April - May - A wedding, A Farewell, Mother's Day & 2 Old-Friend Reunions

Looking back and continuing with a condensed version of verbiage and an overabundance of pics, Here are some of our happenings in April and May:

I begin with a photo of Hallelujah Halibut. Mindy and Jeff gave us several frozen halibut pieces from the Lind boys Alaskan fishing trip last summer. Delicious!

Pina Colada poke cake

On the first Sunday of every month, our family "Zooms" together, hopefully, from their homes or wherever they happen to be. Mindy and family were visiting Stacy and family in Mesa over Spring Break and Ry and Em and family were over for dinner, so we got a 3-fer with them there together! Rick and Jodie were home in NSL and Missy, in Meridian. 

On the way back home to Alpine from Mesa, Mindy, Jeff and kids stopped for an overnight visit. We love visits from the grandkids!

Our cute actress/singer Addie with Mom, Mindy

The Sundbergs grilled our HOA dinner group delicious tri tip steak before they went up north for the summer.

Our daughter, Stacy, inherited Grandma Peterson's iron and brass bed in our home growing up, then her girls had turns of it being their bed in their home in Mesa. Stacy and Tom are downsizing and now Kay and Ken's granddaughter, Hannah, has inherited it. She and her dad, Blake, drove from their home in Logan to Mesa to pick it up a weekend in April. I am so happy it is staying in the family!

My sister, Kay, sings with a wonderful group, The Keynotes, and they perform a concert in the Tabernacle every spring, which we never miss, if we can help it. It always lifts our spirits and transports us for a well-spent hour with reminiscent songs blended in perfect harmony. We brought our friends, Kathy and Jim Jensen, with us and they both loved it!

Because Stacy and Tom plan to sell their magnificent home, we took a 5-day trip to Mesa to hang out there with their darling family and enjoy it and them before someone else lives there. They treated us to their favorite (and ours) sushi restaurant. A couple of weeks later, we returned to Mesa for Izzy and Pete's Open House and stayed there again. This preceded their wedding in the San Diego Temple, which was a couple of weeks later.

The beautiful couple with our son, Ryan, and daughter-in-law, Emily, at the Open House in their backyard.

Grandma Pam with Pete's beautiful sisters, Becca, Sarah and Anna

Pete's brother, Ben, and Grandpa Roger joined the mix

Aunt Chyrrl, Uncle Glynn, Aunt Susie and Uncle Craig from Ogden made a little trip of it and came to the Open House. They are always so supportive of family.

Also that weekend, Ben went through the Mesa Temple to receive his endowments, preceding his future Church mission,  and we were excited to get to go through with him. Here are some of his supporters after the session.

Back to our first Mesa get-away, the twins played in an 8th grade football game, getting their team ready for when they play in 9th grade, in high school. Luke plays quarterback and Max plays defensive tackle. They are getting so big!

Stacy fixed a delicious pork tenderloin dinner on Sunday, then she invited the aunts and their husbands (who were staying with Chyrrl's son, Brad, Synda and family) over for dessert and to spend Sunday evening together.

We took some pics of some of our favorite parts of Stacy's home before we drove home.

My favorite spot is to curl up on this sofa with a book.

I love her entryway with this beautiful painting of Christ.

Her craft room is wonderful!

We will miss our wonderful guest room. When they built it, Stacy called to ask me how high I wanted the vanity, so when I sit to put on my make-up, it would be just right!

Soon after returning home, we hosted our HOA dinner group at our home.

Just a quick pic of Poppy Jane

The first weekend of May, we traveled to Kaysville for a first ever IBM reunion of some of those who worked at IBM in the 1970s. Very close friendships were formed with these wonderful people, and Roger was excited to see them. Several social events with spouses happened during that period of time and I knew many of these people, too. Probably around 35 people came. It is when they were selling Correcting Selectric typewriters, which were groundbreaking at the time. Now, our younger grandkids ask, "What's a typewriter?"

This is Dick Boren, who, with his wife, Lorraine, hosted the event in their historic home. They have made collecting antiques and restoring this home their lifetime passion. Built in 1857, it is the oldest home in Utah where someone has lived in it continually through all of these years.

Our dear friend and my fellow Balladier, Marilyn Miller, got the interview with IBM for Roger when we got out of the Air Force. Each IBM person gave a quick update of their lives and several really funny stories were told.

The party was upstairs in the restored grainery, and many collections of things from the past are displayed.

Roger remembers all of these implements for milking cows that he used to use growing up on his farm.

The home sprawls over, really, into two homes, and the oldest original portion is fully furnished as it was originally. It is like a wonderful museum and the kitchen reminded me of Grandma Peterson's so many years ago. We had such a great time reacquainting and reminiscing with old friends. Wish we had more people pics.

Next up was San Diego for Pete and Izzy's wedding and reception.

 

Sibling Love

Rick treated Roger and I and his family members to a 3-night stay in the Del Coronado Hotel on Coronado Island.

We drove to San Diego and they all flew in Wednesday afternoon, May 10, and we met for dinner across the street in a wonderful seafood restaurant and all enjoyed fresh fish. Joe and Sadie were out of town and couldn't come.

Nothing like a beautiful beach sunset!

lobby of the Del

Rick is in deep conversation with Bellhop Bobby. When we arrived, he asked us if we would like a 10 minute lecture about this historic hotel. He said some people tell him that he talks too much! He does, but we enjoyed him and learned a lot!

Rick arranged for Roger, Josh and him to golf next morning at the Grand Del Mar golf course by the Fairmont Hotel.

Though it was a bit cool and breezy, we hung out and had lunch by the pool while they were golfing.

Thursday evening was the wedding diner hosted by Ryan and Emily at a clubhouse nearby on the water. We took a quick selfie as we were leaving our hotel.

All of the family members of both families spoke and performed and it was a warm, happy evening together. We enjoyed yummy Mediterranean food.

Next morning at 11 was the temple ceremony. Roger and I had not been inside before, and it was beautiful, especially the terrarium areas. Clark Gilbert, Emily's brother and the Church Commissioner of Education, officiated. It was such a lovely ceremony and a happy union of two wonderful families.

After the ceremony, we drove to Dukes, a restaurant on the water in La Jolla that Missy knew about.

That evening, 150 guests gathered at the Maderas golf and country club in Poway for a dinner/dance/reception.

Some of our family members (Stacy was freezing!)

The flowers were plentiful and spectacular and the food was exceptionally delicious!

Aren't they a beautiful couple? They are so happy together!

The dance after dinner was true to form of our grandkids' generation - they dance in a huge, filled-in circle and jump, jump, jump!

Izzy and Pete, lifted up on chairs above the crowd

Sparklers were outlawed, so battery-lighted objects were passed out, then waved vigorously as the bride and groom made their way to the get-away car.

Off they drove in this 1960 Rolls-Royce.

We drove home Saturday so we could be home on Mother's Day. Before we left San Diego, we bought some fresh tuna at the docks and put it on ice in a cooler and headed for home. It was fresh and right off the boat!

We had lunch at this walk-up grill not far from where the aircraft carrier, The Midway, is docked. I finally got some of my favorite guilty pleasure, fried calamari, and we had fish, shrimp, coleslaw and fries, too!

After we passed through Barstow on the way home, we stopped for a milkshake at Peggy Sue's Diner. Through the years, we have seen the billboards advertising this place, starting right out of Las Vegas, all along the way to Barstow. It's like stepping back in time, entering this restaurant, with its old-fashioned soda fountain, gift shop of 50s memorabilia and waitresses dressed in uniforms complete with hats. With all of my adventurous appetite in eating, my favorite shake is vanilla, and it was delicious, but Roger had a chocolate one, and it was so delicious, I don't know if theirs were extra special, or if I have been missing out, not ordering chocolate, all of these years! They were served in big, old-fashioned stainless steel containers that you poured out of into thick-glass, milkshake glasses and there was enough milkshake to fill your glass up twice. Kind of a fun experience  and we put our second pour into "to go" cups to get us through the long ride in the desert to St. George.

Ready for church on Mother's Day

The guy we bought the fresh tuna from told us to skin and marinate the tuna for a half hour in teriyaki sauce (I used a Japanese barbeque sauce I bought at Costco), then sear on our outdoor grill for about a minute on each side. Oh my goodness, it was de. lish. ous!

The following weekend, we hit the road again to attend granddaughter, Abby's, "Farewell" for her Church mission to Oklahoma City. When Balladier Don Gardner heard we would be coming up for that, he called me to arrange a Balladier reunion, and we came up a day early so we could meet for a Wasatch Front Balladier luncheon at 3 at Robintinos in Bountiful. So many, with their spouses, could come and we had a ball, catching up! We dearly, dearly love these people, and it's almost like no time has gone by (reality check when we look in the mirror!) and we pick up right where we left off from the last time we were together! We even sang a couple of songs to the waitress!

On Sunday, Abby delivered a beautiful talk in church, then Jodie and Rick hosted a delicious breakfast buffet in their home.

Missy, Jedd, Ellie, Anders and Claire drove up from Boise (Jared from USU) on Saturday so they could be there.

Rick, as 1st counselor in their stake, got to set Abby apart as a missionary, because the stake president was out of town. Abby and Rick were both thrilled and tender-hearted Rick had a hard time getting through all he had to say in his prayer. He is such a sincere, fine person! Abby is really excited to go, and she even got some cowgirl boots to wear!

Rick's cute family

Abby will miss her brother Blake . . .

. . . and her little nephew, Caleb!

We adore this sweet, darling girl!

Abby with Grandpa Bart and Grandma Kathy

Abby with us and the Smiths (Sam gets home from his mission in August)

Roger's sisters Chyrrl and Susan came with their spouses.

Another round of Hallelujah Halibut to end the post

Such busy family time, and these are part of the rewards of growing up in and raising a big, active family!