Daughters of Utah Pioneers Convention

Being the president of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers company in our part of Idaho, I was invited to the re-dedication ceremonies of the DUP Museum in Salt Lake last weekend. I attended a lovely brunch, got to attend the dedication services, and watched the ribbon-cutting celebration on the front steps. I then spent over 2 hours wandering around the museum just enjoying more of the displays and contemplating on the rich pioneer heritage I have. Many of the items in the museum are similar to things I saw in my grandparents' home, and it brought back memories of them. The next day I attended the annual convention. DUP is a great history-preservation organization, and the museum has thousands of artifacts of great historical significance in the pioneer era.

Mrs. Herbert, Governor Herbert, a Catholic bishop, and Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the LDS church 70's quorum were among the dignitaries at the dedication.

Governor Herbert and DUP Internation President, Bette Barton right before the ribbon-cutting.

Utah Governor Herbert and DUP President Bette Barton cut to the ribbon to officially re-open the museum.

A statue of Eliza R. Snow in the rose garden in front of the DUP Museum.

A busy fall season

We have been enjoying a beautiful fall season. We manage to get out geo-caching some, we watching the BSU football games - usually with Travis and his family, and have watched several of the soccer games that Wendy's kids play in. This past weekend, Heidi and Will came to our valley, where Heidi attended the convention for dental workers. Will enjoyed fishing on the Boise River while Heidi was in classes. We didn't get to see them as much as we'd like, but we did get out to dinner with them one night, and we all had dinner with Wendy and her family another night.


Here's Marissa, on a visit to our house on October 3rd. We had lots of fun playing with her and watching her smile. She's still tiny but we can tell she is growing. What a joy she is in our lives.

Don and Carol took a day off work on October 6th and went to the hills for a load of firewood. Don finds that if we only get enough wood to fill the back of the truck, he can manage it by himself. On this particular trip, we acquired a dog. The dog was wandering around on the road near Ice Springs. We headed up another road from there, and it followed us. The dog stayed close to Don when he was cutting the wood, and jumped up on the tailgate whenever we would go from one spot to another. He had a collar but no tags. We had to leave him behind when we headed for home, though, as we had to close the tailgate, and there was nowhere else for him to ride. Besides, we were in hopes the owners would return for him.


Carol went to Salt Lake last week for the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Convention. She stayed with our friends, the Cheneys, who we met in California in 1972. (They've now moved to Riverton, UT.) This is the view of their neighbor's Pumpkin Patch from the back deck of the Cheney's home. The neighbors grow big fields of pumpkins, and there were flocks of people there picking out their pumpkins. Carol even went over and got a wheel-barrow full of pumpkins to bring home.

It was a beautiful sight and so fun to see all the families enjoying the outing together. They have a corn maze for the children, and also offer a free wagon ride around the perimeter of the patch. What a great family activity!

Birthday update

Grandkids building sand castles and islands a few weeks ago. They love playing in the sand with water.

Sunset near new caches on Locust Grove. The sun was so bright and red. It was amazing.

Blacks Creek Reservoir. Can you find Brent? He's putting the geocache back.

Bright red setting sun; on our way to a geocache.

Weeping Willow tree where we found a geo-cache.

Don signing the caching log at the willow tree.

I had a good birthday. A few birthday cards, a few phone calls with birthday wishes, and some greetings on Facebook. I met Wendy for a session at the temple, then we had lunch at Cafe Ole. I did some shopping and a few geocaches before returning home. So it was a great day.

The next day Don and I had a late lunch/early dinner at Tucano's, the Brazilian restaurant in Boise. I had a free birthday dinner, so that made it as if the price was half price. It was our first time there and we enjoyed the food. Heidi reminded me that Cold Stone Creamery offers a free birthday ice cream, so I printed out the coupon for there before leaving home, and we enoyed some yummy ice cream.

I got to do some geocaching too -- some with Brent, some with Don, and some by myself while Don was at the priesthood broadcast. We saw a beau

We spent Friday night at Wendy's house and got to watch her kids play in some soccer games. It's always fun to see the kids' activities.

Today Brent and Allison and Marissa are at our house to watch conference with us. I hope you have all had the chance to watch conference. It has been wonderful.

Carol's Birthday Celebration

Carol with birthday gifts and cake

Wendy hosted a party to celebrate Carol's birthday. Family together, a BBQ, swimming, and birthday cake. What could be better? It was also a Boise State University game day, so everyone was decked out in their blue and orange Bronco colors. What a great time together!

Don and Marissa, all decked out in Blue and Orange. Our youngest Bronco fan!

Carol and the grandkids (all but Riley)
We'll have to try some 'photoshop' to get him in.

All of the family, except Eric, Amanda, Riley, Heidi, Will, and Brent were here for this photo.

Allison, Brent, and Marissa

BSU Football Fever

We all met at Travis' house to watch the first BSU football game of the season on ESPN. It was wall-to-wall orange and blue! Even Marissa he on her blue and orange. BSU won 33-30 in the last minute of the game.

Baby Blessing

Our newest grandbaby, Marissa Jensen, was blessed at church this past Sunday. Isn't she beautiful? After the Sunday services we all got together for dinner at Brent and Allison's house. It was a beautiful day. She is such a precious little doll and such a special blessing to her family.

Marissa's visit to Mountain Home

Marissa looks so tiny in her car seat. She's smaller than some of the dolls the kids play with these days. She sure is a treasure! She's all buckled in and ready to go home after her first visit to Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's.

Brents sure makes a great daddy. I love to watch him playing with his cute little girl.

Marissa looked so cute in her little pink plaid dress with tights. The 'shoes' are actually part of the tights. I just loved them. Allison is a wonderful mommy to this little treasure.

Hay truck accident

Last Thursday we were headed to the hills to collect a load of firewood. While driving along the highway we saw this semi truck, with a trailer full of huge hay bales, tip over right in front of our eyes. We were the first one the scene of the accident. Fortunately, the driver was OK and got out of the cab. He said his tires hit some of the gravel on the side of the road and it caused him to flip over. That's the first accident I've ever actually seen happening. There were 2 other trucks of hay coming up behind him, so they stayed with the wrecked one, and we went on our way to the hills.

Grandma and Marissa

This was Marissa's first trip to Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's house. Isn't she such a beautiful little girl? She's 4 weeks old in this photo.

Mother's Day 2010

Heidi and Will came to visit us for the Mother's Day weekend. It is always so good to be with them.

A New Grandbaby

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Brent and Allison welcomed Marissa Dene' into the world in the evening of July 12th. As soon as we got the call, we were on our way to Boise so we could see them. Marissa is a beautiful little girl, weighing in at 5 lbs. 11 oz. She has lots of dark hair.

Brent is already learning how to be a great daddy.

We caught her with her eyes open briefly. The 'unicorn' is for the IV feeding, to help stabilize her sugar levels. She's being weaned off from it already.

Grandpa got to hold Marissa for a few minutes too.

Grandma loves to hold brand new babies too.

Heidi's Birthday 2010

Heidi and Will came to celebrate her 30th birthday. She wanted to have one last day of feeling like a kid and play some arcade games.

Heidi and Will love to play foosball at our house.

Because it was her birthday she got free unlimited rides at Wahooz fun park. She got plenty of Go-kart rides. She loved to drive fast on the slick track.

At Wahooz in Meridian playing Wac-a-Mole. She loved this one!

Will and Heidi shooting some hoops

One round of mini golf. Mini golf was fun.

At Pojo's we got to play plenty of Skee-ball. Heidi's favorite!


Air Hockey was a lot of fun, too!

Birthday cake after the BBQ and swimming at Wendy's house.
Look at all those candles! Can she blow them all out?