Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year for most of the family was in California with Roy and Angel. They had to suffer with eighteen of the our extended family. Clay & Allison's, Marty & Melody's families along with Grandpa and Grandma stayed in Roy and Angel's house, ten Grandchildren.

It amazed me how many of the kids could bounce in the tramp. at the same time. There were some bumps and tears but after a few minutes the damaged child was back bouncing.

The pies were the best part of dinner, pecan is my favorite one. I am not big on pumpkin pie even though it is the Thanksgiving traditional eat but I favor taste over yucky pumpkin. The only way that pumpkin is eatable is if there is enough whipped cream so that you cannot taste it.

The girls spent a lot of time in the kitchen making all of the goodies, while the men helped by staying away and playing video games. The family had a good time playing games, such as monopoly, flip and other board games. It was great to get away from the TV grind and spent some quality time with our family.

We all had our part of the house to sleep in and took turns using the bathroom, all of the men made the great sacrifice of delaying shaving until we returned home, but isn't that the style now to have a scruffy beard, the unshaven look.

The best part of Thanksgiving is being with and loving your family. We had a great time!!

Hawaii

We went on fourteen day cruise from L. A. to Hawaii. The ship was on the Pacific Ocean for five days on the way to Hawaii, four days visiting various Islands and then Five days back to L. A.

The Islands we visited were, Hawaii (the big Island), Oahu, Maui, and Kauai.

There is a Banyon Tree in Maui that takes up four acres of park land. This tree has streamers that extend from the branches, and when they touch the ground they will take root and make another tree. The tree was really cool.

Since the trip was so long there was three formal dining nights. Marlene really likes to dress up

Halloween came while we were on the ocean. The crew all dressed up in costumes and the ship was decorated. There were some really interesting carved pumpkins.

The waves crashing onto the rocks on the shore was spectacular.

We went to a farm where they raised pineapple, mango and coconuts and other tropical fruits.

We went to the area on the island of Hawaii where there have been recent lava flows from the active volcano.

It was sad to see some homes that have been destroyed by the volcano.

We had a great time, Mom loved the day we spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Temple Cleaning

We had the assignment of cleaning the Tempe Wednesday Night, starting at 9:45 PM and finishing at 11:45 PM. I was vacuuming the dressing rooms for the Officiators. Marlene was dusting the Celestial and other Ordnance rooms. It was really nice to be in the Temple late at night doing service.

I learned several interesting things about the St George Temple. I was working on the fourth floor where the Sealers change their clothes when the lady who supervised Me took some time to show me a few of the unusual things there. I was able to look in the attic, the heavy beams look just like the ones that were used in the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, large wooden trusses. The red sand stone that the Temple is constructed of is also visible. Several small rooms are on the west side of the fourth floor that are no longer in use. They were used in early Pioneer times as places to stay for the couples who made the long journey to St George to be Married in the Temple. There is what is called the Honeymoon trail from the east side of the State of Utah where people travelled in their wagons to be married here. The old pine slab flooring is still in place up there and is worn and warped after many years of use. The Sister Ordnance Workers dressing room is in the basement next to the Baptistery. The oxen by the font are white. We love the Baptistery as we assisted there in the Nauvoo Temple.

Friday Night we went to the High School game in St George for the Region Championship between Hurricane and Desert Hills High Schools. Hurricane is ranked as number one and Desert Hills as number three in the state. It was really fun to be there watching all the kids having a great time at this important event for them. Hurricane won by a large margin. There are four High Schools in St George, Pine View, Dixie, Desert Hills and Snow Canyon with Hurricane not too far away. The folks here are really involved with their teams, as there was not any place to park our car except for an empty field, all of the parking spots on the school grounds and the Street were taken and the stands were full of fans.

Stuart at the Draper Temple

It was a cool and wet day Saturday afternoon when We went to the Draper Temple to be with our eldest Grandson, Stuart, but it was warm and wonderful inside. He is going to be on a Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints for two years. Clay and Allison, Bruce and Tara, and Marlene and I were there to share that special time with Melody, Marty and Stuart.

Stuart is the eldest of our thirteen grandchildren and is much loved by us. We remember that family New Years family game time where He announced his attention to enter this world, being there in the hospital while he entered this world, the times we shared as his family lived just down the street, sitting on the front row of church and loving and being loved by him. I am sure that He will be a great ambassador for the Church. It will be hard because We won't see Him for two years.

It was snowing all the way from Cedar City to Sandy as we made our way there on Thursday and was wet and cold all the time we were there. The roof on our home there is looking quite bad so we had several contractors come by the house go give us some bids to re shingle it. The interesting thing is the variation in the bid prices. There is eight hundred dollars difference between the high and low bid. I have found that it is very important to have several different contractors give bids and to let each know that they are competing for the work.

It was so good to get home, but we always seem to leave a little part of us wherever We go. Marlene left her cell phone this time. We love these trips but we are all worn out when we get back home. It is so nice to sleep in our own bed again.

Trip to Newport Beach

We took a short vacation to Newport Beach with our St George friends. John and Nicholle Alexander, a great time was had by all. One day was spent at the treasure island section of Laugna Beach. The section of beach is exceptional, with huge waves that were curling over causing a pipe before crashing onto the beach.

The area is heavily eroded with arches and other cool features along the shore. The State has made the area very nice by placing seats on the top of the bluffs, and wonderful landscaping with many trails and lots of flowers.

The Newport Beach Temple is very unusual in that it looks like a old Spanish Mission with a Angel Moroni on the Top.

We spent a day at Knots Berry Farm Amusement Park. It has been a long time since we were there and the admission was really inexpensive $ 24.00 for kids and seniors. We have been to Micky Mouse land so many times that it was nice to go somewhere different.

There is a kind of Ghost Town Theme in the Park. Mom was bad so She was put in Jail. There is some kind of show to see every hour. We went to the Snoopy Show and then Western Shootout, that had lots and lots of gun battles and fist fights.

There are lots of roller coasters that are really cool. John and I went on Montezuma's Revenge, Accelerator, Silver Bullet and the Horse Rider. Marlene liked the log flume she went several times. Old women are not brave enough to go on any good rides. We all had a good time but is is sure nice to be home here in St George

Fifty Years

My wife and I celebrated fifty years of marriage last week. It was wonderful to have all of our children, their spouses and almost all of our grandchildren here in St George. Cody is away to school in Northern Idaho. We did some very special things. We all went to the St George Temple to remember that day many years ago when Marlene and I made those covenants with The Lord that started our life together a husband and wife. That evening there was a Open House where we visited with many of our friends.

Our Children were wonderful, they did so much for us. Angel made a very special Wedding Cake. Todd took pictures of the family and at the open house. It has been many years since We were able to be all together to have a family picture. Melody and Tara did the decorations of the Club House for the Reception and everyone helped with a family dinner that we had prior the the Open House.

We are so blessed to have our special Family, and that we were all able to get together and enjoy each others company at this time. There is a lot of love in our homes.

This and That

Saturday there was some big doings at Hurricane. They celebrate their annual Peach Days. When the Pioneers first settled the area they planted many peaches here. The Church Welfare Program now has a huge orchard there. Peach Days is the biggest event of the year for the folks there.

Mom normally doesn't like country music but the was enthralled by a band that was playing. They were called the Country Classic band. She sat for almost the whole program with a smile on Her face not saying anything, for Her that is amazing. The group was really good, mild classic music.

I think the reason that she is starting to enjoy this kind of music is because of the style of LOUD screaming music that is popular today. Two weeks ago we went to a concert at Dixie State College The band was outside but We had to leave right after we got there because the music was so loud and that I was starting to get dizzy.

We were walking around when we say a large group of people and what sounded like a whole lot of Crickets. It was very strange, as We went over we came across many Kids with hammers pounding nails. They were building wooden boats and periscope boxes. The folks from Home Depot was sponsoring a program for the kids. There must have been one hundred plus of little kids in Home Depot aprons having the time of their lives pounding nails.

Our garden is producing many many tomatoes much more than we can eat. I put on my apron to make "Salsa" I put in tomatoes, green peppers, jalapenos peppers, onions, ect. We lovingly put it all in pint jars and canned it. We opened the first bottle the next morning for breakfast thinking how good it would be. It tasted like tomato sauce. I thought there must be some way to fix up so I put some cinnamon, cloves and sugar in the bottle of supposed salsa. It still didn't taste like salsa but it was good. I guess it is true that a spoon full of sugar does make the medicine go down.