Portland and Paisley

A month or so ago we got a HS graduation announcement from Tess O'Leary.  Can you imagine?  She was just a baby when we left Paisley and here she is graduating.  Well, Dan thought it about time to attend a graduation there so we flew into Portland on June 6.

 

 I was just getting in SL from our Sister's Retreat in LV and had stayed the night in Provo with Gracie. 

 

Dan had taken the 2:20 AM shuttle from home to SL and we met there at the airport. Our flights were good and Tessha picked us up at the airport in Portland. We came a couple of days early so we could spend some time with her and Patrick.
She and I went for walks everyday and I realized how much I had missed her company. We get along so well and can possible walk and talk forever. But, sometimes the men like to eat, too so we went to lunch at a favorite of Dan's and Tessha's.

 

Gustah's is a wonderful little German resturant close by the Washington Square Mall. I guess Tessha and Dan have eaten there before but this was my first time and I think Patrick's as well.
We had an amazing, quiet, enjoyable lunch together before Patrick needed to get back to work.

 

Tessha and I did some Father's Day shopping and later that evening presented Dan with some new clothes for his fun return to Paisley.

On Saturday morning Tessha fixed us a breakfast of "hole in ones" before she loaned us her car to drive to Paisley. 

 Dan and I headed out about 9:00 since the graduation was at 4:00 and it was a good 5 hour drive. We made good time and even got to stop at Bob and Diane Elders for a few minutes.
I didn't get a picture but we sure had a good visit. They're both doing well and we got caught up on lots of the goings on. We've sure missed everyone in Paisley and Lakeview and it was nice to hear how well everyone was doing.

When we got to Paisley we went by some of our favorite spots and stopped at the swimming hole up the canyon. 

 

Dan had me take pictures of the inside of the gym for "old times sake".

I'm sure several of our kids will remember these.

We had such a great visit with everyone before the graduation began. 

It was almost like being "home" again.

 

Tess was the Valvictorian and gave a great speech.

 

Here's a picture of Dan in front of the ball field.

and the school. 

 

Somewhere there is a picture of him similar to this only about 23 years earlier.

 

After the graduation we went to the O'Leary ranch and had a wonderful BBQ with everyone.  And then we headed on down to Lakeview.  Elders had told us the the Voelkels were still in town so we stopped by to see them, too.

They had put in their mission papers and received a call to Brazil but the visas hadn't come through yet and they were still had home.  We had such a great visit with them both.  Aren't we glad that friends are forever, too.

 

It was late when we left them so we went straight to our room in the King's motel in Lakeview.  Bob and Barbara were out of town but arrived home around 11:00.  Barbara called our room and we talked for a few minutes but didn't get to see them since we were leaving around 5:30 the next morning.

 

It had been a very full, fun-filled day and we were both rather tired when we finally got to bed.

 

The drive back to Portland was beautiful.  We had driven down through the Willamette Pass down pass Eugene so we decided to drive back through the Santiam Pass up Bend and into Salem.  Both drives were amazingly beautiful this time of year and we enjoyed every minute of the trip.

We arrived back in Portland just in time for Patrick and Tessha to take us to the airport. We caught our flights and were headed back to SL before we knew it.  It was a long night's drive back to Idaho but we did it and look back on a great visit to Portland and Paisley.

Thanks Tessha and Patrick for all your help!!

As a side note: Dan and I had talked about whether to go to Tess's graduation or Megan's wedding which was to be later in the summer.  I'm glad we went when we did because now Dan has been in the hospital for 2 weeks and they're thinking he'll probably be there another week at least.  If we hadn't of gone then we might have not made it later.

Good thinking, Dan.





Sister's Sweet Retreat in Las Vegas

In March I started thinking it was time for another Sister's Sweet Retreat.   We had hoped in the beginning to have some cousins with us this time so we invited Angie and Shellie as well as Nancy and Joan.  We really wanted to have some time with Aunt Lorraine and Aunt Charlene, as well.  Angie and I have wanted to get more history on our grandparents and parents lives and were thinking we'd better do it soon.  So, this time we had decided to go to Las Vegas so it would be closer for Aunt Charlene and some of the others.

I arranged for a condo at the WorldMark there and sent out invites.  Howbeit, Aunt Charlene wasn't able to come since Uncle Burl had recently fallen and needed her at home.  Nancy and Joan were also unable to come because of family plans.  Angie thought she'd be able to be with us but at the last minute she found out she'd have family at her place that same time.  Penny had just gotten a new job and wasn't able to take the tim off so it ended up being Peggy, Margie and I.  But, of course we would have fun and that's just what we did.

I left here Friday, May 31st right after school.  Bea was covering me at the pharmacy so I headed straight for Peggy's and we headed to Margie's.  We got there around 9:00 had a nice visit soaking in her hot tub and all.  We got a good night sleep and left early the next morning.  Margie drove and we stopped in Cedar City to see John and Natalie.  Natalie was still in the hospital because they had just had a new little boy.  James was also there so we got to visit with him over lunch.  Again, I should have taken more pictures, but alas...
We also stopped at Cosco in St. George to get some groceries for our retreat.  We met up with Peter there and had a nice visit with him before leaving for Vegas.

We got in that evening and got settled in our rooms for the night.

WorldMark had given us some "cheap" tickets to the Donny and Marie Show on condition we do a presentation with them.  Since we wanted to go to the show we arranged to do the "presentation" on Monday morning.  (Now my memory may fail me but I'll try to keep it straight.  Any corrections are welcomed and appreciated.)

Sunday morning we went to the Las Vegas Temple and walked around before going to see Ephraim's Rescue.  We had a nice time at the temple and I did get a few pictures there. 
Afterwards, the show was wonderful and a great way to spend the sabbath since we didn't know times and places of a church to go to.

 

 

Monday morning we went to the breakfast/presentation and met a wonderful young man.  We had a lovely visit with him and even got to bear our testimonies to him.  He knew several other "Mormons" and had good impressions so it was easy to talk with him.  Later, after relaxing on the balcony and visiting with those we'd left at home

 

 

 we got ready and took off for the stores.  We went everywhere from Wal-Mart to the Mall and bought everything from fingernail polish to shoes, shoes and more shoes.  Now we each have some really nice comfortable and fashionable shoes.  We even have matching shoes thanks to Peggy.  We found matching blouses again this year and just about everything else.

When we got back to our condo we had a bite to eat and crashed watching a movie. 

 

Tuesday morning I fixed breakfast for us and we left to do a temple session together.

Wish I could figure out how to turn photos that upload sideways on the blogs.  Not all do, but sometimes it happens and I don't know how to fix them.  At least in my CD version they will be righted. Anyway, we ate breakfast and went to the temple.

 

We ate a late lunch at the temple and visited with a sister outside afterwards.  She was from another country (can't remember where) and on her way to visit a US friend.  Again, the spirit was strong and testimonies were boren.  It all felt so right! 

We returned to our condo to get ready for the show.  Our tickets were for a table in the balcony but when we got them they ushered us right up front.  We were almost dead-centered about 7-8 feet from the stage.  It was wonderful and the show was great.

 

One evening we sat in the hot tubs and visited with a couple from Australia.  

Wednesday morning we loaded the car and headed back north.  We stopped in Logandale and visited with Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Gail.  It may be the last time we see them since they are moving closer to their children.  We had a nice visit and Aunt Lorraine shared with us that her family had lived in Rigby but moved to Pocatello before Marilyn graduated from HS.  They moved into a train car while they built the brick home on 5th South.  That's one more cue to their family life.  Thanks Aunt Lorraine!!

 

When we got to St. George we stopped to shop a bit more, had lunch and then went on home.  We got to Margie's somewhere around 8:30-9:00 and into Provo around 11:30.  Mark met Peggy and I at Gracie's place and took her on home with him.  I stayed the night with Grace because she was taking me to the airport in the morning.  I was going to meet Dan there and fly to Portland. 

Another great Sister's Retreat!



 

Memorial Day 2013

We are always so blessed to live close to those who have passed on.  Dan and I absolutely love Memorial Day when we get to visit all the graves and spend some time together there.  This year I had taken flowers to my great-grandparents (my Granpa Harmon's parents) graves in Rigby on the 24th and then we went on Saturday May 25th as I was going to be working on Memorial Day.  Knowing that we would need to do some ground work at Dad and Mom's place, we stopped at Kesler's in Blackfoot and picked up a little broom and dustpan.  Dan also asked for an ice cream cone while we were there.  He wasn't feeling very good that day so he sat in the car while I went in.  I saw Ladd and Jane Carter in the store and we had a nice visit for a few minutes.  Afterwards, we went out to the cemetery and got to work.  The grass had grown up around the marble fountation Kelly had set in place.  It was breaking pieces lose so I cleared the ground around it.  I ended up clearing the ground around the whole bench since grass was closing in fast.  Thought it better to just do it then.

 Kelly had made sure they put Mom's death date on the bench.  There was no additional cost for it but it just needed to be done.  Thank you, Kelly.

Afterwards, we went to Pocatello and decorated Granpa and Granma Rohde's spot.  I have such good memeories of them both. 

 When we got to the Thomas Cemetery we found Jo and Dave there.  We had a nice visit, decorated Dan and Lois's as well as Darren Nisson's spot.  We went over to Granpa and Granma's and Aunt Helen's place with flowers, too. 

From there we did Granpa and Granma England's in Moreland.  Dan wasn't feeling good at all by this time so we just hurried home. 

I love Memorial Day and hope the kids will be able to carry on the traditions.  I miss the days they went with us and we would tell stories about our ancestors.  Often they would bring their Book of Remembrances and we'd read the stories straight out of their books.  Many of them were named after some of these great people and it would be nice to keep these memories alive.

I have to say here that there is a new app for Ipod and Smartphones.  You can now take pictures of graves and headstones and upload them for family history research.  Can you imagine?  There may well be Cemetery Missions where little, old couples take their RVs and drive all over the country (world) and take pictures of headstones for genealogy research.  Dates, names, places all downloaded for assessable genealogical information.  How fun would that be??

Mother's Day 2013

As soon as I had just arrived back from Atlanta I found a flower box on the front porch.  Laura had sent me a tulip bouquet for Mother's Day.  It was beautiful; unexpected but very much appreciated.  We had celebrated Mother's Day while in Atlanta.  Dan and Luke had bought flowers for Jenn, Dalynn and me there.  I left mine with them since it would have been difficult to get them home saftely.  So, having some from Mark and Laura was a real treat. 
The kids at Luke's had made me a floral lay (sp?) and Karly had made me a rose bouquet.  Alisha had bought me a cookie sheet before we left and on Sunday I received many well wishes, phone calls, and FB messages.  Thank you all!!