Getting away from the snow

This was the view looking out our window of the condo, on the beautiful island of Maui. The weather was wonderful, 70's at night and 80 during the day, light breezes and just plan beautiful all day long. What a great way to spend 6 days in the middle of January. We left home with the temp in the 20's, the week before we left it was 17 below zero, can you blame us for getting away. We had a great time soaking up the sun. Hopefully it will keep us for the rest of the winter.

Our beautiful daughters, Tawny, Tawna, and Tassa, this was Tawna's birthday celebration eating dinner at the Outback.

Walking along the beach every morning barefoot I got to see these amazing sights, waves breaking and surfers riding those waves.

Walking along the boat docks on the way to our whale watching trip, we saw this big sword fish that someone had just caught. To see the pictures of our whale watching trip click here to see Tawny's great pictures. http://tawnythornton.blogspot.com/ .

Some of the beautiful flowers growing along the road just about everywhere you look.

The last day in Maui, on the way to the airport we spotted this rainbow. Look close from the top of the pole down and left. It was much brighter when we took the picture.

14th Grandchild shows up on Jan 11th 2010

This is baby Finnley Aaron Thornton new born son of Tim and Kayla born on the 11th of Jan. 2010. He is the 14th Grandchild in this growing posterity that is ours. What a wonderful blessing in our lives to have these beautiful Grandchildren, it makes all the work of raising there parents worth it. So thank you Tara and Greg, Tallie and Issac, Tom and Alicia, Tim and Kayla, Toby and Tammy, and Tory and Elizabeth, for the great blessings in our lives.

One day old, good looking baby. He looks just like his Dad when he was born.

Finnley taking a nap at 12 days old

Grandmother and Grandpa relaxing with there newest Grandson Finnley

13th Grandchild arrives Dec. 21st 2009

This is Wesley James Thornton. New born son of Toby and Tammy they did a great job getting him here. He was born on the 21st of Dec, he weighed in at 7 lbs and 13 ounces


Brand new baby, looks like he doesn't want to open those eyes yet.

Getting ready to bring this cute one home.

Look at all that hair.

One month old can't believe they change so much in such a short time. Thank you Tammy for all the pictures of your beautiful baby.

12th Grandchild arrives May 26th 2009

Well got a little ahead of myself with that post on the fourth of July. There was a very important event that happened in May a new Grandchild was born to Tallie and Isaac on the 26th. Brittion Thomas Jewkes a very cute bundle of joy



Proud Grandparents looking over the new arrival.

Sure is a cute little boy.

Bringing baby home, they sure look small in that great big car seat.

Another North Dakota trip

Becky had her high school class reunion to attend which was one of the reason we went, so all the family decided to come with us and make it a BIG party.


Trying to get all the GrandKids in one place at the same time and get them all to smile for Great Grandparents is quite the challange.

Of course you have to have a picnic in the park.

So here we are in Williston on the fourth of July of course they have a parade you will also note that we have almost everybody in the family with us. We have 11 of the 12 Grandkids with us, Grandpa and Grandma Heller were having a great time getting to know them.

North Dakota Trip April 2009

We get back from our cruise and two weeks later decide to go to a funeral in North Dakota. Becky's uncle Arvid Olson passed away he was 92 years old. He had lived a long and productive life. He was a farmer all his life. In North Dakota you count on what the Lord gives you in the way of rain and good weather so your crops will grow and you will be able to harvest in the fall. Arvid did pretty well with what he had.

Elveida is Arvid's wife and Becky's aunt, she is in the middle, Jordis is on the right and Marcella is on the left. They are the three sisters that were able to attend the funeral. they have a very close family and it was good to be there for them. One more picture of the three of them. You can tell they like to talk.

After the funeral and lunch we headed back to Williston. However we had to go by the old homestead in McGregor ND and see the old house and the oil wells that they are drilling on there land. This is the old homestead, Becky thought it was alot bigger when she was there as a child.

They have two oil wells that are about 200 yards behind the house. One is producing and they are still drilling the other.

This is the south well, they are about done drilling. They should start pumping oil in the next few weeks. The other is just to the north of this one. They are telling Jordis that this well is pumping 23 barrels an hour. They don't have a pump installed yet because the pressure is all they need to get the oil out of the ground, they store the oil in the four tanks on the right. they then bring in a truck and haul the oil to a refinery.

We made it back to Williston and the next day we left to come back to Rexburg. It was a great trip. Not quite a cruise to Mexico but a good trip just the same.

Cruise to Mexico

There has been so much going on that I just don't have time to update this blog. So I thought I better put something here about our little cruise to Ensenada Mexico. Tawna and Tassa thought it would be good for us to use our passports so they arranged a cruise for us. Of course they had to come along which makes it all the more fun. Here we are relaxing on the ship.

Here Tawna and Tassa are doing some serious shopping.

Becky looking to find some great deals in Mexico. It was a great day in the 70's which was just what we needed since it was still in the low 30's at home. We spent three days on the ship and the food was great. We had a wonderful time just relaxing and enjoying ourselves.