Family

This title has so many meanings. It is one of my favorite times of the year. A chill in the air, the Gambel Oak and Quaking Aspens setting the mountains ablaze with their reds and yellows. The anticipation of the holidays, and what joys and new traditions they may bring. But today it justly describes the events in South Bend, Indiana. The Utes fall has been swift, just like the leaves from my giant Maple trees! I found a couple Utes fans buried beneath the leaf pile in my front yard. They were in great spirits! Perhaps it is a great Fall season after all…

I have created a memorial page for all of the many friends and family who loved Talese to share their thoughts, & memories of her.

Talese Janke Turner Memorial Page

Talese, we love & miss you!!!

A couple years ago Erik had some major dental work done up at Primary Children’s Hospital. The Janke gene pool dictates that teeth be made of nougat. As you all know, the FDA still has not been able to identify nougat! Anyway, I found this picture of his teeth before his surgery.

….poor guy!

We stopped at Grandpa Craig’s on our way to Carlsbad. While we were there we visited our good old friend Rex, Tyrannosaurus Rex! Here’s a picture and a video from our play time at Grandpa’s park…

I thought of Grandpa Lee today as I passed by a cemetery full of flowers. That led me to think of his military service, and of those in our family who have served in the armed forces here and abroad. As far as I am aware, we have not had any family members not come home from military service. Although I know there have been close calls and scary moments. I wanted to take a moment and thank all of those who have served us and paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we enjoy everyday. You will not be forgotten. We will always remember and cherish the gift you have given us. I hope you will join me this Memorial Day in praying for the safe return of our Sons and Daughters and for the families who, over the generations, have born the responsibility and felt the loss when their loved ones did not make it home. God bless our fallen hero’s, God bless you, and God bless this great country of ours.

Grandpa Craig and Grandma Robyn invited us to have brunch with them last Sunday. We had a great time. It got really exciting for the boys when Santa flew in on his shiny white helicopter! You should have seen the beard on this guy, he must have been the real Santa! The un-marked aircraft was curious though…maybe he worked for the government! I took these pictures with my phone. They are a bit fuzzy, but still fun to see.

Grammy (May) and Grand-dad (Tom) took the boys to a model train show at the Utah state fair grounds for Henry’s birthday. Henry was so excited I thought he was going to split in two! There were so many trains, I could see the conflict in Henry’s mind of which ones to look at first. Over stimulation! It was so much fun, we had a great time! All the trains at the show were very detailed models, and very expensive. But Henry really needed to add to his train collection. So, on the way home we stopped at Toys’R’Us and Henry purchased a new train with the birthday bucks Grammy gave him. He held the box in his lap the whole way home, and good not wait to set it up.

I love fall! I love the cooling temperatures and the anticipation of the first big snow. I love the sights and smells of fall. Most of all I love the rake, jump, repeat tradition!

Henry is turning five! He is such a great kid, and as we have all experienced, has great comedic timing! We cherish our moments with our H-dog. Here are some memorable Henry photos. Moments after the ‘what are looking at’ photo in the tub, Henry burst into song singing The Wild Rover! What a ham…

The Janke’s had a great Halloween! The boys made good use of their costumes attending school parties, friends parties, family parties, trunk-or-treat at the church, and terrifying the neighborhood on Halloween. I had a big scare on Halloween, I thought the Utes were going to lose to Wyoming! Ugh! But, in typical Utes fashion, they re-grouped in the second half and pulled out a win. We visited the pumpkin patch Saturday morning, and spent the afternoon carving pumpkins and working out our strategy for the most optimal trick-or-treating route. Even Bugsy the guinea pig helped out. Henry was a perfect pirate this year, the scurvy dog! Erik was the stealthy Snake Eyes, continuing his tradition of wanting to be a deadly efficient human weapon (Jedi Knights, Ninjas, etc). We hope your Halloween was as terrifyingly fantastic as ours.