How about a winter sunset?

Sunsets in the winter can be just as good as the summer ones.

Why we bought our lot.

Ok Brother & Sister Rogers - I see your sunset and raise you one. Our friends, the Rogers must have been on their deck taking pictures at exactly the same time that we were on our front porch taking ours. Over the years, we have seen some miraculous sunsets. You can't do much better than this.

Family Night with Laura

For Family Night this week, we got to have Laura over for a sleepover. We started the night with little yardwork, then a lesson taught by Laura. It was much better than anything Janene or I could have put together. Then it was off to Rudy's Flats. We went up the North Canyon Trail where we saw this big lupine right along the trail. I want that in my backyard.

We stopped along the trail to make grass whistles. Janene is really good at this. Laura and me - not so good. The trail winds around in the undergrowth and everything is a brilliant green from the recent rains. The creek we crossed is the same one that is a few houses south of our house. Up here it has a crystal clear gravelled bottom. If we had brought Nathan, he would have been in it in a second. As it was, it was hard for us to resist.

There were all sorts of plants along the trail. Everything from mallow ninebark to poison ivy. We saw quite a few in bloom including some wild roses and wild peas.

Just before you get to Rudy's Flat, the trail cuts across the ridge and you have a great view of the Great Salt Lake and the Bountiful Temple to the north. One you get to Rudy's, there are quite a few old growth spruce trees and some alpine fir creating some great camping spots, but camping was not to be for tonight. We headed back down the trail for ice cream waiting back at home and the end of a wonderful evening with our favorite German speaking granddaughter.

Father's Day at our house

We were blessed again to have the whole family over for Father's Day. Everyone came including my Mom & Dad & Tammy. OK- not everyone because Chelane made a phone appearance from Colorado. Doug and his son Jeremy were fascinated by my new birthday present. My GRANNY RACER set works like a slot car racing set .

The only difference is that the "cars" are old grannies in their wheelchairs running a figure eight. Jeremy was pretty good at it, even though Doug accused him of cheating a few times. It was always hard for Doug to lose.

Michael even took a break from chasing lizards and snakes (Cy got bit by our snake - fun, huh?) to get in on the fun.

We found out that you have to be very careful with Doug's kids around. Doug could be heard to say "Doh! - I can't take you kids anywhere!" in his best Homer Simpson voice. What actually happened is that Lily spilled a cup of water. It isn't what it looks like.

Mary brought over her artwork she did for a marketing class. It's a great portrait of Brandon ( in an abstract sort of way). Is she good or what? All in all, it was a fun day for the old man and a great day to honor all the dads inour family.

Memoirs of a birthday slave.

So, yesterday was Janene's birthday. Now she is back to being a year older than me. We started out by going to Salt Lake for a temple sealing of someone in our ward. As soon as that was over, my servitude began. "Oh, can't you come with me to the gardens on top of the Conference Center?". "Why yes, anything for you, snookums. After all, this is your special day. I am going to devote my whole day to doing whatever you want."

Well, this is what I expected. The typical, impossibly well manicured grounds like on Temple Square.

And, I had seen this view from Main Street. Of course, it looks a little different from the top down. This was starting to get fun.

But, I wasn't prepared for this! Bristlecone pines and a prairie? In the middle of the city?

Where did the city go? The place was filled with wildflowers and native grasses. Not a building in sight. It almost looked like the high plains of Wyoming. Pretty cool now, huh? Well that got us all excited about making our yard look good. So, it was off to Bountiful where Janene picked out tons of new plants at Pinae where they are closing out their plants. We picked out tons of perennials that are native to Utah and (this is where the slave part comes in) planted them on our back hill. You cannot plant new things without first removing the old weeds. AND ROOTS!
Man, do we have roots! and weeds!

One funny part, while I was pulling out weeds and volunteer apricot trees, I pulled really hard on one and when it came out, I went flying down the hill... and over the wall to the lawn below, all to the accompaniment of screaming from Janene. I landed on my head, so I'm OK. (actually landed on my back) Nothing was broken, just lost my sunglasses.

We also worked in the garden some more. I ended up doing whatever Janene wanted for her birthday. For two full days. Boy, it might have been easier, if I had just bought her a diamond tennis bracelet. Of course, I wouldn't have been able to spend two whole days with my best friend. Happy Birthday, Janene.

A New Baby Boy

With our new home and new car, we were ready for our new baby boy to be born. We had been taking the new Lamaze classes to prepare for childbirth. Janene had mastered all the breathing exercises and we had practiced the efflourage (I liked that part), but when the day came to run to the hospital, I'm not sure we were really ready for this. Our doctor was the same doctor who had delivered Janene and he wasn't fully on board with the idea that the husbands should be an active part of the childbirth process. Nevertheless, we insisted that I be there for the whole thing. When it came time for the delivery, something went wrong and Shon's little baby heart stopped beating. The doctor came in and in a whirlwind of action, I was relegated to the corner of the room and told to stay there as they wheeled Janene out to the operating room. The last thing I had heard was "ceaserian". I was scared to death. My father had told me a few years before how much joy he had felt when I was born and how much it meant to him, but I don't think I really had understood what he meant until this moment. Right then, I saw all the anticipated joy disappear into the fog of fear and despair as I realized we might not be able to have this baby.

I was pacing in the hall when my father appeared in the doorway. I was never so glad to see my Dad. I needed him then and he was there with Mom, even though I think we hadn't asked them to be there. After what seemed like hours, a nurse came out to let me know Janene and baby were doing well and in a few minutes, Shon would be born normally. Our self centered life was about to change.

Janene and I were both firstborn children, so Shon was the first grandchild for Janene's family and the second in mine. Everyone wanted to see him and help us raise him. He was the cutest little thing with long curly blond hair and a smile that only quit when he was asleep or colicky. We read Janene's journal recently and were amazed at how often we had Shon at Janene's mom's house, or my parents and grandparents' homes. All of our siblings wanted to play with the new baby.

We even spent a lot of time with my littlest sister, Julia, who wanted to play with Shon more than I had ever remembered. We took Shon everywhere with us. When he was two weeks old, we took him to Lake Powell on a houseboat. We took him backpacking with us along with all his diapers. (cloth, of course). I learned to change diapers, a task that most men of the day wouldn't have any part of.

Shon brought more joy into our lives than we ever could have imagined. Here was this special little boy who we loved as much as we loved each other. I remember my Grandmother Morton saying that she loved all of her children and granchildren as much as she loved the first and I couldn't understand how that could be true, but with the birth of Shon, I felt like the Grinch whose heart had grown so many sizes in one day. I also realized that children are God's way of teaching us to be more Christlike as we sacrifice, and share our love for them. I can never look at Shon without remembering the joy that first came into our lives when we brought this little bundle into our home.

New Car, New Home and New Baby!

Wow! Did we fall for this ad hook line and sinker. I saw this ad in Time magazine and fell in love with this car. This was the first year that it had a V-6 and it was made in Cologne, Germany. It got incredible gas mileage (when compared with a 428 cu. in. V-8) and I convinced Janene that we we should trade in our '67 Mustang on our first new car. She didn't need a lot of convincing - she thought it was cute, and she always has liked fast cars. We went to Bountiful Motors and got the best deal we could, then we drove to Ogden and told a different dealer what the deal was. We went back and forth a few times and finally ended up with one that was a light metallic blue from the Ogden dealer. I went to Ogden a month later to pick up the plates and noticed our Mustang in the shop all torn apart. I asked the shop manager what was happening with that car and was told that some guy traded it in and then a week later the engine blew up while it was out on a test drive. I figured someone probably blew a shift and wrapped it up pretty high. At least that is what I told myself to justify trading it in.

Janene loved to drive it, but we were worried about getting it scratched and dented. I told Janene to park it at the end of the parking lot where there were no cars around to ding the doors. She did that one day at Grand Central, and then a shopping cart got loose and rolled all the way down the hill and plowed into the side of the car. It did a whole bunch of damage and we had to get it fixed. Janene had mentioned that people couldn't see her in the blue car, so.... we painted it "Competition Orange" (really a Camaro Rallye Red)! It seemed like the logical thing to do at the time. I was backing it out of Maaco's parking lot after picking it up and sideswiped a fire hydrant in the parking lot. Do over! Then we had them repaint it again because the paint had an orange peel texture the second time around. It was a fun zippy car to drive, even though the car payment was more than our house payment. I even got myself a little Tam-0-Shanter hat so I would look like a sexy European driving it. Janene required no such accoutrement. Soon we would have a new baby boy Shon to go with the car and we kept this car until Heather was born and we ran out of room. This was an exciting time in our lives with lots of new experiences.

Phillips Family Reunion

We celebrated our regular Phillips Family Reunion again this week. This time we had it on my birthday and for some reason I didn't get my invitation until a few minutes before I had to be there. Mom called me early on Sunday and said she wanted me to help her give Dad a limousine ride to our favorite reunion site at the LDS Hilton. Dad had a little trouble getting out of the house (seems he wanted to stay in bed and sleep in a little), but once we got him out the door, then it was smooth sailing from there. All our favorite people were there to welcome us back including our favorite concierge, Imogene. While we were there, we had a little workshop on family medical history and got to reminisce about old times. The staff was so nice and thoughtful, even giving us the same room (846 West) we had when we visited our old friend Sue Doe Monas. This time we got to see New Monia and Dee Hydration. It was only a few months ago that Mom went to visit them during our last reunion. We played all the same games, Pin the IV in the Veins, Put the Yellow Stuff in the Bottle, and my personal favorite, Peek-a-Boo Bare Behind. Mom even got to have a sleepover with Dad after all us kids went home. Too bad that it looks like this will be one of our shorter reunions. Dad says he wants to go home tomorrow. I guess that's OK, we are all worn out from the fun and games. It's time to get back to our normal lives.

Thoughts on June 5th

I woke up this morning at 4:00 AM listening to the sounds of the birds on our hill. My thoughts were taken back to mornings spent with David in the mountains where we would spend the early hours listening to the birds sing and talking about things in our life. Sometimes we would talk about the great adventures we were going to enjoy. Often David wanted to talk about why other people seemed so uncommitted to a belief in God when he and I could see evidence of His influence all around us. David was especially concerned for his friends, some of whom were struggling with hard problems in their lives.

We would talk about fun times we had enjoyed, about the fish we had caught and the stories we could tell when we got home. During the few years before Dave died, I was lucky enough to be somewhat unemployed - some would say "between jobs". It was the perfect time to go backpacking with my little buddy. And so it was that I got to spend a lot of my morning hours in the tent with Dave - listening to the songs of the birds.

Whenever this time of year comes around, I remember the music of the birds as we lay in bed in the morning. My thoughts always go back to those times spent with Dave. Most of the time, these aren't particularly sad times, but are instead a time for me to remember the joy we felt then. I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that the joy we felt then is part of the pain that we feel now. Somehow they are intertwined and become one. In a way, the pain we feel now and always will, validates (probably not the right word) the love we have together.

I have found that when I think of myself, I can become absorbed in the feelings that come as I realize how long it will be until I will see my little buddy again. This way lies madness; but if instead, I think about Dave, I can't help but smile and feel joy. Everything he did was to the max, from dragging home a Christmas tree someone else threw out and making it his own ,to kissing the big fish he caught, to teasing his sisters. His life was an example for me to watch, follow and enjoy. On this day so many years later we have been reminded of the love others have for us as they have remembered the hard day that came so many years ago. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We all look forward to that day when we can be reunited.

Mirror Lake Highway is OPEN!

This is the view from the dam at Trial Lake today. The ice is just melting off and about half of the lake is still under ice. They were catching fish like crazy on the dam with spinners and the fish were a-jumpin'. The road to Washington was still blocked by drifts at the corner by the cabins at Trial. From above, you could see that Washington is still iced over, but it won't be much longer and the campground will be open. The water was just roaring over the Upper Provo River Falls and the whole surface of the ground is full of little rivulets of runoff.

The snowplow was parked at the summit of Bald Mountain Pass, but the road was cut open as far as you could see in the Duchesne drainage. None of the side roads were open yet, but the gates to all the campgrounds were open. Summer is officially here - the road is open.

Old Cars Galore!

Soon after we bought our new house in Morton Meadows, Janene went to work for Beneficial Life and later, Western Savings and Loan to supplement my meager restaurant income. That meant we had to have another car for her to get to work, so we went out and bought the cheapest car we could find - a '56 Chevy Belair. It never occured to us that this could be a classic ride, it was just a way for her to get to work. There were some cool things about it. The kids had a virtual living room in the back seat (no seat belts to keep you down). Half of the gas station attendants didn't know where to put in the gas. These were the days when they pumped your gas, cleaned your windows, checked your oil and put air in your tires. (The taillight pulled down on a hinge and the gas filler was behind the light). Shortly after we bought the car, the engine threw a rod and my brother and I had to completely rebuild the engine. It was one of the first V-8's. Not long after that, our repair job had to be done over when it threw another rod. We used it to go buy all the stuff for our fence including all the concrete from Sutherlands. When we started over the viaduct, the front wheels lifted off the ground and I had to slam on the brakes to be able to steer. We took the car to my parent's home for Christmas Eve because it had such a big trunk. (you could haul a ton of Christmas presents in there, as well) On the way home, it got a flat tire and we had to leave it on Davis Boulevard and get a ride home because there were no stations open and our spare was flat. When I went back to get it on Christmas, it had been impounded because it had been abandoned and someone complained about the heap in front of their home. I found it in Bountiful Motors' lot, changed the tire and drove it home. We were soon visited by uniformed officers who were going to charge me with theft of my own car if I didn't pay the impound fee right away.

I soon started working for a new company installing fire systems in restaurants and got to use a company truck, a 1971 Ford 1-ton truck that had belonged to American Oil. I also had the use of an old Land Rover. This was the first car I ever drove that had "cruise control". It was just a lever on the dashboard that allowed you to keep the engine speed the same. I could hardly see over the spare tire mounted on the hood. We took it to Canyonlands and drove it over Elephant Hill. The ride was so rough that Janene got out with both of the kids and insisted on walking to save their lives. This was the beginning of a long tradition in multiple vehicles. To this day, Janene has never driven over Elephant Hill - even though I have a number of times. She always walked.

As you can see, it worked! The kids made it home safely and were able to enjoy their life at our new home. Our stay at this home would be fairly short, since Janene's connections with Western Savings and Loan would allow us to get a construction loan for a new home in Bountiful where we could be close to both of our parents.

Cool Ride for a Nerdy Kid

Ok, so there's always that car that you dream of owning. The car that says "This is me". My '67 Mustang was that car for me. I'm still trying to figure out how I could own a two year old car when I was 17. I remember that my Dad co-signed for me, and I'm pretty sure that he was named on the title, but how cool would this be to own a car like this when you were my age? The car had a huge motor - not the wimpy 289 most Mustangs had and it had a three speed tranny. That meant there was a lot of torque in first gear - an important feature for a teenage kid with rubber to burn. The first thing I did when I got it was to paint the recessed part of the hood black and add a psychedelic painting with the wording "Peace" on the rear deck. It was really just a poster that I got laminated and stuck on the back. There wasn't another car like it in the valley.

We had lots of fun with that car. Janene and I went to drive-ins with it. It was safer for that than the old cars because it had bucket seats. I took all the guys from work fishing in it up to Blacksmith Fork, and most evenings in summer it could be found up at Mueller Park where we went to "shoot the tube". It cost a ton to drive; it got about 8 miles to the gallon. Even with gas at 30 cents a gallon it was a major drain on the pocketbook when I only made two bucks an hour.

This was also the car where Janene learned to drive a stick and the one we took on our honeymoon. We decided to go to Zion National Park for our honeymoon and were going to camp out in the Sears pup tent that I bought when I was twelve years old with my money mowing lawns (25 cents for the front lawn and 50 cents for the back). Luckily, my dad took me aside and convinced me that while it would be a honeymoon to remember, Janene would really prefer that we get a hotel room. I didn't really have the money to do that, and my dad pitched in and gave me his Phillips 66 credit card to use for the trip. After getting married in Cedar City, we drove to Zions, and spent the first night at the Bumbleberry Inn. We found a cheaper place for the next two nights.

After that, it was off to our new life together. We wanted desperately to be independent, so there were lots of times we should have asked our parents for help and we didn't. Thank goodness for working at Robintino's. We always had the soup that was left over at the end of the night, and if there was a dinner made by mistake, it went into the cooler for me to bring home at night. We got so we would only put $1.50 of gas in the Mustang's tank at a time because we couldn't bear the thought of having that much money in the tank when we had run out before payday. When the water pump went out, we thought it was the end of the world. Finally with the Arab Oil Embargo, and Shon's diapers (Imperial Diaper Service), we could no longer afford the cool ride, and we traded it in on a new set of wheels, a Mercury Capri, made in Germany, that got much better gas mileage. My brother has a Mustang in his garage that he has kept for years. I always thought it would be fun to restore one of these with one of my boys, but they grew up way too fast and I never had the time, and I don't think the boys really wanted to do it. Oh, well!

Adventures with Captain America

One of the joys of youth is that you get get to to do totally crazy things. Captain America was one of those things in my life. I chose to take an auto shop class in high school. It meant that I had to take one less class from Orlin Ford. During one year, I took three different classes from the same teacher, Calculus, Physics and Statistical Analysis. Taking auto shop from Ed Schilowsky was a welcome break from the theoretical world and inspired me to create "Captain America" with my friends. We had found an old 1947 Ford pickup truck on a farm. A friend at school said he could sell it to us cheap, and we soon had towed it down the hill to Bountiful High's auto shop. We worked on it there during class time and soon had the truck running well enough to take it home where we removed the body and truck bed. Then it was back to the shop where we cut the frame out and welded it back together with a much shorter wheelbase. In the process, we had to create a new place for the seat, shorten the driveline and add a beer keg for a gas tank. We welded two steel rims together for each rear wheel to create dual wheels.

We named it Captain America after something from the film "Easy Rider" - for the life of me, I cannot remember what. We painted different parts of the motor red, white and blue. The thing could pop wheelies if you dropped the clutch in granny gear. One time when I did that, the weld that held the mounting plate for the clutch and brake pedals broke off and dropped to the ground, leaving me no way to stop the vehicle as I headed down 1500 South in Bountiful. I finally stopped it by sideswiping someones wooden fence with the rear dually. I never was very good at welding.

I drove it up to Janene's house once. Maybe more than once. We didn't have an exhaust system, so that meant no muffler and flames would shoot out the sides where the exhaust manifold should have been. Janene was so embarrassed to have me there. She said she could hear it coming for five minutes and her dad was disgusted with me and not happy that all the neighbors saw this noisy thing park in front of his house.

We tried to make it street legal, but in order to do that, we had to have a title. Being young dumb kids, we didn't know about that part. When we pressed our friend for the title, we got the run around and finally we became aware that our friend probably didn't own the vehicle and had stolen it. By then, we had destroyed a perfectly good truck that belonged to some farmer and figured we would be charged with stealing the truck if we went to the police. There was no choice but to dismantle the vehicle piece by piece and send the parts out with the family trash over a period of time. We dug a hole on the side of our house with the help of my little brother and buried the cab and body. The engine was dropped off the side of a hill on the dirt road going up to Calder's property and the wild ride of Captain America was over, much to the relief of my parents, Janene's dad and all of the neighbors

Things I learned from my Mother

This Mother's Day I have thought a little bit about the things I have learned from my mother. I thought I would share them here.

1. CARE FOR OTHERS.

My mom has all her life had a desire to serve others. This has taken her to a lot of places she would not have ordinarily gone in her life. The first real service I remember was when the Westerman family lived next door to us. This family was a real piece of work with a father who had his paycheck drunk before he got home from work. When the family got sick, my mom went to care for them even though that meant that she would get hepatitis and be sick for years. Later that would be translated into efforts to see that people who didn't look like us enjoyed the same rights we do. She became an advocate for people affected by the nuclear testing of the 50's and 60's. She now can often be found at the food bank helping those who have lost their jobs be able to provide for their families.

2. IT'S OK TO LAUGH ... EVEN IF YOU'RE THE MOM

When I was 11 or 12, I was getting ready for church and polishing my shoes on the white painted stairs. As I pulled the dauber out of the bottle ( shoe polish then was liquid, like paint), about a fourth of the bottle came flying out, and down the stairs. My mother was not very happy with me - and she let me know it. After cleaning up the mess, she sat down with me, took the bottle of shoe polish, and said " Here is how you do it!". As she pulled the dauber out, shoe polish went flying out and all over the stairs. I was horrified. Did this mean I was going to be in even more trouble now that the same thing had happened to her? I looked to her, she looked at me, and she started laughing. We sat there on the stairs, laughing till we cried. That's when I knew I had a pretty cool mom.

3. JOY WITH FAMILY

Things for my Mom haven't been easy. Living life for her has often been one battle after another ( or should I say, one hospital after another). She still has to have regular visits to the doctor where she is given another opportunity to stay on this earth, yet I never hear her complain about how hard it is. All my life I have known that being with her family was a conscious choice. Knowing that my Mom chose to be here with us has affected every part of my life and taught me to appreciate my own children and grandchildren.

4. THERE IS BEAUTY ALL AROUND

Maybe this came from her father, who used to chase sunsets to get the perfect picture . My mother can find beauty in every place or thing. She taught us to enjoy the world that God created and to appreciate it for the beauty it contains. We could go to the desert or the mountains and we didn't have to exploit the landscape to enjoy it. I am sure the idea of taking a dirtbike up a hillside , or speeding around on a four-wheeler never occured to her. She did get caught a few times trying to bring the desert home to her yard. In my garden, I like to grow vegetables. They are so ... useful. I have to have a corner for my wildflowers, though; and that comes from her.

All of these things I have learned from my Mother. There are many more, but those will have to wait for another time. Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I love you.

Don't Laugh - It's Paid For

With the old Impala consigned to the auto graveyard, the search was on for a new car. I was getting tired of walking to work and the lack of a vehicle was causing some problems. I got off work at 2:30 AM or so and then walked home. The Bountiful Police Department took a dim view of long-haired hippies walking the public streets at that hour of the night. Sometimes I could catch a ride with one of the the other guys at work, but when I couldn't, I had to deal with Officer Burningham. I had to be at school at 7:30 for my first class. I usually slept through that one. My English teacher, June Carnes, was frustrated that I could sleep through her class and still get straight A's. I had done all my homework during the summer and was always able to turn it in on time (including the assignments that were extra credit). Janene and I saw an ad in the paper for a clean one-owner with low miles. I took the money from the insurance settlement (which was not near enough to pay off the loan and used $450 to buy this sharp 1958 Ford Fairlane. It had a 312 motor and a shifter on the column. It turned out that Janene and I thought the car was haunted. It had windshield wipers that ran off the engine vacuum and they would quit whenever you really needed them. I found little tiny switches installed under the seat that were connected to the radio such that if you leaned forward on the seat, the radio would turn off. Boy, I wish I still owned this car. It would be pretty cool to take my grandkids for a ride in a real car. Oh, and yes, those are my hippie peace pants.

Here's for you Brother & Sister Rogers

You asked for it. Here is the body Janene fell for. She took this picture when we first met in 1968 at Upper Emerald Pool in Zions National Park. We met during a summer science class on this field trip. Later on this night, we would hold hands for the first time as I helped her over a fence after dark at Duck Creek Campground. I had never done that with a girl before. I think we were both a little twitterpated (to quote Thumper). While we were at Zion National Park during the day, it rained buckets at Duck Creek and all of our tents were absolutely drenched. We all ended up sleeping on the bus - boys on one side and girls on the other. Janene and I stayed up all night and talked - touching toes across the aisle. By morning I knew that this was the girl I would marry. Too bad we had to wait until I graduated from high school three and a half years later.