Our Family

I thought I'd do a post on my blog of our family to introduce ourselves to the Jim & Michelle Gardner family (from Astoria OR) in preparation for Emily & Bronson's upcoming marriage on August 14, 2015. It's a bit overwhelming I'm sure since Emily is the youngest of 9 and she is an aunt to 23 nieces and nephews. Bronson is brave to come in to this crazy, big family.

Vivienne & Crismon Lewis, Gresham, OR

Ondalynn & Gary Vance, Sydney (12), Julia (10), Bryson (7), Isaac (4), Paxton (3). Vancouver, WA. Gary is the Managing Director for the Mill Creek Residential Trust in the Portland Region.

Seth & Tiffany Lewis, Jackson (13), Addison  (11), Preston (10), Asher (6). Woodbury, MN. Seth is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota in Journalism, just receiving tenure.

Alice-Anne & Gary Johns, Kenna (10), Spencer (8), Elliott (4). West Jordan UT. Gary is at Merit Sensor Systems as their Processor Engineer.

Vivienne & Brett Caudle, Clark (8), Daisy (7), Kaeley (4). Portland OR. Brett is a Manager and Instructor at Tech Academy in Portland.

Dallin & Janelle Lewis, Dorothy (7), Ruby & Norah (4), Gwendolyn 5 months. Notre Dame, IN. Dallin just completed his PhD in English.

Grandma & Grandpa Lewis with baby Gwendolyn.

Meredith & Bryan Williams, Evelyn (6), Christian (4), Hudson (2), Jocelyn 4 months. Honolulu, HA. Bryan is in his 1st year of Residency in Pediatric Medicine.

Crismon & Danielle Lewis. Boulder CO in the fall for Graduate School in Chinese. Just returned from 1-year in Taiwan.

Austin & Julia Doutre. Moscow ID in the fall for Graduate School in Mechanical Engineering.

Emily & Bronson Gardner (to be). BYU, Provo, UT. Bronson just accepted to  the Business School at BYU. Emily will be a senior at BYU in Sociology. 

We are very happy that all of our children and spouses will be attending the wedding except for Meredith & Bryan and their 4 children. We will miss them very much, but they just moved to Hawaii and with his busy schedule in Residency, it just wasn't possible. It's exciting that all of the grandchildren, except Dallin's 3 girls (and Meredith's children) will be here, too. In all, that will be 33 of our family that will be gathered for this special event. We are thrilled to welcome Bronson to our family and we look forward to their wedding in the Portland temple in August. We also look forward to getting acquainted with Bronson's family on the Gardner and Moss side.

Midwest Mid-Year Mini-Reunion

Surprises come in many ways and this certainly was an unexpected, but joyous weekend that wasn't planned. The week before we received a call from Seth that he had been called as the 1st counselor in a newly formed Bishopric. He wanted his Dad to come out and ordain him a High Priest. We couldn't work it out to leave immediately, but gratefully the stake presidency said they would wait a week to set him apart to give Dad time to get there the following Sunday. Seth was good to wave his magic wand (airline points) and bring us out. My flight was free thanks to a companion pass with Southwest.

We soon contacted Dallin & Janelle to see if by chance they could drive over and join us. This meant Dorothy missing her last 3 days of school. We are so thankful they were willing to drop everything and make the trip to be together for this special weekend.

Crismon was introduced to cute Gwendalyn for the first time. She is so precious! We had a wonderful time being with our precious grandchildren, Dallin & Janelle's 4 girls, and Seth & Tiffany's 4 boys.

We enjoyed hearing the piano practicing by Jackson and Addison, and Preston on the violin. Dallin was helping teach Dorothy on the piano. She is very determined and can stick with something at length. Norah wanted to share her picture of her when she was "a mermaid" and the sea animals. Preston has a new pet, a Bearded Dragon. It was quite attraction. 

Sunday morning we went to the church for Seth's ordination. I will always remember the sweet spirit that filled the room as Crismon ordained him and then he was set apart by a counselor in the Stake Presidency. Later we had time to go on a walk to the lake just down the road from Seth's house.

 

 

 

Monday we traveled to Stillwater, a quaint town about 30 minutes from Seth & Tiffany's home. The children had great fun playing at a fun park, then to their famous main street where we enjoyed samples from a Chocolate factory. Of course, we had to all get a bag of candy. We played in the nearby river, some in kayaks, and the younger ones digging in the sandy beach. We topped off the evening with yummy ice cream cones at a steal of a price. Then home for dinner!

 

Seth was good to help us with some of finances the next day. Dad couldn't resist joining in on the water gun fight that afternoon, along with a family basketball game. One last picture with the grandkids before we headed for the airport. The others went on to Lake Elmo that evening. Dallin & Janelle's family left the next day. Thanks everyone for a super fun few days with our Midwest families. We don't see you often enough!

4th of July

How blessed we are to have this free, great land of America. I love that everyone celebrates it together outside. Our Fourth of July celebration started with our Stake flag raising ceremony and patriotic message by Brigham Baird who just returned from a year of service, leaving his wife and six young children. His wife offers tremendous support. Then a delicious pancake breakfast...not your typical mass produced one, but instead the pancake recipe was from Heidi's Restaurant. The syrup was half butter and half syrup. Dad said they had paramedics on hand! We were especially delighted that Ondalynn and the children could join us. We then all went to their home to help with the staining of their new fence. We've had an unbelievable hot June with it in the 90's-100 for 3 weeks solid. No rain in sight. Everything has gotten especially dry. We saw a fire along the Springwater Trail on our way to the Vance's that morning. After the staining of the fence in blistering heat, we had a BBQ. Bryson challenged Grandpa in a game of chess. Then Dad and I headed home before fireworks to prepare for Sunday as Dad always has so many agendas and details to take care of. We did see some fireworks from our deck that night before heading to bed. We love America!

I thought I'd include some other 4th of July pictures from the family. Meredith posted on July 1st: "And to think God created all of this! Even this cute kid." This was one last beach trip with Bryan before the intern year of residency begins!

Tiffany wrote: "Happy 4th! How I love celebrating America's birthday with these four firecrackers."

Fantastic Fourth for the John's kids.

As Ondalynn left the pancake breakfast, her children marched out all in order like this. I said you've got to get a picture. So fun to see all our grandchildren all having such a fun Fourth of July!