Memories, Old and New

What a memorable weekend we had up north! (May 19-23)

A few months ago, our youngest daughter, Mindy, convinced eight of our family members 

to run Ogden's Half Marathon down Ogden Canyon on May 21.

Mindy reminded her dad that he had run a marathon or a half marathon with his other four kids, 

and he needed to run one with her. 

Rick's wife, Jodie, had also never run in one, so she signed up, and her daughter, Sadie;

our daughter, Missy, and her son, Jared, signed up and also Mindy's husband, Jeff.

More about that later.

My siblings and I try to get together every year around Memorial Day to honor our parents 

and decorate their graves in Logan. 

We travel from St. George and Elkridge in Utah and Caldwell and Boise in Idaho to be together.

It worked out this year that we could all meet up on that same marathon weekend.

We sure missed having Kay and Ken with us, who are serving a mission in Japan. 

On Thursday night, we drove to Rick and Jodie's, met Karleen for lunch in downtown Salt Lake on Friday,

after her shift at the Church History Museum, 
and then drove to Ogden to pick up the eight packets for the race, 

which was the next day.
We then drove to the Logan Cemetery to meet Hal, Patty, Joan, Cindy and John at 5 PM.
I have to confess that we were 20 minutes late,
trying to fit in too much, but we were so happy to see my sisters and brother.

Patty and Hal always bring the most gorgeous flowers from their son, Evan's, floral business!

Mom's is always pink, her favorite color.

We visited our grandparents' graves, as well as other relatives, and then headed to Wellsville 

to leave flowers on the graves of James and Sarah Parks.

They raised our Grandma Libby Peterson after her mother died in childbirth after delivering her.

Though a bit rainy and overcast, which was a forecast of things to come, 

the drive through Sardine Canyon was so gorgeous and green.

Another little tradition that we have started is to have a meal at Maddox in Brigham City 

before we all take off to our various destinations. 

John and Cindy usually drive all of the way back to Caldwell, having driven all the way to Logan that same day. 

The timing for our reservation at Maddox was perfect, 

because Missy and Jared arrived about that time from Boise for the race the next day.

We enjoyed a yummy meal together, but even better than the food was the company.
We revisited many old memories of times in the past.

We so love to be together, and there was lots of laughter and fun!

Not bright, but early next morning

(last shuttle up the canyon to the Starting Line left at 5 AM),

this crew took a pic while waiting for the starting gun.

Mindy, Jeff, Missy, Jared, Roger and I stayed at Rick and Jodie's in Salt Lake, 
so they had to leave for Ogden at around 4 AM.

Here is the weather report for the time of the race.

They ran the entire time through pouring, driving rain!

Editor's Note:

There is a very fine line between bravery and insanity.

Sometimes it is indiscernible.

Jeff ran ahead to take this pic on his iPhone.

That familiar Ogden arch (we lived in Ogden for 21 years),

was a welcome sight!

Rick and I were waiting at the Finish Line - 

waiting and watching, waiting and watching . . .

Here they come!

I cranked up my iPhone camera, snapped this blurry photo, while trying to balance my umbrella on my shoulder . . . 

. . . and proceeded to touch the circle button too fast in rapid succession,

resulting in getting these runners, 

who were trailing behind my loved ones.

Sigh!

Luckily, these four were photoed at the Finish Line by the race photographer.
That had to be a moment of pure jubilation!

We made our way to the Finish Line and found our soggy, freezing runners, 

jubilant that their race was over and that they made it back, undrowned and alive!

Roger's brother, Scott ( in the left of the pic), was there with his wife Sherie, 

to watch their daughter, Lexie, and a couple of daughter-in-laws, Carly and Julie.

They were shivering and soaked, but had big smiles!

Sadie and her boyfriend, Jake, finished about 5 minutes before the rest.

Back home at Rick and Jodie's that afternoon, it was recuperation time.

Jodie's energy is in the same category as Roger's and his mom's.

She hosted this weekend, 

making all kinds of delicious food, including homemade cookies, beef roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, homemade rolls, honey butter and Rice Krispy treats.

She is here writing a long letter to Josh, on a mission in Hong Kong.

She did all of this that afternoon.

She is one gracious host!

Mindy and Jeff had hurried from the Finish Line to Addie's dance recital, in Highland, 

 then soaked in the tub, etc. before coming back to Rick and Jodie's with their four kids.

No explanation needed for what Roger and Jeff did that afternoon.

The cousins love to be together, and we got a couple of blurry pics of the wrestling match.

I truly am so proud of Roger!

He has run three full marathons, and now this half marathon.

He came in third in his division, and if he was really running it competitively 

instead of just enjoying it with his kids and grandkids, he probably would have come in first!

It was too cold to get a pic of each one with his or her medal at the Finish Line, so we took one at Rick's.

Sadie was on a date, so we missed getting her in it.

Sunday night was Sadie's Stake Seminary Graduation.

She was one of the four speakers, 

and we were so pleased to be able to hear her great talk and be with her on this very special occasion.

Sadie with her proud mom and dad . . .

. . . and her proud Grandma and Grandpa Stratford.

Monday morning we drove back to Ogden to decorate Roger's Dad's 

and his brother, Gordon's graves with his mom.

This is also our tradition, though it was a little early this year.

We also drove to the Ogden Cemetery and decorated Lois's mom and Dad's graves.

Her mom died when she was eleven, and she and her sister, Florence, 

cooked and cleaned for her dad and brothers for years until her dad remarried.

She never knew her grandparents.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at her favorite place in Ogden, Chuck O Rama, 

then we headed back to St. George.

Wonderful old memories were revisited and new memories were made.

It's official - I am now the only member of my family of kids and their spouses 

to not have run in a marathon or half marathon.

I am the only cowardly one or the only sane one - 

you be the judge!

Hangin' Around Home

As much as we like to hit the road,

going to visit our kids and grandkids or on get-aways together,

we also love to hang around home.

We live around some pretty awesome people and our Branch in our church has such fun get-togethers.

Every spring we have a potluck picnic with the Branch providing grilled burgers and hot dogs.

I previously talked about our Branch INSTA-CHOIR assignment from the Stake 

to provide the music for the morning session of Stake Conference on April 24.

I was overwhelmed with the support I received.

Our branch has less than 200 members and 45 of them sang in our choir. 

Many rearranged their schedules so they would be in town (sometimes couples take the opportunity 

to travel on Stake Conference weekend), 

they attended all rehearsals, morning and evening, and they did all of this with cheer and excitement.

We considered it an honor to bring the Lord's spirit to Stake Conference with our music.

It was held in the Stake Center and was televised to two other buildings.

We sang, "The Lord Is My Shepherd" for the prelude, 

"Love At Home," with a couple who sang the first verse in beautiful harmony, 

and concluded with, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives!".

Beverly Bradley, my dear friend and fabulous musician accompanied on the piano,

and Teague Lawrence of the 1st Ward, who has occasionally played for INSTA-CHOIR since he was in Primary 

and is now a senior in high school, played the violin for all three numbers.

Choir members and congregation alike (not to mention their humble choir director)

thrilled to the overwhelming spirit we felt, particularly on the last number.

That afternoon, our Branch had a Walk-About to a couple of the members' homes.

It's a great way to get better acquainted with each other and it was a great cap to Stake Conference weekend.

My cute next-door neighbor, Lilian, and I went to the Relief Society luncheon together. 

Though not active, she loves to go to all of the RS activities.

I divided the sisters tables up and led them in a little song, sung to the tune of "Count Your Many Blessings."

On May 11, Roger played in the annual Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament, 

held this year at Sunbrook. 

As residents, we were able to arrange the lunch afterwards

 to be held in the Sunbrook Center at a much-reduced rate.

It was a beautiful day and Roger thoroughly enjoyed it.

We had Anne and Jay over for dinner on May 13 for our Aggie Night.

Our friendship goes back to our USU days together and it just continues to grow.

We missed Bob and Mary, who will be returning form their mission to the Philippines in the fall.

We prepared spicy and sweet grilled salmon, celery slaw, twice-baked potatoes and steamed asparagus.

Anne brought the most delicious home-made chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles and ice cream.

I used my Mother's Day gift silver place mats and I love them!

And here is a quick little before and after.

One of Roger's clients has a great garden, and, on occasion, 

he gives Roger a call to come and get some of his marvelous produce.

Roger brought home artichokes, kohlrabi, beets and beet greens and Swiss chard.

I steamed the artichokes with fresh garlic, sauteed the beet greens in olive oil and chopped garlic, 

roasted the beets and made a kohlrabi, carrot, celery and onion slaw.

We enjoyed a delicious veggie dinner that night.

So that about catches up what we've up to, 

home in sunny St. George.

Thursday we're off again to go up north for Roger to run in the half-marathon in Ogden 

(with several family members).

 We'll also decorate Mom and Dad's graves with my siblings (we'll miss you, Kay) in Logan, 

 and Roger's Dad's and brother's graves with his mom in Ogden. 

It's fun to go and it's always fun to come back home!

"On The Road Again," Back-to-Back, Part 2

Boise, Idaho

Home for one full day from Mesa, we set out for Boise Tuesday morning, 

stopping in Ogden overnight with Lois to break the eleven-hour trip into two.

Wish we had taken pics with Grandma.

After Jess cut and colored my hair, we had dinner with Lois at her favorite place, Chuck-O-Rama.

We laugh and tease about it, but the food is actually delicious.

We sat up to past midnight chatting with Grandma.

She is so much fun and we adore her.

How would you like to have this cute sight greet you after a long road trip?

Next day, when we arrived in Boise, Miss Claire welcomed us in this get-up. 

She couldn't decide what to put on her head, 

the princess crown or the Minnie ears, 

so she wore both.

We hurried out to Sam's baseball game. 

His team is undefeated, and the team that they played gave them a game, 

but they won with the final score, 5-3.

In the huddle with the coach afterwards, he put his arm around Sam's neck, 

pulled him to him and pointed to him with his other hand, saying,

 "Who is this guy? He got two hits, 

two RBIs and he caught the potential tricky fly that could have tied up the game 

in the bottom of the 6th!"

Sam was beaming the rest of the night.

We didn't want to miss Claire's final tap and ballet class before her dress rehearsal.

She actually wore one of her big sister's old costumes to class.

When we got back home, she changed into another one.

Every day while we were there, she brought her Barbies upstairs to play.

She and Aunt Stacy had a great dance party with them (the Kens aren't in the pic!).

Cinco de Mayo

Missy hosted a great get-together with the Gabrielsens in the area on Cinco de Mayo.

Her builder included a house-warming catered party of choice in the cost of building their home,

so she thought that would be a perfect opportunity while Stacy, Roger and I were there 

so we could catch up with my family.

We worked on her house all day, tracking down decorating items, and it was awesome to have Cafe Rio 

come with the yummy food and set it all up.

Joan brought Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes, Sara, Devin's wife, brought Texas sheet cake 

and John and Cindy brought all kinds of Tampico sodas and an assortment of Mexican cookies.

Feast City, Mexican style!

Stacy holding Sara and Devin's newest - cute!

John, Cindy, me, Roger, Joan and Tom

The girls - Ellie, Cindy, Claire, Missy, me, Joan and Stacy

They loved Missy's house, 

we ate a delicious Mexican feast and we loved being together!

On Friday morning, these three ran eight miles.

Missy and Roger are training for the half marathon they will run May 21 down Ogden Canyon.

Stacy has run several marathons, so she just ran with them for fun. 

That afternoon, the girls went shopping for decorating items, and Claire stayed home to play with Grandpa.

Off to the park they headed.

Jedd and his boys, Jared, Sam and Anderson, left for the Father and Sons Campout, 

so Roger took the girls on the town.

We went shopping in The Village, a new shopping complex in Meridian. 

We put our names on the list at the Yard House, a trendy restaurant that had tasty food, then shopped, 

waiting for our buzzer to go off. 

During our meal, a huge cloudburst hit, causing flooding on the restaurant patio. 

We though the boys were getting drenched. We found out next morning that they didn't get a drop!

Claire loved her mac and cheese!

Coldstone for dessert - yum!

Saturday morning was the big day - 

a dress rehearsal for Claire's two-year-old tap and ballet class's recital at a nursing home.

Doesn't she make a Beauty in her ballet, "Beauty and the Beast?"

Three Smith beauties

Claire's class actually didn't change out of their Beauty costume into their lion costume 

for their tap number from the Lion King.

What a little charmer!

Missy put her Lion King costume on afterwards so we could see it.

We love our little Claire!

Claire changed into this little number for our trip to the Boise Street Market.

I love to be in Boise on a Saturday, because the street market starts in the spring and goes through late fall.

The mini doughnuts with maple icing are always a part of the shopping, 

but they were out of the maple icing. Bummer!

So we settled for vanilla bean.

Stacy had not been to the Westside Drive-in, featured on, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Our lunch was a fried fiesta, with fresh fried fish sandwich, a Monte Cristo sandwich, burgers, French fries and sweet potato fries with cinnamon honey sauce.

We all shared everything and it was delicious!

A real highlight of the trip was the adults doing a session in the Boise Temple.

We got there just in time for the last session, and we were all thrilled to be together 

and take some of our family tree's ancestors names through.

Stacy, Missy and I stayed up talking until the wee hours,

then were treated to a Mother's Day brunch by Jedd and Roger.

Five little Smith kids all in a row

Jedd fixed his Mountain Man eggs, bacon and potatoes and baked some Trader Joe almond croissants and we had Trader Joe's Kringle Danish pastry.

We cleaned up, then dropped Stacy off at the airport to fly back to Mesa and we pointed our car toward Ogden.

We stopped to see Lois for a Mother's day visit, then headed to Rick's in Salt Lake for dinner.

Jodie's mom and her mom were also invited, and Jodie fixed a tasty fish dinner. 

We love be with these guys!

Sadie, Abby, Jodie, me, Katie, Rick and Blake

Sadie took a pic so Roger could be in it . . . 

. . . then Katie took one.

We next stopped to see Mindy in Highland, who drove back to her home from Jeff's family's home, 

where they were having a Mother's Day get-together. We enjoyed catching up with her, 

and we were tickled to see four out of our five kids on Mother's Day. 

We got to see Ryan the week before in Mesa.

This is a text that big brother, Jared, sent a little later: 

"This is how Claire reacted when she found out Gma and Gpa were gone."

Be still my heart.

Back-to-back road trips are history.

The memories. . . priceless.

PS - YIKES!

This website has glitched like crazy with the ink colors, margin justification, print size.

After many redos, this is the best I could do - oh well!