July 24, 2009

Pioneer Day is very important to Sanpete County and 8 of the 14 towns have celebrations. Our Primary President wanted the Ward children to be in the Fairview parade and her uncle had an old handcart that she wanted to use but it was full of slivers and falling apart. She mentioned it in Ward Council and Mike offered to fix it up. He built a totally new box for it. Pretty talented, huh?
We had a full and pleasant day. While Mike was at the Fairview parade I went with Lanny and Shirley to the little Spring City parade. Afterward we looked at the progress in the remodel of her studio there and then came home. Where Charlotte and David soon joined us.
I had listed our old pop-up trailer in the Horseshoe Trader and a fellow from Moroni soon showed up to look at it. Although it was 30-40 years old we had rebuilt the top and I had redone all of the upholstery, put in new screens and plastic windows and even made new tent ends. It was big with two tables and sleeping space for a family of 8. It turned out that the father of this guy used to sell Starcraft trailers and for a time was the only one doing so in Utah. He felt sure that his dad had probably sold that trailer originally. He called his dad about it and told him that we would be willing to take $200 for it and his dad chipped in the cash he didn't have so that he could get it. He knows that he will have to do some work to get it licensed but was excited about getting it. We were excited to have it going somewhere that it would be used and all of our work worth something, the $200 won't hurt and we are happy to have one thing out of the yard.
At 2:00 we went to the Stewart Ranch with Char, Dave, Shirley and Lanny. There was an art show there where Lanny and Shirley both had some of their work but mostly it was a 24th party that they give every year. These people are friends of Char and Dave and have four homes. This is the ranch that he was born on and the home is where he lived much of his childhood. It is only a few blocks south of the Mt. Pleasant City Park and it is a beautiful oasis in the desert. They have a swimming pool that has a stream running all around it and amazing landscape with beautiful flowers and shrubs and even fragrances as you walk past areas. There are two old cabins that have been restored a mammoth guest quarters/garage and many pieces of landscape architecture that must be worth thousands of dollars each. They had a wonderful catered lunch and a band playing. It was certainly a new picture of the Mt. Pleasant that we usually know.
We came home first and soon Char and Dave came by and we had a nice visit. After they left Shirley and Lan came by and we had another good visit. I watched the Tabernacle Choir 24th broadcast, sat on the patio and watched the fireworks in Fairview and then headed to bed. It was a good day to remember. We fly to China a month from today!

Trip to Wasatch Back

We decided to take our "new to us" trailer and visit some Camperworld locations and visit some friends from our mission. The first night we stayed in Echo Island, near Coalville. We greatly enjoyed visiting with the Wagstaffs, who are also Camperworld members, and who worked at the lake with us last year.



The second night we spent at Knotty Pine in Woodland. We were able to visit with Ryan's parents for a few minutes but they already had family plans for the day. We unloaded the mule and went for a lovely ride that evening and then after supper we took the truck for a longer ride to check out where we might want to ride early the next morning. The wild flowers were beautiful.

Woops! There was a purple one to go here but I'm not smart enough to change it. It has taken one full hour to load these 6 pictures. I wish I knew what the problem is. At this rate you will get one picture a week, at best.

On Saturday morning we got up early and had breakfast and then went out for a few hours ride on the mule. There were fields of yellow, white and purple wildflowers and dramatic vistas.

After the ride we loaded the mule back up, showered, loaded up the trailer and headed for Heber. We had lunch at our favorite spot there and then parked the trailer and headed up to Heber Valley Camp. We were able to see many of our missionary friends there and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

It was a great few days and now we are ready to finish the home projects and packing. We found out today that we fly to China on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 9:35 PM.

Nevada for the 4th

We went into Elko on the 4th and saw a wonderful fireworks show. I actually took some pictures of Mike and Laurel's family with my new camera but I think I must have thought I was running a movie camera :-) They are a bit blurry.


Laurel and Russell have an amazing view of the Ruby mountains from their yard. There are very few houses between them and the mountains.

Our weekend in Nevada was a great experience for us. We ate and ate lots of wonderful food, played and played with delightful grandchildren, enjoyed talking with Laurel and Russell, appreciated our visit to their Ward and the people there, thought the scenery and fireworks were magnificent and even feel quite at home in the new trailer. On to the next adventures!



Eli also learned to pull himself up onto the ottoman and then over to the couch while we were there. He was right proud of himself.



Eli loved playing in a cardboard box that we brought some things in. He would climb in and out and in and out and put things in and out. What fun it was to watch him figure it all out.




Kate and I played in the the trailer with some playdough that I brought. We decided to make a flower garden.

We were lucky enough to take our new-to-us trailer on its "maiden voyage" and spend the weekend with Laurel, Russell and kids. We seemed to make each of the children happy with something we brought.

We were lucky enough to see family and friends along the way!

We drove to Columbus, Georgia and met Mike's brother Bill and his wife Peggy at the Coke Space Museum there. We had lunch together and had a nice visit.

We spent the night in Marietta, GA at Dobbins AFB. We met Cheryl and Ron for breakfast the next morning. I was so pleased with how good she looked. We have found out that she is in total remission. They find no trace of the tumor.

We were able to meet Winnie and Bill Pierce who are friends from our mission. We met them at the Battleship North Carolina in Wilmington, N.C. It was great to have a little time with them.

Graduation and the Air Museum

This is the Blackhawk Helicopter that Adam flies.

Look for the Jeep inside this one!

This is the inside of the one above. It is for hauling troops.

This was just after his wings were pinned on.

Wesson and I spent a great deal of time exploring the museum.

We spent the next few days helping Adam and Amy load the truck, clean their house and my major "painful" duty was playing with Wesson. Our main reason for being there was to see Adam graduate and get his wings. We were so proud of him and of course, he was the most handsome one there! His graduation was held in the Air Museum on base. I'm sharing a few pictures that I took there as well as the snap shot I got right after Amy pinned on his wings. (Those pictures are in her camera.)

Our Trip to the South

We were able to go to Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina to watch Adam get his wings and graduate and to help them move their belongings into storage at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. We flew into Montgomery, Alabama where Adam, Amy and Wesson picked us up. That night we went for Mexican food and I had a shrimp dish that was very good. I've never been given more shrimp with a dinner. We went to their Ward on Sunday and then we went to the beach by Panama City on Memorial Day and had a really fun day.