4th of July...

We had a fun McKinney reunion in Saratoga Springs. It was a sunny day! Tai McKinney brought his 9-square game. That is a crowd pleaser and everyone can play! We enjoyed visiting (and eating!). The McKinney brothers all had goatees by request of John. He wants to recreate an old picture the kids made for Barbara years ago. I am glad he took Dave's picture today so he can finally shave! After our fun afternoon, we ended our day shooting off some fireworks in the back yard and doing sparklers with the kids. The very last picture posted is the one John wants to recreate. He already had 2 of the brothers pics, got his and the other 2 brothers today, just needs one more brother and the 2 sisters and he will have it! Can't wait to see the finished product. But really happy that Dave can finally shave!

Barbara and Mike 

 Walter!

 Holly's little guy Koleson is such a cutie...

 Jaime, April, John and Tai

Happy 4th of July 2018!

Walter turns 1!

I can't believe this little man is 1 already! We are celebrating a day early because of all the other activities going on the next few days. Amanda made darling Mickey Mouse cupcakes and a cute little First birthday cake for him to do whatever he would do with it. I think he liked it! I am missing the picture of that. Will add it if I find it. And of course presents. This guy loves everything balls! So he got a lot of them! And a bubble machine from Grandma. He got a basketball hoop just his size! He loves it! The trick will be keeping the big kids away from it...David especially will want to dunk balls all the time!

Terry's headstone...

 As we were leaving Folsom to head for Utah, we stopped to see where Terry was buried. Well, for me to see where as I wasn't there for his funeral. His headstone is beautiful. It was a sunny morning so it was hard to look at the camera! It is a beautiful cemetery in a very peaceful location. Not sure I could ever find it again on my own though! I was glad we took the time to stop.

 

Another quick weekend trip!

Another weekend trip for Dave and I. We drove to Folsom to visit and help his mom a bit, then bring her back with us for the 4th of July and a McKinney reunion of sorts. We saw this funky bridge being built in the middle of nowhere...and a mountain with the initials BM on it. Weird. Barbara wanted Dave to help her replace a rotting board on her steps. He was happy to oblige. She sure works hard! Notice who is sitting and who is standing in one of the pictures.  We could not keep up with her! She would come in and sit down and a few minutes later was up again to do something else. "Oh, I just have to start a load of laundry." Or something else she just had to do. She wore me out just watching her! I don't know how she still has all that energy at 86 going on 87 years old! Before we arrived she had sorted out all of her pictures (great job!). I had made them a mission album several years ago but she had a whole stack of Nauvoo pictures that needed to be put in! So I worked on photo albums while they worked on stairs. As I was working on it, I had fixed some old pages and was working on a Pday type page and needed one more picture to finish the page. I asked her if she had any picture like that and she said, "Oh, do you want the rest of my Nauvoo pictures?" YES! She had a whole other bag full of pictures. I made sure she didn't have any more and she said that was all.  So I re-did a few pages and then started in again. Sorting them and figuring out what pages to do. I LOVE doing this kind of "work" and I was happy to bring it home with me to continue working on it. She also had me bring all of Terry's pictures to do an album of him. This was a project we were going to start many moons ago and was the purpose of coming to work on during this trip. But the Nauvoo pre-empted because I wanted to finish what I had started! I took a picture of the heirloom needlework she had on her chair. It is German and says something to the effect of hard work brings rewards. In the Nauvoo pictures there was a post card Terry had written to his mom. I was wondering if his DNA was under the stamp. ha ha. Dave is working on the family history mystery and we always feel bad that we never got Terry's DNA. I think it's a stamp from back before the sticky ones. So someone had to lick it! We had fun being in Folsom even if it was quick. We did go out to eat once. Then we drove back to Utah! We enjoyed the drive and I interviewed her some more and did some typing to add to her history that John has been working on. I felt like we got a lot of good stuff out of that trip and visit!! I sure love this woman and wish I could be as energetic as she is! 

Miss Donna comes to town!

What a fun weekend!  Miss Donna flew in for some quality Allyson time! We had a fun craft day. She can only craft if I am there to guide her every step of the way. So she thinks! And she did a pouty face that we sent to Kelly because she couldn't join us for crafting fun. She made a great 4th of July door hanging and I kind of want to make one now too! I can't believe we didn't take a picture o the finished project! Friday we drove to Manti and Kelly was able to join us for that! Neither of them had been there so that was very fun to go to the temple together. Then we ate lunch in the temple cafeteria. They were all set up for the Manti pageant (can't imagine setting up all those chairs!) that was getting ready to start or was already going, and everyone we talked to asked us if we were staying for that. Sadly no, we don't have that kind of time on these quick weekends. On the other side of temple hill, looking over there was an old cemetery.  I just love old cemeteries. Wish I had time to just wander through them! Anyway, it was a lovely day, a fun weekend, and over too fast! 

Cute Walter!

This is cute Walter. Cute Walter loves to play with balls. Cute Walter will sit here and throw the ball at the piano pedals and it bounces back to him. Cute Walter will do this over, and over for the longest time. Cute Walter loves this. I love Cute Walter. 

Curtis Cook burial...

It was a beautiful day at the cemetery today in Salt Lake. Curtis is being buried next to his first wife and his little boy that died as an infant. Dave got to be an impromptu pallbearer. I always love the military honors. Those sweet old veterans that do it...brings a tear every time! Especially once "Taps" begins. Curtis's sister spoke for a few minutes, telling how she used to tag along behind her older brother and he was always so good to her. I think she was Needra, but could have been Wadeen.  I don't remember which sister (even though I just met her at the funeral 3 days ago! She was sure cute though. Then his son Mike said a few words and dedicated the grave. It was short and sweet and we got to hug everyone again. That is Uncle Valoy in the hat. Aunt Elaine and Becky are off to the side. Elaine wanted to be in the sun! Cousin Gary Bagley is in the blue shirt. It was great to see him for a few minutes too.  We hardly ever get to see our Bagley cousins. Sydnie Schoepf is in the red dress and her mom, cousin Joni, is in the black dress (from the back - she still doesn't want her picture taken). I love my cousins and we loved Curtis too. He and his first wife were friends with Aunt Lew and Uncle Jim as well as my mom and dad when they all lived in Kearns as newlyweds. I want to go read his history again because he had a very interesting life. Again, our thought are now with Aunt Lew as she has to go home alone. And she goes to Richfield 3 days a week for dialysis. Curtis always drove her. She will feel she is being a burden now, having other people have to drive her. I wish I lived close enough to help! Love this sweet auntie...

Curtis Cook...

My Aunt Lew's second husband, Curtis Cook, passed away June 2nd. He was the kindest man and I enjoyed working on his life history for him. He gave them out at Christmas time. Timely! The last time we saw him, he was in so much pain and looked like death warmed over. We are surprised he lasted as long as he did. He had pancreatic cancer and it had spread into his back. He was in so much pain and could hardly move. This was a couple of months ago we were there to visit. Anyway, we are glad he is pain free now but sad for Aunt Lew who is now alone again. About where Aunt Lew's hand is on his head in the second picture is where he had a big bruise and bump from a fall in the kitchen a day or two before he passed. The make up covered the bruise pretty good but you could still see the bump! Well, the day he passed away Aunt Lew called me and said she would like me to play a piano solo for the funeral.  WHAT??? A cowboy medley.  WHAT??? But you don't tell Aunt Lew no, ever. So I had one week to pull something together.  With some help with an older lady in our ward and a quick order on the internet of "Happy Trails" sheet music, I put something together and then practiced all week! I pulled it off somehow. With lots of heavenly help! Dave and I drove down for the funeral and enjoyed visiting with people at the luncheon afterwards. We met his only son (a baby son died back in the 50's), his only grandson, and only great grandson. They are all talked about in his history. I also met a couple of his sisters that were there. They were so sweet and I felt like I knew them after working on his history.  He was being buried up in Salt Lake by his first wife so they did military honors outside of the church before putting the casket in the hearse. The funeral was on the 9th in Torrey, Utah. Where Curtis was born and raised.  

These pictures are from the night before the funeral. Aunt Lew's granddaughter sent me the pics. 

 Aunt Lew, Laura Billie (her granddaughter) and Jasper, Laura's son

 Cousins Durran Brian and Bob Matheny

 Micheal Billie with his sons Kieran and Jasper

 Cousins Gregg and Randi Matheny (I don't know their baby's name)

 Me with cousin Janeen Matheny (Lew's daughter). She has dementia and it was so sad to me! She recognized me I think, but didn't know why I would want a picture with her. 

 Siblings Lew, Valoy and Beverly

 Beverly, always bugged that I want a picture! Her DIL Teresa Brian

My sweet cousin Joni Schoepf, Lew's other daughter. She didn't want her picture taken because her hair is just coming back in after chemo,but since it was with her daughter Sydnie, she agreed to a picture. I promised not to put it on facebook! I didn't say anything about my blog though. 

McKinney, Texas

Dave had to take a trip to Texas for work. Turns out that he would be driving right through McKinney, Texas! I told him to get some souvenirs from there! I sent him a pic from the yellow pages of a couple of souvenir stores (McKinney being the second one). For some reason he went to the FIRST one which wasn't in McKinney! So we got plain ol' Texas souvenirs (spoon, thimble, bell) for me and the girls. Funny man. I didn't know I should have specified THE STORE IN MCKINNEY. ha ha. At least he got a picture of the water tower! Love that man.