Family history in Wallowa County

Today I took Grandpa & Grandma Baxter to Enterprise with me. They spent the day with me in court. We had a great time together. Here they are with Tracy who is from London. She has an awesome accent. Grandma's beloved grandmother, "Gram" and her husband, Sam Bannister, are buried in the Enterprise cemetary. Their graves are on the northeast side of the cemetary towards the top of the hill.

Buried next to them is Grandmother Tucker's sister, Ethel Wade, and her son, Max Bauer.

Wallowa County is truly beautiful.

This is the Praire Creek cemetary just a couple miles east of Joseph. Here is the Tucker plot for Granddad's family. Grandma Baxter told me today that the cement surrounding the plot was poured by her grandfather, George, and her great-grandfather, Landon. She is pretty impressed with the quality of cement they poured. The large tree was planted by her grandmother Estella who died in the fire. Buried behind the large metal grave marker is Landon's wife. He is buried somewhere around Medford. Grandma and Grandpa Baxter want to be buried between the large metal marker and the gravestone for Granddad and Grandmother directly in front of where this picture was taken.

Two uncles of Granddad Tucker, Maxine, his parents, and the nephew who died in the fire with his mother are also buried in this plot.

Grandma's twin sister, Maxine, is buried to her right. Maxine died at age 4 1/2 years after a tonsillectomy. Though she had a bad heart, that isn't what killed her. The doctor nicked a vein in her neck during the surgery and sometime after waking from the operation, she bled to death. After she died, the doctor turned to Grandma's folks and said, "Every doctor makes mistakes. This is one of them." Each Memorial Day, Grandmother Tucker would take pink rose buds to put at Maxine's grave.

Elgin Mile High Cross Country Meet

This was a small cross country meet set at Andies Prairie. It is in an area called Tollgate. It was very pretty but rough terrain with most of the race run along cross county ski paths. It was Jake's first meet. He was a little nervous but I could tell that he wanted to see where he matched up on the team. We have a large cross country team with about 20 boys out. Jake's in the white below. This is at the first mile mark. It was all on this road going up a gradual incline the whole way. He ran that first mile in 6 minutes and 24 seconds. I thought that was pretty impressive! Jake leading the second pack of Baker runners.

Notice the little path the boys are running on.

This is Skyler. He is a good friend of Jake's and in our ward. He went with us to the MTC when Zack entered. Skyler was cruising and was in 3rd place at this point. This was a tough hill to run up toward the end of the race. The picture gives a good view of the narrow path.

Jake got mad at me here. I saw them coming and saw Jake and his friend Jesse trudging behind a purple shirted guy who I thought was from Elgin because they wore purple uniforms. So I'm yelling, "pass him guys!" while they were running through the valley up the incline. I have to be quiet during the next race!!! Oh, both Jesse and Jake passed the purple shirted runner when they got on top. Jesse finished 12th and Jake 13th. 7th and 8th respectively for the team.

Skyler got nipped at the end and finished 4th. Here he is getting his medal. He was ticked for losing 3rd.

The boys won 1st place with 27 points. I love the deer-in-the-headlights look on Jake's face.

The team. Trevor, with the medal around his neck, won it in a new course time.

Plus the coaches. Tish, to the left, is the new head coach this year.

Marble Creek

One of the traditions of our family is to go into the mountains at the beginning of the school year where I can give the kids and Karen blessings. It is a wonderful way to bond as a family and to ask the Lord's blessings to be upon our family for the upcoming year. I always love this time of year because, for us, it really is the beginning of the new year. With Sam preparing to leave for college, we went up to Marble Creek and had fun goofing around and taking pictures. Jake was an especially good sport as we had him pose quite often in silly poses. Jake is a freshman cross-country runner, but obviously he could have been a standout quarterback!!

Twenty-six years ago tomorrow, after several rejections because she already had dates scheduled, Karen finally went out on a date with me. I have never wanted to let her go since.

Jake wasn't looking so comfy when Sam gave the gate a good shake!

This shot is really for Zack so that he can see what a muscle man Jake is . . .or might someday be . . . after using a few more weights.

It always helps the photo shot when your brother is tossing the football at you while you are trying to smile for mom's camera.

Courtney and Sam are responsible for this silly shot. I think the three kids had more fun with this picture than any others. We loved the leg action even more than the flower Sam so kindly placed behind Jake's ear.

Sam in his mountain man, "I can rip your head off" pose. Notice the snarl! After returning home, Sam took off his boots which had been outside on a shelf during the summer. He hadn't noticed it when he put the boots on, but as he took them off, a huge spider crawled out of one of the boots. Now that was exciting!!

Courtney is quite the girl. She put me through a few minutes of her aerobics exercise a couple of days ago. I'll stay with my aerobic machines. Her stuff hurt way too much!!!

Sam with Grandpa and Grandma Baxter the evening before returning to college.

Odds and Ends of August

In the spring, Karen volunteered to be in charge of the Lunch Buddy program at the high school. This program fits a high school student and elementary student together for one lunch period a week. The older student goes to the elementary school and sits with the younger student as they eat and talk together. Karen and Courtney worked together to make several posters and a flier which was handed out at the high school registration. Soon Karen will have an orientation meeting at the high school where she will meet with all of the students and explain the program in more detail. On August 27th, two of Jake's friends, Austin and Skyler, spent the night in preparation for our big trip to Seattle. Though our trip was not a church-sponsored trip, we spent time stopping along the way to see the Columbia River temple in Tri-Cities and we stopped at the Seattle temple and walked around the grounds. The guys on the trip were Jake, Austin Cline, Skyler Young, Luke Albert, and Kyle Knight, and me (behind the camera). As we came into Seattle on the 28th, we went up to Pike's Market. Here customers order fresh fish which is then picked up by a worker and thrown to a worker behind the counter who catches the fish as it flies through the air. Plenty of chants and calls can be heard as the men work busily together. There are plenty of sights, smells, and sounds around the Pike's Market area. There are many shops and stands selling items and food. Musicians are at nearly every street corner. But one of the things that got the boys attention the most was this shirtless man who was having the point of a sword thrust into his neck. The guy holding the sword finally quit because he was obviously scared that he would injure the shirtless man. Afterward, you could see where the end of the sword (which had been demonstrated to be very sharp) had make huge marks on the guy's throat near the Adam's Apple, but had not punctured him. It was all a part of the shirtless guy's karate demonstrations. There were all kinds of people at the market, including these Jewish teenagers. Quite a bit of diversity which is not found in our rural area. The guys posing on the wharf of the Puget Sound. We got to Safeco Field a couple of hours before watching a major league baseball game. The boys went to the outfield seats with the hope of catching a homerun ball during batting practice. There were several homeruns hit, but not to our area. The guys chilling in the cheap seats. What was fun was walking around the stadium during the game taking in the exciting atmosphere of the ball park. The Mariners beat Kansas City 6-4. It started to rain during the game so the retractable roof was put into place. It was cool to watch. This is Jenny Fullmer's family. Jenny was a friend of Zack's at college and has become a friend to all of us. She generously saved and gave to us guys six free passes to a water park/amusement park in the Seattle area that we attended on Saturday. Jenny has a great family. Her parents are very funny and we enjoyed her sisters Mary and Beth. Jenny lined us up with the Clemens family so that we could have a home to stay at. This is after church on the 30th with Aimee and Shelly. The Clemens were so generous and nice to us. Andy, the son, even ate lunch with us at Costco on Saturday. Courtney and Jake before the first day of school. Courtney is a senior and Jake is a freshman. It will be a fun year with them.