Three of the four weekends in June, we were headed Up North. I think it's great that society gathers and celebrates when we enter this world and when we leave it. June this year had some of each for us.
The first weekend in June, we drove to Rick's for a baby shower for our granddaughter, Anna ( son, Ryan, and wife, Emily's oldest daughter).
We took pics of Rick and Jodies lovely home and adjoining pool house next door. That pool house has come in handy for Rick's two oldest kids - Josh, Jaylene and their 2 littles lived there before they left for Cornell, where Josh is getting his MBA, and a week later, Sadie and Joe moved in and now live there with their new little Ellie, saving money to get into a new home.
Jodie and Rick always plant such beautiful flowers.
We arrived in time for a little farewell swimming party for Josh, Jaylene and kids. They came home to Utah for about a month, and are now back at Cornell, where Josh is working on a project with one of his professors.
Grandpa Rick and Caleb
Sadie and baby Ellie
Great-grandma Kathie and Great-grandma Pam
Everyone loves their hot tub!
Blake loves to swim in the pool, especially when he's surrounded by loved ones!
Cute Caleb
Lovely Lydia
The Nydegger family
Next evening, Aunt Jodie hosted a wonderful shower for Anna. The food was so delicious and the flowers, so pretty. Here is Anna with her darling mother-in-law. We had the shower early - Anna isn't due until late October - because her inlaws were leaving to be mission leaders in Vancouver, Canada, the next week.
Anna's mom, Emily, and sister, Sarah, were in Utah for the shower, and also, Anna's Grandma, Sue, who all live in Arizona.
When we took these pics, most of the Vincents had already left. Roger's sisters, Chyrrl, and Sue, came and supported our family, as always. Our kids love them so much!
Emily, Grandma Pam, Anna, Sarah and Grandma Sue
Blake really loves his cousin, Sarah, and she is always so excited to see him and so cute with him!
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We were happy that we were Up North when they held our dear friend's funeral, Pat McEntire. When we lived in Roy in the 1970s and part of the 1980s, her husband, Glen, was the bishop of our ward and Roger worked closely with him. Such a loving, wonderful man! And we loved his dear wife, Pat! Every Sunday our then little toddler, Stacy, sat on her lap in Sacrament meeting. They adored each other! I worked with Pat in the Junior Sunday school - she was co-ordinator and I was the chorister, and that might have been my favorite calling in the church I have ever had! I Loved teaching songs to those little kids, and Pat adored the kids, too - we worked so well together. Such happy memories! This pic does not do her justice - she was a beautiful woman, so charming and lady-like and fun!
In the next week, Roger traveled to Mesquite, Nevada, with 3 friends to golf at the Wolf Creek Golf Course. He said it was lots of up and down walking and very hot, but, as always, he really enjoyed it. Extreme heat doesn't bother him, but he hates to play in really cold wind and rain.
The toughest thing about turning 80 is having to say good-bye to so many dear friends! When we lived in Ogden, one of our dearest friend couples were Dave and Jan. They both performed with the predecessors to the BYU Young Ambassadors when they were at BYU and they both sang in the, at that time, Mormon Tabernacle Choir. So we have music in common, and we were in a small dinner group with them. Their jobs took them to Germany, and we visited them twice over there. They have lived in Texas a few years and they have stayed with us in St. George. We have met for lunch in SLC, when we were both in town, with our dear friend, Karleen, many times. We all loved each other for many years. Dave hasn't been in good health but has soldiered through for a long time. Oh, how we'll miss this darling man and his wonderful sense of humor!
The graveside service was lovely and heartfelt, complete with the tunes from this bagpiper.
The luncheon afterwards was so fun, wish we had taken pics, and we got to catch up with Jan and visit with some other dear friends from Ogden. They had HugHes cater the food, and it was so delicious! We were entertained by their talented family and we even had a sing-a-long.
The following weekend, we were Up North again for Ellie's baby blessing. She is our 7th great-grandchild. It had also been Blake's birthday, and he loved his llama cuddly blanket.
Sadie and Joe were able to have the baby blessing Sunday evening in their home so all of the family travelers could be there. Sadie is such a loving, conscientious mom!
Josh and family flew back to Cornell the next morning.
Rick, Blake, Jodie, Sadie holding Ellie, Abby, Jaylene and Josh
I got to hold this sweet little thing a few minutes before we changed clothes and left to drive back to St. George.
Bye bye, cute family, for a few months!
Our Come Follow Me group has become very close over the past almost 6 years. Changes have happened amongst us in that period. Carl and Marie had to take a health break and we now have Loran and Nancy with us. Our dear Mary's Alzheimer's has been rapidly increasing and we are so grateful to still have Loran after his second heart attack while playing pickle ball, which I talked about last month. Bob and Diane weren't able to come to our party because Bob's back was hurting him too much. Probably the most-quoted sentence for us in this phase of life is, "Getting old isn't for sissies!" I remember when my dad said that and it seemed so far away for me. We're there! Relationships take on greater value. This little group is important in all of our lives and we truly love each other.
We met for dinner at, Benja's Thai, then went to our house for dessert and games.
I made a hack on the popular-in-the-media, Dubai chocolate, with this chocolate pistachio crunch cake. We all thought it was delicious!
We played a couple of different games, one that shared things from each of our lives, and a fun card game. What a great evening it was!
Well, as I said in the tittle of this post, we took off on a lot of jaunts in June and were on the road way more than I'd really choose to be, but each event was too important to miss. Such is life in the fast lane, right? I'm kind of hoping to slide over to the slow lane for awhile, except I really hate to get behind those darned trucks!
