A wonderful wedding day!

This picture was taken the evening before the wedding. They had a little time to relax and just enjoy being together and of course we loved just seeing them together! Here they were playing a great game of chess at our super-duper chess set table. I think Berit was not quite warm enough. We should have turned on the fire place...oh well. I'm not sure who won the game and they could probably care less!

As you can tell this is Daren's daughter Chantel enjoying the quiet of the bedroom downstairs and relaxing for a time before the big day tomorrow. She slept on the Twin Bed and Daniel and Jared slept on the couch in the family room. They like that big soft couch...plus the TV is close by!

This the back yard of the place where the wedding was held. The home was gorgeous and as you can see, the table were beautifully set with all the fine linen and flowers.

This is just another view of the back yard and somewhere I think I have a picture of the pool and the tennis court that is also close by. They also had a tree house that was up on stilts...evidently the evening before a big wind storm caught the little house and lowered it almost to the ground. The Bishop, the owner of the home had put it back on its stilts that day and you would not have known that it was at ground level that morning. I thought I had a picture, and will probably find it later.

This picture was taken just after the ceremony.. The Bishop standing next to Daren performed the ceremony. His thoughts were very tender and caring and brought most of us to tears. It is obvious that they have a great deal of respect for Berit and her family. The parents of Berit's first husband were also at the wedding. They were wonderful people and were so happy that Berit had found Daren.

The picture below are many of Berit's family friends. The luncheon that was served was delicious and beautiful. We felt like we had known these people forever.

This picture is of Daren, Berit and Berit's parents. They were so easy to talk to and were so grateful for Daren. The place was just beautiful and yet everyone there was so friendly and made us all feel like "old friends"..

As you can tell, Daren's children were very much a part of the festivities and were looking very beautiful and handsome.

Now a much more formal picture of the family all together. Daren looks like King Tut! I know he was excited about having his children by his side and having someone so lovely that will now be his loving companion.

Here we are with Daren and so very grateful that they found each other! Thank goodness for the Church Website!

Now a picture of the father of the bride, the father of the groom and the father of Berit's first husband Rob. The whole afternoon and early evening was very special and everyone at the wedding were grateful that two "young" people found each other. We all wish for them all the blessings of a wonderful marriage. They set off on their honeymoon at Park City, and then off to places in Canada etc. They will be gone for about 2 weeks. Dad took Daniel and Jared back to Albuquerque yesterday and will stay with them until Daren and Berit return. Chantel will be going to school at UVU in Provo and Andrew is already working in Salt Lake and hoping to soon start school at the University of Utah and pursue the goal of medical school and perhaps a mission as well. It was a lovely day!

Our trip and time in Colorado

You will find this blog a bit confusing as I start out with three pictures that are not where they should be. I just couldn't figure out how to get them in the right place. I'm flying to Massachusetts on Thursday, so maybe with Debbie's expertise she can help me straighten all of this out! So this first one is the crowd of bicyclists that were waiting for the race to begin. There were several age groups competing. There were some as young as 6 years.
How do you like the profile of David??This one is definitely out of place, but it was part of the very pleasant environment we were in while at Sulphur Springs...the white tent structures were covering some of the hot tubs...shade!!!!

This next one is a picture of a road we traveled coming home from Branby winding through the mountains of Colorado. Instead of going into the rock to build the road, it stands next to the mountain on concrete pillars....sticking out over "nothing"....the road going the other direction is also built on pillars and is right on the edge of the river.

I tried to listen carefully to the radio music and keep my eyes closed as much as possible. I about broke the grip off the side of the door!!! I make a great traveling companion...when I"m sleeping...

The picture below was taken at the Dinasour pit museum in Vernal. This is an actual bone from a Dinasour leg that is in the visitors center..

Now back to Granby where we caught up with David, Stacey, Sara and Dallin. We had a great dinner in downtown Granby and dad had a steak that covered his whole plate. These westerners really know how to eat. None of us left hungry! We had a great time and all went to bed as soon as it was dark since the day had been a very long one. Sara stayed in our "cabin" with us since we had an extra bed and that gave them more room in their Roadtrek that they drove from Southern CA. It is a great home on wheels for all their trips related to bicycles and whatever else seems to come along. I should have taken a picture but for some reason I forgot to do that!


Now I am going back in time to the beginning of our trip, we left Logan about noon and arrived in Vernal early evening. We decided to spend the night there and continue on to Branby, Colorado the next morning. We enjoyed being able to spend some time around the Vernal Temple. It is so great that they saved this older chapel and made it into a beautiful temple. The new Chapel sits right next to the temple.

The flowers all around the grounds were just beautiful and the sun on the Angel Moroni was especially great. This is the first time either one of us have made a trip across this part of Utah. The Strawberry reservoir and the river running into it was beautiful with the sun shining on the water. I was amazed at how big it was. We also spent time at the Dinasour center in Vernal as well. This would be a great place to bring the children to see all the prehistoric areas where they have found the bones that we now can see at Thanksgiving Point. They had a tour that would have taken us to the places where these bones were found, but we knew we needed to get on the road to Branby.

The picture below is where we stayed after we arrived at our destination. It is actually in Sulphur Springs about 10 miles outside of Branby. There are about 18 different little hot sulphur tubs where you can climb in and feel the wonder of very warm water when you are cold...or just soak and relax those tired bones in the sulphur water. I couldn't smell, so dad had to tell me that it smelled like "sulphur"..amazing. We were in these hot pools as often as possible while we were there. We were able to take David, Stacey and family into the tubs as well. They all loved it. Especially Dallin after his bicycle race!
This was one of our favorites. The water fall was very warm and standing under it and feeling that very warm water coming down your back was great. This was the largest of the hot tubs.

This was the bedroom area of the "cabin" that we stayed in. It was really one big room with a living area. On the other side of where the bedroom was, we had a nice kitchen with a stocked refrigerator! It made it nice to have this room where we could all relax after the race and in the evenings. It was great to eat together and just enjoy being together. This is another of the hot tub areas that was right outside our door.
Dallin relaxing on the "couch" in our cabin.Another hot tub...looks a bit "grody" on the bottom, but that is mostly from the age and the Sulphur water. We wore our flip flops when we went in the hot tubs.

Now you can see our handsome son David and his lovely daughter Sara....in our kitchen. He made pancakes for all of us. Dallin was supposed to load up on carbohydrates and pancakes are suggested. Lauren was not with the family as she is in Portland spending time with a good friend. We missed her!

Now for the "main event"...the race. I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted, but at least this gives you a feel for the beautiful surroundings in Granby. The race started here and went 9 miles nearly straight up a huge mountain. It was to be an 18 mile race, but it started to cloud up and they were concerned about lightning etc. So they shortened it to 9 miles and Dallin was very grateful. He has been riding his bike at sea level and was about to race in a mountain that was eventually 0ver 9,000 feet. He said at the top he felt like he could not catch his breath....it's called "no oxygen".....

The race begins. The crowd that you saw in one of the first pictures broke up into age groups and this picture was the beginning of Dallin's age group...He got right out in front early!

After the race the medals were presented. Here you see Dallin getting his medal. We were all very proud of him and his ability to excel in this sport! This picture was taken just prior to us all leaving Branby and heading in separate directions. We had a delightful time with David, Stacey, Dallin and Sara and are so grateful for the opportunity to spend an exciting time with them.. This beautiful cloud picture was taken somewhere along the way..I don't remember exactly where we were but knew I needed to include it in this blog.
The time we spent on the road and with David's family was great!.

July 4th Weekend

This is a late entry, but a cute picture of Kari also being put in the locks for just thinking about eating too much! Not really...she was just a great sport! I tried moving this picture to be next to the one of dad, but no luck. I'm thinking that someday I'll have this blog stuff conquered! I hope I live to be 100 because it will very likely take that long. Fun stuff anyway!

A wonderful few hours on Temple Square prior to going on to Dion's to spend the night and part of the 4th with them.

We arrived at Dion's and while dad slept in I went with Dion, Summer and children to the local parade. It was a fun start to the holiday celebration and we saw lots of beautiful horses and old cars! Brought back memories of parades in Payette during my childhood. Except I got to be in the marching band in a very warm uniform on usually very hot days! We later went to Doneen and Alan's home where we had wonderful July 4th meal with baked beans baked in a special outdoor oven. The picture below is a new way to keep dad in tow! We had a great time, ate too much and marvel at how wonderful the Larsen's back yard is becoming. There is a watefall over rocks, but I did not get a picture of it I guess. Couldn't find it if I did. It will soon be the best "park" in Provo! This was taken prior to our attending the Stadium of Fire!

This picture was taken near the end of the beautiful program presented at BYU to celebrate the 4th of July. Following this display, we watched the explosion of so many fireworks that we knew that we were definitely in a Stadium of Fire!
This is about where our July 4th weekend came to a glorious ending. We thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks and the patriotism of the whole event at BYU stadium. This picture was taken of the special ending of the flag that has been used for many years at the Stadium of Fire and for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake. This was just a symbol of it's ending, as we learned that it was made of nylon and would have made "toxic" smoke if it had burned...but it was beautiful anyway!

More pictures from the Air Museum

Well, here we are again at the Air Museum. It was fun being with David and family and seeing all these aircraft.
The story behind the man in the picture below was very interesting. It turns out he was stationed at Mountain Home AFB. at the very same time as we were and was a pilot in the B-47. They got to talking about their experiences and the time of the Cuban Crisis...the movie Thirteen days tells of this crisis. Anyway dad was sent immediately to Guam in the Pacific and this man was sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma. All over the nation every B-47 was sitting at the end of the runway with engines running prepared to go wherever the mission would take them. The goal was to protect Americans and America.

I just remember the time when Dan left in the middle of the night and I knew better than to ask where he was going. Later in the week the wives were told where the crews had been sent. I packed up Darryl (then an infant) and went home to be with my parents in Utah. It was a scarey time for me. My parents had no idea that anything was going on and I couldn't tell them very much. Anyway, Dan and this former officer had a great time reliving a critical time in their career. (I thought he looked lots older than Dan !)

As you can tell from the picture below that this plane was lucky to make it back to the base where it was stationed at the time.. The tail was very shredded by bullets...the engine as well. I think this one came in on a "wing and a prayer"!

They didn' have a B-47 or a B-52, but had the miniature set up that depicted many of the planes that were flying at the same time these bombers were.

They told us that every person that worked at this museum fixing and shining and showing people around were actually men who flew or worked on these planes during their career. It was fascinating to all of us.

The day at the Air Museum

Hi all, well here are a few pictures from our Saturday venture to see the Air Museum located in Chino CA.
The picture above and the plane below go together. This plane was flown during the production of the movie "Pearl Harbor".

Here we were walking around in the very warm weather viewing all the wonderful aircraft and hearing dad tell of his many adventures related to some of these planes.

You probably can't tell, but here we were listening to someone tell us some of the stories related to how these planes got donated to this museum. Of course all of this brings back memories of our days in the Air Force and David's experiences with flying as well.

There will be a few more pictures to follow (another blog)..that show a pictue of dad with a man that was at Mountain HOme AFB the same time we were.

Our time in Southern California

We left fairly early Friday morning and traveled to the San Diego Temple. We got there in time to do the 11:00 session. Just driving on Interstate 5 and seeing this beautiful structure almost takes your breath away. We had a wonderful session and then at the end while we were in the Celestial room, they asked if we would be willing to do some sealings. Of course we said yes! The officiator was great, and the end of the sealing he had us embrace across the alter as we had done the day we were married and then go around to the side of the altar and look into the mirrors and see the images that go on eternally. In one of the towers there is a beautiful atrium at the top and it is filled with beautiful planted flowers. There you are looking up to the top of these incredible towers as well. The glass work is glorious! We got back to Tustin early

and enjoyed the evening together. I'll continue our day on Saturday on another blog as I am having trouble getting to the pictures! Big surprise...I never have problems doing a blog...I wish!


This is the front of the apartment where David, Stacey and family now live, It is a very nice place and we have enjoyed the pool and other amenitites here. They live on the second floor.
We stopped in Flagstaff for the night on Wednesday and journeyed the rest of the way and arrived at their home about 8:30 that evening. I couldn't help but capture the sign on the road that directed us to Carlsbad, but we were good and didn't even try to find Elder Hill. Deb, the sign is for your benefit. Palm trees lining the road let us know that we were getting close! As you can tell, these things actually happened in reverse. I need to think more about the story I am trying to tell and put first things first! I keep trying to move the pictures, but they are being stubborn...so you get last things first!

A Fun day in Riverton

Well, I now have all the pictures that I wanted on the blog and realize that everything is in reverse in terms of times of the day. So we'll start with the end of the day and go to the evening before. This makes for more entertainment...or maybe not!

The big sandwiches and the trimmings were enjoyed by all. By this time those who had participated in the triathlon were very hungry. I know that Beth and Austin seen in the picture above were winners. Beth beat everyone in her age range and I think Austin was second. So Beth is taking after her athletic parents. Anthony and Delos were working on setting records and I think Anthony may have done that. (I know I'll hear the real story if this is wrong). Kristi and Gordon did great stuff too and the younger kids had their own bike races etc. Diane did the swim and the run and Ryan rode the bike. We didn't stay to get all the statistics, as the rain started to come and everyone was going for cover. Uncle David and Aunt Carma were there to help with children and with the food!

The pictures below were taken the evening before in Diane and Ryan's backyard. Nice shelters were in place to keep off the sun or the rain! Dion and Summer and children were there, but Dion had school the next day so they did not participate in the triathlon. Summer would have whipped up on a few of the runners.

It is too bad that we all don't get enough to eat! The great food and company was enjoyed by all. Aunt Carma stirred spaghetti for several batches and finally got to eat some. Dad and I spent the night at Diane's place so they could leave early for the races and grandpa and grandma could bring the kids...which we did. Arlene is currently in Iowa City, Iowa with Valerie, John and children and Larry was unable to come as he had responsibilities in the Logan Temple early Saturday morning. They were missed!

Probably the most fun of all is watching aunts, uncles, neices and nephews, and cousins enjoying just being together as a great family that have grandparents and parents who have watched the love and respect that we have for one another grow and deepen each year. How blessed we are as generations enjoying the fruits of the gospel and the fruits of love for one another. Thanks everyone for all the effort to make this happen. Debbie, they all missed you!