Pioneer Day concert - yippee!

Okay, it's time for me to write a few words again -- this online journaling thing is kind of fun! :-) Though it takes some diligence and attention, I must say.

Thanks to my wonderful sissie, Nancy I had the opportunity to attend the annual Pioneer Celebration concert in Salt Lake City on Saturday evening. It was presented by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square and the guest performers were the Osmond Family (all of them!). http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/mormon-tabernacle-choir-and-osmonds-celebrate-utah-s-pioneer-day. What a wonderful experience it was. Tickets were given away (not sold) and many people won their tickets through an online drawing. Our dear friend Sabrina and her mom got tickets for the Friday night performance that way, and (bless them!) they had invited Ruth and I to go with them. But because the home fireworks were pretty bad in our area on Thursday (and Brizzy reacted so badly to them) I chose to stay home so I could take the dogs away during the "danger hours" (9:00-11:00 p.m.). I REALLY wanted to go but the Osmonds have special meaning for Ruth and I knew she needed to be the one to go. I never dreamed I'd still get the chance (bless you Sissie!). Here's a review of the Friday night performance: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10006248?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com&IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com.

By Saturday evening I think everyone had run through their fireworks quota (and it rained anyway - yay!) so I felt I could go. And it turns out Nancy had a ticket for Ruth so she got to go again too. :-) Ruth grew up in Cajun country in Louisiana, and she was one of the many MANY people introduced to the Church in her teen years by the Osmonds (oh that good-looking Donny -- he caught the eye of a lot of teens). You can see why they hold a special place in her heart. Someday if I can, I'll try to talk her into telling you her story.

What a wonderful experience the concert was! It was held at the Conference Center (and on that Saturday evening ALL 25,000 SEATS were filled - whew!). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conference_Center. We were on the far left side of the balcony and though some might think those were lousy seats, once the concert began it didn't matter at all thanks to the spirit of the music (and performers), the excellent accoustics and sound system, and the large screens on both sides of the podium (and above the heads of the choir). We arrived just a little before 6:30 p.m. and parked at the Triad Center which was about 4 city blocks away. Talk about a fast, hot walk with a HUGE crowd of people! Hah. Because of incoming storms it was NOT our usual bone-dry desert air ... oh no, we were dealing with at LEAST 25% humidity which for most of us desert-dwellers is a huge (and difficult) adjustment (you southerners would just laugh at 25% being "high humidity"). I was drip-ping wet by the time we walked our four blocks. Whew. Still, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. We had to meet up with Nancy to get the tickets from her, and at first we thought we weren't going to find her! The heat had zapped her cell phone. But we did connect and they let us in. Nancy and Randy's tickets were for a different section so we didn't get to sit with them (I would've loved to) but at least I got the chance to hug her before we parted ways. :-)

As I said, the concert was WONDERFUL. I am ever amazed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the beauty of their sound, and I really enjoyed the music they had chosen to sing. They were alternately serious and playful, and I thought it was cool that they backed up the Osmonds for most of their songs. They even participated in Donny and Marie's joking around by singing "She's a little bit couunntrryyy" ... "He's a little bit rock and rooolllllll." I was also very taken with the Osmond family. I've never been one of the many, many devoted fans but I've always enjoyed their music and I especially gained an appreciation of Donny's current music since that first album of current Broadway songs. Their talent is dead-on and the vocal BLENDING ... wow. I'll swear that kind of blend only comes among family members, you know? You see it with other performing family groups too.

I was deeply touched by a few things: first, I was struck by the thought that here was an incredibly talented family, big-time stars, performers all over the world for 50 years ... and they believe the same things I do. We feel the same, they and I! It was a tender thought. I felt a kinship with them ... and not just with the Osmond family but with all the people in the Choir and Orchestra too. I felt a feeling of FAMILY. We are all part of a family who believes in God, in our Savior Jesus Christ, and we are striving to be like Them. Secondly, the Osmonds were deeply emotional during some of their songs (especially when they sang, "Through the Years"). This concert was the culmination of their 50th Anniversary World Tour, and I'm sure they had many feelings about it ending, about how they loved each other, maybe even some thoughts that this might be the last time they ever performed all together. And they had to've been missing their parents who recently died. Their emotion touched me and I'm sure it touched most everyone else in the Conference Center too because everyone gave them a HUGE standing ovation. I wish you could have felt the electricity in the room -- the love between performers and audience just didn't come across on the re-broadcast. And people cheered for them for SEVERAL minutes -- way past the point when people usually stop clapping. I kept thinking, "It is such a privilege to be a part of this!" And since I'm a big softy, I cried a bit too (of course!).

Lastly, I had the most amazing experience at the very end, when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang the final song, "Come Come Ye Saints." A traditional, well-beloved Mormon pioneer hymn and I have heard it and sang it a million times, but for some reason this time ... this rendition ... I don't know. There was a spirit to the song that just ... flowed outwards and I was caught up in it. I really, really felt the words of the hymn perhaps for the first time in my life. "Though hard to you, this journey may appear" ... "Happy Day, All is Well" ... "And should we die, before our journey's through ... we then are free from toil and sorrow too" ... "All is well, All is well." Suddenly, as the refrain "All is Well, All is Well" echoed through the verses, I got the strongest, strangest feeling that all WAS well and all IS good. It's so hard to explain. I even found my heart saying, "if I should have to give up my life right now I finally, finally could (though I don't EVER want to) because I have now begun to learn what REALLY matters. And I don't have to worry anymore -- Heavenly Father and the Savior really are in charge -- of everything." Wow. All IS well!

And you want to hear something shivery? When I talked to Mom the other day she said she had the same exact feeling through that hymn as she watched the re-broadcast on T.V. Wow. Maybe we were both given that gift because both of us have worried much about the future, about the horrible stuff happening in our world, about the welfare of our family and friends. Maybe both of us needed to know that truly, all is well indeed. I'm not sure of the "why's," but I'm sure of the experience and I feel much gratitude for it. What a great evening!

And there it goes ...

Late last week we lost another "big one" in our neighborhood ... the giant, beautiful old maple in our neighbor's yard. It was just too old and I guess even trees have to eventually move on, yes? I wonder if there's a special place in the Spirit World just for trees? I hope so. It was harder to see this grand old monarch go than I thought. And it was sudden too. My neighbors didn't want to cut the tree down but as you can see in my photo string, they pretty much had no choice. The tree had cracks up the main trunk and one large branch had already sheared off during the last windstorm. Better to lose the tree than have it fall down onto their house, OUR house, another neighbor's house, or someone's car.

Still, these beautiful giant trees bring so much character to our neighborhood (not to mention all that good carbon dioxide going up into the atmosphere). It's sad to see them go ... it changes the face of our homes and street. It's kind of similar to what some of us were talking about yesterday: we have a lot of older people in our church Ward who bring so much character and value and wisdom and downright goodness to our area. We hate the thought of losing them someday, though it's a fact that we will because EVERYONE (and obviously EVERYTHING) must "graduate" eventually. But when it happens it changes the face of our neighborhood and it's just never quite the same again. I guess it shouldn't be ... moving forward is important.

Well, I may never get to spend time with this tree again, but I'm fully expecting (and wanting) to spend time again with our human monarchs, when we all meet (someday) in the Spirit World.

Ruth suggested to our neighbor that he pull up and plant one of the many, many baby treelings that keep coming up in our yard (the maple was VERY generous with its seeds) but he just laughed. I guess that means they plan to put down sod instead!

It does mean no more shade for our woofs, which ... you guessed it ... means THEY will get their coolness from another source (US, of course).

4th of July Vacation

[WARNING WARNING -- I'm know for being a very ... WORDY person. This is a looonnngg post]

Every year for the past ... wow! Six or seven years now, Ruth and I have taken the dogs away for the 4th of July. It started out as a way to get them away from all the fireworks in our neighborhood (is there a dog out there who doesn't hate all those loud and painful homegrown fireworks?!). It has evolved into "the dogs' vacation." Who says dogs aren't smart beings? For a month leading up to "the big event" we told Brizzy & Cowboy: "You're going on vacation! You're going in 30 more sleeps ... 20 more sleeps ... 5 more sleeps ... one more sleep!" and they got extremely excited every time. Oh yeah, they know what "vacation" means:

This year we chose to go back to the Flaming Gorge area http://www.utah.com/nationalsites/flaming_gorge.htm:

Beautiful, isn't it? There's a great little motel in Manila, Utah called the Vacation Inn http://www.utah.com/lodging/profile978.htm that has about 25 units, each with a bedroom, kitchenette and pullout sofa bed in the "front room."

Most people who stay here are boaters and fisher-people and almost EVERYONE has at least one dog (because it's a "dog-friendly motel"). We picked Flaming Gorge because the motel had a swamp cooler and it was relatively close to home (just 4 hours away). Gas is a huge factor these days, isn't it? We'd try going south but it's just too darn hot that direction. No more hot places! Someday I'll tell you about last year's trauma when we almost lost our Miracle Dog, Cowboy to heat exhaustion. This is the view from the long porch outside Ruth's (and the dogs') bedroom:

I really like this picture ... to me there's something a little wild and isolated about it. Storm winds were coming in and blowing the trees, the sky was getting gray, and there the chair sat, abandoned.

This vacation was a lovely one -- I enjoyed it soooo much. As I told Debbie recently, I've been trying to get my "joyeux de vivre" back (is that the correct French for "joy of life"?) so I tried very hard to be "in the moment." It made a great difference. Flaming Gorge is a lovely area ... all those beautiful red mountains around the dam and it's right near the High Uintah Mountains, too. I've come to love forest almost (almost!) as much as I love the beach.


We drove up to Manila on Thursday evening (the 3rd), arriving just before dark. They put us into a smoking room by mistake (did you know that if you don't ask for a non-smoking room they assume you're a smoker?) but the couple caretaking the inn (FABULOUS people, by the way) went out of their way to figure out an alternative for us. It meant going into one room the first night and switching to another room the next night, but that's okay. A smoking room would've been very hard on the sinuses.

On the 4th we cooked ourselves a fabulous breakfast (french toast, real bacon, Ruth's homegrown strawberries, milk & juice), moved ourselves to our new room, then spent the rest of the day driving through the Sheep Creek Canyon scenic backway http://www.northamericanparks.com/ashley.asp ...

slowly making our way up to a lovely little place called Spirit Lake. And of course we got out several times to hike -- the dogs insisted on that!! Here's myself and Cowboy along one of the trails ...

And Ruth and the Boyz (Cowboy on the left, Briz on the right) along another trail:

My pictures are a little blurry these days ... sorry about that! I think the ole eyes are starting to go - ack! [By the way, my dear friend Debbie coined the term "Boyz" for our two dogs -- I love that description and I use it regularly now.]

The Innkeeper told us that Spirit Lake was a lovely little lake where light sparkled off the water all the time, and tradition had it that the native peoples said the light sparkles were spirits rising off the lake -- hence the name. We were really looking forward to seeing the lake and hoping to hike around it some. Hah! It didn't turn out quite as we hoped. A storm came into the area which sure took care of any sunlight on the water! See what I mean?


And OH ... MY ... GOSH ... the MOSQUITOES!!!!!!!! EEUUGGWWWW. Millions and millions of mosquitoes. So many in fact that all we did was jump out of the car, take a few pictures, jump back into the car and take right off again. Hahahaha! Some big adventure, huh? A ranger told Ruth that there were many MANY more times the usual amount of mosquitoes at all the lakes and waterways in Utah because of the high amount of snow we had this past winter. The little buggers just buried themselves in for the winter and multiplied like crazy. Yuk.

Well at least I got several pictures of Brizzy sitting in the front seat of my car while Ruth went into the little lodge to get some information about the lake:

I would've taken pictures of Cowboy also but he was too busy being Aviator Dog (that silly dog ... head and half his body out the backseat window every chance he gets). Brizzy prefers to be Jungle Dog (oooh -- tall grasses -- must prowl).

Well, it was getting later in the day anyway and darker by the minute, so I suppose it was good that we didn't stay to hike around the lake. Who could wade through all those mosquitoes anyway? We got back to the Inn late in the afternoon and began cooking our fabulous 4th of July feast: BBQ pork ribs, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and ice cream later on. Mmmm. And of course we watched part of "Independence Day" while everything was cooking! I wonder if that movie is becoming a tradition for most people on the 4th? I'll never forget when it first released on 4th of July several years ago ... Ruth's brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Louisiana and were were very fortunate to be right in line for the movie after the Provo Freedom Festival Parade. WHAT an impact that movie made! Whoo-eee.

We ended up THIS Independence Day by spending a little time around our innkeeper's campfire (who by now had become friends) and tho neighbors across the street shot off fireworks for about a half hour ... they weren't TOO bad and Brizzy survived them.

I didn't forget, in all of this, what we were celebrating though. This country sure has its problems lately but it is still the best country in the world, in my humble opinion. I feel extremely blessed to be living in a place where I can say what I want, worship as I want, do what I want (within reason), experience such beauty AND I am very aware of the fact that we are blessed with much wealth (tho it doesn't feel like it sometimes). I hope we keep striving to be good and just people so we remain entitled to be here on this precious land.

Well, the rest of the weekend was great too. On Saturday we tried very hard to go see the wild horses on the BLM land in Wyoming http://www.wyomingtourism.org/cms/d/wild_horses.php but I'm afraid we were just too late. We didn't get there until 10:30 a.m. and by then all the horses were long gone down to the rivers and shady areas. Well we DID see horses ... sort of:

Doggone it. We've decided to come back in the Fall when surely the horses will be wandering around in the cooler air! I have to say though that the 25+ mile loop you take through the BLM lands is one BUMPY ride!!! The road is not paved ... it's gravel and rocks (mostly gravel, thank goodness). When we finally got off the road and onto real pavement again you could hear my car sigh out loud: "Ahhhhhhhhh." I found myself saying the same thing! Hahahaha.

We decided to celebrate our horse failure by getting a BBQ chicken pizza in beautiful little Green River, Wyoming -- we took the pizza to a sweet little park where we wolfed down almost the entire thing, and THEN decided on a Dairy Queen Blizzard afterwards! Talk about full to the point of sick ... oh yeah. I even drank a fully loaded Mountain Dew, which I haven't had in AGES. All that caffeine -- I sure didn't have any trouble driving back to Manila! Here's Cowboy at the park:

Of course the eating couldn't stop there -- oh no! This was VACATION. So in the evening when we got back we ate STILL MORE, as you can see:

Well, truthfully what WE ate wasn't as much as it looks ... the hamburgers and fries (only some of the fries) belonged to the Boyz. They ALWAYS get their very own hamburger on vacation. It's the only time they get one though.

We had to pack it up on Sunday for the trip home (sigh) but not being able to end it so easily, we decided to go home by way of Mirror Lake:


This isn't the lake itself, but part of the whole scenic byway that goes through Mirror Lake and the High Uintahs. What a BEAUTIFUL place! http://www.utah.com/byways/mirror_lake.htm It's only 1-1/2 to 2 hours away from Orem and I'm embarrassed to say I hadn't even been aware of it. Barely, anyway. Utah has to be one of the most beautiful states in this country and how much of it have I actually seen?! NOT MUCH! I don't have a real Bucket List per se, but I've decided to make it a goal to see all the major places in Utah before the next few years are up. Can you believe I've never been to Moab or the Arches or been to Antelope Island ... I've never even been to the Grand Canyon! Ack. Though I HAVE been to Zion's National Park lots of times. I think Zion's is my most favorite place on earth.

Oh dear, I digress. Here's a picture of Bald Mountain, near the summit of the Mirror Lake loop:

A storm chased us all the way home on this day too, but never did catch up. It was windy and overcast and wild and wonderful and downright COLD, can you believe it? Sure wish we could've carried that with us back into 90 degree Orem. "Sigh." It was so beautiful I kept stopping the car to take pictures, and as you can see Brizzy got a little tired of the whole thing:

Can you just STOP with the picture-taking PLEASE?!

One more thing I need to mention: driving up and driving home we went through Evanston, Wyoming and near Evanston were these amazing windmills:


There were dozens of them out on a windy high point. Aren't they cool and sort of eerie? They are wind turbines! My picture doesn't do them justice ... they are giant things and they face in many different directions, in order to harness the wind no matter what direction it comes from. On the drive up there was very little wind so the blades were moving oh so lazily, but on the way home the approaching storm generated a lot of wind and some of those babies were really cranking away! I wish we could have gotten close enough to get a really in-your-face picture, but this was taken from the side of the freeway (oops - probably shouldn't have stopped but I did).

Well at last it was all over and we arrived back home in Orem about 7:00 Sunday evening. "Sigh." It was sure hard to come back to reality! So ... we decided to extend our vacation a little. We didn't get to enjoy Mirror Lake as much as we wanted to, so we went back two days later. Hah! Ruth was off until Wednesday -- I went back to work on Monday but took another vacation day on Tuesday and we spent the day at Mirror Lake:

I wish that was ME out there in that little canoe but it's not ... it's just some lucky canooer (is that a word?) and I liked the picture they made on the water. We hiked half way to Ruth Lake (unfortunately it was just too rocky and uphill to get all the way to the lake so Ruth didn't get to see the body of water with her name on it) and then we hiked all the way around Mirror Lake. Who would've thought 1-1/2 miles could be so tiring? Hah! It was gorgeous but exhausting. We did, however, end the day with a picnic, which made Ruth happy! I hate picnics but I'd promised to be a good sport about this one (and I was). We ate at a secluded little picnic spot where we had deli meat, cheese & sprout wraps, grapes, chips, chocolate (of course!) and a very VERY mushy watermelon (had to throw that baby away, unfortunately).

What a great little vacation. It's amazing how just a few days away from life's normal setting can rejuvenate the soul and help us carry on. Though when we first got back home the following picture sure represented how all four of us felt!

This was actually taken at the Vacation Inn at Manila after our 4th of July adventures (notice the bandannas?) but this is exactly how we all felt Tuesday when we got home from Mirror Lake. Hah! If you ever get the chance I highly recommend a visit to all these places ... fab-u-lous, dahlin'!

Resiliency musings

Yesterday morning I was running around like a little fool trying to get several things done before dashing off to work. I was hurrying across the backyard to put some water on my one lone tomato plant and was pulled up short by (of all things) several bright little yellow weed flowers.

Now I hate weeds as much as the next soul and usually pull them up when I'm feeling industrious, but I was struck by their resiliency. Just a couple of days ago they were nothing more than little semi-green spots against the vast expanse of our dead yard, and today they had sprung up into these large flowered stems. They intrigued me ... I thought about them on and off all day. I thought about how persistent the darn things are ... they just keep coming back and coming back no matter how many times we wack them down, pull them up or stomp all over them.(these pictures aren't the best, but hopefully they give you a sort-of visual)

It caused me to think about my life -- how resilient am I? How well do I bounce back after I get stomped on, pulled to pieces or wacked down? After many years I think I'm finally starting to learn that everything we experience has something to teach us, no matter how joyful a thing or how painful a thing. Working our way through experiences and allowing them to touch us or stretch us can catapult us to new levels, or even just move us one little inch up the ladder. Or they can push us backwards if we let them. Seems like it's all about how we choose to deal with life ... how willing am I to embrace whatever comes my way? Hmmmmm. Maybe I'll leave those weeds for a little while ... at least until this weekend (or until Ruth sees them and cuts them down - hah!).

Helloooooooo -- Here I AM!

Can you believe it?! I'm joining the 21st century. Hope you'll be happy - hope I am! I've been thinking about doing this for a while now but have been just a little too chicken. After all, what have I got to say that the world would want to read? Then again, I'm sure there won't be a crowd reading this - hah! Just people who know me, love me, and are tolerant of my quirks. :-) I hope that if you visit though, you'll find my ramblings interesting and worth your time. Happy Living, Everyone!