Dean & Betty Jo Bailey

Viva la France

2008-12-07T08:51:00.000-08:00

We have just completed one of the great adventures of our life. When Matt was called to the France, Paris mission we decided that we were going to try to pick him up when his service was complete. Katie is in school at BYU so we had to shoehorn two weeks worth of sights into 7 days so that we could get her back to class. It is hard to describe the experiences and feelings that go into trip (not really a vacation) like this.

The very best part was meeting the people in some of the areas where Matt served and getting some idea of what they meant to him. (We will never understand completely, but at least we have a better idea now).

I have to admit that I had some anxious moments about Matt going to France. All the stories about how closed the people were and all. I would like to say, we have never been treated better anywhere we have gone. The people that we met, the Inn proprietors, the shop owners, and the members of the Church were kind, thoughtful, helpful and patient. I'm sure that it helped to have Matt with his ability at the language; but the kindness was there, even so. I can hardly wait to go again, at a more leisurely pace next time.

Just a couple of simple suggestions: If you drive make sure you have GPS. We wouldn't have even made it out of the airport without it. It saved our life multiple times. In fact, we would turn off the "freeway" and drive through the country or take the long way to another town. The countryside is beautiful even at the beginning of December.

The following are a few sights on our trip. For the real action, you need to visit Katies site.

The hug that every missionary mom looks forward too! It didn't get any better than this.

The hug that every missionaries dad likes to get.

Shopping the Champs-Elysees.

The second best part for the girls. Shopping in France.

Omaha Beach in Normandy. It is a very sobering place to realize that on one day in 1944 that many thousands of young men, around the age of your missionary son, were killed on this very beach for the cause of freedom. The citizens of Normandy are very kind to Americans, even to this day.

There is not a lot that one can add to this picture, other than to hope that one day the wars & battles will end.

The cathederals in every town were amazing. So big, so old, and so ornate. Wow. This particular one was built in 1077. This is a real antique, not like the "fake" stuff we have in the States.

Concord plaza. Where 10,000 to 15,000 people were beheaded during the French Revolution.

The Arc de Triomphe at night from the middle of the Champs-Elysees.

The Eiffel Tower at night.

We would like to say a special thanks to the many missionaries, members and non-members of the church who may have worked with Matt or helped him out during his two years in France and made his time there so memorable. We will never be able to repay your kindness. May God Bless you all.

Viva la France!

Mom Has Skills Too!

2008-11-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hooyah! It is November. Since it has been 6 weeks since the previous post we just thought we needed to get something out there. Katie upped the ante by posting her halloween skills but I think that Mom did one better! Or would that be two? In any case here are her efforts:

This is Matt in his French Beret!

In memory of the Moki Dog! (We miss him).

Ashley guarding against trick or treaters! She scarfed up all the Kit Kats herself. Only a few more years and this will catch up to her.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

2008-09-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

A couple of Sunday's ago, Jo and I were at the Marriott Center (BYU Campus) for a regional conference. It was an inspiring meeting and on the way out the weather was just gorgeous. A beautiful fall day, a touch of crispness in the air. Everything was perfect. I was holding hands with Jo and just happened to comment, "It just doesn't get any better than this...A good family, a beautiful day, and everything just seemed to be going good." OOOOOOPs. Big Mistake. We hadn't gone 20 feet and were going down the stairs and about 5 from the bottom. Jo stumbled. She started to fall and since we were still holding hands I just about landed on top of her. Right in front of 22,000 people. We recovered as gracefully as possible, Jo took off her high heels and walked barefoot to the car. The next day, when I was going to get on the computer, it quit. I lost all my email and other files...Bad day! Well, then as I was rebuilding this computer, I was looking at the kids computer and it was loaded with viruses. When I tried to clean them off, you guessed it another computer crash. So last week I spent about 40 hours fixing computers... and I hate doing that. The only good thing...I did get all my files recovered thanks to a neat little piece of software called File Scavenger. ($49).

Then today, when Jo was calling people for the job that she has, got yelled at bad by a California dude. Kinda ruined her day.

I guess we were right when we said that it doesn't get any better than this...It is just possible that things can go downhill in a real hurry.

Welcome to the Projects

2008-08-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

Quite a few years ago a neighbor saw me working in the yard and yelled over, "Hey Bailey, welcome to the projects." At first I thought he was talking about the bouroughs of New York City and I couldn't quite figure out what New York City had to do with little ol' Alpine, Utah. I may not be the quickest car on the track, but I think I've finally finished the race.

This summer we have been busy on several yard and home improvements. First there was the iron fence PROJECT and the required painting PROJECT. This set off the driveway PROJECT, which in turn created a situation that made the sprinkler PROJECT necessary. The sprinkler PROJECT set off

the east side stairs PROJECT. All the sprinkler lines had to be re-routed; consiquently the stairs had to be ripped up to set the new sprinkler lines. The Alpine winds forced the roof PROJECT because I had 15 year shingles on an 18 year old roof.

Ashley is anxious to have the basement renovation PROJECT finished, and as you can see, Jo is working on the weed PROJECT by the hedge on the west side of the house (I have never seen this many weeds in our yard ever.) Of course Ashley is supervising Jo. Isn't that just how it works? I supervise the contractors, Jo supervises me, and the kids supervise the parents. Wouldn't you know? Don't you think Ash would look good in an orange highway vest?

The fix-the-dryer PROJECT is still waiting to be done along with the the laundry room renovation PROJECT and even the daily laundry PROJECT is taking a break.

I have been working on my Alpine Prints website PROJECT and last Saturday was the Stingham reunion. I won't call that a PROJECT, because it was family deal. (Check out the pictures here.) And now both Jo and I have the Temple & Family History council leadership PROJECT in our BYU stake.

So, just like the old neighbor said, "Welcome to the PROJECTS!"; right here in the bouroughs of Alpine.

It's about time

2008-07-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

After 18 years it's about time that some updates were done to the house. It has been a busy summer. I've replaced half the sprinkler heads on the place to new and improved ones so that the grass will grow greener. And this time it's not like what mom says about greener grass on the other side of the fence. It's water that is making the grass greener...not the other stuff.

Last week was a BIG week. Got the last of the iron fence put in and painted. It is a very delicate shade of black.

Also, since everyone is deciding to move back in, we thought we needed to keep the kids off the street...so we are adding an extension to the driveway. It's only about 18 years too late; but who's counting. Certainly not me.

Pouring the mud...Glad that wasn't my job

Last, and certainly not least after all the huffing and puffing of the big bad wolf; half the shingles were gone on the house so we thought we'd get ready for winter and get some new ones. These are fancy architectural shingles that are supposed to last for 50 years. I expect that I won't be around to collect on that warranty as I'd be beyond the century mark by that point. I just didn't want to have to worry about them ever again. If I do, I will be really ticked.

Supervising the roofing crew!

Jo supervising me!

Raspberries are on and it appears to be a good crop this year. BTW, that is the last project for the summer; redoing the landscape around the raspberries and the stairs on that side of the house.

Happy Projects to you too!

All Good Things...

2008-07-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

It is the last day of the ROAD TRIP...all good things must come to an end. We are homeward bound.

Like we aluded to yesterday we had a French breakfast. The Hanlon B&B, where we stayed, is run by Suella Hanlon. Her parents had owned the house since the mid 1900's and she just recently made it into a B&B. It was a lot of fun visiting with her. She had been a nun for about 7 years, and I suspect that experience pretty much colored the rest of her life to this point anyway. She suggested that we visit the Scottsbluff National Park...so being the easily influenced people that we are, we did.

The bluff was named after Hiram Scott. Get this. The fur party he was with got attacked by Indians and Hiram was wounded. So after a bit, when food & water were running low, the rest of the guys pulled a Darwin. Survival of the fittest and so they left him to die. He crawled to the base of the bluff and you guessed it. He died. They found him the next year, or rather his skeleton and decided that the bluff should be called Scotts Bluff forevermore. I guess it was a way to appease their conscience. "Hey, we left this guy to die and he did, so let's name the bluff after him to make us feel better about leaving him behind." That's life. Things haven't changed much in 200 years.

Rather than taking the fast way home (translate smart way); dad decided we needed to follow the Oregon, Mormon trail autoroute. After a while you begin to feel like the Willey & Martin Handcart company. Opps-Big Mistake, can we have a do-over. We thought we were taking the scenic route home. Jo reminded me that there are no scenic routes through Wyoming. (The welcome to Wyoming should have been a BIG clue...notice the scenic backdrop). Even the "new" roads have wagon ruts in them.

Jo drove about a 100 miles through Wyoming. You know it's the funniest thing. When I drive she gets nervous. When she drives I get really nervous. Here we are outside Casper.

One more thing. The animals in Wyoming. Big Duh. First a swallow divebombs the car. Well, you know, when you divebomb something you also have to get out of the way... in a hurry. He didn't. Don't know if you call it road-kill or air-kill.

Also, how hard is it to cross a two lane road with cars coming about every 10 minutes or so. Do the antelope in Wyoming just set up a picnic in the middle of road? Or do they play chicken? (maybe they are playing antelope). Anyway, there were road-kill antelope on the side of the road. I still can't figure out how they manage that one. Maybe there is something in the water. Hmmm, maybe it's just Wyoming.

Got into Utah about 8pm. Almost home. Jo and I decided that Katie could go to college. That Matt doesn't have to stay at home forever and be a mama's boy and it's okay if Brody just comes only for a visit. Mom will survive with just Dad hanging around. That's a relief (for me anyway). I didn't want to have to pack my bags and start another ROAD TRIP next week.

One more thing...Before we started the trip I calculated we would go 1970 miles. We went exactly 1963.1. Don't you dare say I can't plan a trip. After 4 days, several missed turns, historical sites, etc., I only missed by 6.9 miles. Google is good!

Where too next? We think Nauvoo would be interesting. Only next time, we are going to take more time. We want to be less acquinted with the road and more acquainted with where we visit.

A Long & Winding Road

2008-07-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

Notice the Beatles reference. Hip Mom & Dad. The other title for today would have been Oh Give Me a Home, Where the Buffalo Roam.

We started today with Breakfast. (It is a Bed & Breakfast, so that’s a good place to start). Anyway, we had breakfast with Bernie and Diane Bloch from New York City. Brooklyn, actually. Good folks, and interesting conversation. She taught violin in the school orchestra and Bernie was a social worker. Can you imagine the stories he could tell. (They still thought Mormons could have more than 1 wife...Jo set them straight).

1st stop, Mt. Rushmore. Wow, big difference from 40 years ago, well, sort of. Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln were the same but the visitors area was huge. (Notice the resemblance)

2nd stop, Crazy Horse. Wow, big difference from 40 years ago, this time really big difference. 40 years ago there was a hole in the mountain by CCH (Chief Crazy Horse) ‘s armpit. Now, there is a whole face to go with the armpit. Good addition, I think. All of the Rushmore faces could fit on CCH’s head. How’s that for the Native Americans poking a stick in the eye of the Rushmore monument. Also, a moral to the story. Things can really change in 40 years. It's hard to believe, I know... but it does.

3rd stop, Hmmmmm... I guess there wasn’t a third stop until this B&B in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Actually the third stop, that wasn’t really a stop was the Needles highway. It is a hyper ventilated Alpine Loop road with one way tunnels and nearly 360 degree turns... Really this is the only road I have been on in my life that turns on itself so tight that they had to build an overpass over the original road that the turn began on. It was a full 270 degree turn. This road had about 49 squiggly road markers indicating winding roads. Your Mom’s stomach counted each one of them while turning green. She did survive without letting go of her lunch. Oh wait, she didn’t have any lunch, because we didn’t stop to get lunch. So you see, father knows best!

The 3rd stop really was for the buffalo. We saw a herd of 3 (That’s right Three). But we stopped anyway and while they posed, took their picture. The stop lasted for 47 seconds. For this we drove 2 hours out of our way. Well, actually later on, we did see a decent sized herd of buffalo, about 100 head or so.

After the buffalo, it was non-stop to Scottsbluff. Kind of reminds me of where I grew up in Idaho. (You know what I mean).

We had a good dinner and we are the only patrons of the B&B today. Nice and quiet as we have the entire upstairs to ourselves. Tomorrow morning is a French breakfast of all things.

We are doing great, and your mom and I are still on talking terms. She has held up well. (Katie, you can still go to college...so the room better be cleaned because your mom is in a good mood now, and it needs to stay that way).

Adieu

On the road again...

2008-07-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

Arose from the deluxe Ramada accomodations to a McDonalds sausage biscuit. (The Ramadas continental breakfast appeared to have come from some continent but none that I am familiar with). The general ambiance of the place is evidenced in this picture. Notice the horse trailer under the Ramada sign. Enough said.

It was a day of Discovery... #1. Pompeys Tower. Have you ever heard of Pompeys Tower? Well neither had we, so being the brazen explorers that we have become thought we should find out! Well, it is where William Clark (AKA the Lewis & Clark expedition), carved his name into the sandstone of this big pile of rock (see the picture). We hiked to the the very top dodging cottontail bunnys as we went. It is the only remaining sign of the L&C expedition remaining in the west. So there you have it...NEW KNOWLEDGE...go forth and serve!

Next we found Katies Montana home...Picture attached, nothing more needs to be said. Never have we seen so many trailers in one place...Question of the day. Which came first, the tornado or the trailer? Hmmm. Have to think about that one.

The herds of cattle didn't seem quite as happy here. (No picture attached...Much to everyones relief.)

We found where all the oil is. There were lots of oil wells in Southeast Montana. Also, get this, they not only cut the grass by the side of the road in Montana, but they roll it up in big, huge bales. We don't know what they do with it after that, because there were lots of rotting rolled up bales of hay around too.

We found the North Dakota border. A first for Mom. She thinks she will like Nebraska better than North Dakota. Only cruised through the southwest corner of ND. Then on to South Dakota. Ya know, it pretty much looked like North Dakota. Don't know why they just don't have a state named Dakota and call it good. But hey, that's politics for you. Politicians must not have had to take any Geography classes or they would have seen the wisdom in memorizing one less state capital.

We only got lost twice today. Once when we missed the turnoff and had to backtrack 10 miles. That was outside Miles City Montana. How do you miss a turnoff in Montana. They have sooo many. Anyway, backtracked 10 miles and found the right turn (actually it was a left turn then). This was after we stopped at the DQ in Miles City, annnnddddd saw the sister Missionaries. They didn't look happy but who would if they were sent to Miles City.

Then we missed the turn on our way to Deadwood, SD. (That's after we got into South Dakota by the way). Didn't actually miss the turn, we drove by it on purpose, because I didn't think we should turn there. Turns out (notice the pun), that I was wrong. But....I made it right by taking the next turn and having your mom think I was crazy for cruising through the back country. We did get back on the road to Deadwood. Actually, Deadwood used to be a goldmining town, but now folks just gamble there. Still mining the gold, I guess.

Finally we got to the Black Forest Inn. I did good! Fun place, a charming B&B stuck in the 80's. They had wallpaper like we had in the Orem house. Yes... Really! Mom was happy....

TRIP is a 4-Letter Word

2008-07-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

Out the door at 9:15 AM. Way early for Jo. Way late for Dean.

Between coughs we got to

Blackfoot, the land of Jo’s ancestors. It has grown. We ate at Arby’s; it was so, so. We filled up with gas, $42; then headed out again. We also saw the new Rexburg temple.

It is big and pretty much out all by itself; up on a hill.

We passed some pretty yellow & purple flowers just outside of Island Park and had to stop and take a picture. (Mom had to wake up to get it). We kept going north and crossed into the MONTANA frontier at about 3:30PM. (Someone shot the sign). We proceeded to Bozeman then on to Billings.

Items of note: there were lots of cows in pastures by the side of the road. Mom said there was more action going on there, than there will be on this trip. Oh well, at least there are going to be happy cows and smiling bulls. (Thank goodness she missed that picture). We saw a bunch of semi’s hauling huge propeller blades. Jo thought that they were for a B34F23 airplane. Don’t know what it might be, but the bigger the number the bigger the plane I guess.

We arrived in Billings at about 7:00 PM. We made pretty good time today. Pulled into the nearest deluxe motel we could find. A RAMADA LIMITED. It’s not the Marriott but it’s not as bad as the honeymoon motels. She at least hasn’t barricaded the door yet.

We are still speaking to each other, so at least for today Katie can still move out and go to BYU. Tomorrow might be a different story. We’ll see. 10 hours on the road was a bit much for mom. It adds new meaning to “tired bum”. This is a road trip and not a vacation. Remember....TRIP is a FOUR LETTER WORD.

Road Trip

2008-07-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

Well, the day is started...the clock is ticking. The car windows are washed. The oil is checked and the bags are packed...we're almost ready to go. Today is going to be a long haul, we'll see where we end up.

A note of interest, the Tour de France went through Nontes yesterday. Watch the Tour on Verses and see if you can spot the missionaries in the crowd. They tend to stand out.

Isn't there a song about Montana that we need to put on the playlist? Later...

Happy 4th

2008-07-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm. Another exciting day at the Bailey household. Painting fences so they don't rust, working in the yard digging up weeds and having the Comcast man over to fix the cable line. That's about as good as it gets. We might go to Wingers' or Cafe Rio for dinner. Woop, woop. Forget the barbeque it is too much work, except for Teriyaki on Sunday! Be there or be square.

The Fam

2008-06-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

I have realized that I am so lucky to have the family that I do. They are all so great, especially Katie... I just thought that I would give them all a little shout out! First there is our oldest, little spit-fire, Ashley. She brings so much life to this household...she also brings in delicious, fattening mint brownies that R 2 die 4!! Literally, I think they have cut an average of 5 years off the life-span of everyone living in this house! Ashley, we love you!

Next, we have our daughter Michelle, her husband Kimball, and their little boy Brody. They are the cutest little family I have ever seen...well, besides my own of course. :) But truly, they always bring a smile to my face to see them grow into a little, rodeo family! Giddy-up!! Love you guys!

Next is our favorite son, Matt. He is currently serving a mission in France, and we cannot wait to go and pick him up. Not just to see him, but to eat as many pastries as humanly possible. It has been a long couple of years, however, we would not want him any other place. Keep it up! Matt, we love you to death!

Now, not to say that we have saved the best for last...but we have, our youngest daughter Katie. Without her, this blog would not be in use. Gold star for Katie. She has the sense of humor of a rock, but yet somehow we all laugh (just to make her feel like she is funny). No, but seriously, we will miss her dearly when she is off to the big university. Katie, we love you!

Oh, and how could we forget the extra extension to our family, Albs. She has kind of just become one of us. Despite the fact that she is not blood we are more than willing to call her one of our own!! Even though her hair is blonde and not brunette we love her no less...Albs, you are a great addition to our family!

So there you have it, our family. We have the greatest kids in all the land, and I just swell with pride whenever I think of them! We wish them the best on their future endeavors and hope that we can all stay close, even if it is through blogging.

Auvoir Katie, Bonjour Blogging World

2008-06-29T22:36:00.000-07:00

My husband and I have decided to start our own blog now that our favorite daughter Katie will be leaving us to go to college. We thought it would be a great way to keep in touch, even though we won't be seeing each other as often as we would like. Despite our trying to avoid this kinda of thing, we felt it necessary. So goodbye Katie and hello blogging!