Sunday, October 17, 2010

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!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

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.