Visiting

During the week of Education Week. We always get to visit family. We went first to Melissa and Curry's. We played with the kids and had dinner with them. Asher is getting such a personality and talks so much. Her favorite game to play with us is "hide and go seek". She would hid with one of us and then call "come get me!" After dinner Asher danced for us. All to soon it was time for us to head to Provo for the night and the kids to go to bed. Thursday night that week we met them at The Texas Roadhouse for dinner. This was a new place to Mike and I. It is very similar to Lone Star here in Las Vegas, but the food there was 10x's better! I think we have a new favorite place to eat in Utah.

We stayed this year with Marilyn and David. We had a great time in the evenings visiting with Matt and Rob but this year we also got to see Kristin and her baby Sydney during her visit to Utah. Valerie and her three little ones, Andrew, Sarah and Emma, also were there several nights to visit.

One night we roasted marshmallow's and made s'mores, our last night we had a picnic in Provo Canyon at a park. Melissa and Asher joined us for that night. It was a beautiful spot for a picnic, lots of grass and a river running right next to us. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.

Mike and I at the park

Saturday morning, Marilyn and I made a couple of stops at Provo Craft Outlet and a cute little store called The Busy Biddy. We made a few good deals at the outlet. It was funny to see that they had all their Easter decorations on clearance. So we are ready for Easter next year!

What a busy week!

Students Again

Mike and I spent the week of August 18 th at BYU. We attended Education Week. This was Mike's 5th year and my 4th. The classes I chose this year were amazing. I attended 6 classes during the day, Mike attended 7, and we took 3 classes together (that was a first).

My favorite was a scripture study class. It taught us how to take a scripture apart to get more meanings and apply it to our lives. The teacher was very good and I learned much from this class. My next favorite class was "Handmaids of the Lord in the New Testament" Mike attended this class with me. I was nervous that he would not enjoy it since it was geared to women, but the teacher is one that is on the BYU station often and she did a great job and we both enjoyed very much and learned some history and little known facts.

My very first class of the day was with MaryEllen Edmunds. She is so funny and was a good start to the day. Her subjects were serious though, (avoiding contention, not comparing ourselves...)but she got the day off to a good start.

I always try to work one class by Marilee Boyak. Her classes have grown each year that I have gone, that this year she was in the largest ballroom at the Wilkinson Center! (and the class was full!) She is a great motivational speaker and is a great person.

Our last class was Bro Hall. This is Mike's favorite teacher. He is a professor of Ancient Studies at BYU. He is a very intelligent man. I enjoyed his class and learned quite a bit on the Apostle John. I am glad that I finally got to one of his classes with Mike, since he has talked about him for years. This class was on the first floor of the Tanner Building. When you enter this building at street level you are on the fourth level, so the class was 3 flights of stairs down. This is no problem going down, but remember this is the last class of the day, it is now 5:30pm and I have walked most of the campus by now and sat for an hour in this class. I about needed an oxygen mask by the time I made it to the top the first day! But by the end of the week it was easier to make the climb.

This was an intense, but amazing week to spend learning. I hope that we can go again next year!

Trip

Mike and I spent last weekend in Utah. We were where? Visiting the grandkids of course! We had a nice visit.

We went Friday night to Fort Canyon, which is some property that Curry's family owns. It has a natural waterfall, that is run off from the snow melt. They call it sliding rock because the rocks are so smooth that you can slide down them right into a pool of ice cold water. We did not do that, we just looked. We hiked up a little farther to a pool of water that is up higher. The kids have built a ramp to ride their bikes off and into the pool!

Saturday we went to the "Highland Fling". The city's own little celebration. They had fair like booths and food booths, with some entertainment. That afternoon Melissa and I made a trip to Tai Pan and to an antique store called Home Again. We stopped at Ikea on the way home to get Jaman's birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa. We BBQ'd that night and finished watching a movie that we had started the night before. Asher was giving Melissa a hard time about going to bed while we were there, and was not getting much in the way of a nap. So she was tired most of the time, we got this picture in the car of her completely asleep!

We headed home Sunday, and it was back to work for both of us on Monday.

We Got Rain!

I know this will sound silly to most of you, but remember we live in the desert. We had a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon that was fantastic! It started with some low rumblings of thunder then crash, it got louder and we saw lightening like crazy then the rain came. This is the first storm our side of town has had this summer, so we were very happy to see it come. These pictures are from our back patio. I hope that we get more today, but in this town who knows. It usually rains only on the west side of town, so we are always happy when it does get this far.

Aunt Ruth

We found out about Aunt Ruth's passing and decided to make the trip to Ogden for the funeral. Kelly, my niece Wendy and I set out on a Friday afternoon being followed and sometimes passed by my brother David and his family. We arrived in Provo that night at my sister, Marilyn's house. Soon after my brother Paul and one of his son's arrived. We stayed up and looked through old family photo albums and talked. It was nice visiting.

Saturday morning we drove to Ogden for the funeral. My brother Larry was conducting the service and welcomed us all to the celebration of Aunt Ruth's life. When my cousin GraceAnn got up to talk she said," her mom would have liked that because, in life she was all about the party!" I have many memories of vacations with Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ray. Camping in Ogden Canyon, the basement house, and their family coming to Lompoc, trips the Hearst Castle and Disneyland, and the beach.

After the funeral we went to North Ogden Cemetery for the grave dedication. While there I had a family history lesson from my Aunt Darlene, on my the Furgeson family. Buried there are my grandparents and the five children that died early in life. It bothers me that there are no last names on their grave markers or birth and death dates. I hope that the family will always remember who these children are. We also got the visit with many of our cousins.

There was a family lunch afterwards, but because we took the scenic tour of Ogden (we were lost) there was not any food left when we arrived. So Rob, Wendy, Jessica, Kelly and I took off the find our favorite Utah restaurant Winger's. The food was great but the service was S-L-O-W.

The cousin's at lunch.

Everyone else had gathered at Grandma and Grandpa Rookhuyzen's. We joined them there and had a nice visit with everyone. Mom said to Kelly, "This place is really busy today!" I know that Larry was there but did not get a picture of him.

Paul with Mom

Cathryn and Lynette

Melissa and Alan

Rob and Erich

Mom, Nancy and Paul

David and Marilyn
David and Amy


Sunday we made it to a BYU singles ward (Kelly's request) and then spent about an hour with Melissa and family before starting home. It is sad that it takes a funeral to bring family together but, I am glad that we went.


Grandma, Kelly and Jaman
Asher and "Gandma"

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Here is a fun little blogging game...Leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time, or a long time, anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.... So... go ahead and go down memory lane!

Chubby Cheeks

Ever wonder where Asher got those chubby cheeks? I found this picture of me taken when I was almost 1 year old. Take a look at those cheeks I had, and then look at Asher's!

Nancy

Asher