Whit's Birthday Pictures

I finally finished Tennyson's quilt top.

Jim is picking up the batting in Salt Lake tomorrow and then I can get busy quilting. I will put pictures of the finished quilt up soon.

Precious hand-made dishclothes by Sara.

Cooking can now commence

Candles arranged by Jonas, Gabriel and Maren.

No boyfriends!




Wild and crazy Musical Chairs

Smokey Days!

We woke up this morning to a thick haze of smoke. We don't know of any fires close so this must be smoke that has come up from the fire in southern Utah.

If you click on the picture you can barely see the stacks of the Hunter Plant in the background.

I can usually see Cedar Mountain from this view.

This is where I look for Window Blind and the Swell.

I'm pretty much confined to the house today. Smoke is the very worst thing to kick up my asthma. All of us are hoping they can get these fires out soon. Especially those that have homes in it's path.
I guess I can watch the first round of the U.S. Open, do more laundry and read some more Georgette Heyer. I have been revisiting some of her books that I read many years ago that were not among my personal favorites. I guess as a girl of seventeen and eighteen I didn't appreciate a heroine of 25 or 26. I am currently reading Bath Tangle. I have finished The Nonesuch, The Corinthian and The Masqueraders and found that I can appreciate them much more as an adult woman in my middle years.
I thought that I would be canning tomatoes at this time of year but alas, while I was in Idaho a foraging deer discovered my lovely vines weighed down with ripening tomatoes. I was not aware until this year that deer would eat tomatoes (even green ones). My vines have been stripped. Phil and Marilyn have had the same problem but were able to save a few which they have generously shared with us. Well, I still have my zucchini.

I just want to tell Zack that we love him and will be praying for his success in the mission field.

On the Farm!

Alan's new farm hands.

Morgan, Leah, Hannah, Jonas and Maren.

Hannah taking a turn driving.

We love tractors.

A beautiful prospect.

Cooking, Cleaning and Stuff

Tennyson made us this delicious salad the other day. We've been trying to eat more fruits and vegetables at our house. The tomatoes are from Lizzy's garden.

Whitney got a chance to cook at the Shurtliff's house.


The Green River melons are here, Banner loves them.

Tennyson cleaned her room and look what she found!

My collection of Lion House cookbooks is almost complete. I think I am only missing Lion House Weddings. I have the original Lion House, Lion House Lite, Lion House International, Lion House Entertaining, Lion House Desserts and Lion House Christmas.

This is the recipe for Cabbage Rolls or Burgers that Les wanted a long time ago. Start with a pound and a 1/2 of ground beef. Cook until brown. Drain.

Add salt.

Pepper.

One medium onion, diced.

One or two carrots, peeled and grated.

One small head of cabbage or 3/4 of a large, sliced thinly.

Cook until vegetables are tender with the meat.

One recipe of Lion House Dinner Rolls. This will make 32 rolls. If you don't want to make your own dough you can use Rhodes Rolls, thawed. I can make the dough in about 2 and 1/2 hours so it isn't really any faster to use frozen roll dough. It takes at least that much time to thaw them.
What I'm really saying is make your own dough, it's good practice.

I divide the dough in half. Each half will make 16 rolls. You should have pieces of dough about this size.

Roll each piece of dough out until flat and round.

Put a heaping spoonful of filling on the dough.

Fold the edges closed.

Put on a greased cookie sheet with the folded edges down.

Let the dough raise for at least and hour.

Bake at 375 degrees for 13-15 minutes.

Serve while they are hot. This is a family favorite at our house.

Here She Comes!

I received a phone call and an e mail from Whitney's mission today. It's all set. She will be arriving at the SLC airport on July 16th at 7:45 PM. She will be flying on American Airlines from Dallas so we will meet her at terminal 1. She has asked that we go to the temple on friday morning before we drive home to Emery County. I thought all those that wanted to could come with us to the Jordan River temple on friday and then it will be home to Orangeville/Castle Dale. Whitney's homecoming will be on July 19th at 9:00 AM in the Orangeville Church. We hope you can all make it. I'm sure she will have many wild and crazy along with spiritual stories to tell us. Thank you for all your love and support while she has been gone.

She's Fine As Far As We Know!

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

The missionaries know nothing about what is going on. Whitney texted Miranda today and asked if they were in a war. We received a phone call earlier today from Elder Mitchell who is an A.P. and he said Whitney is fine, let's just hope she and all the others stay that way.

Our Trip to the Midwest!

Coming out of the Eisenhower tunnel in Colorado.

We must be in Nebraska.

Here we are in Carthage.

I don't know what to do with her.

The back of the jail.

The wrong visitor's center in Nauvoo. I just used their bathroom and then we left.

An original sunstone.

We're coming out of the right visitor's center with maps and proper directions.

Some beautiful flora.

The Nauvoo Printing Office. Most all of the buildings are made of this pretty red brick.

Look who we found at Lyon Drug.

There were many beautiful old quilts displayed on the top floor of the social hall.

Here is Bill Dye at the Tin Smith Shop.

Banner posing at her Dad's favorite place, the Browning Gun Shop.

Tennyson enjoying the pretty flowers.

The temple was beautiful.

I hope the girls will always remember this trip.

Tennyson swinging with the temple in the background. She and Banner were free to do what they wanted while we were inside the temple.

Jim and I on the steps after a session.

Banner, Me, Tennyson, Brooks and Miranda.

This is a statue of Joseph and Hyrum leaving Nauvoo for the last time to go to Carthage. It is just west of the temple and overlooks the Mississppi River.

Now we are at Anne Adele's. It was kind of chilly so Jim decided to make a fire in the fire pit.

This is a picture of our deluxe sleeping accomodations in A.A.'s basement. When we got there she told me that Jim and I had a "good" bed. Not only did we get this bed, we shared our basement suite with, Tennyson at the head of our bed, Banner at the side of our bed, Rachel at the foot of our bed on a bean bag chair, and A.A.'s grandson sleeping on the floor in the storeroom. Miranda and Brooks were in the next bedroom which we had to go through to get to the bathroom. There were 16 people at the house that night. Eventually Jim go out of the bed and went to sleep in the Suburban, little did he know that Maurie was also asleep outside in their van. I must of been exhausted to be able to sleep at all. I woke up in the morning and the air had leaked out of the mattress under my head. You can see that in the picture. My head was on the floor and my feet were about 2 feet higher than my body. I told Anne Adele that she had negative 4 stars for sleeping accomodations but she could improve her rating with good food.
She succeeded.

Here we are in downtown Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Jim is trying snowboarding for the first time.

I felt right at home with the fake Mama pig and her piglets.

I'd like to see her try this with a real cow.

Happy clowns?

What is this? Hitler Youth?

This is the only German U-Boat that is still in existence. It was captured and kept top secret during World WarII. This turned the tide in the naval battle for the Allies because they were able to get lots of information off of this boat and from the crew.

Do you recognize this car? It is the Weasley's flying car from the Harry Potter movies.

This is Lake Michigan with Chicago in the background.
The tall building is the Sears Tower.

A cruise ship on Navy Pier.

Relaxing on the Pier.

This reminds me of the PDA couple from the John Mayer concert.

The Navy Pier has a display of stained-glass windows.

We had a wonderful time on our trip. It was topped off by the fun Open House for Noah and Becky. I have made it a goal to visit Anne Adele and her family more often. We won't wait another 20 years before we go back.