Last year we left you hanging with some big news. We bought the Harold B. and Fern Lee home in August and began getting it on the National Historic Register. That enabled us to get some tax breaks on restoring it. We spent the fall researching the soil condition and then mitigating the settling that was obviously having a negative effect on the west side. Then throughout the winter and spring we interviewed contractors and drew up plans to renovate it. Finally, in the fall, serious work began and it's quickly transforming into a beautiful home again.
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| View from the east side. |
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| The south side. Note the stained glass in the middle. The windows on the bottom right are angled in a way that was of special interest to all the historic preservationists that have assisted in researching the home. They had never seen such a feature before. |
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| Christmas 2017. We make the attempt to see lights on Temple Square and have discovered the secret is to go at 5:30, as soon as they are turned on. |
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| A few years ago my friend Marianne began a tradition of decorating gingerbread houses with the kids and giving me the gift of an hour alone in which I can get presents wrapped. |
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| Grandma Ward always succeeds in gathering as many cousins as possible together to reenact the Nativity Story. |
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| I think this magnifying glass was a gift to Joyce, but Ward quickly claimed it and has been obsessed with being a detective ever since. |
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| Every Monday we go to Glendale Library where the kids are entertained with music, stories, crafts, snacks, and dancing. Plus I get to see a lot of my friends there too! |
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| The kids' cousin Alexa visited from Massachusetts so they did their best to entertain her. |
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| As a service project, the Primary kids made valentines and distributed them after church. |
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Ward happily turned 4 in the spring and enjoyed having a house full of friends to celebrate with him. |
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| Cousins from Washington visited and we enjoyed a tour of down town. |
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| While here, we all visited Grandpa Ward's grave. |
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| We also took a tour of the newly remodeled Jordan River Temple. We actually got to go twice with two sets of cousins. |
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| Joyce finished a year of music classes with a recital. |
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| Mother's Day 2018 |
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| Joyce finished a year of preschool with Miss Hannah. Joyce always loved Miss Hannah's style, once asking her if she could have her boots when she got too big for them. She often asked me to fix her hair like Miss Hannah's. |
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| Ward also attended a little preschool and enjoyed a field trip to the Aviary, which by foot is only a 10 minute walk, but riding the bus was half the adventure. |
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| As soon as school got out we took a trip to see cousins, stopping in Idaho and getting a tour of a potato farm. |
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| The kids still talk about the mountain of potatoes. |
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| A ride on a tractor with cousins. |
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| Our next destination was Washington where we stayed two weeks helping my sister recover from surgery on a finger. Their kids raise sheep, but we were also lucky to see some newborn kittens. |
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| While the big kids were finishing up school, the little kids took a trip to their local library. |
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| We got home just in time to celebrate this great father! |
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| In June, Joyce turned 5, sharing her celebration and unicorn cupcakes with Grandpa. |
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| With birthday money they were able to buy themselves watches. |
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| Beginning of summer called for bringing out the pool and slide. |
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| Both kids took two sessions of swim lessons and are quickly becoming little fish. |
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| We enjoyed a couple bike trips to a nearby library with friends. |
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| Joyce officially finished an online preschool the state of Utah pays for and encourages. We really liked watching both kids learn to read with "Rusty and Rosy." Ward watched while she did it and learned quite a bit, but has began his own course in September. |
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| To celebrate the Fourth of July we took a hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon with friends. |
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| Some of the Fourth was spent with grandparents visiting the Colonial Festival held in Orem and put on by my aunt and uncle's family each year. |
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| The library system kept us super busy all summer, learning new things, and playing with friends. Here they were learning to dance the Cha-Cha I believe. |
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| A favorite library activity is attending all magic shows. |
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| We also attended many "Nature in the City" events where we explored the various parks and trails nearby with guides from Tracy Aviary. |
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| To help engage my kids, and entertain friends, I hosted a weekly play date, or "Summer Preschool," where we did various activities and learned what we could together. On this day we were doing a "Pioneer Trek Reenactment," by walking around the block and stopping to "wash at streams," a.k.a. park strips. The kids loved it, but I think Joyce would have preferred to be the one in charge, instead of me. |
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| We took a tour of the city's public safety building and learned some fun things about their history. |
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| Playing at Uncle Clyn's, the kids got to catch and hold a little garden snake. |
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| Bret spent most of 2018 working like crazy, picking up all the shifts he could. One weekend in July he was able to take us with him to St. George. While he worked the kids and I swam in the hotel pool and visited the Children's Museum. |
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| Ward doing his best to sell "veggie sandwiches" at the Children's Museum. |
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| We had a couple play dates with friends down in Day Break, getting to play on the beach. Ward still asks to go back. |
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| The best part of summer is the free time to sit outside and do nothing. |
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| The kids' cousin, Cassie, taught them how to blow bubbles. |
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| We enjoyed watching the 24th of July parade with friends. The kids love parades. |
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| To celebrate my birthday, the grandparents took us to Trader Joe's to buy all kinds of treats for lunch. |
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| Ward started preschool at Whittier Elementary where he quickly made all kinds of new friends. Before September was over her got invited to a party. I'm pretty sure he knows the names of everyone in his class of 18. |
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| Joyce returned to Capitol Hill Academy, where she had Miss Hannah again, this time for Kindergarten. She has 9 in her class, with a teacher and an aid, Miss Sarah. She had several new kids in her class, but only one boy. She loves to jump rope with her free time, having learned how the year before from the first graders at recess. |
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| Both kids recently learned to master monkey bars. |
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| Joyce began an after school orchestra program. She started on a paper violin, but now gets to play on a real one. They have monthly concerts so we get to see her progress. |
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| I enjoyed my annual get together with friends. This time we went to Midway for a night. |
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| We've become more of a routine following family, trying to include daily and weekly chores. A monthly routine we've added is a date. Each parent takes one of the kids on an afternoon date. Ward took me on an "adventure," walking along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail where we could see the entire city. |
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| Every month we get together with local cousins for family dinner. We were sad, though, when we had to say goodbye to Cassie, as she left on her mission to Bakersfield, California at the end of summer. |
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| In October we took a trip to Idaho to see cousins. I think our kids are finally becoming good at traveling. |
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| We enjoyed some early trick-or-treating at This is the Place Heritage Park. Then I had to explain to Ward why people were once put in cages like this one. |
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| I let the kids choose costumes at Costco. Joyce saw one for a Nickelodeon celebrity named Jojo Siwa. I think she was enamored with the big pink bow and microphone. They made the little skeleton hand lanterns at library craft time. |
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| This is the gang of friends, ready to do some door knocking. One other friend joined them a few houses in. |
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| We celebrated Dia De Los Muertos by talking about Grandpa Ward and eating some of his favorite foods: cacahuates and beans. The marigold flowers and sugar skulls were various library crafts they made. |
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| For Thanksgiving we got together with both sides of our family, making them all participate in a "Turkey Run." |
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| For our 2018 anniversary we went on an outing to Burger King. We had attempted going somewhere else but found the place was closed. This was our last resort. Luckily, the kids loved it. |
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| From our family to yours, we wish you the a happy 2019! |
