June's Baptism & Other Highlights

On July 31, Steve and I may a quick drive to SL to participate in the Realtor Day at the Parade of Homes event.  They provide a "free" brunch and a preview of some of the homes in the show.  Since I'm trying to get my money's worth out of my $900 yearly dues, we decided to attend the free brunch and preview.  It was nice to see a few homes and enjoy the brunch.  I still know a few realtors but considering that there are about 950+ members of the SL Board now, the attendance was comparably low.  It rained that afternoon as we returned home.  But the next morning Steve was out early picking apricots and apples.

He assisted as we prepared quite a few jars of low sugar apricot jam.  A couple of days later, we made applesauce.

Saturday was definitely the highlight of our week as we drove to Nephi to observe June's baptism.  It was Brusch's turn to host so it was held in the Jamie's stake center.  Jamie is Jen's sister.

It was very nice and June was so cute and so excited!  Congratulations, June!

Afterwards, we gathered at Jamie's home for a nice lunch.  Hilary, Adam, Jameson and AJ also attended and joined with members of the Brusch family and some friends of Jen and Taylor's who are in the process of moving from Shanghai to Australia.

Back home on Saturday afternoon, I took a photo of this beautiful red and yellow canna blooming in our back yard.  We love beautiful flowers!!!

We took it pretty easy with dinner on Sunday and served hamburgers, turkey burgers and corn dogs.  Good thing we had some broccoli salad for some nutrition.

Tuesday morning Steve had his first appointment with Dr. Carlson, an orthopedic specialist in CV.  It really expedited things that we had brought his x-rays taken a few weeks before in SL. He recommended that Steve have a shot in his hip joint.  They set it up for 8:10 the next morning.  In the mean time we drove to SL to fix Lois' screen door and have supper with Tanner.  The next morning at 4:30, we drove him to the airport to join a group for a college tour in Europe and were back in CV in time for the shot.  Before we got home from that, his office called and scheduled an MRI for 5:30 that afternoon.

Steve was waiting in the hospital for the MRI.  Because of his claustrophobia, the Dr. gave him some Xanax.  We found out that it isn't necessary to take two of them.  Steve got extremely loopy and it took several days to completely wear off.  First he was silly and giggly, then was groggy and sleepy, and then he got depressed.  We learned some valuable lessons from this experience.

Of course, it was necessary to get his mother, June's, prescribed chocolate milkshake after the procedure.  A chocolate shake makes everything better!

On Friday afternoon, we drove to Blackfoot to attend LaVerne Marcum's viewing.  His friendship with the Kerr family goes back 70+ years.  He passed away this week at age 97.   We arrived in town early so we could visit with Steve's sister, Kathy.  She showed us some of the quilts she had recently made.  We thought they were beautiful.  They were just as nice as quilts we saw with blue ribbons in the CV fair.

Kathy is very talented.  She can sew, cook and grow the most gorgeous flowers.  She shared some cucumbers from her garden with us too.

Then we met Aaron and Heather's family at the viewing.  It was nice to see Bob and Janene too.  It was the first time we have connected since they came home from their mission in May.  When we walked into the mortuary, they were playing a slide show on a screen at the back of the room.  I looked up and saw a picture of my mother, Aloha, on the screen.  Ruth, LaVerne's deceased wife had given them to Heather a few years ago.  She sent them to me.  What a treat to get those treasured photos.

Saturday morning, we drove over to the local farmer's market for this first time this year.  I know I took a photo of Steve there, but somehow it got deleted.  I am glad this beautiful photo I grabbed of the Logan Temple up the street was spared.  I love this temple!

After we checked out the market, we drove over and strolled through the CV County Fair.  They have really "upped the program" this year.  This food concession must come with the carnival rides, because we have see similar concessions all over including the San Antonio Stock Show.

We heard them auctioning the sheep from the FFA and 4-H kids.  One went for a whopping $900.  Impressive!  This must be a new trend as this steer was covered in glitter.  Sparkly indeed.

We stopped by the Century Equipment booth and looked at the "Built in America" Case Equipment.

I asked a lady if I could take a photo of her curly fried potatoes.  They reminded me of fried potatoes we saw at the BBQ events in Missouri.  We decided not to purchase any food at the fair but went home and tried to eat something more healthy.  It was sure fun to look though.

I removed all the décor items off from the top of my cupboards.  Styles have changed.  Time for us to simplify.  We hope someone still likes this stuff because it will go to Steve and Greg Kerr's garage sale this next weekend.

I snapped this photo of Steve and AJ walking into church this morning.  AJ was intrigued by the dog that was following them.

After church, our ward hosted a Popsicle Social in the pavilion next door.  The kids were thrilled and there was such an abundance that they got seconds, and/or thirds.  It provided a good opportunity for visiting longer after our meetings.

We love these cute grandkids and enjoy having them over for dinner on Sundays.  Of course, dinner was served later today because everyone was full of ice cream bars.  There weren't any complaints!

July Flew By...

 July 16th was a busy day overall.  I attended my Broker Network Meeting where we were instructed about building our business through social media (I'm so glad I don't have to do that anymore), got a haircut from Jana and had a final follow-up visit with my doctor since my June 4th surgery.  The Dr. said I'm doing exceptionally well.  Steve took McKay's family to the airport that night for their all-nighter flight back to PA.  Steve had a doctor appointment the next morning and was sent to get an x-ray of his hip.  I had a board of realtors luncheon to hear about the local economic forecast and then we drove back to CV.

 I had to do a bit of real estate work since I sold two investor townhouses in July.  That meant inspections, etc.  Mostly we are trying to enjoy Taylor's family and help with the kids a bit while they ride bikes, grab lunch, do errands, etc.  Steve and Preston have become special buddies.

There is a lot of cycling going on this summer.  Steve grabbed this photo of Hilary riding past our house.

 Saturday morning on the 20th, we took the kids and joined Hilary's group at the stake 24th of July breakfast.  We volunteered to bring watermelon and amazingly, they didn't use our contribution so we took it home to use for lunch.

 We were smoking chicken on the new grill/smoker as Heather's family made a quick stop on their way back to ID from their Marcum reunion.  This allowed them to visit with Taylor's family too.  With three of our kids' families, we had a big group and Steve cooked a lot of chicken.  It was our first time to trychicken on the smoker and we learned a few things.

Everyone likes watermelon and ice cream so it turned out well.

We've loved sitting on the deck and enjoying the summer evenings and discussions with our kids and grandkids.  Most nights the sunsets have been gorgeous!

Monday evening the 22nd we joined some of our missionary friends for dinner at the Briggs' in SL.  The photo behind us includes Forsyths, Larsens, Johnsons and Briggs.  Dave is an expert at using his smoker/grill and provided us with fabulous turkey and ribs!  Next month it's our turn to host.

 Taylor is using the opportunity to cycle a lot with a local group and to go up an down the canyons and train at higher elevations.  He is King of the Hill cycling Black Smith Fork Canyon in record time.

On the 24th, we celebrated Pioneer Day by taking the kids to the parade.  Of course there was a lot of candy distributed and fortunately it wasn't too hot.  Hilary's family found this nice shady spot which helped too.

Jen and Will rode up the canyon too. 

Preston loves fruit.  He has loved the cherries and apricots we have been picking and drying.

AJ loves the cousins.  Here they watch road construction guys prepping the road for resurfacing.

 On July 26th, Jameson performed his role as the butler beautifully in the Frozen Jr. production.  They amazingly trained a huge group of children to put on this musical production in less than 2 weeks.  Jameson performed very well and knew the words to all the songs.  A lot of the neighborhood kids were in the cast also, so Hilary could carpool with the group.

Saturday, the 27th, we hosted a McMurray Reunion for descendants of Raymond and Lillian Wilson McMurray at Murray Park.  I was so happy that Jackie came down the night before and rode to Murray with us and helped us set up.

Raymond and Lillian are my mother, Aloha's parents.

 Some cousins traveled a long distance to attend.  It's been a few years since we gathered so this event was memorable though small.

 From left to right: Laurell Adams, Everyn Loveless Maslen and Marilyn Heiner (Claudia's daughters), Lillian Campbell (Glenn's daughter), Kristen (Aloha's daughter) & Steve, Vickie Ostler (Wanda's daughter), Liz Clark & Debbie Blair (Yvonne's daughters), Kara (Kent's daughter), Kent (Glenn's son), Steve Kerr  & Jackie Lofthouse (Aloha's son and daughter).

We drove back to CV after the reunion and Jackie said goodbye to Taylor's kids.  Jackie loves kids and always enjoys them.  Thanks for coming, Jackie!

 The next few days were busy with church, yard work, errands, bike rides, library visits and walks with Preston.  We tried to squeeze in all the work and fun we could with Taylor's family.

Preston and Taylor try on their new clothes that were purchased to wear to June's baptism on Saturday.

We acknowledged our 49th Anniversary on the 30th but weren't able to celebrate it that day.  The great news is that after a considerable bit of searching, we booked the Silvercrest Lodge just east of Park City, exit 152, for our 50th Anniversary celebration and reunion.   Since we built a Pine Meadows cabin with friends in the same area when the kids were young, it should be a deja vu experience.  We are also hoping to attend the temple with our adult family members to honor our first 50 years as a family.

We thinned the carrots in our garden and were able to enjoy some fresh "baby carrots."  Our garden is struggling this year but we have been busy picking and preserving cherries and apricots so that is good.

 Taylor's family packed up all their stuff and headed south the evening of our anniversary, the 30th.  Our house was suddenly empty and quiet.  It seemed so strange.
The next morning, we left early and drove to SL for the Realtor's Day at the Parade of Homes.  We wanted to enjoy the free (ha! $900) brunch and see a few of the latest model homes!

Shortly after we arrived back home that afternoon, AJ came screaming to our door.  He had been stung by a bee at the neighbor's house.  We quickly applied mud and that took the sting away.  We were happy we were there to help.  We had the exterminator treat our house yesterday.