Hooray He Is Home and Safe!

 

Adam is home from Afghanistan!  Three times is enough!  They had better let him be home with his family now!  Amy flew out to Tenn. and met him and they got a house and got their stuff moved in and then flew together to Cedar City where Wesson was staying with his other grandma.  They all were on their way to their new home and stopped in Richfield to have lunch with us and a short visit.  It was sure good to see him and that cute family back together again.  I think that maybe, just maybe Wesson is glued to his dad!

Temple Shift Party at Twin Creeks Pavilion at Fish Lake

One of my favorite things about working in the temple is the sisterhood and brotherhood that you build with the other temple workers.  There is the choicest of spirits there.  There are about 80 people who work on a shift at the temple and there are three shifts a day five days a week.  There are two parties held each year to allow people to visit on a casual basis.  The summer parties have been held the last few years at a pavilion at Fish Lake. 

 

On of the brothers on the sift is Italian and really knows how to cook for a crowd.  We had the bread with oil and balsamic vinegar, olives, salami and cheese to start with then he had a wonderful marinated tomato salad.  That was followed by a pasta with meatballs and lots of cheese and then a sausage and pepper dish.  For dessert we had a frozen ice and the little stick cookies.  It was excellent!  

This is Gary Ramos in his Italian apron and the sausage and peppers behind on his grill.  The following is a picture of the town in Italy that his family is from, his mother and grandparents in Italy and the family.

 

Another brother catches fish and fish and fish and bring them and deep fat fries the piece.  It is amazingly crispy and good.  I have no idea how many fish he must have caught because people were filling their plates over and over.  

These past few weeks have been so busy and such a blessing with wonder family, friends and beautiful surroundings.  

Fish Lake Camping and Visiting Loa

This is a picture of the lake taken from the campground that we stayed in.  There were very few fishermen or boats at any time during the weekend.  We were quite surprised because people always talk about the great fishing a Fish Lake. 

  It is a very cold lake so there is so swimming or water skiing.  It is 170 feet deep at its deepest point and is 5.5 miles long and 1.5 mile wide.  It is at an elevation of 8,843 feet.  I was having some trouble breathing and finally realized that I was in a much higher altitude.

One of the interesting things that we saw on a drive is this historical marker for the Old Spanish Trail.  I loved the metal images the were near the information.

We went on two long rides on the mule and I took lots of pictures.  Here are a few.

We went to the Fish Lake Lodge, which was built in 1928 out of logs, for a very good prime rib dinner. It is rather humorous that when I pulled up images of fish lake lodge there were the cabins around it and other pictures but no pictures of the lodge. It is quite run-down looking and needs a new roof.  I thought that there might be a picture from a distance but I didn't find one that really shows what it looks like.

On Sunday we went down to Loa to go to church.  There are four couples in that ward that are on our temple shift so it was fun to visit their ward.  My, what an amazing old building it was.  The original building was built in 1906.  It used to have a balcony that went around the entire chapel but was remodeled and the front section was removed.  I don't have pictures that do it justice but it was quite an amazing place.  Our 80+ friend told me that he used to play basketball in the gym that was under the chapel.  There is an elevator just inside the lower door for those who can't climb all of those stairs.  There was lovely carving on the ends of the benches.  The windows were opened to let the cool breeze flow in and it was quite an experience to enjoy. 

This little building was across the street from the church.  We didn't take the time to go are read the label but it had a historic register sign on it.  I'm sure that it was either a Relief Society building or a Bishop's Storehouse. 

After the three hour block we drove back to the trailer and cooked lunch.  There was a very long and heavy rainstorm soon after and we enjoyed just sitting in the trailer and reading.

Marvin Wu and Family Visit

While we were in China we were able to take many wonderful tours.  BYU worked with a travel agent in Qingdao named Marvin Wu.  He has a wonderful personality and really loved traveling and working with the China Teachers.  He has been doing the China Teachers tours for 23 years.  Because he lived in Qingdao we got to know him better than most.  He would arrange for us to get to and from the airport when we were starting tours in other places and took all of us out to dinner before we left that summer.  He brought his wife and daughter over to see USA and talked with the new group of teachers heading to China last week.  We had a gathering in Provo and had a chance to visit with them.  Marvin always said that he would like his daughter (who was in kindergarten when we were in China) to go to BYU.  I hope that really happens. 

So Many Fun Times

 

Although we were not able to get all of the family here at the same time we got most of them here over a few day period.  Laurel and Russell needed to go to Idaho for his father's burial and so the kids stayed here with us and Shelly's family.  Cliff and Isaac were great helps and I had very little to do with the three of them keeping the kids happy and cared for.  We went over to Spring City to the 24th of July parade and watched it in front of Shirley and Lanny's gallery.  It was fun for Lan to get to meet Cliff and see Shelly and the kids had big hats full of candy that was thrown in the parade. 

 

Mike's favorite entry in the parade was the alpacas.  They actually live across the street from the gallery to the north.  

This was actually quite a dark picture but I lightened it so that it was more visible.  It was such a joy for me to see how Kate would work her way into her grandpa's heart and arms.

On Friday the Benson and Maxwell families were going to join us and we were going to do some activities in Midway remembering time with my parents.  It simply didn't work out and we decided to gather at our home instead.  Cliff and Mike made little boats for the kids and then they each decorated their own boats and floated them down some old pieces of rain gutter that me have.  Benson's brought a slip-and-slide and everyone seemed to have a great time.  Later that afternoon Art and Steph and family headed on their was to Disneyland and Amy, her mother Brenda and Wesson arrived.  For some reason I didn't get any more pictures of the weekend but it was such a joy for me to spend time with my children and grandchildren. 

 

No picture here but on Saturday the "girls" went over to Spring City to have breakfast and celebrate Laurel's upcoming birthday.  Mike, Isaac and Cliff kept the kids.  After a fun breakfast I drove them around town and showed them some of the lovely old places and when we got back to Shirley's gallery the were outside.  They showed everyone their apartment and gallery and Lan was able to see more of his nieces and nieces-in-law.  It was a fun morning.  We just hung out in a very hot house the rest of the day and everyone headed back their separate ways the next morning.