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

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!!!

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

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

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!!