Sarah's new car

Today Our youngest daughter got her first car. Getting this car is far from frivolous. Since the Van died earlier this month three of us have been sharing one car.
With the purchase of this car, life just got a little easier. Our girl can get to work, school and other activities. Her dad can stop hitching rides to work with his co-workers.
The mom is counting on both of them to share if they want groceries to continue magically appearing in the kitchen.


Looking under the hood:
Getting behind the wheel:
Signing papers:

A matching set; Our regular car on the left and the new Used car on the right. It's a 2002 Nissan Sentra.


After picking up the car we did a caravan over to our sons student apartment which was nearby:


The kitchen he shares with some other students; pretty clean for a bunch of guys.


Our son demonstrated his skills with a shaving strap and a sharp razor blade (This made me a little uncomfortable). He also has a shaving mug and lather brush. He claims it gives him a closer shave. This is the same way my grandfather shaved.


In his living room with very bare walls. This has made his mother determined to get these guys some wall art!

Playing Wii with his sister by his side:



Here we are out in the parking lot where our son is putting on a new license plate with his dads tools. Notice that all of our cars are shades of maroon. It wasn't deliberate, but it will seem that way when they're all parked together.


There's nothing like a new car to get a teenage girl smiling.


To celebrate getting a new car and to see our starving student get a meal, we stopped at a sandwich shop.


Below are a couple of videos; The first is a thrilling demo of how to properly use a shaving strap.
The second is of bowling with Wii. We also did a four player game of Tennis with Wii. The dad was really huffing and puffing like it was real exercise; so humorous.



I want to put in a plug for the Farmers Market. My husband and I went to one this morning and it was fantastic. It was a bonus to go on a Holiday weekend (Labor day) because there were musicians and lots of interesting booths besides at least 30 vegetable and fruit stands. We got some corn, cantaloupe, green beans, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers (6 for a $1.) and some fresh basil. I have never had fresh basil in my whole life (just dried) and it was amazing. I loved it on my salad this afternoon.
We were so impressed with the Farmers market at Pioneer park in Salt Lake City, that we're going back next Saturday. I can't believe that I've never gone before!

Lauries picture

The Blog preceding this is of my sister Laurie's funeral. I posted too many pictures and I wasn't allowed to add the most important one. The picture of her in younger and happier days.
I wouldn't have been content to leave it out.

Lauries Funeral

On Saturday evening my younger sister, Laurie, died. Fortunately she was attended at that time with most of our family. This took place in her home, which was her wish.
Today, Wednesday Aug. 6, we had her funeral. It's been partially healing for us as a family.
I've posted as many pictures as I could here. There are many more and I've made a CD for several family members. I particularly wanted to do that for those who could not make it, although they wanted to be here very badly.

Her many beautiful flowers in the funeral home:


Our Mom:



My niece in the middle and great nieces to the sides:



My moms brother:

Our Dad:


A brother:

Our youngest brother helping mom leave the grave site:



Two of my three children:

Just before the grave dedication:


In getting ready to have our picture taken here, our oldest sister did a kind of roll call to get us lined up. Out of habit she also called Laurie's name. We all looked at her and just said "She"s here". It was a light moment in our day. Just for the record; we have another sister, named Denise, but she lives out of state and was unable to make it.


Me with a rose I was allowed to take from her flower spray. I'm pressing it for a keep sake.

A video:




After an emotional morning, our dad took about 30+ people to Chuck-a-Rama for lunch.




To those in the family who could not come, we missed you, but we thought of you and I hope this Blog helps you to feel included. Watch for your CD in the mail, with all of the pictures.

Timpanooeke Hike

Joe and I made a one hour drive to the Timpanooeke trail head. We got on the trail at 9:00 a.m. and came off of the trail at 6:30 p.m. That's 9 1/2 hours. We spent an hour at the top. We could have gone further up if we had left earlier this morning. We'll do this again sometime. Further up there's a glacier that some people were sliding down.
I've posted some pictures of the trail.

This is as far as we went. At least we felt rewarded for our hard work.

A shot of me on the way up:

We ran into Larry Nuttal and his daughter up there. He hadn't done this trail in two years and happened to pick the same day that we did. They actually got started earlier than us and got to slide down the glacier. We have got to do that someday.

Because of the way the trail switch backs up the mountain, we crossed different sections of this stream about 6 times. It flowed over the trail.


Near the top there was a landscape of greenery and wild flowers.



More trail scenery:

Wild flowers:

A Friday Night

This evening we went to the home of some people that we really didn't know before tonight.
My husband works with the father of this family in his office. We have children close in age. Our families seem to be similar in many ways and we had an enjoyable Friday night with them.
I like this first picture for the simple reason that my camera shy daughter couldn't hide this time. She had to 'freeze' in a position that others had placed her in. It was part of a silly game that we played after dinner.



Here Sarah is attempting to hide behind her brother, but I caught her this time.

I was so glad to see my son. He lives in an apartment near his school, and conveniently not too far from the home we were visiting. He came over to join us for the evening.

We had a nice meal and an enjoyable time:

Gardens

Today my husband and I strolled around at Thanksgiving Point Gardens for a couple of hours. It's our little escape. It's very hot today and the flowers are in full bloom. You'll notice that there are three video's. I don't think that the pictures require commentary; just enjoy the scenery.

Birthday party

Every July our family gets together to visit and celebrate some birthdays; Dad, myself, and my brother, Brian, have date's that are close. Dad and I are just one day apart.
This year was pretty special. Dad wrote a portion of his life history and read it to us. There were things that we had not known before. He's led a very interesting life and is so successful and smart.

This first picture is of my sister in law (Stacey) and her 2 month old baby girl.
Dad is there behind her, and that's Bradly (my brother/Stacey's husband) by the wall.


This next one is my sister Debera's husband and daughter.


That's mom in the red shirt, Bradly, Dad and the back of Debera's head (Sorry Deb).



This one is almost the same, but it has my son in the foreground.



This one shows my son and daughter. She's being a teenager and turning her back on my camera. I've got lot's of great pictures of the back of her head. At the round table is my brother (Brian) and my husband, but he's in shadow. In the foreground is mom.
Our family is large and spread out around the country. We're always missing someone at these gatherings, but we always think of them.