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.