Loren and Anne's New Townhouse
Loren and Anne are the proud new owners of a darling townhouse just south of the Provo Cemetery. We were down in Provo celebrating Claudia Breinholt Steed's (my grandmother) 85th birthday and the kids invited us over to their house afterwards for dinner and games. We had a yummy chicken stew and learned to play a new favorite game of theirs called Dominion. It is a bit tricky to learn at first, but is really fun once you get the hang of it. Even though we aren't grandparents yet, it gave us a taste of the "grandparent" stage — going to our kids' house for the party instead of everyone coming here — it was fun to be the guests!
Alan's dad Wally was out of town this year, so we didn't get to celebrate with him, but we did have a nice dinner / get-together with all of our Provo children here to join us. Even though I should have been doing the cooking, Alan easily agreed to barbequing some fresh salmon on cedar planks. We tried doing that a couple of times last year and really enjoyed it. It was a nice afternoon together. We ended the evening watching the "Singin in the Rain" movie that I gave him — what a great movie!
Elliot got to participate in our stake's pioneer trek up in Wyoming this month. It involved several hundred youth and leaders, a big budget and much planning. All we had to do was have Elliot dressed in pioneer attire with a bit of camping gear. It was an amazing experience for everyone and Elliot is lucky to have been able to be a part of it. Each youth "trekked" for a specific pioneer from the past and was able to relive many famous pioneer stories that were re-enacted by youth and leaders, including the boys all having the opportunity to carry the girls across the chest high cold river. Unfortunately (in my opinion) they were all fed wonderful food the whole time including many snacks and treats, so they didn't really get a feel for the fact that the original pioneers were existing on a mere four ounces of flour a day. Even with all the effort made by the leaders to give the kids a taste of what it would have been like to pull handcarts, etc., I'm sure we will never understand the cost and sacrifice that was really made on our behalf.
Clark wasn't 14 so he couldn't go on the trek, but the scouts planned a backpacking trip down to Escalante, Utah while the trekkers were gone, so he got to go and have his own adventure. His troop has some great kids in it and he has great leaders as well, who are very dedicated to keeping the kids safe and making sure they have a good experience. They got rained on a bit, but had gorgeous scenery which included their destination — the 130-foot Calf Creek Falls. We haven't gotten photos from the leaders yet, but Clark found a couple on the Internet so that we could show you. In contrast to Elliot being provided with food that he didn't have to carry, Clark had to carry all of his with him. He did great planning and was able to travel fairly light! Both the boys came home tired and dirty, but having had a great experience.
So our cute missionary daughter was hoping she had sent us a CD of photos, but in actuality sent us a blank CD, so we don't really have any new photos, although we did grab a couple off an e-mail that she sent us. Apparently as they were getting ready to finish the mission, President and Sister Engbjerg hosted a few openhouses to say goodbye to members and missionaries. Sister Engbjerg asked Tess and her companion to help do some of the shopping, cooking and cleaning at the mission home. It was a fun break from the normal missionary routine. So we have a couple of pictures from that time and we hopefully will have more next month.