It's funny how we begin to appreciate life more as we get older. Johns dad, 81, has been saying good by and patching up old relationships for the last couple of months. It is making the grand kids nervous, John angry, and me melancholy. His health has been borderline lately, but it seems to us that he is literally talking himself into dieing. Mike called him from California the other day and he said that the conversation left him feeling like Grandpa was saying his final goodbyes. We have always loved visiting Ephraim, but the kids are getting as crazy as Grandpa. He is making them feel an urgency to visit. John and I decided to take a little trip down on Friday, without know that Brandt and Soupie were doing the same. Shannon knew we were going down and decided she wanted to pack up the boys and go down after work (Larry has been out of town the last couple of weeks and when he goes, Shannon adventures out with the boys so they can play too...Good for you Shannon!) Natalie and Jay want to go in a couple of weeks, this week they had Grandpa Bob and Grandma Jo in town. We took the ATV's and John took Brandt, Soupie and Carlie up the Canyon to see the tree that Grandpa Bill carved his name into along with the information that he had spotted a bear.......I should say he chased the bear on his ATV until the bear stopped in his tracks and turned around to face him....Grandpa decided to turn around and head out of there. So they got to see the tree, then Shannon came up and the next day we did the same thing over again. It was nice to see Grandpa and Grandma and spend some time.
