Roger's new toy

Since we've moved here Roger has been able to do a lot more fishing. He and Kraig Moll go quite often. So, of course, he needs MORE paraphenalia. This is his newest toy:It is a pontoon boat. It also has a trolling motor that attaches to it, but, of course, not while it's on the ground. Last year he used a float tube - but he had to sit in the middle of that & let his legs dangle down into the water. He decided after several hours in the freezing water that he'd rather have the option of putting his feet up & keep them out of the water. Plus, it's nice to have the motor on it. So, he got this boat on KSL.com classified (his new best friend). Then he had to construct a pulley system to raise it up to the garage ceiling where he stores it. Then, to make sure he had ALL the gear he needed, Kraig gave him this hat... It has all kinds of lures & bobbers pinned to it. On the bill it says: appropriately.... "If this hat's missin', I've gone fishin'.....

Have fun, big guy!

...waiting...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words... then these say it all. Today we were so sure that our mission call would come we took our camera to the mailbox with us! Alas...



But, you know how life is... just when you think you've got the answer, something else pops up.
So, in hopes that by posting this today, life wants to throw me a curve & will send the call tomorrow-so that I have to immediately turn around and do another posting....I am submitting this entry & praying for good news tomorrow... aaaggghhhh!

Tulip Festival

For my birthday my wonderful husband took me for an awesome adventure! We went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi.

Perhaps it seemed so wonderful because after weeks and weeks of cold & snowy weather everytime we turned around, this day was warm... maybe 75... and there was a light breeze blowing which kept it cool. And since I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE tulips... it was just a perfect day! There are 55 acres of gardens and grassy areas and streams and bridges and you just wander through at your own pace.


There are paths winding through - so you can either stay on them - or do as the millions of kids were doing... just playing on the grass. I'm guessing that since this was the first really nice day, every mother in town brought her 'young 'uns' to the gardens.

How incredible... to be in these beautiful gardens, feel the 75 degree heat & the gentle breeze, then look up to see the snow covered mountains against that gorgeous blue sky! Amazing!

They have the Italian Garden:

And the Secret Garden, which I didn't get enough pictures of, but it is all enclosed by an overgrown wall with big rounded-top wooden doors. Inside there are fountains, and rock pathways with little cherub statues, and, of course.... Tulips! So cute!

They even have a carousel where the horses are covered with mesh & moss & ground cover grow on them. We just strolled and enjoyed the whole day. We had thought about renting segways, but there were just so many kids running around, and since we're not exactly EXPERT at riding them, we decided ... for the welfare of ALL concerned.... that we would wait for another day...
We topped off our day by having lunch at the Trellis Cafe right there on the grounds and eating outside on their patio. It overlooked that giant grassy hill and so it was wonderful to sit and eat & enjoy the view...

What a wonderful way to spend a birthday!! Thanks to my adorable hubby for making a memorable day for me!!!

Women's Conference at BYU

My sweet friend Sheri Spencer called last week. It seems she had bought a ticket for her daughter to go with her & another friend to Women's Conference at BYU. Well, when her daughter couldn't go, she called her sister & the sister was going to get back to her. In the meantime, she called me and asked if ... at a momen'ts notice... might I want to go to Women's Conference. I said SURE! Then time passed & I didn't hear from her, so I figured that her sister decided to take the ticket. Women's Conference was Thursday and Friday, April 28, & 29. So, on Thursday morning at 8am Sheri called. Do you want to go to Women's Conference she said?? I was dumbstruck! What time does it start, I asked? 9am she said!!!! For REAL??? But I decided to take her up the offer. (man, when she says last minute, she MEANS last minute!) So, she & her friend left at 8am & told me they'd save me a seat. Amazingly, I got ready & Roger took me & dropped me off right at 9am at the Marriott Center.
It was a wonderful day! The speakers were fantastic. It's like being a kid in a candy store. They start off with a keynote speaker in the Marriott Center- then they offer 16 classes every hour all over campus. After the keynote speaker, I headed down the the Smith Fieldhouse to listen to John Bytheway the first hour speak on Covenants and Michael Wilcox the second hour speak on Scriptural Heroines. They were wonderful. Then I headed back up to the Marriott center to meet with Sheri for the last 2 hours. Until I remembered this: I'm not sure how many of you went to BYU, but to get from the Smith Fieldhouse in LOWER campus to the Marriott Center in UPPER campus- you have to go up these massive amounts of stairs. My mind went flying back to those years at BYU when I'd have to climb those stairs everyday... AAAGGGHHH!! I hated it back then and I REALLY hated it that day!! I had to text Sheri and tell her to have the oxygen ready! Good thing Women's Conference was so good. And on the trek back up, at least I had a gorgeous campus to look at... when my eyes could focus again, that is:
But I will have to say I didn't pick any more classes down in the Smith Fieldhouse! Thanks Sheri for a wonderful day... complete with a BYU Brownie! You are the best !

and now we wait....

So, it's official. Our mission papers are in! We finished our final interview with the Stake President and he has sent our papers in... so now we wait. It's been an interesting process. We learned alot filling out all the papers online - especially the 5 or 6 page health questionaire! Sheesh! But, the best part was putting our pictures in. When Lindsay was here she took some pictures of us that we could use when we submitted our papers. Originally Roger thought it would be funny to come out dressed in my dad's old red, white & blue polyester sports coat. Lindsay thought it was funny too, so she took a couple of shots with him in it. Then we took the REAL ones. Because Lindsay's camera is so wonderful, it takes these HUGE pictures. (meaning they have a huge amount of pixels!) So, when I tried to upload the picture, it was too big. Not being really techno-savvy, I didn't know how to reduce it & I don't have photo shop. So, I decided to send the picture to my brother to have him reduce it & send it back. Then I thought he'd get a kick out of seeing the picture of Roger in our dad's old jacket, so I sent that one too. He FIXED both pictures and sent them back... It took a long time for us to decide WHICH picture we should submit. What do you think?

I sort of liked the pierced ear & pierced tongue one. (my brother said he was going to add tatooed flames coming up from under the shirt collar, but thought it might be a bit much! ha) So, eventually we chose the top one & sent it in. So, long about May 20th, be watching to see which mission we get called to. Just remember us in your prayers... & pray for no place that has a "stan" on the end... Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan.... thanks.

Girls Week at the Cabin

Julie Cullimore - who used to live in Antioch, but now lives in Walnut Creek, CA - has a wonderful cabin up by Calaveras Big Trees (just north of Murphys and Angel's Camp). She is wonderfully nice to ask people to come up each year & spend some R&R with her at this cabin.
I'm sure she has done this for many, many years - but this was only my 2nd year there. Last year we had such fun that we determined to make it a yearly event. So, when Girls week rolled around this year (knowing that by next year Roger & I would be on our mission) I knew I had to jump on a plane & go back to Calif. to spend several days at Julie's cabin with Debbie Davis and Sheri Frazier. At the last minute Sheri was unable to come so it was just the 3 of us. We usually take turns cooking meals & we each get a bedroom & sleep & relax & play & just have a wonderful time together. This year was no different. We stayed up until late playing cards every night.
Julie thought it would be fun to teach us to play Rummy. I'm pretty sure she thought so because she has been playing it since she was young and so she totally KILLED us! I think she won every game!
One day she took us up to see the Calaveres Big Trees. They are the massive sequoia trees that have been growing there for literally thousands of years! We stopped into the lodge and they treated us to a film telling us about the history. They have such huge trees! This is one they cut down way back in the 1880's so they could make money by taking it on tour and having people pay to see it. They used to use the flat stump for dances !
It's a beautiful park with so much vegetation and beautiful, flat walking paths. I wanted to go to the tree that you've seen pictures of with a hole cut out of the base so that cars could drive thru. (They make cars too wide now, so now it's only a walking path) Unfortunately, you can see how much it had snowed up there, so we weren't dressed to hike 20 minutes through the snow just for me to see the tree. RATS! next time for sure!!! The next day we went to Columbia. It's an old gold-rush town. They make you park in lots off the main street, because they only allow walking down the main street. They have lots of quaint shops, a place you can pan for gold, a blacksmith shop, an old-fashioned candy shop (oh yeah!) & lots more. We decided to eat lunch first... of course! It was a great mexican restaurant called El Jardin. Then we went to the old Fallon Playhouse. It's an old, old theater where we saw the play The Rainmaker. It was so much fun & they did a GREAT job.
I don't think the theater has been remodeled since those gold-rush days! Debbie said, "Can't you just imagine dancing girls up there on that stage?"
After the play we walked main street, bought WAY too much candy at the store, and even made friends with "Floyd" who ran the general mercantile. He looks like he truly may have been there since the gold rush! Back at the cabin Julie gave us all Chocolate bunnies from the Candy Store & we settled in to play more cards! We had such a great time! We slept till we wanted to get up, ended up only making one meal because we had such fun eating out, played cards, watched movies, and gabbed up a storm. We built a fire every night & loved snuggling into our sleeping bags to sleep. (we were too lazy to actually use the beds because then we'd have to wash the sheets... so we just threw our bags on top of the beds & slept that way! ) Thanks to Julie for being such a wonderful hostess and making our week marvelous! Thank you to Debbie for keeping us laughing and being a wonderful friend. Sheri... we missed you. See you next time. Don't have too much fun without me next year for Girls Week # 3 !!!

Logan Temple

Two weeks ago we took a trip with Barbara & Dick up to Logan. We wanted to do a session there & eat lunch there & see all the beautiful tulips that are grown in virtually every single yard in Logan. But, alas, it snowed the day before we went, and was quite cold & windy the day we went- but we had fun anyway.
We had done some family history digging & discovered that my grandfather- George Lionel Farrell had laid the cornerstone in the NorthWest corner of the temple. In those days they began at the SouthEast corner. The prophet usually laid this cornerstone. They had a talk and a dedicatory prayer. But, for some reason, this cornerstone was laid by John Taylor- President of the Council of the the Twelve and Franklin D. Richards offered the prayer. Then they moved to the SouthWest corner & the same thing happened. This time the cornerstone was laid by Edward Hunter, the Presiding Bishop of the Church, more talks & another prayer. Then they moved to the NorthWest Corner. In a book by James Talmage he cites that George Lionel Farrell laid the cornerstone here. He was - as they put it then- the President of the High Priests' Quorum for the Cache Stake. Today we would call him the Stake President. Anyway, he was the only one who laid a cornerstone that wasn't a General Authority that day. The NorthEast cornerston was laid by Albert P. Rockwood, a member of the First Council of Seventy, then the final talks and prayers. Here I am standing in front of the the NorthWest corner. (yes, I know my eyes are closed - but Roger only took one picture- so I have to use it) The cornerstones were laid so that the top of the stone would be level with the ground - so, you cannot see any of them today. In fact, today there are no signs or plaques or anything denoting any information about the cornerstones on any corner. Still it was fun to walk around the temple & imagine. We marveled at the masonry work. Today you see bricks set with the brick to the outside and the mortar is inset a little. But on the Logan temple the bricks are inset a little and it's the mortar that sticks out! The cornerstones were laid on September 19, 1877. By January 1882 there is a recorded account that grandpa Farrell was furnishing several teams (usually of cattle, but it might have been horses) to the men who were hauling the sandstone rocks from the quarry to the temple site in Logan. The temple was dedicated on May 17, 1884. For a building that is 124 years old, it looks WONDERFUL! Being there gave me such a renewed appreciation for my grandfather and all the people who must have labored so incredibly hard to build this magnificent temple. We drove around Logan a little - stopped by a bookstore which sold a book about the first 100 years of the Logan Temple. It tells all the info I've included here. Then we drove around a little, but not many tulips... too early and too cold I guess. On the way home we drove by the new temple they are building in Brigham City- right down town! Totally amazing that temples are being built so rapidly - continuing to hasten the work all over the world.