The annual Pumpkin Walk

Beautiful sunrise in Cache Valley

Only a little over four months to go!

We got a really nice message on our answering machine about how much the Mendoza family loves Elder Owens. They think he looks just like their son who is also on a mission. He does seem to fit in. Do you think, where missionaries serve, is inspired?

This guy actually served in Lenny's mission. Jordan now believes that Lenny knows everyone.

This is an excerp from Jordans letter today.  I can't tell you how happy this makes me.  I am on cloud nine.

"It seems like just last week i was packing my bags up in my room and making the decission to go on a mission. I am so glad i pulled through. Things have just worked out for me. Feelings of inadaquacy were present; now they are turning into skills and talents. One of my favorite scriptures is proverbs 3:5-6 "trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understandings, in all ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths". I have tried to stick to that through my mission." 

Grandparents and grandchildren are natural allies because they have a common enemy!

I have without a doubt the cutest grandkids on the planet. I got to spend the afternoon with them at the Children's Museum and then watch Audrey place soccer.

Alex wanted a wawee pop!

I

Glacier National Park

We went on a road trip last week to Glacier National Park.  Lenny and his cousin Brent golfed along the way.  We spent a lot of time in the car.  To pass the time we listened to a book on tape called "Wish you Well" by David Baldacci.  Glacier National Park was unbelievable.  I never want to eat at another restaurant again.

Walking around Silver Lake by the cabin

This summer has been so incredibly beautiful I have to borrow Oscar Wilde's poem to desribe how I feel.  

We Are Made One with What We Touch and See 

We are resolved into the supreme air, 
We are made one with what we touch and see, 
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair, 
With our young lives each springimpassioned tree 
Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range 
The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change. 

With beat of systole and of diastole 
One grand great life throbs through earth's giant heart, 
And mighty waves of single Being roll 
From nerveless germ to man, for we are part 
Of every rock and bird and beast and hill, 
One with the things that prey on us, and one with what we kill 

One sacrament are consecrate, the earth 
Not we alone hath passions hymeneal, 
The yellow buttercups that shake for mirth 
At daybreak know a pleasure not less real 
Than we do, when in some freshblossoming wood 
We draw the spring into our hearts, and feel that life is good 

Is the light vanished from our golden sun, 
Or is this daedalfashioned earth less fair, 
That we are nature's heritors, and one 
With every pulse of life that beats the air? 
Rather new suns across the sky shall pass, 
New splendour come unto the flower, new glory to the grass. 

And we two lovers shall not sit afar, 
Critics of nature, but the joyous sea 
Shall be our raiment, and the bearded star 
Shoot arrows at our pleasure! We shall be 
Part of the mighty universal whole, 
And through all Aeons mix and mingle with the Kosmic Soul!. 

We shall be notes in that great Symphony 
Whose cadence circles through the rhythmic spheres, 
And all the live World's throbbing heart shall be 
One with our heart, the stealthy creeping years 
Have lost their terrors now, we shall not die, 
The Universe itself shall be our Immortality!. 


Oscar Wilde

Missionary Update

Are all Elders obsessed with their ties?

Welcome to the Church!

Jordan likes the Missouri fishing.

Jordan's family away from home.

Baby Animal Day at American Heritage Center

Chicks, ducklings, lambs, calves, bunnies, and beautiful children.

Happy Easter!

  

Old Dog New Tricks

This is how much water I swallowed while learning to flip turn.   But I  have my version of it down to the point where I have knocked about 10 minutes off my swim mile time.

Jordan's trip to Nauvoo

"We went to Carthage Jail.  The Prophet and Hyrum and others were here.  I knew it.  The feeling was intense.  We had the tour.  I was able to put my fingers on the bullet holes that entered the room and struck Hyrum and Joseph.  It really was amazing.  He lived great and died great; and will forever be known a great leader and the prophet of the restoration."

"The temple has six stories.  I was on each of them.  After the sealing was over we walked arond and went everywhere.  When we went down to the baptistry. They wanted us to be witnesses!  It was neat because ususally missionaries don't get to go; none have for over four years.  So it was very cool!  They knew we were comming and let us have free reign, almost anywhere we wanted.  The sealing room was so neat!  I don't even remember the last time I was in one; when we were sealed.  I felt that our family really was going to be with each other forever.  You are my family and I am a part of you.  I am so glad that we have such grand saving ordinances!

In the temple they have an ancient apron which is very neat.  They have all the original keys to the temple.  They have Joseph Smith's sword that he used when he was in the batallion.  He etiched his name into it."

Lead in the Golden Years or Thank Goodness for Modern Medical Technology or We just got a $200/month Raise

This is  a prostRate position. A position you want to take when you learn you are a candidate for prostate (no R)  surgery. 

The following picture is a prostate gland (the least explicite on I could find).  When you are 61, chances are your prostate gland will become enlarged.  This makes pharmacutical companies happy because the meds you have to take   (Avodart and Floxmax - frequently advertised) to allow you to void less often than every 30 minutes cost about $200/month.   Alas, these meds do not work when the prostate continues to get bigger.  So, Monday Lenny  went in to have prostate reduction surgery.  It is a fairly simple nonincisive proceedure. That is why I got a little concerned when the surgery went about an hour and half over schedule.  It turns out that while probing around, with a magnifying tool, they discovered a golf ball sized calcium deposit in the bladder.  The stone was just large enough to elude the grasp of the apparatus being used.  Four different instruments were used to try and remove it.  As a last resort they would have made an incision.  The doctor said, "I wasn't about to not remove it".  Thankfully, they were finally able to break up the stone and now Lenny can write his name in the snow or as the doc put it, " Pee like a race horse".   Lenny commented, "I wondered where I lost that ball."

Cool Stuff

Homemade bread

North Logan Sunset

Maui was nice but...

  

So, it was my ideal to go to Maui before Nikki and Noah went.

   

We snorkled at this private beach and saw

every color of tropical fish you can imagine.

  

This is a picture of a whale.  We actual could see them spout and dive under with their tails in the air.

                                               

The beautiful coast line. 

  A wind surfer.

 

At the aquarium, you walk through a tunnel and watch stingrays and sharks swim around you.

This is the championship golf course that inspired the trip.  Lenny had a fun time golfing there.

We had a great time, but to be honest, Lenny and I are not travelers.  We would just as soon go to the cabin.  Sometimes when I would be looking at the surf I would think, "where is the pine smell?"