If we seek retreat, we will be more often refreshed.
My sister, Patty, had a brilliant idea recently.
Her husband was going away on a golf junket, so she invited her sisters
(sister-in-law, Cindy, was not able to come)
to come stay at their home for a Sister Retreat.
Then, as she really got her wheels turning, she came up with the ideas to travel to Oakley, Idaho,
to visit our Aunt Nedra, our dad's last living sibling,
then to travel back to SLC to visit Uncle Glenn, our mom's last sibling.
My sister, Kay, drove us to Patty's house on Tuesday afternoon, September 19,
and Patty had us sit down to a delicious dinner at her beautifully-set dining room table.
Patty collects blue and white dishes, and has many lovely ones!
She is always the ultimate gracious hostess!
Of course, we had to take a selfie!
Doesn't it look delicious!
Next morning, we drove to Oakley from Elkridge and met up with our sister, Joan,
at Nedra's large ranch-style home.
Nedra greeted us warmly and, as a bonus,
her daughter, Leslie, and Leslie's youngest son, Spencer,
had driven up the day before so they could be a part of our little reunion.
Here is an old pic of Patty holding little Leslie, with Joan and Kay eagerly awaiting their turn to hold her!
Beautiful cousin Leslie
and her beautiful mom, Aunt Nedra
Our Aunt Nedra has always been our hero!
She met and married our wonderful Uncle Ray at USU when she was nineteen.
After they lived in Baltimore while Ray served in the Counter Intelligence Corps of the army,
they moved to Oakley for Ray to ranch with his dad.
This pic was taken at a shower at my Grandma Libby's home in Logan where my mom held a bridal shower for Nedra. Isn't she gorgeous?
Included in this pic: Ray's mom, sister, Nedra and her mom, our Grandma Gabrielsen, my Grandma Libby Peterson, Aunt Gary and my mom, Dorothy.
Having just returned from living in Oahu for two years, Mom did a hula at the shower.
Here is some more of Nedra's story:
Upon arrival in Oakley, it was haying season, and Nedra and Ray headed to the ranch,
a forty-mile drive from Oakley on dirt roads.
The house had no running water, no indoor bathroom and no electricity!
Nedra learned to cook meals for twelve ranchers (later, she cooked for many more!)
on an old wood stove, soon becoming expert at making bread, cakes, pies and cookies,
as well as beef in every way - meat and potato meals - and huge ranch breakfasts.
You have to keep in mind that Nedra was the last child and only daughter
(an older sister, Carol, died when she was just over 2)
from a small town home and didn't know anything about ranch life!
She also became proficient at gardening, canning, cleaning and piano and organ playing and teaching,
among other talents.
After six years, having given birth to a baby boy who lived for only twelve days, and two miscarriages,
they were able to begin their family, having Scott, who is now serving his third term
as Idaho's Speaker of the House.
They have four other beautiful children, four sons and one daughter, and they are all married,
with families of their own.
Our much-loved Uncle Ray died much too young of a brain tumor in 1998.
Nedra is now 85, teaches 15 piano students, is the organist for her ward, has a huge, magnificent yard, resplendent with roses and other flowers, which she cares for all herself (except for the mowing, she says).
She gardens and cans her own produce and is still the Best Cook Ever!
And this is not to mention her many duties with her 24 grandchildren!
She presented us a copy of her Personal History and we later made a copy for each of us.
How we love this amazing woman!
We spotted this original sign of our Grandpa Gabrielsen's business.
(Leslie painted over the letters to make them brighter and then framed it)
on Nedra's wall and we had to get a pic with it.
Nedra and Leslie had a beautiful lunch waiting for us when we arrived at Nedra's home.
We voiced how much we admired her china, commenting on how very familiar it looked.
Joan remembered that it was just like Phyllis Hull's, Mom's dear friend in Caldwell, who we all loved.
Nedra served a delicious chicken salad, her homemade rolls and homemade jams, a beautiful fruit plate . . .
. . . and homemade cream puffs topped with her homemade fudge sauce.
We visited with her, Leslie and Spencer all afternoon in her living room.
These are not very good pics with the back lighting, but they will be a reminder
of our truly enjoyable time we spent together,
asking her many questions of her life and special memories.
Eric joined us about 4 pm. What a great guy he is! Later, he and his wife, Marcie, had us over for dinner.
After Patty had called Nedra to ask if we could spend the afternoon with her,
with the plan of heading to SLC that evening, Eric heard about it and insisted that
we come to his home for dinner and Nedra insisted that we stay over night. She has lots of bedrooms.
Nedra has been alone for many years and her cat helps keeps her company.
Eric, who now runs the ranch, reminds us so much of his dad, has a beautiful singing voice
and is a very caring and special cousin.
We took this pic in Eric's family room.
Eric carving up the Bedke beef
Cute Marcie stirring the asparagus
We had a Bedke feast, ending with a yummy peach dessert
We were so happy to spend time with the Bedkes!
Next morning, before we left for SLC, Nedra and Leslie prepared a delicious ham and cheese breakfast casserole,
fresh fruit and toast out of Nedra's homemade bread, spread with her delicious preserves.
She truly made us feel like royalty!
Okay, here's the next part of our Sister Retreat saga:
We drove back to SLC from Oakley, got there about an hour and a half before our lunch date
with Glenn and Karen, so we shopped.
We arrived right on time at the Olive Garden, which was the location that Karen
had told Patty would be a good place for us to meet because it was near their home.
They are remodeling and wanted to meet in a restaurant. Well, we waited for half an hour,
then thought we had better call and see if they had forgotten. Glenn answered and said
that they had come the day before and waited until 3:30!
We're not sure what happened, but Glenn expressed disappointment in not getting to see us
and sent his love to each of us.
Bummer! But Patty said that she and Hal would go to see him before they leave for their mission
and bring him a copy of Isaac Fox's journal, which we picked up the next day and I will explain about later.
So we ordered our lunch (we had the friendliest and most accommodating waitress!),
then purchased some Jo Malone perfumed cream and See's chocolates (her favorite!) to send to Aunt Nedra
to thank her for our stay and also some See's chocolates for Eric and Marcie.
We didn't eat until around 3, so we were starving!
We toasted Adam on his birthday with our fries!
Every year on his birthday we honor him by having a burger/fries, his favorite!
Next morning, we went through an endowment session together (Kay has found over 500 names
on the Gabrielsen side who need their temple work done).
Patty and Hal are temple workers in the beautiful Payson Temple,
and she was excited to give us a little tour after our session.
We went to a favorite Thai restaurant for lunch in Provo.
We then picked up the copies of Isaac Fox's Journal of his three-year LDS mission
to the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands.
This project has been six years in the making.
Patty discovered the journal's existence in the Church History Library,
obtained a copy of it in Isaac's long hand, then distributed it to Joan, Kay and John to digitalize it
and then I edited it so we could each have a copy and one for each of our children.
It is a treasure!
Patty spent countless hours formatting it and gathering other interesting related pictures and information.
There are not words to adequately express our appreciation for her hard work!
She is the real treasure!
We then went to a print shop and made copies for each of us of Aunt Nedra's Personal History.
Kay snapped this pic as we stopped at a grocery store to get snacks for our hangout time that evening at Patty's beautiful home. See the snow on the mountain peak? My favorite weather!
Thank you, dear Patty, for putting this amazing Sister Retreat together!
We accomplished so much in family history and reacquainting with loved ones
and best of all, being with each other!
