Halloween 2015

Oh, Halloween, how I love thee. It's so festive and fun and there is so much delicious candy everywhere. This year Lydia got a witch costume from her cousin Aubrey, months and months before Halloween and decided right then and there that a witch is what she wanted to be. I really wanted to do a themed family costume (I thought I'd have at least one more year of being able to influence what Lydia wanted to be), but every time I asked her if she wanted to be this or that she'd just give me the look and say "Mooom, I already have a costume." So a witch it was. I still reaaaaaaaly wanted Austin and Lydia to match. I know it's silly and doesn't really matter but I just wanted it, okay? But what goes with a witch? A cat? But I couldn't find anything cat-ish that I liked. I finally came across this Bat costume and I fell in love! It had the same purple and orange from Lydia's costume and the costumes coordinated great. I ordered it immediately, even though it was more than we usually spend on costumes. (I mean, it was only $20, but we are more like "make up your own costumes for under $10 kind of people.) I justified by saying that I wouldn't dress up and that we didn't have to buy Lydia's costume anyway. I'm SO glad we did because they looked darling together. And, even though it didn't arrive until after we'd already left for David's work trick-or-treating, it was still worth it just for Saturday. 

Friday we went to David's office for their annual trick-or-treating. Austin really started figuring out the "pick a candy and put it into your bucker" but didn't quite grasp the "only take one then move on to the next cubicle". He kept pointing like "Hey, I know there's more candy in there, why are we leaving? I can just get more there." (Also, we borrowed a bat costume from a friend who saved the day. It was still cute and Austin was more focused on the candy than anything else.) 

Friday night David and I hosted a "How to Host a Murder Mystery" Dinner. We love them and our group was awesome. It was a Vampire themed game, which was fitting, although it got a little out there sometimes. It was fun to do some adult Halloween partying, too. 

(Peadens, Perkins, Gotfredsons, Middletons.)

(Two things: The Middleton's came early and just put Henry and Andi down to sleep. We let the kids eat and then decorate sugar cookies before bed. And 2: I loooooove these glasses and pull them out every fall/Halloween. We inherited them from David's Grandma McAllister and I loooooove them. Oh yeah. I already said that.) 

Then Saturday we started the day by visiting Grandma and Grandpa Peaden in West Jordan. Wendy and Sam were at a competition for Josh's Marching Band and their kids were staying with Cal and Sue. Melissa and Zachary came over to visit and so it was quite the party. We are lucky to have this family of ours. 

This was the first time Austin tried on his costume (remember, it didn't come in time for the EB party) and he wasn't sure. But as soon as we pulled out the candy he remembered exactly what he was supposed to do. 

That night my mom came down to spend the evening with us and so did Jenna and Kevin. There was also a special appearance by Matthew and his girlfriend Brooklyn. We got the kids ready and took them trick or treating around our neighborhood. I love our neighborhood, from about 5-7 there were kids everywhere. One of our neighbors even rigged his ranger/4wheeler thing up to a trailer stacked with haybales and gave kids a ride around the neighborhood. It's just a really young- really fun- place to live. Lydia liked it, but Austin loved it. He wasn't as fast as the other kids, but he'd always walk right up to the door, climb up on the little step, then knock on the door. He's actually really good at knocking, now. Camille was a Burrito, which was so cute and fun.  

 

After we finished with our little loop (which took up almost an hour probably) we ran over to the Perkins before they left to go trick or treating with their nieces and nephews. Derek is Lydia's nursery leader and Amy teaches nursery music. Lydia loves them both, but she has a special place in her heart for Derek. She calls him Brother Perkins and she pretty much adores him. 

We put the kids to bed then played games and ate delicious food. 

A wonderful Halloween if I do say so myself! 

Stories from the Ranch: Ramon and Verla Walker (1955 Drafted into the US Army)

Last week I was able to go and spend the day with my Grandma Walker while my Grandpa was out working on the ranch. (Pounding fence posts and getting ready to wean the calves.) It was a nice day, Lydia and Austin get more and more comfortable each time we go and it makes my heart so happy to see them fighting over who gets to sit in Grandpa-Great's lap and having Lydia want exactly what Grandma-Great is having for breakfast, one scrambled egg with chili sauce (ketchup for L) and a piece of toast. While we were there, we were talking about how David was spending a week working in Kemmerer, WY doing an audit job out there, and my grandpa said "I stayed in the hotel in Kemmerer once" and proceeded to tell me about his life in 1955. About halfway through, I knew that I needed to write down what he was saying because it was so incredible to hear him talk about his life. It should be recorded. So this is my attempt at recording the stories that my grandparents tell me so that I can remember them and so that my children, and their children, will be able to know about the amazing people that came before them. 

(🎵Family History--- I am doing it!🎵)

1955 - Ellis Ramon Walker / Drafted into the US Army

In February 1955, Ramon was working with a seismography(*read more details about this below) company in Pinedale, WY. It was February 12, 1955 and there had been a raging snowstorm for the past week and they'd been snowed in for 3 days with no one coming or leaving. Finally the weather let up just enough and the mail truck and a bit-salesman got through. Everyone gathered around the crew chief as he started handing out mail, when Ramon heard "Walker!". He thought to himself "Hot-dog! I got me a letter from a girlfriend!" However, when he opened it, he saw that it was a draft notice for the US Army. It said to report to Fort Douglass Utah by February 14, 1955. Knowing that only gave him two days to get all the way from Pinedale to Fort Douglas, he caught a ride to Kemmerer with the bit salesman. He stayed in the hotel there in Kemmerer that night and his dad, Ellis Colvin Walker, came and picked him up the next morning. Together they drove back to Lyman, WY where Ramon stayed with his parents at their home that night. The next morning, the morning of the 14th, he caught a bus for Fort Douglas, Utah.

Ramon spent 3 days at Fort Douglas, then moved to Fort Carson, Colorado for the first 8 weeks of his training. The men who trained them were tough and mean. He remembers one of them saying "We are here to beat you down until you don't have a problem going out there to fight and kill," and he remembers feeling like he wouldn't have had a problem shooting at them if he had been given a chance because they were so awful. But he took it in stride and decided that the only thing he could do was work hard so that he could get through, and not only endure, but to do well at what was expected of him. 

The second 8 weeks of his training were spent at Fort Bliss, Texas. He was then transferred to Fort Meade, Maryland where he spent 18 months with the anti-aircraft unit there. Part of their job was to use radar to scan the sky all along the coast and as far as they could see. There were big sand dunes up and down the coast and hidden beneath them were giant anti-aircraft guns/missiles. If needed, the tops of the dunes would slide back and the guns would roll out ready to defend the country. He tells a story about when they were first coming out with radar cloaking technology, he and his crew were told to be on duty because there was a special jet flying from Texas and they needed to be on the lookout for it. They watched their radar screen that was larger than a dinner table all morning, then that afternoon the chief had them come outside and watch as a jet equipped with cloaking technology flew right over them. They were all shocked because they hadn't seen it on the radar at all. That was the beginning of the army's radar cloaking.

Ramon was then transferred to Fort Miles, Delaware. Some of his favorite memories are from Fort Miles where they were only 30 yards from the ocean and were able to spend a lot of time on the beach.

After his time at Fort Meade and Fort Miles, he was transferred into the the 2nd Calvary Regiment back at Fort Carson. This was an Armored Calvary with tanks and big guns. (There was still a mounted calvary (horses) at that time, but they didn't do much interacting with them.)  He arrived on a Wednesday and after checking in, he was unloading all of his belongings from his 1950 Plymouth into the building that he would be bunking. One of the officers came up to talk to him and informed them that there would be an IG Inspection in just a few days. Ramon said that he was told that when he checked in, but that he knew he wouldn't be able to pass the inspection. Fort Meade had inspections, but they weren't as strict as an IG inspection - and at Fort Miles they had barely any inspections at all. And because he had just been transferred, he didn't have all of his emblems sewn on and certainly wasn't ready for an inspection. The man told him to pack his stuff back in his car and clean up his bunk like he had never been there and to head out and not report back until Sunday. So he did. (Grandpa really got a kick out of this story).

In 1956, there was a big conflict brewing between Egypt and Israel at the Suez Canal.  The army was gearing up to move out and Ramon's units spent many weeks loading everything that they would need onto trains to prepare. The trains took the equipment to the Port of Baltimore to be loaded onto big ships. They were in an active state for 3 weeks, but then things were resolved and they weren't needed anymore. So then they unloaded everything back off the trains. Shortly thereafter, he was released, about three months early. (They had started releasing a lot of men about this time because they didn't need them anymore.)

Ramon arrived home about November and soon began working as a mechanic at the Little America. This is where he met his soon-to-be wife, Verla Tingy.

When I asked how he felt about being drafted into the Army, Grandpa said that he's often wondered how his life would have been different if he hadn't been drafted. He really enjoyed working with the seismologist that he had been working with previously. He had impressed his boss and had been asked if he would be willing to come work in Canada with the team. Going into the Army had taken that opportunity away from him.  He also talked about how he and some friends had gone into the Army Office in 1954 to ask about their status and whether they should enlist in order to guarantee themselves status with the GI Bill and to receive those benefits. They were told that there were so many people already serving and that with the end of the Korean War there was almost no chance that they would be drafted. So he and his friends decided not to enlist but were drafted that next year anyway, 14 days after the GI Bill expired. (The Korean War GI Bill expired on January 31, 1955.) There were a lot of people who were upset about that.

However, it was very clear that he was grateful that he had been placed on the path that he had been. He spoke of how right after he was released that he met Grandma and that soon after that a small plot of land (that we now know as The Ranch) came up for sale and he was able to scrounge up just enough money to be able to buy it. Those things set him up for all the wonderful things that he's had in his life. He spoke about how some people were upset about being drafted (especially after being told they didn't need to enlist), but that he had worked hard and done well with what had been given him. There were many of his superior officers that tried to convince him to stay in the Army because of how well he did, but although he admires the men who do that, he didn't want that for his life. It was clear to me that his life as a Rancher in Wyoming was what he wanted and that he was glad for all the things that set him on his life path.


Notes:
*Sisemography is a process of bouncing vibration/waves through the earth and then reading the results to discover what is under the earths surface. The company Grandpa worked for in 1955 was mainly trying to locate oil and coal deposits. They would travel all around the country and plot the area on a map. They would then drill wells and place sensors all around, about a mile apart straight out in lines through the whole area. They would place 95 lbs of dynamite into each well and then set the dynamite off, which would send shockwaves through the earth up to the sensors. People could then read the results and tell whether there were deposits of goal, oil, gas, etc... under the surface. Grandpa said that he was just starting to be able to read the results and found the whole process incredibly interesting. When they were charting Wyoming, his boss said that he believed that there was one of the biggest deposits that he'd ever seen below the surface. Time has shown that to be true.

**

A park-day.

A recent day at the park.

I love these people - so much.