NEWSLETTER
FOR 2016 ABOUT 2015
The year 2015 was lived as fully as
possible! Ray and I have been riding bikes with or without the kids and
grandkids for added excitement in our lives. 2015 was a warmer, drier year, so
we were even able to ride on Valentine’s Day then get an early dinner at
Dickey’s. Melanie and family were just getting off their cruise on that day so
we could stop praying so hard for their safety! Taking three kids with them was
a worry for us.
We
went on a bike ride a month later on March 14 with Michelle and Ben’s family
and had a picnic lunch (made by Ben) by the little pond close to their house.
Our neighbor bought Ray’s car in early March so we got back
what we put into it for a new transmission. It was the newest car we ever
bought but put more money in it to keep it working than the older cars! Beware
of Buicks! The 4 cylinder Toyota pickup we got
in August 2014 has been working well for Ray’s commute to work each day and to
haul the bikes around.
Melanie and I wanted to be in
Indiana when Stephanie had their baby on April 23. The only problem was that I
hadn’t gotten on a plane in about six years because I’d become claustrophobic
on our trip to North Carolina to see Michelle’s family. So for six weeks I
worked to overcome such an affliction. I wrote down every saying I could to
convince myself it was pretty much all in my head, ask for blessings from
heaven and then become braver than I thought I could be! I learned to look at
the space I DID have, breathe deeply, repeat my sayings, play with little
Wesley and talk to Melanie. We got there without me freaking out and having the
plane make an unscheduled landing! We spent a week and a half in the Spear home
and enjoyed all the time we had with them. And now little Sadie is growing up
so quickly, besides their other cute kids!
Our other worry for 2015 was for Ryan before, during and
after he got his carpal tunnel surgery in May. Once a parent, always a parent!
Lisa was able to fly out to visit Stephanie and family in
May, too. We want them all to have close relationships even if they live far
away. She helped Stephanie with the baby and the housework and rode bikes with
the girls. It was hard for Riley to say good-bye to her sweet Aunt Lisa.
In June we took the RV
to camp at The Spruces in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We weren’t able to get our old
spot but got an even better spot down lower. It had plenty of shade and a very
shallow trickling stream. Michelle’s family went with us and Melanie’s visited.
The cousins had a ball together. They got really dirty and wet, ran out of dry
clothes and had to use adult clothes, but memories were made! Ray even snapped
a picture of a moose that happened to tromp through the woods at the right
moment.
The garden eventually produced a lot of nice tomatoes though
the beans never did. Salsa and chili sauce were put up. The neighbor’s apricot
trees didn’t produce, either, so we have NO nectar now, what a shame!
In July, Ray, Lisa and girls, besides some of my family, went
on the annual backpacking trip. It was Paige’s first year so her hike in was a
bit hard, but once she got to camp she kept wanting to hike!
The next week took us to Billings for the reunion. We had
Michelle’s family come with us, going through Yellowstone Park to see the
geysers. We visited Ben’s grandparents in Bozeman before going into Billings
and staying with my cousin Stan. We hadn’t been to Billings for a long time. We
saw my dad’s brother, Uncle Ted, who had been sick. It seemed almost surreal to
see my old home and the places where I had grown up. Jan, John, Curt, Chelsea
and Jason put on a great reunion! We were glad to see all those who were able
to make it. Thanks again!
In August, Ray and Michelle flew out to spend time with
Stephanie and family. They got to tour the new Indianapolis Temple, too. I
tended the Burnett kids; hard, but fun! The next week we went to the Ray Rich
Humpherys’ reunion in Paris, Idaho seeing Ray’s cousins and their kids. Lisa
learned she already knew a cousin (Stanley’s daughter) and didn’t even know
they were related! She has enjoyed spending even more time with her since they
live close to each other.
It’s been 40 years since we got married so the kids threw a
very nice anniversary party. Thanks again for all your work, we have an awesome
family!
We taught The New Testament in Primary to the 10-11 year old
kids all year and learned a lot ourselves. Ray continues to volunteer at the
temple and I continue to find Coulson cousins to add to the family tree!
At the end of September we bought some recumbent bikes like
we had ridden at the Bear Lake KOA campground during the reunion in 2013. It
took a while to get them put together, but they have been so much fun!!
October conference time was spent in the RV back at The
Spruces. Camille came up and spent the night with us. It was rainy and cool but
the mountains smelled so good; someone should bottle that smell!
A week later, after Brayden was baptized, we secretly picked
up Stephanie and kids from the airport. We wanted to surprise everyone at our
annual R and B family reunion in Park City the next week. We barely kept the
secret but pulled it off! We had a lot of fun swimming, hiking, eating and
playing together! The pictures show all thirteen grandkids sitting on a rock
wall and Michelle was expecting baby number four. They are all growing up so
quickly!
November still had great weather. We rode the bikes with Ryan
and Nat on the Utah State campus, a wonderful place with wide walkways. The
fall day was so beautiful! Then the next weekend we rode the recumbent bikes
with Lisa and Michelle’s kids near their house in Clearfield.
I hadn’t worked at my clinic for a couple months, (though
I’ve worked there part-time for 20 years now), but started getting work again
and now am scheduled regularly. Michelle and Ben’s baby Taylor was born on the
23rd, two weeks earlier than expected, so glad they are healthy and
his legs are better.
My niece Karen got married in the Jordan River Temple the
week after Thanksgiving so we got to see my sister and family from Colorado
Springs.
The Christmas Season was wonderful. Ryan and Natalie spent
Christmas Eve and morning again with us then the whole family came the next
day. What a fun, noisy bunch they are!
We had two more graduations in 2015: Drew from law school and
Elliot from University of Utah. Way to go, guys, proud of you!
2015 was great! We have been blessed with continued good
health and work and family activities and hope to be so in 2016! See you all at
the reunion.
MEMORIES OF
VISITING THE HOMESTEAD BY BECKY
Way back
when I was dating Ray (1974-75) I learned what a beautiful area he grew up in:
Star Valley, Wyoming. It got way too cold for me in the winter; way below zero
quite often, but it was beautifully green and a bit too hot at times in the
summer, though it would cool down a lot at night.
One very
cold, bright morning when Ray and I were staying with Kenny and Tawny, we drove
to where Dean was out feeding the elk. We couldn’t stay long, my feet were starting
to freeze, yes I remember the temperature to be -40, but what do I remember any
more? I only had hiking boots on (waffle stompers) and not my trusty moon
boots, oh, yeah, got those later on in life. But it was fun to see all those
elk so tame come down and gather around the wagon and eat the hay next to Dean.
In the
summer of 1974 I rode up from Utah with Robert to spend time with Ray for a few
days before going back for more summer school classes. I got to hang out with
Newell during the day while Ray was at work. He was cutting the hay and I rode
with him on the tractor. He was a fun guy then, too! I snapped a picture of him
on the tractor and bottle feeding a calf in the barn. At that time Dean had
screeching peacocks, a momma pig with a lot of piglets, chickens, some sheep
and pretty horses. It was a fun experience for a city girl like myself.
Mentioning
sheep, after we were married with kids, there was a mean ram complete with big
curly horns out in the barnyard. Jimmy and Kelly had played toro and matador
with it, from what I was told, so it was ready to butt any innocent
by-standers. So, one evening the men went up into the pasture to get the horses
and my job was to open the gate when they came down. I stood facing the metal gate inside the barnyard talking to about
ten year old Carol as she sat on a horse. Then, suddenly, I was hit so hard on
the lower half of my body that my shins were crushed into the metal. I turned
around to see what had hit me and the shaggy sheep was pawing at the dirt with
his horns down ready to ram me again. I climbed the gate slowly to escape. I
asked Carol why didn’t she tell me the ram was about ready to charge? She asked
me how I could tell it was a boy sheep? I tried to explain… She didn’t act like
she’d noticed and had no idea that was the dangerous on-site ram. Ha! The
horses came thundering down, kicking up dirt and dust as I clung to the top of
the gate, but I couldn’t open it, in too much pain, and worried about hanging
on to it as it swung open! The men asked me why I didn’t open the gate. I told
them there was this ram…
I took
pictures of Dean and Newell having fun with the hats and the boys and Neva and
Dean in a carriage. I think they were born too late sometimes, wishing they had
lived during the Wild West.
We got to go
on one of Dean’s Wagon’s West wagon train expeditions before we were married.
Dean was the big man people looked up to and the kids followed during camp.
One summer
when John and Jan and his friend Frank Carter were visiting they went fishing.
I have a picture of them lined up outside with Dennis Madsen and Dean showing
the fish fried up in a pan. It was really hot so they had bandanas around their
foreheads. Dean went and got one of Neva’s polyester, red scarfs and put that
on to look like one of the group. It was pretty funny.
Later on
they had a leg-wrestling match in the front yard. At the end of that day it was
when Dean said we should have a family reunion like this “get-together” every
year. Now you all know when the family reunion idea started, right from the
lips of the family patriarch! So sad we lost him about 7 years later.
We took our
kids to SV for Thanksgiving many times. They had fun sledding down the hills
near Florence’s house. One time Ray rode a white Appaloosa horse as it pulled
the kids on their sleds. As the horse would start up they’d nearly get whiplash
but would hold on tight. We have it on video little Melanie in her blue coat
hanging onto the sled as the horse took off.
The kids
were often sick with bad colds when we were to travel up there, but they seemed
to sleep well in the crib and get better pretty fast, faster than at home. I
always wondered if it was the differences in the altitude.
The summer visits
were always exciting, trying to enjoy some time away from the usual grind and
to keep the kids safe.
When Lisa
was about five, she slammed her thumb in the trailer door. It took out a piece
in the middle. Dean poured turpentine over it. It healed up quite nicely! Maybe
there was something to the old home remedies, after all, I remember thinking.
The summer
of 1985, when I was occupied with baby Melanie, I went looking for two year old
Stephanie. She had gotten away from me. I thought she had gone to the backyard.
I called her name and could hear her and Michelle and Shawn, who were five at
the time. I looked up and all three were straddling the top of the little metal
shed. I asked them how they got Stephanie up there. (I figured the other two could
have climbed on something.) Shawn said in his matter of fact tone, “It was
nothin’, I just put my rope ‘round her and pulled her up!”
In about
1983 all the kids got on horses for a ride up the pasture. One of Robert’s dogs
started barking at the horses and they started running. All the kids fell off
and got bumps and bruises. Of course they were all terrified. I got outside
just after it happened. Ray said I just missed all the excitement. I’m glad I
didn’t see it. I do remember all the kids walking back to the house crying and then
seeing Shawn sitting next to Gerald on the couch saying his back hurt. Angels
must have been watching out for them that day and all the other times there
were accidents. I guess this wasn’t a good memory, only that the kids didn’t
get hurt seriously.
The
activities at the reunions are great memories. The tug-a-rope was always fun to
see who would end up in the mud.
Ray has
shown me the boundaries of the land his different family lines have owned in
each direction from his home. I think he felt connected to them and the history
of his family. As I have read the family histories and even visited Archie
Gardner’s home in Scotland I think it is neat our kids have these brave people
as their ancestors. Ray told me his stories so I told him I’d type them for him
next.
STORIES GROWING UP IN STAR VALLEY BY
RAY
(dictated to Becky)
Ray said that he and his brothers
did their fair share of fighting. He remembered one he had with Robert. They wrestled
until they both were too exhausted to go on and mutually agreed to quit…no
winner and no loser!
Another time he punched Gerald in
the mouth and chipped his tooth. He’s not sure he’s forgiven him for that one!
One summer Dean was going to be gone
doing a “bug job” (spraying for bugs in trees) so he told the boys what work
had to be done on the farm and put Robert in charge. Robert would tell his
three younger brothers what to do. Things didn’t change much later on in their
lives, either. The running joke became, “Oh, no, here comes Robert, he’s going
to put us to work!”
Ray didn’t remember what trailer
door Lisa had gotten her thumb slammed in at age five that I wrote about. Then
he realized it must have been the lambing trailer that Dean had used when they
would be out over-night waiting for ewes to give birth. He said his dad would
get up in the night to check on them, to see if any needed help. If they did, he
knew how to turn them. Sometimes they
had to pull out the calves, too.
Which leads to the next story: how
they used to de-horn and castrate the calves and lambs in the spring. The
long-ago ranchers used their teeth to help with the lamb’s castration process (which
Dean had Ray try once), but then they got tools and banding to do it more
efficiently. Ray remembers someone cooking up the Rocky Mountain Oysters…he
figured his mom did. Anyone else remember this? Maybe it would be better to
forget!
As a boy, Ray was “farmed out” for
two summers by his dad to live with his cousin Deb Wolfley. He doesn’t know why
except to learn to work hard. They changed sprinklers, hauled hay, milked cows and
fed horses. He remembered it was a Sunday (not a good day to work?) and he was
on the tractor pulling a hay wagon with a big load of hay down a hill. He knew
he had to go slowly since the wagon and load were too big for the tractor. As
he gently applied the brakes it was still too hard and the tractor jack-knifed.
He knew he had to jump off to avoid injury, so he baled! The tractor turned
completely upside down with the motor still running.
Ray was reading the 2006 Humpherys’
Herald where Neva told stories in her own words. He enjoyed hearing about the
kinds of transportation she grew up with. Go back and read it!
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