A blast from the past

Jeanette has been organizing some of our letters from the past. She came across a couple specimen from two of our children in 1992.

Brian drew this scene below and even offered, " you can color it if you want".



The version by Julie is already in living color.

Leslie

Jeanette had Leslie draw her something. The packages in the living room worked out just right as a desk.



Leslie is adept a entertaining everybody. Here we are at Craig's new house for Christmas Eve.



Here is an outside look at Craig's house.



Leslie commandeered the shawl that her mother was given for Christmas. She was most entertaining when she would sing and spin while giving us explanation of the wonders of The Little Mermaid.



We also admired how Leslie was able to scowl and manipulate here eyebrows to convey sentiments.



Leslie also was a veritable catalog of emotional highs and lows.



My favorite part was when Leslie finally warmed up to Santa Claus.

6-6-6

This is the sixth photograph of the sixth folder of the sixth folder.



Our family traveled to Saint George Utah to spend some time with Grandma Gatha. We spent Christmas there. It was nice to have everyone there. I think we have all been together since only once.

When we moved to Hewitt, Texas we were assigned a phone number of 254-666-8102. There were many people that made a big fuss about us having one of those horrible 666 phone numbers. It has worked out for us. We can call out as long as it is not long distance, and we can receive calls. I guess our phone has the mark of the devil.

So Innocent

Everybody in our household has been told to keep their bedroom clean. At times we all get a little lax in following the rule. One of us is guilty of having a dirty room for months. Maybe form the messy room and some snapshots you can divine who is the one who looks innocent, but may not be innocent.

The view as you enter the room. A pile on each horizontal surface.



And the first look of innocence.



A quick view to the left reveals some of the floor. Maybe there is a new type of carpet.



Could it be this innocent face that left the room in such disarray?



Now we peer into the corner.



Another innocent face to inspect. Is this the culprit?



And is this little red riding hood covering something?



Have you ever been caught with your hand in the cookie jar?



Another swing to the left reveals yet another horizontal surface that is used for long term storage.



Who? Me?



Then the first shall be last. Is it possible that he too is innocent?



Just one more peek for posterities sake.

Where is Wally?

A few years hence we, the Larry Vance Family, engaged in a learning activity that involved the principles of sawyery using power tools, such as a bandsaw. We each took our turn at producing some artifact of a packing crate in which was delivered a piece of equipment. One formed a paddle, another a fish, another another fish, and so forth. In the end there was one of the artifacts that became known as "WALLY". Wally was then passed from sibling to sibling in a covert fashion with the intent of having the recipient then responsible for passing Wally to another victim. Each of the exchanges was designed to make the detection and conveyance of the artifact more difficult.



Who's next to be the victim of Wally?

Lunch with Barbara

On the way back from Saint George to Salt Lake City we stopped in Murray and had lunch with Barbara (Jeanette's mother) at Chilis. It was nice to see her for a little while.

We finished getting Julie's car legal again. Leslie is fun.

Leslie and her mom

Leslie is fun. She was in the kitchen and would place her face right in the center of the hole on the back of the chair. I tried to capture a picture, but I always just managed to miss getting a good shot. Her face fit just perfectly in the little hole.



Julie was showing Leslie how to do it. Isn't this a nice shot?

Long Family

Here is my new blog. Yeah, yeah another one to look at.

http://clintlongfamily.blogspot.com/

Four Generations of Women

Barbara, Jeanette, Julie, and Leslie, four females that I love.

Grandkids

It was fun to spend some time with the grandchildren.



Jeanette was excited that Leslie came to her and sat on her lap to have her read a story.



Bradly goes nonstop. Even when he is tired he goes and goes while he fusses.



Leslie likes Elmo. Bradly like Elmo too.



Julie, Brina, Leslie, and Bradly went with us to have lunch. It was fun to watch Bradly and Leslie dip their food in the sauces.



We spent the afternoon together. It was great.

Aquarium

We went to the Living Planet Aquarium yesterday and had lots of fun.

There was an exhibit that was just about animals that live in Utah. There were salmon, trout, frogs and others.

We saw a very big fish called a Grouper.

There were rays we could touch. Leslie didn't get to touch them because the water was about as deep as she is tall. They felt like soft jelly. It was pretty cool. There were sharks and an octopus. There were also a couple different kinds of jellyfish.

We went with our neighbor Paula and her son Elliot. We saw coral reefs and clown fish

Leslie even got a little souvenir from the gift shop a clown fish beach ball. She has been playing with it all day today.

A "Long" Time

Hi again from the Long family. It has been quite a while since our last update.

In spite of that, there is not much news to report.

Clint goes to work and comes home and goes to work....

Leslie and I stay at home. I have been doing yard work when the weather is nice. I have great plans for our little yard. Its all just a matter of time, money and endless weekends of work. I have dug out all the concrete fence post stumps from the old chain-link fence. I also cut down a tree to make room for a garden but still have to finish digging out the stump.

Leslie helps out with the yard work by picking up rocks and clods of dirt and putting them in her yard bucket, or by giving them to me.

We are going to the aquarium to day with our neighbor Paula and her son Elliot. Leslie is two weeks older than Elliot. I will post pictures of our adventure soon. I am very excited about it.

Here are some pictures of my sweet girl.

Julie

Julie came to us just as I was finishing my Masters Degree in Civil Engineering at BYU. Jeanette had her degree and was well entrenched in the role of mother and homemaker with 4 children. Julie was our squeaker. She may have been small, but she had a strong set of lungs. It took a few months before she filled up her car seat.



She was loved dearly by all. Her brothers were most enthralled with being able to have a baby sister.



I spent time with Julie when she was fussy. I would take her and hold her while we were both on the floor. I would be on my back and she would lie on my chest and belly, with her hands hanging off the sides of my chest. In a few moments she would be calm and go to sleep. I looked for a picture of her on me, but was not successful. Isn't she cute with her bow glued onto her short haired head?



Julie's closest friend and associate was her mother. Whenever Julie was in distress she would make some noise....



and her mother would come to her rescue.



Jeanette tells of when Julie was 4 years of age and she was in her bedroom crying. Jeanette went to see to Julie. She found that she was leaning on an open drawer and weeping. He mother inquired as to the cause of her distress and Julie informed her mother: "I don't have anything beautiful to wear!"

Below is one of my favorite pictures. This was taken the day that Julie was baptized.



Julie and I went to a dance of the 50s. I don't remember many of the details, but we did get an award for cutest couple at the dance. The sideburns did not last long.



Beautiful Julie in her red velvet dress.



And I like this pair of pony tails.



And this set of pig tails later.



Julie lent me her hat to make sure that I did not get a sunstroke.



I am surprised that I only was able to find this one picture of Julie with her tongue extended. (I did not look too hard)



Julie even got down and dirty when we overhauled the engine in the old Caprice (the Boat).



Maybe this time Julie got her curlers too tight.



Julie played and sang. She is such an accomplished person.




And beautiful to boot.



And she expanded her mind and the minds of others with her skillful reading of the classics.



Mother and daughter.



A hard worker that would make a good wife.



And here comes Clint Long along to ask her to fill that role.



So they did wed.



Hi Leslie. You too are beautiful like your mother.



It seems this one has gone full circle.