The Empty Nesters

Family Fun Planting The Garden

2011-05-22T20:26:00.005-05:00

We sure have been enjoying the chickens

Dandelion fun

Planting the beans

Farmer Jason

Pulling the weeds

Minnesota Holidazzle Parade 2010

2010-12-10T21:18:00.002-06:00

The Anderson Clan got together for our annual Holidazzle Parade. It was one of the warmer parades at 24 deg F. That's -4 deg C for our family in Australia. We all had a great time. Even Maggie.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-04T09:33:00.008-06:00

Grandma Steph and Maggie

Family in Nauvoo 2010

2010-07-13T20:05:00.012-05:00

The Family in downtown Old Nauvoo

The home that Phil's parents (Mark & Cheri Jones) own is big and very nice. It is just minutes from The Temple and Old Nauvoo.

The house has a large front porch with a swing. Here are the two Grandmas swinging with some of the Grand kids.

The five grand kids all lined up. We had a hard time deciding who was taller between Ande & Jackson.

Phil & Jason trying to determine who is the manlyest at stick pull.

And the winner is Phil! He was feeling pretty good about that until I pointed out that he has Jason by 60 lbs.

Of course Jackson had to give it a try!

Two of the cutest pioneer girls there

The two Charlotte's road down to Nauvoo together in the back seat of my car. They did a great job of entertaining each other.

Phil and Jason got to find out what it was like to pull their families around in handcarts.

What is a family get together without playing games at night.

All in all we had a great time. I love going to Nauvoo and feeling the spirit there.

Mary, Mary How Does Your Garden Grow

2010-05-29T08:54:00.006-05:00

Freddie the bear that lives on grandma and grandpa's porch

grandma's flowers

Ethan's strawberry from a field trip at school

I love this time of year: green is everywhere, here is our garden, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, cantaloupe, pumpkins and raspberries, broccoli and peppers. The Hunts started the plants at home by seed.

Easter 2010

2010-04-04T20:27:00.009-05:00

We had a wonderful Easter with The Jones and The Hunts. The kids are getting older now and we watched General Conf. in relative peace. Families are the best!

The Easter Bunny caught in the act!

The hunt is about to begin!

And they are off!

Checking out how many we got!

Hey look Grandma!

Jackers checking out his own.

The Grand Mayan Palace in Cancun

2010-01-27T17:16:00.010-06:00

The resort we are staying at is The Grand Mayan about half way between Cancun and Playa del Carman. It is a beautiful 5 star resort that caters to your every need. I have golfed 3 times at a very nice 18 holes course.

The group eating lunch at Puerto Morales (I didn't think I would ever get tired on Mexican Food, but I am almost there

My Sweet Heart and I at Puerto Morales

Puerto Morales (This is where we went snorkeling in the next few pictures)

My cute snorkel girl! The snorkeling was great. Our guides took out to the reef in a boat. One of them stayed with us and showed us around. We saw a lot of cool fish, some Barracuda, Grouper and many smaller ones. We started at one end of the reef and drifted with the current about a half a mile.

These were our snorkel guides. The taller guy was the one that stayed with us in the water. The shorter guy (his name was Charlie Brown) stayed with the boat. Charlie is about 4 feet 10 inches tall. He was very funny, and made the trip fun.

The third night we ate dinner in a cave. It was very unique, and beautiful.

On 1/26 we went to Tulum. It is the location of some very nice Mayan runes.

This is a picture of an Iguana I took for the Grand kids.

Memorial Day 2009 Family Camping

2009-05-25T20:15:00.024-05:00

Stephanie and I had a great time camping with the Jones and the Hunts at Sibley State Park. The weather was great (a little cold at night) and we all enjoyed each others company. We hiked, ate, swam, and just sat around, what better combination could you ask for.

Family sitting around enjoying being together.

I caught Andie looking in the food box!

Where there is dirt, there will be kids!
Hunt Family taking a break on our hike to Mt. Tom.

Phil and his mini me!

We finally made it to Mt. Tom. Elevation: 1240 feet.

As you can imagine, with great cooks like Steph, Sarah, and Roxy in the family we ate well. Here they made enchilada hot dish (casserole, for those not from Minnesota)in the dutch oven. It was very goooood

Cute Grandma and her cute Grand kids.

The last night we cooked smores. As you can see from the pictures they were enjoyed by all!

Morel Mushroom Hunt

2009-05-14T22:17:00.004-05:00

I went on my first morel mushroom hunt today. I had a great time climbing through the underbrush looking for the little critters, and boy did I find a lot. I went with a customer that is experienced. Fry these guys up in some garlic butter, and what a tasty treat!

For those of you that are not mushroom connoisseurs (Stephanie), morels are considered the the ultimate in mushrooms. Stephanie asked "Why haven't I ever seen them for sale in grocery stores?" My response was "We don't shop in high end stores". In these stores, they sell for $25 per pound.

Getting ready for the garden

2009-05-05T21:20:00.004-05:00

Friday night we invited the Hunts over and Boyd tilled the ground so we could plant peas. Ethan and Eli were good seed planters. Ethan helped Grandpa till. I had a huge flashback from living in Kaysville and Boyd would till every Sat. but with our kids out in the garden - now it's grandkids. We are excited to have a garden. More planting towards the end of May. "Boyd the farmer"

5 Days at The Gold Coast

2009-02-20T01:40:00.014-06:00

On Feb. 13th we made the 10 hour drive to to The Gold Coast area It is 550 miles north of Sydney. It was a beautiful drive. The entire area is subtropical and very green. As we were driving we could see small groups of kangaroos grazing in some fields. It was very cool.

The first day we got there it was, so we decided to drive north to Brisbane (1 hour) to check it out. We wanted to find the temple. We found it and it was beautiful.

Lecy & Steph with beautiful flowers in their hair in front of the temple sign.

The family standing at the entrance of the Temple.

The family standing in the Temple Gardens.
A senior sister missionary that walked us around told us that they have over 500 non-member visitors each month, and that they have the Book of Mormon in over 90 languages.

Day 2

On the second day we went to Dream World (one of 6 major theme parks). We had a very good time.

Steph and Lecy on the tea cups.

Steph bring eaten by a shark, or was it the other way around!

Petting our new found friends.

The beaches on The Gold Coast were incredible! They went on for miles and miles.

Day 3:Beach Day

We stayed in a community called Burleigh Head. It was about 10 miles south of the much larger town of Surfer's Paradise. This is the condo that we stayed in. We were about 200 feet from the beach.

We spent most of Day 3 on the beach, and amazing enough, none of us got sunburned.

Hans and his family being washed away by a wave.

The Anderson kids love the beach, especially Tyler. He was unhappy when he had to leave the beach, and kept asking when we could go back.

I will add more in the tomorrow.

First Couple of Days

2009-02-11T02:15:00.008-06:00

While we were in Sydney we went to Wild Life Park at Darling Harbor, and look what we saw! What would a trip to Australia be without seeing a Koala Bear and a Kangaroo?

Stephanie and I went into Sydney today. One of our favorite places is Circular Quay (pronounced "key"). It is right downtown on the Harbor. It is a happening place, all of the ferries, boats and ships are constantly coming in and out. The Opera House is right there, as is the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Today there was a big cruise ship in the harbor.

Tyler and Grandma enjoying a good hug!

Grandma and the Kids swinging in the hammock.

We Are The Champions

2009-01-27T11:39:00.002-06:00

Last weekend, We had some friends over to play games. When we finished one of the games there was a dispute between Stephanie and Pam Giblette over which team won. Of course, Stephanie was claiming victory for our team. It was suggested that they settle the dispute with an arm wrestle. They accepted the challenge. I am proud to say (even after I told Stephanie that I thought Pam would kick her butt)that Stephanie won the arm wrestle, and claimed the victory not only for herself, but for our team!

Artic Activities

2009-01-15T17:30:00.003-06:00

So,when your kids are gone, and it's just the two of us, and it's 20 below outside, you still have to entertain yourselves. As all good Grandparents, we have a bottle of bubbles in the cupboard. We took the bubbles outside and started blowing them. It was so cool, they froze in mid air and settled on the ground and didn't break. Look closely at the picture and you will see the bubbles on the cement. They just roll around like little balls.

Artic Freeze

2009-01-15T12:21:00.002-06:00

Yes, it's freezing here. We haven't been above 0 since Sunday. We will hit a high of -5 today. Needless to say it is a clear beautiful blue sky today. I went to the club (Dakotah Sports and Fitness) at 9:00 -20 below. It was busy there. And later going out to birthday shop for little 1 year old Ande. We are keeping warm - Boyd makes a fire every night and I love it!! Thanks Grandpa Anderson for calling and checking up on us. We appreciate it very much. So we carry on and say "And this too shall pass".

Elder Ian Anderson

2009-01-11T11:49:00.000-06:00

All, Aimee has put together a blog for Ian. I have linked on my blog.

Convert Baptism

2009-01-10T22:49:00.003-06:00

I am our Ward Mission Leader. We had a young women (Keodara) that was baptized today. The other Ward also had a baptism, I received a call about 2 hours before our's was scheduled to take place telling me that the water heater was not working. When I got to the chapel they had filled the font with cold water. I went into the kitchen and started heating pots of water to try and warm it up. It helped a little but the water was still pretty cold. When Keodara got the the meetinghouse, we told here the situation. She went in and felt the water and said I am too excited to put it off, I didn't even sleep last night. So, we went through with the baptism.

It was wonderful, and the spirit was so strong. We had great Ward support. It is so fun to see the enthusiasm of new members, and wonderful to welcome a sister into The Church

More Winter Fun

2008-12-20T15:37:00.002-06:00

After we worked so hard clearing a path. Eli and I decided to soak in the hot tub and sooth our aching muscles.

I got a new snow blower, and Ethan couldn't wait to come use it. I had already cleared off the driveway, so we cleared a path in the yard.

Winter Chill

2008-12-18T18:05:00.003-06:00

I just thought I would let everyone not in Minnesota know what they are missing out on. This was our temperature a couple of days ago. Today we are at a balmy 19 deg. Jacket weather!

To answer Roxy's question, since Kaysville, and it was there when we bought the house from Mom & Dad!

Wrapping Things Up For The Fall

2008-11-22T16:03:00.004-06:00

Me and my Buddy Jackson

Winter has begun here in Minnesota, and the cold has set in. I love the 4 very distinct seasons we have here, but I have to admit that winter could be a little warmer and a little shorter. This winter will not be too bad, Steph and I will be spending most of February in Australia's Summer visiting Hans and his family.

Time Out for Women

2008-11-06T14:53:00.002-06:00

Boyd wanted to write on the blog sometime since it is The EmptyNesters Blog. I had a fabulous weekend a couple of weeks ago that I will write about. Me and 3 other friends here in MN decided to go to Time out for Women in Omaha, NE. We do have a good friend that moved to Omaha several years ago that we visited, too. That is our picture in front of the Winter Quarters Temple. Fri. evening at Time Out we heard from Kenneth Cope, Ardeth Kapp and Jenny Oaks Baker played the violin for over an hour. Accompanied by her nephew. She is incredibly gifted. She really loves music and it really reflects in her. She talked to us also and she has such a sweet way about her. On Sat. we heard from several speakers w/Kenneth Cope mostly as the MC. It was a wonderful time of reflecting and enjoying friendships.

The First Day of My New Life

2008-10-20T00:13:00.007-05:00

Left to Right: Cody, Larry & Boyd

If you were to ask me to list my five favorite things to do, one of them would have to be camping in the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area in Northern Minnesota. It is a vast area of land crowded with lakes.

The water is so clean and clear in these lakes that many of us drink the water right out of the lake unfiltered. The lake shores are rimed with rocks and crowned with beautiful majestic pine trees. Because it is a wilderness area, no motorized boats are allowed on any of the lakes. If you visit there, it is in canoes only. It is difficult to describe the feeling that comes over me when lying in my tent at night, and I hear the Loons on the lake calling to each other.

This year, we had a canoe trip planned for the middle of August, but because of work and personal obligations for those that were going to go, the trip was canceled. I was a little disappointed, but the truth was I too had had a busy summer and was having a difficult time justifying the time off. So, in the middle of September, when my good friend Larry Benjamin suggested that we take a trip into the Boundary Waters sometime in the middle of October I jumped at it.

We asked around if anyone else in the Ward was interested in going and got a big yes from Cody Quist, the Son-in-Law of Mark Roth, who is one of my best friends. That made 3 of us going. This was Cody’s first Boundary Water experience. He was greatly encouraged to go by his wife Camie, who had gone camping there many times with the Young Women in her youth.

Cody, Larry and I met and planned our meals and the time we were leaving. We were all very excited to be going. Larry and I were especially excited to be going in October. We had never been there in the fall and were looking forward to the beauty of the leaves and the fall season.

The day of our departure arrived, and we loaded into Larry van with all of our stuff and 2 canoes strapped on the top. We had a prayer and set out for the 5 hour drive to Toffte, MN, and from there to Brule Lake. When we got to the lake and got out of the van, we were greeted by very strong winds (our guess was 25 to 30 MPH). This should have been our first warning!

Because of the wind we were careful taking the canoes down off the top of the van. We took our stuff out of the van and loaded them into the canoes, and finally put our lifejackets on after chasing them around in the wind. With everything settled in, we launched our canoes and left our entry point.

The entry point was in a small bay, the water was calm, and the surrounding area was beautiful. The birch and aspen trees were yellow and contrasted beautifully with the green pine threes. We had gotten there with the leaves at peak color just a Larry and I had hoped. Our spirits and enthusiasm was high and set off to paddled to Larry’s favorite camping spot.

As we rounded a bend in the bay, we looked out over our route and Larry commented, “Oh my gosh, look at those white caps on those waves”. That should have been our second warning! But we went on undaunted. I should explain that you can only comfortably put 2 people in a canoe, so Cody and I were in one canoe and Larry was in a canoe by himself.

On we paddled and as we reached the heavy waves, paddling became more difficult. The direction we were headed in was broadside to the waves, and some of the waves were so large they were coming over the side of the canoes. We kept paddling and tried to stay together, but the wind was so strong Larry couldn’t keep up and was blown down wind of Cody and I about 150 feet.

At one point, it felt like the canoe Cody and I was in was going to go over, but we were able keep it up and started paddling again. Cody asked me if he had done something wrong and I assured him that he was doing great and we kept paddling. We paddled for another 3 or 4 minutes and were hit by a large wave broad side, despite our attempts to keep the canoe upright over it went over spilling us and the contents of our canoe into the very cold water.

After a few very sharp gasps, Cody looked at me with the now what expression. We had 2 choices, stay with the canoe or swim to land. We had life vests on so we didn’t need the support of the canoe, and as cold as the water was we would be victims of hypothermia in no time. So, we decided to swim to land.

Land was a good 200 yards away, which even on a good day would have been a long swim. That day was not a good day; we were fighting 25 to 30 MPH winds and 2 foot waves. But, swimming was still our best option. We had to get out of that cold water before hypothermia set in. We started swimming!

I remember using 2 different strokes. The front crawl and the back float. Swimming was very difficult, like I mentioned we were fighting wind and waves. The waves being the worst, each time a wave would come it would completely cover our heads. We were breathing hard from swimming and would suck in a lung full of water. We had the added weight of being fully clothed.

I can remember swimming as hard as I could, looking up to the shore and seeing Cody clime out on to the rocks. I remember thinking to myself, good Hazen’s dad made it. (Hazen is Cody’s 14 month old Son.). I also remember thinking that I wasn’t making any progress.

Sometimes I would look up and be headed in the wrong direction, blown off course by the wind. At one point, a large wave came up and knocked my hat off and filled my lungs with water. I stopped swimming, leaned my head forward, and thought to myself “This is it, I am not going to make it, I am going to die today!” Strangely enough I felt OK with that thought. I actually felt peace, I was going to die and it was going to be alright. A thought came into my mind, “I wonder what Stephanie is going to do with the other ticket to Australia we just bought?” Funny thought now but I was very serious.

I laid there for awhile and for some reason I started feeling warm, I remember thinking, “I might as well keep swimming”. I flipped over on my back and started swimming. I don’t know how long I swam, but when I flipped over, I had made a lot of progress, and was much closer to shore. I felt my spirit rise and realized that death would have to wait; I was going to make it.

I stayed on my front and continued to swim, all of the sudden my knee hit something and I felt a sharp pain. I reached down and felt a large rock, what a blessing, solid ground. I struggled to the rock and stood up. With about 50 feet to go before I reached the shore, it was shallow enough to walk. I was so excited. I walked about 15 feet and the rocks were gone, I was in deep water again. I finally swam the last 30 feet to shore. Cody had been watching my progress and was at the shore waiting for me.

When I got to shore, I did not have the energy to stand. I dragged myself out of the water and laid there panting. I looked up at Cody and he was really shivering, he had been out of the water and in the wind in wet clothes for at least 20 or 30 minutes. I suggested that we needed to get out of the wind, and conserve as much body heat as we could. We both huddled behind a downed tree not knowing what to do next.

Both of us were wet and well into hypothermia, nether of us had anything to make a fire with. We weren’t sure what happened to Larry, although I did see him climb out on to shore on an island next to the one we were on. We sat there for a few minutes when we heard Larry call Cody’s name. As tired as we were, we both jumped up and ran to where we thought Larry was. What a blessing, there was our good friend Larry, with an empty canoe come to get us.

We climbed into Larry’s canoe and paddled over to the other island. We found that Larry had been busy collecting our things that had spilled out of our canoe. We built a fire and put on dry clothes. The immediate danger was over!

After we warmed up (I was so cold my feet were blue, all the blood had left my extremities to keep my body warm), we discussed our next move. I had lost my (Hans’) tent and Larry’s camp stove. The wind was not slowing down, if anything it was getting stronger, so we decided to go back to the entry point and leave the lake.

I can tell you that it took all the courage Cody and I could muster to climb back into our canoe and paddle back across the waves to the entry point. We put our stuff back into the canoes, we sat on the bottom of the canoes to lower our center of gravity and set off. This time we tacked our way across, going into the waves, then turning and going with the waves. The waves were so large they were coming over the front of the canoe. We paddled hard, but we made it back to the entry point.

At the entry point we loaded our stuff and canoes back on to the van and headed home. We ended up spending the night in Larry’s brother’s condo in Lutzen, MN. We went out for dinner that night, I can remember it feeling very strange, and thinking to myself, “I shouldn’t really be here, I thought I was going to die”!

I said many prayers floating in that lake, I don’t know how I closed the distance to the shore when I started swimming again, but I suspect I had some help.

My Two Cents on The Election

2008-10-16T22:22:00.002-05:00

Landon e-mailed me the following:

hey, do you think Mccain's campaign is killing him? it seems like all he does is jab at obama. what are your views?

===================================================================

I am not sure what McCain's deal is. I watched the debate on Fox News. After the debate, one of the commentators stated that the debate was like watching a tennis match with McCain running all over the court hitting balls to Obama, and Obama just sat in the center of the court hitting them back.

McCain bought up some great points, but Obama just shrugged them off. The real problem as I see it is that the media is firmly in bed with Obama. McCain can bring up issues like Obama's association with Bill Aires and ACORN, but the media refuses to investigate or report on any of it. There is no one holding him accountable, and reveling who the real Obama is.

If we as a nation elect Obama, we will get what we deserve. If you listen to him, he believes that Government can solve all problems. What ever happened to personal responsibility. We are becoming soft, and want someone else to do everything for us. If we buy a house that we can't afford, we want Government to bail us out. If we make bad business decisions, we want the government to bail us out. I challenge anyone to show me an example of anything the Government does, or has ever done efficiently and effective. We want to elect Obama and give Government more influence over our lives!

McCain? I don't know about McCain. He seems to be a good man, with integrity, but I cringe every time he talks about Global Warming, but I cringe more thinking about having a Socialist President and a Socialist Congress, and how badly they will screw up this great country!

2008-10-05T19:57:00.002-05:00

Ethan & Eli helping to stack wood. We got all of leftover wood cut up and stacked to burn this winter.

General Conference Oct. 2008

2008-10-05T19:24:00.002-05:00

I can't believe that another Gen. Conf. has come and gone. I so much look forward to sit at the feet of the Prophets and hearing their counsel I am looking forward to reading and watching them again. One of the parts of Conf. I enjoy the most is hearing the testimonies of our leaders. We live in times that can really be discouraging and down right depressing, but I always feel energized and lightened after Conf.

The other thing I like about Gen. Conf. is having family around. Both of our wonderful daughters and our great sons-in-law have made it a tradition to come and watch all sessions of Conf. with us. In past years we only had satellite in the basement, which with all of us in the basement made for a little chaos. This year (thanks to my brilliant Wife) we did something different, we hooked the TV upstairs to satellite. That allowed us to spread out and made things much better. I second Elder Nelson's message on Families, they truly are one of the most important parts of mortality.

On Saturday between sessions Grandpa had some projects I wanted to get done, and with the help of the grandkids we got them done

Very Inspiring Video

2008-09-19T21:25:00.001-05:00

I enjoyed this very much and felt inspired to share it with you.

In The Wilderness

2008-09-15T21:43:00.003-05:00

Stephanie and I decided to go for a walk at a regional park close to our home. This park is a large wilderness preserve with many trails winding their way through it. We have walked it a number of times, and take the same loop every time go, this time we decided to take a different trail. We walked and walked and walked, and finally came on to a map on the trail, you know the kind that has an arrow that says "You Are Here". We looked at the map and said lets go this way.

Well we walked and walked and walked. I kept telling Steph that we were going in the wrong direction. Finally I could hear cars going by, and figured out where we were. We bush-wacked it to the road and had to walk over a mile back to the car.

Humming Birds Outside my Office Window

2008-09-08T21:02:00.003-05:00

I office out of my home, and have a big window that looks out into my front yard. One day I noticed humming birds flying around, so I went a bought a humming bird feeder. I have really enjoyed watching the birds come in to feed.

The Two Charlottes

2008-09-07T16:54:00.000-05:00

While Gma Beck was here her and Charlotte Jones had a sleep over in the new day be. I looked in and big Charlotte was reading to little Charlotte. It was very cute, so I took a picture.

2008-09-07T16:50:00.000-05:00

And here is a picture of my raspberries. I went out and picked them this afternoon, and there is a bunch waiting to ripen.

2008-09-07T16:47:00.000-05:00

Here is the picture of the shop with the new fascia I told you I would post.

2008-09-06T22:18:00.000-05:00

I worked my butt off today on the house. I am getting a lot done. I got the fascia and drip edge up on the front and side of the shop. It's green and looks very nice, I will take some pictures tomorrow and post them.

My feet are sooo tired from climbing up and down the ladders. I love working on the house, I am so glade that we moved.

Our second crop of raspberries are on and man are they big and juicy. I love wandering over to the patch and picking a big handful and popping them in my mouth while I am working.

2008-09-06T22:13:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone, I thought I would give this blog stuff a try