visit from liz and calvin

(posted by Alisa) Since Mom isn't confident in blogging on her own I told her I would post these pictures of her visit from Liz and Calvin. Mom talks often of how much she misses her grandkids and wishes she could be closer to them, so I know she just loved this time she could spend with Calvin. Above Calvin is vacuuming. Apparently he loved doing that!
One night when I was visiting Clavin kept "relaxing" as he would say by putting his hands behind his head like this:



Grandma played cars with Calving a lot!! Even outside!!
Mom said that Calvin LOVED climbing these rocks in their front yard.
He had so much fun doing yard work with them as well. Mom said that Calvin thought it was so cool and funny to snip the top part of a weed and watch it fall off.



Apparently this was a nightly ritual. When Dad got home from work Calvin would follow him into his closet as he changed. Dad would throw his white shirt on Calvin's head and he thought it was so funny!! I think it's so cute how he's standing here in his underwear.

We all had a lot of fun with Liz and Calvin visiting. As you can see Mom and Dad really enjoyed having a little grandson around.

I thought you might like to see a flavor of Russia. What a place to visit. I loved it. below are the famous churches on Red Square in the heart of Moscow. I've seen these since I was a kid. It was a bit surreal to actually be there. Hard to write all the impressions. We can talk when we are together. This building is at the opposite end of Red Square from the churches above.

To the right is the Kremlin.

Ghosts of Lenin and Stalin still hanging aroung the place.....a little scary.
Plenty of military presence. This is the changing of the Guard outside the Kremlin.

(Bronco may be looking for a new field goal kicker....what do you think?)

In one of the Metro stations, they have a hall with bronze statues depicting all the different types of labor that can/could be done by the Soviet faithful. I was impressed to see that a statue of a BB player made the cut along with all the factory workers etc.

Mom and I had a great trip to Boston and Rochester. We had great weather and a terrific time at Liz and Travis's and Katie and Eric's. As you can we see hit the old hot spots in Boston and had a terrific time at the lake and Sacred Grove with Eric and Katie.

Thought you guys might like to see a bit of our trip to Chicago. We really had a great time together seeing "Wicked" and "Blue Man Group", bike riding along the lake front and just laying around the beaches enjoying the sun. Fun to be back in my old home town......

For FHE, Dad is teaching me how to blog. He walked through Jessica's trip with me, and has now left me on my own to blog the Jackson Hole Trip. We obviously have a few unresolved questions, like giving titles to our blogs, putting pictures in order of the events, etc. but I will save that for another day when I can talk to one of my children :) Dad nor I have the answers!! In the meantime...just want all of you to know a fun time was had by all when we were at JacksonHole last week! We would loved to have had all of you with us, but we enjoyed those who were there! Above is a picture of Adam on the Alpine Slide.

This is a photo of Dad, Mom, and Adam, Mike (holding Reid) and Brian (holding Zach). We were getting ready to take off to see Hidden Falls, after riding a ferry across Jenny Lake.
Along the path, we came across the lower part of the falls. Adam posing for us on the bridge. Wish you could see the beard he was growing! Didn't look too shabby!
We had a wonderful week, ending on Mountain bikes. We rode the ski lift up the mountain, then biked down. Mike, Liz, Adam, Dad, and I did that. Brian and family had to leave for home the day we did this! The picture of me is BEFORE I actually had to do the biking! I'll have to admit, I was nervous and didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. But the others really enjoyed themselves!
This is a picture of Adam and Mike with someone who was guiding them on various paths coming down the mountain. I trust Liz and Rachelle will post their own family pictures. There are some really cute ones of their family, but since Adam doesn't blog, I thought I should represent him in these. Perhaps, if I find time, I can give you details of the trip in an email. But, in the meantime...enjoy! I'm most excited about the fact that I actually posted this blog all by myself! Now I have to perfect how to do it the way I'd like! Hasta luego!!

Day 3: Besides swimming, playing games, eating out, and watching a movie, we went to the temple where Jessica and Grandpa did baptisms for the dead. (Please see email for further details. Grandpa is helping me learn to blog and I like the details more than he does :) ) This will at least capture a few of the hightlights!

Day One: Rode the Heber Creeper from Heber to Provo. We were held up by bandits on horses, and saw lots of beautiful countryside!

When we got off of the Heber Creeper, we rafted down the Provo River!
After our train and rafting adventure, we took Jessica on tour of BYU and showed her where Grandma and Grandpa talked about getting married, where we lived when her Mommy was born, etc. It was fun to show her BYU!
Day 2: Focus on Jessica: Haircut and shopping

LET THE REUNION BEGIN!!!! We were at Regina's on July 4, as designated, and waited and waited! No one seemed to show up! So, we had fun without you anyway :) We had great conversation and a wonderful swim. Some of us swam more so than others!! :)

Of course we had a LOT more going on than the few things we will talk about here, but a few recorded events were swimming at Regina's, walks, visiting with Uncle Myrl, Cynthia, trip to Cold Stone, paid our respects at the Cemetery (and while doing so the sprinklers went on and we RAN to the car fast)!! We enjoyed visiting, also, with Uncle Ronald and Norma, then off to Temecula for a yummy fish dinner! I told Dad he got off easy buying reunion dinner for only 4 of us!! We enjoyed evening visits in Grandma and Grandpa's family room, squeezing oranges and lemons for fresh citrus drinks, and I really shouldn't forget to record our afternoon reading and naps! Regina and Tal returned from Lake Havasu, so we raced over to welcome them home! By then we were desperate to include others in the reunion :) It was great to see them and visit. Colby, Katie's fiancee is here also, so it was fun to visit with him too.


With this last recorded picture, standing under the flag in front of Grandma and Grandpa's home, we say goodbye to the Tibbitts Family Reunion, 2008 and encourage none of you to miss the reunion of 2010! Considering what we did this year, you will NOT want to miss the next one!

Thought you might like some pictures from Oregon....Boy did we love it!!! Hope you can all see it some time.

Mom and I have fallen in love with the North West. Here are some pictures from Keri's area and house (including fire works) hikes etc. We also took 3 days coming down the Oregon Coast. Travis, does this make you homesick???What a great area!!