The Lights on Temple Square

November 29, 2008

Our visit to Temple Square was wonderful. The highlights were:

• Going on a tour with sister missionaries. One was from New Zealand (she was Maori) and the other was from South Korea (Sister Song). During this tour, Drew ran into another sister missionary who was in his freshman ward at BYU three years ago.
• Spending some time in the Family History Center. We learned a few things we didn't know and were able to use some of the computers to look up family members.
• Seeing the lights.
• Being among the throng of people. Drew particularly enjoyed this, it reminded him of Italy.
• Finding a parking place just outside the south gate of Temple Square. It was easy to get out of the spot when we left because even though there was LOTS of traffic, someone else was anxious to have our spot and blocked traffic for us so we could merge.

Here are some pictures from our visit to see the lights on Temple Square.

Cathedral of the Madeleine

November 29, 2008

For Thanksgiving this year we (Bruce, Kyle and Allison) drove to Provo so we could celebrate with Michele, Dan and Drew. We stayed with Michele and Dan in their Springville house. We had such a great time. Michele and I spent a few hours making dinner on Thanksgiving morning. The time was worth it because we had a great dinner.

We wanted to visit Temple Square during this trip so we could see the beautiful light display. Drew had an assignment for his Humanities class over the weekend. For this assignment he chose to visit the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City (www.saltlakecathedral.org/). He had quite a bit of insight into the symbolism of the reliefs on the outside and some of the stained glass on the inside. Below are a few pictures of the details over the front door.

Kyle is an Eagle Scout

November 23, 2008

Kyle was awarded his Eagle Scout rank during a court of honor held on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008. Jacob Walley and Kevin Hodgson also received their eagle ranks that evening.

Randy Rhoten giving the Eagle Oath to Jacob, Kevin and Kyle

This is a good reason to keep track of your camera during and Eagle Court of Honor.

Sienna, Joe and Kyle (I think Sienna is the photographer for these pictures).

Happy Birthday to Allison/Mom/Grandma!

Happy Birthday!

Twenty is plenty,

And Thirty's less flirty,

Then Lordy-- you're Forty!

Maybe Fifty didn't feel too nifty...

-BUT-

It's lots of fun to be fifty-one!

It's Apple Time!

I received an email the other day. A family had access to boxes of apples from Wenatchee (about three hours away) they just wanted to get enough orders from the Tri-Cities so they could fill a truck. These apples were a bargain: $ 30.00 for a bushel box (about 42 lbs) of Honeycrisp seconds (skin blems, odd sizes/shapes, etc.--no worms!) and $22.00 for a bushel box of Fuji seconds (our favorite!). I forwarded the email on to several friends in my ward to see if they wanted to order some apples at this great price.

Within a couple of hours I got an email back from my neighbor telling me that her husband, Harold, could get the exact same apples (Honeycrisp and Fuji seconds) plus several more varieties for $10.00 a box! These were local apples from a HUGE orchard near where he works in Burbank (Broetje Orchards, near Fishhook Park, Kate). He would just go to the orchard at lunchtime and bring back as many boxes as he could hold in his little sedan.

Wow! What a deal. I rushed over with my $20.00 for two boxes on Thursday. Harold's car was already full for the next day, so we had to wait until Monday, but it was worth it! He even delivered the apples to my house and set them on the kitchen table. What service!

Boxes of Fuji and Honeycrisp apples. Honeycrisp is the "new gotta have it" variety, but we still prefer Fujis.

It's hard to find anything wrong with most of these apples.

I put about a third of the Fujis in the refrigerator bin

About six of these apples in one box were absolutely HUGE.

One of my favorite kitchen tools.

This is the first batch. The second batch is already drying.

Come over for some apple crisp...it was yummy, but I'll make more!

Megan's Room at Grandma and Grandpa's House

Megan likes to stay in the "sunroom" adjacent to our upstairs guest room.  It has two twin beds and lots of windows and a nice windowsill to put things on.  Until recently it had an old kitchen table near the foot of one bed, under the windows.  This table took up lots of room and did not have kid friendly corners (very sharp!).  I put the table in storage and brought some wire basket cubes upstairs from Kyle's room.  He was done with them so I made some Megan bookshelves and put all of our kids' books in them.  

Well, Megan, what do you think?

The "bookshelf"

"Megan's" Bed

Panorama view

It Rained Again

About two weeks ago we had some rain (typical Richland drizzly rain) for a few hours in the late afternoon.  As mentioned in an earlier post, we have had lots of snails this year.  Shortly after dinner I noticed something on the kitchen window.  That's right...a snail trying to keep from drowning on our patio.  After I took the picture, I told Bruce about the snail.  He rushed outside and picked several snails off of the house and dispatched them along with the others he found roaming about. Ew.