SEPTEMBER IS HERE BRINGING LOTS OF ACTIVITIES - A TRIP, FOOTBALL, DINNER PARTIES, AND FAMILY VISITS

 The month of September began with a trip to St. George, Las Vegas, and then back to St. George. It was a trip we have had planned since about February with my some of my brothers and my sister, Deon. On Wednesday, September 1, we drove to St. George, checked into the World Mark Estancia and then headed to Don and Dana's home for dinner.  We met Deon and Gary, Sam and Kathy, and Dave and Suzette there for dinner. (Ed and Debbie came in later that evening.) We barbecued hamburger to go along with corn from our garden, some fruit, and chips. Of course, we had to have peach sundaes for dessert as is a tradition for these St. George trips with family. 

The reason for the stop in St. George, before heading to Las Vegas for some activities there, was to see Beauty and the Beast at the Tuacahn theater on Thursday night. For something to do during the day on Thursday, we piled into two cars and drove an hour to Cedar Breaks National Monument. Paul and I had driven there earlier this summer and felt it would be a good excursion for this group. We packed a lunch to eat at the entrance of the monument and then drove to the three look out points. The vistas were beautiful and the company even better. It was a great way to spend the day before going to the show.

Kathy is an avid Jr. Ranger fan. She collects 
the booklets at every park she visits and tries to
complete the exercises in it to earn a pin.
She has a whole hat full of pins.

A magnificent panorama taken at one of the stops

Dave and Suzette didn't join us for this little trip,
nor did they go to Vegas with us.

We met for dinner at Freddie's Steak Burgers and then headed to the Tuacahn Theater. We were so glad we decide to stop in St. George to see this show as it was magnificent. The sets, the costumes, the acting, and the singing were as good as we have ever seen. It was probably one of the best shows we've seen at this outdoor theater.

Friday morning, we each headed in our own cars to travel to Las Vegas. We had tickets to see the Donny Osmond show at the Tropicana and then on Saturday for the BYU football game at the brand new Regeant Arena. The Donny show was wonderful as he sang so many of his old popular songs. He has made 35 albums and took requests for songs from those albums. At one point he did a look at his career, the ups and the downs, through rap and video. It was amazing and brought back so many memories of our younger years when we would see them on television.

All of Donny's albums

Saturday, we just lounged around the Worldmark condo - even taking a dip in the lazy river. The Fuller's and ourselves took a trial run to check out the best place to park for the game. We found that the parking lot at Mandolin Bay hotel was the best as it was right across the street from the arena. We left for the game very early so we could eat dinner at the food court at the hotel. Todd flew into Las Vegas, took a cab to the hotel, and met us for a quick Subway dinner. He took off early to scout out the new arena but, we, being much older and therefore much slower, leisurely walked across the bridge to the arena a little later. The arena was amazing and the game very exciting. It was especially fun because we won the game against Arizona. After the game, we took Todd back to the airport where he insisted he could find a place to sleep before his 6:00 A.M. flight. He said later it was the worst night of his life. He should have stayed with us at he condo but an Uber would have been hard to come by (and expensive) that early in the morning.

Paul cooling off in the lazy river.
Las Vegas was so hot you could not walk on the cement
around the pool without wearing shoes.

Sam all decked out for the game. Masks were required in the arena

Subway dinner with Todd

Waiting outside the arena for the 4 who took an
Uber from the Mandelin Bay to the arena. Paul had
all the tickets on his phone so we all had to all go
in together. We waited for them about 45 minutes in the heat.

Ryan brought his family and one of Julia's friends to the game.
They were lucky and found a hotel right across the parking lot
from the arena so parking was not a problem. 

Todd had tickets with Ryan's family

Inside the arena before the game

Sunday morning, we left Las Vegas early enough to make it back to St. George in time to meet Ryan and family for church. Luckily, they had a 1:30 sacrament meeting. After church, we met the rest of the group at Don and Dana's for a barbecue chicken dinner. Dave and Suzette joined us again and we had such fun visiting again. We were tired from the lack of sleep the night before due to the late night game, so we returned to our condo early. 

Monday, after breakfast, we did some shopping for groceries so we could cook a spaghetti dinner for the group at the condo and then headed over to Don and Dana's. We facetimed Sonnie while we were all together so she could see and talk with her brothers and sisters. Her birthday was the next week so it was a kind of birthday wish for her. She was thrilled. We watched the first half of the movie, Cruella, and then left to start dinner preparations. After dinner, we drove to the Tuacahn theater to see Count of Monte Cristo - A very dramatic musical where you had to listen to the lyrics of the songs to understand what was happening. It was a great production and very different from Beauty and the Beast.

Tuesday, Paul and I met Ryan and Katie and Nathan for a late breakfast at Tiffany's Creperie. They had wanted to take us there when we were in St. George a month earlier but we didn't find the time. We were glad to go this time as the crepes were amazing - huge and delicious. I was glad I ordered one with egg and avocado instead of so much sweet. The others were wonderful as well, though.

Eggs benedict folded crepe

Nathan was glad he stayed home from school
that day as he loves these crepes.
He almost ate the whole thing.

We went back to Don and Dana's to finish watching Cruella before leaving to see if we could take advantage of the case lot sale at Smith's. We got a couple of things but not everything I was hoping for as they were sold out. After relaxing at the condo for a couple of hours, we left to go to Dave and Suzette's for dinner. Sam and Kathy had purchased some homemade chicken pot pies and Suzette made a green salad and set out some fruit for a delicious meal before the last show at Tuacahn. That show was School of Rock. It was loud and colorful and fun, in parts. We were a little disgusted that they had put in a gay couple as parents of one of the children. It was not necessary to the plot and it turned us off a bit. Deon and Gary and Ed and Deb loved the show. Paul and I felt it was not our favorite but it was ok. Sam and Kathy and Don and Dana hated it. I don't think they laughed once throughout the whole show. The next morning we all packed up, said our good byes and left for home. A fun trip with family.

We got home on Wednesday in just enough time to get beds made for Andrea and Casey and Jillian and Maggie to arrive in Heber. They were on their way to take the girls to BYU-I but came to Utah first so Maggie could buy a car.  She has a small online business with her incredible art and makes enough money to finance a car for college. The prices for cars in Utah seemed to be lower than Oregon, hence the detour on the way to Idaho. They arrived Thursday night and were out all day on Friday car hunting. They were successful in finding what appears to be the perfect car for Maggie. It's a small Jeep SUV, 4 wheel drive, and relatively new with low mileage. We had dinner that night and visited as they were leaving the next morning to have breakfast with BYU cousins (Casey's nieces and nephews) and then on to Rexburg for dinner with the BYU-I cousins, more Westovers.

The three girls with Charlotte at BYU

The big purchase

The girls and the new car -
looking good Jillian. 

Also happening as soon as we got home from St. George was the delivery of our new area rug for our living room. As we were driving up the canyon on Wednesday, we got a call from Guy Blaine, the carpet man. He came by on Thursday and helped us lay it and cut out a part of the rug for the electrical outlet. We love the look. It brightens up our room and is lovely to walk on. It was time for a change after 15 years.

The new look

September always brings peaches needing to be canned and frozen. We stopped by Allred's orchards on our way home from St. George and found out that lemon Elberta peaches were already on and would be on for a few more days. We decided to pick some up after the temple on Friday, which we did. That meant processing them on Saturday and the following Monday. We canned 14 jars of peaches to go along with the 18 we had from last year. Then, we froze 16 bags of fruit cocktail and 18 bags of slush. We ended up purchasing 100 pounds of peaches. It is wonderful to have a freezer full of frozen peaches. We had almost run out from last year.

Grateful that Paul took time to help me peel the majority 
of the peaches we processed.

We attended our first official BYU home football game that Saturday. It was against Utah, a long time rival. Over the years, the total games played against each other was 18 - 9 wins for Utah and 9 wins for BYU. This was the tie breaker game. After seeing the team play against Arizona in Las Vegas the previous weekend, we didn't think there was a chance of BYU winning.....but we did!!! It was an amazing game - stressful but so exciting.

The game was played on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 
attack on the world trade center and the pentagon.

The half time tribute to all who lost their lives that day
was incredible.
The combined bands from Utah and BYU formed the outline
of the United States with members of the military spreading
the flags. The remembrance also included a moment of silence.

After the game the students went wild and stormed the field in celebration of a long time, overdue win against Utah. We stayed around for quite a while just to take in all the joyous action on the field.

Fireworks were shot off with the win

The crowds just kept coming until the entire field 
was covered with students.

The Arizona State with BYU was held the next week with another win, thanks to Arizona's 17 penalties for 134 yards. This is the first year we have played and won three Pack 12 teams. Sam and Kathy are fun to go to the games with as they are true blue BYU fans and really get into the spirit of the games.

Notice the 'Y' on Kathy's cheek. They came
early enough to do some of the activities taking place
outside the stadium before the game - like face painting.

Sunday, the 19th, Jon's boys (minus Taylor) came up for dinner. Charlotte and and Aubrey and Katie joined us. It was such a great Sunday afternoon. The boys arrived first and were so talkative and excited to be in our home. When Katie and the two girls came, the conversation was even better. The all started looking at the old reunion scrapbook and reminiscing about all the fun times we had as a family when they were all younger. I served chicken in cream sauce and it was devoured along with a couple of dozen rolls. After dessert, everyone left to get through the canyon before it got dark but not before expressions of love and the promise to do this again. We were grateful for Jaron who arranged with his brothers to come and brought them all up to our home.

After dinner they all went downstairs to
play pool and foosball together.

FUN TO SEE THEM INTERACTING TOGETHER

The cousins just before saying goodbye

Ryan's birthday was Wednesday, the 22nd. He had a convention in Park City where his company was doing a presentation to some brokers for dental practices. He came up on Wednesday to have a strategy meeting with his partner and then the next morning attended the day's activities at the conference. I couldn't stand for him to go his whole birthday without some kind of a celebration so I baked Hostess cupcakes for him and set them out for when he arrived at our home. He was thrilled that we would remember him that way. 

Also on that Wednesday, we drove to Draper to have dinner at Kathy and Curt Morgan's home. This was the dinner we try to have every few months with my siblings - Kathy, Sam and Deon and our spouses. We had a couple of errands to run on the other side of the mountain so we picked up Deon and Gary in what we thought would be plenty of time. We forgot about commute traffic on I-15 and ended up being 40 minutes late. We are so glad we live on the Heber side of the mountains where we can pick and choose the time in which we travel to Provo or Salt Lake. The dinner at the Morgan's was good and we had a fun time together. There is never a lose for conversation when we are all together.

Ryan stayed with us Thursday night, left Friday afternoon, and then drove back to Provo Saturday afternoon with his family to attend the BYU game against South Florida. (It's a good thing he loves to drive.) We also attended the game after having dinner at Kitchen 88 in American Fork. The game was great the first quarter and even the second quarter was respectable. During the second half, Florida figured out how to move the ball and scored on us three times. Our defense looked sick. Luckily our offense did well, being able to score 4 times in the first half and 1 time in the second half for the win. It was a hard game to watch.

Ryan and family stayed the night with us on Saturday after the game, and spent a leisurely Sunday with us the next day. Todd and his family came up in the afternoon to join us. We had a ham dinner together before the Ryan Millars needed to leave to make it back to St. George before it got too late. We love having them relatively close.

Aria was at the dinner table but
hiding from having her picture taken

That last week of September was a zoo. I felt like I was on a continual deadline of getting things ready for company and dinners. Beside taking a dessert to the dinner at the Morgan's, making hostess cupcakes for Ryan, doing a big Sunday dinner for 12, we hosted a ward dinner group at our home on Friday. Our ward had an activity where the ward was divided into 12 groups with each group assigned to a host family's home for dinner. We had 10 people come to our home. Two people brought Hors d' Oeuvres, one brought salad, one brought sherbet for a punch, and I provided breadsticks. The ward bought Costco Lasagna for each host family to cook. We had a great time getting to know one another which was the purpose of the activity. After dinner, we all went to the bishop's home for dessert and more visiting. A great, and much needed, ward activity.

This  month, Paul got it in his head that he wanted to get rid of a flower bed on the berm behind our home. It was there because of a big rock right in the middle of the lawn. We had created a bed of annuals around the rock for a color spot. He said the flower bed was an area he was always having to pull grasses out of and wanted to decrease his work load. I finally gave in so, on the last Monday of the month, he got Joey Hyer to come over with his front loader to move the rock. They had to drag it across our lawn in order to place it in a barked area of our yard. With annuals planted around it next year, it will look good and give us another color spot in our yard that will be more visual than the one on the berm. Over the last two years, we have gradually turned the berm into a totally grassy area. It used to have two planter boxes full of annuals that were pretty but a lot of work.

Getting ready to push the rock into its place.

On Wednesday evening, the29th, we traveled to Sandy to watch Jaiden play football for Bingham high. He is on the freshman team and plays defense as a corner back. We were glad we made the effort to go see him play. He did well and the team won the game 44 to 0. While we were there, Bradon and Gavin came over to see us and then later, Taylor spent some time talking to us. We haven't seen Taylor for many months so it was good to see him. We left at half time due to the cold and my cough but we could tell that Jaiden loves the game and is good at the positions he plays.

Jaiden was # 24 at the front left corner of the picture

The very last day of the month, we decided to drive Guardsman Pass to see the fall colors. We picked up Deon and Gary and drove up the mountain till we got to the fork in the road. We had always gone to Salt Lake but this time we took the fork to Park City. We were glad we did because we saw some new and beautiful vistas. The colors of the hills were amazing - red, orange and yellow against the dark green of the evergreens. We were in awe and so glad we took time take that drive on that day. We ended up at Zuppa's in Park City for lunch. A fun afternoon.

And this brings us to the end of another month but I can't close this post without a collection of memes from the month.

AUGUST - MORE COVID, VACCINE PASSPORTS, OPEN SOUTHERN BORDER, INFLATION, AND THE FALL OF AFGHANISTAN CAUSED MUCH WORRY FOR OUR COUNTY AND OUR WORLD THIS MONTH

 I just cannot begin this month's blog entry without mentioning the downward spiral our country is taking in just 7 months, under the Biden administration. Our Southern border is wide open. COVID variants are threatening lives. Vaccine passports and masks are being required in many places. Lockdowns are being proposed. Inflation is through the roof with gas prices leading the way at over $4 a gallon. We abandoned the country of Afghanistan by pulling out all our troops and the Taliban took over that country within hours of our withdrawal. This left thousands of American citizens stranded and  many Afghans, who helped the U.S., fearing for their lives. We are now considered  cowards around the world and President Biden has been described as a clown. We are in serious danger if we can no longer command respect around the world, to say nothing of the many terrorists coming into our country through the southern border. Things have gone so badly since Biden took office that it's almost as if it was all planned by those orchestrating him in order to bring down America. Our prayers to our Heavenly Father are continual as He is the only one who can help us save our country.

Speaking of COVID, our ward had several families infected this month with two sisters and one brother ending up in the hospital. They have all recovered, thank goodness, but, with the new variants that are out there, we are all a little on edge. At the first of the month, Paul got a bad cold. Fearing it might be COVID, he made an appointment for a COVID test. We drove to Walgreen's drive up window, showed the girl our proof of appointment and she prepared a test kit. When she gave it to Paul, she instructed him to remove the long cotton tipped swab, put it up his nostril as far as possible, and circle it around. He then returned the swap to the plastic container and gave it back. It was then sent out to be tested. Two days later, he got the report back - negative for COID, thank goodness. He struggled with a lot of congestion for a couple of weeks but at least it wasn't that dreaded COVID.

Jon and Mindi closed on their home at the first of the month and took a quick trip to San Antonio to check on a home on which they had put a tentative offer. Before they left, we were able to all get together with Jon's boys at Cafe Rio in Sandy so the boys could say good bye to their Dad and Mindi. All but Taylor were able to be there. It was a tender time for us to see Jon say goodbye to his boys. Jon and Mindi loved the house in San Antonio so they finalized the offer and returned to Utah to get Mindi's children and their trailer before heading back for good. They left Utah on Saturday, the 21st and traveled to San Antonio in 2 days. We were able to get them a Worldmark condo to stay in until they closed on their new home and could move in September 3. We will miss them but, hopefully, this will be a profitable move for them.

The listing for the home in San Antonio
they eventually bought.

So happy the boys came to say good bye to their Dad and Mindi

We decided to replace our area rug in our living room so we took a trip to Guy Blaine's new carpet display room to look for samples. We originally wanted to go wider then 12 feet but only found 2 carpets that would work. (They were only 13 feet wide.) Guy got back to us on the two carpets - one was discontinued because they couldn't get the yarn and the other one was $75 a square yard. The area rug would cost us $2000, a little more than we wanted to pay. (Note: the one that was discontinued would have been $100 a square yard!!!) We started the looking process over again and found a couple pieces we liked in a 12 foot wide carpet for $40 a square yard...more in our budget. It'll be great when it gets ordered, bound and installed. Our old 15 year old rug is looking pretty bad, especially since we took the Turkish woven rug downstairs in the family room. It looks really good down there but that prompted a need to change the decor in that room. I took out most of the Americana decorations and replaced them with brass and apples. We bought a large round clock for over the piano to complete the look. It's a good and long over due change.

Every two years, we have to reseal our deck to keep it waterproof. The man who does this, first power washes it, lets it dry, and then seals it. While he was power washing it, he noticed a soft spot which meant a major repair. We had gone through this 4 years ago so we knew it would be expensive, which it was. While grinding off the pebble rock, one rock hit our glass window and shattered it....another expense, so we thought. We checked with our home insurance and they said it would be covered after a $1000 deductible  The total cost of replacement was $1700. When we got the final invoice from the deck man he discounted our cost by $1000 meaning he absorbed the remaining cost of the broken window. We were thrilled. The sad thing is that the next day it rained long and hard and we found the deck was not waterproof because of the amount of the water that had dripped down onto the patio below. We called our builder over to look at it, and he confirmed that our deck system was failing and would have to be replaced. We'll look into that next Spring.

We started harvesting our garden this month. We have had some incredible corn and lots of beans. Our beets never really did much so we were grateful when Deon called and said that Kim's new home had a garden bursting with beets. Kim didn't know what to do with them and said we could go harvest them. We were thrilled. We've enjoyed beets all month and still have some to cook up. We took a bag full to Kailee and have even cooked some for Gary. He loves to pickle them with vinegar and pepper.  Last year our garden produced several lovely banana squash. We were so looking forward to lots of squash this year because our vines were full of little squashes at the first of the month. By the end of the month, we discovered that the deer had eaten every one of them including some of the vines. So much for ever growing squash again.

Look at all those beets. Yummy

The first pickings of corn and beans

Deon and I did a fun thing when we traveled to Salt Lake City for a luncheon with our cousins on the Richards side of the family. It was being held at our cousin Jill's home which had belonged to our Grandpa and Grandma Richards, Joel and Georgina. Jill had purchased the home soon after grandpa passed away with the idea it would be a starter home. Well, 40 plus years later, they are still there. They have remodeled much of it and added a large kitchen/family room. It was so fun to remember all the times we had spent in that home with grandpa and grandma. We had a great time talking with our cousins, too. It has been years since we've seen any of them so it was an afternoon of getting reacquainted and eating good food. We had arrived a little early to Jill's home so Deon and I took a side trip to see our Grandpa Elggren's old home on Yale Avenue. The only thing we could recognize is the front porch and granite pillars. The trees were so over grown that the house was almost totally hidden - except for the rainbow flag hanging off the porch. It was hard to even  imagine the beautiful yard and gardens that we remember of Dad Elggren's home. A fun afternoon to reminiscence about our youth.

Dad Elggren's home of long ago

At the end of the month, Paul and I attended his 60th high school reunion. It's always great for Paul to reconnect with his old school mates. It was amazing how many times people referred to Paul as the star athlete of the school. His accomplishments in basketball and football are obviously how he is remembered. I'm amazed at how many of his classmates Paul could recognize without looking at their nametags. We are all getting old, but we don't realize it until we see people we graduated with looking so old. Paul's best friend, Keith Allred, passed away this year along with a few other of his classmates. It will be interesting to see how many are still here in 5 years when the next reunion is scheduled.

We met Todd's family for dinner one Monday late afternoon. We took our car in to have a part replaced so the Bluetooth would work when we used our phones while driving. It was supposed to be a pretty quick fix but we ended up spending 3 hours there and they still couldn't fix it. We'll have to bring it back another time when we can leave it there for longer. We wanted to drop some beans and beets off to Kailee, so we met them for an early dinner at Pizzeria Lemone in American Fork for dinner. We hadn't seen the girls on Sunday so it was fun to be with them. Of course, we had to treat them to ice cream after pizza.

When Todd and Kailee had to go to Idaho on Sunday the 22nd, we were able to attend the blessing of Deon's great grandson, Mason. It was held at her home and was a beautiful affair. Mason's dad gave an amazing blessing. Afterwards a late lunch was served - a potato/nacho bar. We were glad we could be apart of this special occasion and I didn't have to cook dinner that day.

Gary, Deon, Morgan, Cameron
and baby Mason

It's back to school time for Utah students as well as BYU students. Aria started Kindergarten this year and was real excited, especially when she did so well on her kindergarten screening tests. 

Aubrey started at BYU this year so Katie brought her up to get her set up in her dorm. The next day, we met Ryan and the rest of the family in Provo for lunch at Olive Garden. Ryan had brought the family up so they could be a part of the BYU experience. Lunch was great and it was fun to feel Aubrey's excitement at finally being in college.

Aubrey's newly decorated dorm room

At Olive Garden

That same day, Andrea, Charlotte, and Maggie came into town so Charlotte could get moved into her apartment before starting at BYU. They brought Maggie because she will be coming to BYU in January and wanted to get familiar with the campus and Provo. They arrived on Wednesday, spent Thursday getting books and all the things needed to start a new school year, and moved Charlotte in on Friday. We met them for lunch after our temple shift and then Andrea and Maggie took off to make it back to Oregon by Saturday. A quick trip for sure.

In front of the Jeep Andrea rented in which
to return to Oregon. A bit of a rough ride. Not her
first choice but at least it was a car. Rental cars 
are harder to come by these days.

And then there was Todd's birthday dinner on the last Sunday of the month. He requested his favorite pot roast dinner. Charlotte and Aubrey came up for dinner and to join in the celebration. We love having family so close that we get to see them often.

Before ending this month's blog, here are a few more memes I collected over the month.....

Then some memes of hope.....

This one I couldn't resist posting..........