Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday

On Thursday Reed picked up a garbage can and recycling bin in Logan and delivered it to Jill and Brandon's home in Providence. He noticed the garage floor was a mess so we went back with the power washer and supplies. Reed swept and I used a screwdriver to scrape all the drywall mud and sheetrock adhesive from the garage floor. Then Reed used the power washer and I used the squeege. A van load of belongings was taken up to the house that night. The big move was on Friday. Most of the Schvaneveldt's belongings were moved from our house and their storage shed on Friday. Brandon rented a U-Haul, Reed used our pickup and ATV trailer, and Jill used the van. Bryan provided muscle power all day as well. The kids helped when they got home from school and I picked up Riley to assist too. A few guys from the Elders' Quorum in our ward came over to move the piano. What a lot of work! They stayed here Friday night and pulled out of here about 11 a.m. on Saturday morning. Kim and Ashley arrived to help them. Everyone's muscles are still sore. We are empty nesters once again! Natalie and Kaden will start going to Providence Elementary on Monday morning. Courtney and Hailey will still be at their same schools.


I was so delighted on Saturday that all the snow had melted from our lawn so I took a couple of pictures from the back porch. Reed was out raking and planting a few seeds.

Shucks! This is what the backyard looked like 24 hours later. I am sick and tired of snow. I can't wait for summer.

Ashley was in a dance competition on Saturday. Here she is all dressed in costume with her hair crimped and make-up on.

Good Bye Elder Hawkes

Today we attended funeral services for Stephen Hawkes of Richmond, Utah. He and his wife, Jennette, served with us at Heber Valley Camp. I didn't know until I read his obituary, but I went to school with two of his sisters, Carmen and Becky. It was good to see other Heber Valley Camp missionaries even though the circumstances that brought us back together weren't the best. We were able to briefly visit with Horners, Andersons, Spencers, Gurneys, Cefalos, Lessers,
Wagstaffs, Ballifs, Souths, Gregorys and Sister Forrester. The Egberts from the preceding year were there. Elder Egbert is the one who gave us a tour of the camp prior to putting our papers in. The funeral was nice and fitting; the displays were interesting; there were many beautiful floral offerings; a large crowd was in attendance and Steve looked good.

Goin' Home

The weather has been wonderful. There are trees in blossom everywhere and green leaves are coming out in full force. It gives me hope that spring will eventually arrive in Cache Valley as well. We have eaten out so much we will be rolling home...Texas Roadhouse, Applebee's, Chuck-A-Rama, Gun Barrel Restaurant etc. In Chuck-A-Rama we ran into Richard and Janice Zollinger and Bill and Karen Zollinger. Their mother had passed away and they were making funeral plans. As we were walking into the St. George Temple someone called our names. It was Jon Parker out for a walk. We are going out to eat lunch with Jon and Ronda tomorrow. In the evening we will grab a hamburger and go to a movie with Brent and Diane Ballard. We never did see Elder and Sister McArthur (Jill and Doug) although we passed their home in Santa Clara a couple of times. They live near Jacob Hamblin's home. We went to see Silver Reef ghost town, Red Cliffs, and Quail Creek State Park. Reed and Gary never did make it there to fish.

We were saddened by the news that one of our fellow Heber Valley Camp missionaries, Steve Hawkes, died yesterday. He had a very aggressive, malignant brain tumor. Steve and his wife, Jennette, lived in the cabin just east of us at HVC. They are from Richmond. We went to visit them at Christmastime. Steve and Jennette were not only close neighbors but they were in the same district we were in, so we often shared rides. They worked at Legacy Lake. Steve assisted our family when they stayed overnight at camp and went to the lake to use the paddleboats. Steve's funeral will be on Tuesday.

This is the view from our patio of one of the playgrounds and one of the pools. I made a very graceful entrance into the hot tub...I fell in with a splash.

Another pretty view from our patio

Our end unit patio is accessed from a patio door from either the bedroom (shown) or from the livingroom.

Quail Creek Reservoir

Nevada ride and hike 3/16/09

Vaughn and Susan Evans, fellow Heber Valley Camp Missionaries from Logandale, Nevada, invited a bunch of us on an ATV ride near Mesquite. We really enjoyed the beautiful surroundings and great company with Elder Evans, our expert guide.

Reed and Vaughn on one of our walks

On our exploration were: Gary and Suzanne Felter, Morris and Sharlene Mower, Reed and Kathy Conlin and Susan and Vaughn Evans

This rock looks like a lizard or dragon

We were taken to a very large sink hole out in the middle of the desert. Evidently the hole appeared out of the blue, back in the 1930's. There was a chainlink fence around the hole, which was about 100 feet deep and about 50-75 feet across. Elder Felter thought the bottom of the crater would make a wonderful place for a certain sister missionary.

Suzanne, Susan and Sharlene

Gary, Reed and Vaughn

Petroglyphs

Tailgate Party

For lunch we stopped and had a tailgate party. Especially good were these 'slammers' as Elder Felter called his creation. They are made with a Ritz cracker with cheese squirted on it, a hunk of imitation crabmeat, then topped with cocktail sauce. They can be messy so you have to 'slam' the whole thing in your mouth at once.

C.C.C. Work Project

Vaughn climbing the steps to "The Great Wall of Nevada"

Shar on the "dam" wall and Suzanne almost there.

The project included construction of dams and catch basins for rain and waterfall off the cliffs. Troughs were installed and the water was able to be used for raising livestock in the desert. I thought Obama could bring back the C.C.C. and put people to work filling in the huge crater we saw.

Shar and Vaughn exiting the dam site a different way.

Suzanne tore something in her knee when being pushed and pulled up a rock formation on one of our walks to see petroglyphs. She is now in a brace and on crutches awaiting further tests and a visit to an orthopedic surgeon. At the conclusion of the ride, the other missionary couples went into Mesquite to eat at a Mexican Restaurant. Reed and I beelined back to St. George. After a quick clean-up we met Brent and Diane Ballard at 'Texas Roadhouse' and then went to their home in Ivins to play games.

Tri-State ATV Jamboree #3

At the Jamboree there were opportunities to win things through drawings, handouts or luck. At the lunch break on the trail on Friday, each person was allowed to draw five poker chips from a sack. One of the guides punched holes in a card representing the hand we had drawn. That night after a dutch oven meal, the winners were called out. There were thousands of dollars of merchandise from which the winners could choose. I had a poor hand so the best prizes were taken by the time my name was called but I was still able to get a $50 gift certificate at an ATV store. With it being in Richfield, perhaps I should have chosen a $30 gift certificate to Texas Roadhouse. Leather gloves were thrown into the crowd. Reed and I were able to each get a pair but not without cutting my finger on the packaging as they flew through the air. At the end, we were able to 'snag' a huge mug, a couple of little ATV cargo nets and a tire pressure guage. On Thursday night at the ice cream social there was a drawing for many other prizes. I got a Coleman lantern that night...the only one in our group to be lucky.

This is what the back of our t-shirts looked like:

Tri-State ATV Jamboree #2

The remains of Fort Pearce

The wall of rocks around Fort Pearce guarded their water

Reed on rocky outcropping

Mica

All that glitters is not gold

Lower left hand shows part of the 'Temple Trail,' along which pioneers hauled logs for the building of the St. George Temple.

With a high power zoom you can see the St. George Temple in the valley below

We saw many varieties of cactus plants. Prickly pears were very plentiful. There were two kinds of barrel cacti. The trail guide did not stop very often to take pictures.