Our current Stake

Today was our Stake Conference. We are in the Salt Lake City Stake which is the oldest continuous stake in the Church. Our Stake Conference is held in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. Our Stake was created a hundred and sixty two years ago. The Assembly Hall was the original meeting house for the Stake. The SLC Stake is very unique and diverse. We have a Russian and Spanish branch and a branch of Family History Service Missionaries. We have some of the wealthiest parts of SLC and some of poorest parts of SLC in our Stake. This makes for some very interesting people we have got to know.

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 36th anniversary. We were married on a warm sunny day in the Provo LDS Temple. I can't believe that so many years have gone by. We have had a lot of challenges and lots very interesting experiences and opportunities, four of the best kids you could ever ask for, a son and daughter in law that we are so grateful for and three grandkids. What a great time. When I can scan our wedding picture I might just post it and then you can all have a great laugh. We have changed just a little!

Easter Dinner

We had a great Easter Dinner at Doug & Jessica's with Alice & Jeff and the boys. Yummy ham, rolls, salad, buffet potatoes and a great dessert bar. After dinner we let the little boys go for an Easter egg hunt. It was fun to see their excitement. A great day!

My New LED Light

I am so excited. Last night I bought a LED Grow light off ebay. One of the things I really miss living in a small apartment with no yard is having a garden. I have tried growing things on our small deck but we don't get enough direct sun light. A few months ago I heard about LED grow lights and became very excited about them until I started pricing them--200 - 500 dollars. So there goes that idea. I asked Joe how hard it would to build one. (For those of you that don't know Joe is an electronics engineer and for the past ten years he has been designing and manufacturing printed circuit boards that go in a computer system for LED signs. So we have learned a thing or two about LED's. I researched how to build a grow light and the cost of the LED's and it was going to cost a little more than we thought. I then went back to ebay and found a small grow light for $25.00 and bid on and won. I am so excited. Tomorrow I am going to go and get seeds and dirt and a pot and plant lettuce---to start with. I will let you know if we get lettuce.

Warm and Sunny California

This is a picture of the room we stayed in. We got a great deal by booking online. I think the room was a big as our apartment. Check out the prices for room service. You can guess we did not have room service. I went to Walmart and got a box of Oatmeal for a couple of dollars that lasted the trip. We used the coffee maker to heat the water for our oatmeal. What a deal.

There was French Bakery connected to the hotel. This treat looked so good
I could not resist. It was not as good to eat as it was to look at.

At the convention Joe attended, Ken Mattingly was the keynote speaker. I was able to go and hear him. He is the astronaut from the movie Apollo 13 that was not able to go up with Apollo 13 as he was exposed to measles. It was an fascinating story.

On our way home on highway I-80 we stopped at the Donner Pass. When you see how rugged the country is it is hard to image a wagon being pulled up the mountains. We had a great trip and got to see some wonderful parts of the country.

More Sunny Warm California

This is Fort Bragg. I guess Idaho is not the only place
that has lots of strong winds.

If you look close you can see the road and how close it is to the cliffs. Some places you can look a long way straight down the mountain to the ocean. I was very glad for the arm rest to grab hold of a few times.

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The Golden Gate Bridge

Warm Sunny California

Joe has a seminar in San Jose this week. We decided to drive so we could do some sight seeing along the way. We headed west on I-80. We stopped to see the Salt Flats. It is amazing to see miles and miles of salt. Yes, salt not snow. We stayed the night at Winnemucca then headed up to Oregon. We drove across the bottom of Oregon. Everything was green and the trees were in blossom.

We stayed the second night right on the beach at Crescent City in California. Then we headed south driving though the Redwood Forest. The trees are huge. I have seen pictures of them but it is hard to really comprehend how large the trees are until you see them. From the forest we went over to the coast again. The roads are unbelievable, curves and windy and up and down. Not for the car sick prone.

The third night we stayed at Fort Bragg. Doug served his mission in this area of California so it was fun to see the different places he lived. We went to church at Fort Bragg. It is a very small ward but the people we so welcoming and friendly.