Walker Family

Hawaii Five-O

2011-11-12T18:46:00.036-07:00

The first of this year we received a phone call from Marriott Resorts. They had a good deal to go to Hawaii, of course the good deal had a catch of coming to a meeting for them to talk you in to buying in on a vacation time share with them. Anyway, Larry thought it would be fun for me as I had never been there, he said he had already been there and didn't really care if he went back....so this was basically for me, which was very sweet and thoughtful of him. Larry suggested that we make plans to go during the summer while I was off work, but I told him that I didn't want to go in the summer when it was warm here. I would rather go during the fall or winter. After all was said and done we planned to go over UEA in October, then I could take some of personal days and still have some extra time with the vacation that we were on from school. It just so happened that the UEA vacation was the 20th and 21st of October. That made it even better, because I could spend my 50th birthday in the 50th state. Then people started saying that I could do the Hawaii Five-O thing. Very funny, but anyway it was perfect. We had a lot of fun.

A long story made short, our eldest daughter Shan and her hubby Chris, along with their daughter Jennsen (whose birthday was the 20th) decided to go with us. Then so Jennsen wouldn't be stuck with just us adults they also invited our grandson Zac. We all had a lot of fun.

We left on the 19th of October and arrived there that evening about 6:30 Hawaii Standard Time. With the 4 hour difference that made it a long day. In fact that was the hard part, my body wanted to wake up at 4:00 in the morning, because it was 8:00 by my body clock.
The next morning we all headed off to hike Diamond Head.

I didn't think it would be that bad, it wasn't very long, but it was pretty straight up with lots of stairs, which my knee hated....but I DID IT!!!

After that we headed over to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. Zac and Jennsen were excited to do that. Shan isn't a very good swimmer, well she doesn't have a lot of confidence, anyway she was nervous at first, but she did great! I'm proud of her. Larry and I were able to see a sea turtle swimming along.

I tried to find the kids, but I couldn't see them to wave them to come over, so we were the only ones to enjoy that. Got a little red, which is easy to do just snorkeling along and not paying attention to time that you're out there. We all had a ton of fun doing that though.
Then we went down the road a little and saw the Blow Hole. It was hard to get pictures, but Larry got a couple.

The next day we headed up toward the North Shore and over to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We made a few steps along the way to a fruit stand to try some local fruit, stopped to to see the Temple and the BYU campus there. The temple was beautiful, wish we could have fit in a session there.

We had a lot of fun at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We enjoyed all the stops at each of the island shows and the parade on the water. Shannon and Zac both got a temporary Hawaiian tattoo. We also stayed to see the main show called "Ha....breath of Life" It was a late night getting home, but so worth it.

The next day we planned on going over to the Flea Market at Aloha Stadium. We planned on picking up our gifts and souvenirs there, but unknown to us the Warriors had a game that day and so the market was not going to be open. We would have to go back the next day. Since that through a wrench in our plans for the day we tried to decide what to do. Larry and I had our meeting that day and so we would have to be back at the resort by 2:00. We figured that we had time to go up to the Dole Plantation for the morning and then we could be back and everyone else could just enjoy the resort and play around.

Later that night we went to a Luau just down from the resort called Paradise Cove.

We went down a little early and were able to make a lei bracelet and a few other things. We girls enjoyed doing that. Zac got himself a Island tattoo on his face. He thought that was great. It was a great buffet and great entertainment.

Sunday was my big "50", and since we had not been able to get our gifts the day before as we had planned, we had to go that day since that was the only day left that they would be open before we left Monday evening. Talk about a major shopping experience!!

We also decided to drive to the North Shore to see some waves. There was a high wave warning for that day and so we wanted to see some surfing.

We also found a good place for Zac to go snorkeling again. He really loved doing that. The waves were great and we also saw some of the surfers out. Just driving up there was like rush hour. We then came back and enjoyed the rest of the day back at the the resort and then went out to eat that evening for my birthday. It was a nice day, but I missed my Sabbath feeling.

Monday was our final day. Our plane flight was that evening around 9:00pm. So we checked out of the resort that morning and left our luggage with the bell hops and headed out for something I was really looking forward to.....Pearl Harbor!!!

We spent pretty much the entire day there, taking the tour out to the USS Arizona,(Very humbling to show our respect to those who died there.) I even took pictures of the oil, which they call black tears, that is still coming up from the ship. We learned that since it is the 70th anniversary this December, that one of the men that was assigned to the Arizon, but was not on the ship at the time, has passed away and his family have plans to bury him with his shipmates on that date. I didn't realize that they did that still. Always interesting things to learn.

We also went over to tour the USS Missouri (which is the ship that the Japanese surrendered on.) and then on over to the Aviation Museum. Jennsen was excited about this because she is into the Ghost Hunter shows....the museum was on that show. One of the manikins named, Kramer, is always in a different position in the morning when the workers show up. So we had to take pictures with Kramer.

I also took pictures in Hanger 79 of the actual broken window panes from bullets from the bombing of Pearl Harbor. What a excellent day. We finished in time to head back to the resort and eat and get our bags and then off to the airport.
I loved my Hawaii Five-O adventure!! We loved having the family along too!! I would love to do it again, if I can only talk Larry into going again (I think he had more fun that he will admit.)....maybe to another island!

A Little Catching Up To Do!

2011-09-23T17:06:00.021-06:00

It seems that once school gets close to starting and for the 1st month I just don't find time to sit down here and type. Because I was moving to a room inside the building this year, I had a ton to do to get my new room ready, so I was out to the school some in July and quite a bit in Aug. We started back to work on the 16th or was it the 17th? Anyway, I was very involved trying to get things going there. However there are a few things that have happened since I wrote the last part of July that I want to be part of my blog, so I'll do a little catching up here.
I'll start with how Larry and I celebrated the Days of '47 (24th of July). We did go to the cabin that weekend, but the 24th was on a Sunday, so we decided to go to the Days of '47 rodeo. It had been a long time since either of us had been to it. With our grand daughter, Jennsen, now enjoying her horse and us being a little more involved with her and her horse events, it was a little more in our thinking. So Monday the 25th we headed off to the rodeo, which in now being held at the Maverick Center on the West side of Salt Lake City. I didn't take my camera, but after getting there decided to take a few pics with my phone. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the events. Although the bull riders couldn't seem to stay on for anywhere near the 8 seconds, however we enjoyed the clowns. So I thought I'd share a few pictures.

As I said before we've been enjoying Jennsen's new love of horses and her beautiful thoroughbred, Sue. She's had her up to the cabin a few times, enjoying riding the horse over the 4 wheelers. She just come along with us if we aren't going too far. I think Sue loves it up there. A couple of weekends ago, Jennsen and Chris got up and put Sue out on her Zip Line and then came in to eat breakfast. About 5 minutes later Jennsen got up to check on her and announced that she was gone. We weren't too worried. We told her to just go out and get her back on the line. We all thought that she would just be close around eating, but she was truly missing. So the hunt was on. We got on the 4 wheelers and started hunting...went through the trees to see if she was just out there and we couldn't see her. Still no Sue! Finally Chris had talked to some kids that were out on their 4 wheelers if they had seen her and they hadn't but he asked them to keep an eye out. They soon came yelling that she was up the road. Sue had actually broken the clip that was holding her to the rope and just decided to take herself on a walk I guess. She had stayed on the road, even on the right side of the road and taken herself on the path that Jennsen had often taken her. Jennsen had been in tears, I'm so happy that she was found. Chris has decided he needs a bit heavier clip than the cheap one he had. :)

We had our 1st Walker Family Reunion this year. I was talking with Larry's sister, Jean, about how it would be nice if She and her brothers could get together. Jean thought that was a great idea, so we made plans to hold a reunion the 1st weekend in August this year. We offered to have the reunion at the cabin. Larry's brother and sister had not yet been up to see the cabin. Jean lives just outside Sacramento in Elk Grove, CA and Steve lives in Roy, UT. Jean said she wanted to plan it as she loved to do that and wanted it to have a bit of a genealogy flair to it. She wanted to spend some time helping the nieces and nephews getting to know their great grandparents a little better. She really did a ton of work and had pictures for each grandchild and for her brothers. She also put together a 4 generation folder for each child so they could actually have the genealogy. I thought it was great, especially since some of the family are not active in the church. She also videoed the evening with her and Larry and Steve talking about their memories. She wanted to get the information written down, so she was going pull it from the tape. We had a lot of fun together also. They went down to the gun range several times, they went on a few 4 wheeler rides. Of course, we went looking for some Geo Caches. (That seems to be the only thing I had my camera out for.) I took Diana, Steve's wife, Jean on a little ride also. Jean was a bit nervous, because she had never driven the ATV and she did great. Each family took a breakfast and a dinner and we had some great meals. I hope they don't wait too long to do it again.

Larry went ahead and took Monday as a vacation day also. Jean was going to stay with us through the next week and wanted to go to a few of the gravesites where relatives were buried. So Monday we got up early and began our trek towards Ogden. We had already stopped Sunday evening on our way home in Coalville and Hoytsville to see who we could find in those areas. We went to West Weber and also Brigham City looking for ancestors of the Walker line. Jean had really done her homework and wanted pictures of certain gravestones. There really is something to be said of being where your ancestors actually walked and lived. A surprise for me is that I didn't know that Lorenzo Snow was buried in the Brigham City Cemetary. I thought that was cool and had to get a couple of pictures of that.

We of course had to make a little pit stop at Smith and Edwards and do a little shopping. We got home about 5:00 and it was such an enjoyable day together. I love doing things like that.

Some other things that have happend are a couple of the grandchildren have had birthdays. Kylee, Devin and Charity's girl, just had her special birthday when she turned 9 on the 9th of September. We went into be with her at Chuck E. Cheese. I've never been there before and now I know why? You can almost hold a conversation there. Kylee, I think, was excited that we had come and we enjoyed showing her our love by being there. She is growing up to be a beautiful young lady. The first thing she said when we got there was how she was going to be able to be in this tube and try to catch as many tickets as she could. She had a lot of fun and came up with about 300 points with her tickets.

Then on Sept. 12th was Dallin's, Jamie and Bruce's youngest, 8th birthday. His birthday was on a Tuesday, so we actually celebrated the Saturday before. He wanted a camping birthday, so Jamie and Bruce had their 5th wheel up in a Old, little mining town just south of Tooele, called Ophir. There's still a small little town up there, although the mining is non existent. It's up a canyon once you turn on to the highway leading towards Lehi. We enjoyed some hamburgers and hotdogs (just what Dallin wanted.) and then we had cake and ice cream and a little tour of the town led by Bruce. It was an enjoyable evening. Dallin will be getting baptized on October 8th and is excited, but a little nervous about going under the water. We are proud of him.

The only other thing we've been up to is working on the cabin and getting the deck and the side of the cabin that takes most of the beating from the snow and weather weatherproofed and ready for the winter. Seems as life is always moving at a very fast pace. I hope to stay a little more current as the months keep coming. I can't believe that it is almost October and next week I already have my first parent teacher conference. Time sure flies!

Enjoying the Lake

2011-07-25T15:50:00.005-06:00

Our two lab girls really needed a bath. Larry thought that before he washed them they would really enjoy some time out in the lake. They really do love the lake and we don't give them enough time to just go out and play. It is a lot of work, because then they are wet etc...etc...etc...
Anyway, I went out to get a few shots with my phone. I just love watching them enjoy the lake, they ARE labs. However, they both have a few quirks that I just have to laugh about. Sadie, the chocolate lab, just loves to swim, however she doesn't really know how to swim. You would think a lab would just come knowing how to do this.

It's not as if their mother could give them swimming lessons. When you watch most dogs swim their legs stay under the water with their head above the water. Not Sadie, she swims with her front feet coming out of the water, which makes her back end sink in the water, which I know that makes it harder. But, she is such a trooper and will do it over and over again. Brandie,the black lab, on the other hand is a good swimmer, but a little lazy. She is a bit bigger and a little over weight, which I'm sure makes it a little harder, but she likes to have Sadie go out to get the orange bird and then try to take over as Sadie reaches closer to shore. Sometimes I think she is going to drown Sadie.

Brandie does go and get the bird, but when she gets tired she lets Sadie do the main work. Also because Sadie is a little sleeker she is a little faster and often will beat Brandie to the bird. We have two, but they tend to go after the same one. They just made my day and I got some good laughs watching them and seeing their excitement in playing out in the lake. Anyway, they both had a great time, and got a bath to boot, now I can let them back into the house. :)

Snow On Top

2011-07-25T14:59:00.005-06:00

This year for the 4th of July Larry and I made our way up to the Cabin in the Uinta's. We had a good weekend even though we spent a lot of time doing some work. We cut down a few trees that needed to be cut down, brought the snowmobile trailer from the parking lot back up to the property. We also worked on the basement doing a bit more with the drywall. All this takes a lot more time when it is just Larry and me doing the work. We're not getting younger and I for sure do not have a lot of strength, so it takes a little more time to accomplish the tasks. We were also able to get a few heating vents put into the basement, so this winter it won't be quite as cold down there in the basement. Sunday we went to church and after took a little ride over to the other cabin where Devin and Charity were staying. We had hoped to find them there and maybe plan a little ride for sometime maybe Monday morning. However, they were not there so we never made a connection with them which I thought was too bad. We did take a little ride on Monday and did a bit more work, so it was kind of a working weekend. Finally, we decided to head home even though we still hadn't finished all that needed to be done.
Since Hwy. 150 or Mirror Lake Hwy. had been closed because of snow late into June, we thought it would be fun to go home over the top over Bald Mountain Pass. (about 10,000 feet) We had no snow at the cabin, but the days were very pleasant, never getting over about 80 degrees. As we made our way up the highway, at first everything seemed very green and beautiful. Several little waterfalls were cascading down the hill sides from the higher level snow pack melting. When we got to about 9,000 feet all that began to change. The snow all of the sudden took us back to winter. If you didn't know better you would have never thought it was the first of July. As we reached the road to take you down to Mirror Lake there was a big pile of snow in front of it and there was still ice floating on top of the lake.

I had to get out and take some pictures when we neared the top as well as take a few more driving along in the car. When I got out, in my capris and flip flops, it was about 45 degrees outside. As we headed down the other side of the summit I asked Larry to stop at the Upper Provo River Falls.

What a massive amount of water was coming over the top. I'm sure by now since it is the end of July a lot of that has now melted, but we were just up there a week ago again, but we didn't come back home that way, however there is still quite a bit of snow in they higher elevations still.
I'm betting that the snow up there will not entirely melt before the snow begins to fly again.

Girlfriends!!

2011-06-30T10:16:00.013-06:00

Tuesday of this week I had a great day. My closest friend from High School, Ellen Lee Anderson, was coming up to spend time taking care of her youngest grand daughter, while her son and daughter in law got their schedule put together as they adjust to both going back to work. I knew that she was coming up for a few months now. We keep in pretty good contact with each other and have seen each other quite a bit since high school, she was even able to make it to my wedding. I also have another great friend from high school, Shelley Decker Griffiths, that lives right up here in Centerville. She's been her since I got married 8 years ago. We've not been good at seeing each other, only a couple of times, although we have called and sent texts to each other. Anyway, since I knew that Ellen was coming up, I contacted Shelley and said that Ellen was coming and wouldn't it be great if we all got together for lunch. Just a side note, even though I've seen both of these wonderful ladies, Shelley and Ellen had not seen each other since high school. Dare I say that is 32 years. So this is the first time all 3 of us have been together in that length of time.

So...I thought it would be fun to go up to a little fun diner called "Ruth's Diner" (they have the best chocolate malt pudding) up above Hogle Zoo in Emigration Canyon in Salt Lake City. Larry took me there once and I thought it would be a fun little place to go and up the canyon it feels like you're out of the city. Ellen was of course, babysitting and had her very cute grand daughter with her.

She met us there and I met Shelley and then had her hitch a ride with me for the rest of the trip there. Ellen was there waiting for us. We got there at 1:00 and then spent until 4:00, laughing, reminiscing, and creating new memories together. The 3 of us really did use to spend a lot of time together. The 32 years really did seem to fade and we were just enjoying each other just like we always had!!

I know that Ellen will be up from time to time, with 2 sons living up here along with her husband, Steve's, mother. I also hope that Shelley and I can make a better effort to "see" each other more often also. I love you ladies and so enjoyed our visit. I can hardly wait until we can do it again. Thanks Ellen and Shelley, Love you Both!!

Stern and Lucille Willard Family Reunion 2011

2011-06-27T14:25:00.019-06:00

June 23rd through the 25th was our family reunion. My sister, Bonnie, and her family were in charge this year. Since it was such an interesting year with the snow pack still being up in the mountains, their original plan of going up to Deer Haven up the canyon at Cedar City, UT had to be changed. So we went a little closer to them in Leeds, Utah. Kraig, my nephew, has an old track coach, Mr. Lott, from High School that he has stayed in touch with that has some land by his home that he rents out to Father and Sons and other activities for pretty cheap. So the morning of the 23rd, Larry and I put our two babies into the spa here in Stansbury Park (the new kennel here in our area). I know they'd rather be going but they do well there and they have an exercise area where they can get out and run around, so that is nice. Anyway....back to the story.....so we headed down south. We had a nice drive and went the back way to skip all the construction that is on the Wasatch Front now days. We had a little lunch in Cedar City around 1:30 or 2:00. When we arrived in Leeds we were the first except the Stowes to arrive. It was fairly warm at 101 degrees, I was glad that, that day was suppose to be the warmest of the days that we would be camping there. We found a place close to one of the trees that would provide us some shade at some point during the day, but it didn't really matter as we spent very little time at our tent anyway. I had bought a new air mattress that was one of those ones that are a little higher off the ground. It made camping even better, cause it was a nice soft place to sleep instead of the hard ground. I really don't mind camping at all except if I have to sleep on the hard ground, so it was great.

The Stowes had already set up some tables and chairs in a spot that would remain shady most all of the day which worked very well. Soon after we arrived, our daughter and her husband, Shan and Chris, arrived with their trailer and moved in close to where we were set up.
It wasn't long after that that the rest of the crew came on in and by night fall we were all there. The Milletts, Hegerhorsts, Kopps, Tenneys had finally arrived and we began to get ready for dinner. We had great hamburgers and hot dogs for our first night. We had a lot of fresh fruit at about every meal so that made it great. When it so hot the fruit just makes it so refreshing! Randy and Bonnie had gotten some cherries for fairly cheap and I had my fair share of them at about every meal.

We played a few games on Thursday night and one of my favorites, even if I had hard time coming up with some for myself, was "Two truths and a Lie". It is amazing how much you think you know about your relatives and yet you don't. Especially when you tweak the truth just enough to make it a lie. It makes things a little more confusing. Mostly it was great fun talking and enjoying each other. Katie and Margie also kept asking everyone survey questions which brought up some interesting conversations. Soon throughout the weekend we all soon asking our "survey questions."

Friday morning we got up and had breakfast about 8:30. We had good ole' pancakes and sausage, which of course was yummy. We then planned a little hike that we hoped to get off on a little earlier than we did, because of the heat, but it was all good. We drove a little ways down the road to a State Park called "Red Cliffs" (I believe) This hike has a few pools of water as you hike.

We stopped at the first pools which had an area that was fairly deep. Deep enough that you could jump from about 15-20 feet and not get hurt. The kids loved playing in this area and some even got brave enough to jump in from a shorter distance to the adults. Most were not too good at swimming yet.

Chris was the brave one of the group that went to the top to jump in, in our family. We then decided to go up just a bit further to the next pool. It was a beautiful canyon and it felt a little cooler up there too. Other than a few mishaps on the slipper sandstone rocks, the hike wasn't too bad since we all took it slow and we had our stops along the way. Of course the water made it a bit cooler too. It was hot, though, by the time we returned to the cars about noon.

We made our way back to camp for lunch and had some sandwiches. After lunch, I think the heat had taken a bit out of some us and so we chose to take a short nap before getting back up and playing some card or board games or putting together puzzles. The wind blowing was a little hard to keep all the cards and puzzle pieces on the table, but we were thankful to the breeze to keep it feeling a little cooler. After passing our time in the afternoon playing games, we had a great dinner of BBQ chicken and dutch oven potatoes. Of course all of us had brought some sort of treats so there were way too many treats to get myself into trouble with.:)

That night was our annual raffle. Everyone brings something to put into the raffle and then we buy some tickets and put them into what we would like to win and then take our chances. Some years you're lucky and some years you're not. It brings a little extra money into the reunion fund, which is great. I had a fairly good year and got some things for the cabin and some things I'm going to give away as gifts. Yeah for some Christmas shopping being done!!!! After that we did a lot of visiting and the kids were all very busy too. We really didn't need to worry much about them as there was a cool playground that Mr. Lott had made and a trampoline, along with some bikes, and battery powered cars. We were lucky to get them to come for meals.

The next morning we got up had my favorite breakfast, french toast, and then the Hegerhorsts needed to get headed home. They had the farthest to travel and had some obligations to get home earlier. So we had our family meeting so they could get on there way. The family meeting went well and we didn't feel the need to make many changes to the reunion as a family. Marla and Mark will be in charge next year and so we'll be headed to Idaho. It was asked that if needed if our cabin would be a possibility, and we told them that we can always go there. It is fun though to go different places and do different things.
(I must have been too involved with visiting etc., because today when I went looking for pictures, I realized that we only have pictures of us on the hike. I thought for sure I had put some on my phone or on my camera, but no. So thanks Honey for taking your camera along on the hike at least.)

Larry and I then took down our tent so that we wouldn't have to do that in the very hottest part of the day. We also helped take down and help pack the Stowes up. After lunch we parted ways for another year. I know our parents are very happy with us carrying on the tradition. Family was always so important to them, and I know that they are happy that we are keeping our families connected. It was a small group this year, but there has been a lot of things happening in families this year. I hope that there can be more of us there next year to continue keeping our relationships going.

I'm also so grateful that Shannon and Chris have made the effort to come. I know that my family has enjoyed getting to know them better. It makes me feel great that they care enough about me to have a desire to make a connection with my family. I don't feel like I have two separate families when they make efforts to get to know my family and my family gets to know them. I hope that some of my other step children will get to know my family as well.
After we left there Larry and I went on down to Bonnie and Randy's in St. George to finish the weekend. Roberta and Keith also came down to tune Bonnie's and Kraig's piano's, so we had a nice time just relaxing, taking a shower and visiting there. I also caught a small nap, which was nice. Roberta and Keith took off for home and then Larry and I spent some time with Bonnie and Randy and their boys, Kraig and Kameron and families. We went out to eat and then over to Kraigs for some card playing. Sunday morning we went to Sacrament meeting and then Larry and I headed off for home. I don't know what I came down with, but I was a little upset to my stomach and headache with a bit of a fever. So sorry Sweetheart, I wasn't too much company on the way home as I slept a lot. After we got home we picked up the kids at the spa. They were very happy to see us....even though going is so much fun, there is "No Place Like Home" for them and for us!
Thanks for the fun time family!! I love you all so much!!

Trilobites and Internment Camps.....History...History

2011-06-14T12:47:00.016-06:00

On June 9th and 10th my friend Brenda(also a 4th grade teacher) and I went on a little trip to Delta, Utah. I think you may have to be a 4th grade teacher to get really excited about this trip, but I'm sure that you may think it is fun also. Since in 4th grade in Utah we study everything Utah, Brenda and I have been planning on going down to Delta soon after school was out to go Trilobite hunting. We study Utah rocks and fossils as part of our science core. If you don't know what a Trilobite is, it was an arthropod from Millions of years ago. Most of the Great Basin was once under an ancient sea and Trilobites abounded there. So we decided to go hunting. Delta has a great place to do that.
Well to start at the beginning of our trip, we headed off Thursday about 11:00. I picked up Brenda and her 16 year old son, Nathan, in Tooele. We enjoyed our drive down to Delta, which only takes us about 1 1/2 hours. When we got there about 12:30 we decided to check in at the Motel. (Days Inn) I guess I should have taken a picture. It was a clean and nice place to stay. Then we decided to grab a little lunch at the pizza place there in town.

We then went down to the Great Basin Museum right there in Delta. They have rocks, fossils, and other historical things, but the reason we really went there was to see the stuff they had about the internment camp. The ladies there were very nice and gave us lots of information. We talked to them about why we were there and they offered us some rock samples for free. What teacher doesn't take free. So we got a couple of different kinds of Obsidian that we'll be able to share with our students when we are talking about rocks. Then we went out back and saw one of the Japanese bunk houses.

After leaving the museum we decided to head out to the Japanese internment camp that was there just outside of town in a little area called Abraham. American Japanese were put there between the years of 1942-1945, during World War 2. I was especially interested in seeing this site, I think because our house when I was born had been an internment home my parents had bought and had brought to Wendell. I'm such a visual person...I learn about things, but actually seeing the site brings it to life for me. I was thinking about how these American Japanese who were brought from the Bay Area in California to this desolate area must have felt. Not that this area doesn't have a beauty of it's own, but what a difference!!!! There really isn't all that much out there, but there are still the foundations of buildings and a scout has done a project by putting out small signs that tell what would have been in that area. As we drove around we could see where the schools would have been and many other things. I was amazed at how expansive it was and how many people lived there. They lost all their property and and had nothing when the internment camp was dissolved. Many went back to California, and others went other places and many stayed in Utah. I'm sure it was that way in all of the 10 internment camps they had. I guess you might just say it is another injustice that the people of the United states have done to another group of people. The worst part of going out there, and I'm sure it was because of this wet spring we've had, but there were GIANT mosquitos just swarming around the car just waiting for you to get out so they could attack you. The pictures we took were quick so that we could jump back in the car.

After a great nights sleep we were up early so that we could be out to the "U-Dig Fossil" site shortly after it opened at 9:00. It was a little bit of a trip out to the site. It is about 32 miles west of Delta on the highway and then 20 more miles along a well groomed dirt/gravel road. We made it there about 9:15 and the guy who runs it was running late and it wasn't open yet. He arrived about 9:30 and by the time we got started it was about 10:00. we paid to dig for 4 hours. A little pricey to do your own digging in rocks for 4 hours, but worth it to us....and we did get an educator's discount...and they do use a big back hoe to turn the rocks and make it a little easier to find them.

We thought if we dug for a longer time, we might get enough to allow our students to each have their own sample. I'm not sure that we got enough for all of them, but if not we might just use them for prizes. It was fun to actually dig the fossils out of the shale and see how the trilobites actually were buried in layers of what was to become this sedimentary rock.

The ones in the pictures were a great find for me to just have to share through the years. The ones we got for the students may not be quite this good, but we do have some good traces of the fossils. By the time 2:30, we were all very tired and ready to get something more substantial to eat. So we headed back to Delta and had a burger at a burger place there in town, and I couldn't resist a small fresh strawberry shake. By the time we got through it was about 5:00 so we headed back to Tooele. We had a great time and learned a few new things and on top of everything have some great fossils. Thanks Brenda for the fun time!!!

Happy 8th to US!!!

2011-06-14T07:56:00.004-06:00

Today is our 8th Anniversary. In some ways that seems so short and then it seems like we've been together forever, a great forever!! I just want to say that I love you Babe, so much more than I did on that day 8 years ago. We went through so much to have that beautiful day at the Vernal Temple and my love has only grown stronger for you, Larry! You're my strength when I need someone to lean upon. You're my pal to do so many fun things with. You're my confidant when I need that listening ear. I love when you smile at me, it tells me how much you love me. I love when you tell me "I LOVE YOU" just out of the blue. I love cuddling with you and enjoying your soft touches. You are my world and my "Eternal Buddy". I'm so grateful for the beautiful opportunity that we have to be sealed for Time and All Eternity. You're the BEST!! I LOVE YOU!

Memorial Day Weekend '11

2011-06-06T08:44:00.017-06:00

This Memorial Day weekend was a busy one for us. When we were first talking about it, we knew we wouldn't make a weekend up at the cabin, since there is still snow there. We can't really get in by snowmobile, because of patchy snow, with 3 feet in some places and very little in others. So I told Larry I'd like to do a few things. I would like to go to Jordan's graduation in Vernal and I would like to go to Idaho to help Marla decorate graves. I asked him which one he would rather do and he said, "Let's do both." So we made plans to do both. My last day of school was that Friday and I didn't get out until 1:05. I knew it would take a few minutes to get out of there and by the time I got home it was about 1:35 or so. Larry had had the day off and so he already had the dogs down to the kennel and so we were pretty ready to walk out the door, which was good since Jordan's graduation was at 5:30 and it was a 3 hour drive at least. We arrived there at 5:00 and made our way to the High School Stadium. Georgia and Richard were already there and had saved us some seats. Thanks Georgia!

It was fun to be out and enjoy the graduation of the last of the nieces and nephews. We stayed there until Saturday afternoon and before heading for home, we took some time to go out to my nephew, Dustin's grave, who passed a year ago. We left a flower plant there and left our love with him. We hope Ashley took the plant home and planted it in her yard.

Larry had said "yes" to us speaking in Sacrament Meeting on that Sunday. I have no idea why he thought that was a good idea.. :) Larry had worked on his talk a little throughout the week, I on the other hand had had very little time, since I was trying to get my classroom cleaned out along with the busy life of just finishing the last week of school. Finally that Thursday I sat down and found a bunch of articles and pulled out some thoughts I liked and put them into a word document to work on throughout the weekend. I had told Larry that I didn't have time to feel the spirit that week.. lol ... but I guess it found a way through anyway, because I had a plan of how to put the talk together. It was on the restoration and that is a pretty wide topic to begin with so I was happy that the spirit gave me a plan. Anyway....thank goodness for laptops, because I worked on my talk a little on Saturday at the Millett's and then pretty much finished my talk on the way home from Vernal and then when we got home at 9:00 I helped Larry tweak his talk a little. I'm not sure that they were great, but it was great to have the talks over. We got out of church at 2:00 and came home and finished getting things ready for the trip to Idaho. Our niece, Katie, had graciously accepted for us to stay with her in Wendell and then we wouldn't have to go all the way to Bruneau and then back to Wendell. Thanks, Katie. Anyway, we headed off for Idaho around 3:00.

We had bought some plants out in Vernal for all the graves that we had planned to put flowers on. I knew that Marla had the artificial flowers for a lot of the graves. Anyway, we stopped in Roy to spend a little time at Larry's parents' graves to pay our respect and love to them. We saw that Larry's brother and wife had already been there, but we left a couple of beautiful geraniums there and took a few pictures. We then headed on to Idaho. We arrived at Katie's and spent some time visiting with her. After a great nights sleep we arose and got ready to head to Gooding to meet my sister, Marla and two of her other girls, Margie and Emily. Gooding is where my mother was raised and where my maternal grandmother and grandfather are buried along with a few other family members. I was a little shocked at the Gooding Cemetery, it is always so beautiful and green with the old trees around. When we got there the grass was all brown inbetween the headstones. I guess, after talking to someone in the cemetery, they thought they had a weed killer and instead they found out it was roundup. I don't know what they will do about it, but I hope to see it beautiful and green again when I go up again.

We then headed to Wendell, where my mother and father are buried, along with a ton of other paternal relatives. Among some of them are my paternal great grandparents, paternal grandparents and many of my aunts and uncles. I only knew my maternal grandmother personally, but I have great feelings for all my grandparents, since my parents have done a great job of bringing stories of my ancestors to life for me.

I love learning and knowing things about my family and I hope that will help me know them when I see them in the eternities. Anyway, back to the decoration of the graves. We spent time taking care of mom and dad's grave and I planted some red geraniums in the planters next to the headstone. Marla usually puts a hanging plant on the grave also. It is still great to feel like you are taking care of and giving your respect to your parents even after they have gone beyond the veil. We miss them and love them for all they have given to us, taught us, and for the love they gave us throughout their lives. While there we saw some cousins, which is always fun to see each other and enjoy some time catching up. We missed seeing my dad's only sister still living, my Aunt June, I was sorry that we did.
After finishing up at the cemetery we headed back to Katie's and had some lunch with Marla and the girls. I asked them if they'd like to go to Twin with us and go to Shoshone Falls. Shoshone Falls are falls in the canyon the Snake River has cut out by Twin Falls, Idaho. In fact you have to cross over a bridge that spans the canyon to get to Twin Falls. I knew that the water is a lot higher this year with the wet spring and snow still up in the mountains and I thought Larry would like to see the falls. I can't believe that we've never taken the time to go over there to the falls since we've been married. Marla and the girls thought that would be fun, so except Emily, who had taken off to go back to school in Rexburg, we all headed off to Twin Falls. I guess we weren't the only ones who thought it would be fun, because when we got over there there was a line of cars going down into the canyon. Since we were in two cars we decided to leave one car at the top and jump into the other car and just take one down. We weren't disappointed when we got down to the falls. The water was pouring over the falls and the mist was so thick we couldn't really see the bottom of the falls. Shoshone Falls are actually taller than Niagra Falls, at 212 feet, they just aren't as wide.

Anyway, we had fun and enjoyed our time there. We made our way out of the canyon and said our goodbyes to Marla and the girls and headed for home. Once home we picked up our girls from the kennel and headed home. Sadie and Brandie were very excited to see us of course and we were happy to be home. Great weekend! Thanks everyone for putting us up and making our weekend terrific.

Schools Out For Summer

2011-06-02T08:10:00.005-06:00

It's over and a new era is about to begin. It has been an interesting couple of years since the fire at the old elementary school. Not only has it been a stressful last few years, I've also had a very stress filled last few weeks of school just trying to get everything completed to end the year. A lot of long hours the last week of school allowed me to get my portable classroom cleaned out and ready to move inside.

It has been kind a interesting spring. I had hoped to go to the new Grantsville Elementary School, but fate would have that not to be. So then we began to make the best of staying at the school I am now. Those of us being left behind decided that we had a very good faculty staying and we wanted to make some changes that would make this school new and exciting for the students as the new school in town would be for the others. First on our list of changes was to change the mascot. Willow had been the k-2 school in town and with GES being the "Grizzlies" it had been the "Cubs".
We didn't think that the older kids would think too much of being the cubs. Not that cubs isn't a good mascot, but here, it had come to signify the young grizzly. We knew that especially the older kids wouldn't want to keep that as a mascot.
So we did a vote at school, and with a little guidance from the teachers we will now be the "Wolves". We as a staff are quite excited for that. As we thought of how a wolf pack works, we thought it will be perfect to work on unifying a new school. We thought it would also have some great behavior plans to go with it. Wolf Packs work together, they take care of one another, they look after the pups. We want to use Rudyard Kipling's statement of "For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack" as our school pledge. We just think it is going to be great.
Other than that we've had a bit of a rough time getting going as a faculty, because we've had some changes. It was announced in May that our principal would be moved to the Jr. High so now we'll start the year with a new principal. Her name is Mrs. Coon, and as she was busy closing her school for the year, she hasn't done much with us. We feel like we're in a bit of a limbo. So guess some or our excitement to get the year started as been kinda put on hold. I'm sure we'll get moving, but just not as quickly as we had hoped. For now I guess I'm happy to just be moved into a building and not have to move again. I've moved every year for the last 3 years and so I am sick of putting up a brand new classroom every year. I'm happy that this will be my last time for awhile. I'm getting too old for this. :)
So I guess it is goodbye to my era at GES, and goodbye Willow Cubs and Hello to Willow Wolves. Looking forward to a new year, after a restful summer of course!!

Spring Break Desert Adventure

2011-05-01T16:46:00.028-06:00

This Spring Break had a desert flare. Since Larry lost so much vacation last year, we've been trying to use it little by little when I have vacations. I had a week off from school this year for the break, so Larry took the week as well. We had originally thought that we would do a little ATVing for the 1st part of the week and then go up to the cabin and the snow for the rest of the week. However with my knee and Larry's back not at their best, we were depending on Chris and Shan for a little extra help if we should have problems getting into the cabin. We didn't want to take the chance all by ourselves with all the new snowfall that was suppose to be up there. Chris and Shan were planning on going up with us on Wednesday.
Larry and I decided to go out on a little day trip on Saturday to Iosepa, pronounced Josepa, and take our ATV's and do some riding also. Iosepa is mostly just a grave site now, but when the Salt Lake Temple was being built many Hawaiians came to Utah to be close to the temple and receive their endowments and be sealed. I really don't know why they chose to be clear out there in Skull Valley, seems a long way from Salt Lake, but that is where they congregated. I know they were employed to do agricultural and stock, which was a church owned company. They stayed until the church announced they were going to build a temple in Hawaii and at that point most decided to go back to their homeland and help with the temple there. Iosepa is in the next valley west of the Tooele valley. I had not been out there, but had learned a lot about it since moving out here. So that was interesting to see.

After that we headed farther south and west toward Dugway and the pony express route. There we went out to Erikson's Pass and found a good place to take our ATV's off the trailer and just do a little riding. It was a bit of a cool day, but the weather was great and the riding fun.

While out in the desert, Chris sent me a text saying that the girls decided they really didn't want to go to the cabin and the SNOW, but wanted to go down to Little Sahara recreational area. (They go down there a lot and ride on the dunes.) To make a long story shorter since they weren't going to the cabin, Larry and I decided maybe we better not go, just in case something should happen that we couldn't get ourselves out of. Since we were going to leave Monday and go out to Dugway Geode Beds and do a little digging and then down to Topaz Mountain to find some Topaz, in Juab County Monday and Tuesday anyway, maybe we would just go to the dunes with Shan and Chris.(They invited us we just didn't invite ourselves. LOL) We would already be in that area after leaving Topaz Mountain.

Monday the rain was coming down hard and we knew we couldn't go out on those dirt roads along the Pony Express route, so we put off leaving until Tuesday. I packed some food that we could just eat cold, because I didn't want to have to take the stuff it would take to cook. We put together a bed in the back of the Pilot, which meant we didn't have to worry about setting up the tent either. So finally we were off. We again went back to the Pony Express route and headed off on our adventure. We stopped at Lookout Point and took a picture looking towards the East. Next we came to the Pet Cemetery...I don't really know much about it except there was a lady that lived out there that buried her pets there. The main reason we were going to stop there was to look for a geocache that we saw on the cache site was out there. BAD IDEA!!! It didn't look as wet as it truly was and that soil is totally clay! Well once we got down in there with our Pilot and trailer we could tell it was very muddy so we tried to get out of there, but on making a turn on the road to exit we were sucked into the edge of the road and no matter how we tried we just kept digging in deeper and deeper. The main road had not been that bad and so we hadn't thought much of going down into that area. When I had gotten out to help Larry try to figure what we were going to do, the clay was so slippery I couldn't believe it. The Lord was watching over us, because a guy who had just gotten his trailer set up across the road saw us there and came down and with a little effort pulled us out! He wouldn't have even been able to help us if there had not been some grassy areas. Phew...what a start to the vacation.

By early afternoon we had made our way out to the Geode Beds by the Dugway mountains. We found a place where several others were and began digging for some Geodes. I've decided that I could use some more instruction in rock hounding, but we did fairly well. Came home with several already broken open geodes and some that when we break them we hope that there will be some crystals inside. We shall see how well we did in finding them. It was fairly easy digging for them out there. They are in a clay mixture that looks a little like cookie dough.

We did a little riding around while there. I was actually glad that we had the ATV's, because getting out to the geode beds where much easier on them than it would have been in the Pilot. Plenty of others had made there way out there with their vehicles, but the roads were very bumpy. We spent the night out there in the back of the Pilot. It was a cold night, but we stayed warm and Sadie and Brandie slept in the front seats.
The next morning the dogs did a lot of investigating and had a lot of fun just being able to run and enjoy themselves, while we had some cold cereal and got ourselves ready to head toward Topaz Mountain. The drive there didn't seem to take very long. I thought it would be a lot longer. Again we drove up and then got the 4 wheelers off the trailer and went looking for buried treasure. We had done some looking online for topaz at Topaz Mountain and we had hopes of finding some fairly good size topaz crystals. Not as easy as it looked. Maybe online they were just showing large pieces of it. The whole mountain is made of Rhyolite and you can see the topaz crystals all over in it. I chipped of quite a few pieces and you can see the topaz sparkling all over in it. Like I said if we had a little more knowledge maybe we would have found the mother lode.. lol

We finally decided to take off and go to the western side of the mountain to hopefully find a place they called the amphitheater. The web had said that was a good place...well...I was following Larry and I stopped to take a picture of what I thought was a very picturesque view.

The picturesque view I was taking.
(picture doesn't do it justice)

When I finished I saw Larry up a head going around a corner. I started on and pretty soon I couldn't see him. He usually stops when he doesn't see me behind him and makes sure that I've caught up to him, but I kept on the main road and still couldn't see him. The farther the went the more worried I got that I was on the wrong road and that Larry had turned off on another side road. (another thing I know he usually never does without waiting to make sure I see him turn) So anyway...I turned around and went back to the spot that I had last saw him, thinking that if he had turned off and then noticed me missing he too would also return to that spot, but NO he wasn't there. So I turned around again and started back on the path but then decided that I would go to a high spot and just wait. I thought this would be horrible, because we were out in the middle of the desert and I thought we both would find the car, but he had to come back to where I was in order to find his way back to the car. Soon here he came and of course I got on to him for not waiting for me and where had he been. (I was a bit scared if you couldn't tell.) To get the heat off of him he showed me some much bigger crystals that he had found where he had gone, so I told him that I wanted to go to where he had been. (Which by the way was the way that I was going in the 1st place.) We ended up finding more crystals..none of them large, but bigger than we had been finding.

So about 4:00 in the afternoon, we decided to head out for Little Sahara. We had talked about going to Delta and looking for Trilobites, a ancient sea fossil, but didn't think we had time. I had also talked about going to see the site of the Topaz Japanese internment camp that they had during WW 2. We noticed there was a paved road just passed the dirt road so we decided that would be a welcome rest from all the bumps. Not more than 3 mintues being on the road, smoke started to appear in our rear view mirror and all of the sudden "POP" went the driver's side tire on the trailer. After much checking Larry realized the spring on the trailer had broken, which made it sit down on the tire and the tire had stopped turning as we had drug it along. Therefore the "POP". So there we sat!! Well after tearing the car apart to get the jack and all, Larry said that maybe if we found a rock we could keep the spring up off the tire enough to limp into Delta. I'm sad I didn't take a picture of that...but I was too busy finding rocks and helping Larry with the tire. We had called Chris to tell them we were coming but would be late. He did some checking and found an ATV and trailer place in Delta and had called them. They thought they had the spring. So we headed there. After getting there they didn't have the right spring. Someone was going to Salina in the morning and thought they could get it at their trailer place there. So we left it and went on to Little Sahara. By the time we got there you could see the rain storm coming across the dunes. So it was a raining night. The next day was beautiful and Larry used Shans bike and went out on the dunes with Chris and Jennsen. We thought by noon we would have our trailer fixed and make the 30 minutes drive back down and then we could go riding all together, NO it was not to be. They had gotten the springs, but the U bolts on the trailer were not found, because our trailer is a bit on the old side. So the trailer and the bikes are still down in Delta. They were suppose to be fixed, but still not fixed, maybe next week. I guess that was okay, because by about 2:00 or 3:00 a horrible sand storm came through. It blew all kinds of things around and Chris went out of the trailer and was sand pitted to retrieve all kinds of things. We stayed inside and played games the rest of the night. The next day Larry and I went for a little walk with the dogs and found a few of our things in the field across the street from the camp site. Poor Chris' and Shan's trailer had sand in all the little crevices. Thanks Shan and Chris for letting us stay inside the trailer with you. I wonder if we shouldn't have gone to the cabin, because even with bad weather, the worst it would have been was just more snow.. LOL.

Anyway, I too got to go out on Shan's bike with Chris and learn how to ride the dunes. A very different feel on the sand than I was use to in the mountains. I did start to feel comfortable though and Chris even got me to "ride the bowl". Of course Larry didn't have his camera out for that. :)

Even with all our troubles, we had a very fun week. Maybe the struggles and problems just added to our fun with a great story to tell. I'm sure it's a Spring Break never to be forgotten.

I'm Going Back in Time

2011-04-10T16:51:00.011-06:00

Guess I going to go back in time. I know everyone who reads this is going to say...so boring, this is OLD news girl. Oh well.. I do want it in my book if I ever have it bound into a book. Clear back in February, my nephew, whom I taught in 2nd grade, returned from his mission in Tijuano, Mexico. I took off a half day of school so that I could spend some time with Georgia and family and so that I wouldn't be running to get there on time. So I called the Millett clan to see where they were when I took off from work about noon. They said that they were just finishing lunch and would I like to meet them at the cemetary. They were going to the cemetary to put some flowers on Cassy and Reed's baby that had been born a year before and had died. It was kinda nice that Garrett was coming home at the same time so that the family could be together for all of it. So I met them up there and spent the rest of the evening with them.

I was glad I had taken the day off, because Garrett's plane actually landed a little early. It was fun to see everyone waiting for him and to see him finally come down the escalator. He looked good. I especially loved seing him hug his little brother. I knew that Jordan needed a brother to be with him. It's been hard on him since losing his big brother, Dustin. Larry met us for dinner and we enjoyed our time with the Millett family. We also went out for Garrett's homecoming in Vernal, on President's weekend.

Soon after that Cassy invited us to come and see her little Abagail put on the pre-show for a Jazz game. We had a lot going that week with a play and also a symphony to attend, but we said sure. Then we found out that Richard, Georgia, and the boys were also coming out. That was a bonus too. Our seats were way up there, but we did get to sit down low at least to see the pre-show. While we were waiting for the preshow we got to see the Jazz players warming up so I got quite a few good pics with my camera. However.. I realized that I was so involved in watching Abby that I never got my phone back out to take any pictures of her. Sorry Abby....

We also enjoyed our play "Diary of Anne Frank" and the symphony that week also. Was a busy but very fun week. I'm going to try and get Spring Break on here next... but life is getting very busy with end of school and testing and packing to move into the school for next year. Which I'll also write about later. Maybe I'm back to the future, at least a little bit.

I'm Still Alive

2011-04-10T16:45:00.002-06:00

I was checking out everyones blogs today and I didn't realize it had been so long since I last blogged. It seems as though I've been way busy and haven't had time, yet I'm not really sure what I have to show for not keeping up with this. I'll have to do better. I have quite a few things that I have been going to put on here and haven't. I haven't even put my pictures on and said anything about Garrett coming home. Talked about the Jazz game or anything else. I was going to do it today and my internet is going so slow today for some reason that I can't see myself being patient enough to get pictures downloaded or anything today. Maybe I'll just start a draft of my next blog and then at least it will be started. I just thought I'd speak a small paragraph today to let everyone know that I still am alive and kicking. :)

Heavenly Father's Creations

2011-01-31T18:50:00.003-07:00

I just have to blog about this even though I don't have pictures. Shannon, Chris, and Jennsen wanted to go up to the cabin this last weekend, and I know I write about it a lot. Oh how I wish my camera could have taken a picture Friday night when we got out of the vehicle in the parking area to get out our snowmobiles. It was about 9:00 PM,I guess, and the moon was not out,.... and the stars were....just breathtaking. It seemed that you could see all of the stars that could have been possibly out there. I can't even describe how awed I was of what is out there in our universe and beyond. I couldn't look at it and not think about the immense creations of our Father in Heaven. It was awesome!!! Saturday was beautiful up there also. It was sunny and the temp got up to 50 degrees. The snow was crusted on top and with the sun shining on it it looked like a field of sparkling diamonds. It was a beautiful weekend. I'm so thankful for my Heavenly Father and all that he has created for us to enjoy. I just had to share my love of being out and seeing the beautiful world.

Don't Forget to Read

2011-01-17T08:26:00.002-07:00

Hey.... I just realized that my latest post says I did it a week ago. That's because that's when I started it.. LOL It just took me a week to get all of it written and the pictures downloaded to my post. Seems that I am way slow with Christmas this year. I finally got my Christmas post finished and this past weekend, I finally got Christmas down in my house. I guess since I didn't get to enjoy my decorations at home for very long, we just enjoyed them a little longer this year. Actually I didn't have time to take them down after we got home from the cabin and then the next weekend we went up to Cassy and Reed's for Isaac's baptism. I've been too tired after school to take things down and it has been way to cold outside to take the outside stuff down. However, finally it is all down!! TA DA!!! As much as I love putting Christmas up, it is also so nice to get down. The house seems so fresh and empty and just right for a fresh start to the year. Happy New Year all!!!

Another Walker Cabin Christmas

2011-01-09T15:59:00.016-07:00

This year I was out of school as of the 17th and Larry and I had planned to use the entire vacation and just go up and relax at the cabin. However,Larry's work had different ideas. They informed Larry that he wasn't going to be able to have all that vacation after all. He has a pump that is due to be out at the end of January and there was enough problems with it that they needed everyone to work all that they could to get the job done. So we weren't able to leave for the cabin until the 23rd of Dec. and then Larry was going to have to come back down to work on Dec. 28th-30th. It did give me a little more time to finish up a few last minute things and finish getting packed up. So anyway, the morning of the 23rd we packed up the pilot with all the things that we needed, and that didn't leave much room left for the dogs. So we were off and going and as you can see in the pictures Sadie found her a spot on top of the bags, since Brandie was taking up what room that there was.

Once we got there we got our snowmobiles out along with our sled and got about half of our things onto the sled. There was a lot of snow up there, but the roads were well groomed and we easily made our way up to the cabin. We could both see the snow was quite deep, so I waited out on the road with the sled while Larry went in with his machine to try and make a path for us to get everything pulled in without getting stuck...well....that didn't go over so well. The wet snow on top allowed Larry's machine to sink down into the powder and it made for a rough go of it. To make a long story short Larry got stuck about 5 or 6 times. I couldn't really help him because I couldn't walk in to help nor take my machine. Because it was starting to get dark he finally left his machine and waded out and then we went and got another machine and finally ended up leaving my machine out on the road with the sled and just going in on the one machine. Good thing that the cabin is stocked with a few things so we had plenty that we could eat.
The next morning Larry went back out and got a path into the cabin and we finally got all our stuff in. There was about 4 feet out on the deck and plenty of snow that had slid off the roof in the stairway.

That afternoon Shannon, Chris and Jennsen arrived and we finished getting ready for our Christmas Eve. We had homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and enjoyed our evening together. We watched the little clip of the Nativity which brought the meaning of Christmas into perspective. Christmas morning came and without any small children we just enjoyed sleeping in so we didn't get started on the presents until about 9:30 or so. Shannon is big into taking pictures of the dogs since her little girl is 16 and not to much into posing for her mom anymore. Anyway so we put some packages up and enjoyed having some fun with the dogs in front of the packages. Trying to get them to stay there was quite the challenge...but as you can see we got Larry to pose fairly well.

We found what Santa had left in our stockings and among brandie's and Sadie's favorites were their bones and a duck that Abbie and Maggie (their cousins.. lol) gave to them.

Even little Maggie decided that those big bones looked delicious.

We all were pleased with the gifts we were given. I especially loved my Wii and my digital photo frame, and I think Larry is going to love his auto clay pigeon thrower when he gets a chance to use it.

We finally got around to having breakfast close to lunch time so we just decided that it was brunch. We got a lot of puzzles for Christmas (on purpose) so we went to work putting it together and of course played the wii and had fun with it. The dogs had had so much excitement that they were just plain tuckered out.

Sincw we were up there for a long time we spent our time reading, doing puzzles, playing games and of course playing on the wii from time to time. Larry went down to work Tuesday morning just from the cabin. Since I had gotten him some work clothes for Christmas he didn't have to go home Monday night. Chris just got up early and took him down to the car so he didn't have to put away a machine or anything. It worked out great for him. One bad part about the time we spent up there was that Wednesday evening the power kept flipping on and off and then about 11:00 (good thing we were headed off to bed anyway) the power stayed off and was off until about 6:00 Thursday morning. The worst of it is that the power being off allowed our on demand water heater to freeze and when the power came on it wasn't good. We turned off the water and called Larry, who was luckily coming back up around noon that day. It was truly a blessing that it happened just like that. Larry was able to bring up some things that were needed to fix it with Chris' help. It isn't totally fixed but we did have hot water for the remainder time that we were there. I'm sure that Larry will figure out exactly what is up with it and will get it fixed.
We had a great time on New Year's Eve also. We had our other grand daughter Kylee over with us. Devin and Charity were staying in a cabin belonging to their mother's parents nearby. Every year those that are up at their cabins come down to the caretaker's cabin at the sheds and have a potluck luncheon. Everyone brings something to go with the meal and the assotiation BBQ's chicken, burgers, and hotdogs. It's fun to get to know neighbors and people that are there and they also have a little raffle to raise a little money for the association.

We also went down to the bonfire again this year, but I've taken so many pictures of that in years past that I thought they were starting to look like the same year. Although I kinda wished that I had taken it because this year with all the snow on top it was interesting to see how it burned so differently. However, may I say that it was so cold that on the way back to the cabin it had to have been the coldest ride I've ever taken. I don't think I could feel my fingers under my gloves. That night we also had to dress the poor dogs up for the New Year and enjoyed a little Martinellis to bring in the new year. Of course we also were working on puzzles and played some games. Low key but lots of fun

Time for Relaxation, kinda..

2010-12-21T10:28:00.003-07:00

Yeah... I was out of school last Friday. The kids were so wired, but I tried to keep them fairly on track and they tried their best. I guess I'll see if they remember anything I taught them when they come back on Jan. 3rd. For now I'm glad that their parents are handling them for the remainder of the holiday season, and it time for a little relaxation, kinda.. :)
We were going to head to the cabin on Monday of this week, but Larry's work decided that they needed him to stay and get this pump he's working on out in a timely matter. So now it could be Wed. or Thurs., it's a day to day wait. I've been busy trying to get all of Christmas finished up and get the laundry, food shopping and cleaning the house so it will be good when I get back home. We'll be at the cabin for the whole time so I won't have time to do anything when I get back. I'll be glad to just get up there where I can really relax, because for now it's just plain work to get the menu together and get everything all packed up for that extended stay. Not only that but it has to be packed together so that it can make the trip on the sleigh behind the snowmobile. There isn't any of this just throwing it in and getting it up there. After we get up there it will be great fun.
Last night our friends Holly and Stuart Wilkins came out to Salt Lake, because they're headed out on a plane today to Hawaii. They decided since their kids were all going to the other side of the family that they weren't just going to stay home the two of them and stare at each other.. lol Anyway since they were in town we went in and had dinner with them and Stuart's sister and husband, and then went to the lights on temple square. Guess who didn't take their camera??? Well anyway it was a fairly nice evening with snow lightly falling. Not much snow on the ground with all the rain mixed with it over the past few days, but none the less beautiful. So it was great to see them and spend a little time with them. I'm sure they'll have fun in the sun. I told Holly we were kinda going to the opposite extremes.
Well, anyway, I've taken a small brief moment of my busy day to get this posted and then I'll have to post about Christmas when we get back. I'm really looking forward to the time of just enjoying the fire and the beautiful scenery from inside the warm cabin. Oh I'll also enjoy a few excursions out and about on the snowmobiles too. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Dating my Sweeheart in December

2010-12-11T14:32:00.004-07:00

It's been a fun month so far. Larry and I have been to quite a few fun things the first part of this month so far. On December 3rd we went into the Utah Symphony at Abravanell Hall in Salt Lake City. Larry signed us up to go to about 4 over the next few months. The one we went to on the 3rd had a few different numbers. The first one we listened to was Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, op. 72b. Then there was Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor with a guest celloist. It was beautiful and fun. The last one was a very fun one, not your usual classical number. It was by Charles Ives from Connecticut and he put in a lot of Americana hidden throughout the song. There were songs like Colmbia, the Gem of the Ocean and Turkey in the Straw and a few other patriotic songs also woven into it. A very enjoyable evening. Thanks Sweetheart for thinking of the symphony.
Then the very next Monday, December 6th we had tickets to see "White Christmas" up at Pioneer Theater. It was one of our season plays for this year. I was so excited to go up and see it because White Christmas is one of my all time favorite Christmas movies and I watch it every year. The play was great! They changed things up a bit on it and some of the details were a little different, but it was so enjoyable. They even added a few new songs to the play and also took some out. Some of the old songs were sung in a few different places also. Anyway.. we loved it!! It's been a good start to the Christmas season especially doing things with my Sweetheart!! Love you Babe!

Thanksgiving in Idaho

2010-12-11T13:56:00.006-07:00

Yup... I'm finally getting on here and writing about Thanksgiving. I've not had the chance since we got back. I had to work until Wednesday at 1:30, so we didn't really get a very early start. The weather was pretty bad on Tuesday and a lot of reports said you shouldn't travel on Wednesday, but it was pretty good anyway. So Larry met me at home about 2 and we headed on our way.(Two dogs in the back and all) Our kids were all going other places this year and Marla had invited us to come up quite awhile ago, so I didn't see any use of Larry and I just having a meal together and doing nothing. The roads were a little icy, so the going was a little slow. We also had to pull over for about 20 minutes to let Larry talk to someone at work on the phone. He's so needed there!! Then we stopped in Tremonton to have a quick burger. Once we got to the interchange of I84 and I86 at Rupert we sit in traffic for what must of been 30 minutes going about 5 mph. Finally after making it through we headed on our way again. As we passed Wendell I wished Mom and Dad a Happy Turkey day. It seemed to weird not to stop there. We finally made it to Mark and Marla's about 9:00. Not too bad considering. It was great to spend the time with the Hegerhorsts. Margie and Katie were there along with some of Emily's room mate and sister from BYU Idaho. They were from North Carolina and couldn't go home so Marla had asked them to come. We had a very delicious meal on Thanksgiving along with games and movies and fun!! It was very cold up there so Marla and I didn't go out much...thus no pictures. I should have taken a picture of us playing that one game where we had to wear a hat as the King, Queen... or the Scum. Oh yeah, I think that is what it was called "Scum". Mark and Larry spent a lot of time doing something around the farm or helping the girls fix something with their cars. They even drove into Mountain Home and took Margie's car in for something. Katie would take all the dogs on a run either on the 4 wheeler or her in the truck. So at least the two dogs got good exercise, even if I didn't. All in all it was a terrific holiday. We had planned on coming back on Sunday morning but decided to come back a day early... boy was I glad since it snowed and the road was even closed for awhile on Sunday. Thanks Hegerhorsts for being able to be with family on the holiday. We love you!!

BYU and My Sisters

2010-11-14T14:21:00.018-07:00

Early Fall, our cousin, Ron Bird, sent out and email wanting to know if anyone wanted tickets to a BYU Football game. He said he had 6 extra tickets. I emailed him back and asked how much they cost. That very evening he called and told us the cost and asked which game we wanted to see. Knowing how much Larry is TRUE BLUE, I asked him if he'd like to see a game and he said sure. Of course this was before we knew how badly their year would be going. Anyway we decided on the game against UNLV on November 6th. He asked if anyone else might want tickets I told him that Georgia and Richard might like to come out and I didn't know about the others. I emailed the rest of the more local sisters to ask them if they had gotten the same email from Ron and told them if they were interested that we were going to the UNLV game if they wanted to go the same time as us. Ron called back and said that Georgia and Richard were in and then I soon found out Roberta and Keith were in also. Bonnie and Randy wanted to come also, but I didn't know if Ron had any more tickets...there were only 6 that he offered. To make a long story short we all got tickets. Bonnie and Randy got their seats next to Ron and his wife Teri. Soon Roberta called and asked if Larry and I would like to come down Friday night on the 5th to spend the night since Georia and Richard would be in from Vernal to stay and Bonnie and Randy would be up from St. George to stay the night. Since Keith's birthday was Nov. 3rd and Georgia's was Nov. 9th, she said we could celebrate and have some fun together. We thought that was a great idea, plus we wouldn't have to drive down in all the traffic.
So Friday evening we all met at Roberta's in Orem. Roberta had fixed a delicious soup and we enjoyed a great evening together. We had planned to maybe play some games, but we spent the night mostly visiting and of course we didn't get to bed until early in the morning hours. We decided that we'd have breakfast not too early and then make some sandwiches that we would take with us and do a little tail gate before the game since we couldn't take any food in. Everyone had brought something to add to the meals which made it easy on Roberta. The game started at noon so we decided to head up about 10:30 and get a parking spot early and then we would have time to have our sandwiches etc. So we all piled into our Pilot and put Randy's handicap thing on our mirror so we could get a great parking place, however may I say even though it is 8 passenger, the 3 seats in the back really aren't meant for adults as my 3 sister can testify. I really wish I could have had a picture of that. However just so they know after we got home I found out how to work the seats so that there was more leg room back there. (sorry it wasn't sooner.) Anyway...after we got there it was a little early to eat so we went in and found our seats and got settled and then we went back out to the car for our little tail gate. I even have Larry yelling with the others saying "Go Cougars!!"

It was quite the game UNLV couldn't do anything right. We sang the fight song so much Larry almost knew the words. :) The game became a little dull actually, but being together was great. Bonnie and Randy were a little lonely, 'cause Ron and Teri were late, but they eventually got there too. I hope you can see Randy with the Red hat and purple shirt down there in the crowd picture with Bonnie sitting next to him. lol

After the game we made it back home, Ron and Teri came too. We played some games (What's that Europe train game called again??) and visited, until we had dinner. I wish we could have had Cliff and Marla there too (hopefully next time), but it was so great just to be together and have a lot of fun. Before Georgia and Richard left, Bonnie wanted to get a few more pictures that she didn't get of our hands with the cougar stamp on them and as you can see we got a little silly...especially take a look at Georgia and her hand stamp. (tee hee)

What a great time we had together. I really know we have to make times like these happen for us all. Times when we can just be together and have fun together. Love you all my sisters and your hubbies!! Go Cougars and Willards!!

Mount Rushmore and More

2010-10-21T18:43:00.035-06:00

Disclosure: The blog you are about to read may be take awhile to read!! :)

About the first of September, after I had just gotten back into the swing of getting back to work, Larry says to me, "I have quite a bit of vacation time that I need to take before the end of the year or I'll lose it." I say back to him, "Larry, I just had a whole summer off, why are you telling me this now!" :) Well, anyway, we started looking for a time that we could go on a little trip and use some vacation time. Since I had UEA convention coming up, I decided I could use that time to go with Larry on a little trip. We wrote down a lot of things that we would like to do, some which were not feasable for October. Anyway to make a long story short, we decided on Mount Rushmore. I had been there on a trip with my sister, Marla, and Mom and Dad back in 1992 and Larry hadn't been there before so we thought that it would be fun. Since it was only about a 11 hour drive (we did it in less) that it would be a good one to do with a 4 day trip. We took off about 6:30 Thursday morning and were there about 4:30. So we got to our hotel in Keystone, SD, which is a small little town a couple of miles from Rushmore, and got unpacked. Then we decided to find a place where we could eat. The bad thing about goint in October is that Keystone pretty much shuts down the first of October. There were about 4 places that we could go to eat. We chose a place called Rubies, which looked like it had been an old hotel on main street. I just realized I didn't take any pictures of main street. It's a pretty typical gold rush old town. Early Thursday morning we got up and headed up to Mt. Rushmore. It is a pretty awesome sight to see coming up the mountain. I'm not sure where I learned this, but I learned that Mt. Rushmore was named that long before the Presidents faces were carved in there. From my understanding there was a man from back east by the name of Rushmore that asked the local folks what they called that mountain over there. They told them didn't have any idea, so why don't we just call it Rushmore, and the name stuck. While there we went on a hike with a ranger, which brought us up close and personal with the monument and then on around to the sculptor's studio. Which was interesting to learn all the things they did to keep the perspective of what they were carving into the rock. We also went to the visitors center and watched a little short video while we there too. We spent the day there until a little after 1:00 or so. Then we decided to go and see a few more side trips around Keystone. We decided to go out to a cave called Rushmore Cave and also to see an old Gold Mine called Thunder Mountain Gold Mine. The cave was okay nothing extra special. It did have a few stalagmites and stalitites, but it was enjoyable none the less. The gold mine was interesting because Keystone came to be because of mining. There was one big mine there that was called The Holy Terror that put out a ton of money in gold. This one that we went through put out very little, but it was interesting to hear the history. I also got a piece of ore from the mine.. what do you think my chances are of finding any gold in it.. I'm thinking none. :) We also found out this old school house is haunted, at least so they say. They told us it was on the registry for haunted places and that ghost hunters had been there and had a male voice on tape. They told us that he likes to move the things around on the school desks in there...but we didn't hear anything while we were there. :)Friday evening we found another place that was still open to eat, which was good. Then we hung out in the hotel for a little while waiting for the sun to go down, then we headed back up to Mt. Rushmore to see it all lit up at night. Got a few more pictures. Saturday morning we got up had a little breakfast at the Holiday Inn (by the way they are pretty good) at headed off on our next adventure. We decided to make it a day trip and do a drive. There is a beautiful drive coming in or going out of Keyston on Hwy 16A which is called Iron Mountain Road. It is one drive I wouldn't miss. I remembered it from 18 years ago and was so glad that we we went on it. You go through a beautiful scenic view of winding roads, going through great tunnels through the mountain and over wonderful old wooden bridges that you go over and then make the turn all the way around to go under it. I thought it was great fun and so enjoyable. Also going through the tunnels... I don't know if they planned it or not, but at the end of the tunnel you can see Mt. Rushmore right through it. Very cool.

After making it to the top of that climb. We stopped at the top and got out at a view area that was named after a Govenor of S. Dakota, Peter Norbeck, I took a little video of the view from up there which has Mount Harney, one of the highest peaks in the area and some rock formations they call Cathedral Spires.
Then on we went to a loop they call Wildlife Look in Custer State Park. Right inside the park we stopped at a little visitor's center named after Peter Norbeck and while we were there we got our first look at the many animals we would see on this loop. I have so many pictures so I'll just try to share a few of my favorites.

Next we left the loop for a little while and headed down Hwy 87 to Wind Cave National Park to go through a cave called what else...but Wind Cave. It's named for the changes of the wind that come in or out of the cave due to barometric pressure. There is one natural opening to the cave, which I'm very happy I didn't have to go through. As you see the ranger with the ribbon standing right by it. The wind was coming from the cave as you can see. We entered the cave by a revolving door and it was all down hill from there.. :) 450 steps I think, or something like that. I was happy to ride the elevator back up. One thing cool about this cave is that it doesn't have dripping water much so we didn't see the usual stalagmites or stalactites. It has an interesting formations that are called popcorn, frostwork and boxork on the ceilings. I hope that you'll be able to see it in some of the pictures.

After the cave tour we headed back up to finish the wildlife tour and to drive on a Hwy called Needles Hwy., another beautiful scenic drive. Towards the end of the Hwy. is a rock tunnel only 8 ft. wide and a cool rock formation that looks like it is the eye of a needle. And then it was on back to Keystone. It was a bit of a long but beautiful drive and some fun stops along the way.

After we got back home we found one of the two restaraunts we had not been to yet and went to dinner. Sunday morning was checkout and so we got up and had another good breakfast and then headed off for home, with one more stop on the way. We went to Crazy Horse Memorial, which is a way of the indian people showing that they two had great people and they especially wanted it in their Black Hills. This project has been going a long time itself and will be much larger than the Presidents at Rushmore. I'm not sure when they will finish it but when it is through it will be a site to behold.

Then off it was for our drive home. I have to say Wyoming is nothing great to see as you cross it. There are a few other things I would of liked to have done on this trip, like go up to see Devil's Tower in Wyoming and stop again at Martin's Cove...but time didn't allow it on this trip. I guess it means we'll have to do it again sometime. What a great vacation!!!

Beginning of October

2010-10-18T21:37:00.003-06:00

The First Part of October found us up at the cabin quite often. Larry and I spent and enjoyable Conference Weekend there and took in all the sessions. It was beautiful and the weather was great. We did a few odds and ends between sessions on Saturday. We also saw a bull moose about maybe 3 or so years old. Walked right passed the front of our cabin. I was going to get a picture, but Sadie was outside and began to bark. I was a little worried for her safety to get a picture. Chris, Shannon, and Jennsen have also been up and Chris helped us finish up the big tree that we started on and also cut down another dead tree close to it that was really leaning and we thought would fall this winter with the snow. It would have covered the road also. Shannon and I took quite a few loads of brush and limbs down to the burn pile. It will help the bon fire for New Year's Eve. I also got a new calling, playing piano in the primary so I had to be home to do that. Then this last weekend Larry and I took a vacation to the Black Hills of South Dakota and spent some time seeing Mt. Rushmore and more. I'll blog on that another day since the night is getting late, and I have a lot of pictures to share.

September, September....where did you go????

2010-10-18T20:28:00.016-06:00

Now that it is almost the end of October, I thought I'd catch up on September. There's not a lot to say. I'm sure there are some things I've forgotten. That's what happens when you get to be my age and don't write it down as it happens.

The one thing I really wanted to write about was that Larry had his birthday the last day of August and we have two grandchildren that have their birthday's the 1st part of September. Kylee on the 9th and Dallin on the 12th. I thought that we could celebrate all together. So I invited everyone up on the first weekend of September to the cabin so that we could have a little family time and enjoy each other. It had been a long and hairy summer and we had spent little time together as a family. So I baked a cake that I hoped would make all of them happy. We also had a request for homemade icecream, so we couldn't disappoint.

We also did a lot of what we enjoy doing together and that is 4 wheeling. I'm sure that some of you get tired of seeing photo's of us on them...but we enjoy it. Dallin just turned 6 and we took the training wheels off his dirt bike. He wasn't too sure he wanted to try it, but we all encouraged him...especially his Uncle Chris and so Chris and his dad went out and ran along side him. I wish I would have had a camera after he realized he could do it. A few falls but he was doing great and he was all SMILES!!

Some of us also took a little longer, and much to my surprise, a bit of a harder trail on Monday, which was Labor Day. Shannon and Jamie stayed home, but I went along with the grandkids and the men... maybe I should have stayed home. Actually I quite enjoyed it and was also proud of myself for being able to do the trail. It was not very wide going through trees, and it had a lot of ups and downs that were quite steep. I do not know what we would have done had there been someone coming towards us on that trail. I don't know how we would have passed. Of course, I didn't take any pics of the hard trail...I was way to busy, but I have a few of our rest stop that we took in the valley so that my nerves could relax. :)

Larry and I have also been up there quite a bit in September working on staining and cutting up a big tree that decided to just fall over. It was very large and had been dead every since I've been going up. I guess that the roots had had enough and over it came. Glad that we or the dogs were not down there when it came falling over. We had to break the top part of to get it off our road to get out. The next weekend we spent some time cutting up some of it. We now have some nice new big sitting logs for around the fire pit. Wish I had taken some pics of that old dead tree it was amazing to hear it fall.
It was a busy September but a very satisfying one.

August Catch Up

2010-08-27T19:07:00.009-06:00

As always, August has been, and probably always will be a very busy month for me. At least until I retire from teaching. Now that I'm close to the end of this August I'll try to get the things of August all caught up.
August began with a super party up at the property in the Uinta's. Jennie and John, my niece and nephew were in charge of the MILLETT REUNION this year (that's my sister, Georgia's family) and had asked me if they could use our cabin. So since it was at our place we were invited to attend. It is always good to be invited to a party!! So August 5th through the 8th we spent our time there. A really hard thing to do, right??? NOT!! And especially since I didn't have to do any cooking...well almost none. Larry and I totally enjoy sharing the cabin with our family and friends.

I think they had a lot of fun riding the 4 wheelers, shooting their guns,fishing, doing crafts and especially one of their family traditions of a Whirly Pop Competition. They've even got a traveling trophy for the winning popcorn recipe of the year. Mostly it is just fun being together with family. That's what reunions are all about! It was good to be with their family and have so much fun with them. Come back anytime guys!!

The very next weekend I had arranged to have teachers that teach 4th grade with me come up and spend a last relaxing weekend at the cabin before all the madness began. They've all heard me talk about the cabin so much that I wanted them to come and enjoy it too. Because of some misfortunes in some of their lives, that I won't go into, only two of them were able to come up. It was still enjoyable to share a weekend with those who could make it.

Brenda and her son, Nathan, were able to come up and spend the whole weekend, while Linda and her husband, Steve, only were able to come up for the day on Saturday because they were taking care of their grandson. We did a lot of relaxing and a little riding on the 4 wheelers of course, and Linda's grandson wanted to try out his new fishing pole. So we spent a little time down at the little pond. Not too many big fish yet to catch in it, but he didn't have a very big attention span anyway so that was okay. Anyway, the weather was beautiful and I think that they enjoyed spending a little time away from the rat race for awhile.
Of course the week after that it was back to school for me. I had already been out to the school quite a bit throughout July trying to get my room put back together. This year I moved from the portable out back of the school to a portable in the front. Here's a picture of my new location... looks a lot like the old one! :)
We decided since we lost one 4th grade teacher last year that we could be a little more unified if both Brenda and I moved from the back. So 6 of us are now all together in the front with only Pam on the inside of the school. I hate the moving A LOT, but it will be a much easier year to have us all together. So far I've completed the first week, and I must say that I think I'm going to have a pretty good class. The first day went by so fast that the kids were totally surprised too. Their really cute and appear to be eager to learn and enjoy their year with me. I'm sure it will be a wonderful year!!
That last thing I wanted to talk about was that I was released as 1st councilor in the Young Women's Presidency a week ago. It was bitter sweet for me. I've been in the Young Women's organization several times and it is one calling I have always missed every time I've been released. As the Bishop's councilor was releasing us I felt that emotion that about brought a tear to my eye. Okay...maybe it actually did. I'll miss the girls, but hope to keep tabs with them and enjoy their friendships. I loved working with our Presidency. We've been in 3 years and all good things must come to a close. Their is nothing as consistent in the church as change. Maybe the Young Woman calling will come again in my life. For now.... I only have to worry about where the Lord is sending me next.
Wow... what an August it has been.

Mendon and Paradise

2010-08-03T15:36:00.010-06:00

Last weekend I went to some cemeteries in Mendon and Paradise Utah. You're going to think that all I do is go to cemeteries lately. I've really been into seeing how the uncles, aunts and cousins of my ancestors fit together, especially since there are so many relatives buried in one area or another. My sister Marla and niece Katie were coming down to keep my niece Margie company. She is going to school at Utah State and the friends of Marla's who Margie stays with were going out of town so it was a good time to do that....well anyway. Marla wanted to go over to Mendon and to Paradise, which are within 20 minutes of Logan to see some great grandparents graves. I told her that I wanted to come up and go with them. So I left home about 8:00 Saturday morning and met them at the Mendon Cemetery. In this cemetery is buried my 3rd great grandfather, Charles Bird, and my great grandmother Mary Ann Kennedy Bird. They are on my mother's father's side of the family. He was the first out on the ice with his team to test it when they left Nauvoo. My 2nd great grandfather and grandmother, John Pratt Kennedy Bird and Sarah Ann Hoopes, are also buried there along with many of both of their children.

We weren't too far into our looking around when Marla didn't feel well. She has diabetes and she thought her sugar was low. When we tested it, it was over 300 so that was not good. She took some insulin and thought she felt better so back out she came looking at the graves. We continued taking pictures of other family member's graves when all of the sudden she said go get the car I need to sit down. Well she didn't want to sit on the grass, because she has recently had a knee replaced and didn't think we could get her off the ground. However, before we could get the car to her she went down on the ground, scraping her arm and chin on someones big grave stone. I promised her I wouldn't put the picture I took of her on the ground on the Internet so I won't. Although I really want to because it is such a precious picture :) She was laughing a little at that time. We got her over to the car, but the day just didn't get any better for her. She also has seizures and had one of those too...however she insisted that we go on over to Paradise. I won't go on to say all the troubles she had that day, but I was a little concerned that she shouldn't go on. I think she should have just gone home and seen the pictures later...but I understand her wanting to see the actual place. I love you Marla and am glad that you're feeling okay.
So off to Paradise we went!!

Marla just stayed in the car and Margie stayed with her..she wasn't to with it anyway, while Katie and I tried to find the graves. In this cemetery is my 2nd great grandfather and mother on my mother's, mother's side. They are Charles Cook Housley and Mary Orgill. Also Mary Orgill's parents are buried there too, again with brothers and sisters of my great grandparents.

I was very dissappointed that I did not find my grandmother Birds grandparents here. They are suppose to be buried here but the cemetery does not have there records or her or her great grandparents. They were Davis and Merrell (or Merrill) They did have a lot of unknowns there and maybe they were one of them. All the genealogy records I have looked at including my mother's say they are buried there. HMMMMMmmmmmm... don't know what to think.
So I took some pictures of the empty areas where the unknowns are.. maybe these are them and they will love me for trying anyway!!

I have loved seeing the areas where they lived and standing on the ground where they stood. Seeing the beautiful valleys that they must have loved so much. This has been special to me. When I was born I only had my maternal grandmother living and so have known so little about actually doing things with grandparents, so maybe this is why I'm reaching out, who knows. :) I guess I'm not getting a lot of new genealogy done by doing this, but I think that I am coming to know my great grandparents much better and learning to love my heritage. Thanks to the Hegerhorsts for not minding me coming along on their adventure. Love you all!!

A Whole Year!!

2010-07-16T08:35:00.003-06:00

My thoughts this week have been on the anniversary of the school fire. On July 13th it was a year since we had the fire at our old G.E.S. The school is totally down and they are working on the new building, although all it looks like they've done over there is move the dirt around. I need to go over and take some pictures. I'll add one to this entry when I do. I'm sure they've done more than it looks like they've done. I know there are things they have to do below the ground before they start. However, I'm not really sure that they can have a whole building up before August of 2011 with only what I see completed so far. They might surprise me. Who knows where I'll end up when it is completed. They will be making both schools K-6th grade schools, so our team will be split between the two schools unless we change grades, which I'm not doing unless I'm forced too!
It was quite a year last year. Very hard in many ways!! I'm looking forward to a new year and a better attitude for me. I've moved to a new portable, which wasn't very fun to move again, but it is bigger and it will put all of the 4th grade together rather than split between the front and back of the school. I just think that will help immensely. We know the school better and I think we, as a team, will be much more unified again finally!! So here is to a new year!!

No time for Pictures

2010-07-12T09:25:00.002-06:00

It was a beautiful weekend up in the Uinta's this past weekend. The temperature stayed in the 70's and it felt great! Larry and I took the new wheels and went up to the cabin Friday night. We're trying to get a few things done up there that we've been putting off. I had to teach a lesson at church on Sunday so we just went up for Saturday. We got up, Larry a little earlier than I did, and went to work. I may as well got up the same time, because all I could hear was Larry banging away down in the basement. After breakfast we went downstairs and began working on the dry wall so that we can get some things out of the basement and so that we can finish at least the front part of that room. I have some great plans for down there. First we are going to move the air hockey game down there so that the kids can play all they want and we don't have to tell them to take a break because of the noise....and I want to make the part just inside the door into a mud area for when we come in from snowmobiling we can sit down and take our boots off and have a place to hang everything up. So I want to tile part of it and put down the wood flooring on the other half. We also worked upstairs on the baseboards. We had it almost all the way finished except for some of the bedrooms and some most of the closets. We're still not finished with either project, but I seriously could not have gone up and down those stairs one more time. My knee was just killing me.... I hate getting old(er). Little by little we might get this thing done. We made a good team and accomplished a lot together!! We just left the place a mess downstairs so that we can just go back up and go back to work. We have a few weeks before we have to have it all cleaned up and ready for the Millett Family Reunion!!

By the way Larry loved the new wheels, he was testing it on the corners and dirt roads to make sure it lived up to all it's promises...I guess it does, cause he was impressed and loved the drive.

Our 2009 New Addition

2010-07-07T17:05:00.012-06:00

Well..we did it. We've been talking about getting something to replace my Nissan for a while. I bought it in 2002 and have had it quite a long time. It's been a good car, but it was time to update to something a little newer.

We had talked about Larry giving me his Accord and then him getting an even more efficient auto for himself. I also told him I would like a Honda Pilot, because I thought it would serve our needs pretty well and make me feel even safer in the snow going to and from Grantsville. After more talk we decided it would be a pretty good vehicle to get up to the cabin in too. So we decided to start looking around for Pilots.

The idea was sounding better and better to me. I wouldn't have the dogs sitting on my lap like in the truck. The truck is getting pretty old itself. We might need to get a newer truck sometime...but maybe now we can wait awhile longer. The Pilot can tow a fair amount and will be great getting into the snowmobiles in the winter. It took us awhile to get the right one and after almost buying a couple and things not working out, I think that we were suppose to wait for this deal. It even had some bonuses we weren't aware of. Like a camera for backing up. I love the leather seats and they'll heat up my bottom when it is cold. I love that Larry can be as warm as cool as he wants and I can do the same...'cause we are not the same on that one. :) I think we were both very happy with the purchase.

It will be mine to drive around, but it is really ours since we'll be using it for so many other things we love to do. We love the New addition to our family.

Willard Family Reunion

2010-06-28T08:18:00.025-06:00

We had our annual Willard Reunion June 18th-20th. I always look forward to seeing my sisters and their families. This year a lot of the nieces and nephews were unable to make it so I didn't get to catch up with as many as I would have liked. I was really happy this year that our oldest, Shannon and her husband, Chris, and our granddaughter, Jennsen were able to make it. Chris also brought along his little nephew and niece, Tyler and Makayla. My family has really enjoyed getting to know my step children and have really taken them in as a part of the family. I think that they feel that also and I'm happy that they will make an effort to come.
I was really happy that Becky (Hegerhorst) North and her hubby, Stewart, were able to be there. They won't be able to make it for the next few years with Stewart's busy schedule and them living in the east. Katie and Margie were also there, who are always a ton of fun to have around. Some of the others have moved back east like Kent and Jackie Stowe and now Justin and Nichole Merrell. We hope that they will be able to make it out once in awhile. I was happy to get to see a few of my oldest sister's girls. I hadn't seen ShaNae for quite a few years so that was nice, and it's always great to see Rasheil and Melodie and families too!! I was glad that even though Cassy and her family had some prior committments that they were able to make it up on Saturday and spend some time with us too!!
Roberta was in charge this year and we had it up at Pine Basin Lodge in Swann Valley, Idaho. My brother in law, Keith's Father was a part of a group who opened the lodge with some tow rope ski lifts. They did a great job with the reunion and we had a lot of fun.

Larry and I went up on Thursday and spent the night in Idaho Falls. We had lunch with Shan and Chris in Idaho Falls and then they took their trailer on up to Swann Valley to spend the night. I talked Larry into going up to Rexburg to see the Ricks College campus, now known as B.Y.U. Idaho. It had been years since I had been on campus and Larry was not sure I really had attended the school there. lol There were so many new buildings, but I did get pictures of the dorm that I had stayed in my two years there and they hadn't changed all that much. We also stopped to see the temple there, which is beautiful. We then went back to Idaho Falls and went to the temple grounds there. My parents were married there in 1946, which was cool because they were married on the 19th of June, so we were there around their 64th anniversary. We then went to the little park that runs next to the falls by the temple. It was enjoyable.

The next morning we went on up to Swann Valley and met up with Shan and Chris. We decided since we weren't suppose to be up to the Lodge until 1:00 that we would go on up to the Palisades Dam a few more miles up the road. We just took some relaxing time there letting the little dogs and kids play in the water. The Snake River was quite chilly.

Then we headed up to the Lodge and met up with Roberta, Bonnie and their hubbies. Soon many of the others began to show up too. My mom's youngest brother was also invited and he and his daughter, Chandler, also came. We were excited to see them. We had a lot of fun activities that night. We learned a lot about our ancestors. Many of my ancestors lived in that area of Idaho, so it was enjoyable to talk about them and learn about them. Marla had also brought some papers that she still had from mom (things to do with genealogy and our family) I especially loved reading through some of our Family Home Evening minutes. Yes, my mom had us keep minutes of our meetings....and I must say that I'm really glad that she did, because it brought back a lot of memories. Roberta took that stuff to her house and we are planning on getting together to go through it. Roberta has caught the spirit of Elijah and is trying to work on the genealogy, especially on Dad's side of the family.

Saturday we did some GEO caching, went and got famous square ice cream cones, and did other fun things, including a spontaneous dog race. Shan, Chris and Jennsen had their to little dogs there and Sha Nae had hers and of course Katie had her Rupert. So Shannon set up a course area and we had a race. It was quite hilarious...Rupert came in 3rd only because Sha Nae's little chihuahua left the course. LOL We're proud of all of our 4 legged family members!!

Sunday, we went down to Sacrament meeting and helped Roberta and Keith get the lodge cleaned up. Then we had lunch and said our goodbye's. What a fun reunion. Thanks to the Kopps!!
Larry and I had planned to stay around the area another day. So we went back up toward Rexburg to Parker and Teton, where many of my ancestors are buried. I took my camera and took a lot of pictures of the headstones. I took pictures of any graves that had Housley or Bird on them. It was a nice way to spend the rest of the sabbath. It was wonderful to look around and see the area that my ancestors called home and lived. I could feel their spirits it seemed. We then headed down to Pocatello where we had planned to stay the night.

Monday on our way home I asked Larry if we could detour off to Huntsville, Utah where my great grandfather Willard was buried. However for fun we had to stop at Smith and Edwards to get some amo cans for geo caching and of course a few other things that we couldn't pass up. I had never been to Huntsville before and loved seeing the beautiful valley. I could imagine my family living there and the love of this beautiful valley. I still want to go to Mendon and Paridise Utah to look at more family. Since I've been back, I've been doing a lot of looking up these names that I took pictures of. I've found many of these names being aunts, uncles or cousins. It's been a ton of fun. I think I feel the genealogy bug biting me a bit too!!
Reunions are so important. Not only is it a time to enjoy our families, but it brings us closer and builds bonds. We know each other better, we learn about our eternal families. We've been linked together through temple marriages and we are eternal families. I love my family and enjoy spending time with them. We all have so much to share and give to one another. It is so important to try to make our families and our extended families a priority!! I love you all...thanks family for the fun and laughter!!

7 Wonderful Years

2010-06-25T14:11:00.005-06:00

June 14th was Larry and my 7th anniversary. There are times that I can't believe I've been married that long and then there are times that it seems like it's been more than that and I mean that in a good way! It was a pretty normal day. I had just gotten back from Girls camp the end of the last week and our anniversary was on a Monday. Soooo Larry went off to work and I did a little laundry and a few other things to clean up after camp here at home. I also got Larry's present wrapped. I've had his gift since April. I had gone in and gotten it during my spring break. I knew what I wanted to give him this year. He has this favorite jeweler, Mike's Custom Jewelry, that he always gets my jewelry at. I decided I wanted to get him a ring this year. I knew I had to get it at Mike's. They are a little more pricey 'cause they do custom work...they're REAL Jewelers. Anyway...it was a beautiful ring and I think he really loved it.... at least he's been wearing it every day.
We had decided that weekend that it would be fun to do dinner and go out to a movie. I thought we might just keep it low key and go here in Tooele, but Larry emailed me during the day and asked if I'd like to go out to dinner at Tuscany (a nice Italian place in S.L.C.) and to a movie in there. That sounded great to me. We had reservations for 7:00 pm. I looked up the movie we had talked about going to and found the times and where it was playing.
Dinner was delicious and the chefs even sent us out a nice dessert with a candle in it for our anniversary. We then went down to Jordan Commons to see a movie called "Killers". Doesn't sound like a very good anniversary movie does it?? lol It actually is a Romantic Comedy and has a lot of good guns in it that kept Larry interested too!! (He actually is very willing to watch the romantic comedies with me.) With just the two of us at home almost every night we have a lot of time together anyway...but it was a wonderful evening to remember the love that we share and enjoy each other. Just want to say with all the ups and downs, I still love Larry so very much and hope for so many more wonderful years together right into Eternity!! I love you Larry!!

Girls Camp....I Mean Vacation!!

2010-06-25T10:44:00.011-06:00

This year the stake decided to let us have ward camps for girls camp. Our camp leader decided to try and go to this place called "Reid Ranch". It's out past Strawberry Reservoir and Current Creek. You make a turn towards Tabiona when you get to Fruitland. Anyway, we knew it was going to be a bit cushy, not really camping. We decided that our goal for this camp was to try to build some bonds between all of the girls in our ward. We called it a "Sisterhood Retreat" instead of camp and had the theme of "Building Bonds of Sisterhood". When we first got there the people who run the place met us at our lodge and gave us a introduction to the ranch. We had a lodge to ourselves with real beds, our own swimming pool and spa. And when the girls heard that the help would be in each morning to make their beds their jaws just dropped, as did all of the leaders. The best part for us as the leaders was that we weren't going to have the trouble of getting the girls to fix the dinners or clean up afterwards because we all ate at a central dining area provided by the management. There were some mighty good meals I must say. The weather was going to be beautiful while we were there which made it even better. My only problem was on the way up I got a flat tire. It could have been from the 13 miles of dirt roads and rocks that we went through to get there.(by the way I went all the way home on the spare donut, but I made it.) We also assigned each girl a "secret sister" that we wanted them to get to know better and even we as leaders had one within the leaders. All of our Presidency was able to attend along with our two camp leaders. We planned devotionals for each morning and evening. There was quite the air of excitement from all the girls as they settled in and got prepared for a few days of fun and relaxation.

The 1st night there the girls were put into 3 groups with each group having a bag of a variety of things. They were asked to come up with a skit that also had music in it. They did a great job!! We had a play about a princess that was looking for the right guy, we had a play about the Bra Fairy..if you look at the pictures I think you can see our newest Beehive with the Bra on.. and the other play was about a cooking show and the Cook, Kristin, was so hilarious that we were all crying. Then of course when those were finished we had the traditional camp Smores and a devotional before going to bed.

I wish I would have gotten some more pictures of the activities that the girls and of course we as leader could do. I didn't have my camera with me when the girls were out in the pool or the leaders in the spa. I wish that I would have had my camera with me when I was doing archery and made 3 BULLS EYES! Someone took the picture and I'll get it from them when I get a chance. The girls could have played Frisbee Golf, table tennis, Foosball, boat on their nearby lake with canoes or paddle boats. (That wasn't their most favorite as they could do that in their own back yards.) I think one of their favorites was the horseback riding. I did go up and get a few shots as you can see.
We also found time to make crafts, which were mostly about the temple. And also just enjoy some down time at the lodge where we stayed

Wednesday evening after our steak dinner, we prepared for the always wonderful Testimony meeting. There was one other group up there the same time that we were and they were from Riverton. They were a Tongan & Somoan branch up for their Youth Conference. We had seen and talked to them when we all at our meals together. Some of the girls wanted to know if they'd sing to us with their instruments. They agreed and came to our campfire before our testimonies and sang us a couple of songs. They were beautiful songs. Then we had a devotional that I gave on testimonies and how important they were to build deep so that you will be able to weather any storms. The spirit was really there and most of the girls and leaders expressed their love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We even had a few girls there that have not been very active...one that had never even been at or seen a testimony meeting. She bore her testimony about some miracles that had happened in her family in the last few weeks and how she truly believed it was the priesthood of this church that had made the difference. As new and budding as that testimony was it was beautiful. It was a wonderful meeting and I know the girls felt the spirit. After the testimony meeting the other branch asked our girls to come down and party a little with them...which they anxiously accepted. The polynesian people are so loving and accepting and the girls had a ton of fun!!!

Thursday morning was our last day there. We prepared the girls Wednesday night that we would be getting up at 5:30 for a sunrise hike. Well... the morning was beautiful and it wasn't a rough or difficult hike. It took us about 20-30 minutes to get there and along the way we would stop to see the rays of the sun starting to rise behind the mountains. We were headed towards some rocks that the help at Reid Ranch called the Thinking Rocks. It was a beautiful spot. Our President, Jill, gave us a morning devotional and we stood and said our YW Theme together. We also revealed our "secret sisters" that we had been assigned to do something nice for each day and to learn something new about them. This also brought some tears as we felt the love and bonding that had been our goal. I really feel that we came together and bonded as a ward Young Women. Thanks to all of the girls and leaders. I love you sooooo much. What a great YW Camp... I mean vacation!!!!

The NEW 4th grade Program, Heritage Days, and This Is The Place!

2010-06-24T08:15:00.013-06:00

We had big changes this year with losing all of our program costumes, backdrop, and props because of the fire at GES. We thought of not even doing a program at all. However, we just couldn't see not letting this group have the celebration of UTAH!! So we decided to go ahead and do a slightly scaled back version. We asked parents to buy their student a T-shirt that we had made up with Utah on the front. They were only $6.00 and would be a good memory of 4th grade. We did one program in the morning and one in the afternoon. Since we had 8 classes of 4th graders and had 4 dances, two classes each learned the same dance. On performed it in the morning and one did it for the afternoon. We had an indian shawl dance, the Mexican Hat dance, a pioneer dance (Oh Johnny Oh) and a square dance that went with the Golden Spike song that we sing called Iron Wheels. We sang songs and had some speaking parts. It was much shorter than in the past, but we had a lot of good comments about it. I think parents were just happy that not everything had been taken away because of the fire. The kids seemed happy to show what they had learned also. I think some had their doubts on how it would work out, but I think the kids did an awesome job and made the program a BIG success!!

This year we had our first "Heritage Days"!! We decided since our program was scaled way back that we would love to do something that the students could really enjoy. As you cansee I was in charge of the "Pony Express Relay"!! Since that is the only station I was at, these are all the pictures that I have. These are pictures of my class doing the relay. They each had a stick pony and a hat and a pack for the letters. The had to run to the first basket to pick up their bundle of mail and then down to the end to trade for a fresh mount and exchange their mail to a new pack. On their return trip they then had to deliver their mail to the other basket before coming back to give their mount to their next team mate. It was fun I think, and since it is the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express we had studied quite a bit about it this year. As the day went on I started letting some of the team mates be indians and other hostiles that would try to thwart them from making it back safely. I think I did that for my own entertainment after doing the same thing for the whole day.. LOL!! Other things that the kids did was make butter and enjoy it on a hot roll. They had to do a little math to figure out how they could "Pack their Wagons" to make it out west as a pioneer. They made button spin toys, some military marching (representing Johnson's Army), and some pioneer games. They also had to make their own 3D covered wagon out of construction paper, and learned how to use the Deseret alphabet. All in all I think the kids thought it was a GREAT day!!

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We were able to do our annual Field Trip to This Is The Place Heritage Park again this year. Thanks to parents helping with fees and the PTA giving us some grant money. We as teachers always look forward to this trip as it really brings everything our students have been learning about Utah History to light for them. Being there makes a lot of things more real to them. As you can see most of them wore their Utah T-shirts and they thought that was a ton of fun. They sang their Iron Wheels song as they rode on the train around the park. They thought that was great. There was another 4th grade class up there from Tooele (my daughter Jamie's class) and my students had fun having song wars with them as they had sang the same songs in their program just the day before. There's a few things that they have to do at the school house that I wish we could bring back....the paddle for example.. LOL The kids always think that's pretty amazing along with some of the other consequences teachers use to have. All in all it was a great school year with my students. I had a great class that really helped me through a rough year. I'm moving into a bigger portable next year and I hope the extra room will make my life a little easier, and just being farther down the road from all that has happened to our school. I look forward to a great year next year even if the class size is rising. But for now I'm looking forward to the rest of my summer!!

Loss of a Father-in-law and a dear Nephew

2010-06-15T08:19:00.006-06:00

I have about 5 topics that I want to catch up on. So I thought I'd just do a few at a time and then I'd be caught up with some important things that have happened in the last few months in my life.
I feel like I've talked a lot about deaths lately, but it seemed as though it is something that has happened a lot this year. FIRST.... I want to talk about my Father in law. Ivan J. Walker was born in 1920 on May 31. My dear mother in law passed away last June 4th. I really felt like Larry's dad had stayed through all his pain mostly just to take care of her...so I thought his death after her death would be fairly soon. He shocked us all by making through the summer and into the fall. Then we just didn't know...he might live a lot longer than we thought. Then early winter his mind seemed to be wandering and he would talk about odd things that we knew were not happening. About a month before he passed Larry and I had gone up to visit him and I think that is where we began our mourning for his loss. He was really out of it and didn't know what he was talking about and he was also very weak. We put him to bed and both of us sat there with tears in our eyes. I know that is the moment that Larry knew he really had lost his dad. What a blessing for him that he was able to return to his Father in Heaven on April 21. He was just over a month shy of his 90th birthday. We're happy that he can once again be with Mom Walker and all his brothers and sister and parents. What a grand reunion.

Then after just settling back into the norm....a phone call turned me inside out again. May 5th, I was at school and had just given my kids a needed break after a state test. My kids heard my phone ringing inside my purse. I told them that they knew I didn't answer the phone and that whoever it was would leave a message...so since it was a Wednesday and the kids went home at 1:00, I then went to my phone to see who it had been. I had a message left on my phone. It was from my brother in law, Richard. He said that they had some sad news and that would I please call. I could tell from his voice it wasn't good. I called back right away and they had just reached Grand Junction, Colorado. Richard told me that his oldest son, Dustin, had been killed in a accident early that morning and that they had come to be with Ashley. I was stunned and just sat there in my chair, I didn't know what to say. In fact, I don't really know what I said to him or Georgia, but I felt the pain that they must have felt. Since I lived in Vernal....these kids became very close to my heart. I just want to share some memories that I have of my dear nephew.
I moved to Vernal in 1983 to take my first teaching position. I lived with Georgia and Richard for the first few weeks until I found a place of my own to live. That first day of school I got up to get ready and so did Dustin. We started school on the same day. He was 5 and was headed off to his first day of kindergarten and I was off to face my 1st class of 4th graders. We were both nervous and excited. I can still remember his beaming face. I can remember taking care of all the kids when Richard and Georgia would be off to a furniture show somewhere. We'd always work it out so that they'd be taken care of for the day and I'd take care of them at night. Thank goodness Dustin never had one of his accidents during my watch. He seemed to break a few bones here and there. :) I remember one time when a furniture show was in March and Georgia and Richard were going to be gone for Dustin's birthday. They were giving him a basketball back board. I had to keep it hidden...boy was he excited for that. I know I took a picture...but I have no idea where it is. I was living in some apartments across from the tabernacle (now the temple), we went over and had a picnic on the tabernacle lawn. We did that a lot when the kids were at my place. As the years went by, and I had moved into a rental home, I asked Dustin if he would come and mow my lawn for me and I would pay him. We had some good talks when he came to do that. Nothing specific that I can really remember, but we would talk about school and life and how things were going...sometimes he's ask me questions about a problem and I hope that our talks helped a little. I can remember helping him ask a girl out to a dance. Dustin called and asked if I could bring my video camera up and help him. He had put a piece of paper that asked her out in a bowl of water and had frozen it. We would video it melting for awhile and then we stop filming and he'd get out the hair dryer and melt more ice before we taped again until the message finally appeared through the ice. We then set it to some music and made the tape complete. It must of worked because she went with him to the dance. Another great memory was he had just turned 16 and I had been invited to go with families from the Millett neighborhood on a Spring Break vacation to Disneyland. We all had our radios to keep in touch. Dustin came with me in my fairly new White Honda Accord (our handle was "White Lightening") He was a pretty good driver and was getting some Highway experience driving with me. We made a stop in Victorville to see Richard's sister. We were following Richard (Old Fossil) I kept telling Dustin that we were now in city driving and that he needed to not follow so close, because you never know when the vehicle in front of you may need to stop. He said okay...but kept inching closer, so I would remind him again and he'd back up and then inch closer...this happened several times...when all of the sudden Richard put on his breaks and bang right into the hitch my bumper went. He was so upset and cried and cried. There was no use being mad or upset he was already punishing himself enough. I told him not to worry about it and not to let this ruin his vacation. He was always so soft hearted and loving...that's one thing I really loved about him. I never did fix that bumper and then a whole other story Nikole finished that bumper off.
Soon after I had married and was living in Stansbury Park with my husband, Larry, we had a lot of the family out to go boating on the lake behind our home. Dustin and Ashley came and Dustin decided to go canoeing. Now here is an Eagle Scout...you'd think they'd know a few things about a canoe. I can't remember if he was just going out or just coming back...but he decides to just stand up in the middle of the canoe. Now even I know that doesn't make a canoe very stable and all of the sudden the canoe began to rock back and forth as he fought to keep his balance. All of the sudden backwards he fell into the lake. Good thing the lake isn't very deep right by the dock. Up he stood with a great smile on his face. I had to find him some sweats to wear while we got his clothes dry. I really laughed at that one.
Dustin sometimes seemed quiet to others...but he was really quite the life of the party. Unexpected things would just come out of his mouth...you couldn't help but smile and laugh. His wonderful smile and great personality will truly be missed. He was such a wonderful nephew and I appreciate the time that I had to be with him. I pray for his sweet wife, Ashley and his 4 beautiful children that he loved so much. Some part of me understands what my sister and brother in law are going through...for to me he was just like a son. I love you Dustin and know that someday I'll see you again and can wrap my arms around you and tell you how much I loved being a part of your life.

Update coming soon

2010-06-06T19:49:00.003-06:00

I have so much I need to blog about and I just haven't had time. There have been funerals and end of school things that I want to talk about, but school has really taken up a ton of time as it always does at the close of school. I've worked a lot of late nights just getting portfolios, grades, awards and many other things finished. I now have Girls camp this Tuesday through Thursday and then maybe I'll get a chance before the Willard Reunion that is the week after that. I have pictures to share and just things that I've wanted to say that I haven't had a chance to do...so just so you know that I haven't forgotten my blog... I'll get to it I promise. I will leave you with this picture of us this Memorial Day weekend up at the cabin. It isn't this bad at the cabin, but as you go out on some of the trails you come across some areas like this. I'm sure with the warmer weather it will be much more snow free the next time we're up there... Anyway I'll get back to everything else soon so talk to you soon!!

A Torn Meniscus

2010-04-09T17:30:00.004-06:00

Well..it's been a week since I had a scope on my right knee for my torn meniscus. I thought I came through it quite well. Although when my surgeon came out he told me that there was a bit more to it. I was so out of it that I'm not really sure of what he really did. He talked to Larry, but I'm still not sure other than I know he told me I also have some Osteoarthretis. That's not good for down the road, because it means most likely knee replacment. I'll talk to him more about what he thinks when I go in to have my stitches out on the 15th. I'll ask him to tell me exactly what he did other than fix the tear too. Saturday, which was the day right after, I felt really good. I got up and was walking on it fairly well. I even went up the stairs so we could watch conference on the big screen. I stayed down and kept it iced and kept on my pain meds so that I could stay ahead of any pain. I thought wow this is going to be great... however.... by Sunday night it wasn't so good. I was actually thinking I might go back to school on Monday, although I had made plans for a substitute just in case. I knew by Sunday afternoon it wasn't going to be possible. So, I stayed home on Monday and I even called the Physician Assistant who had been doing therapy before that to ask him if he thought I had done too much or needed to excercise it or what. He said that it was a pretty normal story and that I had just hit the top of my pain Sunday. He told me to keep icing it and to stay off it as much as I could, so I did. Hey, it got me and extra spring break vacation day, I can't complain too much. All my teaching Nephews can be jealous of that. Anyway, I went back to work on Tuesday and have to say I did fairly well limping along. Each day this week has gotten better and better, although I have to say at the end of the day it felt good to come home and put it up with ice on it. I think as soon as the stictches are out I'll be bending it much better, for now they are pulling just a bit. Even if down the road there could be a knee replacment, which I feel runs in my family, I hope for now it will feel a little better and I won't be limping around.

Spring Break

2010-04-01T13:06:00.005-06:00

Well... this week has been my spring break. It actually started last Friday, because it was furlough day for the teachers. Anyway, I've been enjoying it. I get up and get Larry off to work and then I have been very good at lounging the morning away. I have been working on my homemade birthday cards as I've not had much time to work on them for a long time. I'm sorry to all my family because I just haven't gotten too many cards out this year. Now that I've been making some more of them will see a card. I've also made a dog bed for our two kids.. lol. They totally tore the last one apart. I left Larry home sick one day and thought the dogs would be fine going in and out since he was home. Well.....while he was sleeping the two of those wonderful lab pups, got the "huge" dogbed through both of the dog doors and out in the backyard and proceeded to have a party. I would loved to have had a video of that. At any rate I saved the stuffing and have now produced a new bed. Yeah...for me!! I'm also going to have a scope on my knee for vacation. Doesn't that sound like fun. I found out last week, after having an MRI that I have a torn miniscus and some damage on my cartilage. I hope that it isn't too bad. I wanted to do it at the beginning of break, but it ended up that I'm having it done on Friday. I'm hoping that I can be back to school on Monday. The doctor's said that it was a possibility. We shall see. I'll have to write a blog about that later. I also went into Salt Lake City yesterday to play with my friend Heather. We went out to lunch and did a little shopping. Always a fun day. All in all it has been a nice down time, before all the craziness of getting ready for State tests at school begins. It's been a pretty good spring break even with all the snow yesterday.

Family

2010-03-26T15:28:00.005-06:00

I wanted to take time and write about the funerals that I've been to this past month. I'm so glad that I was able to go with Bertie and Georgia to Idaho to Aunt Velma's funeral. I haven't seen so many on that side of the family for awhile. I have to admit that it was so noisy in the family room. I'm sure that the Bishop wondered what in the heck was going on in there. In our defense...Aunt Velma had lived such a long life (94 years)and had lived without Uncle Chance for since 1982. What a blessing for her to finally return to her family and our Father in Heaven and to be released from her aging body and it's problems. We were enjoying each other so much as a family, It was wonderful!! It was so great to see my Gisler cousins that I hadn't seen for probably close to 30 years. And of course my dear cousin Lisa Lackey. I grew up with these cousins and have such fond memories of my time with them in California. I also loved seeing my other cousins of course, whom I see more often. It felt so weird to think I wasn't seeing any aunts or uncles...we're now the next generation. It makes you think about how precious life really is and that family is such an important part of that life.
I then went in the very next Saturday to Salt Lake to my Aunt Eileen's funeral. She was married to my Uncle Lee for 18 years. It's a long story but even though they were divorced the reason for that being so didn't change that she was my aunt. Again I saw Roberta and Keith and I told her that we had to stop seeing each other for this reason. I was glad that we could support my Uncle and his children. What a special lady with special understanding with her health problems which made her have such a childlike disposition. It was great to see a few more cousins on my mother's side of the family. So between the two deaths I was able to see many from both parents families. What a wonderful week even with the sadness of the occasions. I couldn't feel bad for either one, that they had finally been relieved of these bodies that had kept them back. What freedoms they must feel at this time, and what wonderful reunions are going on in the next world.
Family is so important and I hope that my nieces and nephew will feel the importance of that also. I see what importance the Lord's plans of families being linked together really is. "FAMILY" What a wonderful word!! I love my family!!

An End to an Era

2010-03-11T19:43:00.008-07:00

The first picture here is a picture of my wonderful portable that I lovingly call "The Ghetto". It has become my tightly packed yet wonderful new home away from home. I still want Brenda and I to take a picture sitting out on the stoop with our old lawn chairs, maybe grilling on the Hibachi. However, this afternoon after school, I went over to the old school, my GES, to get a brick and a piece of the gym floor. When I got there and saw it coming down before my very eyes it was rougher than I thought. The 3rd grade hall was all the way down and they were working on the gym. What a great old gym. It was the oldest part of the school. I believe it was built in the 20's and so it was about 80 years old. They don't make gyms like that any more. It had this wonderful balcony and really took you back in time. As I smelled the wood that I got from the floor it smelled just like being in the gym. I was amazed at the feelings. I've done 6 wonderful 4th grade programs in that old place. It is so much more than a building. It was like a family home. I had a wonderful family there. People that I trusted and worked with that I would have done anything for. I'm so thankful for the memories that I've been able to make there and it feels totally like an era has passed. As my fellow teachers and I talked and walked around it was wonderful to share our memories. I have to express some unbelief at the waste though. I went around to see my room for the last time, because I'm sure that it will be coming down tomorrow. In the window of my room I could see an expensive Califone CD/Cassette player just sitting there waiting to be plowed under. I could also see my box of Legos and many other things sitting there. What a waste of things. If I knew then what I know now I would have emptied my room and taken it to the junkyard myself rather than let it be plowed under like that. Like it meant nothing. When I think of all the time, effort, and money that I put into that classroom and the things in it and to know it is just about to become rubble I just shake my head.
I know that I must just take it in stride and move forward. I thought I had moved forward, and I think I have very well....but going back over there really took me back to this past summer with all the feelings that I had back then. The future is so uncertain, who knows where I will be the fall of 2011. Seems as though the district office just dumps the feathers in the wind and lets them fall wherever they will. Last week they moved our principal from being over with the 5th and 6th grade to a new school. I couldn't believe they would move him especially right before CORE testing after all these kids have been through. If I were retiring this year I would definitely be over to the district office at the end of the year giving them a piece of my mind of all the things they've done wrong. Making me feel less than a great employee which I know that I am.
However there will be a beautiful new building there come the fall of 2011. I think I'd like to be there when all is said and done, however I guess at this point it depends on who's the new principal and many other factors. I don't think I'll have a lot of choice of where I'll be since that is what the district has been doing anyway. Time will tell I guess. Wow that felt good to just get off my chest.
Not to have this blog be a total downer..I am so grateful that I have many wonderful memories there with many wonderful people. I'm also grateful that I still have many of those friends with me now and that we are getting through this year together. I'm sure that will only continue to go on and the bond be even stronger. Thanks for all the good times at G.E.S. and the people that I appreciate so much!! Good bye old friend.

My Valentine

2010-02-14T13:45:00.004-07:00

Today, I just want to tell my sweetheart how much that I love him. I've been so blessed to have him in my life. I told Larry last night that today we will have been married for 80 months. That sounds like such a long time when you put into months. We're coming up on 7 years June 14th and I'm so happy that he asked me to be his eternal companion. Even though there has been the normal ups and downs that come with marriage he has been my wonderful knight in shining armour. I love you Babe and you'll never now how much I do or it is going to take you forever to really know!! All my love,

New Cabin Decor

2010-02-05T19:00:00.004-07:00

Just wanted to write about a few things. Christmas time Santa gave us this beautiful new addition to our cabin decor. I just love it and wanted to share how cute it looks up on the wall. It really did fit in to our color scheme and decor so well. I was excited to make that find.
I also got a great book for Christmas from Larry. It is The Undaunted by Lund. I totally enjoyed that book. I'm almost sad that it is over. It's a book about the pioneers that were sent on a mission to settle the San Juan region of Utah. What a great story of how much they went through. Of course it has that fictional story happening amongst all the history (which I also loved) I think I'd like to take a ATV ride down in the area that they traveled. It would be so cool to see the evidences that are left of their courageous trip. If you liked the Work and Glory books you'd like this one too.

At long last and update......

2010-01-19T19:06:00.029-07:00

At long last and update......
Wow...at long last I'm going to update. I haven't tried for quite awhile because I felt like it would take too long and I haven't had the time. Today I had a day off from school with no pay...you know the cutbacks... and so today I decided to at least update about the last few months. This way you'll at least know that I'm still alive.
So I'll start with Thanksgiving. Georgia, Richard and Jordan came out to spend it with us since we were going to be by ourselves. We appreciate the fun we had together. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and had Larry's dad over for dinner. We played games and of course since the paddle boat was still out we had to try a little early winter boat ride...well at least Richard and Jordan did, and then they made Georgia so she could get some pictures of the ice. As they started out they thought they'd make it out of the inlet and we could all see a little skim of ice on top of the water. I thought they'd just crash right through it, but they tried and tried and finally had to make a return trip. So it was a short ride.

And they're off...

Just can't make it through....

Of course the next day was Black Friday and Larry and Richard had really been looking at the adds for place like Harbor Freight, Home Depot, etc. So at 6:00 am they were off to do some shopping. Georgia and I slept in a little...maybe she would have liked to have gone out early too, however that isn't really my thing. We did go to Kholes and picked up a few things. Then after we all got home we went to see a great movie, "Blindside". It was one of the best movies I've seen for awhile. We also went into to Temple Square the that night to see the lights on the 1st night. It was a beautiful evening and it wasn't even very cold. Even though we've done this numerous times it is always a beautiful and inspiring activity.

We of course also found some time to do a little GEO hunting. We just did some right around here in Stansbury, so the ones we found were all micros. We could have used another GPS, but we had fun anyway.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend. Thanks Milletts for coming to spend some time with us. We love you.

Christmas 2009
We were off to the cabin again this year. We left on the 23rd of December with plans to stay through the new year. This year our oldest daughter, Shannon and her husband and daughter Chris and Jennsen came with us. Not only that, our son Devin and Charity and Kylee also came up and stayed at the cabin close by that belongs to their grandparents, so we were able to see them a few times while we were up there.

We also had Sadie and Brandi, and also Shan's Abby and a new addition of Maggie, Jennsen's new Mini Pin. So we had a ton of etertainment.

I was shocked at how Maggie wasn't even afraid of the big dogs. We had to keep an eye on her for her own safety if you know what I mean. Even if they played with her they are a little big when they get playing.
Even though we were there for a week and a half, we found plenty of things to do and enjoy. We were a little concerned that we wouldn't have all that much fun with the lack of snow. We did fine on the trails, but couldn't get off the trails with the lack of the white stuff.

We still took a few rides on the snowmobiles and had a great time playing games, reading (I got a great book from Larry for Christmas) and we watched a lot of movies. Chris and Jennsen brought up all three movies of "The Lord of the Rings" so we marathoned with them.
New's Year Eve was spent at the traditional burn pile bonfire. Our Grand daughter,Kylee, was with us also and I think she had a lot of fun. Someone had built a snowbear down at the bonfire. We had to take a picture because it was melting fast with the heat from the fire. After the bonfire we went home and got out the goodies, played games, and watched a movie to bring in the New Year.

It was a wonderful, fun, and relaxing holiday. We were especially happy to have a few of our kids there to enjoy too!! Happy New Year 2010

Home Sweet Home

2009-08-04T09:25:00.011-06:00

This past weekend I went to my mother and father's home in Wendell, Idaho. My 4 sisters and 1 brother all met there to finish up the task of cleaning out the house. It was a long day Saturday, but we are finished, basically. We all had loaded vehicles and there's just a few things left to take to D.I. Thanks to Marla for finishing that up for us. Marla is also going to hire some ladies to come in and give it a good cleaning. Then we're praying that we can get it sold quickly.

It was however a bitter sweet weekend for me. As I thought I'll probably never set foot inside that home again. It wasn't my home where I grew up, but it was the last place that my parents lived and I have many memories of being there. As I was single for so long it was my home away from my own home and I spent many holidays and long weekend with my mom and dad there. It was a place where many a nephew or niece stopped on there way through to see Grandma and Grandpa and have a place to rest. Many other relatives stopped by to take a break and spend some precious time with them also. Even though I never lived there it is hard to see it being sold. It truly feels that I am a homeless orphan in some ways. I'll miss going to Wendell to visit the cute little town and my parents.
We saw one of my mother's best friends at church Sunday morning and she told us that it felt like a funeral all over again...'cause she knew she would probably never see us again as that is how life seems to go. I don't expect we will ever have a reason to attend the church there again. I know that I'll return to Wendell, because I will want to visit the gravesites of my parents, but I'm sure that it will not be quite as often. Thank goodness Katie, my niece is still there. Maybe she'll let us stay with her once in a while or Marla is not much further.
Mom and Dad.. I love you and I miss you,and now it all seems so final. Thanks for the wonderful parents you were and all you've helped me to become. Goodbye Home Sweet Home!

School Days

2009-07-24T11:11:00.004-06:00

Well, it's been quite the week. My fellow teachers and I have had quite the emotional ride. The district has made some decisions in behalf of our school. They feel that our 4 grades will be split up. So the 5th and 6th grade are going to the Jr. High school and 3rd and 4th grade, which is me, are going to Willow... the k-2 school. I'll be out in a portable probably for the next 2 years. I'm sure that I'll make the best of everything with the help of my friends. The worst part is though that the insurance and the disaster team has not yet released the school to the district so I won't have any of my teaching files or manipulatives to begin school. So now I have to start rethinking how I'm going to begin and what do I need to do so. The district has been gracious enough to give us a good sum of money to go and buy some things to start. So...I guess I'll be off shopping in the next little while. We've made some phone calls to some companies of things we've used and they are graciously trying to help us replace some things. I've shed a lot of tears with losing 26 years of hard work. I don't think those who don't teach understand the time that I've put into making things I teach with. There is no amount of money that can replace that time and effort. However, I'm now looking ahead and am trying to think of what I need to get doing so that I'll be prepared for the children that I'll be teaching this year. I know that it will all work out and although it may not be my favorite year...it just might be a well remembered year of working together as teachers to make it one of the best! Maybe this will even make me a much better teacher...I hope it does.
This is faculty room where the fire began

There's my stuff

Looking in to see how my stuff survived

My classroom

20th anniversary of 20th high school reunion

2009-07-20T08:40:00.003-06:00

Larry and I attended his 4oth class reunion Saturday night. He went to Roy High School in Roy Utah. The home of the Royals. It was held at Timbermine Restaraunt up in Ogden Canyon. It was a very nice place. He had about 60 of his classmates there. He seemed to be enjoying catching up with people he hadn't seen for awhile. You know me I just make conversation with whomever I'm with. It was fun to see them taking a class picture together. They had about 350 in his class. They even had pictures of those who had passed away, which was about 35 of them. Their colors were black and gold and I guess I just never made that connection that his colors were the same as my high school. They had Black and Gold fabric napkins and black and gold candies on the table. I almost felt like I were at a good 'ole Boron High School reunion. This year was my 30th...but we've never had anything since our 10th that I know of. There's a few of us old girlfriends that have found each other through facebook, and we're going to go to Sedona Arizona and enjoy a weekend with each other this next October. I think it will be fun. It's been fun talking with them on facebook and I'm sure after getting together we'll have a lot more in common again. I'll have to write more after this adventure in October.

FIRE

2009-07-16T09:26:00.003-06:00

Well...I got home Sunday night from the Family Reunion and thought...."I'll just relax on Monday and take it easy", that was not to be. Monday morning about 10 after 10:00, my fellow teacher, Brenda calls and says our school is on fire. I couldn't believe it! We went over about 11:30 to see what was happening. The faculty room had started on fire because of a stove. By the way I've never seen anyone ever use that stove in the past 6 years. I thought that maybe my room could be gone, because I'm close to the office and the faculty room. The fire department did a good job of keeping the fire contained in that area. My room does have smoke damage, but I'm not really sure about how it all is. At least I didn't lose 26 years of teaching, which would have been devastating. We have a meeting next week to see what is to become of our school. I don't think we'll be starting on Aug. 24th there...which means moving everything. What a pain!! Will the excitement ever end?? If I find a video or picture of it I'll add it to this post soon.

,

Willard Family Reunion '09

2009-07-15T07:50:00.009-06:00

This past week July 9th - 11th, we had our yearly family reunion with my sisters and brother. However, Cliff wasn't able to make it this year, so it was just us 5 girls and our families. It was our first year to have it without Dad or Mom being there. The theme was "Continueing the Legacy, Back together again!" I know that Mom and Dad were with us and were proud of our family continueing what they both felt was so important, our family remaining close and making memories together.
I was in charge this year and we had it up to our cabin in the Uintas. It was a a lot of work to get ready for it, but so worth it. I think that everyone had a great time. We had about 53 people there total. Most set up tents around the property, and except for the first "cold" night they faired pretty well. Of course one advantage of the cabin being yours is you get the bed inside. We had some good food if I don't say so myself and a lot of fun activities. We had games that we could play around the camp, we went on a GEO Cache hunt (you have to use GPS units for that), some went down to target shoot and trap shoot, and we all had fun on taking turns on the ATVs, especially Jordan!! He went down to let everyone in at the gate as they arrived. It was never hard to talk him into going anywhere on them. Some left after it was over Saturday, but some of my sister and our kids stayed to spend another night.

Larry and my family has been wanting to do this night time Cache, and we finally went and did it. It was a lot of fun to find, even stumbling along in the dark. It was called ""9 refletors" and so we had to do it at night with a flashlight to see the reflectors. We had to go to the first reflector and then shine our flashlight until we saw the next, and then on to that one to find the next. It pretty much just took us in a circle and we found the cache on the other side of the road across from our bikes. Very fun Cache though. All in all we had a very exhausting, but great time. Thanks for everyone coming and supporting us. We hope you all had a blast!!

July 4th weekend

2009-07-06T08:41:00.007-06:00

We went up to the cabin this weekend to get a few thing done before reunion. Chris and Shannon called and said they wanted to go with us. We were happy, but since our hard working son in law, Chris, came a long we got a lot more done than I thought we would. They cut down I think 6 or 7 trees that are infested with pine beetles, or that were dead. It looks a lot better, but I think that Shannon, our grand daughter, Jennsen, and I must have taken 10 loads of brush and junk from off the property. We all found muscles that we didn't know that we had. The property sure looks better even though there are a lot more to get cut down. It will be an on going project this summer.
We also found time to get out the ATV's and ride a little too. The Unita's are beautiful. We got a new (used) 4 wheeler around Valentine's Day and I had yet to ride it, so it was fun to ride my own, even though I enjoyed riding on the back with Larry too! We had a lot of fun in spite of the hard work. Thanks Chris,Shannon and Jennsen, we couldn't have done it without you!!

,

Voila!!

2009-07-02T14:11:00.001-06:00

I think I figured this out with a little hellp from Becky, my niece, I saw on her blog the site that helped her do it. When you follow directions it's not so bad. Okay...I've really got to go and get some things done now!!

My New Toy

2009-07-02T09:01:00.001-06:00

For my 6th anniversary, which just took place on June 14th, Larry ordered a lap top for me. It just arrived yesterday. I played around and got it all set up and so today I'm playing a little more. I wanted to try to get a signature on my blog too. I gotit for this time but how do I add it the next time? I'm not sure.
I should be doing things to get ready to go to the cabin this weekend. We've got a little more work to finish up there so that we'll be ready for the family's arrival next week. I'm excited to have everyone up with us and enjoying our property as much as I do. I guess I'll finish this up and then get going on all my other errands.

Day with Ellen

2009-07-01T10:09:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I had a wonderful day with my best childhood friend Ellen. We've know each other ever since I moved to California when I was 5. We went all through school together and had a lot of great times together. She lives in California still with her husband and she has 4 beautiful children. We've always stayed in touch, sometimes better than others. She talked me into getting on facebook so that we could stay in better touch and share thoughts and pictures. That was a great idea because we've really done well the past 7 months of having very regular contact. She was here in Utah this past few weeks taking care of her mother-in-law. I'm so glad that we made some time to go out for lunch and some fun together.

Just getting started

2009-06-29T11:10:00.000-06:00

I thought this would be fun to try. We'll see how it goes. Maybe this will be a great place to share things that I love and help me in keeping a journal also. I'm a bit busy at the time getting ready for a family reunion....in fact I don't know why I decided to do this today, other than I was looking at some of the nieces blogs and clicked on the make a blog and I just kept going. I'll try to have some pictures and other things soon.

Our Home Away from Home

2009-06-29T11:05:00.000-06:00

Since 2005 we've been working on this little cabin of ours. Larry, along with the help from family members, spent that whole summer and into October working on this project. Throughout the past 4 years we've worked to get it to the point that we can enjoy it, althought it still needs some finishing touches. We've been up with the famly snowmobiling in the winter and riding our ATV's in the summer. It has really been a place for family and we are happy about that. In fact we're going to be having the Willard Family Reunion there in a few weeks. I'll have to share some of those photos when I get them.

The Walker Family

2009-06-29T11:01:00.000-06:00

Larry has wonderful kids that have really accepted me as part of the family. They've been so good to me and I appreciate them for all their love and the fun that we have together.

The Kids

2009-06-29T10:56:00.000-06:00

We have two kids, I mean labs, that think they are the princess' of the home. I think that they just might be.