Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

As Valerie and Lance were planning their trip to Utah, we decided that Saturday we would do some family history together, play games, and go to a baseball game.  I have fond memories of watching my dad play and then umpire  softball games and also going with him to a few SF Giant baseball games as a kid.  So I thought it would be fun to go to a Salt Lake Bees game---not the Giants but we still had a fun night.....

our baseball selfie

We saw hits, doubles, and a triple, a sacrifice fly, several home runs including a grand slam, a steal, a balk (when the bases were loaded), a hit batter, some errors on both sides, a squeeze play, walked in a run, and almost an inside the park home run (the batter didn't see the coach signal to keep running as the fielder had dropped the ball) ,  Lots of fireworks---unfortunately they were mostly done by the other team and the Bees lost 5-12 to Nashville.

The weather was perfect for the game.

 Jena's first semi-pro baseball game.

And they had real fireworks after the game in honor of the military and Memorial Day on Monday.

It was a good time, someone people even had hot dogs to mark the occasion but I went with a burritto and Jena of course chose nachos.

A SATURDAY....

with nothing planned!!!!

I think I worked on the blog, did homework, and cleaned my family history/craft room. Gary also had a busy day with yard work, helping his mom, and family history research.

Just a "Get-the-things Done Day."

IT WAS PERFECT!

Grandchildren Day

Through a random bit of luck--we got to have Scarlett and Liam for a couple of hours for some grandparent-cousin time.  We kept telling them that they were cousins but mostly they were trying to figure out why there was someone else wanting attention from their aunt, uncle and grand parents and playing with toys which they consider their private toys.

Ben and Scarlett checking out his four feeder fish......

We bought pizza and pie for dinner in hopes of celebrating Jessica's birthday but traffic was busy so Jessica and Elessia had to eat before going to a later show, then Scott waited for as long as he could but Scarlett was ready for bed before Jessica and Elessia got back from their later movie.  Oh well, we all enjoyed pizza and pie at some point, cousins got to play and we got to hang out with Scott, Jessica, and Elessia but at different times. (Chantel had a class that night.)

 So far the swing is a big hit with these two grandchildren.........

Uncle Ben and Liam in their matching orange shirts

with serious looks!

Two grand-kids can make double the mess but it was a fun afternoon and evening.  I am looking forward to many more in the future.

Pack Meeting--"Our Animal Friends"

When I started this bunch of posts I used the heading "And back to Pack Meeting again"....now I have finally caught up to that Pack meeting for real.

And it was a fun one---

The theme was "Our Animal Friends" and the value was "Kind".  We invited Creature Encounters to come and share their animals with our boys and their families (and we invited Walnut Grove Ward to share the cost) and it was a big hit.  It will probably be the Pack Meeting they remember for the rest of their lives.

Cary, the owner of the company, came with lots of animals to share and talk about.  He brought turtles, tortoises, huge spiders, hissing cockroaches, lizards and snakes.

Jena petted the tarantula...from a distance with two fingers only.  

We had a fun time with our Cubs and their families.

On the HomeFront....

I finally found curtains to replace my faded kitchen ones and got them hanging up.

Did some work in the yard and got some flowers planted.  Yard work on a pretty day is sometimes more fun than homework.

and our bathroom remodel is finally moving along to the finish line.  We will post pictures when it is complete.

Church History Museum and Grandpa and Nana

Finally a free Tuesday where I could go down and see Jena at the Church History Museum and we could take a tour of the new remodeled building.  We invited Grandpa and Nana Giberson to join us. Gary and I spent a few hours at the Family History Library next door working on Family History stuff (well, I did read some homework for about an hour of the time to get ready for class that night.)

Then we headed over to the Lion House to meet Dad and Karla for some lunch.

Flowers in bloom along the way........

Valerie texted me about her upcoming trip to Utah, so I texted this (poor) selfie of the two of us at lunch in the Lion House.

 We headed back to the Museum...

Outdoor flag for the gift shop where Jena serves

 Heading in----

Cutest Young Church Service missionary in the building (all my pictures blurred a bit as she kept moving if she saw me take a picture of her.  I was trying to catch her without her knowing it.)

We then took her on a tour of the building.  Dad and Karla joined us for a bit, but then Karla started feeling sick so they headed home early.  It was fun to have share a bit of Jena's mission with them.

An display about the Kirtland Temple

This picture is not as impactful as seeing it in real life.  I walked around the corner and the exhibit was right there in 3 D.  It is an actual table set as if it were the Last Supper.  All pictures in this exhibit centered on the Savior and His Life.   It was a sweet moment.

This is one that Gary pointed out.  It is called "70 times 70" and has a mark for how many times that would be to forgive someone an offense.

President Monson's picture with Jena

Heading home for the day......

Home for a week and ....

the parties keep going on.......

5th Annual Walnut Grove North Neighborhood Party

We would never have started this neighborhood party this year while we are all still adjusting to the new ward boundaries.  However since it has been going on for a few years, we decided we could go ahead without causing any "feelings" with the rest of our ward.  The only slight change we made was we also invited 5 families who lived on the east side of 1000 West to attend with us.  (They were in Walnut Grove as well but part of the central area of that ward.)  We didn't want them to feel left out from the neighborhood.

And as usual we had a fun time.  The weather was beautiful, conversation fun, and kids enjoyed the rockets, soccer and basketball around the cul de sac.  I didn't take many pictures but Rebecca Jensen posted over 40 excellent pictures on her Facebook page.

Street blocked off and we are ready to go......

 Our reminder posters.......

 The line-up waiting to shoot off rockets....children of all ages!!

Alex Van Vleet with Gary shooting off his rocket.

Party over and all cleaned up....

and now they all want to do a BBQ in the fall......we will see!!!!!!

May Dance at the Bandstand

May 14th, Jena and I dressed up in our "May dance" clothes and headed to Salt Lake to our UDSF Teen/Adult dance.

It was on the University of Utah campus at the Bandstand.

As we were getting out of the car the first person we saw was Kaitlyn.

The Bandstand is actually located in the National Guard area of the campus.  All around the park were all of these stately old brick houses.

Here is the Bandstand.....

The view to the west and over the whole valley from the bandstand.

It was a great location, the weather was beautiful but a bit windy which made table clothes and paper plates take flight form time to time.

Dancing the afternoon away.....

Jena, Kaitlyn, Kinli, and Nathan

DJ Ivan

Nathan (his dad serves on the UDSF Board with me)

 The whole group---

 Dinner is served...........

Sunday morning we had to get up bright and early to make it to a 9:00 Church (Walnut Grove) to hear one of our favorite people talk.  Meggan and Jena have been friends since Sparrows moved to Syracuse about 15 years ago.  Meggan is serving a Young Church Service Mission at the Kaysville Pasta Plant.  She serves 3 days a week and she is loving it.  She did a great job on her talk.

When I printed this picture, I noticed how their clothes actually matched!

Later that night, these cute missionaries and their parents headed to a Mission Fireside down in the Little Theatre at the Conference Center.  Brad Wilcox spoke about the gospel.

I had gotten a message that my friend Kim Redford (who is a friend from Hong Kong days) was going to be there with her son, Kade.

She had to agree to a picture.
I spent two days with Kathy and Jeff and
didn't take any pictures of them.
I am on a mission to take pictures of my dear friends.
One down and  ?????to go.

You might notice that I am posting more pictures of me (maybe you haven't but read on).  I have turned over a new leaf about that issue.  I am not a fan of pictures of myself like most people.  However I read an article which helped me to re-frame the issue.  A woman wrote that her mother had recently died.  While they were searching for pictures, they noticed a lack of pictures in the latter half of their mom's life.  She could remember her mom saying--"I am too old for pictures," "My hair is too grey...or thin...or flat"......and the list of reasons continues and no pictures were taken. She observed that the problem was that those years that her mom didn't have pictures taken were the very years that her own children were born and loved their grandmother.  She had always had grey hair and they loved her.  She had carried some extra pounds and they loved her.  Her hair had been thin and they still loved her.  The young dark-haired woman her children never knew.  The author then committed to take those pictures no matter what throughout your life.  That is really life and people love you---especially your grandchildren. I am not going to turn into a selfie machine but I will try to post a few more along the way, because I want my grandchildren to remember me just the way I was.