A BUSY, BUSY MONTH OF JUNE

As soon as June began, we knew it would be a whirlwind of a month....and it was. Along with our regular monthly responsibilities ie: temple, yard and house work, visiting and home teaching, and church callings, we threw in planting annuals and a garden, buying a new car, speaking at a fireside, a graduation, a lunch and  two dinner dates, Father's day and a birthday for Paul. Let me explain.

Two of  12 pots around our yard

Right after memorial day, we always plant our garden as well as our annuals and this year was no exception.  It took us a half a day to get the garden in and, the very next day, we drove to Orem to buy annuals.  We bought them from our friend, Gail Roper, last year at his nursery and were very pleased with them so that is where we went this year, too. He had most of what we needed but his wave petunias were very leggy. He just gave them to us and discounted many other plants because it was at the end of his selling season. (Orem is about 3 weeks ahead of Heber in weather suitable for planting annuals.) On our way home from buying annuals, we stopped at a fruit stand where they had some beautiful pots already planted with annuals. We bought three for along our driveway. Of course, that afternoon and into the evening, we planted what we could, finishing up the following day. We love our yard when the annuals begin to bloom and add some much needed color. Paul spent the rest of the week weeding flower beds and mowing the lawn making the yard look beautiful, as always.

On June 3rd, we attended Taylor's graduation, the first of our grandchildren to be out of high school.  (This just begins a graduation every year for the next 8 years or so.) Taylor graduated with a class of 800 so the ceremony took a couple of hours. We got to talk with him for only a minute afterwards as his mom wanted him with her family who were all present. Because we were unable to find out any of his plans for the future, we invited him to meet us for lunch the following Thursday.  We were thrilled when he accepted our invitation.  We met him at a hot wing place in Draper. The food was OK but our visit with Taylor was great.  He is planning to go to Utah State or on a mission.  Right now he is working, almost full time, at Good Earth, a whole foods grocery store. We pray he keeps his head on straight.  We would love to see him serve a mission so he could set the example for his younger brothers.  We'll just have to wait and see.  

A wonderful grandson

Friday of that first week, we had the privilege of having dinner with Sasha Uskova, from Moscow. She left Russia to come live in the U.S. because of a special young man, Dave. She met Dave while she was in the U.S. going to college in Michigan. They started communicating a while ago and felt like they wanted to make their relationship more permanent. They had spent the two weeks prior to our visit in Oregon. His brother lives there and that is where they will settle after they get married, probably in August. Dave even got a job while he was there. They make a cute couple.  We are so excited for Sasha. She is one of those extraordinary people we were fortunate to meet. We ate at PF Chang's and then drove them to downtown Provo, where they would meet friends, for a street concert.

Such a happy couple

We have not been released from our single adult calling in the stake, yet, so we attended a service project for the single adults in Park City on that first Saturday. We set up tables and chairs and moved potted plants for a fund raising event sponsored by the National Ability Center. It is a place for handicap people to live and work, as well as to receive valuable life skills training. When enough single adults arrived, we quietly slipped out as there was not enough to do to keep us all busy. Beside, it was Paul's day to mow the lawn.


The next week, we attended a dinner at the Riverside Country Club in Provo, sponsored by Merril Lynch.  It was a buffet dinner followed by Ty Detmer as the guest speaker. It was more of a question and answer time as he is the new offensive coordinator for the BYU Cougar's football team this year.  It was interesting to understand more about the plans of this new coaching staff. Hopefully it will be a good year. They have a very tough schedule right off the bat but we're hoping for a few wins.




The fireside at which we spoke was the Cobblestone Empty Nester's group.  We used to attend that group when we were all together as one ward but have since left to attend a dinner group in our own ward.  The Remington's hosted this one and asked if we would come talk about our mission.  After dinner, we all moved into their movie area where we introduced our mission responsibilities and then played a DVD showing pictures of as much of our mission experiences as we could.  Everyone seemed to enjoy our presentation and it was fun for us to remember all those wonderful things that made our mission a highlight of our life. 

We, also, attended Paul's 55th class reunion. He graduated from Pleasant Grove high school in 1961. Since we now live in Utah, we attended this one. Paul enjoyed seeing his old classmates on this evening of dinner and visiting.  It was a little alarming when we found out that many more of his former classmates had passed on.  At the 50th, only 15 had died but in the past 5 year another 15 have passed away. It only pointed out to us that we are getting very old. A little sobering.

The whole group of Pleasant Grove alumni present for the evening

That then brings us to Father's day and Paul's birthday. Father's Day was filled with family, dinner with our Utah children and telephone calls from our Oregon children. Todd and Kailee and Aria as well as Jon and MIndi and 4 of Jon's boys came up for dinner.  We had ham which is always a big hit. 

For Paul's birthday, we went golfing in the morning, cleaned up our Honda in the afternoon, and went to dinner in the evening.  We also ordered a new car, hence cleaning up the old Honda to sell to Jon and MIndi.

Opening his birthday card at
Claim Jumpers where we went
to dinner for his birthday

A sweet gift to Paul from Kailee's sister.
Todd and Kailee bought him Twinkies
and two gift certificates to Subway - two of
Paul's favorite things

About the new car...we spent several days going to many car dealerships trying to decide on which car to buy.  I wanted an all wheel car, possibly an SUV, but Paul had his heart set on a Honda Accord, like the one we've driven for 10 years. In the end, Paul won out. There was something about every other car we drove that we didn't like ie: the interior of the Jeep Cherokee, lack of a back up camera on the BMW, only a 4 cylinder engine in the Honda CRV, and the placement of the cup holders in the Audi. We feel good about the Honda accord. Even though it isn't all wheel drive, it is a 6 cylinder so it has lots of get up and go. It's easier going with the familiar at our age. We did change colors to a deep red with white interior. At the last minute. we changed our minds to an upgraded model that we could drive right off the lot.The other model we were wanting had to be shipped in from Wyoming and would cost us $750 to ship it and take up to a week to get here. We love our new car with all it's fancy updated gadgets....at least we will when we learn how to use them all.

Our new car

An interesting, thing happened one Sunday evening.  Paul had spent the whole week getting the yard in pristine condition. It looked wonderful until late Sunday afternoon when a mammoth hail storm hit our area. It shredded leaves off the trees which, of course, landed in the bark and all over the lawn and driveway. Many of our annuals, especially in the berm area, were battered and had to be replaced.  We were just sick. We spent the better part of the next morning cleaning up the mess created by this fluke storm. This brought back memories of a hail storm devastating our yard the day before a wedding reception held in our back yard. Oh, the blessings from Mother Nature.

On a sad note - Paul was reading the obituaries, as he always does, and noticed a eulogy for Glen Mott.  He was Paul's mentor in Spokane when Glen was the high councilman in charge of stake activities and Paul was the activity chairman. He learned a lot from Glen who was an exacting task master. Glen's son was in the stake presidency when we left Spokane. We knew his wife and family quite well. The funeral was held at 11 a.m. on the same day we were taking Taylor out to lunch so that made it easy to attend.  We were glad we did as we got to visit with Greg and Marlene, Glen's son and daughter-in-law. They were thrilled we had made the effort to be there to honor their dad.


A fun picture we noticed in the church news this month.  It's of our young single's group in Moscow, Russia when Elder Ballard recently went to visit that area and put on a fireside for the YSA's.  What a treat that must have been.  We loved seeing so many familiar faces in the picture.


The end of the of the month was spent with Deon and Gary who flew in the last Monday of June to travel with us to Glacier National Park area. We stayed through the first of July so I'll include the events of that trip in July's blog.  

I must end with cuteness......Aria, of course

Aria in her 'demon' shorts -
an auto correct
from when I typed in 'denim' on a
Facebook post.

Aria with her curly hair from the
Florida humidity...so dang cute!!!

A VACATION TO OREGON KICKS OFF OUR MONTH OF MAY

The beautiful setting of
the new World Mark

Right after the first of the of the month, we loaded in the car to begin a trip to Oregon to see our two families there - the Westovers and the Millars (Ryan).  We traveled the north route to Oregon stopping in Bend, Oregon for Monday night.  We wanted to check out the World Mark resorts in Bend for future reunions which we did  Lots to do - biking, walking, rafting, golfing swimming - so we will probably book a reunion there in the next few years.  The resort we stayed in is a recently acquired and remodeled one.  It is in a beautiful setting and is really nice but they have mostly 1 and 2 bedroom units which will not do for our big family.  We would probably book the other resort close to Bend as it has chalets to stay in.  

On that night in Bend, we just relaxed and watched a movie after going to dinner at Baldy's Barbecue. We got a kick out of this sign in the window of the restaurant. Wondering if that is an Oregon thing.  We wouldn't be surprised. They needed those kinds of sign in Russia as everyone spits on the sidewalks there. One had to really watch where you stepped so as not to walk in someone saliva.  



The next morning, we went to another World Mark presentation. Every time we check into a resort, we swear we are not going to sit through another update information seminar, which is really a sales presentation. Every time we back down on our resolve with their offer of breakfast and a $100 visa gift card. This time we almost bought more credits but decided, at the last minute, against it. Maybe someday but for right now our 65,000 credits should be just fine. 


After the meeting, we drove to Eugene in order to be there in time to pick up Lydia from school. That evening, we took Jillian out to dinner for her birthday. Maggie came along with us. We went to
Texas Roadhouse and enjoyed our food as well as our conversation with our granddaughters.

Jillian's pulled pork sandwich was
so bug she had to take a lot of the meat
out of the sandwich

Wednesday, we left Eugene and traveled to Medford to see Ryan and Katie and their children. We were glad we could be with them and had a wonderful two day visit. When we arrived we toured their home which is in the process of being remodeled. It's a mess right now but will be so nice when it is all finished. They are vaulting the ceiling in the living room, opening up the entry way, changing the office area and the kitchen, as well as laying new flooring throughout. Katie and the children are staying at their other grandparents home while Ryan goes home each night to stay in their home. That is where we stayed too, dust and all.  We took them to dinner at a pizza place before saying good night

Nathan loves his dog

The next day, we were thrilled when we found out Ryan was staying home from work and that they were keeping their younger children home from school so they could spend time with us. After breakfast, we went for a walk on a favorite trail of the children's in Jacksonville. The trail ended by a little stream where, of course, the children had to take off their shoes and go wading. We, then, walked around Jacksonville, bought some yummy fudge and went to a cute Mexican restaurant for lunch. When it was time, we picked up Aubrey from Junior High and played at a local, newly renovated, park. The children had a great time. After going back to Ryan's to freshen up, we grabbed some snacks at the Thompson's home before going to a high school production of Suesical, the Musical. It was cute and the children were enthralled through out, even little Nathan. 

Bare feet in the cold creek

Too beautiful of a location not
to take a family photo

Elaine was enthralled with this snail
she found.  

A most fun swing found at the park

At the musical

The next morning it was time to say good bye. We thought we would take in a temple session in Medford but the temple didn't open until 3 in the afternoon.  Instead, we stopped for breakfast in Grant's Pass and headed back to Eugene.

Charlotte in full acting mode

We were earlier getting to Eugene than expected so we went to a movie, Mother's Day, while we waited for Andrea and the girls to get home from work and school, respectively.  We were excited for that evening as Charlotte had the female lead role in her high school musical, The Pirates of Penzance. She has been practicing now for months and it all showed, when we saw the production.  It was amazingly professional for a high school production and the students voices were surprisingly strong (no individual mikes were used and we could hear and understand every word sung). Charlotte was amazing. She is so animated on stage and her voice is incredible.  She really had to stretch to hit the numerous high notes, as they are not in her normal range, but she hit everyone of them perfectly. We were totally impressed with her and the whole drama/music department of the high school.  

Above: Charlotte and the whole gang - her sisters and her cousins

Left: Charlotte after the show

Right: Charlotte with her special friend and the music/drama director

The finished product

Paul working hard to clean out
the rock border area

Saturday was a day to help Andrea in her yard. The backyard play area needed weeding and new bark laid, so that's what we did for the first part of the day. We then turned to the rest of her backyard, weeding the rock areas and the lawn. We bought them 4 pots of annuals to go in the rock areas. It all looked really nice when we finished. That evening Casey, Andrea, Paul and I went to the Valley River Inn for dinner.  Casey does a lot of trade there so dinner was at no cost to us, hence the reason for purchasing the potted flowers for their yard.  Dinner was delicious and we enjoyed being together with Andre and Casey.  

Casey coking the crepe and Allison scrambling the eggs

Sunday was Mother's Day so Casey, and Allison, made a brunch for all of us and his mom, Marilyn.  He fixed crepes, with cream filling and fruit topping, scrambled eggs, and sausage.  It was all so yummy.  After church, we went to Casey's sister's home for dinner. It was a jammed pack day so, by the end of it all, we were tired and ready for bed early. In the morning, we packed the car and headed out with the intent of going to Bend, Oregon for a day of golf. When we got to Bend, we decided to cancel golf and drive on through to Heber.  I had created a blister on the palm of my hand from weeding on Saturday and would only have made it a few holes, for sure. The drive was long, 14 hours to be exact, but it was good to sleep in our own bed. We got home a little after midnight.

Not looking too happy., waiting for the next roast....
but there were a lot of laughs even by the bride and groom.

Deon and Gary arrived on Wednesday afternoon to stay with us so they could attend our brother Dave's son's wedding that weekend. Because Deon and Gary had never met Susette, Dave's new wife, we had them all to dinner that night. The lime chicken tacos were a big hit but it was even better to be together with siblings and their spouses.  

Thursday, we left the house just after noon to do some shopping for pioneer costumes for Deon's granddaughters. We ended up at Deseret Industries were she found shirts and blouses for them. (The next day Deon bought aprons and bonnets too.)  The night ended with a wedding dinner at a barbecue place in Orem. Taylor and his bride were fun to watch  as they were being 'roasted' by family and friends, after dinner.  It was a great evening.  

We 'skyped' Dad and Mom
while at the restaurant.

Friday, while we were in the Provo temple for our weekly shift, Deon and Gary went to Taylor's wedding ceremony at the Provo City Temple.  Much to everyone's surprise, Ed and Debbie showed up.  After our temple shift, who should drive up but Ed and Deb to surprise us, too.  When Gary and Deon arrived to pick us up, we all decided to grab some dinner at Red Robbin before the wedding reception.  Again it was so fun to be with siblings and visit and catch on each other's lives. The wedding reception was held in Cedar Hills Golf Club and was a wonderful affair. It is beautiful facility with a view clear out to Utah lake. The bride and groom looked radiant, as always, and everyone seemed to have a good time. The best part of the evening, though, was being back home and visiting till late at night with my brother and sister. They all had to leave the next morning which was a good thing as we had some other special guests coming later that day.

All together at the restaurant.

Those special guests were RaeAnn Taylor and Jailyn Shepherd, two of our favorite sister missionaries from Russia. They drove up just to visit with us.  We sat outside by the water feature and visited for at least two hours.  We were sad when they had to leave to go pick up Jailyn's brother from work in Provo. We will always cherish the wonderful relationships we were able to build with the elders and sisters in Moscow. We hope we never lose contact with them.

Jailyn, on the left - RaeAnn, on the right

The next week, Paul and I finally made it golfing, a promise made when we passed up golf in Bend.  We went on Thursday and had a delightful time golfing the lake course at Wasatch Mountain Golf Club. Neither one of us golfed very good but it was fun just to be together, playing in such a beautiful setting. After golf we treated ourselves to lunch at Cafe Galleria and had their yummy pizza and salad lunch plate.  What a fun day. We vowed to do it again...hopefully soon.





While golfing on Thursday, I kept getting Facebook messages from Katerina from Russia. She was baptized while we were in Moscow and became a special friend.  She was just wanting to say hello and find out how we were doing.  We ended up deciding to Skype on Saturday as it is hard for her to write in English and much easier to speak it. Though sometimes it was hard to understand what she was saying, we had a wonderful visit. She is still involved, very heavily, in Karate. She was, at one time, the Russian Karate national champion. Now she teaches karate and is involved in many martial arts events in Moscow. She hopes to come to America and go the the San Diego temple.  It told her if she would consider going to one of the many Utah temples instead, she could stay with us and we would accompany her. It would be so wonderful to share that experience with her.  




Sunday, Jon and Mindi brought all their kids up for dinner.  It's been almost three month since they've all been up here so it was good to have them in our home again. Todd and Kailee came up, too, with Aria who was the big hit with Mindi's girls. All they wanted to do was hold her.  We had tri tip and chicken for dinner and for dessert,  cream filled crepes.  Of course, Paul had to let Aria try some of the cream filling.  Yes, she loved it..

Which bring us to Tuesday and Jaiden's birthday. Jon invited us to take him out to dinner on his birthday and then to join them for his birthday celebration at their home afterwards.  We were excited when Jaiden chose In 'N Out for his dinner spot. He loves hamburgers and his favorite is a double double from In 'N Out.  He was so cute while there and thanked up at least five time for taking him out to dinner.  When we took him home, he opened his presents and we all had cake and ice cream. Todd brought Aria over to join us and again she was the center of attention. 

Jaiden and his double double from In 'N Out. 

We wondered how he was going to be able to get his mouth around his big burger...

but he managed.

Then, back at Jon and Mindi's home even Gavin got in on holding Aria.

Friday, after our temple session and before meeting Kailee and Todd for dinner, we stopped by the Pleasant Grove cemetery to place flowers on the graves of Paul's Mom and Dad. We have made this an annual affair since moving to Utah, except when we were in Russia.  A great way to pay tribute to his wonderful parents and to show them of our love for them.

 Heber cemetery on Memorial day
is lined with American flags.  Quite
an impressive sight.

Ed and Dave at the wedding reception

The last Saturday of the month was a busy one.  We left Heber in the early afternoon to meet our friends, Kay and Marvin Rust, for lunch at Outback Steak House in Salt Lake. Outback became a favorite of ours in Russia and we wanted our friends to experience the Jack Daniels ribs, which Marv had and loved.  After lunch, we drove to the Hale Centre theater for the performance of Big River. Once again, we were wowed by the production. The stage was even flooded with hundreds of gallons of water to simulate the Mississippi river on which Huck and his friends rafted down. An amazing feat for a small theater stage in the round. When we do lunch and a play with our friends, we usually drive together but we couldn't this time. Immediately after the performance, we had to race down to Mapleton for the wedding reception of Andrew, my brother Dave's oldest son. Ed and Debbie came down from Idaho again for this wedding so it was fun to visit with them again. The reception was in an old barn which had been redone, especially for weddings.  It was in a beautiful area, set in the middle of an apple orchard at the base of the Wasatch Mountains. Andrew and his bride had been married earlier that afternoon in the apple orchard.

On the left is Andrew and Dave.

On the right is Dave with his two daughters, Kristen and Lauren.  They are on Skype with Dad and Mom... A fun way for Dad and Mom to be apart of the wedding festivities

Much to our joy, this was our month to see a lot of Jon and Mindi and their family.  At the end of the month was Memorial Day weekend. Jon had his boys for the holiday so they came up on Sunday, spent the night, and stayed all day Monday with us. We love having all of them with us. Of course, Todd and Kailee joined us for Sunday dinner and came back for a late afternoon barbecue with us on Monday. Memorial Day was fun filled with playing card games inside and baseball outside, having a water gun fight, and playing capture the flag with those same water guns...and, of course, lots of good food - sourdough waffles for breakfast, and chicken teriyaki sandwiches, hamburgers, and hot dogs for dinner.  

Jaiden learned how to play UNO
 and wanted to play all  the time

In the afternoon, Jon joined the boys in a
capture the flag water fight.  A great activity
on a hot afternoon.

An interesting thing happened just before we left for Oregon. Sunday, May 1, the stake president asked if we could meet with him after our meeting block.  We were surprised when he asked us to go on another mission.  He suggested we serve that mission right here in Heber, working with the wards in our stake to activate members. We were totally taken back by this call but as we thought about it, we felt it was an answer to prayer.  We have felt like we needed to serve another mission but didn't want to leave our home or family. This is the best of both worlds - serving a mission here at home. The Sunday after our Oregon trip, President  Blickenstaff, a counselor in the Provo Mission Presidency, and his wife, came to our home to tell us of the specifics of our calling. We would attend ward councils of the wards we are assigned and go out and visit the people the Bishop feels we could help in coming back to church.  We would also work with the full time missionaries assigned to our stake, feeding them lunch once a week, as a time to discuss how we could be of assistance to them. We would attend district meetings, with other senior couples, once a week and zone conferences on a quarterly basis.  We would also be encouraged to attend the temple once a week. They said that spending about 32 hours a week is the norm for this kind of calling. They were very convincing and, by the end of their visit, we knew this was what we were supposed to do.  We called the stake president and told him we would put our papers in July for a first of September start date.  He was thrilled that we accepted the call.  A new challenge awaiting us on the horizon.



I'll end our monthly blog with these pictures...................  

At our pond, we noticed a mother and father goose herding their little ones. As I approached them, to take a picture, the parent geese headed their little ones into the water for protection. Oh the wonders of Mother Nature.

Of course, I have to include pictures of the ever growing and every changing Aria - now sitting up in her chair and loving her finger in her mouth.  It is such a joy to watch this grand baby grow.  We have not had that privilege with our other grandchildren so having Aria so close is a treat.