Approaching Christmas

I'm writing this entry on the 23rd of December and it is very cold outside. We wished we had a lot of snow to accompany the cold, but we'll take what we have. The mountains look pretty good and they have gotten hammered up north. The following pictures detail what's going on around our home.











Inside we've had the tree up for some time but it's getting a few packages strewn around the base. It certainly won't be like Christmas' of the past when the family is all home. Erin and Weston will join us on Christmas day after they have their Christmas morning in American Fork. So we're anxious to hear how that goes as we are with are other children.



Pam has been busy making treats to take around to our friends. She has made about two dozen loaves of bread and perhaps 3 dozen bags of these chinese chow mein noodle cookies. Fortunately we have given most of it all away.



Last Friday Pam and I drove north in good weather and ended up in a blowing snowstorm in downtown Salt Lake. It was wonderful! We went to see the Body World 3 exhibit and it was quite interesting. While we both knew the complication of the human body, but never to this extent. What a witness to the divinity of Heavenly Father and His creations. The next day we spent 3 hours with my sister Dixie and that was very enjoyable.

Yesterday we had an interesting experience. We got a Christmas card returned from very old friends from Hawaii, The Kinimaka's. Travis and Johanna might remember Danny and Leilani. Well I wondered where they were and did a google search on the name and didn't get anything conclusive with James Kinimaka, but when I searched for Elma Kinimaka I got a hit in Montrose Colorado. Following that up with a white pages search I was pretty certain I had found Elma. I called in the evening and sure enough it was our old friend. Pam spent a couple of hours with her and it was such a wonderful Christmas present to us. Unfortunately she and Jim divorced quite awhile ago and he has since passed away. So now we have another location to visit in Colorado.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and enjoys the spiriti of the season. President Monson summed it up this way:

"This is a glorious time of the year, simple in origin, deep in meaning, beautiful in tradition and custom, rich in memories, and charitable in spirit. It has an attraction to which our hearts are readily drawn. This joyful season brings to each of us a measure of happiness tha corresponds to the degree in which we have turned our mind, feelings, and actions to the spirit of Christmas."

Aunt Win's Home

Yesterday Pam and I decided to drive to Sandy and pay a visit to Aunt Win. On the way we picked up Erin and Kate and braved the snow storm going north. Actually it was more rain than snow, but here it is December and I like to talk about snow! Aunt Win's granddaughters came and helped her decorate for Christmas and it looked very nice.




The rest of her home is really nice and she is very comfortable living there.



Finally Aunt Win is looking good and is a busy as a bee. Her family and friends come and get her and take her here and there and she has a very active social calendar. Every time we leave we talk about how good it was to have her move to Sandy.




On a sad note. We learned this morning that a Marine F/A-18 had crashed in University City, San Diego yesterday. I got on line to see what that was all about and found the following items. The first picture was from a channel 6 site and showed right where the plane crashed. It had left the USS Abraham Lincoln and was returning to Miramar with one engine out. As it crossed over land it lost it's other engine and by the time it crashed it was just gliding. If you know anything about fighters - they don't glide!


This second picture is off of Google Earth and it shows the same streets with a little bigger picture. On the left is the football field at University City High School and at the top is the canyon between University City and the University Town Center Mall. The pilot was making a last ditch effort to reach the canyon before punching out. He didn't quite make it. He got out about 30 feet above the ground and was okay. The elbow street above is the same elbow shown in the picture below.

We lived about 2 or 3 miles to the west. One home was hit and 3 or 4 people were killed. The debris continued northeast and destroyed another home through the block and there was fire everywhere. Must have been a pretty scary event.

Early December Update

On the 3rd of December we did something we haven't done for awhile - just take a drive because! After a morning of work we headed out and drove south through the Marysvale canyon. Along the way we listened to CES fireside talks and they were very good. We stopped in Panguitch for lunch and gas and then drove up through the mountains to Brian Head and Parowan. The drive through the mountains was very beautiful and we stopped several times and took pictures. Even in the winter with minimal snow it was beautiful as the pictures below attest. We were in the mountains in the late afternoon sun and with the beautiful blue skies it was pretty spectacular. Once over the top we dropped down into Parowan and home via I-15.

We have been spending our time getting ready for Christmas with its decorations and for Pam the sewing. Each year she wonders if she will do it again, but when push comes to shove she enjoys watching her creations come to fruition.

We were very saddened to hear of the passing of Elder Wirthlin. We had just listened to a CES Fireside talk given by him about ten years ago and he was such a wonderful kind man. The funeral was held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle Friday and we watched a little of the replay today. I guess the only that is constant is change. So we look forward to see who will replace him and fill out the quorum of the twelve.

We certainly enjoyed seeing everyone's updates. You sure are great families!!!

Thanksgiving 2008

Well here we are at the end of November with the Thanksgiving Holiday behind us. We enjoyed having Andrew, Sarah and their children here with us last week and it was amazing to see the changes in our grandchildren. I had swept our yard of leaves and bagged them for the garbage pickup, but Andrew raked up the leaves under our Cherry tree and the kids had a great time playing in the leaves.




Thanksgiving Day was unusual to say the least. I think I am correct, but this was the first time in our married life that we spent the holiday by ourselves. It was all right, but we missed our family and would have willingly had them all come home. But we know you were all doing well in a variety of places and we hope you had a good time. Tom and Johanna we were amazed that you pulled off the surprise so well and hope you and the kids had a great time at Disneyland.

Pam and I were going to have a nice quiet meal by ourselves, but as the day proceeded along, noon came and went and we decided to just go to Richfield and see what was open. Well not much was but we ended up stopping at Frontier Village on the north end of town and we had a wonderful meal and the place was packed with people like just like us. Who would have thought someone else s cooking would have tasted so good but think of the up side - no dishes!

Well the next big event of the week was "Black Friday." I think that is what it is called. I'm not sure because down here it's an event to be reckoned with. I planned to go over this morning to get a couple of things from K-Mart and Wal-Mart, but didn't wake up early enough (that's a novelty) and when I arrived at Wal-Mart the place was packed and anything I wanted was long gone. K-Mart was much the same and so I came home empty handed. Later in the day we returned to Richfield and had lunch and said goodbye to Weston who had to go to work and the rest of us did some shopping at Home Depot and Wal-Mart. There were still some bargains and the next picture is one of those bargains.

Yes we are now the proud owners of a 37" Vizio LCD television and it is wonderful and fits in nicely in the bedroom.

As summer follows spring, putting up the christmas tree and decorations follows Thanksgiving. Poor Erin gets roped into this every year and I hope she likes it. But today we began and I'm sure during the next week our house will be transformed into Christmas.



And of course one of the benefits of have Weston and Erin in the neighborhood is Kate. She was wonderful this weekend and lit up our day with her smiles.


So with that we come to the end of another Thanksgiving weekend with much gratitude in our hearts for the rich blessings we enjoy. We are blessed with such wonderful children an spouses and great grandchildren. We are humbled by your spirituality and desires to serve in your wards and neighborhoods. We salute you as we do our many friends and pray the Lord's choices blessings to continue to be with you.

10 November 2008

Well I think it's time for another post. Here I am in Monroe again without Pam. She is back in Denver taking care of Travis' children while they are in Mexico. I know it was for a family wedding, but I want to know if Travis took a board with him!! Most of the inputs on this post are from the previous couple of weeks when I was in Denver with the family for Megan's baptism. Erin's latest post covered Halloween very nicely so I won't recover that time.

It just seems like yesterday that we were in Denver for Megan's birth. Where has eight years gone? She is such a wonderful young lady, so polite, kind, active and lovable. We hope that her memories of her baptism will stay with her forever. We are so proud of her preparation and desire to be baptized and make covenants with Heavenly Father.

Isn't she such a beautiful young lady. This is her baptism dress which Pam made for her.

Cousins: Kali, Megan, Haley, and Andrew at the baptism.

Jennifer, Kali, and Megan sharing something before the baptism service began.

Cynthia showing off Kate in her new dress which Erin made for her. Kate is a hard charger and had a few bumps on the tile floor in Travis' basement bathroom. Still cute however!

Friends, family and ward members at Megan's baptism.

Sarah and Reynolds. What a cute young man he is becoming.

Erin using her skills at the keyboard. She was playing prelude music and also the opening and closing songs for the baptism.

Travis, Jennifer and family with Beverly and Jessica

Travis, Jennifer and family with Pam and Me. I want Travis to know that I was standing downhill and he isn't as tall as me!

Later in the day we attended the open house for Megan's baptism at her home in Roxborough. It was a fun afternoon and evening attended by family and ward friends. We visit, ate, visted ate, and ate some more. Thanks Jennifer for the wonderful goodies!

Tom really sacrificed to be there as BYU was playing in Fort Collins. So he listened to the game on KSL radio over the internet and it was definitely more stressful that he had hoped for. BYU finally eked out the victory.

These are more pics of the open house and our family. Pam and I wonder often how lucky we are to have such wonderful daughters and son -in - laws and are grandchildren...well they couldn't be cuter and more delightful. Alex was in the hospital with Benjamin and he was spending his last weekend in the hospital. We are so grateful that he is now home and doing very well.



Pam will be home with me next Monday and then perhaps our lives will become more mundane. We do have some projects to complete around the house and I'm sure we will be kept busy. But winter has set its sights on Monroe and are mountains are white with snow and the lawn has stopped growing-hurrah!!!