Memories of home

In the middle of a busy day of work last Monday, I took a break and checked my phone.  In the middle of a variety of texts and emails about this and that, I got these pictures.

To you, they are simply pictures of people, a temple, a river, Churches and a building.  To me, they are memories of my childhood and I teared up just looking at them.  It was so unexpected, too, which added to the emotional impact.

These are from Richland, Washington, --truly the most beautiful "ugly" spot in America.  I grew up here and felt it was like the most perfect spot in the entire world to be from.  I could go on and on about it, but I have probably discussed it before.

These were sent from Andrea Pedersen Slack.  Andrea and I met in high school in Richland and she was one of my freshman roommates at BYU in 1973.  Andrea was there, helping a friend who had just moved from Houston to the area and she offered to help drive up one of her vehicles.

This is Andrea on the left with one of her friends in front of the Columbia River Temple.  This temple was built long after I moved from there.  It was a sweet moment when I got to attend a session there the first time and now Andrea has also had that experience.

This is our old Stake Center.  It was built in the mid-60's at a time when the Saints were expected to help both with financial donations and also with labor.  I can remember that my dad served as a night watchman and we all cleaned up from time to time in little projects safe for kids.

Columbia High School--"The Bombers"  I thought it was a normal mascot name because I grew up planning to be a "Bomber."  There is still debates now about the appropriateness of the name. I only ended up attending one year and then we moved to Texas where I got to be a Caprock Longhorn and then a Tascosa Rebel (with the confederate flag and everything.)

Columbia River--Richland is a desert with less than 10 inches of rain a year.  The ground was mostly sand and the native plans were tumbleweeds and sagebrush (actually they were sagebrush first and then tumbleweeds.)  It got hot in the summer and was often very windy.  But when you live by two rivers--the Yakima and the Columbia Rivers--you get some amazing scenery, nonetheless.

They have really upgraded the shore along the Richland side of the Columbia.  There is a paved walking trail with benches to sit and enjoy the view.  Andrea found a bench which has been placed there by a family in honor of their parents who we both knew.  That was sweet.

The Jadwin Chapel--the place where I was baptised and I learned most of the lessons of my youth.  We did attend the Stake Center for a couple of years when I was 10-12 years old, but most of the time it was this amazing building.  For years, if I ever had a dream that included a church, it was inside this building.  They don't make very many three story LDS churches in the US any more.

It was in Richland I learned to love clouds (at my mother's knee for sure. She loved nature.)  This is a view of the high school which built on a slope.

Andrea moved to Richland in her early teens and I moved there when I was 2 months old.  She commented that much of what she became as a person was started or influenced by the time in her life that she spent there.  I agree.  I was so lucky to have spent 16 years here being touched by the good people, inside and outside of the Church.  I certainly hope that in the eternities there will be time to find them and thank them each personally for the ways they have touched our lives.  I read recently a meme that stated that we carry traces of those who have touched us so we must be careful of the traces we leave with others.  I know that is true, because there are so many people through simple ways and some not so simple have impacted my life for good.  I still feel those traces in my heart so many years later.  That is why I got tearful, just by seeing some simple photos from this specific spot in the world!

Thanks, Andrea, for sharing.

And Christmas is coming.....

Which for us means lots of parties---

There is the annual Hall Almost Annual Adult Christmas Party on Dec. 2nd--

I know.  I am so cheesy,  I asked Gary if it was "too cheesy'" and he replied, "Of course, but that is what people expected from you so do it."  So I did.  For some reason over the years, the invitation has become a part of the whole tradition.  I don't want them to be at all the same or "traditional," so I guess after so many years, you are going to end up doing a snowman sooner or later.

Then, we are having a neighborhood caroling party on the first Monday of December which will end up at our house for cookies and hot chocolate.  (After all if we are cleaning the house for one party, why not add another into the mix two days later?)

Then later in the month, we are hosting the GIRLS Christmas Party which is a traditional party of 12 young adults with Down syndrome which are all on the same Special Olympics team.  The older ground of girls have been doing it for years and have added some of the newly young adult girls over the past few years.  It is our turn to host this year, which should be so fun.

I mention all of those things, because I spent most of last evening, getting the invitations ready and general plans for these activities to make sure that we are ready for all of this Christmas fun.  It mostly worked as a distractions since both the BYU football team and BYU Men's basketball team lost their games and didn't play well for most of the games.  Sometimes it is hard to be a fan!!!  On a positive note, the BYU Women's Volleyball team swept their match on Saturday.

Jena's Hike in the Hills

 Jena's Wednesday activity included a hike up in the hills above Provo

Emily, Sara, and Jena

 If you look carefully, you can see the Provo Temple in the far left of the picture.

Jena and Amy heading down the path

 The group shot with Emily, the aide for Amy, Amy, and Sara with Jena and Hannah in front.

How lucky Jena is to be with these fun ladies!!!

Happy Upcoming Thanksgiving Week

We will see if things all get pulled together for Thanksgiving day in time for dinner on Thursday at 12:30.  I haven't done this as a full-time working person, so I am a bit nervous.  But I remind myself that there are millions of American women who manage it without the support and resources that I have, so I think it will work.....the great thing about my family is that they are quite flexible about things.  As long as there is a turkey, dressing, and some pies, they don't really care if the napkins are folded in a fancy way or if we have three kinds of punch.  Fortunately, I wasn't all "Martha Stewart" as the kids were growing up and I was home full-time so expectations are low.

That said, I do like Thanksgiving.  I love the memories I have of past Thanksgivings, of ping pong tournaments, singing around the piano--not in the Hall house, but when I was a child in the Giberson house, family and friends.  I love thinking more deeply about my blessings, which are more numerous than the grains of sand  on the beach.

And I always love an excuse to have a good cherry pie!!!

Enjoy your week, my friends and family.  I will be counting all of you among my many blessings this year.

The End of an Era

Things come and go.  It is the circle of life, as they say.  In this case, it is related to the Hale Centre Theatre in West Valley City.  Last night we attended our last play there as they are closing that site and going completely to the new Sandy building that I posted about in September.

The program indicated that they had been in West Valley for 20 years.  That means that we started attending plays there not long after they opened as I think we started getting seasons tickets in 2000 or 2001.  That is a lot of plays.  This is the place where Jena fell in love with theatre, too.

We took some final photos in honor of the occasion:

West Valley Theatre

Our selfie:

The last show:  Bundle of Trouble which was written by Nathan and Ruth Hale who started the theatre over 40 or so years ago.

The interior of the lobby with the huge banners for the 2017 shows.

The 2017 season banner

And usually because of its location, we ate at IHOP.  I don't think they ever had the same staff twice at that place and the service was sometimes very poor, but it was usually quiet and we like breakfast foods, except for Jena who I think got chicken and fries there for 10 years of theatre attendance.

It has been a great thing to have season tickets there.  Gary and I enjoy the theatre and it is good to have that commitment to go that season tickets represent.  Even now, our lives are so filled that we sometimes forget to stop and do something fun that we love with each other (and of course, our theatre companions, Jena and Mom Hall.)

We look forward to more years at the new Sandy theatre. 

Wow...two Sundays in a row...

I am writing in the blog.........

Tosha sent me this photo of their Halloween costumes.  Niki didn't not want to be a photo that night.  They will be packing up their home on Tuesday and then flying to Seattle on the 18th.  It is a bitter- sweet time to leave Okinawa, but they (and us) are excited to have them so much closer to us.

We facetimed last Sunday and I took this screen shot of Cooper showing off his sitting up skills.  Thank heavens for facetime.

Scott had his tonsils out and also his deviated septum in his nose repaired on Tuesday.  Chantel had her tonsils removed a few months ago, so he knew a bit what to expect, but it has not been fun.  He said today he is slightly better but still miserable. (No pictures of Scott.)

Jessica and Elessia had some early 1-year old pictures of Zander taken and already are making arrangements for their Christmas pictures they want to take with the boys.

Elessia figured out how to make the balloon from a photo.  Those two are very crafty and clever.

Ben remains at the State Hospital.  This has been a good week as far as we know.  Communication hasn't been good for the last month with his team.  We visit each Monday when we drop off Jena and her friends at their apartment.  The last few months, Ben calls us with his request for dinner food and we grab it and eat dinner together.  Choices are somewhat limited around the area after so many weeks.  But he is getting very tired of hospital food which I can totally understand.

Jena is loving her life, both at home and in Provo.  This past week, she was able to attend a service project and dance on campus on Tuesday night and then on Wednesday they headed to the Provo Rec Center and did racquetball and rock climbing.

They were making blankets out of plastic bags.

Here are Hannah, Sara and Emily in their court....

 Amy and her aide and Jena were in the other court.  Jena said that it was fun.

 This was a free climbing wall that the girls got to try their skills on.

And that is the Hall update.  Gary and I are still marveling that we have adult children and six grandchildren.  We are not sure how that happened at all.

We share the following pictures with our Primary class and asked if they could guess who they were.  We had started the lesson talking about parents and children in a family so we thought they would get the idea and guess fairly quickly (we teach the 5 year olds.)  They guess that they were grandparents and then they guessed aunts and uncles....then great grandparents...which they are to different people.  Finally I asked, "How do you think they are related to us?"  Again grandparents was a guess, but they then figured out that they were our parents and then quickly connected the right set to each of us.

Eileen and Richard Giberson

Wayne and Holly Hall

The lesson was that we can show love to our parents by obeying them.  I think that obeying our parents has been good advice for both Gary and I.  We are so lucky to have good parents to teach and love us on this earth.

We also showed them our engagement picture (they first thought it was a picture of me with my brother--Gary had a lot of brown hair back then.)  And then we showed them a family picture and they immediately picked out Jena--she looks just the same just bigger and older, they said.  They didn't know about our older kids and asked us to tell them the names a couple of times.  Funny that none of them commented about you kids looking different from us.

Reviewing this post, I see that Jena (again) has more photos about her life.  I guess you other kids need to send me more photos!  :)

Saturday night at our house.....

Stacks for the upcoming activities---above our Primary stuff with a CD player is ready for Sunday morning.  Below from the opposite direction is Jena's clothes for Provo, more blankets and food. The plastic bag is filled with a snack I am taking to work as we have a two day training on Monday and Tuesday.

It looks like a loading dock............but at least it was ready to go.

Ready for another week!!

Halloween Chili and Scones

After all of our partying and fun times, we had one more gathering--the annual Hall Chili and Scones at our house.  This year, Jena decided to stay in Provo and be at college and I missed having her around.  She really is growing up.

Luckily, Jessica and Scott aren't too old to spend Halloween with us, so we got to get in some trick-n-treating before eating dinner with the family.  Since I was working, Gary assembled the chili for the family, using his sister Valerie's yummy recipe.  It turned out great!

We passed out candy and Halloween bookmarks which were left from being in the library for the past week or so.

Waiting for their parents and younger brothers to be ready for trick-n-treating.

Waiting for the Frances to open the door.....

My attempt to get all four of them in the same picture.

Jessica did a little better...

(Family pictures will be fun with six age 3 and under.)

And the annual picture started three Halloweens ago--


And as the evening was winding down, Liam and Scarlett (minus their costumes) were just winding up by sliding down the stairs on their bottoms or completely laying flat and flying down the stairs.  I bet they can't wait to show Niki what fun the stairs are.

Happy Halloween 2017!

That's a wrap.

Museum of Natural Curiosity

My original idea was that we would head to a corn maze for Monday afternoon, but none of them opened early enough to match our time frame so we headed to Thanksgiving Point in Lehi and went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. It turned out to be a perfect place for four little people and the 7 big people chasing them around.  If you are looking for something to do with young grandchildren in Utah County, I would suggest it.  It was too cold to enjoy the Discovery Gardens but we had fun at the inside activities.

 Scott jumping to see how high he could jump at "Leap Frog."  I think it was about 18 inches,

Jena trying on some of the fabrics from the jungles.....

Scott squeezing to see if he could squeeze as hard as a python.  The answer is NO, but he did better than anyone else in our group.

 This is a water table with built-in seats.  Liam and Zander thought that was fun.....

 as did James.

Here Gary, Jena and I are standing in the hurricane tunnel with winds of over 85 miles per hour.  (Those weathermen who stand in those windy weather shots are nuts.  It is not comfortable when the wind is that hard.  Of course, the 34-40 miles per hour winds felt like the daily breezes I grew up with in Richland, Washington, and Amarillo, Texas.)

The Health clinic inside the "Kidotopolis" area.

Jena and Scott did a puppet show for us inside the theatre.

 Doing a line dance with Chantel, Jena, Scarlett, Liam with James and Zander crawling around.

The huge bubble machine.  Scarlett loved pulling it up and down and popping the bubbles.  Here she let Jena blow on it to make weird patterns.

When the y stepped on the round buttons with animal pictures on them, it made a loud noise like the animal.  They thought that was quite fun and spend some time running from spot to spot to ehar the noises.

One last look at the grandchildren enjoying their day at Thanksgiving Point---

James  (8 1/2 months)

 Liam (2 1/2 years old)

 Zander (almost 11 months)

Scarlett  (3 years and 3 months)

On the way out, we noticed the child-size door so Scarlett exited out that door.  Jena was just a bit too tall so we made her go out the regular door.

We all headed in different directions and our outing was done.  They all headed home and Jena, Gary and I headed to Provo to visit Ben and to drop Jena off at her apartment in time for her Halloween party.

One last fall picture from the parking lot at Thanksgiving Point.   Notice the colors of this tree--yellow, orange and red with a little bit of green still at the bottom.  It was quite beautiful to see.  The picture doesn't do it justice. Isn't nature amazing?