My Family

Dave and I have had so much fun with our children these past few months since we came to Utah.  They have known since they were little kids that one day Dave I would go on a church mission. They have been so supportive and cute about our getting a mission call.
In September my dad passed away in Washington. My brothers and sister suggested that now is the time for Dave and I to be able to leave and go on our mission. Lynn and Sharon were excited and willing to take care of Mom so we took the opportunity after 6 years of being in Washington to go ahead and put in our mission papers. We came to Utah so we could spend a little time with the four of our eight children that live here. We also went to Louisiana to visit Thad and his family. We went to California to visit David and his family and also to take our dog Harry to live with them. The only one we won't get to visit is Tara and her family who live in Germany. We will visit Jamie and Marty our way to Maryland.
For those who don't realize it I have the best children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the whole world! I am a proud mother. So proud! 

Here we go!

This past few months  have been a whirlwind of excitement for us trying to be ready for our mission.  Now we are ready!  We enter the MTC today at 10 am.  The first week will be regular missionary training and the following week will be office training.  I'm not sure what to expect but I hope we can learn a lot.  We are excited for this new adventure! I'm planning to add to this blog often.  I know I'm usually not a great letter writer but I'll try to keep up this blog. 

Bahrain with Lee

As Lee and I got to Bahrain it was late afternoon and we were only going to be there one day so we took advantage of it and rented a car and went to see some sights. I was blown away by how modern everything was. 

I know this picture is blurry but it still captures the Middle east! This is Fort Bahrain with the moon behind it. It is centuries old. from 2300 BC. It was there at the time of Christ, through the Romans, Portuguese, & Persians.  Lee and I wandered around and just loved being there!  

With these arches you can see the Persian influence which  was the last. 

 Archaeologists are still digging to find out all about it. You can see the beautiful city behind it.This is a beautiful Mosque. They have them all over and are very accessible because they need to pray 5 times a day.    I found out that they really know how to make yummy drinks in the middle east! This is an avocado shake. The people are muslin and they don't drink alcohol so they make all kinds of wonderful drinks.

All over the middle east we would see twin  buildings. This was my first but there were hundreds that were built together to complement each other. Beautiful!

The buildings were unbelievable! See the wind propellers? That is to generate electricity for the building. 

After our meeting with the Government officials we drove out on the King Fahd Causeway to the Umm an Nasan Island which connects to Saudi Arabia. We could see Saudi Arabia but didn't want to drive over and perhaps have problems getting back. Can you believe it? I HAVE SEEN SAUDI ARABIA!  =) What a fun day we had but then had to hurry to the airport to catch a flight out to Dubai by 2pm.

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Kuwait with Lee

Lee (my son) invited me to go with him on a trip to the middle east. He was going to a Law Convention in Dubai but had other business before and after to take care of in Bahrain and Jordan. This is my attempt to share my unbelievable trip! On our way to Bahrain we had a stop over in Kuwait so we had to take a picture to prove to ourselves we had really been there.  In the one part of the airport there were hundreds of people all dressed in white sheets. I would have loved to take a picture but Lee and I were so out of place that people kept watching us. Lee kept telling me it wasn't normal and that something was going on. We found out later that they were all going to Mecca and it is quite a process to be ready in mind and spirit to make the once in a lifetime pilgrimage. So here is a picture of us on our own pilgrimage! 

Dickson Family Reunion 2011

 These are a few of the pictures from the family reunion. I will add pictures and tell about all the activities but for now here are the families! We were mostly color coded so you can tell who is with who.

 This is the Lynn and Sharon Dickson family

 The Doris  and Knude Swensen Family

 The Jack and Delores Dickson family

 The Viv and Dave Wright family

The Roy and Karen Dickson family

 Us kids with mom and pops

 With our spouses

Everyone!!! It is a wonderful family!!!

Family reunion

This picture was taken months ago as Sheri, Janice and I planned our Dickson family reunion. I can't tell you how hard they have worked to make sure it would turn out good and be well worth the expense involved in getting here.
We had another planning meeting this week and there were major differences this time. I forgot to take a picture so you will have to imagine. First Sheri and Janice have both lost more weight. (and I have gained some) But the real difference is that it is all coming together beautifully! We are feeling very relieved. Let me remind you a bit of what is going on.

=Almost everyone is going to be there! Very few cousins and their families will be missing.
=Shayla is taking charge of our Family Fun Run. (start getting in shape!)
=Erin is in charge of our talent show. Let her know when you have a something for it. This will be a really fun evening! You can even sign up when you get there if you want.
=Susanne is in charge of our family Olympics. You might ask if she needs help.
=Randy is in charge of our family service project. We don't know what it will be but will somehow benefit Grandma and Grandpa. You may need to ask how you can help.
=Dorrel is in charge of our family play day and barbeque at his house. So fun! Zip line, bouncy house, huge slip n slide, tree houses, volleyball tournament, food, visiting, swimming.
=Jana will be in charge of our kids craft area. All the mothers will sign up for a time to be there and help the kids. We have fun crafts planned but could use more if you have some ideas or stuff.
=Many of the families will be camping and many will be staying at the motel. Most of the motel people will be staying at the Medallion in Marysville.
=Each family gets to bring a gift for the gift exchange! Yippee.
=Jamie is teaching a ladies jewelry class during free time so bring old jewelry if you have some.
=Each extended family is invited to do a 15 minute video presentation the last night of the reunion at the church. David is doing ours, Lisa I've heard is doing Roys, so who is doing the others? Don't forget!
=Are you wearing extended family T shirts? We are. (Tracy and Tera have designed them and are getting ours made.) Family Colors (unless you choose a different one): Lynn Navy, Jack Red, Doris Green, Roy Lighter blue, Viv White.
=You may want to bring lawn chairs if you have extra room to tuck them in.
=We are gathering large kettles but if you need something special for your family meal please let us know.

This reunion will be so much fun. It will be one of the last with the oldest generation and they are thrilled and excited that we are having it. See you all in a month!!!

Please comment!!! It helps us all to get more excited!!!

Aunt Catherns funeral

Last Saturday Dave and I drove mom and pops down to Enumclaw to moms sister Cathern Harston's funeral. It was a nice day and we really enjoyed the visit with everyone. Aunt Rhea came in from Orem Utah.
Aunt Flora came from Fallon Nevada with 2 daughters and a son-in-law. I took such terrible pictures that I am embarrassed. Aunt Georgia from California is in this picture with Aunt Flora.

My cousin LaVern helped bring her mom Flora.

Uncle Frank from California.

At the funeral

Mom.
She will hate this picture but I took terrible pictures all day! She actually looked beautiful!

The sisters were teasing on the couch at the church. Mom was acting like she was the next to go. This is mom , Aunt Flora Miller and Aunt Bessie Zeller (who came in from Lovell Wyoming.)

This is Aunt Catherns children and spouses.

Front row: Flora Miller, John and Helen Dickson
Back: Frank and Georgia Baird, Bessie Zeller, Rhea Wille, Alice and Ron Brownell

What is left of the family. Gone already are Grandma and Grandpa Baird, Aunt June, Uncle Leo and Aunt Cathern.
We had a wonderful visit with everyone! Lots of cousins were there. I didn't get a single picture of Lynn and Sharon or Sheri and her family or Janice or so many who were there! What can I say? I was having way too much fun visiting with everyone to actually stop and take a good picture. It was a wonderful day and Aunt Cathern will truly be missed.

The New Shower

I have promised everyone that I would post pictures of our bathroom project so here ya go!

The shower in Mom and Pops bathroom was really small and mom and I decided one day that we wanted to change it! I special ordered the shower base and shower doors and then we had to wait. Dave and I were leaving to go and visit the kids so Lynn and Roy planned to build it while Roy was here visiting. The only problem with that was Lowes and Home Depot didn't deliver the stuff on time so Roy couldn't spend his vacation time slaving away on our project!

When we came home mom and I decided Dave had vacationed long enough! To take the old shower out Dave had to saw it in half or it wouldn't go through the doors. We determined that Uncle Leo built this home to last forever. The shower was put in with so many nails and the walls were so well built that the tear out process was much harder than we dreamed it would be. Notice the dust on Dave's clothes, fine fiberglass powder was everywhere.
The shower is out and now here goes the wall and moms swans. Remember those everyone?
Here is our blank slate. We insulated the walls and then put up OSB (or something like that) which is like plywood on the walls.

We put up FRT panels which is the good waterproof stuff for shower walls.

When we were putting up the shower doors Janice stopped by and Dave put her to work putting on the handles and helping hang the doors.
Meledie gave them a brand new shower chair and I calked the shower and painted the room.
I kept remembering what Marty always would tell us..." a little calk and a little paint makes a carpenter what he aint." He was right! We hid a lot of stuff and it looks fantastic!

Dave is our HERO... again!

Uncle Leo

We had Uncle Leos funeral this week. We were supposed to have a 90th birthday party this month but had a funeral instead. He wanted to celebrate it with Dorothy I guess. Moms siblings all came except aunt Cathern. She is in a care center in Enumclaw and has memory problems.

Aunt Bessie Zeller and Aunt Alice Brownell

Mom and Aunt Rhea Wille

Leo and Dorothys children and their spouses. Lee was at the funeral but didn't come to the dinner where we took the pictures.

Darel, Terry, Wally, Peggy and Ann

Moms siblings. Aunt Bessie, Mom, Aunt Flora,
Aunt Alice, Uncle Frank, Aunt Rhea.
I didn't take a lot of pictures. It was so nice for everyone to get together ever if it was under these circumstances.