Saturday, April 23, 2011

Pre-Wedding Lunch

One reason we made the January trip to Utah was to attend the wedding reception of Travis and Lindsea. Nikki planned and prepared a pre-wedding lunch at her home for everyone to get together the day before.

Seated at the table (left to right) Joe, Travis, Dale, Corey, Susan and Sarah. Unfortunately, Nikki had to work and came in later and Lindsea had wedding stuff to do so they weren't there. Oh, and Derek was there too. It was very, very strange seeing Susan (and Sarah and Travis) sit where I usually sit knowing that she lives in Florida and here she was in Utah. Then there was the after-dinner-see-ya-later-thanks-for-coming snowball fight.

Belated 2010 Christmas

Our belated Christmas celebration came early in the morning. I'd forgotten how early little guys get up and I went straight from the bed to the presents.

In case anyone forgets years from now, Derek was heavy into "Cars" items. He got a set of "Cars" dishes from Papa Joe and Grandma Carol.

Goody! More blocks! These are wooden ones since Derek doesn't throw things much anymore. And we've got books, too! Look, it's a "Cars" robe!

More "Cars" dishes...
A rainstick...My baby got a pink fireman t-shirt...

January 2011 Trip To Kids

In January of 2011, Joe and I finally got to leave Casper for the first time in six months due to all the medical problems Joe had been experiencing. Since we hadn't been able to spend Christmas with the kids, we were going to celebrate it during this trip. Though the weather was quite nice with the sun shining, it became one of the hardest trips I'd ever driven to Utah.
The following pictures show what is known as "cloud inversion". It is mainly caused when the temperatures at ground level are colder than those above at certain altitudes. Normally it is where the change in temperature is that determines the altitude at which the inversion takes place. The warmer temperature above keeps the clouds in place.

There were times it seemed as if the road was going to run straight into the clouds.

The picture below shows more of the cloud phenomena. If you look near the bottom of the next picture you will see a "V" in the mountains. That is known as "Devil's Gate" which is located right next to Martin's Cove. The site, significant in the history of western pioneers, was a major landmark on the Mormon Trail and the Oregon Trail although the actual routes of travel did not pass through the very narrow gorge.

These flags flying at the Independence Rock rest area and show how briskly the wind was blowing when we stopped for a break.

These mountains are near one of the Continental Divide areas we pass over. Notice the solid white snow-covered mountains which we eventually drive by.

Before we got to the interstate, we started seeing lots of blowing snow. Sometimes it was so bad I had to pull over off the road because I couldn't see.

The following two pictures show the parking lot at a gas station we stopped at along the interstate. The second one is a handicap parking space.

This deer and buffalo herd was looking for food at one of the rest areas where we stopped.


The sun was trying to break through the clouds.


We finally arrived after 9 1/2 hours - the longest it has ever taken for us to drive there.

Early Morning Winter Moon

These pictures were taken one morning when I was waiting on my ride to come pick me up to go to work. It was a cold winter morning about 5:00 a.m. and the moon was shining across the street. The moon was so full and bright that it just lit up the neighborhood and it looked like late afternoon.


Sunday, April 3, 2011

Branch Memory

The Tabernacle Choir just finished singing "Till We Meet Again" at the April 2011 General Conference. That song always brings back memories for me.

When we lived in Japan, we had a very small branch of approximately 60 members total. Whenever a family left to return to the states, it seemed to be a tradition to sing that song on the last Sunday that family was there. So, the song evokes a whole lot of memories for me.