 minutes to get them all lit and yes we had wax on the cake) He made an excellent effort at blowing them out. We played the game "Life Stories" and really enjoyed sharing fun memories about his life. David was here (working 2 wks for Moog), Dorothy came up and Barbara & Mark, Gary & Sheryl and Keith & Kristine were all there. Mom reported they had a wonderful visit with Carolyn on Friday. So all night Dad just kept saying how proud he was of his family and how much he appreciated Mom. He teared up a few times as he told stories and we all laughed a bunch too. We'd bought him an amplifier/headphone set so he could hear better and he just kept taking it off. When we asked him why he said it was hard to hear everything. What an excllent example Dad has been of enduring to the end. He recently renewed his temple recommend and has been to the temple several times while David has been here. He needs some help so it is hard for Mom to take him by herself. David & Keith even took him to do intitiatory. He's already talking about doing a garden again this year. Congratulations Dad and thanks for being such a grand patriarch to this family!









Happy Birthday We Love You!

Remembering Mom Ward

It was one year ago on Friday, January 29, 2009 that my Mom died. It was a blessing considering her diminished mental capabilities but that doesn't diminish the fact that she is gone and has left a hole in our hearts that only she could fill. Having completed her second estate and knowing what we do about the plan of salvation we should rejoice that she finished her life here on earth and can now rest from all things physical. I went to the temple to honor her and received a sweet hug from heaven. I know Heavenly Father is aware of me and that JoAnn and Mom are there together. Enjoy these pictures and spend a minute reliving memories you have of her while she served each of us as sister, wife, mother, grandma and great grandma. What a gift of love she had for all of us.

Taken just before Dad's 80th Birthday party


At the family gathering.


Remember "The Bags"


At the cemetery


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Six grandsons - six pallbearers


Great Grandkids sending ballons to grandma in heaven





At the luncheon





Memorial Day at the cemetery was beautiful but by the time we got back to Grandpa's house for a picnic the weather was threatening so we quickly moved into the garage then almost as soon as the winds came they left and we enjoyed visiting on what was a very warm spring day.

Time with Savanna

In the 11 days we had her she spent time with all of her Pryor cousins. Here are just a few pictures I took. The last one was after I returned from the airport from giving her back to her family on their way home from their Florida vacation. I cried. There were the toys and no more Savanna.

She will not remember this precious time we had with her but we certaily will!

Christmas 2009

We went bowling Christmas Eve, visited Spencer & Melissa's family early on Christmas morning, then on to Scott & EmmaLee's then Randy & Heidi came over. What a grand time we had. We spent part of the next week in Idaho visiting my Dad then to Driggs. We brought the kids their Christmas so it was very fun to see them open their gifts. We brought Savanna back home with us while the rest of her famaily went to Florida. Randy & Heidi spent a few days with us after we returned from Idaho and it was fun to watch Tyson interact with Savanna. In the 11 days we had her she spent time with all of her cousins in each family. Sorry I wasn't better at taking pictures while she was here. We loved having her here.
I'm still trying to find a slide show maker I like. This one is a little slow or maybe I just didn't figure out how to spoeed it up. Hope you enjoy it. I Love our Family

Pryor Family Christmas Party

Grandma Pryor hosted a Family Christmas party. We all had a great time with lots of fun food and a fun program - Luke played a piano solo, Jessica sang, Jeff played his guitar and we sang, it was a very fun evening. We did a gift exchange with lots of laughs - Wonder what Jeff did with his bowlng ball? The party brought back lots of memories of the many Christmas eve parties we've had there. Thanks Mom for planning such a fun evening.