WHITE CHRISTMAS

It all started with a quick trip to Oregon City Sunday to witness Redden receive the Aaronic Priesthood and be ordained a deacon. 

It started to snow before we left and we had snow in Grandview by the time we got home.

However there was no snow at Ron's in West Richland so the whole family came to play in the snow on Christmas Eve morning.  These Houston people go crazy in the snow.  Grandpa took them on for a decent snowball fight, snowman building, and sledding down the driveway morning.

This snowguy was a bit out of the season for a good sunbathing by the pool. 

We spent Christmas Eve and Day with Ron's family, and it finally snowed in West Richland on Christmas.

We finished out the weekend with Westover and Rouse company before we both got sick and probably exposed everyone.

As we close out the year of 2012 we are saying Goodbye to the blog.  It has served us well at a time when we needed to keep in touch with family and friends, but now everyone follows Facebook.  I'm not sure that's what I want to do now, but I might give it a try.

Our love to you from Gary and Carol and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Holiday Events

The overeating holidays begin with Halloween, go right through Gary's birthday into Thanksgiving and then Christmas.

We attended The Forgotten Carols as a kick-off to the Christmas season.  This has been going on for years; the first time we saw it being when the kids were in college. 

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This package turned out to be a great birthday gift on a great weekend. 

This was our first year attending the annual Sunnyside Christmas lighted implement parade with Melora's and Ron's families.  There were 67 entries and it was amazing.

The Disney tree and train was completely assembled by skillfull grandchildren as usual.

Here's just a sample of the Christmas cheer in our little home...pretty much the same each year.

I personally had a wonderful and out-of-the-ordinary experience this year.  A friend from the ward asked me if I was interested in joining the Stake Relief Society Christmas Choir which is an annual event in Kennewick.  We decided to give it a try and soon discovered we were driving 40 minutes to Kennewick each Thursday for 12 weeks to learn this beautiful (and some original) Christmas music to sing by heart in December.  After about 5 weeks of this driving back and forth we both admitted that we weren't sure this was going to be worth it, so we decided to make it a matter of thought and prayer whether or not to continue.  As I began to do so it came to me very strongly to continue and it would be worth it.  It was!  We had wonderful experiences during rehearsals and the performance.  I have sung in some choirs in my life but never one this professional and uplifting.  I'm so thankful for the experience!

Here's our choir on the night of the performance.  There I am in the second row...with MY OWN REAL HAIR...which I am also grateful for after wearing wigs for a year.

I repent of being lax in picture taking for awhile and embarrassed by the fact that I did have some Thanksgiving and other photos which I accidently deleted off my camera!  More holiday fun is coming for sure.  I so love the decorations and the music and the gifting!!

STARS IN OUR BOOK

Over the last couple of weeks we attended ball games for 4 of our grandchildren.

For sure the local games were the warmest.  When we went to Western Washington, the cold, damp air just about froze us.  Now we remember one of the reasons we moved here.

Tori makes it look so easy.

                                                                     

                                                                                           She is definitely a real "10."

                                                       And here's Harrison...a true # 1.


A post game discussion with a big fan...note the t-shirt...still Harrison's favorite team.

It was hard to get an action shot of Sophie as she played defense and the other team was rarely down in their own half of the field.

                                                                       

                                                                          But she did a good job of just looking cute.

 

                            

        Sam was on the line in this shot...I guarantee.    

                                                                           

                                                  There he is...#20.  He was injured once but got back into the game like a trouper.

                                                                               

                                                                               

HOME AND AWAY

In the previous post there were pictures of the hot air balloons being blown up and taking off in the early morning of the Prosser balloon festival. After dinner we went to the high school stadium where some of the balloons were lit up in the dark for an evening light show.  This is me with my handsome son at the restaurant.  Below are the lighted balloons.

Next day we began our trip down to Utah stopping at Twin Falls, ID to see the Shoshone Falls and dam.  It is higher earlier in the spring and is at various levels throughout the year.  Very interesting. 

Twin Falls has a new temple in town...always a beautiful sight.

We stopped in the Salt Lake area to pick up Gary's surprise of a year's supply of apple beer concentrate.

On to American Fork to visit with Carol and Sandra...two old friends from my youth.  What a great time we had reminiscing.  We stayed with Sandra...a marvelous hostess.

We took a look at the BYU campus to see how much it has changed since we each went to school there eons ago.  I was overwhelmed and even intimidated by the new buildings and complete change of the layout of the campus.  Our old dorms are gone and I didn't even recognize the quad.  But there's the old Brigham Young statue...a familiar landmark.

We did go into the art museum and check out some of the displays.

The bell tower

 
                                                                 Lavell Edwards Stadium

                                              
                                                           The Provo temple

Then we drove on down to Southern Utah which has a completely different climate.  Was I ever excited when we saw palm trees...my absolute favorite. 
                                                 

Much of the beauty of southern Utah is natural but there were a few man-made creations that attracted the eye...


...the Saint George temple being one of the most beautiful.  I guess you could say that man and God created this together.

The spiral staircase in the St. George tabernacle...a thing of beauty...

                          
                  ...and the podium where every prophet in the Church has stood except Joseph Smith who had been martyrd by the time it was built.

Here we are outside the tabernacle...

...along with Jay and Shirley Hamblin with whom we visited, partied, and spent the night in their beautiful home.

Recognize Aladdin, Jasmine, and the Genie?  We attended a play in an outdoor amphitheater in the most beautiful weather and surroundings.

In a little town called Santa Clara there was a cow in almost every yard...we snapped just a few.

Just outside Santa Clara was the home of Jacob Hamblin...early settler and friend to the Indians...Jay's great uncle.

On our way back from visiting Jacob Hamblin's home we took a shot of Brigham Young's winter home...it's right down town.

Jay's putting green...wonder how Jacob or Brigham would have liked one of these?

                                 ...and their beautiful backyard waterfall.  Gary was drooling at both things.

Back up to Provo for our Korean mission reunion.  Here's just a few old missionary friends.  We had a great time.

A long day's drive and we were back home in time to see Tori leave for her Homecoming date.

Caitlin (clever little gal) made herself a hat to go with the rest or her Richland Bomber outfit.

We watched General Conference with the family which was a welcome treat since our home was a mess, our car was a mess, we had 6 loads of laundry. I was not in the mood to clean anything until Monday, then only because I had to.


This is the Conference that everyone will remember when they announced that Elders could serve missions at the age of 18 and Sisters at 19...quite a change form 19 and 21.  This Church runs on inspiration.  Ron's girls followed Facebook and Twitter with dozens of young people's excited reactions over this announcement.  We will see an influx in the service of missionaries now and more young women will go than ever before.



It was a great week and turned out even better than we'd anticipated.  We've decided that there is much to see and do in Utah and we plan to go back often.