Summer Vacation 2009

This summer, we took a trip to Utah. We started out in Cedar City, and while there did some fishing up at Navaho lake with Grandpa Gary. We also took a trip down to St. George to visit the Merrill's and see their now completed new house on the golf course.

After that, we went up to the Mormon Miracle Pagent with the Mathers and Zabriskies. We camped that evening at the Manti public park. There were a pair of baby hawkes in a tree next to our camping site. The mother hawk was swooping down and dive bombing us, and we finally figured out why. Kristi was a bit tramatized as you will see in the pictures on Picasa.

Next, we went to Provo, camping at the Provo KOA, and visiting with Grant and Bri. There was a nesting Malard Duck there that the kids quite enjoyed taking pics of, and got several close ups of the duck and eggs. We spent a day at the Seven Peaks water resort, then went to SLC and saw Temple Square, the new conference center, and ate lunch at the Lion House Pantry. We toured the Beehive House, Church Office Building, and the new Art Museum.

Then, it was on to Bear Lake and the July 4th family reunion there.

We returned home to find yellowing lawns, a flooded basement room, and several stolen DVDs from our collection. Some cash was also missing from Kristi's tithing bank.

Pictures are available at

Summer 2009

and

2009 07 - Family Summer Trip

No, no, don't let the rain come down

Summer is not yet over right? I mean, the kids go back to school next Wednesday, Seminary starts on Thursday, but we should have a few more days of nice sunny weather right?

I hope so, as the deck is partially sanded and prepped for painting, but our plan was to complete this on Labor day weekend. Well, here we are on Labor Day Weekend, and so far it is raining torrentially. The deck is soaked. It would take three days of dry sunshine to make the wood paintable again.

In fact, it rained so hard today that we discovered the rain gutters are plogged. You may not be familiar with the word plogged, so I'll define it here: plugged AND clogged, such as what happens to a rain gutter in the PNW when it gets a large damming chunk of pine needles, moss, and leaves stuck over the drain. This is such a great word -- http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=plogged. The plogs are by the master bedroom and again at the other end above the garage door. We had such a deluge today that in these two spots, it literally looked like someone was standing on the roof with a large bucket and dumping it over the roof. This would all be OK normally, and run off away from the house, except for the dumb bad luck of the plog (plug/clog/) occuring directly over the window well to Traci And AnnElise's room.

Did a light bulb just go on for you?

Well if you already know the story of the flood we faced in this room on our return from our summer vacation to Bear Lake, then it probably would have. We had thought prior to our discovery today, that the flood was due to over watering, as our neighbors had complained about our summer help watering the lawns too long while we were gone. Turns out, we had a couple of major rainstorms while we were out of town, and are now pretty sure we know where the flood water came from. Previously, there was a "perfect storm" set of circumstances of having both the rain gutter clogged AND the down spout drain in the window well clogged. While cleaning up from the flood on our return however, I had put a lot of time into cleaning debree out of that drain and making it functional again. In fact, the main plogging object was a hard croquet ball, which fit so tightly into the drain that I had to drill a hole into it and pull it out with the drill.

Thankfully, this maintenance paid off today, when the deludge hit again. The drain was able to keep up with the water being dumped off the roof, and water did not again rise over the level of the window, come down the inside walls, and cover the floor. We were REALLY glad it didn't too, for we had just completed the re-flooring of that bedroom with a nice hardwood laminate floor, and are still in the process of putting up the trim.

I really hope the rains go away for long enough to dry out and paint the deck. The weather here in Vancouver rarely cooperates with the best laid plans of mice and men however. Wish us luck!

Sunday Afternoon Musings

Just got through Skyping with my daughter Bri and her husband Grant. They live in Provo and have just gone back to school and completed the first week of the semester. Bri got a job on campus, so they are both working now, and both going to school full time, taking some of their classes together. Misti and I did this as well, taking classes together whenever possible. Saves on books, and gives a couple additional bonding time in a shared intellectual pursuit. I highly recommend it. They have already gotten their "summary of Summer" blog posted and this reminded me that it has been way to long since I posted anything.

In Priesthood meeting, at the end of the opening exercises where announcements are made and reports are given by each of the quorums, before all separate into their own groups for class instruction, we all repeat out loud the verses in D&C 84 that list the oath and covenant of the priesthood, which essentially promises the blessings of Eternal Life, or the kind of life God the father and Jesus Christ live, to faithful priesthood holders that magnify their callings. I remember when I was first being interviewed for the Aaronic Priesthood, as a 12 year old. The bishop asked if I knew the oath and covenant? I really didn't have a clue at that age what he was referring to. I am sure we had read these verses in Sunday School or Primary, but I really did not have any idea of their significance to the rest of my life as a holder of the priesthood. I think this ward's repeating of these verses on a weekly basis is a good thing.

Many men receive the priesthood, continuing on the path to Eternal Life they started with baptism, but do not magnify their callings over time. How well a man seeks out knowledge of his calling and current duties, and how he portrays that calling to others speaks volumes to his chances of eventual celestial glory. When seeking for a husband, my wife learned that how a return missionary spoke of his mission was a good indicator of their faithfullness to the gospel. Fortunately, I passed that test on our first date, speaking highly of my missionary experiences in England. Some callings may not seem important in the grand scheme of things, but I have learned over time, that there are no unimportant callings in God's kingdom. As Paul said, every member of the body is important. In the Missionary Training Center, there is a large monument with a placard which reads "what ere thou are, act well thy part". I know the Lord expects every priesthood holder to accept callings, and learn all they can from each one, performing each to the very best of their ability, and then moving on to new callings. I've never had a calling I didn't learn something from, or that I considered drudgery. There have certainly been callings that took a lot more time and effort than others, such as being an Elder's Quorum President in a young adult ward, where there was a literal "moving target" for hometeaching from month to month. Just going through the list of Elders and Perspective Elders and verifying that they still lived within the ward boundaries was a very daunting task that took the better part of a month for visits, phone calls, mail, etc. The do-not-contact list also needed to be verified, and also took quite a bit of time. However, I still remember both of these activities as some of the best times in my entire priesthood service. Through these efforts, we were literally seeking out the lost lambs, inviting many back to the fold, and considerably increased the attendance at our Young Single Adult ward in Henderson Nevada. I think I impacted more lives for good in the few months I was able to serve there, than on my mission to England.