Mid-June Adventures

I'm finally settled enough in my Provo, Utah home to have visitors!

Besides family, my friends from Venezuela, and others, I had part of my Pandemic in Palo Alto family over. Jessie and Elsie Kportufe also moved to Utah when I did. We ate, laughed, and played Bananagrams, just like we did in 2020 while sheltering at home!

My daughter Emily Taylor was determined to visit her last two U.S. states, North Dakota and Minnesota, so she invited me to ride along....and it was a lot of driving for 6 days! But so fun!

Utah was (is still) green as we left Provo, but we traveled on over long straight roads through dry Wyoming.

We stopped at Martin's Cove, where in 1856, the Martin Handcart (cheaper than covered wagon) company, composed of many European immigrants, many of whom were new members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, were camped, freezing and starving as they crossed the Sweetwater River of Wyoming, too late in the season. Brigham Young sent a rescue party from Salt Lake City. Only 13 died at the Cove.

We had a nice visit and KFC dinner with Taylor relatives in Alcova, near Caspar, Wyoming, and then headed to our Airbnb in Caspar.

Aaron, Kelly (celebrating her 17th birthday with the longest day of driving...7+hours), her friend Aubree, Lucie, and Emily at breakfast in the Airbnb. We crossed into the Black Hills of South Dakota, then North Dakota with endless acres of farmland, silos, long trains waiting to load grain and other products.

We stopped to admire Salem Sue, the nation's largest Holstein cow, created in 1974, in Salem, N.D. on the only hill around. 

The Platte is a large river which we crossed several times.

Sickie's Garage has tasty food!

After farmland for miles, we were so happy to arrive for our two-night stay at the beautiful Grand Lodge (est. 100 years ago) at Nisswa, Minnesota. It is on Gull Lake, one of the 11,000+. We were lucky to get a small room in the hotel there, but were delighted with the included swimming pools, beach, boating, and very friendly people. It is a very popular Minnesota summer vacation tradition for many families. And the weather was perfect: not hot or humid as feared.

Aaron found toads and tadpoles, but for all of us, a highlight was the Chocolate Ox ice cream and candy shop.

Paul Bunyon is alive and well! Old fire engine in front of our hotel.

From Minnesota we traveled on to Sioux Falls, largest city, but not the capital (which is Pierre) of S.Dakota, close to Minnesota and Iowa,where it was hot and humid.

Since pioneer days, many of the buildings and road pavement have been built of the red-brown Sioux Quartzite or pipestone. It is part of building aggregate today.

We crossed the Missouri River and arrived at wonderful "Bear Country" where we drove through a quite natural preserve with arctic and timber wolves, coyotes, bobcats, big horn sheep, pronghorn antelope, reindeer and lots of bears eating fish, playing, scratching their backs. The Black Hills and Badlands of S. Dakota are gorgeous!

Our next stop was Mount Rushmore with the very impressive carvings of four U.S. presidents. Boston sculptor Gutzon Borglum (of Danish descent), chose these four for, in simple terms, the following contributions to our nation: George Washington: Father of the new nation; Jefferson: the Declaration of Independence, negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase, and responsibility for the development of the Western U.S.;Theodore Roosevelt: built the Panama Canal, developed a strong military, instrumental in winning the Spanish-American War; Abraham Lincoln: saved the Union, and advocated for the Sioux.

We couldn't leave the beautiful Badlands without some time to see the ongoing creation of Crazy Horse. Henry Sitting Bull had admired the sculpture of Paderewski by Korczak Ziolkowski at the 1939 World's Fair and others of his sculptures, and invited him to create a fitting memorial to the spirit of Lakota Sioux leader Crazy Horse (and to other native Americans). He began work in 1949 work which was/is continued by his wife, 10 children, and students of the Indian University of North America (on site). It is gigantic (563'x641') and impossible without dynamite and perseverance! No end date in sight.

 Korczak and Ruth Ziolkowski

We were among the few on the road that evening through gorgeous green hills and were treated to a magnificent sunset as we drove to our last night's lodging in Lusk, Wyoming. We loved our omelettes the next morning before our LONG ride home. We stopped in Heber, Utah, to have fresh thick raspberry shakes at Granny's.

We made it! The desk I ordered 2+ months ago arrived today, so I was happy to get a bit more organized and settled in my new home! Now I need to tackle my yard. I am so blessed to have a nice home, memories of an interesting trip, and a great family. 

HAPPY FATHERS DAY! I'm grateful to have forefathers who chose to come to this country and worked hard to leave you and me a great legacy. May we all contribute in any way our time, talents, and means allow, and take none of this rich heritage for granted. May we stand up for the rights, health, safety and well-being of all people everywhere.

It's already June!

May came and went so fast! From snow to heat, nice stay with daughter Emily and family, end of the school year activities, visits with friends, baseball, soccer, plays, movies (in person), and finally getting settled after four months in Utah bouncing from family to Airbnb's to family.

Vaccines are now available to 12-15 year olds. My grand-daughter Ming Lu received hers. Please join her! It's easy and smart!

Lunch at Marlene's residence with LONG-time, former Palo Alto friends: Dawne Hollis, Marlene Meshinski, Miriam, Nettie Wise (who is doing great at 97!) We are all vaccinated!

As peaceful as life feels in our "bubble" there is still much unrest and tragedy in our world. I came across this interesting chart.

After several years (since 2014) of relative calm in Israel, violence between Israel and Gaza, between Jews and Muslims has escalated. It was the night of April 13, the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It was also Memorial Day in Israel, which honors those who died fighting for the country. The Israeli president was delivering a speech at the Western Wall, a sacred Jewish site that lies below the Al Aqsa Mosque, and Israeli officials were concerned that the prayers would drown it out and sent police in with tear gas.

The following NYT article does a pretty fair job of laying out both sides cases, I think. There has been an agreement reached, which hopefully will last??

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGkXSRLwpcQtblDzXtWMTkNwxfn

This blog is late, as I have finally moved into my new home in Provo, Utah, and am getting very happily settled. My favorites are the kitchen, large windows with views of the mountains, and rose bushes. I'm anxious to do some planting in both front and back yard, though the weather is getting hotter than I'm accustomed to. 

I would love to grow flowers like those in the beautiful bouquet grown by my daughter Julie with the green thumb!

There is a great walking/biking trail which runs for miles behind my house....and view of the mountains

.....and the pastures with or without cows and horses in the neighborhood. The snow has just about disappeared from Mount Timpanogos

I'm enjoying being part of my grandchildren's life, such as Kelly and boyfriend on the right and their friends before the prom. And spending time with the 4 kids who live here and their families.

My daughter Emily hosted a fun party for son Andrew's 6th grade party, complete with bouncy house. There was rapt attention for a slide show of class members!

Marc and family in beautiful Daybreak with lake and great views

It's great to be with almost the whole family for Mothers Day at Carlstons in Millcreek. The kids are busy playing while the adults chat.

 

It was fun to attend Zoe Taylor and Marshall Gibson's reception and get together with so many Taylors, who grew up in Palo Alto.

Amy Taylor Ringer and Megan Taylor Clawson 

Miriam, Sara Gilman, Colette Taylor, Marian Bennion Taylor, Deanne Welch, and Katy Taylor (all friends from Palo Alto, California). Sara and Paul invited me to a show in Provo.

I was pleased to have a short visit from my friend Kim Johnson (and her mission companion from Ecuador) who served in Madrid at the same time as I did. She then came to Ecuador, where we enjoyed excursions and meals together. She also came to visit her wonderful mission president Scott and Ruthanne Jackson, my across the street neighbors and our stake president, to be released this Sunday in order to serve as Mission Training Center leaders in Lima, Peru. We will miss them! Below is our Edgewood I ward and stake center, where we now meet in person each Sunday. Zoom is still available.

Our family enjoyed the recently released film "Witnesses" about the key witnesses to the ancient records on gold plates given to Joseph Smith from which the Book of Mormon was translated. Some left the church, but none ever denied that they had seen the plates.

After the show we met the actors playing the following characters: Oliver Cowdery, older David Whitmer, young David Whitmer, (guest), Joseph Smith, Emma Smith, Martin Harris

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Memorial weekend my daughter-in-law Rebecca de S. invited me to Heritage Days in an old pioneer town, Spring City, 1 1/2 hours southeast of Provo. We stopped first to put flowers on her grandparents' (grandmother's parents from Sweden, immigrant grandfather from Denmark) graves in a nearby town. Ming Lu was close to her great-grandmother Christensen.

The drive was lovely through very green spring hills, and Spring City was charming. It was settled beginning in the mid 1800's by Mormon pioneers, mostly immigrants from Scandinavia.

We enjoyed all the art in various barns, and music at the school and in Rock Church dedicated in 1914 (organ concert given by Palo Alto friend Jim Welch, also recently moved to Provo, and "period songs"sung by his sister Barbara Cramer.

We loved the ambiance, paintings, weavings, and pottery

Joe Bennion is a popular local potter with relations to our friends Dave and Connie Bennion. He also studied with our Tuscarora, Nevada friend Dennis Parks! It's a small world.

We loved the Milky Hollow Goat Farm, where Cordelia fed a newborn lamb. Some were only a day old.

A generous farmer loaded me up with beautiful rhubarb. He also had built a fantastic yurt!

These brilliant orange poppies were prolific and so spectacular!

May you enjoy a happily memorable, safe and peaceful summer!