Camp Piuta Excursion for the Boys

The picture above is the perfect case for having a better camera. This was taken with my cell phone and it doesn't come close to showing what we saw. This was a huge field of blubells right below Piuta. I have never seen this area so green (and blue--- and yellow) Larry Gerber, Eric Holmes, Rick Tolman and I went up to Camp Piuta to open up the camp for the season. There was still snow blocking the road. Some poor stake had the job of hand shoveling the snow off the road. We got to de- winterize a bath house and fix all the shower heads and toilets. We had a great time! We all went up in Larry's work truck, so we had ladders and tools- everything we needed. We even made gaskets and washers out of electrical fittings Larry had on his truck. We had the obligatory stop at Micky D's, so we proved that guys just never grow up.

Birthday Trip for Janene

For Janene's birthday, we tried to do some things we never find time to do. We got the papers signed to transfer the lot into our name and then went up to Heber to record the change with the county. More about that at another time. We went to a great little restaurant in Midway called the Tarahumara. The food was awesome, but a little on the expensive side. The family that owns it is from the Copper Canyon area in Chihuahua, Mexico where Grandpa Morton filmed his "Misadventure" movie. We then went up to take a look at the lot and traipse the property lines. Quite a few trees are down or dead this year from the hard winter. We walked down the "trail" to the creek ( it was more like bushwhacking a trail) and got enveloped in clouds of pollen from the trees and shrubs, but we found these incredible little purple flowers that were growing everywhere on vines. I think they are a wild clematis, but I'm not sure. Once we got down to the creek, I almost expected to find a six-pack of Nehi and a couple of watermelons chilling in the stream. There were a ton of memories that came flooding back - the time Mort and I dug a badger out of his den along the creek and ran all the way up the trail to the top, expecting our next step to be our last... or the time Grandpa warned me not to touch the aspen trees because the oil on my skin would kill them... or the time my cousin Bryan and I caught our first chipmunk. What a place! It's not the same anymore. Most of the work Grandpa did on the property is either reclaimed by nature, or destroyed by the neighbor, but there is nothing better than the smell of the canyon or the sound of the buzzing bumblebees in the wildflowers to bring back a sense of place, of care and love that we felt there as kids.

Leapin' Lizards! It's Father's Day

Cy thought that Grandpa needed a present for Father's Day, so he went out behind the woodpile and captured a baby lizard for me. He was a little sheepish about holding it, but it was a good little lizard and didn't disobey his master. We had a great time, there were lots of fun presents, there was lots of good food, rootbeer floats (courtesy of the case of Dad's root beer provided by the 5th Ward Primary kids) and we all enjoyed the time we spent together. We had a busy Father's Day at church, we got to hear Heather and Joseph speak about fathers in their ward, where Heather said great things about Marty and her dad, and then we had a big old fashioned barbeque with Robin getting to use his new toys. The only bad part was that we never got any time to go visit my Dad. That had to wait until the day after, when we had a little more time. We missed having Janene's dad around, but Janene thinks he is enjoying things more where he is.

Janene - Pioneer Super Woman

These pictures are from our "practice" Pioneer Trek Janene and I got to do this weekend. The fabled "women's pull" is part of the trek experience. (I'm sure a guy thought this up!) As the pioneers headed west, Brigham Young decided that the men should volunteer for the army in the war with Mexico. In addition to proving the Saints' loyalty to the United States, the men would receive a badly needed cash allowance for uniforms and provisioning that could be paid to the families of the men. This reduced the ranks of the men needed to make the march to the Salt Lake Valley by 540 men, leaving a large number of women to head west and start a new life for their families. These pioneer women were the backbone of the trek west and without their valiant efforts, many of us would not be here today. Imagine what it must have been like with nursing babies, pregnant women, and several children in diapers as they headed to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. We all know how hard Janene works to provide a loving home for her family. These pioneer women must have been almost super human to do what they did. Janene and I got a small taste of the sacrifice they made for us yesterday and today.

Pain that cannot forget...

June 5th marks 12 long years that we have not had David's bright smile in our home. He went off for a fun adventure and we never got to say goodbye. There are so many things we wish we had said. If only we could have been given one of those big bear hugs, knowing it would be the last. If only there had been a way to know, in advance that he would leave us. We would have kept him home. But that would not have been his desire. If Dave had known what was ahead of him, he would have gone anyway, knowing that his life would be needed to provide safety for the others. There is no way to measure the pain that we feel every day. How do you measure an empty spot in your heart, your life? There is not a day that goes by that each of us does not think of him. We know where he is.. we know what he is doing, but still, it would be nice if he could stop by for a visit. Each of us has grown as we have asked God to help us understand why he was called home, and many have been touched by his example. I first heard this quote from the Greek poet, Aeschylus, forty years ago. It was recited by Bobby Kennedy the night that Martin Luther King was murdered and was from his favorite poem. It reads " and even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God". How is it that a Greek poet could know that we would be taught by the Holy Spirit how to understand, to love, to forgive and to heal? We now know that all is part of God's plan, and in the eternal scheme of things, this loss of our son will be but a moment. We now have wonderful children and grandchildren, extended family and friends who have helped to ease the pain we have all felt daily, and for this, we give thanks to our God.

The Family that Plays/Works Together...

Ok - So I know this isn't the most flattering picture of any of us except Shon, but I just wanted to show that when something needs to get done, we can count on our whole family to pitch in. Earlier this week when Chelane needed to move, Shon and Max came to the rescue and helped Janene, Robin and Chelane load up all the stuff from Chelane's apartment and haul it across town to Brooke & Steve's house. Brooke is so good to let Chelane store some (read: most) of her stuff in their garage. And we did it all with Dan's trailer. Max really did help and we are proud of our little man. Shon and Robin hope we don't have to move the armoire or the TV ( Shon was thoughtful enough to point out that they now make pretty lightweight and thin flatscreen TV's) too many more times. We are especially thankful that she doesn't own a piano yet.