All Rileys and Friends

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to my Old Poppa Bear! 55 years old and still eating his share of berry dessert!

Greetings, Family

All the other posts below are older stuff transferred from the old (going defunct) blog. So here is current news from the Florida Rileys:

Rachel just got back from girl's camp yesterday, exhausted. Apparently there was no actual camping, more hanging out and not sleeping. But after about 18 hrs sleep at home she is more lifelike now, and excited to start her summer job tomorrow as a server at Po Folks.
Josh is all packed up and excited to go to scout camp in the morning. He and I had fun yesterday picking 27 pounds of blueberries, then sharing them with friends and eating Alicia's blueberry pie.
Alicia went to UT and ID last week to take Madi back to BYU-I. They enjoyed some time together and had 1 day to drive in Yellowstone and see the mountains and geysers.
Madi just finished up her 4 mo teaching in Russia and is happy to be back at school. She was only home in FL 2 days! Eliza seems to be happy and with a great companion in NL. I am sure she's excited that her adopted country beat Spain in the first round of World Cup games. Isaac is now serving in E SLC.
Here is Josh near the blueberry patch.

Old posts on Lyrad's family (transferred from old blog)

25 May:
Joshua had his 13th birthday Friday 23 May. He had fun with lots of friends over for games and junk food. It seems like the end of an era for Alicia and I as our youngest enters teenhood.

Madi is in her last 2 weeks of teaching English in Russia. Eliza is a greenie missionary in northern Netherlands. Isaac got moved from his mission in Ukraine to SLC East to finish out his mission (until October). Rachel has only four more days of seminary in her sophomore year. Alicia had a little recital for her 4 piano students today. I am enjoying a few days off work for a long weekend. It is beautiful here in FL.

A genealogist friend here who speaks Italian and Latin gave me about 300 names of Italian ancestors and their relatives. It's in a PAF file so it may take me a while to convert it and merge with Family Tree. But I'll keep chipping away on it, and hopefully there will be work for anyone interested to participate in.

11 May 14
All right- no one else is posting news yet (except Nick- thanks); but I'll keep hoping that some of you are checking the site and this is soon going to catch on. Here are little updates from the little news I've gathered; please feel free to clarify/correct as needed:
Mom is planting a garden, went to a SLC quilt show last week.
Bowdy just had a birthday and Raysha is getting awards in he rodeo activities.
Keyan just left for a deployment all summer. He and Becky are just getting started on rebuilding their house. Becky and kids will come visit us in July.
Eliza leaves the MTC for Netherlands tomorrow! We got to see a video clip of her bearing her testimony in Dutch. I thought it was pretty cool. Madi just finished a few days off from teaching Russian kids to visit Sweden and Latvia and ride Russian trains for days. She has 3 more weeks in Russia. Isaac was moved this last week, along with 60+ other Missionaries from the Ukraine Donetsk mission, and just arrived in SLC East to serve his last 5 months (unfortunately doesn't cover Uintah Basin). Both Elder and Sister Riley were able to talk by Skype with us today (Mother's Day), which was great!
Josh and Rachel and I made pirogues, suishi, and cake for Alicia today. I guess you never know what you'll get when we cook.
Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms!

20 April 14
I hope you all are starting to enjoy a little warmer spring weather wherever you are. This weekend you can listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra sing the whole Messiah on the church website. Apparently this is the first time they've performed it in 10 years, and it is great.
Family news- Madi gets to go to the Black Sea coast with her host family this weekend. Last week Isaac was moved from Donetsk mission (with all the other missionaries in his mission) to Kiev. He has already started meeting and teaching new people. From her letters, Eliza sounds happy as she's learning Dutch in Provo (you can write to her there until she leaves on 13 May). Rachel's high school band is traveling to Atlanta for 5 days this week, and will also get to go to museums, aquarium, Atlanta Symphony, and a Braves baseball game. Josh is enjoying school- wearing a toga to school this week as a Greek.
We're looking forward to seeing Becky and cousins this July. Stay safe, Keyan!

30 Mar 14
We took our three kids who are not overseas for a family trip over their spring break. We combined it with Eliza's trip to the gorgeous Washington DC temple and Rachel's chance to see her close friend Vanessa who is just finishing chemotherapy. Unfortunately, too cold for cherry blossoms, but we had a great time checking out museums and important sites. Favorites included American History museum (Rachel), Air and Space Museum (Josh), Natural History (all of us), DC temple and seeing American friends we knew in Germany (Alicia), US Capitol tour (Eliza and Dad). As always, it's good to be home. Eliza was set apart as a missionary today and will fly out to Provo in 2 days for her time at the MTC!

16 Mar 14
Are any of the rest of you doing anything fun for St Patrick's Day? My family is trying to carry on some of the fun stuff Shirley did for us. My kids, though teenagers, still put out their shoes in hopes of getting some gum or other treats left by leprechauns overnight. And Alicia is plotting lots of green food for dinner tomorrow- whether naturally like grapes and lettuce or definitely unnatural like green dyed milk. Happy St Patrick's Day to all of you- may you all live the Life O' Rileys all year long.

and Nick posted:

The lazy leprechauns in Reno were in such a hurry to get out that they left behind their gold.

My kids woke up with the bed head and enjoyed the gold left behind.

This looks like a fun idea.

I hope it works.

9 Mar 14

It's Back: Letter to Larry

Dear Larry- What is the greatest movie ever made?

Glad you asked. That’s easy. Hands down the greatest movie ever made is Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Why, it has every element that makes for great entertainment- history, romance (Sean Connery does get the girl), culture, great special effects (think of Darby dancing with all those leprechauns- amazing!), a fight scene where Sean Connery gets the town bully, music, scenery (of Ireland) legends, royalty (King Brian), intrigue, and best of all, some great folk dancing. My kids may roll their eyes when we break this out around St Patrick’s Day, but that’s just because they’re still learning to appreciate great art. Anyone who disagrees just doesn't have good taste in higher art.

9 Mar 14

All right- the reason I am starting this blog is because I feel out of touch. So please forgive any errors, and certainly don't get offended if I leave people out. At least I am trying to get this started. But here is some family news that might be new to some of you:

I heard Charissa got a scholarship to Weber State in Drama- way to go!
Justin has surgery planned this week on his knee. Bummer- but we hope all goes well.
Shirley is getting to visit Jason's family in Ballard.
Lora is becoming an oil tycoon with Chevron.
Josh is performing as Kurt in a production of The Sound of Music the next 2 weekends.
Eliza is home for a few weeks prior to leaving on her mission to Netherlands 2 April! She is cooking lots of interesting vegan foods for us to try.
I heard Cory has a pretty interesting job at the LDS textile factory which is all automated (feel free to clarify, Cory).
Keyan is heading out on deployment all summer :( But his family is getting ready to rebuild a house in Colorado Springs.
Jason is hauling scorched pine logs from CO to UT. Rumor (which I started) has it he may be starting a pine wood derby factory.
Isaac is weathering civil unrest in Ukraine, much less excited about the risks than Alicia is.
Chris is engaged, and will marry his bride Heather Volker in SC 22 Nov 14.
Reno Rileys will be welcoming another little cutie later this summer.
I heard that Bodie is learning to play guitar. And his hair has grown out with a sort of John Denver look (editorial opinion).

All right. That's about all I can think of for now. Looking forward to all of your posts!

And- Sam just turned 10.
Jared is now working for Wollam Construction at Kennecott- I assume that's the copper mines.

And the first 9 Mar 14 post:

Welcome All Rileys (and friends)! Initial Message

Greetings. I am looking for a way for us to stay in touch better, and am hoping this website will be a quick way for all of us to share special events and accomplishments. I am going to pay for the site and be the administrator (which hopefully will be more secure than facebook), but I hope that all of you will occasionally take a minute to tell the rest of us how you're doing. As spread out and busy as we all are, I think something like this could be a great tool to help us do better at staying close.

This is open to experimentation and all your suggestions, but I propose we keep it private, so just invitees will see it. Every few weeks I will try to post whatever family news I can gather, but if I post outrageously inaccurate things, it may be just baiting you to get on and post a correction :)

Please upload photos or notes or videos or add events to the calendar. I'll work on this a little at a time, so hopefully it will just get better with time!

Love you guys! Lyrad

Darren and Pat (transferred from old blog, original post 25 May 14)

To encourage more sharing of updates, I may periodically call each of the Bros and post some of their news so they don't have to- (though everyone is welcome to post pictures and news, of course).
This afternoon I chatted with Darren and here is what I remember: He is working at the John Deere production facility in Grovetown GA. He's a production engineer, and troubleshoots any design flaws in their products and tries to fix them. Pat writes manuals (I don't know where she learned 12 languages- pretty amazing :) They don't have huge Memorial Day plans, but are looking forward to getting their pair of jet skis tuned up and out on the lake this summer. Calvin is a computer programmer in Ft Mill SC. Chris is planning to get married 22 November to Heather Volker (congrats!) Kaylissa was out in Washington state; now she's back in Ft Mill helping with a horse camp for the summer. Darren is a HP group assistant. He made a road around his property perimeter so he can keep an eye on it, and he and Pat just got back from a warm walk when I called him.
Darren- If I got any of that wrong, feel free to correct it. It was good talking to you. Love to you all- Lyrad

News from Cory's Crew (30 May 14, transferred from old blog)

I received the following by email, with permission to post it here for all to see the great things they're doing. Thanks! (LKR)

Charissa is graduating tonight from American Fork High School. The ceremony is at the Marriott center at BYU.
She’s going to Weber State this fall on a drama scholarship. She’s healed from her scooter accident and I’m soooo grateful for that. She and Reagan (Cyndi’s daughter whom I love to be a positive role model for, she calls me Dad-Cor) are in a Tarzan play, and have been going to rehearsals together.
Cameron has his last day of being a Freshman today, and will be at PG High school this fall. He’s playing football for them, and has been in practices for a couple months now, and during the summer. He will be a defensive back position, blocking and intercepting passes from the receiver he is covering. He really likes to play catch with me and that helps me get a little exercise… He is a Teacher now and got all A’s and one B this year.
It’s wonderful to see the kids grow (so fast it makes my head spin) – I love being there for them and parenting gives plenty of opportunities to find teaching moments and always learning about and expressing unconditional love.
I’m on the scout committee in our ward and have been getting registrations and logistics handled for the scout camps – deacons are going to Scoville Lake, and Teachers/Priests are going to a lake in Idaho. I believe that kids should have a happy childhood, and enjoy being a kid. It’s fun to watch them develop and discover their own talents and interests. I’m doing ham radio for a 50 kilometer mountain marathon in a couple weeks to check runners in and out of the aid station. They are glad for the assistance and we can coordinate any medical needs, as well as let family/friends know their status who are at the finish line, how they are doing.

I’m grateful for all the lessons and fun activities we had as kids – tree forts, gardening, mini-bikes, marching band, grape-scrape (frozen wild grape juice slushies with the Cooksons), FHE with Mom playing the piano, waiting up all night on Christmas eve behind the couch or other hiding places, trying to catch Santa Clause.
Thank You, Mom and Dad for all the sacrifices, untold amounts of labor to raise 7 healthy boys – You Did It! A phenomenal life accomplishment, with generations of ripple effect of love and heritage of self-reliance, education, work, and becoming husbands and Dads.
I am grateful to Heavenly Father for his many blessings to me and our family (all of us). For the knowledge I have of His great Love, and the bright future we can create as we harness faith to work miracles in our lives and serve others.
Just want you all to know how much I love you all and pray for you all. Please keep us posted on happenings in your areas, and I’ll try to post to the site Lyrad set up (thanks!) (if someone knows how and wants to copy & paste this message, go for it.) it’s been crazy busy lately, but I wanted to share the good news here and hope you all are doing well.
Loves,
Cory, Charissa, Cameron