Pre-Thanksgiving Activities

Since Tosha and Austen were in town for a week because of the funeral, we moved our Thanksgiving dinner up from the Sunday before Thanksgiving to the Sunday before that  (November 17th).  We did the whole thing with the turkey, etc. but no pictures of any of that.  My dad and Karla came, but Mom Hall was not feeling well and Jessica's crew had a number of sick little people as well as Elessia.  We had been planning on Thanksgiving on Sunday as we were heading to Tucson for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Ava's birthday is on November 24 so we celebrated a bit early and had a party and little smash cake for her.

As you could see, she got into it after a few minutes and covered herself in cake.  This was right before her bath.  Austen said that in the middle of the night, she woke up and while he was getting her back to sleep, all he could smell was birthday cake like a perfume. 

Niki with some help from Grandpa Hall completed this floor puzzle and posed for a picture.

They headed back to Seattle a couple of days later.

On Thursday, November 21st, Gary and I headed down to Provo to watch Jena perform with the BYU Adaptive Show Choir.  We got there early enough that we stopped in downtown Provo for a dinner at Station 22.  They had changed their menu and didn't have the same yummy thing that I had eaten when I had come before, but it was still a fun place to eat.

Painting on a building near where we parked--

A local business was having a conference--

The show choir program was held at the De Jong Concert Hall, which in BYU student terms, is quite an achievement.  It made for a special setting for these individuals and their students partners to perform together.  Because of the lightening, my pictures on stage didn't turn out well--

This is Emily, Megan, Jena, and Nicole (I think)--we didn't know but they were performing together a song from the Greatest Showman.  Each of the girls had mentioned that they were singing a solo at the concert.  No one realized that they were singing together and Emily's mom didn't know anything about it until the concert.

They have about 60 adults with disabilities and the same number of volunteers who are all BYU students. They sang a variety of songs and some special musical numbers.  It was quite fun and again, I know I say this every time, but I am so struck by the BYU students who give up their time to do this.  What a gift to Jena and all of the others who are touched by it.

Jena with her partner and some of her friends

Jena, Emily, and a volunteer

Friends taking a selfie  (Sara, Jena, Emily, and Tina)

A special evening with some special people.

A Side Trip on the Way to Idaho

As we were figuring out the trip to Rupert for the funeral, Gary and I were looking at the map to see if there was anything we wanted to visit on the way up as the funeral was in the afternoon.  Gary suggested the Golden Spike National Historical Park, a place we have wanted to go since moving here in 1998, but have never been.  Since we love trains, it was perfect.

Photo from a morning walk in Syracuse before we left

This is the place where the two railroads met coming from the east and west.  It was an amazing task like all of these huge building projects were before bulldozers, computers, and other modern building tools.  They were "making it up" as they went.  The stories we learned about were incredible and I would suggest reading a bit about them if you are interested in such things.

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This was a sample in the visitor's center about how the spikes were placed to hold the rail and a bit of history about them.  The last spike was gold.  However it is no longer in the spot but was removed and placed in a museum at Stanford in California.

Here is what it looks like.

   

This was the spot of the final spike on the rails---

They have two steam engines on site a few miles from the visitor's center.  They are huge and it was fun to learn a bit more about them.  At Christmas time, they have a special show where you can see the steam engines in action and because of the cold, it makes an amazing sight of the steam puffs coming out of the engine.  We are hoping to see that this upcoming weekend.

These are replicas of the famous engines involved in the original celebrations of the completing of the railroad. 

Gary stopped on the way out of the park for me to "take a picture of the brown sign."  That is a throw back to all of the signs I photographed during our Oregon Trail/Mormon Trail trip. Glad to add this one to the mix.

I am not going to lie.  I had no idea that Gary loved trains when we got married.  So many things to cover when you are getting ready to get married that the subject of trains (and thousands of other things) did not come up.  So glad that he loves trains like I do so we can enjoy these little things together--not earth shattering or even critical--just pure fun to be together, learn something new, and be happy.

Choo-Choo------

Funerals

We have had a couple of funerals in the past month (November).

The first was Austen's mother.  She died of an heart attack and she was not even 50 years old.  It was unexpected and very hard for the whole family.  She had been living in Burley, Idaho, the past few years and the funeral was held up in Rupert, Idaho, at a theatre that she had been very involved with since moving there.  We meet Austen and Tosha and their kids up there on a Wednesday afternoon in mid-November. It was a sweet experience to share with them although our main job was to help the three little kids for whom a funeral can be a difficult time of sitting.

The stalls in the bathrooms had famous quotes on the
inside doors.  Here was the one in mine.

Angie had been very involved in the production of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"  (I think she was the director among other things.)  So someone brought the car that was used in the play and had it in front of the theatre.  The boys loved it.  Right now they don't understand the connection it had to their Grandma Angie, but in the future I think they will be glad to have these photos.

Getting a little ride from Grandpa Hall

A little conversation with Grandpa Hall--

 Cleaning up--Cooper and Niki helping their uncle Taylor with the tables after the dinner.

There is nothing quite like losing a parent.  It forever changes who you are and your place in the world and also your connection with the eternities.  It is part of the circle of life, but still unexpected and hard.

The other funeral we attended was for Nancy Holt.  She is our sweet neighbor who has struggled with brain cancer for the past 11 months.  It was been so sweet to watch our neighbors reach out and support the Holts during this time.  Nancy was in her early 70s.  She and Gordon are good people who are such great neighbors.  They always have a beautiful yard and amazing decorations for the holidays.  A week or so before her death, I took over some flowers and told Gordon that I wanted her to have flowers around to enjoy even though it was winter outside.  Gordon replied, "And there will be flowers again next spring."  I so appreciated his comment and his determination to keep on living despite the growing sadness of her impending death.  What a great example he has been to all of us of constant care and hope in a difficult situation.

Designated Driver....

...pays off well.  The first Friday of November, I drove Jena and Emily down to Provo to attend their stake's fireside.  Elder Dale Renlund and his wife and Elder Wohan and his wife spoke and then took questions (over a text messaging system) for about 45 minutes and then Elder Renlund spoke again.

While I was very excited to take Jena and Emily down, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to actually stay at the fireside or just drop them off and go read a book somewhere.  From time to time, I had listened to BYU devotions but often had felt that the topics are so centered on college aged life that they didn't really apply to where I was at.  That, of course, is perfect for BYU devotionals and I assumed that this might be similar.  As we couldn't catch up with anyone they knew, I decided to join them in the fireside and I was so glad that I did. It was amazing.  What I gained was probably different than the others in the audience (I was probably one of the oldest people there along with others who I assumed served in Bishoprics in the stake and their wives.)  I will share my thoughts after the photos.

One thing about a BYU stake meeting was how quiet it is.  When you have NO children in the whole audience, it is quite noticeable.  I had forgotten that.  I can remember hearing my stomach or my neighbor's stomach growling on Fast Sundays at BYU.

Jena and Emily were both happy they went and enjoyed the meeting.  During the question and answer portion, Elder Renlund stood on the far side of the podium with a wearable mic and made funny or insightful one-liners when the others were talking.  He has a great sense of humor and the students loved that side of him.  Me, too.  It was seeing a different angle of his personality.  One of the questions which Elder Wohan chose to answer was: "What advice do you know now that you wished you knew at our age?"  Elder Wohan laughed and said:  "Don't let your body get old."  Elder Renlund said, "That is called premature death.  Don't tell them that..  We get old."  The audience loved that.

Afterwards, we ran into Katey, one of their roommates and took a moment for photos and to talk.  There were a couple of other students that knew Jena or Emily who stopped by as well.

Hugs are always parts of greetings and good byes!

My Three Take-Aways:

1.  As questions were asked and answered, I realized that I could have answers those questions and would have done so in a similar way.  The Renlunds and the Wohans are similar in age to Gary and I.  The Wohans were meeting each other at BYU near the same time that Gary and I were there.  Although our life experiences have been different, we shared many of the same understandings about our Heavenly Father, our relationship with Christ, and the workings of the Holy Ghost.  It reminded me that there are many life journeys and our Heavenly Father can lead us back to Him through the Atonement of Jesus Christ by following the direction of the Holy Ghost. That was a sweet awareness that the principles and life lessons can come in many ways but take us to the same place.


                                         

2.  Sis. Ruth Renlund (as an aside, she is the daughter of Merlin and Nola Lybbert who lived in Hong Kong when we did)  spoke about going through ovarian cancer and then praying about what she should do.  At that time, her husband was serving as Bishop and in medical school and they have one daughter who was three years old. She was praying about what they should do and she was told that their family was complete and she should go to law school. I was struck by that because this would have been near the same time that we (Gary and I) were seeking our own directions about building our family.  Her answer- "law school and one child"; my answer- "master's in school psychology and five children-four through adoption"(to be clear my original answer was graduate school--the whole five children part came slowly over many years.).  Two daughters of our Heavenly Father praying with the same intention and goals and two different answers.  Both perfect for each of us on our journey in mortal life.  Each of us have been able to impact the world around us in different ways--hopefully in the ways that our Heavenly Father needed from us.  Our Heavenly Father knows us each individually perfectly and will direct our paths if we seek Him.

and 3.  Elder Renlund is an apostle of  Jesus Christ.  Frequently in his remarks he referred to his role as a witness of Jesus Christ and each time, I felt that sweet confirmation that Elder Renlund was testifying of truth.  Like Peter, James and John, Elder Renlund can witness about who He is and bear witness to the overarching mission and Atonement of Jesus Christ.  His testimony was confirmed in my own heart.  That became a sweeter blessing when a week later I received my assignment to use his recent conference talk- "Unwavering Commitment to Jesus Christ" as I taught Relief Society at the first part of December.  The Relief Society Presidency did not know that I had just heard him speak in such a setting, but it added strength to my testimony of his words.  I guess it was another version of "Our Heavenly Father knows us each perfectly...."

One last comment:  Elder Renlund, earlier in his opening remarks, made the following statement (paraphrasing):  "However good, brilliant, energetic, and amazing you think Pres. Nelson is, know that he is even better than that."

Needless to say, I was glad that I was the "designated driver" for Jena.  That was an amazing experience--totally unique for me--from others that were there.  However, I know that it was amazing for them as well.