2018: A Year of Blessings

 2018: A Year of Blessings

This year- 2018 has been full of blessings......  

On December 30, 2017, we were blessed to gain a new son-in-law.  Liz and Christopher Brault had a glorious (but cold)  wedding.  We had many family members here to celebrate this cold chilly post Christmas celebration.  The church was decorated in its Christmas finery!  What a fun event!  Even some of our California relatives braved the cold to be with us! 

Fagenstrom Clan

Marks Clan

 In case you missed it- here's a video celebrating the family and friends who were there! 

Granddaughter Bethany relished her role as flower girl.  The week before she was practicing throwing her flower petals down the aisle. When she got home for lunch, she asked Liz "Are you coming to my wedding?"  She was sure it was her day!   I made her flower girl dress from my wedding dress. She was delightful!   

Bethany- flower girl

On February 19, 2018, we were blessed to have Alfred Eugene (we call him Freddie) join sister Bethany and parents Ike and Kathie.  He was born on his great-grandfather Eugene(Gene) Marks' birthday so he takes his name from Gene and his great-grandfather Alfred on Kathie's side.  He's been a fun baby.  He's moving now so we are keeping the Christmas tree tied up!  He takes after his dad "Smiling Ike"  with a good nature, although his parents wouldn't mind if he wasn't so cheery in the middle of the night! 

In May, we were blessed to have many friends and family come help us put in sandbags as the Clark Fork River creeped up into our pasture.  Although we did have quite a bit of water in our crawl space, the river receded and we had minimal damage.  Some of our neighbors were not as fortunate.  

Friends & family helping "build the wall" (of sandbags)

The flood was also a blessing or a curse for our apple orchard.  The trees were "water stressed" so for the first time in many years, we had no apples and no Apple Days!  We did enjoy having Immanuel Preschool come-- although we did have to buy apples to squeeze into juice, it was still a glorious fall day complete with a hay ride around our pasture and a field trip to our neighbors- Turner Farms to see the animals.  

Freddie's First Apple Days

We were blessed to do some traveling this year.  We took a spring trip to Arizona to visit Erik, my nephew James and his wife Sarah and my sister Jane and her husband Duane.  We took in some baseball and enjoyed the sunshine.  We returned  to Arizona in the fall with Ike, Kathie, Bethany and Freddie and enjoyed the sunshine, seeing family, and a visit to the Grand Canyon.

Superheros Bethany & Erik

Grand Canyon with Ike, Kathie, Bethany & Freddie

Ron and I also were blessed to take a trip on the Selkirk Loop -- up into Canada with our RPod (camper)  this summer.  We enjoyed camping and kayaking on several lakes, road the Ferry across Kootanay Lake (reminiscent of our honeymoon 43 years ago), and drove through Eastport and were amazed at the changes there since we lived there when I was in high school.

Riding the Kootenay Lake Ferry

Camping at Priest Lake! 

Our biggest blessing has been spending time with all of "our children".  We have grandchildren Bethany and Freddie three days a week.  We are making sure 3-and-a half year old Bethany gets to preschool two days a week- where she is learning to spell her name and do math... and all those other fun preschool activities.  We also watch delightful Gillian (age 7) on Thursdays  after school and Luke (4 yrs) and Leo (5 weeks younger than Freddie) join us on Friday mornings.  We've recruited a "Granny Nanny" to help us out on Fridays... two infants can make our morning very busy.  

Bethany & Gillian-- all dressed up! 

Nancy with Leo & Freddie

Ron with Bethany & Luke

Ron has worked a little as an Autism Consultant and I do some work coordinating an annual conference, but mostly we enjoy our house, our garden, mowing and snow plowing (for Ron), boating, lots of quilting (for Nancy) and helping where we are needed at church.  Retirement is a blessing for both of us. 

Blessings to all of you as we all move into 2019.  May your year be blessed all the way through.  

Ron & Nancy

Stay in Touch with us

mslamarks@gmail.com   Nancys blog: http://missoulamusings.blogspot.com

 Nancy’s Youtube channel: http://youtube.com/mslamarks

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3524 South 3rd St West, Missoula, MT 59804