Seder Dinner at BYU Provo

We attended a Seder "Passover" Dinner at BYU-Provo on Wed night. Oh was worth the trip to Utah. Bro. Victor Ludlow and his wife presented the evening. He started doing this about 33 years ago as a teacher of Old Testament so his students could appreciate the event more. It was fabulous!!! It started at 6:30 pm and ended at 10:15 pm. The following are photos from the evening:

Bro. & Sister Victor Ludlow
This table was set as a display of the various parts of the seder. Seder means "order".

I am sitting at our table before it starts. That is NOT wine in the carafs...it is called fruit of the wine OR grape juice!

Curtis & Sandi

Visiting Friends in Utah

We had a blast on Wednesday. After we left Kaysville, we visited a number of friends on our way southward. These photos are in reverse of who we saw first etc... But what fun it was to see old friends.

Curtis, Sandi, Korrine Lappalienen, and Sally Payne

Korrine just got home from her mission to Antafagasta, Chile in February. Sally is thinking of another mission. She has already gone on two! They were friends from our Tucson days.
Eric, Jenni and baby. They were in our ward in Avondale. They are doing very well.

Gil (sounds like Jill) ... she was born in Sweden and has been doing genealogy stories with Curtis. She went back to Sweden a few weeks ago and brought us a gate nail from the old homestead. Was a fun quick visit to exchange stories!

Heidi Walsh and her three kiddos. It was so great to see her. Elizabeth was excited to see us.

Snow SNOW SNOW

We went out to dinner and it was raining. By the time we got home to hubby's parents house...it started snowing. This is what it looked like when we went to bed. A touch of Christmas!!!

This is the front walk up to the front door.

Sandi's car about 11:00 p.m.

Sandi's car the next morning. There was 18" that fell over night. Curtis had lots of fun (NOT!) removing it and shoveling walks. That is why we live in Arizona to avoid these kind of moments.

This is a photo of where he found the headlights! BRRRRR!

Easter Afternoon

Easter afternoon was spent with lots of Nielson family and food. The following are just samples of the day. What a wonderful Easter! Especially hearing words from our dear Prophet, Pres. Thomas S. Monson.

Our niece, Christi in her new home. It was a lovely visit. She has a huge yard!
Nephew Jeffrey...his brother is serving a mission in St Louis, MO. Jeffrey grew!!!!

Another nephew & niece, Wes & Alli

After mid-day meal, everyone watching afternoon conference on tv.

Statue on Temple Square of Brigham Young. I love this statue. He is striding with a purpose!

Curtis after the morning session of conference. It was cold out!

Salt Lake Temple. This is where we were married almost 35 years ago!

General Conference Weekend 2010

Every April and October The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints holds a General Conference of all the members of the Church. We were able to be in Utah for the April Conference. Hubby's sister was able to get us tickets (they are free to all) for Sunday morning Session along with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Spoken Word on Easter Sunday. It was wonderful. When we parked under the Church Headquarters we had a pass to park with the General Authorities. We parked next to Sister Allred and Sister Thompson of the Relief Society General Presidency. I was so excited to see people I recognized!!! We then walked over to the Conference Center. We had seats on the floor. If you face the pulpit area, we were on the left with the General Authorities! As we were being seated the usher looked at our tickets and said "Oh, you are seated with the important people." It was so fun. The couple who sat behind us was Bro. & Sister Peterson who were the Mesa Temple Visitor Center a few years back. I recognized him. We didn't see anyone else around us we recognized except for hubby's parents neighbors..who sat in front of us! The following are some photos taken (in reverse order actually taken) at conference:

Taken at the end of the morning session where President Monson is leaving towards the right.
Us at Conference in our seats.

This was during the spoken word with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Taken before we left the center. Choir was practicing behind us for the afternoon session.

Visit with old Friends

Enjoyed a visit with Brenda and her hubby, Kevin, on Friday. Low and behold, Audrey and kids were there too! Audrey took me to see their new house. They are painting and getting it ready to move into. It will only be 2 miles north of her mom. Not bad for Grandma to see those little tykes!

Storms while Traveling

As we traveled to Utah we had storms all around us. It made the traveling very nice. We never had bad weather on us, but we could see it in the distance! The follow pictures are just in reverse order of the trip. But you get the idea.

This was driving up the west side of Utah Lake. You ccan see Mt Timpanogus off in the distance...but look at that black cloud to the left of it. It was churning up the waters and you could see nothing over there.

Hat to stop in Scipio, UT. This is "Holy Land" to the Nielson Family. This was an old homestead. Getting dilapidated! We don't own it any more...but it is fun to check out.

This is the intersection in Scipio, UT for all the family to find NEXT time.

This was Flagstaff, AZ on our way up. Looks like we brought the snow to Utah!

A Perm

Isn't life wonderful when you get a perm? I didn't have to do anything with it this morning...and it probably looked like a fat perm. But what can you do for the first week anyway with it? It certianly brought out my natural highlights...(silver)...only it looks sort of blond? I was standing in the light reading a scripture last night and someone told me that I looked like an Angel! Now that was a first. Anyway...I love perms...they hold curl for an entire year! Now on to the next event!

Bad, Bad People!!!

Today on this beautiful Sabbath - we discovered that some horrible people decided to spray paint our subdivision! Hubby and I drove around and took 22 photos of different markings! Fortunately this morning some really good homeowners called the police and they took reports on several of the locations. You work really hard to make a nice place for everyone to live and some "gadianton" rides in with red or green spray paint and marks everything up! I would sure like to find a zapper that would work to "zap" them when they press that paint trigger button! UGGGGGHHHHH!

Preparing for Company

Isn't it amazing that when you have company coming you all of a sudden have a deep desire to do Spring Cleaning!??? Well, that is what happened today. We are having our son-in-law's parents arriving tomorrow on their way to Texas for their daughter's Texas wedding reception. So this morning prompted deep cleaning. We cleaned blinds, ceiling fans, bathrooms, changed sheets, did laundry, iron, scrubbed floors, vaccuumed, and dusted. WOW the house looks great. But since they have only been here once (I think) they won't notice...but I feel it deep inside my bones! Thanks to a wonderful hubby who got right in with me to clean. What a day!

Scenes of Arizona

I have been blessed to live in a very beautiful state...the State of Arizona. However, all the pollen that has erupted due to all of our rain has played complete havoc with my allergies and breathing! But...inspite of all that, this is a beautiful State! Whenever I hear on the radio the song "Arizona" I tear up and cry! The following are pictures taken this weekend in Pinal County towards Superior, Arizona.

This is a Hawk.

Sandi by the side of the road looking at all the beautiful wildflowers. It looks like Heavenly Father just painted a masterpiece for us to enjoy. I had to get out and pick one of each kind to put in my journal - so I could remember this beautiful day! As I would read pioneer stories and hear of weddings and gathering wildflowers for the bride - I could only think of weeds...until today! What a sight!

This is Queen Creek! I knew of the city, but had no idea it started up in Globe, came down a canyon. It passes through the Boyce Thompson Arboretum just west of Superior, AZ.
Pink wildflowers in bloom! Gorgious.

Standing near the Queen Creek is this scene looking up toward the mountains with the splendor the Saguaro Cactus. I miss these Giants of Tucson Sonoran Desert! You don't see them in the Phoenix area like in Tucson.

This is Picketpost house - where Boyce Thompson lived in the 1920's. He is the one who started the first Magma Copper Mine in Superior at the turn of the century. Magma Copper of San Manuel took the name from this place. Would have been nice to take a tour of the house...but it is private property.

This is the Lake at the Arboretum. There were several ramadas around.

It is part of the reparian for the Arboretum.

We had a great day, then drove south to Florence to Hunt Highway and drove in the back way to Queen Creek and Gilbert, AZ to visit Peter's family briefly. Amazing all that has changed in that area with housing!!!! That place is booming. But what a wonderful day we had in the desert of the sun!

The Dews & a Birthday

There is this group of senior citizens (about 87 in all) that have had fun for many years making music and enjoying being together. They are called "The Dews". They play country music and sound great! Each of "The Dews" has a "dew" name. Like my mom is Please Do, my dad is Gonna Dew, my Aunt is Dabba Dew, etc. Whenever someone is having a party, they all get together and entertain everyone else. My Uncle turned 75 and so a get together. Here are some photos of the event.

Lorraine "Shouldn't Dew", Gene "Should Dew", Les "Less DEW"

playing music and singing.
Sandi, Curtis, my mom Betty holding baby Autumn (her great granddaughter)

Uncle Jim "Data Dew" - a wopping 75 years old!

Aunt Marlene "Dabba Dew", Aunt Ida "Never Dew",

Uncle Dick "Used to Dew", Betty "Gonna Dew" holding Autumn

My talented Dad "Gonna Dew" playing the banjo ukelela.

Some of the Dews are dying off. But what a nice bunch of people. We enjoyed a great spread of food and entertainment and visiting! Happy Birthday Uncle Jim!

Disneyland with some of the Family

The first week of March we had a wonderful time. Heidi's family, Serina & Nick, and us all met up at our time share in Anaheim, California. We had two 2-bedroom suites. Worked out great. One suite for the Larkins and one for the rest of us. We all went together on Tuesday to Disneyland. Curtis and I went on Wednesday with the Larkins, while Nick tried surfing and Serina watched! Thursday was the Haines turn with the Larkins and Curtis and I went to the Los Angeles Temple for a day of service. Was great! Here are some photos that give a typical look at our week.

Disneyland - famous night look from Main Street

Sandi in front of the Los Angeles Temple. We did two sessions and
a sealing session. Even ate in the Cafeteria and visited
with some really nice temple workers.

The stroller brigade!!! We are all waiting for the parade to begin at California Adventure.
This was a Pixar Parade. I got excited to see Mater and Lightening McQueen!

This is in California Adventure. Curtis, Sandi, Christian, Noelle, Haven, Haley

Nick & Serina were great help! Haven's new best friend is "Uncle Nick"!!!
Christian, Haven and Haley. This was on the Jungle Cruise. Serina is wearing
maternity clothes now!

The entire gang in front of the shuttle the first morning at Disneyland.
We were all so excited to have fun together! And we Did!!

The great thing about staying at the time share is it has a minor kitchen. So Heidi was wonderful and cooked gourmet breakfasts for us all every morning. Tues - French Toast and fruit, juice. Wed - Whole Grain pancakes, fruit, juice. Thurs - egg mclarkin, bacon, juice, milk, fruit. Fri - left overs of all the breakfasts! We also made sandwiches and packed them in the bags for Disney lunches. We only had to buy food out once for evening meal. What a wonderful time.

Elected School Board President

It has been so fun serving on the Littleton School District Board. We just had our District Office dedication (brand new building) and our maiden board meeting in the new offices last night. Dedication plaque hanging in front foyer.

Wall in District Office. Pictures of the Board Members.

Here is Jeannie and I cutting the ribbon while Kathy, Sally, and Dr. Freeman look on.

My portion of the desk. I was re-elected President for 2010.