Home Just In Time For The Ence Sumer Party In Pine Valley

Roger and I look forward every year to going to Ence's cabin in Pine Valley for our Branch Summer Party. 

 I think we have been having our party here ever since they made us a branch.

Isn't it lovely?

Jay and Janice are some of the nicest, generous people we know.  Janice is my visiting teacher and has been ever since we moved to St. George, which will be nine years ago in January. I love her!

Jay and his brother have been pillars in our community.  They are co-founders of Ence Homes, which is the largest homebuilder in our parts. There is an entire chapter written about Jay Ence in a newly-published book by another long-time native, Lyman Hafen, about St. George, entitled, 

Where Two Streams Meet. He is one character!

Jay's health hasn't been very good and he is now very forgetful, but he still has his cheerful demeanor.  

He's sitting on the right with another member of our branch, Bob Routsong.

  

We left my sister, Patty's, after a delicious breakfast that morning, bought some wonderful up north produce at a couple of outdoor stands - corn, tomatoes and peaches - then hurried home. Just as we were arriving at the party, a huge thunder storm erupted, forcing everyone inside.  The tables outdoors on the lawn had all been set up so lovely with fresh sunflower centerpieces.  

But, in a way, it was kind of cool, because, well, yes, it cooled everything down, but it also caused people to squeeze together on chairs and couches and move around visiting with probably more people 

than they would have sitting at the tables.

I love the air after a rainstorm in the mountains -

 it smells so fresh and piney and somehow, everything looks clearer.

We sat on the porch by Richard and Linda Webb.  I am her visiting teacher.

Someone always makes pulled pork for sandwiches and the Priesthood men make Dutch oven potatoes,
 then everyone brings salads and desserts.

Visiting with Kathy Nielsen and Brother Fresh's, our stake patriarch's, new daughter-in-law.

Cute Patty Haynes, who loves to take pics,

takes lots of candid shots at all of our branch events, then posts them for all.

Every year, several non-LDS neighbors and friends come to this fun event. I love it that they feel comfortable to come, usually year after year. 

I'm visiting with Martha O'Donnell, a past Sunbrook aerobic buddy and Tennessee native, and her daughter. The daughter is very independent and her job has taken her all over the world to live, such as Istanbul and Syria. 
We had a very interesting conversation.

It was a great party, but we couldn't wait to get back to our Home Sweet Home after being away so long.

  It's fun to go and it's fun to get back home!

A full report on Roger's 50th Reunion 

is coming soon!

BYU Education Week, August 13-17, 2012

Staying with my sister, Patty, and her husband, Hal in their beautiful home is always a joy! 
Patty prepared a wholesome breakfast for us each morning, serving everything in her lovely dishes. I told her that that was not necessary, 
but she is a most gracious hostess. 

Visiting with Patty and Hal, as well as re-acquainting with their daughter, Jessica, and her little Gigi, were definite highlights of our week.

We ran into several friends during the week on campus, including Sham Young's parents, the Eppley's. We saw Sherry Young, our son-in-law's mother, three rows down in one of our classes, but she scooted out the door before we could catch her to say hello.  The Eppley's told her we were there and she called us. 
 We also ran into our dear friend, Karleen the last day and sat with her in a class and we saw friends from Ogden and St. George.

There's nothing quite like the spirit you feel 
to be with friends and loved ones 
in the same vicinity at the same time 
with the same purpose.

It was so fun to enjoy some of the special classes together on Friday.

 And we met Hal and Gigi for dinner at Los Hermanos and Dad and I thought of our BYU kids, who love their bean burritos!

Okay, now, mostly for my own good, I am going to 
summarize some of what I learned in this 
grand forum of inspiration.

The overall message I gleaned from those four days was:

Keep trying - it's worth it!

Each day, we attended Susan Easton Black's classes on The Life of Joseph Smith.  She has done incredible research, has profound insights and is spell-binding. I love and appreciate that man and Prophet even more!

The Tuesday Devotional Address was given by Elder Ted R. Callister.  He spoke about how our Heavenly Father wants us to continue to perfect ourselves, as defined in the Sermon On The Mount.  A complex genetic code is passed from a parent to a child.  This same method is applied from God to man.  We are his offspring.  Every man is a potential god in embryo.  He wants all of us to become as He is - as all fathers do.  He discussed the many aids He has given us to help us accomplish perfection.

We all know how very much we enjoy listening to and learning from the seasoned speakers in the Church - the "Old Guard," if you will. 
It is so heartening to discover a new, young voice who will be speaking to our future generations. I'm sure he is not the only one, but we just happened to luck into finding this next man.

Ryan H. Sharp, a Seminary and Institute teacher, is a wonderful teacher, so insightful and so "real."

Throughout the week, he developed the topic, Trusting Jesus: Seeing Things As They Really Are. 

Some of his pearls I gleaned:

We don't appreciate Christ until we know why we need Him, which refers to The Atonement. We are all in a helpless, hopeless state without it.  He suffered so He could know how we feel.  We can each personally feel the Savior's Grace.
Brother Sharp drew this comparison of, first, God's work:
Moses 1:39
 "For behold this is my work and glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."
And then, ours: 
  "...this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind and strength"
 D&C 11:20

He quoted Neil A. Maxwell:

We are His work and His glory and He is never distracted.

Trust Jesus.  Jesus ministered much more than he administered.  All healing comes through Christ. 
 Satan will never have a body - can never have a family - so he attacks our families.

He quoted C. S. Lewis:

I thought He was building me into a dear little cottage.  He's building a palace.

Joseph Wirthlin:

If our lives are centered on Jesus Christ, nothing can ever go permanently wrong.

There was much discussion about the Fourth Watch of God.

With our trials, He waits.  That is how we learn.

"I want to be like Him, but don't make me do hard things."

Like Peter, stop looking at the waves; look at Christ.

Brent Top talked each day about the After Life - 
"Life after Life."

We are now bound by our earthly tabernacle; we will be liberated.

He discussed, with many references to past and present Church leaders and others, this phase of the Plan of Salvation.  I've got pages of notes, but the summation is that the next life will be glorious, if we will 
repent and cling unto Christ. 

Brothers (literally and in the Gospel) Donald and Jay Perry talked about the Powerful Grace and Tender Mercies of Jesus Christ.

The Book of Mormon references Christ 3,925 times and His name appears in 6,607 verses, not counting pronouns that reference Him. Numbers are not important, but the point is, 

the Book of Mormon is about Jesus Christ, and teaches of His infinite goodness.

Ronald E. Bartholomew talked about How to Know When You Are Receiving Revelation For Yourself.  Most of us receive very small answers over a period of time.  
Sunrise takes place slowly.

Don't revel in what ifs and if onlys.

Run to Jesus Christ. 

People experience The Spirit differently. 

It can be a burning within your bosom.

It can be a warm light shining within your being.

It can be a feeling of comfort and serenity.

Don't just write down a prompting - act!

Later promptings can go unheard if we don't respond.

As those who know me know,
music is one of my great joys!

We attended two classes a day with Marvin Goldstein - one was with Janice Kapp Perry and one was with a very good vocalist from Arizona, Vanessa Joy.

Marvin is a Jewish convert to the Church and a marvelous pianist.
  He practiced the piano three hours a day as a nine year old. 

He is very funny, sometimes a little silly, but entertaining and very inspirational.

We thrilled to his rich and intricate medleys of hymns and secular music and his accompanying of beautiful vocal work. 

Here are some of his pearls:

Eternity has sound.  Where we came from has a rhythm and a sound.
He quoted Elder Jensen, who said that, in our church meetings - 

We need better music and more of it. 
We need better talks and less of it.
God gave us music for a reason. It is a conversation that anyone alive can understand - anywhere!

I absolutely loved Janice Kapp Perry!

She is a small, unassuming, grandmotherly, dear lady and when she speaks, 
you know that her testimony is rock solid.  
She is one of the most prolific composers of LDS music. She is a musician and a poet, has written ten songs in the Primary Songbook, over 100 LDS hymns, including, As Sisters Of Zion, and many, many songs and anthems. The Young Women have sung many of her songs.

She shared some poignant experiences of writing special songs for special people, such as the handicapped and the dying. 

She and Marvin teased and roasted each other throughout the week.  He stays in her home when he comes for Education Week.
After one of Marvin's gentle, teasing remarks (He was much easier on her than she was on him!), she said,

"Now you're going to have to cook dinner and take out the garbage!"
  

Marvin said, "The Lord has to have a sense of humor - just look at us!"

Another highlight of the class was hearing Dallyn Vail Bayles, an LDS Broadway star who appeared in President Monson's Birthday Party Concert - Golden Days: A Celebration of Life last Friday night.  In our class, two different days, he sang two duets with Vanessa Joy, accompanied by Brother Goldstein - That's All I Ask Of You from Phantom and The Prayer. Both received standing ovations.

As we were exiting one of her classes, I got to shake Sister Perry's hand and thank her for her wonderful music.

Roger and I attended special performances Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Vocal Point, the nine-man BYU a cappella singers who placed fifth on The Sing Off, a competition on network television, were spectacular!

City of Joseph, the Historical Musical of Nauvoo that has been performed in Nauvoo for twenty-seven years, was meaningful to see after having visited there with our kids and their spouses.

One Clear Voice, a quartet of recognizable studio female voices  heard on LDS recordings, was truly thrilling to me, having sung in female groups almost my entire life.  They blended beautifully and each is a fantastic soloist on her own. One of the women, Johanne Frechette Perry, is married to Janice's son and came to two of her classes to sing some of Sister Perry's songs.  I loved her voice!

Adding to these vast words of inspiration and thrilling musical experiences, 
I even got to eat some BYU fudge!

It doesn't get any better than all of that!

Planting

Roger and I just spent a great nine days "up north."

We did many wonderful things.

My husband has been excited all summer, anticipating his 50th Weber High School Class Reunion, which was held August 10 and 11th.  Some of the highlights will be in a later post because we're waiting to get some more pics sent to us.

When we realized that it was to be the weekend before BYU Education Week, 

we signed up to go there after the reunion. 

Roger had never gone to it.

We stayed with our son, Rick and his wife, Jodie, over the reunion weekend in their beautiful home.

Their front and back yards are absolutely glorious!

 Jodie is a master flower landscape designer.  She plants the most remarkably beautiful flowers, and, with hers and Rick's care, they absolutely flourish! 

Take a peek.

And flowers aren't the only thing that Jodie plants. We watched her host lunch for the Wood's Cross Golf Team, which their son, Josh, just tried out for and made it on this year.

She made huge amounts of pulled pork for sandwiches, veggies and dip, cut-up fruits and dip, potato salad, chips, cookies and brownies.  We forgot to take a pic, but remembered to take one of the next group, who came behind the golf team to eat - their daughters, Sadie's and Katie's basketball team and, I think, soccer team.  (By the way, Katie looks absolutely gorgeous in her new contacts!) When the mom driving their carpool pulled up, Jodie ran out and invited them all in for lunch.

She fed over 30 kids!

All of us present for this casual lunch felt of Jodie's cheerful and generous spirit, and felt so incredibly welcome. 

An example of how to make people feel loved was shown to her children.

As I said, Jodie is a master planter.

We attended church in Rick and Jodie's ward on Sunday, and were told by more than one member how great a bishop our son is!

That made us feel so good!

The plan was to arrive at my sister, Patty's and her husband, Hal's lovely new home in Elkridge on Monday night, to stay with them during Education Week.  

That afternoon, we browsed through some stores at City Creek in Salt Lake, including  O. C. Tanner 's in the old Hansen Planetarium.

We saw this "golden Oscar" displayed in a showcase there, and I told Roger to take a pic of it on his iPhone.

The story behind it is so cool.

It might be difficult to read, but the jist of the story is that this Academy Award is a gift to the state of Utah from screenwriter Barry Morrow, who earned it for his part in writing "Rain Man," which won Picture of the Year in 1988. Remember, that was based on a true story about a Utah man who was a "mega-sevant, " Kim Peak.

  He, his dad and Barry took Oscar with them on educational speaking engagements, traveling nearly 3 million miles.  

Oscar was held by hundreds of thousands of hands, mostly those of school children, which is why the gold plating is so worn. 

Once asked why the gold was missing, Kim replied, "It is not missing . . it's on the hands of the children."

It has been dropped, dented and bent.

It is on loan from Kim with one stipulation; 

it has to remain as it is.

Different.

A Long Detour Home

Morro Bay and Pismo Beach

On Monday morning, July 30, we reluctantly left the Smiths and headed for the California coast.  We decided that while we were in California, we'd better go see the ocean before we returned to St. George.

We took California Hwy 41 all of the way to the coast, which turned into a winding, tickle-belly-bumping countryside road, almost more than we bargained for!  It was kind of an adventure, not knowing what or who was around the next turn. 

 California provides one-fourth of the nation's produce, and as we had traveled through the San Joaquin Valley where Missy lives, we saw acres and acres as far as the eye could see of vineyards, olive trees, nut trees and citrus.  Then as we neared the coast, we saw every vegetable imaginable planted, as well as every kind of berry.

We finally arrived at the ocean at Morro Bay and looked for a place for lunch.  There were several choices along the ocean.  We picked one, then shared a seafood platter of sand dabs, calamari and fried clams.  The sand dabs were delicious! And right next door was a salt water taffy shop where I could choose my favorites - molasses, huckleberry, maple and vanilla (I know vanilla sounds boring, but have you ever tried vanilla salt water taffy?  Yum!).

As you can see in the pic, it was a bit foggy, and it was windy and chilly, yet there were lots of people in and on the water.  

Roger said, "If I want to go to the beach, give me Hawaii!" 

I guess a chilly beach is better than no beach!

 We next stopped at Pismo Beach to check it out. 
 Missy and Jedd were going to come there the next weekend.  I think Jedd's boss has a place where they were going to stay.

 All along the way were cauliflower fields, which they were harvesting.  Roger took this pic of a tractor hauling the boxes to be filled by the women on board, after the men alongside picked the cauliflower. 

 And there were vast strawberry fields.

We stopped to buy Roger's FAVORITE to see if they tasted better when vine ripened.

The answer is YES!

A really pleasant surprise was to discover that Solvang was just 35 miles northeast of Santa Barbara.

I have heard of this little Scandinavian village for years; I knew it was in California, but really didn't know where.  It was settled by the Danes in the early 1900s, and it is mainly a quaint little tourist trap, but we loved it!

 Most of the shops closed at 5 (WHAT were they thinking!), but I browsed through the one below.  

It would have been fun to be there for a Scandinavian meal in one of the many cute restaurants, but we found a great Danish pastry shop.  There are actually six bakeries in this little town! 

We also found a chocolate shop where we bought a schokokuss, a small chocolate-covered marshmallow treat that Denmark is famous for. As you know, I LOVE chocolate-covered marshmallow and Roger is indifferent about it, but when I gave him a bite, he took a huge one! 

"Wow, that's really GOOD!" he said.

We should have bought two!

We finally reached Santa Barbara and headed for the ocean.  There was the coolest wharf that you could drive onto and park, then walk around to the shops and restaurants.  We found this gem at the end of the pier.  You could watch the cooks take the live lobsters and crabs out of big tanks, then prepare them as you watched.  It was a tiny place and as patrons would arrive, they would sign a clipboard hanging out front (which it took us a minute to figure out). We didn't realize that we were going to wait for well over an hour when we signed up, but it was fun looking out over the water and people-watching some of the tourists and local Californians.

We wish we could go back and try pretty much everything on the menu.

Roger had fresh crab louie . . .

. . . and I had my FAVORITE, steamed clams. They were the best ones I have ever had!

We got back on the freeway, north of Los Angeles, finally ending up in an Econo-Lodge in Victorville for the night, checking in past midnight.

Big, big day, but such a fun adventure!

Next day, we drove back to home sweet home.

We loved our little California Get-away!

Okay, so when Roger read through this post, he said, "You have to tell about the cinnamon rolls!"

When I had looked up Pismo Beach on Travel Advisor the night before we got there, the #1 recommended place was Wild West Cinnamon Rolls.  I thought that was the name of a restaurant.  We had already eaten lunch in Morro Bay, so I wasn't watching for any names I had seen on the blog site.  Driving to the beach, we drove right past a huge sign all across the front of a place saying, Wild West Cinnamon Rolls. Of course we had to stop and check it out!  It wasn't a restaurant at all, but a bakery, with, you guessed it, cinnamon rolls!  And of course we had to try one.  We later found out that when Missy/Jedd went to Pismo Beach that weekend, they waited in a long line to get one for breakfast. Delicious!
The End

Off To Yosemite National Park

With the promise of deep valleys, sheer cliffs and the highest waterfall in America, Yosemite was our top pick destination to explore with our daughter, Missy, and family.  

We had about an hour drive to the south entrance, and we arrived there just after 9 am, trying to beat the huge crowds. Though the entire remainder of the day, it seemed that every tourist in California was at Yosemite, we entered with ease.

Very near the entrance was Mariposa Grove, the park's largest stand of giant sequoias, with about 500 trees.  Roger and I had been raving to the Smiths about the sequoia's wonderfulness; after seeing this grove, they concurred.

Our next stop was after a winding 45 minute drive to Glacier Point. What a commanding view of Yosemite Valley! The Half Dome is a Yosemite icon. It was regarded as "never to be trodden by human foot" in 1865.  Now there is a cable route to its top!

Glacier Point is an overlook with a commanding view of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome and the Yosemite's high country.

The awesome Smith Family

I was a little nervous getting up on this rock!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Have you ever seen a more perfect meditator?

What a great smile, Jared!

Looking down to Nevada Fall from Glacier Point. It has a 594 foot drop.

Vernal Fall drops 317 feet.  They both create what is known as the"Giant Staircase."

Nevada & Vernal Falls

We drove through a long tunnel.  We had Sam and Ellie in our car, and they were asleep.  When we stopped after we exited at Tunnel View Point, they wanted to drive back through so they could see it!

Pictures taken at Tunnel View Point

Hiking to view Bridalveil Fall

Bridalveil Fall is one of the most prominent waterfalls in Yosemite National Park.  It drops 617 feet and flows year round.  The water was low and the wind blew the water sideways to create a wispy look.  

Ellie was taking pics on her mom's iPhone everywhere we went.  She was loving it!  Not hard to see that she's following in her mother's footsteps!

By then we were starving!  We had packed a picnic lunch and we set out to find a spot to stop.  We drove and drove, not seeing even a pull-off-the-road place.  Finally, near Yosemite Lodge, we drove around and around in the parking lot, pulled into a coned-off section (we were desperate!) and spotted some flat ground.

At this point, we were just grateful for some shade!

Yosemite Fall is the highest measured waterfall in North America. It falls 2425 feet from the top to the upper falls to the base of the lower falls.

Unfortunately, it is mostly dry this time of year, so this is what we saw.

The boys were so tickled with their souvenirs, Yosemite pocket knives.

They could have one souvenir from either Yosemite or San Francisco, which is where they are also going to visit while living in Fresno.

Sam said, "There might be a better souvenir in San Francisco, but I highly doubt it!"  

Grandpa treated us all with an ice cream cone.

Ice cream and being in the mountains - what could be better!

After we arrived back in Fresno, we were ready for some dinner.

Travel Advisor recommended this little place for good Mexican food.  The shrimp and the ceviche were tasty!

Except for the crazy crowds, Yosemite did not disappoint!