Seth and Jennie meet Stiltz

Hungry Grizzly - Yes he caught it with his mouth!

Brigham Newell Bailey

Seth Anthony Bailey

Jensen Leigh Bailey

Noah Claigh Bailey

Jacob Calvin Bailey

Yellowstone Bear World Adventure

Tuesday, July 22nd dawned bright and sunny. The Bailey Crew and Grandma Jensen headed for Yellowstone Bear World. "We had a blast." as Jennie says.

First we enjoyed watching the 6 bear cubs play. One cutie liked to run down the rock pile and pounce on his brother. Hmmmm - a bit like the people world I believe. Next was the petting zoo where Seth was determined to pet a chicken or a duck or a peacock or a goose. - Any bird would do. No success there but the baby goats and deer were very friendly. Jennie had a baby goat that seemed to prefer her to everyone else.

We also met "Stiltz", the three year old moose. He is a gentle soul who was rescued from the wild as an orphaned calf. He let us pet his antlers which were very hard and covered with a soft velvety coat.

After some time with the baby animals, we went to the trout stream. A group of young men were eying the great numbers of trout and wishing they could fish. - Talk about easy pickins! Best of all though - a duckling was hiding his head under his body thinking he was invisible to determined Seth. SUCCESS - Seth got to pet a duck! We also saw a little garter snake like the ones I use to catch as a girl in Southern Alberta.

From the trout stream, we boarded a special truck to make our way through the bear grounds. We passed through the elk and mountain goat range first. They even have a white elk! After feeding the elk, we continued on and finally got to the bears. First the grizzles - one fellow was soaking in a stream but the other came quickly to the truck knowing we were about to feed him. He stood on his hind legs waiting for a tasty morsel of bread.

As we approached the black bears, they came running, excited to see us and they gathered around for lunch. There were many black bears of many different sizes and shades of browns and blacks. Because we chose to go on a slow day for the park, we had the whole truck to ourselves and the kids got to do a lot of feeding. Every time we moved forward to feed another group of bears, the ones we were leaving would quickly follow behind. By the time we got to the last group we had quite a crowd surrounding us.

Once we got back to the compound, we took in the kiddie rides and enjoyed some shaved ice cups. Needless to say, Jennie, Noah and Seth each enjoyed picking out a bear from the gift shop to remember their adventure. Jacob chose a set of marbles which gave us some fun that evening back at home. Thanks to the internet we now know how to play. Carey seems to be a natural!

FUN FUN FUN DAY!!!!

Happy Idaho Times with the Bailey's

Carey made the great drive from Arizona (Yes all 14 hours of it!) with the Bailey babes arriving safely in Idaho Falls Sunday evening, July 20th. Happy Happy Day for us!

Monday was spent relaxing and giving everyone time to recover from the miles in the car. Jacob had returned from Boy Scout camp just in time for the trip so he has had a bit more to recover from than all of the rest. What a wonderful young man he is becoming. He is particularly helpful and watches out for his little brother Brig.

Noah celebrated day one by learning to play "Quiddler" and creaming his grandmother on his very first game. Not only that - he did a repeat performance on game two. This boy is going down! Claigh, Carey, Jacob, Noah and I all play a game or two each night. Carey is wise to make Jacob her partner when we play. The boy really knows his words - a testament to the benefits of the extensive reading he does.

Our Jennie is a ray of sunshine for sure and Seth has really cone into his own this past year. Every night the three of us read before bed. Seth always picks a "true facts" book. Perhaps we have a budding scientist on our hands. So far we have learned a lot about the creatures of the ocean, the Savannah, and the jungle. I really treasure these times. We also have fun playing "Make 'n' Break."

Brig is a busy year old. He seems to appreciate the toy shelf I set up for him, however, his favorite toy is my dust pan and little sweeper broom set.

Claigh knows how to work hard and is just as capable of playing hard. What a delight for him to have a crew waiting for him to come home each evening. We're talking some serious playing here!

Last of all, our Carey Lyn is looking very cute as she five months pregnant with our little Lucy. It is a joy to just have her here to visit. What a blessing daughters are!

We are enjoying Idaho summer at last. Others seem to be feeling the heat but in comparison to Virginia, we can't comprehend what they mean. The evenings are especially nice.
This past while we have received cute pics of some of the grand kids. How we love them! We haven't seen Felicity since she was a new baby. These distances are tough to span sometimes. She celebrated her first birthday with a wonderfully decorated "girly" cake by

Alyssa celebrated her 23rd birthday with friends and fellow missionaries in Viseu, Portugal, June 17, 2008. Of the gifts she received, her favorite was the Cheerios sent by Mom. It is funny the things you miss when you are far from home! I must say - those were the most expensive Cheerios ever when you consider the postage. This girl is definitely worth it.

It's summer right?

Just so you know I am not kidding - Today we woke up to large fluffy flakes of snow. Now that might be really pretty at Christmas BUT JUNE!! The planter in the back is filled with Petunias and you can see the humming bird feeder beside it. Somehow I think the woman who told me the humming birds come from Mother's Day forward throughout the summer was just pulling my leg - - I'm just sayin'. . .

Catch Up - The Girls . . .

Cameron busy loving and caring for her husband, soon to be sixteen year old step-son, three more sons and a beautiful daughter who just celebrated her first birthday.

Carey and husband looking forward to bringing child number six into the world this November. We are still waiting to hear if this will be son number five or a second daughter. We win either way! (children ages one and a half to twelve years old)

Sara enjoying being the only girl in her family with three sons and their dad showering "favorite" girl status on her. Her oldest son will be baptized this July.

Ashlee and husband living the mid-west life dodging tornadoes along with two terrific sons and two delightful daughters (ages one to eight.) We all wish them WEST!

Alyssa - the furthest east - serving an 18 month mission in Portugal. We are excited for her return home the end of September 2008.

Idaho is sooooo cold!

Yes, I know it has been very long since Ashlee created this blog for me BUT I have been very busy!

Life was humming along nicely in November. I was thoroughly enjoying teaching my two Institute Old Testament classes, serving as the "Strengthening Marriage and the Family" representative for the Virginia LDS Family Services Agency and loving the association of great friends when Claigh received a seemingly inconsequential phone call from Salt Lake.

They wondered why he had not applied for the Idaho Falls position to which he replied "We love Virginia." With that we thought the matter was closed - HA! The corporate offices called again well into December and asked Claigh to seriously consider taking the position as Agency Director for Idaho Falls. LDS Family Services has been such a blessing to us over the years and after prayerfully considering the request, we began to pack up for Idaho.

It isn't easy to get a very large home and yard ready for sale in the midst of the winter - especially with a trip already in the schedule to Ohio for Brynja's baptism AND being in the midst of training instructors for 17 stakes for the marriage and parenting classes AND needing to find two teachers to take my place in the middle of a school year for the Old Testament classes AND Claigh's normally year end busyness with the Virginia Agency, however somehow we pulled it all together and managed a trip to Arizona for Jennie's baptism in April as well.

We were one of the very few to sell a house in our price range in our county in the first quarter of 2008. Few are looking in January/February/March any year but we felt blessed to have just the right couple come through.

The move has been a challenge to say the least but here we are in cold Idaho. Thank-goodness for the warm people because I'm very serious, it is June and the highs are in the 50's.

We look forward to our Idaho adventure but I must say, I miss our dear friends in Virginia terribly. It is strange to have the phone silent day after day. I also miss having a girlfriend to go spur of the moment to lunch or take in a matinée. Our empty-nesters Family Home Evening group and Book Club are sorely missed. Thank-goodness for wonderful daughters who call to share their lives with me.

I am also convinced that we have toooooo much stuff. We moved smaller and I thought we had pared down plenty. The parable of Jesus of the man who built greater barns for his great abundance (Luke 12) comes to mind. That is definitely not for us. We plan on moving even smaller next time and so my work at sorting through and blessing others with what we really no longer need has begun. Stuff should not take so much of our precious energy and time! I do want to organize our family photos into albums (no - not the creative kind - just organized into albums!)

Blessings abound! - Friends to make!! - Our love story continues!!! (It actually began in Idaho! Can you believe it?)

Thanks to Ash

Thanks Ash for making good things happen!

Hugs
Dad