Christmas and Stuff

Today is the Sunday after Christmas and life is finally settling down.  Life has been incredibly busy.  The day before Christmas was our "P" day, a day off,. We got everything ready for Christmas Eve.  Christmas Eve the big thing in our family.  Melody was kind enough to host our traditional events.  I picked up all the fixing for the Wassail, A hot spicy fruit drink.  We then went and started to make soup so we could get ready for the nightly events.  

For the the last 30+ years we have gone out on Christmas eve and caroled in the neighborhood. It has become a tradition not only for us but also for all of our old friends to whom we go every year, it is great fun.  Todd and his new wife Shelly was able to go with us.  He was not able to go for many years due to his former wife's illness.  Some of our friends are having issues with their health, so it was great to be able to share our love with them in song.

We then went to Melodies home for soup and then the Christmas Nativity, most of the family take part, with Shepherds, Wise Men, Angels, The Inn Keeper, and most of all Mary and Joseph.   Todd and Shelly were the stars as Mary and Joseph.  We then bear testimony of the Savior and exchange gifts.  

Christmas Day was really different for us as we are serving on Temple Square as Missionaries. We got up early to see what Santa brought.  Mom got her Diamond ring fixed with a ruby replacing the center diamond, it looks really good.  She also got a MP3 player.  The player has been a real hit as I loaded most of her favorite songs.  I am sure that she will have sores in her ears from over use.  

We then spent the rest of the day visiting with guests coming to see the beauty of the Square. We closed the venues at 6:00 P M and then went to serve Christmas Dinner the Sister Missionaries.  Elder Glad was a waiter and Sister Glad worked as kitchen help.  The evening was concluded by a Christmas Program of music, lots of choirs from the zones and elder 

Elders and Sisters.  Sister Glad was called upon to play eight song.  She was just great her talent is hard to hide. 

The lights have been on for all of the rest of the week with tonight, Sunday the 28 being the last night.

We had an interesting thing happen this last week.  One of our goals is to get guests to go on tours so they can hear the Sister Missionaries tell them about our Church and get referrals. most people want to just go on their own, so there is little chance to obtain referrals .  We were at the South Gate when a couple came in. I greeted them and asked if they wanted to take a free walk around tour with the Sister Missionaries.  They said no that there were not interested.  I then asked them if I could get them a map and explain the things to see on the Square.  The said no that they would be fine.  I told them to enjoy them selves, when Sister Glad's voice came from the Visitors Information Booth "Would you like to learn more about our Church".  

They said "Yes,  we are very intreased about your faith"  They wanted to have missionaries come to their home to teach them and bring them a Book of Mormon.  Things are not always the way we think they are.   

Missionary Christmas

Christmas time on Temple Square is a wonder of beauty and busyness.  We have completed all of our Christmas shopping, done mostly on Amazon.com as we did not have much time for shopping in the stores.  We bought a "small" Christmas tree that sits on our end table.  We got one that was fiber optic so we did not have to worry about lights.  We did put some small colored balls on it.  The pile of packages under the tree is larger the the tree.  We really don't care because if we want to get in the Christmas Spirit all we have to do is look out the window.

We have placed our Christmas Stockings over the fire place with care knowing that Santa Claus will not be there this year.  Christmas Day will be spent on the Square.  We will be working until 5:00 pm.  Christmas Dinner for all of the Sister Missionaries will be at 5:30 pm.  We will be serving dinner, all of the Senior Elders will be wearing white shirts, black pants and black bow ties.  The Senior Sisters will be wearing matching aprons.   The Christmas Program will start at 8:00 pm.  Mom is playing the piano for the Senior bell Choir, eight songs.  Each zone of the young Sisters will be doing a song.  So Christmas will be a busy day. 

Some special things have taken place on the Square this week.  Elder Scott came to Mission Conference and spoke. He gave all of the Sisters a Apostolic blessing that they could have the gift of tongues, that they would be able to speak the English Language clearly by exercising their faith and work. 

President Stewart has completed his time as the president of the mission,  as special for him, permission was given for all of the Missionaries to go in to  the Tabernacle after closing.  We then all sat in the Choir seats and recorded some of our special songs.  The young sisters took up half of the seats and sang like angels.  We have a CD with the songs.  

We are going to Marty and Melody's home for making candy Sunday.  We will go to the old neighborhood on Christmas Eve to carol and open family gifts.  

 

closer to Christmas

We woke up this morning to the first real snow of the Winter, to some that is a wondrous event but to us who have suffered through many years of cold and snow here in Zion it was just cold and slick.  I took some pictures of our forest under our window.  

Today is Sunday we have had a great day.  We were able to attend this morning the Tabernacle Choir annual Christmas Bells Concert.  Brian Stokes Mitchell, a Broadway singer and Edward Herrmann were the guest performers.  It was wonderful.  The story was told about how the song "I heard the bells on Christmas day" was written.  It wonderful story about how Henry W. Longfellow found hope during personal crisis in the 1860s in the midst of the Civil war by his faith in the Savior.  

We are really busy now as we have some new assignments to do on the Square. We are in charge of the Sisters Exercise Program.  We get up early, the building needs to be opened prior the 6:00 am,  Monday, Wednesday and Friday at a local Stake House so the Sisters can exercise.  Their favorite thing is to play soccer in the gym.  A couple of Sisters played for good teams back in their home countries.  It really gets loud and competive. 

 Dad has also the assignment of getting everything ready for Sacrament Meeting, making the assignments for preparing, blessing and passing the Sacrament.  We go early, 6:30 AM,  Sunday Morning to get everything ready, opening the building, turning on the lights ect.  We are turning in to early morning people.   

 

Mom gets to go early Saturday Mornings to practice for a special Christmas musical program. She will be playing the Piano. 

At the end of each day we walk home through the Christmas lights up the hill to our apartment,  to feel good about another day spent in the service of the Lord. 

Christmas time on Temple Square

It is Christmas time on Temple Square.  We Invited Melody, Marty and family to see the lights and then come to our apartment for dessert.  We are doing this with all the family except for Roy and Angel, they can't come to Utah this Christmas.  We will really miss them.

Jimmy came to the Statue of the Christ and sat down in front of It all by his self.  The dark bumpy thing in front is Jimmy's head with his bumpy hat on.

We had the funeral for Elder Wirthlin.  Security set up posts at all of the gates on Temple Square with metal scanners ect.  We had to work in the Beehive House during the funeral.  The Sister Missionaries take the people on the tours and we greet the guests and insure that everything goes well, when suddenly we rang for the Sisters to take a group of visitors on a tour and all the Sisters were gone.  They all went to the funeral with out telling us. We had a great time trying to greet visitors and take tours at the same time.  We found that the only way we could do it was by closing and locking the front doors between tours.  

Christmas Story 

We were a struggling family with three small children.  It was hard on our budget to purchase all the gifts for the kids and all of the other things that a good Christmas required.  I was working as an industrial radiographer taking x-ray's of welds in steel fabrication shops.  The work required being in the shops when no one was there due to the radiation hazard.  I had to work late on a night just before Christmas, when Mom called to remind me that I needed to get a Christmas Tree.   I stopped on he way home from work and got a pretty good tree and put it in the trunk of the car and started home.  The Christmas spirit seemed to be really strong because every one was honking and waving to me as I drove home.  It was great to have everyone be so friendly so I waved and honked back.  

I opened the trunk to get the tree only to discover that the tree had fallen out and that I had dragged the tree all of the way home by the rope that I had used to secure it.  There was no needles left on the tree in fact the limbs were pretty skimpy also.  We couldn't afford a new tree so the beat up one had to do.  The kids didn't even notice the difference,  so much for really pretty tree, little kids are more interested in the gifts, but Mom and I felt pretty bad especially when friends or family came to call.

Turkey day and Reunion

Thanksgiving this year was spent with all of our foster daughters, the Sister Missionaries.  We closed Temple Square at 5:00 pm and took all 160 missionaries to "Chuck O Rama" for dinner. 

President Stewart spent some time in the morning explaining the concept of the American Thanksgiving to all of the Sisters, many are from different cultures and have no idea of our traditions.  I am not sure that all of the Sisters had turkey and cranberry sauce.   I asked several if they liked the cranberry sauce, they looked at me and said what is that?

All of the Sisters have Digital Cameras, so a lot of the time is spent taking pictures of each other.  It is amazing to see all of the flashes going off all over the room.
Sister Glad took this picture with me talking with some of the sisters from left to right, Hungry, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, and France. Sister "K", from Hungry is on of our favorite. We use Initials or nick names as many of the names are very hard for the older English tongue to pronounce, 

Sister glad with some "Indians" from Tonga and Hawaii.  The gals love to dress up.  Mom is mentoring a new Missionary from Brazil.  They assign a senior missionary to met once a week with new missionaries to help them in the transition to the U. S. culture and learning English. Many of the Sisters have English as a second language and are struggling to speak it clearly. They are required to take people who speak English on tours many times each day, so they are thrown in to the fire quickly.  
We were working in the North Visitors Center Sunday night when who should show up but Wayne and Karen.  We had a good visit with them.  Wayne is here for a doctor appointment. He did not know that we were here on a mission and had come to see the lights, then LaVere and Diane walked in, they were here with Shaun, their adopted son, and some of Dianes family. They had came to see the lights.  It was a real unplanned family get together. Cami had also came in earlier with all of her family.  Temple Square is really busy during the Christmas Season.  

We had 900,000 Visitors come to the Square last year.  It seemed that that they were all here Saturday and Sunday.  We had to deal with, one bloody nose, a child that need a barf bag and help cleaning up s stinky mess, band aids, three sets of lost children, keeping track of wheel chairs, making sure that the Choirs were in the right place at the right time and some how getting the visitors out of the buildings so we could close up for the night.   Real fun !!

Story #3

I was a young 20 year old man going on a Mission, we went when we were 20 in the good old days, entering the Mission Home.  I was not sure what I was getting my self in to, was scared, very unsure of my self.  There was a large sign at the front door which read "Don't be a crank, be a self starter."  I said to my self that is what I want to be. Since then I have always tried to be a self starter.  My mission was some times hard, we went out every day knocking on doors from 10 in the morning to 10 at night as we had no referrals, but I started each day in my morning prayer by asking for the desire to work hard that day to be a self starter.  I think that it is important in life to go do what is right with out asking for some once else to motivate you, to really be a self starter.

turkey day comming

Thanksgiving is on the way.  Things on the Square are starting to pick up as we are preparing for the Christmas Season.  The musical "Savior of the World" is in full swing.  It is showing in the Little Theater in the Conference Center, part of our job for Wednesday night is to go after the production and escort the Sister Missionaries home.  The Sisters have the assignment of welcoming the guests and saying the opening prayer.  They are to be in the forefront as much as possible, so people with questions will be able to approach them.  The mission also has a program of setting aside 30 tickets for each performance for inactive or nonmembers.  A letter was sent to all of the Stake Presidents in the valley, with the information that if they need tickets for missionary purposes to call the Mission.  We have been working at the call center to reserve the tickets for any that respond to the letter.

The Choir had a really good Thanksgiving program the morning, one of the really wonderful events we have been able to attend.  We went to a program in the Tabernacle Friday night called the Bells of Christmas Square. Mom really loved it.  It just sounded to me just like a lot of people ringing bells with no lyrics.  I guess I don't have a appreciation of for the fine arts, or maybe I am harder to please.  

We went on a Tour of the Salt Lake Cemetery Tuesday.  It was really fun.  We visited the graves of all of the Prophets except for Joseph Smith, buried in Nauvoo, Brigham Young, buried in the Brigham Young Park, and Ezra Taft Benson, buried in his home  in Idaho.  The Sisters were assigned to give a short talk about the life of each Prophet.  The best part of the tour was an opportunity to have reminiscence with President Stuart about the old times. He was Student Body President of South High School when I was there.  He was my brother Doug's Counsellor in the bishopric.  He was Bishop of the old South Gate Ward while my Grandmother Glad was still alive.  My Mom and Dad both came from that ward.  

Second event from My life. 

 

I was eight years old when one day I came home from School to find my Mother in the front room talking with some of the other women from the Neighborhood.  They were discussing the poor behavior of many of the children.  I was in the back room so I thought they did not know that I was eavesdropping, when my Mom said "my Dwayne is a good boy.  He would not do any of those things."  It was one of that moments that sets the course of your life.  I knew that I was a good boy and I could not do bad things.  My Mom died when I was ten years old and I always felt that she was watching over me an her "good boy".

christmas Nativity

The Nativity settings have been put out on the Square in preparation for the turning on of the lights on the 28th of December.   The traditional one on the south side of the North Visitor Center and several others around the area South of the Church Office Building.  The one I have been most impressed with is in the Reflecting Pond just east of the Temple.  

The setting of being in the pond with the reflection of the Temple in the water makes it very special.  Mom and I walk by it every day on our way to serve on the Square. 

We had a very interesting experience on the Square last week.  Some nut sent a letter with a white powder in it addressed to the Salt Lake Temple.  The mail room for the Temple is in the Annex just North of the Temple.  The Temple was closed, all of the Tunnels were closed.  North Temple Street was closed.  Six Fire Engines and the Hazard Material People were sent to the area.  It was a real mess !!  The returned address was from California.  The press says that no one knows who or what group is responsible, "Duh".  Our friends from the gay community had another demonstration here Saturday night at the City and County and State Capital Buildings, at least they were not here on the Square. 

I am going to share some of the wonderful things that have happened in my life in the Blog, one each week.  

Mom and I were serving as the Assistant Baptistery Coordinators in the Nauvoo Temple on Wednesdays.  The Baptistery is normally very busy with all of the Young Performing Missionaries, Youth Conferences and Families from out of town coming to do Baptisms.  One morning there was no one in the Baptistery, very unusual, when the Coordinator cane down to tell us that there was a deaf woman come to the Temple to do Baptisms for some of her family.  She had not been to the Temple for many years.  She did not have any priesthood do the ordinance, so I went and put my white clothing  on to to baptise her.  

We were alone, just the Baptistery Coordinator , the witnesses, Mom, and the Temple Coordinator. When I started to do the Ordnance an over powering spirit filled the room.  I  looked up at the Witnesses and they were both weeping.  The Coordinator was weeping.  The Sister that was being baptised was weeping.  Then I understood what was going on.  The dear sister was understanding every word I was saying as I performed the Baptisms.  It was a time when the Lord reached out his hand to bless all of that were there with a demonstration of his love for us, that the Temple is really his Holy House.   

    

Birthdays and Butheads

We went to work in the Beehive House Sunday night.  The Christmas Tree was up and Decorated, really cozy.  I think this may be just a little early, but it was really warm and nice.  

It was Sister Glad's birthday Friday, we were busy, so we celebrated on Saturday night.  It was really great.  We went to the Garden room on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for a nice dinner.   There was a nice concert in the Assembly Hall, the USU Chamber Singers and Chorale, they were really good, just the kind of thing that Mom likes.  

Friday night was really interesting, we were assigned to work in the South gate, when Security arrived to tell us that a demonstration was assembling to show support for the Gay People and against Prop. #8.   What do we in Utah have to do with with Prop. #8?  It seems that our former Mayor Rocky Anderson and Friends thought that this would be a great opportunity to attack the Mormon Church again.  They arrived with all of their signs, horns and what ever they could find.  The March was around the square on the Street, then they got on the sidewalk and walked around the square shouting and trying to make as much problems as possible.  The Newspaper said that it was a nonviolent demonstration.  

The security closed all of the Gates on the Square and then we sent all of the Sister Missionaries home though the Tunnels.  They all got home ok.  Security closed the Square at 7:00 pm so Sister Glad were able to get home safely.  

There some elderly folks that were coming to the Square to attend a concert and were caught between the closed gate and the demonstrators lots of fear and tears were shed.  Some people who were on the Square we afraid to go home and many of them were in tears.  Some nonviolent demonstration.

Some sick people just will never accept the will of the People or God in our country.

Park City and Crazy times

Last Night was Halloween, most of the Sisters are from countries all over the and have no idea about American holidays or traditions.  We closed up all of the buildings on the Square at 5:00 pm and they went to a local Stake Center to Party.

We all ate Pizza, "Dirt and Worms" and drank Apple Cider.  We then had Costume Parade, just like in Elementary School.  The Sisters then went "trick of treating" to some of the class rooms.  

 

We went as Elder Glad Bag and Sister Glad Wrap, simple but effective.  We then stayed up late to clean up the mess that all of the Hyper sisters left.  It was a great time had by all.  

Some comments from the Sisters.  What does Trick part mean?  I don't want to eat worms! 

what is it that we are celebrating?  Why do we cut up Pumpkins?  ect. 

We are serving at the "Family Tree" in Park City, a visitor center to attract the attention of all of the people who come there to vacation.  We are to help them to find some of their family history and introduce them to the Church.  We go Park City on Tuesdays.  

We have access to several Commercial Data Bases, such as Ancestor dot com.  I, Dad have found some interesting things on the other sites.  Such as Niels Peter Andersons' Passport application.  Showing the Ship he was on while sailing to America.  The ship was in a collision with another ship while returning to the old country and sank.  I am also finding a lot of information on the "Parents line".

 

Every week is a new adventure.

temple square pictures

The "Clay Glad" Gang

                                                             Temple Inscription

                                                                    Fall Flowers

                                                            Mums by Joseph Smith Building

                                      Rose in the Garden south of the Relief Society building

                                              Center pipes in the Tabernacle Organ

                                 New Pansy just planted last week as part of the fall flowers

                                             Fountain just East of the Reflecting Pond

                                               The Cristus in the North Visiter Center

                                             The Three Witnesses, South of the Temple

                                        Lion Head at the base or the Joseph Smith Building

                                          Demolation of the "ZCMI  Food Court"

These are some of the sights that we see every day on Temple Square.

                                              What a Great Life !!

Beehive House

We have been working in the Beehive House on Sundays from 5:oo pm to 9:00 pm.  It has been slow the last few weeks now that the tourist season is over.  The picture above is from Brigham Young's Bedroom with his hat and cane on the bed.  His Daughter Chrissa Young Spencer wrote a book about life in the Beehive house.  She was to inherit the house and live most of her life there.  She tells about going to fathers room to have breakfast with him.  How that He had a bell that he rang for all the family to come to Prayers.  Meals were prepared and eaten in the Lion House next door.  The Beehive House and the Lion House were attached to each other by an area that served as the office for his clerks.  Brigham Young was the Prophet, Governor and Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs  so it was a very busy office.

  
                                     Brigham Young's Bedroom with his scriptures 

Brigham young had three homes in the area of the Beehive house.  The White House which was East of the Lion house and was the home of his first wife.  The Beehive house which served as his office and reception area, where all of the official business was conducted.  There was one wife living there.  The Lion House west of the Beehive House.  There were twelve wives and their families living there.  It was all of very loving and supportive group of people.  

Brigham Young did not make much of his Birthdays.  The Family wanted to give him a gift for one of his Birthdays that would show the love and respect they all felt for him.  It was a popular fad at that time to have "Hair Sculptures" made.  They wanted to give him a gift that would be part of all of them.  They had all of the family give some hair  and had the the bouquet of flowers made for him from some hair from each of them.

The Beehive House served as the office of the President of the Church for many years after the death of Brigham Young until the church administration offices were constructed just to the west of the complex.  

It is really fun to work on the Beehive House and to tell the stories of this great Prophet and Father. 

Snow, Snow, and Singing

The first snow storm of the year came Sunday, all of the Sisters were out in their winter coats scarves and hats. We were at the South Gate on Friday night, because of construction around the Seagull Monument, the heated booths were shut down. We stood in the cold and yucky weather and visited with the folks as they came in the gate. It got really cold so we went in to the Visitors Center or stood next to the Building.

We went to Park City on Tuesday to work in the Family Tree Center, where people can come to access the genealogy programs of the Church. We will be there every Tuesday for the next two weeks.

We were at the West Gate on Saturday, when we were overwhelmed with High School kids. We found out from the schedule for the day that the Tabernacle was to have Allstate Choir Festival. Brian Bentley walked by. He is still at Hillcrest High School. He wanted to know how Angel was doing. We told him that She was doing a Musical in her stake. Mom had to go and listen to the practice.

Sunday was a very busy day. We went to our regular meetings, Sacrament, "Music and the Spoken Word" and Couples Meeting. We drove two Spanish speaking Sister Missionaries to a Spanish Branch. It was the same spirit and feeling even though we could not understand what was being said. Mom was very good in singing the hymns in Spanish with out understanding what she was singing.

We got home just in time to grab a quick snack before we went to our normal assignment , 5 to 9 , at the Beehive House. It was pretty slow so we had a great time visiting with all of the Sisters. The old style hot water radiators started to bang. We had to assure the Sisters that the noise was not from the Ghosts of the Beehive House. Halloween is just around the corner. It was a "Great Week on the Square".

Conference and Rain

Conference weekend was busy and great.  We worked extra long to help all who came have an opportunity to visit the Square.  The Sister Missionaries started one hour early and took only 15 minutes to eat lunch.  We all had a special meeting Sunday after the square was closed.  We were then able to share any special spiritual experiences.  We had a Sister from Tonga who told about a special girl.   The girl was from out of town.  She said that She was looking for our Sister from Tonga to tell her that She took a Tour with her six months ago.  She has joined the Church and had brought some friends with her to Salt Lake who are scheduled to be baptized soon.

We were able to go to the Sunday afternoon Session of Conference.  We had a pretty good seat if you want to see the sides of all the speakers.  Mom was trying to keep notes but was falling asleep all of the time.  We got to see most of the sessions.  They set up the computer at West Gate so we could watch on streaming video.  While we greeted guests.  I was standing in the rain most of the time.  

Sunday Evening from 5 pm to 9 pm we were taking care of the Beehive House. There was a lot of people coming to learn about Brigham Young.  The tours the Sisters take need to be spaced ten minutes apart.  My job is to tell about Brigham to keep the peoples interest while they are waiting for the tours.  So I was talking non stop for four hours.  My voice was just about given out.   Elder Holland told a story about Blyn Barrus who in Moms second cousin.  

It rained and rained and was very cold.  The Sister Missionaries all have matching umbrellas to use as they stand in the Rain.  We have several who are from Tropical Countries and this was their first time in the cold rain.  President Hinkley told the Mission that the Church doesn't want them to look like Nuns.  They are to wear as bright of colors as they have.  They look very good in their matching umbrellas and bright colors.
People who came were not prepared for the cold and rain.  We had a lot who were in white short sleeved shirts or summer dresses.  We have a overhead heater by the gate where people can get out of the rain and get warm.  We had a lot of people who needed to take advantage of our location.  

I went to the Priesthood session. It was so neat so be surrounded by priesthood holders from all over the world.  Ever third man had a translator head set on. 

It was great to be involved in helping many people from all over the world become  acquainted with Temple Square.

Sister Missonaries

Sunday is a great day for the Sisters on the Square.  Sister Wilson, one of our favorite Sisters is leaving for home.  This Sunday is her last day here.  She had permission to hug some of the Senior Elders.  Elder Glad was so thrilled to be able to hug her.  One of the Rules is that the Elders only get to shake the hands of the Sisters.  The Elder Sisters get to hug a lot. 

 
When Music and the Spoken Word is over the Sisters Temple Square Choir stands out side of the Tabernacle to share some of their favorite hymns.  It is really special to hear them every Sunday.  They are really great.  

Once a Month the Sisters put a special program, "Come unto Christ" where they sing and share their testimonies.  We are going to attend tonight again.  Next week the Spanish Sisters will also put on the same program in their language.

 
The Sisters meet the Guests out side of the Tabernacle to give them a opportunity to attend a Tour.  They hold signs up and greet the guests in the language they speak, and invite them to go on Tours with that language.  The Sisters are able to speak up to thirty five different languages. Their are many Sisters that can speak many languages.  We have a new Sister from Mongolia who can speak English, French, Russian, Japanese and of course Mongolian.  There is a Sister from Switzerland who can speak English, French, and Italian.  Most of the Sister Missionaries have to learn a new language when they come here, English.  
We have made a new friend on the Square, Jamone Pili.  He has received a Mission call to serve in Somoa.  The the original land of his family.  He had been a Member of the Church for only a year.  His Father is a Minister of another Christian Church and is opposed to his son going on this mission.  When he submitted his papers for the mission he received a reply that he was too over weight to go, that he needed to loose a least forty five pounds to be able to go on a mission.   This special young man met the mark, lost forty five pounds and is going next week.

Mom was thrilled to get a yellow Rose yesterday.  The was a group of young people on the square who were going to a dance at their High School that night.  They were on the Square as a part of a group to do some thing special before the dance.  They all brought Roses here and gave they out to some one who had a special experience that they would share.  We told them about the Nauvoo Mission.  We got a Rose.  The young people then spent time sharing with each other the stories they heard.  Our young people are very special.

Wedding Bells and Birthday Parties

Saturday was our son, Todd, and our new daughter-in-law, Shelly's Wedding.  We had all of the family here so it was not only a great event to have a new member of our family but also to be able to  see Roy and Angel and her family. 

We had a Wedding luncheon at our Condo Social room.  Todd and Shelly were having a great time "eating".  Shelly is a good sport and will add so much to our family. 

 
The reception was later that night with every one there.  Shelly was beautiful In Her gown .  The girls had great time.

While every one was here for the Wedding we had a "Big Birthday Party" for Bruce, Todd, Allison, Angel, Mom, Aaron, Nathan and Megan.  We have a lot of Birthdays that come close to the same time of the year. Roy and Angel were  here for the Wedding we decided to have a party while they were here in Utah.  Todd helped to pass our the Gifts.

Roy and Angel spent some time with us on the Square seeing the sights.   It was so nice to introduce our Grand kids to the Sister Missionaries.  
Grandma and Grandpa took the grand kids around the square.  We stopped at the Seagull Monument where Grandpa got to tell the story of how the Gulls saved the Saints.  

It was a really good week doing really important things like being with our Family