Random Bits

These are our hot-air ballooning certificates that I forgot to put on a previous post.

We stopped by to see Brandon, Jill, Courtney, Hailey and Natalie staining their new pergola in the northwest corner of their backyard. They have a great view of the valley below.

Our YSA Stake had a carnival last Monday. Each ward was responsible for a food/treat and an activity. Our ward did cotton candy. It was quite a hit. Hundreds and hundreds of young single adults...quite a sight!

The only 'free' time we had together this week was during the day on Tuesday. We went fishing at the dam. We limited out within about a half hour. We weren't ready to head home so I dumped the fish from the live well back into the water and we just kept catching and releasing for another hour. We couldn't keep the fish off our lines! We didn't even slow down or stop trolling, just reeled them in and lifted them into the boat without a net. Both of us usually had fish on at the same time. It's too bad they didn't have any size to them. Then we caught our limits again and went home. We kept two smaller fish for supper and gave the rest to a neighbor. It was a beautiful, warm day. We have been breaking records for high temperatures...can't complain about that!

We are very busy with little time to relax. Our days and nights are pretty much scheduled for us. Maybe that is better than being bored? I don't know. Reed has had quite the adventures driving buses so far. He is driving some 'special needs' kids as I write. I am taking a break from church work for a few minutes. He has another meeting tonight. For someone who is not a 'meeting' person, he sure attends a lot of them. And for someone who hates to wear dresses, nylons etc., I am now wearing them three full days a week. It is nice working in the temple, though, and I enjoy seeing so many good friends and acquaintances. Last week two people we served with at Heber Valley Camp attended. One day it was Jeanette Hawkes and another day, Merlene Ellington. (Hal Jeffs, another HVC missionary who served with us, died last week) I get my exercise in the temple...one day I counted 24 flights of stairs that I went up or down during my shift.

Catching up on family birthdays since the last bunch: Tanner turned 10 on August 21st, and Owen was 5 on August 24th. Candace had a birthday on September 13th. Jill and Brooklyn (2) shared a birthday on September 17th. Back 33 years ago, I came home from the hospital with Candace on Jill's 3rd birthday. Robin was between them in age and turned 16 months the following day.

We survived having Aubrey, age 16 months, for 9 days and 9 nights while Robin, Andrew, Ashlyn and Katelyn were in Florida. We're getting kind of old for that! We took Aubrey to Salt Lake to meet her family when they flew in on Monday morning. Andrew's surgery has been changed to October 12th.

We will be having groups of kids from our YSA ward come to our home for Family Home Evening, on a rotating basis, twice a month beginning next Monday, Oct 4th. General Conference is this weekend. Yippee!

Mini vacation, miscellaneous

We stayed at the WorldMark Resort in Midway on Thursday and Friday nights. We visited some of our old haunts like the 'Dairy Keen' (home of the train) and 'The Hub.' Because we couldn't attend the Heber Valley Camp fall openhouse on Saturday or the missionary reunion Monday, we visited the camp on Friday. We rode all around and walked challenge courses 3 and 5. We saw quite a few deer. A new RV court is being constructed. We checked out our staining job on the cabins in Camps Smith and Esther. They still looked good. Lots of aspen trees were dying. Aspen leaf spot or some kind of bug? One of the missionaries said he thought they were dying where fill dirt had been pushed up the base of the trees for a foot or so such as in the construction of the trailer court. Surprisingly, Legacy Lake still had a little water in it. We went through the outlet stores in Park City. Since the condos have two bedrooms and two bathrooms plus a murphy bed, we ended up having Robin (since she lives the closest) bring Ashlyn and Katelyn for a swim, movie, and to stay overnight. We had to be in Park City early Saturday morning for our long-awaited and overdue hot air balloon ride. That was really neat...pictures are in the previous post.

I wish I had some info to pass along about each family member, but unless I hear about it, I can't do that. I'm not trying to give more attention to some and leave others out.

Ashlyn (6) was excited that she is in the Drama Club at school and had tried out for a part in a play and got it! She wants to join the Chess Club. Ashlyn just finished reading 'Charlotte's Web.' She learned her times tables during the summer. She swims like a fish and is always cheerful and happy.

Andrew had just returned from a business trip in Cleveland, Ohio. He enjoyed a side trip to Kirtland to see some church historical sites. He has been having two weeks of chemo alternating with one week off for some time now. He is scheduled for another surgery on October 15th so for something fun before that, the Burkhardts (all but Aubrey) are going to Disney World. She gets to come to our house from the 18th to the 27th.

Jodi and Ty are going on their first cruise in October. We are flying out to Oklahoma to tend the kids. This will be the first time Jodi has been away from the kids except for when she has been in the hospital having another one. Ty was a counselor in the bishopric in their ward in Tulsa and was released when they moved to Oklahoma City. He has once again been called as a counselor in their new ward. Owen is in Kindergarten and Miles is in preschool. Jodi just ran her first 5K race since having kids and did well. I enjoy the things that Jodi reports that Owen says and does. He's not only smart, but funny too.

Reed completed all the requirements to be a substitute bus driver. It was quite a long, drawn-out and involved procedure. He still has 8 hours of inservice training and 6 hours of CPR/First Aid training. He has been called to fill in several times in the next couple of weeks. Tomorrow he drives kids on a field trip to Guinavah, up Logan Canyon. Saturday he drives some of the runners in the Top of Utah Marathon from Merlin Olsen Central Park to Hardware Ranch, where the race begins. It will take 45 buses to get them all transported. Next week it will be school routes. Unfortunately, when I am at the temple, Reed is home. When I am home, he is at church or doing bus related things. We wish our schedules would work out so we could do something fun together.

So far there are seven girls in our YSA Ward by the name of MacKensie...and some just named Kenzie. Each one spells it differently. Staffing the ward and attending the gazillion meetings are very time consuming and stressful. Reed has been at the church for 12 hours each Sunday and spends a couple of nights a week there too. That doesn't count all the time he and I put in at home. I have been keeping track of our 'church miles.' So far this month we are up to 250! Between learning the names and faces of 150 students right now, I am trying to put a name to each of the 80 or so workers on my shift at the temple. DUP has just started up for the year too. I'm a caller and secretary/treasurer for our camp.

The garden has been doing well except our tomatoes are slow in ripening. From the corn we gave Jill, she was able to cut 150 cups of corn cut off the cob, then bag and freeze it. Instead of putting the time, effort and expense (pectin, sugar, containers etc.) into making blackberry jam and then just giving it away, we have also been giving Jill our blackberries so she can do the work and reap the rewards. The cantaloupe have done great but Reed kept finding some still on the vine that were half eaten. Voles were responsibile for the damage. We have had frost on the roof and grass a couple of times so far. We are not ready for cold temperatures. July was the only month it did not snow in the mountains surrounding us. I took pictures of fresh snow on June 11th and again on August 30th.

Our Balloon Adventure

Preparing the balloon:


Partially inflated balloons. They're 8 stories high!


Inflating the balloon:

And they're off!

We did a touch-down on the water

A frozen foreground with ski runs on the mountains catching the first rays of morning sun.

Our reflection in the wetlands. The marsh is covered with frost (the greenery isn't over-exposed)

My favorite picture of one of the balloons identical to what we were riding in. It had just done a touch-down in the water. A picture perfect day!

Aloft over the Park City area. The balloons caught different directions and strengths of air flow depending on the altitude. The wind is the only steering mechanism. The pilots were skilled in making use of breezes to maneuver the balloons from the launch site to a landing site several miles away. They landed with precision.

A llama drama taking place on the ground below. A baby llama is standing guard over its' dying mother. So sad. I hope someone came to rescue the baby.

The cleared areas devoid of sage brush were used as parking lots during the winter olympics.

Flyin' high!

A frozen golf course below

No one out golfing yet

Our balloon casts a shadow

Gorgeous views! Jordanelle Reservoir is the body of water. In the center of the picture a quarter of the way up, "P C" (for Park City) is written on the hill or little mountain. We launched in the shadows at the base of the hill.

The Great Salt Lake is the blue strip at the base of the skyline above the mountain ridges.

These baskets hold up to 11 people...a pilot and 10 passengers plus 3 propane tanks. Each of the three balloons that went with us had a pilot and 8 passengers. That was tight enough.

Not a cloud in the sky!

Looking up inside of the balloon. The tops had smiley faces on them.

A cold morning at the launch site (32 degrees!) We wore coats and stayed warm. The sun felt good and the heat from the blasts of gas helped also.

A big THANKS to Kim, Jill, Robin, Candace and Jodi who gave us this balloon adventure as a gift! One more thing on my 'bucket list' has been fulfilled!

Our New Ward

Last April Reed was called and set apart as 1st Counselor in the Utah State University 1st Stake, 8th Ward for single students. Last week he was released...but only for about 15 seconds. He was then sustained as 1st counselor in the 1st Ward of the Logan Utah Young Single Adult 1st Stake. On Wednesday night he was set apart again with the new ward name. From Preston to Paradise, all young single adults have been put in YSA stakes with geographical boundaries. So called 'student wards' are a thing of the past. The new term is 'Young Single Adult.' Last Sunday there were six Logan YSA stakes formed, a Smithfield YSA Stake, taking in all the YSA wards in the north end of the valley, and a Providence YSA Stake, comprised of all YSA wards in the south valley locations. Our ward boundaries did not change. Our ward membership still has just students from four of the dorms at USU. Our stake picked up an additional ward, making a total of nine wards. Between interviewing, planning, preparation, meetings, ward prayer and activities, it is a full-time job! We can't wait until the ward is completely set up. For one family home evening, we played outdoor games to get to know each other. Another FHE was a pizza party. The kids devoured 30 large pizzas from Domino's plus salad and watermelon. Eventually we will set up eight FHE 'families.' I have set up a blog containing the pictures of everyone to help us learn the kids' names. The Relief Society President has been called. She is 17 years old. So far we have had 125 people show up for our ward. There are many more within the boundaries. 2/3's are female...lucky guys! These young adults are incredibly talented. Many are musically inclined. When Reed has been conducting, all he needs to do is ask for a volunteer to play the piano and lead the singing, and volunteers are forthcoming. I'm impressed!

This was our ward display I made and set up at a stake BBQ for the students to find the ward to which they belong. Reed picked the theme. The bishop brought some gummy worms in crushed oreos in the little containers on the left end of the table, and also some Swedish fish for treats.






Some of our ward members eating creamies and filling out information sheets.

Logan Temple

After a break from my previous two years of temple service, I was set apart as a temple ordinance worker again. I work two days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The temple grounds have received a facelift. Inside, there are new lockers, carpeting, draperies, wallpaper and pictures. I think the following picture is funny. The next pictures really don't do justice to the beautiful temple grounds, but they show the fountain and some of the pretty flowers.

The large pink flowers are as big as dinner plates.

The prettiest shots would be taken in the morning

with the temple in the background. This is in the

afternoon looking toward the street. Usually there

are too many people on the grounds to take a picture.

RiDiNg AlOnG oN oUr AtVs...

We were invited to go for a ride Friday afternoon. We started at Hardware Ranch, rode to Bug Lake, tried a trail that phased out, took another road and went nearly to Randolph, then looped back another way. We put on 65 miles. It was a beautiful day with great temperatures, but was dry and dusty. We saw deer and antelope. Cattle and sheep are still in the mountains on their summer range. The leaves hadn't started turning in the high country, but we saw the beginnings of fall color in Blacksmith Fork Canyon up towards Hardware Ranch. On our way back home we passed one trailer after another and dozens of 4-wheelers heading up the canyon for the Labor Day weekend. Every available space had a tent or trailer on it, packed in like sardines. So much for 'getting away' from it all. It was an enjoyable ride.