Giving Thanks in November

It seems to me that honoring US Veterans in the early part of November is befitting for the month of our giving thanks. Roger is so proud to have served our country in the US Air Force and often gets a little teary when the flag waves. This year we drove through Snow Canyon, where a 400 pound and 11,700 square foot American flag was strung across the walls, unfurling in the wind.

The weekend before Veteran's Day, we drove to Alpine to see Addie in her middle school play, Heist Quest. 

Addie played Riley, daughter of Medusa. Don't ask me to explain the plot, but Addie was excellent. She delivers her lines so clearly. She's a natural on the stage.

Before the play, Mindy and Jeff took us to a new Indian restaurant near their neighborhood and Jeff's dad, Brent, joined us, Jeff's cute mom, Rosemary, was recovering from knee surgery.

-I think Veteran's Day is one of Roger's favorite holidays. In the morning, he zips into his flight "bag" and heads to Denny's for a free Grand Slam breakfast. This year, an Army vet friend, Dave, joined him and friend, Marine vet Karl. He loves to talk to other vets and others who come up to him and shake his hand, thank him for his service, then talk to him about their service experiences or experiences of their loved ones. I joined him for his free lunch at Olive Garden, a yogurt treat at Menchie's and dinner at In 'n Out after our Come Follow Me  Zoom gathering. Not to mention the other coupons he picked up for other free meals we can use down the road. 

Roger Retires

After 15 years selling commercial real estate for NAI and reaching 80 years old, Roger decided it was time to retire. He is probably the hardest worker I know, beginning as a little boy and through his teens, working hard on the farm, flying and becoming a Captain in the USAF after graduating from college, becoming an account executive for IBM, flying Boeing 727s and marketing for Braniff International Airlines, becoming Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Murdock Travel, SLC, becoming Vice-President of Sales at Beehive Travel, SLC,  becoming Project Manager of Woodside Homes, SLC, and becoming President/CEO of Sun Hill Homes in St. George, before working for NAI.

After being asked what his favorite food for lunch was and he replied, "Sushi," NAI threw him a Retirement Luncheon at Benja Thai Garden, complete with wonderful tributes, gifts and well wishes. They even presented me with flowers.

The Walters has been a wonderful family to work for, promoting great camaraderie amongst the employees - and they have THE BEST Christmas parties and summer parties! I particularly love the owner, Mark Walter's, wife, Val. Though most of the employees are the ages of our children, they have treated Roger with great respect and have had fun kidding and associating with him.

Missy and Claire flew to St. George to be here when Missy's freshman at Utah Tech daughter, Ellie, ran in a half marathon with 4 of her new friends. They stayed with us a couple nights, went to church with us on Sunday and had dinner, then the 3 girls headed for a day at Disneyland - a little Smith Girl Retreat! They returned Tuesday afternoon and Missy and Claire flew home Wednesday. It was so fun having them here and they had a ball on their little last-minute lark to Disneyland.

For after the race, I made an autumn pasta salad, using the cute pumpkin-shaped macaroni I got at Trader Joe's, baby mozzarella balls, roasted butternut squash, spinach, cranberries, pecans and a maple syrup dressing. And I made maid-rite sliders.

On Sunday, we had our grilled salmon dinner and a dessert I made with homemade vanilla milk cake toasted cubes with vanilla custard, fresh berries and whipped cream. Then off they went to Anaheim to spend all day at Disneyland, until it shut down at night!

Roger and I were invited again this year to view an Aggie game up in the box in the stadium in Logan, so we chose when they played San Diego State. It was an afternoon game, so they had a Mexican lunch for us, which included big chocolate cookies and, of course, Aggie ice cream. We had a big, pleasant surprise when an old Aggie classmate, Dwight Israelsen, and his son, sat by us. The son looked over at me after I sat down, and said, "I know you. Your son, Rick, is in our stake." It turns out that he had been on the high council when Blake received a name and a blessing in Rick and Jodie's home and he was there. At that time, we had visited and discovered that his mom, Kathryn, had been my little sister in my sorority, Kappa Delta. And I knew who she had married, Dwight, who had been Junior Class President. Roger knew of him, also. We had fun talking about school days and he said some very nice things and it was one of those moments in later life when you get a little lift, reminiscing.

We forgot to take pics, but we took USU student grandson, Jared, and wife, McKenna, and USU student grandson, Sam, and girlfriend, Nayeli, to Fredrico's for pizza after the game and had so much fun talking with them! They are all darling!

We're so glad the Aggies won, and they came from behind. It's the first time they have beat San Diego State at home.

Thanksgiving

Roger and I were invited to spend Thanksgiving with Stacy, Tom and the twins, Luke and Max in Gilbert, Az. When we arrived, they were watching the Dancing With the Stars Finale, which evidently our granddaughter, Londyn, who lives nearby, and her cousin, who is  our grandson, Ben, were re-al-ly into this year! It was hilarious watching them jumping up and down, joined by their mom and aunt, Stacy!

Thanksgiving dinner was held at Tom's brother, Jimbo's, and wife, Sham's home in Gilbert. Stacy made Grandma's recipes for 3 pumpkin pies and 2 apple pies. She also made Grandma's famous yams, 2 raspberry pretzel salads and she prepared a turkey to be roasted in a pit the night before Thanksgiving. Jimbo cooked another one on his Traeger grill. 

Of course, it's not Thanksgiving if we don't have a Turkey Bowl the night before. We bowled 2 games and Roger was the winner of the 1st and Stacy, who has never won and has admittedly struggled in bowling, won the 2nd!

Tucker, Londyn, Max's girlfriend, Ivy, Luke, Tom, Stacy, Pam and Roger

Sham and Jimbo invited Sham's mom and dad from Texas and 2 sisters and their families, so we had a great crew. 

Pumpkin pie, cherry pie, apple pie. raspberry pretzel salad, and tres leches cake for Sham's mom, Christine's, birthday

Jimbo lighting the birthday candles

After our delicious dinner and visiting, we all went to see, "Moana 2". Next day, Stacy took Roger and I to see the new"Wicked"movie. She had already seen it, but she loved it so much, she actually went the day after we left with friends, so she saw it 3 times! We all LOVED it! After the movie, we went over to Ryan's for take-out Boca Taqueria food, delicious homemade chocolate mousse pie and a great program Ryan put together about ancestors of mine and Roger's and about us. He showed various pics of them, asking ABCD questions about them and tallying scores to see how the kids did. It was impressive how much they knew about us! It was so, so wonderful to be together with these dear loved ones for this time that we all reflect on our many blessings. Heavenly Father has been so good to us!

Such a great month it has been! Our gratitude for our many blessings of life continues to increase!

 

Family, Friends and Sports in October

Great-Grandkids

You know that life has been extra good to you when you get great-grandkids! We have been blessed with 6 of them and there is 1 on the way, due in February. I am beginning my post for October with some pics of these precious little creatures!

Our daughter, Stacy (and Tom, when his work schedule permits), visit Watercolor, Fla. every chance they get, where her daughter, Syd, and son-in-law, Jake, live with 4 of them.

"Grandma" Stacy with Henry and Jake

Henry

Jake

Twins Poppy and Rosie

Poppy and Rosie in their Frozen costumes, with brother, Henry

Stacy and Tom's twins, Max and Luke (with friend, Otto, in the middle), visiting sister, Sydney, in Florida. 

Our other 2 adorable great-grands are Caleb and Lydia, and they are living near Ithica, New York, with their daddy, Josh, and mommy, Jaylene, while Josh studies for his MBA at Cornell.

Students from Cornell come from all over the world, and Caleb has made lots of new buddies. 

Our ward received as move-in members, a wonderfully musically-gifted couple about a year ago.  Nancy directs, Lieto Voices, as well as is the major accompanist all over St. George and her husband, Steve, is an excellent organist. Roger and I attended Lieto's Fall Concert, and it was wonderful! Good music adds so much to life! 

St. George has been so excited about having the PGA bring a tournament here at Black Desert Golf Course. Roger followed the golfers around for a day and he especially appreciated the Veterans Association sponsoring a rest stop/lunch tent with misters in the almost 100 degrees, unusually hot for October, weather!

Two members of our ward, Randy and Steve, got to be volunteers.

The winner, Matt McCarty

Roger was invited by a fraternity brother at USU last year, to play in the Huntsman World Games, on a softball team from up north that he coached, which Roger did, though he had had no batting practice. He did a lot of pinch running. This year, about a month out, he got hooked up to play and practice with 4 teams from down here to get ready. He got some good hits in the Huntsman Games, they won a couple of games, and he had a lot of fun.

Coincidentally, Danny Gibson, Roger's buddy from high school, and another fraternity brother from college, are also on the team.

Their coach, Larry Hendricks, is in the center, and he and our friend, Bob Brady, were best friends when Bob lived in Bountiful.

Our son, Rick, Jodie and Blake came and stayed with us over Blake's Fall Break, and I just attended one game, but it was fun to watch those old 80 year olds play ball!

Rick, Jodie and Blake Visit

We took a quick pic on our driveway on our way to go to Tuacahn to see, a "sanitized" Jersey Boys, on the evening Rick, Jodie and Blake arrived. Note the harvest moon in the background.

Next day, we all went to watch Roger play ball.

Blake loves doughnuts - thumbs up for Pink Box!

On the second night we all went to see, Frozen. Disney helps put their shows together at Tuacahn and they are always amazing!

On the 3rd night, Anastasia was rained out. We had an Oktoberfest dinner. I found out Jodie is half German and she said she's never been to an Oktoberfest. I made Beef Rouladen with mustard sauce, Rotkohl, green peas and apple streudel with ice cream.

Blake loves music and he loves to dance!

Jodie and Rick take Blake on a, "Temple walk," in Bountiful almost every night. The play-offs for the World Series were on, Rick's beloved Dodgers playing the Mets, so Jodie took Blake on a Temple walk at the newly-renovated St. George Temple.

They left Saturday morning after a big breakfast. We love it when they come visit us!

Pretty sunset in St. George

Jane Stevenson, a dear high school classmate of Roger's, passed away after a long illness October 13, in Ogden, and we drove up north for her funeral. They were good friends in high school, and I have gotten to know her through the many years of the WHS Class of '62 trips to Lake Powell and Christmas parties at Jerry's ski home in Deer Valley. She was one of my favorites and I treasure the many chats we had about books we had both read, cooking and education. After she was widowed with 3 children at age 26 - her  high school classmate sweetheart was killed in action in the war in Vietnam - she finished her Bachelor's Degree and went on to get her PHD, marry a second time a Utah state senator, Darrell Renstrom, and was widowed again at age 48 with 3 more children. She married a third time a widower, dear Wayne Stevenson, with 4 kids. She was so smart and so creative and delightful to know.

Many of Roger's classmates were at her beautiful funeral.

On the weekend we drove up and stayed at Rick's, their daughter, Katie, flew to NYC to be with her new husband, who is graduated from BYU and there a few weeks for a entrepreneur opportunity.

When Katie was in New York on her mission, she baptized this girl in the picture's daughter, and now this is the daughter at her own baptism in Provo. Jodie knows Katie's convert (the mother) well and she and Blake drove to BYU for the baptism, since Katie was in New York and couldn't be there.

Cuddle time with Grandpa Roger

AND on this same weekend, Rick took son-in-law Joe to the 2nd Dodger game in the World Series in Los Angeles. As you can see, Joe is an avid Yankee fan, but Rick said he was a good sport when the Dodgers won!

Halloween

Blake was a minion

Claire was Vector in Despicable Me

Daughter, Mindy, was Little Red Riding Hood, Jeff was one of the 3 Pigs and their new dog, Kevin, was The Big Bad Wolf.

Josh, Jaylene, Caleb and Lydia

The Harry Potter Walker family

Our Visit to Stacy and Tom's in Gilbert

Roger and I haven't visited our kids in Az. for a while, and we wanted to see Max and Luke play football for their new high school, Highland High, in Gilbert. Max is the starting left defensive tackle and Luke is the starting quarterback for the JV team. This was their last game of the season and it was on Halloween night. They won by one touchdown, 2o-13, and they both were amazing, like their dad, Tom, and their uncle, Steve. Their record for the season is 7 wins 2 losses.

Happy mom/son

We are so proud of these two cute boys and are so glad we got to see them play.

Stacy treated us to lunch at one of their favorite lunch spots, Flower Child. They also took us to Temari's, our favorite sushi place, and to Bocca's for Mexican food while we were there.

We got to see Sarah, Ryan and Emily's daughter, play soccer the night after Halloween. She had a big rooting section with Paul and Susan Gilbert, her other grandparents, and mom Emily and brother, Ben! She was so tickled! Ryan was in Michigan on a biking event with his college buddy, Craig Rogers. 

Though we had record-breaking heat for most of the month, it was a great October with friends and family!