Happy Birthday Gordo

Gordo - as you can see there is a great big hole in our lives without you.  Thanks for all the great times.

Thanks for all the help with the bees and the honey harvest.

You are such a great uncle.

and son..... and brother

What a guy!!!!  We sure love you Gordo!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
If they don't sing to you in Ljublijana give us a call and we will raise the rafters.
Sorry about the bad blogging skills, but we will be thinking of you all the live long day!

Croatia

This was a favorite spot - looking back toward the harbor with the pink church and gelato.

And looking out to the Adriatic Sea below

This is another walking only town.  Not even bikes are any help because there are so many stairs.

How about joining us for a delicious sandwich on a rocky outcrop into the amazing blue Adriatic Sea?

And then a swim with dad..... BBbrrrrrr!

The trail back to town

Good bye Adriatic Sea.  We are headed inland to Plitivice Lakes. 

The Annual Post

Ohio and Idaho families - this post is for you.  Everyone else has been or will be corralled for the dreaded picture show..... Where to start??????  Hmmm.... remember this freezingly delightful day?  We are the luckiest Bama and Pampa for sure!

We have to have food included ..... right?

Bowron Lakes has to at least make an appearance on this blog.

I had a delightful time with Bel and Jack at the White House Fruit Farm

and at the Wetlands/Goose Poop Park

One of my proudest moments in Ohio was negotiating the circuitous route to church (in Pennsylvannia)  and managing to stay for the whole three hour block and make it home 5 hours later with 2 happy children.  Thank you iphone!  I had a great time.  Thanks for leaving town Millers.  The only way for grandma to make it to the top of the list is for mom and dad to be gone.

Then home for one busy day to prepare to visit Gordo and Jess in Slovenia.  This was an amazing trip for me.  I would never have made it to these places if not to visit them.  What great traveling companions they are.  We had a blast.

We arrived in a downpour in Ljublijana, and visited the castle on the hill and Jessie's beautiful Botanical Garden.  She volunteers there most days, and do they ever love her there.  The boss spent two hours taking us around the garden.

After Gordo finished school we took off for Croatia.  We drove down the Istrian Peninsula visiting two amazing hilltop villages on the way.  This was completely by accident.  We just needed to stretch our legs, and chance led us to these rural treasures with not one single tourist except us.  There is no  space for cars.  These are walking villages.  If there is any space each home has a grape arbor and a vegetable garden.  Both villages has a square with a defunct well.  Probably the center of the town in earlier days.

We stopped at another village while waiting for the ferry to Losinj Island called Brsic.  It would be the perfect place to retreat from the world and write the great American (or Croatian) novel.  Just as an aside - I would sure love to play Scrabble with these words.  No vowels - no problem.  J K C B are in every word right next to each other.  There were lots of beautiful front doors marked Sobe (room for rent) or Apartmans.  I was dying to look inside each one.  Most have outdoor spaces as well.  Tell me you don't want to move in here for a month....... looking out over the Adriatic Sea.

and going to church here.

I would do it if I could live with these folks.

Adam and Eve

Behind the blue door?????

It was a lovely drive down the Istrian Peninsula to catch the ferry to Losinj (lo- shing)  This is where cousin Harlan from Munich vacations.  Maybe in summer it would be full of naked tourists but in April it was lovely walking through the towns and harbors and along rocky beaches, finding the next gelato shop.

Theda May Jackson Brockbank

I was thinking about Meet Joe Black today.  At the end Susan tells Brad Pitt,  "I wish you could have known my father."  Well my dears, I wish you could have known my mother.  She was a stellar woman.  Today she would have been 89 years old.  She was born on Mother's Day in 1923.

I think this was Mother's Day 1956.  Even then I adored my mom.

She loved being a mom, but she was quite the taskmaster.  I remember sitting with her on the piano bench or sawing on the violin while she cooked.  We were enrolled in more lessons than anyone I knew.  I had piano twice a week, violin twice a week, ballet, primary and saturday chores.  I think we may have rested on the sabbath, but in those days of meetings all day long, I am not sure you would call it rest.  I don't remember ever 'playing' after school.

Aunt Laura K is holding Jan, and I am with mom, in Petaluma.  She was a woman with boundless energy, and high expectations of herself and her children.   I remember being dropped off and ballet lessons in downtown Salt Lake and told to get a ride home.  My timid self was too shy to ask for a ride, so I walked all the way home in my leotard and ballet slippers.  Jan remembers being left at the piano teacher for three hours after her lesson ended.  But now I understand more, that not many people can do the 50 lessons a week shuttle for 5 children.  

I think all this drive to excel affected my siblings differently.  Eileen is just like mom - driven to give her children every opportunity and to be on the bench cheering at every game and recital.  My reaction was to never make anyone do anything they didn't want to do - though there were still plenty of games and recitals..... just a lot more playing after school and skiing on saturdays.

I look at these old photos and realize I am more Brockbank than Jackson, but I see lots of her traits in my children.  Abby your smile is Aaallllll Teddy!

 Pretty fun to see the evidence of your mom as the BYU homecoming queen!

When mom died in 1971 I didn't really understand what I was going to miss.  We were 5 sad children, but my sorrow only grew and deepened when I passed different milestones in life without her.  I have often felt inadequate as a mother because I never got to watch what she did with teenagers.  I know she has been proud and disappointed at different times in me, but I have always felt her support and encouragement.  I always felt like my children knew her in heaven before you came to me.  I hope so.

She was a great woman.  She had a strong testimony of the gospel.  She loved her family.  She gave me, and all of mine a great heritage, and example to follow.  Happy Birthday, and Happy Mother's Day  today my blessed mother.  I love you!