2003 Christmas Letter

For a closer look, click on the image and/or check out the PDF in Dropbox.

Memories of Dad for his 66th Birthday

I wrote Dad a list of memories I had of him through the years as a gift for his 66th birthday! 

Happy 66^th Birthday Dad  -  May 28, 2003

I remember when…

You were always in the Bishopric when we were growing up.  I remember you sitting up in the front during Sacrament meeting. You would always look at me and give me a wink!

You taught me how to ride a bike.  I remember riding my little blue two-wheeler with you running in back of me holding the seat.  I didn’t even know that you had let go until I turned around and you were far behind me!!

You baptizing me.  It must have been a Stake Baptism because I remember a whole row of kids dressed in white – each sitting next to their father.  I wanted to be really good after that and not do anything wrong!!

You came with us on a Youth Activity where we hiked the Uintahs.  It was a very long hike with those giant back-packs with our sleeping bags on top.  It rained everyday and we sat in rows by the fire with those big rain ponchos on.

We would go sleigh-riding at Murray Park and Mountain Dell.  One time I rode on your back and you really hurt yourself.

Playing basketball out on our driveway and playing catch with our softball mitts.

Looking for jelly beans hidden in all sorts of odd places at Easter.  Some of them were hidden so well we wouldn’t find them until months later!!

Finishing up our basement with Grandpa with the beautiful rock fireplace.

The big huge compost pile in our back yard and the beautiful rock fountain you made!

The drinking fountain in our back yard.

Pulling things up and down over our deck by a rope when we had outdoor dinners in our backyard.

Doing things with our club-group.  I remember camping and having different dinners and parties.

You taking naps in the sunbeam!

Playing tennis when you would hit the ball waaaaayyyy up high in the sky and we would try to return them.

You and I joined the Stake tennis tournament playing doubles as a Daddy-Daughter team and I think we did pretty well!!

You said we should become professional tennis players instead of running track and cross country – something about better pay!

You singing to us and later to our children….”Pretty baby, pretty baby, how I love my pretty baby how I love my pretty girl, pretty baby, pretty baby…” (I have sung this to my babies too!)

You would always sing silly songs and I would always ask you if they were really real songs or whether you were just making them up!

When we were in the car together you would grab my knee and say, “whoops!  I thought that was the gear shift!”

Shooting flies with rubber bands!

Something to the effect of if you shot rubber bands at us then Mom told you that you wouldn’t get your treat!

Making peanut butter and butter graham cracker sandwiches!

Daddy-Daughter dates all the way through Primary to Sorority!

Going camping and fishing.

Receiving Father’s blessings when we were sick or before school started.  I received wonderful Father’s blessings before I went on my mission and before I got married.  What a wonderful blessing it was growing up with the priesthood in our home!!!

Driving with you to work when you couldn’t take the bus for some reason. It was nice to get that time to talk.

You broke your wrist roller-blading!

I was stressing out over marriage decisions and you said that in your day you never did all this stuff liking going to the temple and praying and praying and praying and everything else – you just chose your woman and got married! 

When we interviewed you on video tape.  Your testimony and words of wisdom really meant a lot to me and still do.

Passing a sewer grate and saying that there were “Heffalumps and Woozles” down there!”  My kids say that every time they pass one!

When watching TV we had to hurry and do our work during the commercials.  I remember you turning off the TV during Disney and us kids all started crying and throwing a fit (I’m sure it wasn’t the only time)!

Having to work on Saturdays cleaning the house and doing other chores.

Our star job chart and scripture reading chart.  If we read scriptures everyday we got a scripture treat at the end of the week.

Rootie toot toot, rootie toot toot, we’re the boys from the Institute.  We don’t smoke and we don’t chew and we don’t go with girls who do!!  I heard this phrase from President Hinckley in a General Conference talk but I had already heard it long before that from you!!

I was the first one to graduate from the same University as you! (Forget BYU! J)

You have always loved to work in the yard – often to Mom’s chagrin!

Janika wrote this about you in her history last year: “My Grandpa Westra likes to collect snails and we help him.  He has a whole bag full of snails in their shells.  He has brown hair and he likes to take naps all the time.  I like to collect snails and feed the fishes with him!”

Thanks for everything Dad, hope you have a Happy Birthday – I love you!!  Wendy

Memories of Mom for Mother's Day!!

For Mother's Day (May 11, 2003) I decided to send mom a list of memories! Here is the letter (from Wendy):  

Dear Mom, I thought I would share some more memories I have of you for Mother’s Day!!

I remember…

…when I was a small child overhearing you telling someone how obedient I was.  It really made me want to live up to that!

…how you didn’t want to share your testimony in Fast and Testimony meeting for fear you would get emotional.

….there was a particular Religion Instructor that you really liked. Some of the things he taught were things that none of us heard anywhere else and so if we heard some unusual doctrine we always figured that is where you must have heard it!  Kind of like the boys asking me, “where did you hear that – from your girl scout teacher?” 

….learning in family home evening that if we ever got visited by an angel all we had to do was give him or her the “handshake” test!

…us all goofing around singing “Jr. Bird Man” and using our upside-down fingers for glasses.  (You probably don’t remember this, but I don’t think I had ever seen you laugh so hard!)

….you telling us the joke about the “Wide Mouthed Frog” and the “The Army joke of  “We have good news and bad news (the good news was that they could have a change of underwear that day – the bad news was…John, you change with Bob, Bob you change with Jim….!”

…our multivitamin and little pink fluoride tablet by each of our plates.

…there were some big brown vitamins that we couldn’t stand to eat and so I would pretend to eat them but really threw them away! 

….watching home movies on the living room wall with the movie projector.  We loved to watch them backwards and would laugh and laugh when we slid up the slide backwards and zoomed backwards up the tubing hill!

…you would strategically place certain newspaper articles and clippings on the kitchen table for us to “happen to read” as we were eating.

….giving us bowls of apple slices as we were watching TV so as to get some fruit down us (I do this with my kids too – it works!)

…you told us that if we were ever in a bad situation where we didn’t want to do whatever it was our friends were doing we could always blame our parents “I can’t because my parents won’t let me!”  Or pretend to be sick and call you to come get me.  Or call to check in and give a “secret code word”  like “Geronomo,”  to let you know we were in trouble and needed you to “demand that we come home right now”.  Or call to tell you that we’d forgotten to feed the neighbor’s pet or whatever, so we could say that you were angry and demanding that we come right home!

….the aroma of yummy homemade bread and eating big slices of it right out of the oven with melting butter and home-made strawberry jam! (Now I am in the habit and make home-made bread for our family every other week!)

…delicious home-made fruit leather sitting out to dry on our back deck.

…dipping apple slices in sugar and cinnamon on one side to put on the dryer to make dried fruit (although we ate half of them before they ever made it on the tray!” And loading apricot halves for drying.

…boxes and boxes of coupons!!  You would go to the store and save hundreds of dollars by double couponing.  I said when I got married I would never go to all that trouble – it’s a good thing my husband does the shopping!!

…asking “when are you going to buy more wheat thins?”  You would say “When they are on sale!”  Now I ask my husband to get this or that and he says, “When it’s on sale!”

…practicing the piano every morning at 6:30 (Jeni and I  would trade off so that sometimes we were first and sometimes second – we loved to be second so we could sleep in an extra half hour – Now I am having Janika practice at 6:30 a.m. – it’s the only time it gets done!)

…whenever we were speaking or singing in church you would tell us to pick different people out of the congregation to look at who were smiling at us, so we would be less nervous and to pick out different people and give them a big smile (because we had such a beautiful smile, and then it would be natural).

….when you drove to Logan to bring me my mission call.  I remember I went off alone to the door of my apartment to open it, and then came over to share it with you. Later that night  I signed “In this Very Room”  at my New Horizons concert and they made the announcement of my ASL mission.

…you pretending to do laundry at 6:00 a.m. when you were really seeing why my current   boyfriend (who was sleeping over) was sneaking downstairs to my bedroom (you had made him sleep upstairs)!

…Rick and I talking in sign language on the couch in our living room so that you and Dad couldn’t overhear our conversations!

…you always telling us how lucky you were to have a good marriage and to be married to such a good man who helped so much around the house.

…you telling us how lucky you were that you were blessed with such wonderful children!!  (Although I’m sure there were many times you didn’t feel that way when we were acting up!)

…instilling the desire for further education within all of us.  It was never a question of whether or not we would go to college, but only a question of where we would go.  That’s probably why all of us graduated from college!

…giving me a date book to write down every guy I went out with.  I think I ended up with about 100 names by the time I got married!

…bawling when I read an apology letter from you that you had left on my pillow after we had gotten in an argument. 

…Easter baskets, New Years surprises, and Christmas stocking lined up on our white couch – with our favorite sugar cereal!

…making new year’s banners for each new baby and taking their picture (we do that too now!)

…spraying the white couch with furniture polish (which made it very slippery) and then running and sliding across it.

…piling up pillows in the hallway and running and jumping over them!

….playing “muddy mess” in the sand-box! (My kids love to play that too!)

…working hard to earn stars on our star chart (no wonder several of us kids have made  chart just like it for our own our families!)

….coming home from dates and coming into your room to tell you all about them.  I always knew you would be there asking me if I had kept the rules!

…playing games like Boggle, Progressive Rummy, Master Mind, and Pit.

…reading books to us (I particularly liked the one called “Marrow of the World”)  I think you really instilled within us a love for reading!

…Jeni and I talking in English Accents after we were in bed, “Sista, sista, is that you?  I think we are in a witch's castle!!”  (I don’t know if you ever heard us doing this or not!)

…mixing milk half and half with water and powdered milk to make it go further – yuck!  No wonder I’ve never really liked milk!

…loading me up with a car load of food whenever I was heading back to college after a weekend at home.

…receiving little rebate checks while I was away at college!

….going out to Pizza Hut as a family and getting an extra large pepperoni pan pizza and a pitcher of rootbeer!

Mom – thank you so much for all of the wonderful memories and for all I’ve learned from you.  I think it is neat that we children have passed down many of the things we have learned from you and I know there will be much more as our children continue to grow older.   Thank you.  again for everything!!  I love you!!  Wendy

Easter 2003

Easter 2003. Working in retrospect, I have to wonder ... why didn't we take a group shot of the kids on the stairs this year? The homemade white bunny ears made a showing on Camden's head (at this point I think Jen had turned them over to Grandma to keep), but where are the fuzzy blue ears Jen introduced last year? Those barely made an appearance at the  Blackham's Easter morning. The Blackham buckets got a repeat performance though, started last year and watch for them in every Easter to come. I do NOT see the classic pink, green and yellow Westra plastic baskets this year. Happily, the tradition of eggs up on the ledge high above the front door wasn't skipped. And happily, no kids or windows were hurt in the process of egg retrieval.  Quite the basket(s) full of eggs to hide before the hunt! Do you think there were enough? Quite a few kids, even without the Jensen's up from St. George.

Amy was expecting Taylee. Jen was expecting Cooper. Derek was on his mission, as were Merrill and Lorrie. But we had Aunt Nelva, Uncle Arnold and Greg out for the Easter festivities this year. Grandma and Grandpa Norman were there too.

Easter was April 20 in 2003.

Blackham Easter 2003.

2002 Annual Recap

Family gatherings for Easter, Kaden's baptism, Janelle's baby blessing and of course Christmas Eve!

LaMar turned 65 on May 28, 2002. Margie turned 60 on Nov. 7, 2002

Scott turned 39 on Dec. 16, 2002.   Amy: 34.  McKenna 9, Alyssa 7, Kellen 6, Kemery 4.

Chris turned 36 on Sept. 5, 2002.   Sandy: 35.  Conner: 10, Kadan 8, Corin 5, Camden 0.

Wendy turned 34 on April 29, 2002.  Rick 35.  Janika 7, Jase 5, Jared 3, Janelle 0.

Jeni turned 32 on Nov. 10, 2002.  Grayson: 33.  Landon 7, Callahan 3, Keaton 2.

Shane turned 26 years old on May 3, 2002.   Alicia 22.

Derek turned 20 years old on May 5, 2002.

 LaMar at Ruby River, big hat, 65th Birthday

LaMar retired from Unisys, 1 Jan 2002. He started as a Church Service Missionary at the Family History Library in downtown SLC 12  August 2002.  He worked on Mondays until 5 p.m., then when the Library closed, he walked over to the Joseph Smith Building and worked in the FamilySearch Center there until 9 p.m.  He did this for 8 years until the end of 2010.

14th grandchild was born: to Chris and Sandy: Camden Jacob Westra, 27 Apr 2002.

15th grandchild born to Wendy and Rick: Janelle Marjorie Jensen, 14 Oct 2002.

Scott's family living in Draper: Rosewood Park Lane

Chris's family living in Gunnison. A baptism, baby and Kuikido.

Wendy's family living in Ivins, 582 North 300 West, 84738. 

The Jensen's had a family trip to California.
Read more about their year on Wendy's blog.

Jen's family living in West Jordan, 3692 W 8070 S, 84088.

Jen&Gray had a Florida getaway with Hamlet Homes and a family trip to Oregon.

Shane and Alicia were living at 1764 East 4620 South. Not many pictures in the family Dropbox,
I'm sure they have some more. There were these photos from Shane's work.

Derek was on his mission. A folder of pictures in 2001 ... but nothing for 2002.

Check out more pictures from EASTER and CHRISTMAS ...

Father’s Day Flee – 16-19 June 2002 -- past Pineview Reservoir to Powder Mountain.  Dad wrote: It was a steep drive, and our car had a difficult time getting up the mountain.  The Powder Mountain condos were clear up at the top of the ski area, over 8000 ft in elevation.  We had Wendy’s, Scott’s and Shane’s families. I'm sure Wendy has many more memories in her journal!

 A birthday party for Grandpa. Got many of the Norman cousins to come too. Merrill and Lorrie were gone (left 20 Jun 2002) as mission presidents for three years in the Morristown, New Jersey mission. 

A look at the house and yard in 2002.

Here's a link to the 2002 folder in Dropbox

2002 Christmas Letter

Looks like the letter went out a little late this year ... New Years rather than Christmas.

So this is technically the 2002 Christmas Letter *Ü*

Shift in format - addition of photos!

Original PDF is in Dropbox

Merry Christmas from the Blackhams (2002)

In 2002, the Blackham Bunch consisted of Gray and Jen and three little boys. Like Shane & Alicia, Blackhams sent out some handmade cards with a write up of the family info and activities. Cute pictures of the boys in front of the Christmas tree, paired with an earlier photo of them in some classic costumes (made for the original Blackham Boys: Grayson, Kolby and Clayton back in the 1970s).

The cover of the card was a drawing by little Callahan ...

... and the back

The home address would stay the same for the next 20+ years, but the email address and phone number shifted as technology switched things up. 

... and one more look at those cute Blackham Boys!