The Tundra's first dent

July 29th

The Tundra's first dent.....Mom did it!

No way! :0 Unbelievable, I wasn't even driving at the time. Let me explain!

Tomorrow I go in for a little girlie surgery, one that I am not supposed to be lifting, or over exerting for the next two weeks, so naturally I want to make my yard beautiful so I wont have to do it for awhile. I'm out mowing, right? I am close to the the front porch and the grass is pretty high because the lawn hasn't been mowed for awhile. All of a sudden I hear what sounds like a rock in the blades, it doesn't seem to be too bad, and then a loud bang! I am trying to figure out what just happened, but don't see a rock, or any other problems for that matter. I continue with my mowing. Now I am mowing straight for the truck and happen to look up and see a dent in the side of the pick up. Its not horrible, but I did take some of the paint off.


Poor LLoyd, he cried!






I cant believe that from 15 feet away, a rock can do something like that.




On the bright side, the yard looks beautiful! :)

Beek Reunion

Girls exploring caves

Its time to fill the hills with Beeks once again. I am so glad that they have started back up these reunions, I have missed them. I remember as a child going to Mount Graham for a few years, then it was Big Lake. But mostly the kids will remember Baca Ranch. We had lots of good times in that beautiful spot behind Heber. Then several years ago, we had two wild fires merge together and it was awful for lots of the White Mountains. Baca Ranch burned down, and the Beecroft Reunions stopped. Last year, at the request of one of my cousins, we had a reunion, not far from Baca Ranch, same general area that we could all find easily, and congregate for a week, weekend, or even a day. Paige and I were the only ones that could go out over night, then Devon, Chase, Jordyn, Kylie and Ronnie Morris joined us for the day on Saturday. It was nice, and so when it was suggested that we do that again this year, I was all for it. Only this time, all of us would go out and camp. I had the time off work, LLoyd had the time off and the girls took the time off because Girls Camp was Monday through Thursday, and then we left for the reunion right after.

I came home from work on Thursday, tired and hot...wishing that we could leave that night but not even pursuing the issue. The girls got home from girls camp just that same morning, and so I knew they would be too tired. LLoyd didn't even get off work(I thought)till 6:45, so the thought of leaving that night was looking doomed. However, Jordyn and Kylie were persistent and so us girls packed up the truck to go camping. We were pretty much ready to go, but LLoyd didn't get home. We waited and waited and finally he showed up at 7:30. Still the girls were persistent, and we took off shortly after LLoyd got home. He was surprised and not to sure about leaving for camp that late. We still had to do some shopping at WalMart for food, and it was getting dark fast. There was also a thunder storm and lots of rain as we traveled, and it looked even worse where we were going. We estimated the time to be about 11:00pm would we arrive at the reunion, and it would be dark and very wet. The girls traveled in the Corolla, and Lloyd and I drove the truck. As we rode, we made a decision not to go that far and with Mom and Dad's hospitality, we went as far as Taylor and stayed the night.
We got up and left the next morning to arrive in Heber about 12:00 and then out to the reunion. We set up fairly quickly with the threat of rain, but really never got any. We were told that it had really rained hard the night before, so we were glad that we did not go all the way out that night.

Our girls like finding critters

A horney Toad and a Water Dog

We camped close to Amee Hensley and the rest of Uncle Bill's family, off by ourselves, but close enough to visit. We did not take out our big tent because we were only going to be out there for a short while, so we opted for the easy set up.

LLoyd and I slept in the back of the truck on a futon mattress,

Kylie and Jordyn slept in a small tent close to the truck,

and Paige slept in the back seat of the truck where she would be close to us. Our camping was simple, but I think we enjoyed ourselves. I love being able to visit with my family and getting to know the youngest generations. My Aunt June and her daughter, Bert both died this past year, and the threat of losing a few more Aunts and Uncles very soon made me realize that I need to visit them much more often than I do. Both my Dad and Aunt Betty, are getting pretty bad with their disease. But they were both there, not able to get around much, and the communicating getting harder to understand, but they were there. Uncle Jack has had quite a bout with Colon Cancer and so they were not able to stay out like they usually do. And then when they were out, Uncle Jack had to lie flat on his back. Aunt Lanette and Doc actually put the reunion on this year, and they looked dog tired. I think that she really over did, and it showed. Even Uncle Bill, somehow hurt his back and when Uncle Jack was not around to use the bed, Uncle Bill did, because it hurt to sit or stand.

From left to right: Tate(tater tot) Gavin, Faron, Miguel, Rylee, Kenedee

Amee and Paula and their families were out there the whole time we were. Johnny Whetten and Uncle Tone and Aunt Betty stayed out. Rhonda East and Murray,(Uncle Tone and Aunt Betty's daughter) and all their kids and grand kids were there. Uncle Bill and Aunt Jo lived just about a mile down the road, so they were there all day and then went home at night. Aunt Lanette and Doc also live in Heber, so they traveled home at night, and their son Jody Crandall and his wife came with them. On Saturday, my mom and dad, and Karla and Pearl came out, Uncle Jack and Aunt Marilyn, Randy and Renea, Steve and Becky Harrington and their son Boyd and his wife and child came out. Tina and Preston were out and leaving as we drove in, we talked to them out on the road for a minute. Kyle and his wife Jennifer and kids, and Brendee and Dallas and their kids came out on Saturday. We had to leave about 3:00pm on Saturday to get home and just as we were leaving, Gary Crandall and his wife came out.
We had lots of fun playing with Paula and Amee's kids, and Paige and Kelcee Hensley and one of Rhonda's granddaughters hit it off quite well. They had fun playing on the round swing and such.

Too many people at lake,

no fish were biting.

Kylie read her book instead.

We went fishing at Black Canyon Lake, we did some dutch oven cooking (yummy chicken) and we did lots of relaxing.
My favorite part was when LLoyd was teasing the little kids with the laser on Friday night. They didn't know what it was for a long time and so whenever they saw this little red light on their shoes, or shirts, or on the top of the canopy, or on the ground close to them, they would squeal with delight and try to hit it, or chase it. It was quite hilarious, but after awhile, some of the older kids started catching on and getting in on the teasing. That was cute, and I wish that I had gotten some pictures of it, but we didn't. My other favorite part was taking a shower in our own little makeshift shower. It felt great, and made me very happy.

we caught Paige in the shower.

you can barely see her face peeking above

tarp at center right

I thought that the reunion was fun meeting a girl named Halie, she was from New Mexico. I also went on the round swing it was scary. I got to hang out with my cousins Kelcee, Pearl and Halie who is int really my cousin, but it was fun anyway. Paige

Pearl and Paige at the lake

Okay it is I, Lloyd, Lisa (my wife!) wants me to write my favorite thing at the reunion, what can I say, there was good food, good friends, good weather. I must say sleeping in the back of the truck is not that great! Lisa kept winking at me and I was not sure but I think she got a bug in her eye. Okay so don't try fishing at the lake either because there are to many people there. So let me ask you, have you ever gotten bad gas and your around people and you can't release? Ya, that's me all the time I was there. why is it considered rude when it has to come out. Then Lisa rolls her eyes at me when I finally release, a guy can handle only so much gas pain and pressure. Alright, what about the food thing? I like cooking! We had some dutch oven terriaki chicken that was delicious! I can't believe Lisa dumped the left over Chicken on the ground!! Ok, not on purpose; it was still too hot and the baggy we put it in kind of weakened. We both wept, yes our eye's glazed over with emotion because we were so looking forward to eating it later. Very early that morning I heard a coyote yip with enjoyment as he dined on our chicken that we deposited in the woods. I had fun being with my wife and daughters.

Uhh ok, Jordyn here, my mom told me i have to write a little thing about what i liked about camping. The first thing i would like to say is that I am not a stuck up Round Valley girl like my cousins accused of me and i cant always be the one to start conversations with my Snowflake Lobo family. The second thing is that this part of my family I actually understand....weird considering were from different places and our schools are rivals. My favorite part was probably getting to know my family a little better cause we always seem awkward around each other and this camping trip we didn't.

uhm this is kylie :) hello! my mom says i have to write something that i liked about camping. well lets see.......one of my family members built a round swing over this stream type thing. and so i liked going on the round swing! the only problem was that it was built on this partially burnt tree or something so if you went around twice then you would smash into the tree! It was kind of scary but I did it anyways and you know what? all the burnt black stuff on the tree came off onto my arm and face when I smashed into the tree! So guess what looked like the ring leader of the hobo circus. I think that was alright except my little cousin, Tater Tot, who was around five or six, kept making fun of me! My other favorite thing was getting a laser at night and shining it around the children so they all freaked out! hahaha they would search for the little red dot and when they found it they would hit whatever it was on! So my dad.... haha good ol dad, he shined it on one of the kids forheads so they began smacking themselves on the forhead! hahahaha! that was my favorite part about camping. kylie

Glen and Lloyd's most excellent Diamondbacks game adventure!!

OK, first we woke up that morning, an absolute must if your planning on making it to the game on time. I of course wanted to look my best so I put on my d-back shirt from Walmart Glen put his on too. It also helps if you put the rest of your clothing apparel on as well as not to embarrass your wife.

We then proceeded to the game, we decided to eat at Ihop, Glen's choice -which was a most excellent choice. I had the Hawiian breakfast, and Lisa had poched eggs and an English muffin. Lisa is always jealous of my food and so she helps herself which is totally bogus because she thinks she is the boss. Ok, so let me say this about food at the ball park -its way over priced which is once again totally bogus and uncool, so you need to eat before you go. After we ate we once again took off for the game.

I have learned that maybe it might be a good idea, if you are not an expert tracker like yours truly, you will want to buy a tom tom of a garmin map thingy. It will help you find your destination and it has a most excellent female voice, which is very soothing as to calm your nerves when you are driving in a stress filled car. When you have back seat drivers who are getting on your nerves. you might also want to buy a taser to help silence said back seat driver.) This was just a side note and not an advertisement. So we arrived at the stadium and Glen is as giddy as a kid at Christmastime, I of course was trying to maintain the level of professionalism when I said, "race you to the entrance." Glen of course cheats and trips me, but I managed to get him back by crying out "Thief -he's got my wallet". Of course he was eventually taken down and was wheeled into the stadium by a professional and shown his seat. I had to be courteous and let him go in first so he won the race, only because it was age before beauty. When we got down to our seats were taken back by the most stunning view of the spacious stadium. The club must have money to burn because they had a least six dudes watering the sand around the bases. I thought, no wonder we have so much sand- they water it!

Every game they must sell it when they get too much. It grows real fast because they rake it up about every third inning. Not only do they make money form the games, they also are selling the sand! Whooee, excellent! Ok, enough about the sand we saw many players, none of which knew me, but Glen knew them.

He kept going of on how much he knew about the players, and would not let me talk about what I knew. I discovered that Glen is like the guru of Diamondback baseball!

He knows each player so well, and when he talks about them, he gets this erie look in his eyes, like he is teleporting something onto your brain. It is kind of freaky, almost as freaky as the woman with the man's voice who kept yelling at the players as they warmed up -not cool!! I 'm sure glad Garmin didn't use her voice for their map quest, she would probably start swearing at you when you goofed up and didn't make the right turn. I was glad when the woman went back to her seat as the game started.

Back of Glen's head

Not much happened until the fourth inning when the San Diego Padres scored two runs, which was totally retarded because they forgot home field advantage and further more shouldn't they be dressed in robes? So we finally got to the seventh inning and the D-backs tied it up which became an instant crowd-pleaser. Glen and I celebrated with the purchase of lemonade drinks. In the 8th inning we almost got hit by a foul ball, if it wasn't for the Bonehead in front of us sticking his hand up to catch the ball and deflecting it back onto the field. I was willing to sacrifice my body and slow it down with my massive chest!

(man in red shirt-BONEHEAD)

But the D-backs did get ahead, and even pounded out a home run with two runners on base. But in the 9th the relief pitcher gave us a scare and loaded up the bases (In my mind I was thinking, "what is he thinking," (I think he was secretly trying to make the game longer just so he could have a chance to bat!!!! Not Cool Dude!!!!!) Luckily, nothing came of it. The game finished up when some Padre bozo got up to bat and hit a high fly ball to center field but luckily he had not eaten his Wheaties that morning ( that is the breakfast of ball players, if I played ball, the cereal of champs would have to be those chocolate yum yum things you get from that truly wonderful store Walmart) instead, the D-Backs center Fielderbacked clear up to the wall, caught the fly and the game was over. What excitement, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would have give it a 9 in the excellent department, the woman with the mans voice was just a little weird.

Independence Day 2009

How I love the 4th of July in Round Valley! It had just been such an awesome week preparing and enjoying the festivities of our area. We had Chase and Heather, and Devon home with us for the Holiday and Carly spent the week with us, and Gary came up as well. We sure missed the rest of Lloyd's family, and wish that it could be like the old days when all the family would come up for the family reunion. Jordyn worked at Safeway from early morning until 4:00, so she missed out on some things, and Kylie had to work at Dairy Queen from 12:00-3:00. Heck, we didn't even have Lloyd with us as he was on his graveyard shift this year and slept through most of the day and then went to work before the fireworks began. We did however, share lots of the Holiday with the Quinlan family which made it fun. Heather's brother, Ryan came home from his mission this last week, and I knew that Heather would want to spend as much time with them as possible, so we sat at the parade together, went on a picnic together and watched the fireworks together. It surprises me how comfortable our families are together and that makes me so very happy.






Kylie and her two friends, Kami and Katie, took my place on the Curves float so that I could sit with the family, and they hammed it up on the machines and were much more interesting than I ever could have been. She was quite tired by the time the parade ended, however and then had to survive a very busy Dairy Queen until 3:00. Needless to say, she came home and took a nap at that time.
This was the first year that I did what most of the rest of the town usu sally does a few days before the parade, and that is put out chairs to mark our spot for the parade watching. I knew that we would have a crowd with the Quinlan family and we also had to have a place where Grandpa Wilkins could pull his car up so he could observe without getting out of the car. I chose the sidewalk out in front of Burnham's Mortuary, closest to the Marquee which was a wonderful spot to watch. However, the night before, pranksters went through the town randomly picking up chairs off the roadsides and most of them were dumped in the middle of the Basha's parking lots. Mine however, were nowhere to be found and so I lost 6 chairs, trying to be smart. We still were able to park where I had previously designed to sit because Devon and I went to set up my Canopy to protect us from the sun early that morning and no one else had claimed that spot. I am still sad about my chairs. There was more people in town this year than I could ever remember being here before. Unbelievable the many peoples Round Valley hosted this weekend. The parade was great, and Kylie and friends were quite lively on their float!




After we got Kylie to work, we all headed to Sipe's Ranch for a Picnic, which was so pleasant. A very nice place for a picnic. We roasted hot dogs on my small portable gas grill, played several intense games of ladder golf and totally enjoyed ourselves in the shade and beauty of Sipes Ranch. I am so grateful to have beautiful places like this so close to us and open to our enjoyment. There weren't even that many people to make it crowded. In fact, I think there were only about 4 other cars that came and left while we were there. We were able to also enjoy the hummingbirds, butterfly's and a few snakes that were enjoying themselves in the cool grass till we so rudely interrupted.

We joined the Quinlans on the golf course to watch the fireworks put on by our very own local pyromaniacs. We were not able to enjoy them last year because of problems with the town and Workman's comp, but after one year of no fireworks, the whole town came unglued and the town decided that they better pay the comp. These guys put on the best shows that we have ever seen, and they do not charge us to watch them Man am I glad they were back! What a wonderful cap to the day. We picked up a few more bodies to add to our numbers. We had Ronnie Morris join us and the twins, Kami and Katie, and Alice and Jason also joined us. It was really cool to have everyone there together. What a beautiful weekend, what wonderful memories we just created. Cant wait for next 4th of July!

Update (July 21)

Today I was driving the East side of the mail route and I did not make a turn sharp enough to clear a truck that has been sitting in the same spot for many months. I had to back up and then try again and Lo and Behold, in the back of this pickup I noticed two old school chairs that looked quite familiar to me. I looked a little closer and noticed that there is a rope tied between the two chairs and on an even closer look, saw that they are my chairs....all six of them in the back of this pickup, with the rope tying them all together still in place. The owner of the truck is a customer of ours, Barry Nelson, so I honked the horn, he came out and I met him half way to the door and explained that those were my chairs in the back of the truck. He said, that the truck has not worked in months, but mysteriously the morning of the 4th of July, those chairs ended up in the back of his truck.

He said he tried to ask the police what he should do with them and even the town of Eagar, but they had so many chairs they were already dealing with, that they told him to get rid of them or keep them. He chose not to do anything with them. I am glad, now I have my chairs back!

Sealed for time and all eternity

June 13, 2009

Chase and Heather's special day

Sometimes it feels like a very long time and then again, just yesterday when Chase told us he was in love with Heather Quinlan. He didn't have to tell us, we already knew, and we couldn't have been happier. Heather comes from a wonderful family that is also a part of our ward family. She is a wonderful girl, and is the perfect companion for my number two son. I absolutely love the way she looks at him. She has had that look right from the beginning, and I knew she was in love. In fact, in the Temple today, from where I sat, I could see her face better than I could see Chase's, and it was a pleasure to watch her look at him. She never took her eyes off his until she said "yes", and then she only looked away for a moment. Outside, the wind was blowing fiercely, but you would have never known it by the way they cherished the moment of being man and wife. There was lots of family from both sides. The Quinlans had family from Tucson, California and friends from Silver City, and we had my family and Lloyd's family there to share this wonderful occasion. I love it when you can just look around you in a crowd of people and love everyone there. Kinda seems like that is how its going to be in Heaven.

I am so glad that Heavenly Father has such a wonderful plan for us to come to earth, find our eternal companions so that we can continue to walk the path that could lead us back to him. I am so glad that Chase has found such a sweet and steadfast eternal companion to help him continue to learn and to grow in the gospel. I am so glad that I have my eternal companion, its funny how watching others unite together and just beginning on their journey together, reminds you of the day that you were united. I had many opportunities to reflect on that wonderful occasion, and as I worked side by side with my wonderful husband today, I am even more sure now than I ever was that Lloyd is the love of my life, and even though its not always a bed of roses, I wouldn't want to do it again without him.

The luncheon had to be moved inside because of the winds, but it came off without a hitch. The reception was beautiful, and lots of people came to wish the newly weds well. We have such wonderful friends and loved ones all around us. I am so glad the whole thing is over, but I have to say that it wasn't near as bad as I had heard wedding days could be. What a wonderful day this has been, and what a wonderful daughter-in-law I have as part of my family now.