My nephews Bryan works for the Arizona forestry service, as a fire fighter every summer on the Kaibab and at the base camp there is a pond. Bryan decided that the pond needed some ducks on it. His dad gets chicks & ducks as well as geese at his hardware store every year so he picked up some baby ducks for the pond. After keeping them in a container until they were old enough to survive on the pond Bryan put the 4 ducks he got on the pond. Well the next day when they got back to base camp they couldn’t only find one duck, and that duck would not come out of the middle of the pond for a long time. It is unknown what happened to the others but they figure it must have been a wild animal that ate them. He went back to his fathers store and got what ducks were left as well as a goose. (the goose was not picked on purpose as he wasn't sure it wasn't a duck at the time)
This time they decided that at night they would keep the animals in the container at night to protect them from the wild animals at least until they are old enough to defend themselves. Well again after returning to camp they found that several of the ducks had lost their heads over night. They figured they must have stuck their heads out of the slits in the container and a wild animal bit them off. It would apeer that the ducks are not the smartest animal in the yard, as all the ducks finally either died or just disappeared, leaving only the goose. As a matter of fact the goose became quite friendly with the staff and really thought he was a person. He would follow them around and take food from their hands. They named the goose Otis and he became the mascot for their little troop. Bryan would bring Otis down from the mountain when they had their days off so he could take car of him and make sure he got fed. As you can see in this picture Otis didn’t have a problem with people or kids and wanted to be around them.











He was like a pet dog, at night on the mountain he would return to the container when it got dark knowing that’s where he was safe and they would let him out during the day when they were at camp and he would play in the pond and walk around with the firer fighters. These pictures are from when we had a family reunion in the summer of 2007 and Otis was right there enjoying the picnic with everyone else.

After the summer was over Bryan went back to school up in Provo and couldn't leave the goose at the pond for fear it would be eaten and if you know anything about geese they are social birds and need to socialize, so leaving him by himself would be too mean as he would have no one to play with. Otis move to live with my sister for a short time until legal reasons they were forced to get rid of all their animals. (that's another story all together and I will not go into that one for now.) My mother didn't want Otis to be killed or taken away so she volunteered to take him. My brother built a pen for him in my parents back yard out by the garden. My dad lets him out when he is working in the garden and plays with him. My mother has told me they have races across the yard, which Otis always wins. Well a little while ago my mother sent me a new picture of Otis because they found a surprise in his cage. My dad went out to let him out as he was going to be working in the garden again and when he got to the pen Otis was sitting by the door. He went to open the door and Otis stood up. This is what they found.
So now my dad calls him Otena since we now have discovered that he is really a she, unless some how a boy goose can lay eggs. Obviously she had laid a few before they discovered what she was doing. So now instead of having a goose named Otis my parents now have a goose named Otena.

Well since I last posted here I have started a new job, and moved back to the Sacramento Ca. area. I started my new job at Health Net on Oct. 1st. I worked at Zions bank until Sept. 28th and then had a week to find a place to live and get moved before I started my new job. My brother David helped me moved which was great. He drove the Buget rental truck and I drove my car. He was such a big help once we got to Ca. with getting my stuff moved from the truck to my apartment, which was upstairs. The Hills also came over to help out and I appreciated all the help.

It's was a busy July this year and I have been so bad at updating my blog. I am adding more pictures here to show the fun we had on the 4th of July. We started our day off by having breakfast in the Gazebo provided by the Loins club. Then we got in our seats for the parade. Kanab is a small town so it's just a small town parade, nothing Fancy but fun.

The girl that's looking down the street while everyone else is looking at the floats is Sarah. Her husband works for the forestry service fighting fires during the summer. Every year we get sprayed by the forestry trucks and she knows her husband will spray her. He is not going to let him have the chance so she is looking for them to come down the road.

The guy in the center of the truck on top aiming his hose straight up is Bryan my nephew and Sarah's husband. He is getting ready to spray our group and he hopes his wife.

The kids of course wanted to be sprayed and to tell you the truth it felt good to get wet because it was hot that day.

As you can see Sarah did not get sprayed by the fire hoses.

So the family decided to give her a group hug!!

After the parade we went home to dry off and relax and that night we went to the park for the city fireworks show. The Volenteer fire department puts on the show and sets the the hill on fire every year. Sometimes causing the fires to have to stop until the put the fire out, other times it's not that bad and they can put out the fire while continuing the show.

Richard thought it would be a good idea to have a water fight with his nephew Jake.

He learned that maybe that wasn't such a great idea.

I bought these cool glow stick balls that the kids just loved for them to play with while we were at the park.

And here are some pictures the fire works.

Here are a few more pictures from the reunion.

This is a picture of my parents and their 5 children From Left to right starting with my dad Gordon, next to him in the back is Su, Richard, Grant, Me, then next to my dad sitting is my mother Joan and David in the middle front.

This is my oldest brother Richard and his wife Carla.

This is a picture of my sister Su and her family. Their names are starting in the back row Left Taylor, Cortney, Kaisi and Bryan. Front row Luke, Su, Dave, and Sarah.

Here is my brother Grants family. L to R Lori, Sarah, Michael Adam, Rachel, Rebecka, Mathew, and Grant.

Here is David and his family. L to R back row Michael, David, and Dude (my brother) Front row Jacob, Emily and Teresa.

I am older than David but I'm not married so I thought I would group all the married siblings together.

Bryan is tickling Rachel in this picture.

This is me.

Well, it's been pretty busy around here this month. We had a family reunion the first week of July and enjoyed the 4th together. It was great to see my siblings again and all my nieces and nephews.





This is a picture of who was at the reunion. Not all my nieces and nephews and their families were there but all my siblings came.

Here is a picture of me with my 2 kids. OK so they are not really mine but I do claim them as my own.

I'll add more pictures later. I know the picture with everyone is a bit small to see everyone so I will post family groups later.