Summer is Slipping Away

Well the summer is going fast again! We spent the afternoon in the pool yesterday.....had a bunch of teenagers over so that kept it loud and fun! I like to get in if its really hot out and if the pool is warm enough........I know really picky but I don't like a cold pool and I don't like being cold getting out, sound pretty spoiled don't I!! As you can see the kids have no such reservations, they just love it.........cold or hot. One of the things I love about Don is that he just gets right in there and loves to be with the kids! He had yesterday off work so he was right in the pool, cannonballing, back diving and having a ton of fun with the kids....... and they are just right there with him. I had fun trying to take action shots but most of them turned out blurry, got a few fun ones though........
Kathy is visiting right now, so will have to get some pictures! She took us to Minos (wonderful Greek restaurant) and The Bourne Ultimatum last night......
And the best part of the summer was.........you guessed it, reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows together as a family, of course some of us cheated and read ahead but we won't name names but ........still, we all LOVED the book. We will miss Harry but look forward to reading about him all over again........

Memories of Dad

Clayton Stamper.......November 9, 1928-July 17, 2007

I haven't written in a while.....I've been finding it difficult! I've been wanting to sit down, find some pictures and include some memories of Dad, but knew it would be hard. Am sitting down today missing Dad as I go through all these pictures........will also include these on facebook, if anyone out there has more will you please post them! I thought my family especially might like to see some of these. This is one I found of Dad and Lee! This is a really old one I found that was taken in Moncton when Grandmaman Aurelie Granger was living with us.... This is Elder Bjorn and Elder Smith with our family at Billy's baptism, one of the few of our whole family......the only one missing is Eddie.......sorry Ed! This is one of my wedding pictures with Dad, this was taken in front of the Washington Temple on August 16, 1985. It was a beautiful day! Here is one with Dad at the hotel with Don and I.
This is Dad with Vera, Don's Mom. They were both visiting for Thanksgiving and decided to give us a hand in the kitchen, like I minded.........happy to have them take over. They did quite well together considering they were both chefs and not used to being the sous-chef, I just remember it was a wonderful dinner. We were living in Lethbridge in our first townhouse, we would have just had Danielle and Melodie then. Here we have one of my few family pictures, Josee's family was with us and Dad and Bill were visiting as well. All these babies are just big kids now! This was a trip I went on with Dad to Nauvoo, Illinois in May of 1990 with Danielle and Melodie. It was pretty fun, we left Don at home in Lethbridge because he was in the middle of finals and went and visited all the LDS historic sites in Nauvoo. I am including some that were taken at Ted's wedding to Page in May of 1998. I really think this is one of the last ones we had taken together of our family........actually it will be the last one we ever have.........hard to believe it....... Dad and Lee........Ted had a medieval wedding theme!......I'm sure Dad loved it, he was a Lord of the Rings fan and I think one of his favourite characters was Gandalf! So the chance to dress up and be Gandalf for the day would have been fun..........

Dad and Lee were visiting with us a few years ago and I took some pictures up on top of Kamloops, here is their yorkshire terrier that had only 3 legs (I've forgotten his name, will someone let me know.......)

Dad was the traveller, nothing he liked better than driving somewhere! I think that's why we moved so many times. It helped in these later years because we would usually see him every couple of years even if he lived in Oklahoma because he would make the 3 days drive! He loved to visit and especially loved to come in fruit season, one year he picked 9 buckets of cherries off my tree all in a couple of hours, I had to tell him to stop! There was nothing he liked better than to pick apricots off the tree for breakfast to go with his coffee!

We will all miss him.........but I am sure he is in heaven driving somewhere! My heart goes out to my family and to Lee as we all go through this tough grieving time. No matter how prepared you think you are, it doesn't seem possible that we will never see Dad again in this life...........how can he not be pulling up in my driveway one last time...........