" June is Bustin' out all Over" 

(song from my favorite 1956 show "Carousel," music by  RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN

After long and highly distinguished careers with other collaborators, Richard Rodgers (Composer, 1902-1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (Librettist/Lyricist, 1895-1960) joined forces in 1943 to create the most successful partnership in American musical theater.)

In Salt Lake, grandson Luke Carlston's baseball team wins their league championship. His twin brother John is a cyclist and cheers on his brother. A freak tornado was forecast but fortunately didn't materialize. My DR mission reunion that followed in Provo, so nicely planned by the Snows, had to disband because of the violent windstorm, though. 

The snow is now gone except on the higher peaks of the Wasatch front

I enjoyed a great weekend in California, visiting my cousin David Gibson and cute son Oscar who "flew forward" with his second grade class at Golestan School (a small progressive school founded by, staffed and attended by about 50% Persians) in El Cerrito.

I stayed with my brother Roy, wife Julie and daughter Olivia in their Oakland Hills home with fabulous view of the San Francisco bridges and Bay. And of course I love the orange California poppies.

We enjoyed "Becoming Robin Hood" at the Berkeley Playhouse after a yummy dinner at La Mediterranee (restaurant where Olivia works).

Roy obliged me by driving past the UC Berkeley International House where I lived the summer after my return from 2 years study in Germany and France before moving to an apartment to complete my senior year of college. We drove to Napa for the marriage of my cousin Nancy and husband Terry Tracy's daughter Sarah to Sharang Chakraborty.

                                           Roy, Olivia, Julie

Roy (youngest and tallest) and I (oldest and shortest) of our 6 siblings

Alethia & Larry, Aunt Julie (my mother's younger sister, turning 94!), Randy Marx (uncles & grandmother of the bride). Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of Larry's twin Doug and wife Carol who held the rehearsal dinner and provided us lunch before the ceremony at their beautiful Napa home. Below is the charming Napa Victorian Churchill Manor where Sarah's parents also married in 1994. It was the perfect venue for the ceremony, dinner and dancing on June 10, 2023.

My cousin Randy and family: Eliott, girlfriend Jessie Garland (her dad is our US Attorney General), Cynthia, and Emily Marx.

My only girl cousin, Nancy, and Terry give their only daughter "away."

Sharang's parents, grandparents, aunt, cousin and friends came from Delhi. There will be an Indian wedding there in October. The couple met several years ago at Carnegie Mellon University.

Instead of throwing her bouquet to a potential bride, Sarah gave it to her beloved grandmother, Julie Marx.

***********

Roy, Julie, Biscuit and I had a quiet walk on Monday morning in the Redwoods Park near their home in Oakland...so many downed trees, lush vegetation, and crumbling banks from 2023 rainstorms

Roy drove me on a nostalgia drive to Muir Beach, Marin Headlands, San Francisco, disappointingly foggy! But that didn't stop our picnic!

     I bet you can see part of the bridge if you look closely! (above)

                                          **************

Tuesday evening (June 13) the fun women of our Edgemont 1st Relief Society (church women's organization) had a fun potluck garden party at the beautiful home of Tanna Gledhill (third from left). The predicted rain held off! 

             Ramona (on the right) decorated the tables beautifully

***************

June 16 was the beautiful "sealing for eternity" in the Mount Timpanogos Temple of my friends Jared Landetta-Espinoza (whom I knew, along with his mother, Semiramis, and grandmother in the Guayaquil Temple and in our Urbanor ward in Ecuador) and Marisa Pincock. They met on their French/Spanish-speaking mission in Montreal. Their mission president traveled from Boise to attend and speak/toast them.

      The Ecuadorian contingent: the two fathers were especially     emotional during their toasts at the luncheon after the ceremony

Reception that evening at Riverside Country Club in Provo (with view of Mount Timpanogos

                                              ***********

Happy Father's Day this Sunday, June 18. We are grateful for all the dads, grandfathers, and male mentors in our lives, and all who have left their legacies for us. Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, is usually credited for originating Father's Day. She is said to have had the idea in 1909 while listening to a sermon on Mother's Day, which was emerging as a holiday.

....and to all the future dads: grandson Elder de Schweinitz (back, celebrating his 19th birthday in Baltimore) and others will be better dads after unselfish service, responsibility, and confidence gained as missionaries, we believe! It seemed like yesterday Nick was just a little guy (8?) on a horse being led by his dad, my son Marc.

                       A shout out and thank you to all dads!