A VISIT FROM SCHWEINFURT

We had a great visit last night from Kristin Pfister, now Evert, and her husband Daniel.

We knew her and her family in Schweinfurt when we were on our mission in Germany. Sometimes we had an odd number of sister missionaries and one time I asked Kristin if she would serve a "mini mission" for six weeks. We sent her to Vienna to work with Beth Webster who was one of our stars there and they did a great job.

She later filled a full time mission in the Washington Temple Information Bureau.
She then married Daniel who is an engineer and they live in Elwangen. It was great to see them again and catch up on the progress of the church in the Stuttgart area. They were over here as Kristin's brother married an American young lady. I admit that a big part of my heart is still over in Germany and Austria.

Never a dull moment.

Alles Gute, Opa

MEMORIAL DAY

This is what I call a "Family Room". Here we are gathered after Mom's surprise birthday party to watch the video. 70 were present and there were little kids everywhere. Our home is perfect for such gatherings.

We did have a short family night and watched a collection of photos through the years. It was a little like the Christmas slide show we used to do in the mission field. You are reminded of such great times.

Afterward, the kids all went on the front and back lawns and played football. Our neighbors love watching us to see what unusual things are going on. We invited our neighbor across the street to join us for Sunday dinner and she called and wondered when she should come she did not see the usual nine or ten SUV's parked in front of the house.

On Monday, we took a contingent to the grave yard to put flowers on the family graves. Here are three if the grandchildren by the Wirthlin grave lot. It is always a poignant moment and one remembers those who have blazed the trail before and one is reminded of our heritage of Faith.

Several then began to fly back home. But Rick and Gemina took and treated 24 to a lunch at Hires, a hamburger shop that I took Mom too when we dated. There was no rationing this time and Rick let them order whatever they wanted so there were burgers, onion rings, french fries, malts, floats, fizzes, pop, and corn dogs galore. It was a feeding frenzy and when it was finally all over, there was not one scrap of food left over. It was like a cloud of locust descending on a wheat field. I am always amazed what kids can put away.

Well the festivities were finally over and it was great. Alles Gute, Opa

MOM'S SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY

We finally did it; we surprised Mom. This has not happened in 49 years of marriage. Mary would always somehow find out what was going on; she would sneak down at Xmas and open her presents so there would be no surprise. I can't think of a time when she was surprised by anything we did. This time we got her good.

Her 70th birthday was coming up and the daughters were planning months in advance sending sneaky emails around not to give anything away. Cheryl planned the get together evening, Becca prepared the DVD honoring Mom, Mary wrote everyone to send in photos, Emily and Al saw to details and planned strategy.

14 of our 16 living children came back for this mega event some alone, some with their families. It was impossible to get them all together but we were so thrilled that as many came. They came from Spokane, California, Michigan, Florida and those far away places in Utah, Mapleton and Bountiful. They came in secretly like troops quietly parachuting on the scene. I planned the boar hunt mentioned below as cover to have John and Bryan stay at our home.

When Saturday came, we could not think of a good reason to get Mom out of the house at 4PM to drive her to the park where all had secretly assembled. She had put two roasts in the oven and would not leave the home. Finally I proposed that we visit the family graves and pick up two of Al's kids at the park to go with us. She was plenty ticked but agreed and we drove to the park and when she saw the banner and all the kids from all over she was totally surprised and it was such a great moment.

We gathered for a picture which is always an ordeal but there were 70 of us there and there was so much joy, I cannot describe it.

We then went over to the H offices where Cheryl organized a great dinner brought in by Cafe Del Rio and the Pointe. Scrumptious!

The videos equipment was on the fritz there so we headed back to our house and all 70 went into the basement family room where we watched a touching DVD honoring Mom with background music like, "Well Hello Mary Lou, Goodbye Heart, Mary Lou we're so in love with you" There were photos sent by all on the various stages of our home from the start. It was heart wrenching!

This reunion never stopped and continued for two more days with another big Sunday dinner with goodies from everyone including Dutch oven ribs from Doug, Smoked ribs from Opa and goodies all around. We managed to quiet the throng for a short Family Home,e Evening. When one talks about "Having joy and rejoicing in your posterity" it certainly includes these moments and even better ones to come.

We thank all for coming and for all those who helped so much. This time we surprised Mom.

Love, Opa

BRINGING HOME THE BACON, THE FATHER AND SON WILDSCHWEINJAGT

This is something that is appreciated in the West. My daughters talk about organic foods but the ultimate organic food is the wild game that one brings home. I heard about a place where one could hunt wild hogs in Utah,

This is big sport in Europe especially Germany. Those hunts are spectacular. They dress in their Hunter's Loden and look quite sharp. I thought of wearing Lederhosen and the hats for this hunt but would have been laughed out of the state. This is the West!

Bryan flew back from Michigan and John came up from Florida. We went up to northern Utah on the banks of the Bear River, beautiful country. There is this place where they had a few wild hogs, Russian boars, feral pigs and mixes of the two. It was on a 3000 acre piece of land. We drove around for two hours and saw nothing and I thought this would be my usual hunting luck.

The guide spotted a place where Wildschwein had been wallowing, Bry and John went on foot through thick tamerac bushes for almost a mile; it reminded us of Zimbabwe on the banks of the Zambizi River. They spotted two through the bush and put on a stalk. They were on the banks of the Bear River and were quickly dispatched by Bryan and John. We took these two organically raised wild hogs to Tremonton to a butchery where they will be cured, smoked and prepared. I hope we can get someone in the family to eat this. They weighed over 400 pounds each. This is what I call "bringing home the bacon." I'll let you know how they taste.

Here is a picture of Opa and Bryan

Alles Gute, Opa

BEAR LAKE IN SPRING

It was another busy week with birthdays everywhere, school events for the grandkids, families coming and going and our house was grand central station.

We went to Paul H. Jr. school play. It was written by the drama couch and was a combination of two fairy tales. Paul plays a hapless soldier and is second on the right. He did a good job.

Doug, Douglas, Spence, Tom Tom and I had a two day trip to our Bear Lake Homestead. Six miles into Idaho in St. Charles, ID it is a great retreat. We brought equipment up there, opened the place and found everything intact and everything functioned. We arrived late Friday night turned on the water pump, turned on the furnace, got the water heater started and watched Mr, Bean's Holiday movie. Slept in and got up to try out our new large propane griddle.

Here is a picture of Opa cooking a mammoth "Cracker Barrel Restaurant" style breakfast on the new griddle. Bacon, eggs, hash brown potatoes, pancakes, eggs and little pork chops. This will be a great thing when we have the family up for the Fourth of July celebration.

There are always fun things to do there. It was too cold for the beach. This valley is so beautiful and peaceful and it is if it is oblivious to the strife and contention in the rest of the country. Church is always great there.

One time the High Councilor got up and said, "I am going to talk about why members hate to come to church!". Reason # 1, "They hate the Bishop". He went on to say that "That makes as much sense saying you will not take irrigation water for your farm because you hate the Water Master". You have to farm in the west to appreciate that one but I love church up there.

Doug did a lot of repairs; he repaired the clutch on out FJ 40 rock climber rig. The kids cut the lawn, picked up dead branches, started up all the motors that lay idle over the winter and simply got the place wakened up and functioning.
It was a beautiful day and we had a great short time there.

In the meantime, our home in Salt Lake was busy with families, grandkids coming and going. Mary went to her C.E.R.T. training and driving grandkids all over the map. When we arrived at 11PM. Emily arrived and brought Al's kids, James, William, Peter, Maryanna and Clara for the night as they were in Michigan. Non stop action!

Mom's birthday this weekend.

Alles Gute, Opa

MOTHER'S DAY 2009

Dear Family.

We just celebrated Mother's Day and it was another huge Family event. Not everyone could come but we had good representation of the family who live here. Doug and Kristina and their kids were there, Emily and Mike brought their repective families from Mapelton Cheryl and Paul brought their eight kids, Becca and Paul came as did Cathy and Pete.

It is wonderful to see them all. they all came on time which was a first and another first was the roast and everything was ready to eat on their arrival. Mom said we should have Prime Rib roast. "Are you sure?" I wondered but it was Mother's Day so I picked out a 10 pound Prime Rib roast. When she saw the cost she was taken back and said, "I can't tell the difference between a rump roast and a prime rib roast!" "Ahhhhh everyone else can!" So we perfectly roasted the Prime Rib and it was super great. I think 43 sat down to dinner. There was a traffic jam on our street. Salads were brought and other treats. Mom did the baked potatoes and it was great. It was topped off by Mom's all time favorite, angle food cake layered with ice cream. This brought back a lot of memories. When Al and Paul arrived with their kids from their trip, we fed 51 all totaled. It was great.

Mom did not want any gifts and asked all to take the fund that would have gone into a gift and put it in their food storage which is what everyone did. I bought Mom a top of the line Katadyn water filter for our emergency supply. Not romantic but practical and needed. Cathy brought 17 eggs from her back yard chickens with the names of Mom's children written on them. How are we supposed to eat them? "What do you want for breakfast?" "I'll have Doug and Mike over easy?"

She had a game for Family Night where she chose grandchildren to get up and say what they liked about their Mothers and what would they do to help a little more. Family Night with that group is a little chaotic but we got it done!

We are grateful for wonderful and unusual Mothers, we are grateful for great wives and we are grateful for daughters all of whom we honor on this special Sunday.




















Alles Gute, Dad

HUNTSMAN EDUCATION AWARD DINNER

Dear Family,

Here is a picture of some of the family that attended the Huntsman Education Award Banquet. They of course were all dressed up and fancy but I used this shot as my Blackberry did not take a good picture.Cheryl and Paul invited Emily and two daughters.

So here is a picture of mothers and daughters. Cheryl, her daughter Madeline, Natalie and her mother Emily. I wondered how was it possible that they all look the same age and there is such a family resemblance.

In addition Cheryl brought Annabelle and Loren, Emily also brought Caroline. So Mom and I were sitting there at this prestigious table with two daughters and five grand daughters and our son in law, Paul, it was the best and I was so tickled that Cheryl and Paul invited family to this event.

The Jon and Karen Huntsman family have given awards to outstanding educators of public schools in Utah for the past 17 years and what a wonderful thing it is. Cheryl and I are among the judges who read these fabulous reports and comments on teachers and administrators and we vote on the prize recipient. The prize is the recognition and a check for $10,000 and ten of them are given out.

It was very difficult to decide who should receive them as all are outstanding. The other judges are former recipients of the award and usually teachers. There is quite a discussion and then you secretly vote. I think Cheryl got 9 out of the ten and I got 8 out of the ten.

The banquet was special with former recipients there along with Church leaders. Elder Wirthlin used to go to all of these as well as Elder Ballard. This year President Eyring and Elder Hinckley were the church representatives.

Jon and Karen both gave great talks at the end of the presentations and we are again reminded of all the great things this family does for education and for Utah. It was a great evening and I enjoyed being there with so much family.

Alles Gute, Dad

EMILY'S GREAT WHOLE WHEAT BREAD RECIPE

Katje reminded me I mentioned this recipe in a post but did not give th4e details.

Here is Emily’s no fail wheat bread recipe. I do not know the source of this but it does work even here. This bread does rise and this recipe makes 4 loaves of whole wheat bread, made from your finely ground whole wheat flour.

COMBINE in a mixer (like a Bosch) :
4 cups warm water
4 cups whole-wheat flour
Mix on low speed until combined

ADD:
1/4 cup SAF instant yeast
Mix and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes

ADD;
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon sea salt
1/2 cup oil

MIX on low speed. Add 4 – 6 cups of whole-wheat flour (one cup at a time) until it starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, - smooth but still tacky. Knead with mixer on medium speed for six minutes.
Turn on oven to 350 degrees

Wet hands or coat with butter so the dough does not stick when forming the loaves. Spray bread pans. Form loaves and let them rise until they are 1/2 or 1” above the top of the bread pan.

BAKE at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
Take the loaves out of the bread pan and let cool.

Mahlzeit! Love, Dad

EMERGENCY PREPARDNESS

Dear Family,

Mom has the calling for Provident Living and Emergency preparedness in the ward Relief Society. She gave a lesson on using wheat today that she had prepared for a month with experiments at home. She is even growing alfalfa in our fridge which is not so bad. She has Emily's easy wheat bread recipe down and we have been using some of our ground wheat flour.


We have always used the principles of provident living in our home with such a huge gang of kids. Rooms were shared, clothes passed down and Mom bought in huge bulk. I am tickled to see our children following her example.


Yesterday, though, it was a little surreal. Mom talked me into going to a C.E.R.T. training meeting. This is a national program that fits in with our church program pretty well. It stands for Community Emergency Response Team that is organized in neighborhoods. Holliday is really organized and volunteers are trained for emergencies like earthquake, fires etc.


I wondered what I was doing there because it was not an hour lecture on a Saturday but 8 hours with 16 more expected! I got a green hard hat, green vest and large gloves. The morning was interesting as we learned about fires and fire prevention and control. We learned about fire extinguishers and how to use them.


Here is a picture of Mom putting out a propane gas fire. You had to have a team of two, one with the extinguisher and the other holding on behind. The person holding on to Mom was Eileen Hinckley (President Hinckley's sister in law and Stake Relief Society emergency preparedness leader).

They had a container of propane gas and hooked it up to a hose under water; it bubbled up and was lit and produced a huge flame. Mom's extinguisher ran dry so they did not put out the fire and the back up team was goofing off so I guess the house would have burned down.

The afternoon was medical tirage and the instructor found out I was a surgeon and felt I was overqualified to be a CERT guy and would be better off in a hospital tent somewhere so I will be a CERT dropout. This is pretty well organized out here in Salt Lake and working through the organisation of the church makes it easier. There are neighborhood captains etc.

This was an interesting Saturday afternoon,

Love, Dad

ANOTHER BABY BLESSING

We were invited to a baby blessing of one of our sister missionaries. Here is a picture of Heather Toone Yospe, her husband, Jacob, baby Cambria and her former mission president, me.

These are always joyous times and we are honored to be invited. As I sat there witnessing Jacob pronouncing the blessing and Heather's remarks in the Fast Meeting, I could not have been prouder.

One thing that surprised me a little from our mission experience is that I had so much more room in my heart for these great young men and women who kept themsselves worthy and sacrificed time and finances to serve full time missions. They find a place in the corner your heart. I saw them all every six weeks individually and then would receive a great letter once a week from 160 missionaries. When they were allowed to use the email, I had to get a better printer and would print them off and I would read them during our travels. You become well acquainted with most.

We were released from managing a mission now three and a half years, but I learned we were not released from how we felt about these great young men and women. It is a joy to see them moving on in life; graduating from schools, amassing degrees, finding poitions. It is so great to see them as we are invited to Temple weddings, baby blessings and when they just drop by. Es ist wie eine geistige Adoption die im Herzen immer stehen bleibt.

Alles Liebe,
Opa