Friday, July 17, 2009

BACK FROM THE DEAD

Here we are in Tucson, AZ, enjoying our new granddaughter Aly (Alyssa), almost 3 weeks old, along with enjoying our other 3 grandkids and their parents Rob and Karina Andersen. We have been helping with the kids and cooking since before the baby was born. It's hot as blazes here and we're just surviving that, and tired with all the work, but loving the kids and the parents. We get reminded every time we visit here just why we moved to Idaho.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Hip Hop Hooray, Ho, Hey, Ho……(oops)…HIP HIP HOORAY

Now that the much anticipated time has finally arrived, we are pleased to announce the engagement of our daughter Courtney to her now fiancĂ© Pete Serra. The engagement was official this last Valentine’s Day (Thursday, February 14, 2008) and they are now in the process of trying to schedule a date for the temple coupled with the arduous task of picking a date that will satisfy everyone’s schedule – which, of course, is impossible.

But we are very happy for them and are pleased to have this quality addition to the family, and are already anxiously awaiting the new grandkids that we hope will shortly follow this wonderful occasion. We hope you will enjoy these two pictures of Courtney and Pete along with the engagement ring!





Friday, February 15, 2008

Ken Croff Family Christmas Letter

Greetings from the Croff’s of Idaho. We feel so blessed again this year.
We had our usual year full of travel. We still love Idaho with the seasons changing and the geese flying and even the snow.

Ken has renewed an old love called golf. He has become obsessive, as he does. He loves to go out for a day of golf with some of the guys in the ward. We are still privileged to work Saturday nights at the Temple and are Baptistry coordinators. Ken is enjoying his yardwork, lawnmover and his new Taylor Made “Burner” driver golf club. Both Ken and Deone are looking forward to Medicare!!!!!

As usual, we have had a busy travel year centered around seeing family, the kids and grandkids. In April Deone’s brothers and sisters got a timeshare in Branson. Of course, Missouri is right next to Iowa so we had to go a week early and spend some time with Rob, Karina and grandkids. Then we enjoyed a week of shows, golf and shopping in Branson and visiting the old Flake Ranch near Sarcoxie.

Brinton has gotten a very good job with the State Legislature Audit Department. He now attends a newly formed Singles Branch in the Boise Idaho Central Stake and is the Branch Clerk there. He is into ASU football…..well anything that has to do with ASU since that is his Alma Mater.

Rob and Karina came to visit the end of May and we watched the kids while they went with Rob’s family for a nice Hawaii trip. Then Karina and the kids stayed with us while Rob did clinical rotations around the country. During that time Deone got to thoroughly enjoy her grandkids. It was really fun having them here and having new adventures every day. But grandma and grandpa discovered while trying to keep up with them, that we’re not young any more.

We all went to the airport to welcome Courtney home from the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission on July 21, with a big “Welcome Home” sign. But they had changed her itinerary at the last minute without giving us notification. So while we awaited the flight she was supposed to be on, she arrived earlier, walked in and wandered up to us taking us totally by surprise! You should have seen us scramble to try and welcome her!!!! But it was so good to have her home again. Just like when Brinton came back from his mission. Courtney has found a nice little food-related job not two miles from our house to keep change in her pocket for awhile. And she’s getting more part-time jobs. She has a new used manual transmission economy car with which she has worked very hard to learn to shift and clutch. She hasn’t decided yet exactly where to take her life from here but stays extremely busy with good activities.

The first part of August we squeezed into the van and drove to Arizona for a wedding and a week in the heat. Then Karina and Courtney went to Education Week at BYU Provo. Just the two sisters had a great time there. In September Ken and Deone departed on a cruise with Deone’s sisters Sandra and Marilyn, which was a reunion for Deone’s old co-workers with House of Lloyd. We were scheduled to go to Cozumel and Belize. However, the route changed after the hurricanes and we ended up visiting Bahamas, Jamaica, and some unknown barren sand bar called Grand Turk. It was super warm and super humid. We just made the best of it and it was a nice cruise. We did learn we NEVER want to live in Florida!

After we returned, time came for Karina to go back to Iowa. So with grandma and Aunt Courtney they all drove back. Granny and Corki babysat while Karina went to visit Rob in Detroit. Then she returned and they bid her farewell and drove back home to Idaho. On the way Deone gave Courtney a treat for helping out so much and they visited some tourist attractions in South Dakota including Mount Rushmore and had a great time.

Come October and General Conference, Courtney decided she wanted to attend her first missionary reunion, so Brinton went with her and they drove to Salt Lake. They were pretty busy going to different places and got to attend several Conference sessions either in the Conference Center or the Tabernacle.

We have been blessed in our lives and in having great kids and grandkids. We hope this Christmas letter, though late, finds you all well and in good spirits. We wish all of you happiness in 2008. We love you all and our door is always open and our floors enjoy your sleeping bags. Just do your own cooking. Love, Ken, Deone, Brinton, Courtney, Rob and Karina & family.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Most adorable little thing


Is it even possible to have a grandchild as cute as this one?!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Please excuse

Please excuse and be patient with the administrators of this site – they have a hard time with websites!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Lately

Well we celebrated Courtney’s b-day Tuesday (October 30) at probably one of the more high profile restaurants in Boise called “Cottonwood Grille”. (Does the “e” on the end make it Canadian instead of American English, “eh”?). And as our family knows, the propensity for Brinton to get food poisoning at restaurants increases as the high-profilness of the eatery increases – or should I say cost-per-plate (examples: Italian joint in Washington D.C. and Cheesecake Factory at Chandler Mall). Luckily this time instead of getting sick he was able to have some horseradish sauce that helped clear his sinuses. However, we do offer a word of caution: if there is a special occasion and Courtney’s hunger, avoid her at all costs because she’ll burn a hole through your wallet with her expensive eating tastes!

Now that the holidays are slowing starting to kick into gear, and we in Boise could have sworn it used to snow up here, Deone is willingly armed with her check book and ready to do some financial slinging to the sound of what “she thinks” her kids need. Fortunately for all of us she is gracious enough to get that punching bag her son desperately needs for staying in shape! Some of the shopping might be delayed slightly with a small detour to Park City and yet another visit with the grandkids in SLC this November………I’m sorry…I meant another visit with the Andersens – sometimes we just forget where those little whipper-snappers came from. Three members of the family will relax in Park City while also spoiling the grandkids once again. Needless to say we are starting to worry about how our exclusive behavior towards Caden over the years is starting to affect his current attitude – this outside of the fact that he’s already turning into a player.

But, for Ken, it really doesn’t matter, because not only is one of his grandkids following his footsteps in both name and talent (art), but also the only thing he sees anymore is green – as in “putting green”! Since retiring to Boise he has added new value to his obsession with golf. While always on the search for customized golf clubs at Deseret Industries, he was heard the other day referring to I-84 as the “fairway” and not the “freeway”!!! Whatever you do, don’t let him drive while trying to get to a scheduled appointment because every single turn and exit seems to be titled: Tiger, miss it, miss it, miss it, miss it, miss it, miss it, miss it, miss it, miss it. And if you spot him saying this and notice he’s bobbing up and down while standing at attention, no it’s not a unique seizure, just let it pass!

Thus far it appears that the holidays will be pretty laid back for the Croff’s. Aside anxiously awaiting ASU’s next BCS bowl bid, and the State of Idaho delusionally thinking they will get another respectable bowl game consideration, not much will be happening. Probably won’t be cooking a turkey so as to avoid a lawsuit from the ACLU and Thanksgiving Turkey rights activist. And come Christmas we most likely won’t be opening presents until close to noon – that’s one MAJOR benefit of not having kids around.

Courtney seems to be getting her feet back on the ground; but now her head is in the clouds. We won’t go there at the moment. There has been some thought that she might move to SLC for a short time to work there, but we’re all still unsure of things. Brinton might be going to Pocatello for an audit there. It won’t be any longer than 2-weeks, but should be a nice escape; and experience.

Hopefully in the near future certain individuals in the family will get their own blogspots started up. But I guess until then, this will have to do!