Wind and a Kite....Perfect!

Today was a great day to Fly a Kite! My favorite kite is this green and pink turtle! In this first shot Morgan has just lifted the kite to catch wind while I'm holding the string across the park. After a few 'critical adjustments' we got it to stay in the air! (I love the name of Dad's book. A great lesson is learned in just 2 words.) Next we had the great idea to let Gretchen have a go at it. I attached a video of her. Ethan soon came out to join the fun and in no time the boys had Bear hooked to the kite! Today our friends the Worthens from Orem had their son, Hyrum give his homecoming talk at our old ward. We attended and got to see alot of our old freinds. True is the saying...."Their's no place like home!" .....and that is true to a home ward. At the meeting we learned that our old Orem house was empty and on the market for sale. We stopped by for a look after learning the house was 'trashed.' We found a back door unlocked and walked through. The whole house had been newly carpeted and it looked in good shape to us. It was a great chapter in life for us, and we came home to Cedar Hills appreciating where we've been as well as where we are!

A Walk in the Park

Friday night we decided to meet in Pleasant Grove and had dinner at the Smoking Apple, a BBQ style eatery. Annie met us there and she was beaming it seemed. She's just plain been happier since her breakup with 2 year boyfriend, Chance. I liked Chance, but Annie felt she needed to experience her early 20's with more freedom to roam. I agree, she's got her shine back. After dinner Mike, Bridgett, Gavin, Ethan, Morgan and I went to see Avatar! Holy blue people! It was an interesting film in the creative graphics and production. After we left the 2hr, 45min. movie we had dessert at Iggys of delicious bread pudding and fried cheesecake. It was a delightful night.

On Saturday we had an easy morning and later in the afternoon Mike and family went to a BBQ at his friends, Kelly and Anna. Ethan and I got the water for the yard going and washed windows. Sunday after church, we all took a walk along the hillside trail to Timp Cove Park that is above our old Cedar Hills house. Gavin loved the park and Bear the dog loved the open range. The hike wore us all out, but Mike and Bridgett got on their way to Idaho after we returned. Thanks for a great day!

PS. Michael is looking great as you can see. He's lost 50 pounds and has kept up his early morning routine at the gym. He's awesome!

Annie gets a new doo

Here Bridgett gets a few day's off of her job and she graciously agreed to help Annie with a color and a cut! It turned out great....I should have taken an 'after' picture! Bridgett got a nice little sun burn with the short time she was on the porch!

Michael & Bridgett & Gavin visit

A scheduled doctor visit brought Michael and family to town so that Bridgett could find solutions to her severe headaches with a specialist. Tests from her first appointment showed apparent bubbles in her heart chamber, concluding that there was a hole from her upper right chamber to the left. This condition would explain the headaches as dirty unoxygenated blood was mixing with partially clean oxygenated blood and repoluting the system. The next day they returned to be told after further evaluation, the initial diagnosis was wrong and they didn't know how to help her! THAT is frustrating!

Uncles to the rescue! Having Uncles play on the tetter-totter, push you on the swing, and catch you on the slide is the best! Morgan and Ethan are both so good at keeping Gavin entertained. Morgan walked Gavin around the circle of the park on his long board. It was cute.

Sunday Morning Session - April General Conference 2010

What an experience this was! Wow. We met up with the DH's in SLC and went to the underground parking of the Conf. Center. Walking through the tunnels, deposited us at the rear of the enormous pipes and Gen. Authority seating. We entered the great hall looking toward the seats for 12,ooo people. WOW. D&L were escorted to the dignitary seats, and the rest of our 11 person group sat center stage nearly 20 rows behind them. The production of "Music and the Spoken Word" was so well done and ended with Handel's, Hallelujah chorus. Soon the seated audience hushed to the entry of President Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors. As always the talks were so good, and being there in person made them quite poignant. Mom and Dad had never seen a live GC, and neither had I or my kids. Thanks DH for this wonderful opportunity to be in the presence of the prophet, 12 apostles, and presiding General Authorities.

H. Party & friends

The DH's got their motor home ready and headed East for the General Conference weekend. A party at my house found us eating and making merry. Friend LM came by as did Nick and Michelle. After a house tour the guys went down stairs to watch the bracket play off BB games. The rest of us kept talking and enjoyed the chance to visit. Thanks for coming all!

Michael Buble` Concert - SLC

I heard about the Michael Buble` concert from a co-worker and I was looking online for tickets immediately! I hemmed and hawed for a few minutes after seeing the price and the posted seating......Ok! I'm IN! I automatically thought of my Mom, and called her right away to see if she'd come to Utah and go with me. It worked out with the timing that Mom and Dad could also go to General Conference! Yipppeee for me! So Dad got their trailer souped up and they headed Eastward right in the middle of a sand, snow and anything else that could fly in a horrendous wind storm. Mom and Dad even had to stop in Tooele for a fire that had started by the freeway, delaying them for a couple hours. I took the day off of work on the concert day and spent time doing errands with Mom. We headed for the concert in a snow storm, but were so glad for the head start. The above mentioned co-worker had seats on the floor, seven rows back, but was stuck in a traffic jam and was late for the show by an hour and a quarter. Mom and I had great seats, elevated at the side. The pre-band was amazing! It was called Naturally 7 and was an all black, NYC band that did b-bop music, just with their mouths on the mike. Micheal's entry was dramatic with music and the stage was fascinating with moving projection panels. The whole experience was exhilarating and I could say GLEEful! Mom and I made our exit during the encore numbers and had a swift ride back home. With the venue filled with over 10,000 people, I was glad not to deal with a traffic jam to get out! Thanks Mom for sharing that great experience with me. While the show was extraordinary, I was just glad to be with my Mom!

Rubber Ducky....he's the one....

Morgan has been working on a project at school in his ceramics class and was selected to be one of the students from American Fork High School to have his creation in the Alpine School District art show at the Scera Theater. He decided to make a monster size ceramic 'Rubber Duck!' The north Utah county schools has some real talent as evident by the paintings and ceramic arts. Annalisa had one of her art pieces there a few years back on display. The Scera Theater was founded in 1933 and has supported the development of the cultural arts and has had an operating movie theater, stage and gallery for the locals. On Saturday, Morgan and I went on an outing and enjoyed the colorful display at the gallery. Good Job Morgan! He made is duck to float in water even.....THAT will be fun to see!

Bag Pipe Concert

A call from friend, Cindy and an open Saturday night, made for some great girly time as we enjoyed a meal at a mom & pop place in American fork called, Flour Girls & Dough Boys. This bakery has 'made from scratch' everything and has a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu. The breads and pastries are divine, and the soup, salads and sandwiches...delectable! We headed to SLC in a blowing snowstorm and got to Highland High School for the concert of the SLC Bag Pipers, known as the Salt Lake City Scots. http://www.saltlakescots.org/main.html Cindy's boyfriend, Jack was the MC and a pipe player as well as the Band Major complete with a baton routine. Intermingled with familiar Bag Pipe songs were occasional Highland dances by a Celtic dance troop in SLC. The theme of the night was honoring the fallen soldiers, including 1000 bag pipers of WWI. After the show, we went to Jacks house on the foothills of Draper which sported a fabulous view of the Salt Lake valley. Jack is an accomplished musician and has a dozen various instruments displayed in his home as well as a pipe organ! (at the opposite corner of the room was a full height Egyptian Sarcophagus! ) After leaving the snowy terrain of Draper, Cindy and I headed back to Cedar Hills to be met with blinding, blowing snow. As is our 'custom', Cindy and I talked till the wee hours of the morning and as we parted, we remembered it was day light savings and got a whopping 3 hrs of sleep before getting up for church! It was a great evening, so of course, it was worth it! In the photo, Cindy is in a white sweater. The other two people were Jack's friends from Jackson Hole, WY.

Carlos Aragon - Lance Corporal - US Marines

On Tuesday evening Annalisa called and I found her to be hysterically crying. I finally understood her to say that Carlos, her former boyfriend of her Jr. and Sr. year of High School was dead, killed in Afghanistan where he had been deployed only 4 months ago. He was 19 and had said he was scared to go to Afghanistan, but was willing to protect his country. Annalisa had seen him in October because he came to visit her at her work at FYE in Provo. She spoke to him before he left in November '09, and then to get this shocking news from her friend Kami Escamilla. Over the past week we have watched the news and kept in contact with his friends and relatives. Yesterday, as a family we attended his funeral in Lehi, Utah.

I have to describe the experience in full. We arrived to the LDS chapel in Lehi to see US Flags lining the perimeter of the Church grounds. In a neat and tidy row were motor bikes of all sorts, the drivers holding flags that lead to the entrance to the Church. The motley crew were in leather and chaps, but all had pride of service. This was a bikers group, a veteren group of men and women. The effect was very cool. Inside, Annie and I walked arm in arm to the open casket viewing of Lance Corporal Carlos Alberto Aragon. He was laid to rest in full uniform and most recognisable was his curly eyelashes. Remember, he was the boy of long curly blond shoulder length hair, a scrubby beard and sweet smile. At his HS graduation he had cut his hair into a butch and it was a stunning difference. We learned that though his body was in presentable shape, he had been killed by a land mine, also known as IED, and it was the repercussion that knocked the life out of him, as in the 'shaken baby syndrome'. The service was so well done and attended by Governor Hubert and Congressman Chaffetz of Utah. Carlos' two older half brothers spoke and to the surprise of his friends, his biological father attended. Carlos had never met his real father originally of Mexico, and had only talked to him twice in his short life. The attending mourners were invited to attend the dedication of his grave and a very long (80 car) procession ensued. It was touching as a long row of Boy Scouts held flags and stood at attention with hands raised to their foreheads in salute to all the cars that passed, with the Hearse in the front, lead by a police motorcade. At each intersection and stop lights of perhaps 10 in number, a police car and officer were blocking traffic to let the procession stay together as we traveled to Camp Williams on Redwood Road. (Side note: Annalisa with friends met the airplane delivering the body at the SLC airport at 8am this same day. She said the same respect was given to the 20 car procession even to the stopping of traffic on I-215 and I-15. Each on ramp was blocked to allow the motorcade, Hearse and followers to travel from SLC to Lehi.) The graveside ceremony was accentuated with a 6 gun salute and the flag covering the casket was folded into the customary triangle and at the last fold 3 bullets were inserted into the flag and given to his mother, a repeat of the flag folding and another given to his natural father. Again those that attended gave condolence to his immediate family and the crowd dispersed. Sadly, another Marine soldier from Orem died two days after Carlos and his funeral will be this coming weekend. Nicholas knew Nigel Olsen from Mountain View High School. Nigal was from the same company as Carlos. The whole experience was draining but so well executed for the family and friends of Carlos. He will be missed and the sacrifice of his live will not be forgotten. In a couple of these photos you will see a young fellow named Hector. He was Carlos' best friend. In an interview with a local paper, Hector said that he and Carlos talked every weekend. He said they talked for hours about everything and nothing at all. When asked if Hector would miss Carlos, he said yes, but at least they had left nothing unsaid. I was very touched by that. Give though to those in your world whom you love and leave nothing unsaid. You never know when you cannot say more. Hector who is dressed in black on black suit and has long black hair. (When Annie and Carlos were together they would hang out with Hector alot and I had met him at a picnic once before.) As folks were leaving and Hector passed me, I told him that I appreciated his comments in the newspaper article. Then, from this fellow of dark colors and deep sadness for his lost friend, he smiled at me with a row of strait white teeth and beautiful eyes and said, "Be Happy.....just Be Happy." Thanks Hector. So Long Carlos.

Big Business Expo at UVU

Curtis Miner Architecture joined the annual Big Business Expo this year and with a couple weeks preparation, we , as a company managed to get the posters designed and printed, and pulled together our display. It was cool to see the outcome of our planning. It happened that the Whitings from our Orem 10th ward passed by as I was taking pictures. Curtis spent the day talking with other Expo contributors and with attendees. In all the company got 8 solid leads on projects......Not Bad! The CMA employees were invited to come see the booth, so I went on Tuesday the 23rd of Feb and spent the lunch hour there. Intent on getting back to work.....this happen........

Bummer!

BUMMER!

With my thoughts on leaving the parking lot of UVU and how to get out, I was surprized by a truck coming across the isle of parked cars and skidded tires but struck the students truck in a 'T' bone fashion. Not much occured to his truck but it seems the trucks tire rotation pulled off the bumper of my Jeep. After getting out of the Jeep, I saw STOP written on the pavement. Dang. The Jeep was repaired within a week and looks great now. Good that I had insurance...wonder if it will go up now. This is my first accident at my apparent fault in my 30 years of driving. Not bad!

New Annalisa Artwork

Annie has completed a new project for an art class this semester at UVU. She re-drew a colored pencil sketch she did before in 8x10 size (8th grade) and drew it larger, about 18x24 inches in acrylic. After I took the photo of the eye, she applied the heartbeat electrical line across the front of the eye in red paper and then a couple streaks of lightning coming in from the right side. It looked pretty cool. She did this sketch of the eye first on scratch paper, and the unfinished fish and flower was in her sketch book. I love seeing her interpretations. Way to go Annie!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Wishing the best of Valentine Day and celebrating the people who matter! I...er...forgot...cough... to send my Grandson a Valentine which has been a great example set by my Mom to her Grand-kids, so I took a photo of this handmade card from a Card Party I attended a long while ago, and presto...sent it to the little guy and felt pretty pleased with myself. Except the photo text got lost in space and I sent it again with victory. Happy Days little buddy, your Grandma loves you! (Isn't that weird....still amazes me to have a G-child.) To the rest of my favorite people.....Happy Valentines....even a day late!

Soldier Hollow Sledding Adventure 2-6-2010

Ethan lucked out and won a contest at his Orthodontist office, guessing how may lifesavers were in a jar. He won 4 tickets to sled at Soldier Hollow which is a controlled sledding hill with a tow rope to get you back up the hill. It's a $20 per person for a 2 hour session, so we were delighted to have the chance. The boys invited a mutual friend named Curtis and we all had a good time. The sun had come out and got us and the snow warmed up to prevent fast runs, but we had a good time anyway. We each had a good run that got the adrenaline going! As we were leaving I couldn't resist a shot of a great looking barn. Soldier Hollow is near the town of Midway, near Heber, UT up the Provo Canyon past the Dear Creek Dam.

New Year's in Blackfoot, ID

With two - four day weekends back to back, I had to take a trip to Idaho for New Years to see Michael and family. We were both ready for some R&R and a break from too much food, so we spent some time watching the first season of Heroes, a TV show. We also went on a venture to Idaho Falls. I took the group to Five Guys Burgers, a new favorite.

Christmas 2009

It's high time I get this blog updated and here goes a view of Christmas morning 2009, a first in this house in Cedar Hills. It was sure fun to decorate and place our familiar things about the house to celebrate the Season. Nick and David came down from Logan to share in the fun of opening gifts and eating lots of food. The holiday fare is fun to make as well as eat! I made my delectable fudge and I won't need to make it till next Christmas!