Summer Vacation Part 10 - Dimond Family Pictures

As I said in a previous post, there was move to take another family picture even though we went through the effort the year before. Because we had a recent family picture, this idea was not enthusiastically received nor was time permitted to find a great spot to have the pictures taken. Due to this fact, the pictures are not ideal but it is better than nothing. please try to ignore those traffic lights and the Arby's in the background.

Our family, taken by Uncle Paul.

Another one of our family.

Grandma and Grandpa Dimond, taken by Lori.

The entire family, which I will not take the time to mention everyone by name.

Lori's parent's and siblings: Paul, Janet, Debbie, Jill, Lori and Harold.

All the Dimond Grandsons: Ryan, Brett, Preston, Cayden, Jared and Blake.

The Dimond Grandsons showing us their muscles.

Because there are only 3 Dimond Granddaughters and they are all in the same family, it was decided that for this variation all the Dimond Girls would pose for this one. Addison, Debbie, Sierra, Jill, Marin, Lori and Janet.

The Dimond girls showing us their muscles.

Debbie and Jim.

Paul worked his magic on this picture and was able to eliminate the traffic lights. The magic of digital photography is great. I just wish he would have been able to make me look about 30 pound lighter!

Summer Vacation Part 9 - Bowling

After doing the piñata we decided that it was getting too hot (but it is a dry heat) to continue with the outside activities so we all went bowling. (Full Disclosure: I am a terrible bowler but unlike my lovely bride, I did not use the bumpers like the children.) The bowling alley is dark but I did brighten these pictures before uploading them but it does not appear to have done much good.

The kids selecting their balls and getting ready to bowl.

Marin and Ryan at the bowling alley.

The kids had a great time as they were whipping me.

Jared, Ryan and Brett looking anxiously down the lane as Ryan's ball makes it to the pins.

Jim throwing the ball while Blake looks on.

Debbie and Grandma Dimond, who happens to be an excellent bowler. That was a very well kept secret.

Ryan carrying his ball over to the stand while Brett and Jared hold it steady.

Ryan pushing his ball down the stand with Brett and Jared holding it for him. This was a team effort.

Summer Vacation Part 8 - Piñata at Dimonds

The day I arrived all the Dimonds had gathered for some fun in the sun and Grandma Dimond had a piñata. This is where I joined in the fun and can report 1st hand on the pictures that I post. I missed the fish races earlier in the day, but I was there for the piñata.

We missed the opportunity to take pictures of the breaking of the piñata, but here the kids are gathering up the loot.

Once the loot was gathered, then it was time to inspect what was gathered.

Addison, Blake and Debbie looking at what they collected.

Sierra wearing the top part of the broken piñata.

Marin wearing the rest of the the piñata.

Summer Vacation Part 7 - Dimond Grandchildren

Even though we had a Dimond family picture taken last year, there was a movement that got started to have another Dimond family picture taken again this year. Since it was not a planned event and there was resistance among some people to go through that trauma again, a close location that would be adequate, while not ideal, was located. It was a landscaped area in the parking lot of a shopping area next to what is probably the busiest intersection in Riverton. Some people complained about the location but it seemed that they were the same ones complaining about the fact that they were being forced into taking another family picture. To try and distribute the trauma into more tolerable times, they went the evening before I arrived to take pictures of Grandma and Grandpa Dimond with the grandchildren. This way the time spent with everyone there for the family picture would be minimized. Lori was the photographer for this session and she did a good job arranging everyone so the traffic lights would not be in the pictures. In a future post with the family pictures you will see what I mean.

Grandma and Grandpa Dimond with all their Grandchildren.

On of the problems when there are multiple cameras going is getting all the kids to look at the same camera. That was the problem with this picture.

All of the Dimond grandchildren.

The Freeland children: Blake, Sierra, Marin and Addison.

The Jacobson children: Cayden and Preston. We heard a rumor while we were there that there will be another Jacobson in the future. That is exciting.

The Sorensen children: Jared, Ryan and Brett.

Early Thanksgiving with the Dimonds

Lori's sister Debbie came to Utah from California for the funeral for Lori's Aunt Laurel (see previous post). We were in town as well so all of Lori's siblings were there for the weekend (Debbie left on Monday) so the Dimonds had an early Thanksgiving on Sunday while we were all there. I was great to get together and see everyone. Harold and Janet were very pleased to at least have all of their children there even though Debbie's husband and kids could not make it. As we found out last spring, last minute plane tickets for funerals are very costly.

Here is Ryan being Ryan before dinner.

Debbie doing her part to get ready for dinner. Debbie recently ran a half marathon. Impressive!

This is Preston and Ryan. They had a great time playing together.

Ryan, Preston and Cayden playing before dinner.
This is Lori, her sister Jill and Jill's husband, Cameron, sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner.

A picture of everyone sitting around the table getting ready to have some grub.

Grandpa Dimond's birthday is the middle of December but Lori worked hard to prepare his gift and she wanted to give it to him while she was there. Therefore, we had an early birthday party for Grandpa. Grandpa played High School Basketball for Bingham High School and his senior year they won the State Championship. Grandpa's sister, Aunt Lola, collected the newspaper clippings and pictures from that time and placed them on a roll of butcher paper. It was a great effort on Aunt Lola's part to preserve those memories but now those items were getting old and degrading. So, Lori took that scroll and had it scanned at Kinko's, which resulted in a huge file. We (that would be me, being the Tech Support for these projects Lori starts) cut the sections out and had them published in a book through Wink Flash. It was a huge project and our old computer would not handle the file size so we had to get a new computer to do this project. We needed a new computer anyway, but without the new computer we would have not been able to complete this effort.

After looking at the newspaper clippings from Grandpa's high school basketball state championship, Grandpa got his old uniform out and Brett tried it on. Brett has his football jersey underneath Grandpa's old basketball uniform, but we were all surprised at how tight it was on Brett. Grandpa was really skinny in high school!

Jared and Cayden measuring to see who is taller.

Cameron warming-up for the bean bag toss.

Grandpa demonstrating the use of the "hook" shot in the bean bag toss.

Grandma, Jill and Cayden playing around.

Preston, Jared, Brett and Ryan. Jared and Brett are modeling some of Grandpa's finest clothes. You have to love those red pants. For a brief moment, Jared forgot that we do not wear BYU stuff. He quickly remembered though and got rid of the BYU shirt.

Here we have Ryan, Preston, Cayden, Brett and Jared wearing some of Grandpa's clothes. As you can tell, Jared realized what he was wearing and opted for some pants. He knows that if you are a BYU fan you are welcome to visit our house, but you are not allowed to live there. (Note: For any rabid BYU fan that might read this post, I am just kidding. Well, maybe not. We do not have any BYU fans living in our house at this time and we do not wear anything that says BYU. Go Utes!)

Vacation VII - July 4th at Jill's House

In the evening on July 4th we went to Jill's house to celebrate. After the hike I was so hot that I really did not want to spend time outside and everyone seemed to be in agreement. So we spent the first part of the evening in their house cooling off. Although Jill's birthday is not until August, we decided to celebrate it then because the whole family was still in Utah.

This is Jilly opening her gifts. While Jill and her family were living with Grandma and Grandpa Dimond they lost the keys to their car. Debbie and Jim found them while they were staying there and gave them to Jill for her birthday. That was the best gift she received.

Everyone hanging out at Jill and Cameron's house.

Jill's birthday cake. Don't try and count the candles, I think she might be getting old.

Jill opening her gifts.

After dinner, the kids went outside and got wet to cool off. This is Ryan showing everyone his tonsils.

Stout Reunion - June 30th

June 30th was a big day of picture taking for Lori's family. In the morning we had a Dimond Family Picture session (you can go see the results of that session in the previous post) and the Stout Reunion that evening. It was great to see so many people that we had not seen in a long time. We left Utah 10 years ago (my official 10-year anniversary with my current employer was September 2nd) and as a result we have not seen many of the family members much since that time. I do not remember the last time I have seen many of Lori's cousins, so it was great to have the chance to get together and see everyone. Lori enjoyed it the most from our family because she was the one that knew the most people (obviously) and she is also the person that likes to visit the most, which is obvious to anyone that knows our family. Below are some of the pictures we took from that wondrous occasion.

There was a volleyball net set-up at the park and the kids were excited to play a little volleyball and get some of their wiggles out. Can you guess which kid is a Pollard from this picture? (Hint: he is the really tall one.)

Another picture of the opposing team playing volleyball. Jared is in this picture and he is a relatively big kid. But, there are a couple more of Neil Pollard's sons playing so he looks like a midget next to them.

Members of the Don Stout branch of the family tree visiting. Alex Stout is on the left and he is now serving a mission. Lori was able to attend his non-Farewell talk in Sacrament Meeting before I arrived in Utah. Did I mention that I had to stay home and work while Lori and the boys were playing in Utah? I might have done that in a previous post, I cannot remember for sure now. While I was at home alone, slaving away to pay for all this fun Lori and the boys enjoyed a visit to Midway and heard Alex speak before he left on his mission. I remember when Alex was a little baby! Man, I am getting old!

Janet Dimond's grand kids petting a puppy. I do not remember who's puppy it was for sure, but I think it was Dillon's. The poor puppy was getting more attention that I think was good for it.

Ryan blowing his new toy that he retrieved from the sawdust. There are pictures of the sawdust activity later in the post. For some reason Ryan refused to keep his shoes on so we spent some time that evening chasing down shoes. Here he is shoeless as was typical that evening.

This is a picture of the Nosack Family. Aunt Mary is Grandma Dimond's older sister. Kris has a web site that is linked on my blog. It was good to visit with Kris as I have not seen him for a long time and it was good to catch-up. He is an engineer too so I can really relate to him.

This is a picture of the Don Stout Family, at least all that were there. Jeremy came later but he apparently missed the picture taking time. (Smart man!) Don is Grandma Dimond's younger brother.

This is a picture of Larry Stout and those from his family that were at the reunion. He has lived in California most of his married life so while Larry has a large family, not many of them could make it to the reunion.

This is a picture of all of us. I know it is small and hard to see everyone, but I decided to post it anyway. Can you guess which ones are the Pollards? (Hint: They are the really tall ones on the back row.)

This is Grandma Dimond with her Brothers and Sisters. Starting on the left: Don Stout, Mary Nosack, Janet Dimond, Larry Stout and Marlyn Pollard.

This is a picture of those from the Pollard Family that were in attendance.

Two wading pools were filled with sawdust and money, toys and candy were hidden in the sawdust. The kids were divided into two groups according to age and then they dug through the sawdust trying to find the prizes. It was a ton of fun for the kids, especially the older ones. The money was the biggest hit. It was so hot the chocolate candy melted, so that did not work out so well. Brett and Jared loved searching for the money but Ryan lost interest after a short time. Once he had some toys, he was ready to go. He is not motivated by money yet.

This is a better picture of the little kids digging through the sawdust. The parents were allowed to help the little kids do the digging. Even if I was allowed to help the bigger kids, I would have been afraid to get near their pool. They were aggressive diggers!

Aunt Marlyn with her new Great-Grandchild.

Grandpa Dimond with Addison.

This is a picture of 4-Generations.

One last shot of the big kids digging through the sawdust. The next day Grandpa Dimond added some money to the leftover sawdust and Brett and Jared spent some more time looking for money.