SEPTEMBER ~Superior~St. Johns~Safford

I've been looking forward all year to September when I could do Superior, St. Johns and Safford!  But when the time actually came, I had a terrible time choosing pictures...as you can see.  I ended up with too many, and still not enough. All of these places are important to me and to us as a family.  They helped shape who we are.
SUPERIOR
Even though we never lived in Superior, it is where Grandmother Nora grew up.  It shaped who she was and thereby shaped who Dad is.  It is nestled between Apache Leap and Picket Post mountains.  Her father was one of the founders of the town, having built a ranch there before it was even a mining town.  He was an honest-to-goodness cowboy and ran cattle in the mountains around Superior. His little rock house, where they stayed when they moved their cows to the mountains, and the narrow cattle trail winding around the cliffs are still visible from the highway and we look for them every time we travel through there.
 

ST. JOHNS

Jeremy at the Sno Shalet; Brent Ireland with Joel, Daniel and Rebecca in the old bank house; Nathan, Joel and Daniel getting ready to go to school in the beast; with Esther and her friends and Thomas; Daisy and Smokey, The girls' bedroom.

Nathan and Mary at our Christmas pageant; Nathan, Joel, Daniel, Rebecca and Jeremy in front of the bank house, enjoying our first snow; Thomas flashing his "four" with Elder Simpson, Daniel and Jeremy in the background; Jeremy, Rachel and Esther enjoying a fire; Jeremy, Rachel, Esther and Thomas on the trampoline.

Downtown chapel; Stake Center; Our house; St. Johns High School auditorium that I helped design; and school.

SAFFORD

Our Bonita house...everyone waving goodbye as we took Daniel to the MTC; Dad and grandkids(Carson, Camille, Soren, Brynlie, Lindsay, Esther holding Maya, Hyrum, Kirtlyn, Brianna) on his John Deere tractor; Brianna, Brynlie, Ellie, Camille, Lindsay; Dad with Bridger, Carson, Luke, Brynlie and Camille; Dad with DeWitt, Levi, Stetson and Dallin.

Retirement party; Dad helping Thomas, Carson, Brynlie and Camille in the garden; Thomas, Carson, Luke on the Salsa Express; Our house; Shannyn, Analynn, Emma, Kirtlyn, Shadrach, Albert, Jonathan having fun in the pool.

Beautiful back yard; Dad's garden; snow on the mountain and flowers on the trees; FHE with Joel, Stephanie, Rylie, Polly, Isabel, Tyson, Mary, Lindsay, Tony, Camille, Carson, Brianna, Brynlie; El Charro before it was ours with Devynne, Rachel, Esther, Brody, Shad, Rebecca.

Our September birthdays are very important too.  

Lillian turned 20 on the 3rd.

Rebecca's was the 8th.

Ethan Charles Richins, our newest family member, born on September 10th, at just 2 lbs, 11 oz.  He is such a fighter and has already come through some pretty rough times.  What a blessing he is to us and how thankful we are for him and for his valiant spirit.  He was born on the one year anniversary of Grandpa Hiatt's death, and the one year, one month anniversary of Grandma Hiatt's death.  I was weepy that day, anyway, and knew that I had to speak in the Pima Stake Conference that evening, on eternal families,  and wondered how I could do it and not be overly emotional, thinking about my parents' passing.  Then just before we left, we got the text about this precious baby's birth.  I was even more emotional then and so I told all of the Pima Stake about him to explain why I was so weepy.  Now, I often have people at the temple and even at Walmart, come up and ask me how he is doing. 

Shadrach's 19th birthday is the 12th.

Tony's birthday is the 19th.

Jared turned 5 on the 21st...(fake birthday was the 24th).

Docker turned 17 on the 30th.

~OUR SEPTEMBER~

We've been honored by visits this month from his majesty the Cardinal who lives in Thomas' trees.

We had so many apples this year, and though I offered them to everyone I knew, I couldn't get them picked.  Then Dad had the bright idea that if the kids wanted a popsicle they had to pick five apples or pick up five apples from the ground.  Either way, we got most of them picked that way.  Dad and I had to go out one day and get the rest, but it was pretty well cleaned out by then.

Then we made applesauce.  Love it!  Even though Dad isn't crazy about applesauce, he stuck with me until the job was done.  I appreciate him so much.  What a man!

He also planted some flowers for me in our front pots.

At Rebecca's birthday lunch.  Henry took the pictures and he did a great job.  Rebecca had toasted cheese sandwiches as her meal of choice. And that decadent looking pie is Reese's peanut butter cup pie that Rachel made.  The beautiful decorations are courtesy of Jenn.

Joel sent his huge tent, and a crew to put it up, (Jeremy, Bert,  Rand, and Thomas, of course.  Dad helped quite a bit, actually) for a wedding in Solomonville...really, far past Solomon.  See in Joel's section how beautiful it looked. 

This is Bobbi Layton and her Granddaughter, pulling in her groceries after I took her shopping.

Our old, rotten trampoline cover finally broke through, unfortunately, with Tanner Emery on it.  He fell right through to the ground.  I'm just glad there were no scorpions!  Anyway, Thomas and Jenn's family with Tanner's help, put on a new one.  Tanner felt so guilty and took upon himself all the blame, so he worked like a little Trojan to get it fixed.   He's such a hard worker.  Dad and I were impressed.  But it was really our fault for having a rotten pad!

When Mary and Tyson first went to Mesa to wait for the baby's arrival, Jared and Alex stayed with me for a little while.  Mostly they stayed with Melody and Russ.  But it was fun for me to have them part of the time.  We watched Paw Patrol and they played on Grandpa's playground.

This is us at the Pima Stake Conference with Chan Day, who is a member of the Stake Presidency.

The next day, Sunday, we went to Rebecca's 9:00 church, then packed all the kids in the Richins' van and took them to Mesa to see their parents and new brother.

At the condo with Richins kids.

We went to Banner Gateway, where Mary had Ethan, to see her and him.

Here he is.  Poor baby!  All hooked up to tubes and iv's.  His name, Ethan Charles, is for two of his 4th great grandfathers named Charles.  Charles Richins was the first one in the Richins family to join the church in England, converted by Mary's ancestor, Charles Golding Shill.

They mostly kept Ethan under a blue light.  These are two separate days.  One at Banner Gateway, and one at Banner Desert after they moved him over.  Desert has a more extensive NICU and they felt he needed it.  That's where Lindsay was.  She was 3 lb, 2 oz. when she was born.

On Sunday afternoon, we ate dinner with Esther's family.  Harrison made delicious fettucini alfredo.  Soo good.

Jared and Alex hanging out with Bridger and Brody.

This is the covered walkway from the parking garage at Desert almost straight into the NICU.

Only one visitor at a time, so we took turns and waited with the fish.

They are taking very good care of our boy.

After we got home, we just had the bigger kids.  Melody took the little boys to Cotton City.  We were on Temple Maintenance break, so we were able to help.  Tyson would get them off to school every day and then we picked them up after school at their bus.  They stayed with us until  Tyson picked them up after work.  They were super easy and enjoyed playing with cousins.

While we were off for the Temple maintenance break, I had my eyebrows micro bladed.  Oh my goodness! It hurt like crazy.  I'm usually pretty tolerant of pain, but this was terrible.  If I had known how much it would hurt, I probably would not have done it.  But my own eyebrows are so pale, skin colored, and my face just disappears unless I have makeup on, so I decided to just do it.  It's not permanent like tattoos, but it should last a year or so.  My eyes are still swollen in this picture, but you can see how they look.  Each of those hairs is really a slice made by the razor blade and then filled with pigment.

I got this photo of Brad from Instagram.  He looks happy and good, doesn't he? Thanks to Carrie, he feels useful and needed, and he is.

Thomas' street taco tent at the Salsa Festival on the 23rd.  He grilled steak, and people, smelling the delicious smell, lined up clear down the street to wait patiently in line for street tacos.  This picture was just as Thomas was getting started cooking the steaks.

After we ate tacos, we went to Kirtlyn's play.  She was in Oliver as an orphan/Fagin's band.

When the play was over, we went to the homecoming game to see Polly, who was one of the candidates for queen.  Of course, we hoped she would win, but tried to prepare ourselves in case she didn't.  She did!!  Of course, why not?  She's the whole package...beautiful inside and out.  Rylie, as the former queen, crowned her cousin.  It was a touching moment for me to see.

We went by on Jared's fake birthday (the 24th instead of the 21st) to take him a present.

Then we went to Mesa where Dad had a car appointment.  The part he needed hadn't come in, so we just saw what kids we could.  Joel and Jeremy were at a seminar in Tucson, so we didn't see them, but we ate with Esther's family on Tuesday evening.

Then on Wednesday we went to the hospital and saw Ethan and Tyson.  Mary had gone back to Thatcher to spend some time with her kids.  She hadn't seen Alex since the baby was born! Tyson took her place with the baby.  He stayed all day at the hospital with Ethan, who now has a private room, so Tyson was able to work from the hospital on his computer and be there for Ethan's feedings. He has become so proficient at handling that tiny bundle, changing him, feeding him and just loving him.  I was very impressed.

It was pure pleasure to hold Ethan and feed him.  He took most of his bottle of breast milk, but when they came in and put vitamins and the rest of the milk into his feeding tube, he spit it out...all over me!  I didn't mind a bit.  I've been spit up on before :-}  I was just so glad to have this time with him.

After lunch in the hospital cafeteria, we drove back to Mesa to take Docker a birthday card.  They will be in SLC for conference on his birthday.

We were able to see Bethany and Palmer for dinner. Notice that I went home and changed shirts :-]  I needed to take her shower gifts to her since I would be in the temple on the day of her shower.  They seem happy in Glendale, have made friends there, and Palmer likes Midwestern Dental School.  He's doing very well.

On our way home, we saw this guy walking along the road toward Safford.  Actually, Dad saw him, I had my nose buried in a book, as usual:-/  I told Dad that I wished I had seen him and taken a picture.  Then I saw this picture in the Courier...just for me.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE FAMILY

I'm going in reverse order for a change.

~MARY AND TYSON~

They saw this intersection in Mesa and had to stop and get a picture with Lindsay Melody.  I remember seeing a picture of Hayden Thomas at his intersection.

Here are the kids, bedded down on the foam pads at the condo.  Very comfy.

Ethan's birthday.  Mommy got to give him a kiss before they hooked him up to all his tubes, monitors, iv's and everything.

Trying to communicate as much love as she could through just a touch in the incubator.

At Banner Gateway.

The ambulance transfer team, taking him to Banner Desert.

Putting him down in his new home at Desert.

Pictures with their new brother.  Alex was at Esther's.  Esther has been such a help and support through this whole thing.  She has kept kids, fed them and even gone to be a substitute mommy when Mary had a cold and couldn't go.

Mary tried to give him some skin-to-skin comfort. 

Part of her support group.  Erika has been her caregiver throughout the pregnancy and Rachel and Rebecca have made a couple of trips to Mesa to be with her.  She has had loving support from a lot of people.  Calls and texts from her faraway siblings, and visits from her close ones.  I think I have a picture of everyone who visited except Joel and Stephanie.  Joel came to give Ethan a blessing, but they didn't take a picture of that, so I don't have one of him.  He and Stephanie also came to visit and brought yummy food and smoothies.  Too bad no one thought to take a picture :-(  But they were there too, as well as Thomas and Jeremy, whose pictures are in their sections.

They finally got bored with tv in the condo and went to the thrift store and bought board games.

One night, while they were in town, they went to Kirtlyn's play.  Brianna and Lindsay couldn't be in the play this time because of their mother's situation.

Jared had his "pretend birthday" party at Esther's house, where his cousins, Soren and Brody could come.  It was a dinosaur party.

Ethan has passed all his tests and exams and is now going to be treated as a normal baby.  He has been moved from the NICU to the CCN (Neonatal intensive care unit to the Continuing care nursery).  They even let Dad hold and feed him.  He is 3lb. 9oz.

Mary was able to start nursing him.

Joel and Stephanie invited the Richins to dinner on Sunday and they even provided world class entertainment!

Happy Birthday, Jared!

~THOMAS AND JENN~

Thomas and crew putting up Joel's tent.  Then, Rachel and Jenn adding the nice touches to it.

Fixing our trampoline.

Safford/Thatcher rival game promotion at El Charro.

Thomas went to see Ethan when he was in town on an El Charro shopping trip.

Loading up the truck with supplies.  He brought Dad's truck so we could go back with him and leave the Richins' van in Mesa.

Safford Homecoming dress up days.

Kirtlyn was an orphan/Fagin's crew in the play Oliver. 

At the Salsa Festival, Thomas set up a grill and made street tacos.  It was a fabulous hit!  People could smell that steak grilling and lined up clear across the street, patiently waiting for their turn. In fact, he completely sold out on Friday night, all the supplies he had ordered for Saturday as well.  

I found these pictures of El Charro's salsa, the crowd in front of the restaurant (notice Tim and Allison McHugh), and the taco booth on the Courier.

~ESTHER AND SHAD~

Mary's boys feeling right at home at Esther's.

And why not? They are loved.

Tony came by after an ASU game where he got to meet the coach and players, to pick up Rachel and to brag to some other pretty avid ASU fans.

Esther and Shad took their Bishopric up to the cabin for a couple of days and visited the Natural Bridge.

Other family members came...of course.  Esther was a good sport about it though.

Jared's dinosaur birthday party.

Miss Esther's All Stars Preschool

At dinner with us.

After Bridger's band concert.

Wisdom tooth agony.  He had all four out on the 30th.  Notice the chocolate milkshake.  He's sure to feel better soon.

~RACHEL AND TONY~

School spirit.

Safford/Thatcher rival game.

I don't know.  Soccer practice on a rainy day?

Rylie is a trainer for the EAC football team and a couple of the players have asked her about being a Mormon.  This is one who asked if he could go with her to the devotional.  She took a different one another time and when she told her dad his name, Doug Subtle, Tony totally knew who he was because he was recruited by ASU and another school and is a big shot.  In fact, he invited Rylie and  Tony to go to an ASU game and meet the coaches and players.  Of course, they went!

Brynlie and Camille are taking violin in school.  Luke is showing them the correct way to do it.

Rachel, helping with Joel's tent for the Solomon wedding.

Helping with homework.  I love it.  It makes me feel good to be able to do 4th grade homework :-}

Tony's birthday on the 19th.  He can still fit into his All Star jersey from high school! At 42!!

Uh Oh! A new driver.  Hopefully, a careful one.

Safford Homecoming dress up days.

Rachel helped decorate one of Thomas' salsa booths for El Charro at the Salsa Fest.  Then met Kirtlyn at the restaurant. See Tim and Allison McHugh in the back?

Isabel and friends at the homecoming game.

Homecoming.  Rylie, the beautiful queen from last year, waiting to go on the field to crown this year's queen...who, by the way, is waiting there too.  You could totally tell which one she is, even if you didn't already know, just by seeing which candidate is the prettiest :-)

Loving cousins and proud aunt and uncle.

~JEREMY AND ERIKA~

Jeremy came with Joel's crew to set up the huge wedding tent in Solomon.

Erika is glad to have her car back after it had to have some repairs.

Ellie made this little collage to celebrate Ethan's birth.

Before and after: Their laundry room. Done entirely by themselves.  They are so handy.

Erika, Rachel and Esther, part of Mary's faithful support group, including Rebecca, of course, who also went to Mesa to be with her.

"Time goes...flies"  He's coming home in 2 weeks!  He has been transferred back to his beginning area and is enjoying seeing some of his old friends.

These two pictures are of the same boys.  One when he first went to Trinidade and one when he saw them again. What a difference!

~REBECCA AND SCOTT~
At the Safford/Thatcher rival game.

Harvey's first horseback ride...3 generations of Atkinson men.

I love seeing pictures of babies using what I worked so hard to make for them ;-)

I can't even say how cute this is.

Dallin and Sara with some college friends eating Japanese (?) food.

Beautiful downtown Syracuse NY.

The view from his window

Parley's first taste of raspberries.

Rebecca's birthday.

"Here, taste this delicious, decadent birthday pie I made for you!"

In this picture, Jenn was at the other end of the table with Henry, showing him how to take the picture. 

Hiking the Wall, I think.

The Odysea is in Scottsdale.  We passed it on our way to see Bethany. Aren't they so cute?

This is a better picture of them, but I wanted to get the shark in the background.

Setting up housekeeping.

Rebecca bottled I don't know how many jars of peach jam...delicious peach jam...and then made a loaf of bread and shared it with us, as well as with ladies in her ward.  Then later she brought us individual, mini peach pies! :-)

Safford homecoming dress up days

Powder puff football.

Homecoming candidates.

Polly with one of the other candidates.

And the winner is...Polly Mae Evans!

King was E.J. Estrada; She was crowned by cousin, and former queen, Rylie.

Proud parents

Lucky boy to be asked to Frolic by the Homecoming Queen!

~DANIEL AND CONNIE~

Connie's Amazing cake to send to Shadrach for his 19th birthday.

Emma.  She and Shannyn keep me up with pictures, especially of Aila.

Doesn't anyone ever give that baby any attention???

The thing I love about the bottom right picture, aside from the darling baby Diamondbacks fan, is the wall-to-wall people!

They are having a lot of fun landscaping their wilderness property.  Here, Parker and brothers are building a baseball diamond!

And Daniel is building a road across the stream; Connie and Syrina.

Visiting Omaha.

Baby Boy Bennion

Enjoying some of the sights and activities of St. Lewis.

It looks as if they did some exploring in the Ozarks.  They even swam in this icey-looking stream! Devynne said it was refreshing :-)

Glenwood homecoming dress up days.

Part of homecoming was the "Peach Fuzz" volleyball game in which Albert participated.

~JOEL AND STEPHANIE~

The Solomon wedding in Joel's big wedding tent.  This is also the one he used for the Gilbert Temple open house.

When the Biggs family had the Richins family over for dinner.

Levi spent some time with Stetson and Lindsay in sunny California.

Crew pitched in his game Wednesday night and shut down the other team.  His team won 10-1 :-)

Docker's 17th birthday, the 30th, was the day they left for SLC to attend General Conference.  Perfect birthday cake!

~NATHAN AND SHAUNA~

Baby girl Jeppesen

Palmer's dentist dummy :-\ As one who has spent an uncommon amount of time in the dentist's chair, I can totally relate to his horrified expression!

Nathan making a presentation in San Francisco.

Lined up for the iPhone 7 outside the Apple store in San Francisco.

Hmmm...she's really pretty, Josh.

~MISSIONARIES~

From Daynen in Brazil.  This will be his last from Brazil.  The next ones I'll post will be of his homecoming!

From Hannah in Hawaii with her new companion that she is training.; their apartment, being debugged.

From Lillian in the Philippines, with her zone and her new companion that she is training, and with her birthday packages from home.

From Shadrach in California.  Local vineyard, with a couple who got married so they could get baptized and with sunglasses that missionaries are allowed to wear now.

~SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT~

He's 3 pounds 9 ounces!!  What a difference!  No tubes, monitors, or iv's.  And you can see how he is beginning to fill out, to fit his skin.  Just a beautiful tiny baby.

I'm sorry, but I had to laugh out loud when I saw this one of Harvey. It took me a minute to realize what I was seeing.

Henry got a Superman sticker tattoo in a Happy Meal, so he went around all day with his shirt up!

Even though Harrison's misery isn't something to smile about, his loopy-ness is :-D  He was apprehensive about the anesthetic because he didn't want to make a fool of himself and be loopy and do loopy things.  Esther told him that she thinks that most of what people post on youtube is somewhat fake just to make a good video, so he felt more confident.  But no.  The dentist said he talked 90 miles a minute the whole time...around fingers and instruments.  He kept saying he was going to be on TLC on a reality show.  They even gave him more, thinking he wasn't anesthetized enough if he could talk that much.  Then when he got home, his mom asked him how he felt and he said, "I feel good enough to dance!" and began dancing and singing all over the living room!  It looks, in this picture, as if he has calmed down, but I sure hope his parents got video!!

Raymond got ready for church, last week, with a white shirt and tie and Daniel and Connie commented that he looked like Shadrach, a missionary.  So this week, without anyone knowing, he found a Book of Mormon with Shadrach's name on it and some black paper for a name badge and wrote Elder Biggs on it.   That is how he went to church, proud to be a future missionary, and wanting to be like his brother, Shadrach.

~LAST WORDS~

What an amazing month this has been.  A month of miracles and answered prayers.  I am always in awe of how much Heavenly Father loves us.  He loves all His children...but I think we are definitely His favorites :-)  We need to always remember to return His love by loving and serving each other and keeping His commandments.  That's how He knows we love Him.  Dad and I thank Him, daily, for each one of you.  People often wonder how we can love each one of 50 grandchildren, 3 (soon to be 5) great grandchildren, 82 family members in all...when there are just so many.  But I tell them that it doesn't matter how many there are.  The more we have, the greater our capacity to love becomes.  When I think how much we love and worry about and care about little Ethan, number 50, I know that we love him as much as we do our first grandchild.  Joshua and Ethan each have a prominent place in our prayers and in our hearts, as do each of the others.  It gives us a little perspective on how Heavenly Father can love so many so well.