We should get to visit you all this year!

This has been a year of baptisms and unfortunately I didn't get photos. October, Lily got baptized in Watsonville, California. In November Hyrum got baptized in Yerington , Nevada and thanks to the fact that it coincided with the reunion we all got to go. I think Craig had to work. February Sophia had her baptism in Mt. Vernon, Washington in conjuntion with Miles blessing and that was good. In May Bronson was baptized in conjuntion with other family activities like dance performances, ball games and Whitney's graduation party in St. George Washington. We will be picking up Craig in Rexburg in July and so we should finally get to visit with Grandma and Liz and Ryan's family. Next year will be Davey's baptism in Spanish Fork, Utah. We would love to see more of Marae, Ben and Nora but probably won't make it to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Elise and Ben were here to help us move in February and Ben was so busy working we didn't get to see much of him. We would love having everyone closer but in the meantime we are happy you are all raising children well and teaching them the importance of baptism into the Kingdom of God by proper authority.

Our trip to Angels camp

We met the Berhans for a few days at Angels camp to pick up Rachel for a few weeks in Nevada and Idaho. She loved spending time with her cousins mostly.

Help ! my phone is playing tricks on me!

Okay! A couple months ago I answered the phone and noone was on the other end except I heard a couple conversations with Micheline talking to a friend. I soon called her and she said she never had such a conversation. I believe she was telling the truth.

About a month ago I was looking on Craigslist for good AQHA horses with good bloodlines. I made no phone calls and only sent a couple of emails. David said he would visit us if there were some horses to look at. I got a message on my phone from a guy in Boulder City Nevada about trail horses. I called him back in response and he was simply replying to my phone call which he said I made to him. Whoa. I had not even looked on craigslist in Las Vegas area and only Reno area. I decided I must be being guided to check out these trail horses.

We went down by Las Vegas for Bronson's baptism a few weeks later. At stake conference with the Barbens the speaker told us of how her phone rang and no one was on the other end. It was only someone having a conversation. Her grandson said, "I know what that was. It was the Holy Ghost."

When we were headed back by Las Vegas on our way home from Bronson's baptism I told David we needed to go by and see this fellow. We had something in common already as he had 32 grandchildren as we did. He talked to us for a while telling us he gets our horses from a man in Kamas, Utah who gets them from ranchers and they are well broke for trail riding. He said it may be closer for us to look at horses from him and gave me the man's number.

Well, I had remembered my great grandfather Arthur Vickery was burried in Rockport, Utah
which was just up the canyon from Park City, Utah and Heber Canyon. I had wanted to take my mother to visit her grandfather's grave and we had never done it. The internet showed he and his wife were buried in Peoa cemetery. When I called the man with the horses he told me he knew where the cemetary was and in fact the horses were kept in a corral bordering the old cemetary with about 100 graves. They were out to pasture now but we could come look at them. Mother is going to St. George for a baptism and blessing and Payton's performance of Little Mermaid. We will go there another time.

Well if we are supposed to have trail horses were is that? I can only think of 2 places. One place is a ranch for sale with family reunion type accomodations. It has 4 kitchens in seperate adobe buildings. It has a swimming pool, lots of lovely trees, and fishing pond and stream and is less than 1 mile from our house. The only trouble is the ranch is going back to the county on June 6 for $35,000 in unpaid taxes. It will be off the market for about a year before it goes up to auction.

Our Trip To Virginia City

Today I, David and Craig and I went to Virginia City for a picnic and I dropped Craig and DavidDad off for the much awaited 10 mile bike ride down hill to our home. They had a nice ride home and I got to do some touring of the city by myself.

David and Craig by old restored Ward School. A couple photos are of the Louisianna Jazz restaurant where we cashed in our Christmas Coupons.

Last stop at the MacKay Mansion. The grandson of our tour guide was there and he was much interested in the play on Virginia City I have written. He had the lead singer part in the play Annie Get Your Gun. Elise and I attended right before we moved into our house. He was a very nice 17 year old. At Grandma's Fudge Shop I found out they will be hiring in a couple of weeks and hire 14 year olds and up. If you'd like scooping ice cream to a steady line of customers that go all the way out the back door you may be able to get on at $8.25 per hour. There are better paying jobs also. My favorite the Tahoe Hotel I didn't get pictures of.

The costumes for the play are coming along. It is like a community service I am working on. It will surely just be able to break even by the time the wages and expenses are paid. I hope in 4 years Virginia City will be a family orientated destination .

Colin found Elise's clothes I'd saved for her

Here are some pictures of the clothes I couldn't find that I rescued from the bags going to the thrift store. Juliet would have more fun if her cousins were here. She has been a lot of help.

Don't forget our Exchange

This is a great time to go through clothes , toys, multiple kitchen items,tools, etc and bring them for our exchange and auction. Ben and Marae will be setting up household soon and if you have anything you don't need that takes up space think of them. They didn't have all the receptions, etc to accumulate things. We all remember how sparse things were in those struggling years. Any outgrown clothes that won't be needed in the forseeable future will go for the exchange. If you don't have anything that is fine. Recent moves tend to clean out things. Larisa has sent a few big bags. Someone may really appreciate that shirt in your closet you never wear. Craig starts Amazon on Wednesday for training. Elise is planning on working at Williams and Sonora for the holidays and plans to give demos. She would probably appreciate any ideas. I loved her yam strips baked with onion. Any root vegetable can go together I guess. Will have to try Parsnips and Rutabagas We have them in the garden.

A tender mercy of the Lord

We have been remodeling houses in the Reno area and then renting them out.

We had picked up this refrigerator from Craigslist and decided to pick up our pantry cabinet to replace the one the people had taken out of the house when they foreclosed.

We were just sailing down the freeway and of course everything was tied in but not good enough evidentally. All of a sudden we looked back and the pantry had flown off. It suddenly just rolled off of the freeway. My immediate reaction was one of extreme gratitude. It waited to fly off till we were out of the heavy traffic of Reno and near our exit to Cold Springs where the traffic was sparse. A terrible accident would have been the result if it had flown off just a couple miles earlier in the heavy traffic. Larisa said Nick's cousin was killed by a tire flying off the car in front. We were not even concerned about the shape of the cabinet but when we checked it a couple of days later it was minor and can be repaired. In conference today they talked about how we could have the gift of ministry of angels if we were worthy. Wow! What a blessing. Did some angels quickly roll it off the freeway for us so it wouldn't obstruct the traffic until Craig and David could get back to get it? Thank you ! Thank you for watching over us.