Summer 2008 in Retrospect

Grandma Betzler passed away in July after a long struggle with alzheimers, and ultimately an infection that she fought for several weeks before leaving us for heaven. I haven't lived in MN for several years, so I wasn't there for the toughest, last years of life, but at the funeral there were many wonderful stories shared about all the best years of grandma's life. The picture below should expand if you click on it, Bjorn, I was mostly thinking you could use some of the memories of grandma's life over in Africa...she would be so proud of you over there!

The funeral service was really a celebration of grandma's very full and very long life which was defined by her love and encouragement for everyone she knew...it was a family-reunion of sorts, and we had a lot of fun remembering grandma during her more vibrant years prior to the more difficult years of advanced alzheimers. Her feisty spirit and honest reflections on life are truly missed and remembered by all of us. Her strong faith in Christ was something that she lived out daily, and her atttitude was truly worth emulating. We love you and miss you grandma, but with all the memories that you created with us, and all the time that you spent with us, we're are blessed by your life!

Emily ran an 18-miler down the Tongue River...I rode my bike the last 5 miles with her to tell her exactly how far she had left...I won't be doing that again anytime soon, apparently runners don't like to know how much farther they have to go every minute...she did great though, and all of her training paid off!

Emily worked this summer managing the icecream shack across the creek fro our house...I don't think that I have ever been sick of icecream in my entire life, but this year, with 6.4 waffle cones (4 scoops) per week, I actually did get sick of icecream...unbelievable.

We did several trips to the mountains this summer, had some great hiking, fishing, and star-gazing. The pic above is on the north-end of the Cloud Peak Wilderness, with Blacktooth (13k+) in the background, with Jed and Aimee Kirklund, who are some good friends that were married this summer! Our other great friends, the Metcalfs had a beautiful baby girl, Abigail Rae, but we didn't have a picture of the entire family together yet, so we'll have to add a pic later, no offense Metcalfs (who am I kidding, no one but our parents look at this anyway!)

We had another great trip to the mountains with Emily's cousin Clint, and his buddy Sam. They came up to job shadow, and went home knowing that they did not want to be a City Planner in Buffalo WY. Their loss. We had a great time with them, this is a pic from Lost Twin Lakes on the southern-end of the Cloudpeak Wilderness. Superb fishing, good food, and lots of fun. Thanks for visiting guys!

Emily with a nice golden!

We were back at home in MN visiting twice this summer, Knife River is looking great, and in July the daisies were in full bloom...a very pretty place.

And, randomly, here is our house this morning...10-11-08 with 3 fresh inches of snow on the ground...it has come a long ways, and the final steps include putting in a new door (red) and new windows on the whole house...come visit, it is now nice inside and out!