JANUARY 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!
We are really looking forward to a great year with our family and friends.
I made a list of all my new year's resolutions and hopefully I'll be able to accomplish most of them.
This year has started as usual with me working at JetBlue, and Bob traveling.
He was home for the first few weeks, and picked our grandson, Ian up a couple of times. I was working so much overtime that I didn't get to spend any time with him, except for a couple of games of Kismet (which he won, of course)!
Ian is working on an art project for school when he comes over. He is drawing it free-handed and it looks great. He is really a good artist!
Both Ian and Ariel are so talented artistically-you should see some of their artwork! I'm so impressed with their talents.
On January 22, Bob and I decided to go to Reno for Ariel's birthday. She is our oldest granddaughter and just turned 12 years old. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ARIEL!!
Bob and I took separate flights, but landed in Reno, NV within minutes of each other. Our sweet daughter, Monica took her lunch break to pick us up at the airport.
She dropped us off at her house, then had to go back to work. We thought we wouldn't see the girls until Monica came home, but Ariel got a ride from her friend's house early, so we got to spend some precious time with her.
After Monica and Tatum got home, we all went out to celebrate Ariel's birthday. We went to "Texas Roadhouse." We had a fun evening, and when we came out of the restaurant, it was snowing.
After dinner, we came home and decided to all watch a movie together. Ariel and I had an "ice cream eating contest." She thought she could beat me, but I told her that I don't think anyone could win against me eating ice cream. I was right! I made myself sick and broke my diet, but hey, "I won!"
We had so much fun with Monica, Ariel and Tatum. Bob spent most of the day playing games on their "WII" with them. Besides shopping, I got to spend some time with Tatum, playing with ALL of her dolls and ALL of her stuffed animals. (She knows all of their names, too.) She is the cutest 6 year old in the world! (I'm not biased at all!)
After spending the day shopping, Monica cooked dinner for us. She is a great cook and needs to live with me and be my personal chef. Later, we decided to watch another movie and yes...Ariel and I had another ice cream eating contest. Guess who won again? She was so sure she could be me this time, but I guess I showed her. My rocky road against her mint chocolate chip! She's so skinny! She didn't have any room to put any ice cream in that tiny little tummy! Silly girl!
We couldn't go to church on Sunday, because Ariel had a soccer game at the same time. She is on an outdoor league and also plays on an indoor league, the "Internationals." They had won all of their games until that day. They tied with the other team. The ref made some bad calls and they should've won. Ariel is a great player and all of her teammates and coaches love her. All of the parents were shouting, "Yes, Ariel...Go, Ariel!!" She was fun to watch! I had seen her practice in the summer, but never had seen her play. She is a great player and very dedicated. Their team is still undefeated, so I'm sure they'll do well in the championships!
After the soccer game, we did lots more fun things with all 3 of them. Bob got a sore arm playing games on the "Wii." (Bob and I didn't really get ourselves anything for Christmas, so we are going to get the "Wii" console and games so that everyone can play when they come to our house.)
Sunday evening, we watched another movie, and Bob and I packed up for our trip home. On Monday morning, after Ariel went to school and we dropped Tatum off at her school, Monica drove us back to the airport to fly back home to Salt Lake.
A couple of hours after we got home, Bob had to leave for Pennsylvania for work. I was again alone...by myself...just me and my JetBlue computer. (wahh!)

Here is Robert's contribution:
January 2010
I traveled the last week of January to Pennsylvania to work with two clients. One of them is in Lancaster. The other is in Hershey. Lancaster is in Lancaster County which is Amish country. I was able to observe a number of Amish in their fields. They do not use anything mechanized but use horses to pull plows and wagons. Mom (Varda) can remember the days when they used horses for everything down on the farm in Leamington, Utah. The Amish go around town in black horse drawn carriages. Lancaster County is where the Lightners ended up settling in 1723 after they came to America from Germany seeking religious freedom. Adam Lightner who married Mary Elizabeth Rollins was born there in 1810. I mentioned my Lightners connection to people at the bank who grew up in Lancaster and that is a very well known regional name.
The other institution I visited is in Hershey which is north of Lancaster about 45 minutes. This is where Milton Hershey set up his chocolate making activities and it continues there today. I saw the Chocolate Factory and the Hershey School for Underprivileged Children. They have an amusement park there like Lagoon and chocolate smell is in the air. Hershey Pennsylvania is where Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single pro game back in 1962 when he played for Philadelphia.
The flight from Salt Lake City to Philadelphia nonstop is about 4 hours long. Then my colleague and I drove for 1.5 hours to Lancaster. I was supposed to get into the airport at 11:15 PM Philly time but we landed and then stayed on the tarmac for 45 minutes since there was a plane at our gate. Then it took an hour for the bags to come. By the time we made it to the hotel in Lancaster it was 2:00 AM. The flight back from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City takes even longer than coming out since the wind is usually a headwind east of the Mississippi. This time it was actually 196 mph. So it took over five hours of flight time to get back to SLC. Traveling does have its difficulties but I was glad to visit our ancestral home area in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.