Willard Family Reunion

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

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!!

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!

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

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

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!!