IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE HOW FAST JUNE FLEW BY

It's hard to believe that June has already come and gone. These weeks have just flown by. That must mean we've been busy. For sure, Paul has been very busy with his calling as the Elder's Quorum President for our ward. He holds a Presidency meeting each Wednesday night as the presidency tries to get a handle on this new ministering program which is replacing home teaching. If anyone can do it, and do it well, it will be Paul. He works tirelessly during the other days of the week designing spreadsheets to organize the elders in the ward and those willing to be ministering brothers. The Lord knew who to call to this position, for sure.



The first big event for the month was Paul's surgery. He had a growth on his ear that proved to be a cancer which had to be removed. He went to the doctor in Park City where he spent 4 hours. The doctor would take out a portion of the ear and test it to see if the edges of the sample was clear of cancer. It took about 4 tries before he was confident he got all of it. He then had to do a skin graft on the top of Paul's ear to reestablish the right curve of the ear. When Paul got home, the ear was bandaged so we didn't see it until later when we had to replace the bandage. It looked pretty gross but has healed nicely. You can hardly tell anything was done to the ear. Grateful that Paul had the foresight to get it checked out with this doctor. 

Looking a little raw right
after surgery

Healing quite nicely - a couple
of weeks later

The next evening, we had a date with all of Jon and Mindi's boys to take them out for their birthday dinner. We had not taken any of them out so we thought it would be a good thing to do it all together. We picked most of them up at Jon's home and met the rest of them at Olive Garden in Sandy. After a bit of a wait, we were seated and enjoyed a lovely dinner together. Even Taylor joined us which was great. Just a side note: As we were traveling down the canyon on our way to Jon's, there was an accident and a big traffic jam. We had to laugh when we got stuck right beside a cattle truck, full of cattle going to market. It smelled horrible so we were glad when our lane moved a bit faster so we could get a head of the cattle car.

The truck full of cattle - very smelly

Mid month, we spent the entire day at Jon and Mindi's helping them clean their home so the realtor could have pictures taken before they listed the home for sale. We spent the whole time in the basement, starting with the bedrooms and working our way out to the living room and kitchen areas. There was a lot to do as the basement had become the catch all place during construction. It meant lots of mopping, vacuuming, dusting and organizing. When we finished that evening, just minutes before the photographer arrived, the basement looked remarkable. We were glad we could be a service to them as they would have never been able to get the whole house ready in time. Now we just hope it sells quickly.

The downstairs living area

The downstairs kitchen area

The three

bedrooms

downstairs

The theater room

This month, of course, was Father's day and Paul's birthday. We went down to Jon's for dinner on Father's day. He had most of his boys so it was good the be with them all. Mindi's children were with their dad so we missed them. The following day, Monday, Todd and Kailee and the two girls came to Heber to celebrate a belated Father's Day with Dad. We barbecued teriyaki chicken skewers and sided it with baked beans, potato salad and a strawberry green salad. We ate outside in the backyard and finished the evening doing s'mores with Aria. She was loving it until she burned her finger on a hot skewer. Before dinner she and Todd played in the hot tub which she loved also. It was a fun evening.

After burning her fingers, the only way we could'
console her was by having her put her fingers into cold water.

That Wednesday was Paul's birthday. I had to make him promise he wouldn't work out in the yard at all that day. He kept his promise so we headed to Provo to arrange for a new cell phone plan. Sprint did not work well in Heber so we decided to try AT&T. The Orem office told us we needed to go to the Apple store in Salt Lake and have something done to our phones before they could sell us new ones. It seemed strange but we went to the Apple store anyway. When we got there, we found it was a three hours wait or more before someone could see us. We didn't want to wait that long so we left. As we were leaving the mall, we noticed an AT&T store and decided to drop in on them to see what they could do for us. They saw no problem with our phones and so could arrange new phones for us with an unlimited data plan, all for a decent monthly fee. We left a couple of hours later with new I-phone 8's and phone reception that would work better here in Heber. We needed to drop by Todd's with our old phones so headed his way. 



When we got to Todd's home,we gave him our phones and told him about our new plan and our 'buy one get one phone free' experience. He was excited about that and decided he and Kailee would check out AT&T for them, too. That night they joined us on our plan. This will be good as we will just split the total bill which will work out cheaper for both of us. The picture was taken at Todd's. Aria was playing in her darling kiddie's pool.

A couple of other things happened this month. On June 9, Jillian graduated from high school. Congratulations!! We didn't attend but are so proud of her. She will be going to BYU Idaho in the fall. 








I also did some experimental cooking this month. I wanted to try smoking ribs which is an all day process. I started them a little after noon, smoking them for 3 hours, then wrapping them in tin foil and cooking them for another 2 hours and finally, cooking them unwrapped for an hour. They tasted good but I think next time I'll reduce the cooking time because I thought they were a little dry. A couple of week later I decided to smoke a pork loin. I wanted to serve it with a cherry sauce but couldn't find sour cherries in the store. Todd and Kailee had given us some cherries from their tree so I figured I could use them. It took a little work, cooking them, pitting them and then thickening the sauce but it all worked and tasted wonderful.

That about does it for this month.  It doesn't sound as busy as it was because I didn't talk about all the yard work done - like spreading over 100 bags of soil pep in our barked areas. Paul did most of it but I did help some.

Now for Aria and Avery.......

We loved it when Kailee sent us this picture of Aria sleeping with the big husky we gave her from our cruise.

She also sent us a darling video of her reading her Clifford book which we had given her a few days before. In the video she is talking about the big red dog and when she gets to the end of the book she says, "Amen....yep, it's Amen!!' So darling.

We met Todd and Kailee at Dressed in White to buy a blessing dress for Avery. Later that day Kailee sent us a picture of her in the dress. So precious.







Just a few other pictures of Aria and Avery......

Avery smiling

Aria got into Kailee's lipstick

So cute when little ones start to show a personality

BALTIC CRUISE (Part 2).....AND THE REST OF MAY'S HAPPENINGS

Our second day in St. Petersburg was just as long as we boarded the bus at 7am so we could make the hour ride into St. Petersburg. When we arrived we walked down to the canal for an hour canal tour. St. Petersburg is considered the Venice of the North because of its many canals that lace through the city. We passed under many decorated bridges and saw, from afar, many of the cathedrals we had seen or would see during our stay. 

Peter and Paul Fortress, from afar

Passing under many decorative bridges

Typical golden domes that dot the skyline of St. Petersburg

Waiting for our time
to enter the museum

From the canal, we walked a few blocks to the Hermitage museum, an incredibly large museum that includes Peter the Great's winter palace and a collection of the works of famous artists such as Rembrandt and Da Vinci. 

The Hermitage Museum

The room of heroes

After the Hermitage, it was time for lunch at a restaurant where we were entertained by locals singers. From lunch, we were off to visit two more cathedrals - Isaac's Cathedral and The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. Isaac's cathedral is famed for its single large golden dome. It's beauty inside is marked by the many icons depicting the Savior's life, highlighted by a stained glass window of the Savior in Red.

The Famous Golden Dome Cathedral

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is the icon of St. Petersburg. It is a famous cathedral build on the exact spot where Alexander the II was murdered, hence the name Spilled Blood. The outside was designed after St. Basil in Moscow with its colorful ice cream cone domes. The inside is all done in mosaics, little pieces of tiles individually placed to make the pictures that don every wall and copula. An amazing edifice, both inside and out.

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

The main altar

Typical mosaic found throughout the cathedral

Looking high up in one of the copulas

 Red marble 

St. Petersburg was everything we had dreamed of - beautiful and historical. A quick note about Gary's yellow hat. He wore it continually and our guide used him and his hat to recognize when the last of our group had arrived into a room. Gary, because of his knee, was always bringing up the rear of our group.

From Russia we sailed across the channel to Helsinki, Finland where we would spend the day. We boarded a bus for our tour which took us, first, to the center of the city and Senate Square. Here we took pictures of the statue of Alexander II. He was well respected by the Fins. Even after he conquered them, he was a reformer and brought much progress to the country. This is the Alexander who was assassinated were the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood was built.

Paul wanted a picture of the
bird that stayed on top
of Alexander's head

We drove a bit further to the unique Sibelius Monument, dedicated to famed Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The monument is made up of organ pipes representing the forests of Finland which inspired much of his music.

Our tour then took us through the countryside of Finland to the village of Porvo, Finland's second oldest city, established in 1346. It was a village of wooden buildings and a church on top of a hill. This town was once an important trading center. It was raining so we were grateful to get inside a candy store where we could taste the different types of candy made there. Of course, we had to buy some, too. Paul and I braved the rain and walked up the hill to the church but when we got there we found we could not enter because there was a funeral in progress. 

The village by the river

The church on the hill

Inside the restaurant

After out stay in Provo, we drove through FInland's beautiful countryside to a quaint little farmhouse where we had a delicious lunch. The restaurant was in the brick lined basement complete with an open fireplace - very welcome after the chilly, rainy morning at Porvo. After lunch, we had a few minutes to visit the gift shop on the grounds. We fell in love with a Husky stuffed dog, much like the one we bought Aria in Alaska, only bigger. We couldn't resist buying it for her.

The gift shop

We were told, as we drove, you can always tell the master's home from the servant's quarters in the country. The main home is usually done in a color, often yellow, and trimmed in white. The servants quarters, barns, and animals stables are painted red. Interesting.







Our last stop in Finland was at the Church in the Rock. It is a church, literally, built inside a rock cavern. It's roof is made of copper and there purposely are no stairs. It is believed that one shouldn't have to climb to find God. There is a cross above the entryway that is said to open the way to heaven.

The cross that opens the way to heaven

Inside the church - all the walls are the rock of the cavern

As we drove back to the ship, our guide told us about the Finnish people. She said they are 'coffee-holics.' Typically, they have coffee with breakfast, at a 10:00 break, for lunch, at a 2:00 break, after work, and after dinner. Sometimes they even have coffee before they go to bed. It would be interesting to know how much coffee is consumed in an average year here. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Hellsinki, Finland.

Our last port on the cruise was Stockholm, Sweden.  This had to be our favorite city if we were looking for somewhere to live. It is made up of 14 islands all connected by canals. It was clean and beautiful with its mixture of old and new architecture. Here we did another canal tour, visited the Old Town, and toured the royal palace. 

In the old town, we visited the church where the royalty holds their weddings. It is located within walking distance of the royal palace.

At the royal palace, we toured the beautiful rooms done in baroque style. This means the decor is designed to look like real marble and three dimensional sculptures but in reality are only painted to look that way.

As we left the palace, we were fortunate to be just in time to see the changing of the royal guard at the palace. It was very crowded so our view wasn't the best but we could enjoy the music of the military band and watch the guards standing at attention during the ceremony.

 We had one last day at sea before docking again in Copenhagen, Denmark. Part of what makes a cruise so memorable is the wait staff in the formal dinning room. Our waiter and assistant were wonderful, as was the food.

 Once we docked in Copenhagen, it was off the ship, a transfer to the airport, and then a flight to Amsterdam. We were only to have a short lay over in Amsterdam but we were delayed. After we boarded the plane for LAX, we were told that a fuel pump was not functioning properly. They said they would have to replace it so we sat on the tarmac for over an hour waiting for clearance to take off. The delay caused us to have many delays once we got LAX - the customs lines were long as were the lines to board our shuttle back to the Fly Away location where we had parked our car. Once we got back to Valencia, we grabbed In 'N Out for a quick dinner and then went home to bed.

The next day, we said good bye to the Fullers and drove to Bakersfield to see Mom and Dad. We had a good visit in the afternoon and then took them to dinner that evening. The next morning, we said our good byes and started our drive home.




We drove to St. George, spent the night and drove home the next day. Of course, we had to stop in Lehi to give Aria her new Husky dog and to see our newborn, Avery.

NOW FOR THE REST OF THE MONTH.......

Before we left on our cruise, we had a houseful of company. Don and Dana came to stay with us so they could attend Bryce's graduation from UVU.  Dana's dad and daughter, Carly, and granddaughter came to stay in our home a day later. After graduation, Whitney and her family joined us along with Bryce and Brandon. Yes, we had a houseful. They all left by Sunday morning and we left, after church that same day. We love opening our home to family.

Whitney and  Allen and their family

The Saturday night before we left, we went down to Todd and Kailee's to take them dinner. I made lots of chicken enchiladas because we all thought that Kailee's mom and sister and family would be coming to eat. As it turned out, it was only the 4 of us plus Aria as the rest of Kailee's family made other last minute plans. There was lots of food for leftovers during the week.



When we got home from Todd's, our garage door wouldn't open. Paul tried everything to fix it but to no avail. He rigged up a way to keep the garage door from being able to be opened while we were gone on our cruise. Quite ingenious, for sure.



We were glad we returned home from our cruise when we did because the first Sunday back was incredibly special. We arrived at church a bit early and noticed the Bishop and his wife and the Stake President and his wife were in the foyer. We wondered if it was a ward conference but when we looked at the program we knew it wasn't. It wasn't too long after we sat down that we all stood in silent reverence as President Russel M. Nelson and his wife, Wendy, walked into our chapel. Talk about receiving an instant testimony that he is a prophet of God!!! The chapel has never been so reverent. Both he and Sister Nelson took some time to speak to us. Sister Nelson testified of the importance of family history work and President Nelson talked about the Book of Mormon and the gathering of Israel. He told of the time just recently when he was with a delegation from the NAACP. He wanted to give them a gift and decided that the best gift he could give them was copies of the Book of Mormon. That tells us how important the book is to him. It was a once in a lifetime experience to be in the presence of a prophet of God and feel of his spirit.

The next day was Memorial day and we spent it helping with a community fun run and motorcycle ride. We had been serving on a committee for this event for several month and Memorial Day was the culmination of much planning. We were in charge of decorating the stage area and then just helped setting chairs and handing out time sheets for the runners. We stayed around for the patriotic program and were so glad we did. The mayor, the governor, and a career Navy admiral all spoke to us as they paid honor to the many veterans who have served our country. The balance of the program was a children's choir singing a medley of patriotic songs. We were sad when they had to cut their program short due to rain and wind. It was a wonderful way to spend Memorial Day.

There was even a fly over from the US Air Force

We traveled down to Todd and Kailee's later that day to have dinner with them. They had invited Kailee's family over as well as Cam's (Kara's fiancee) parents to dinner. Cam is from Bakersfield and his parents know my dad really well. In fact, Brian Taylor is Dad's stake president. Brian was friends growing up with all my brothers. Small world.

On the way to Todd's we stopped at the Pleasant Grove cemetery and put flowers on Paul's parent's graves. We try and do that every year.

Dinner of smoked brisket was wonderful as was the company. A great way to celebrate Memorial Day.




The last two days of the month, we planted our garden and our annuals. It is always good to get those projects done. 

And then there's Aria and Avery.......

Loving her 'Sis'.