SPENCER'S BAPTISM

Dear Family,

Spencer turned eight and we had his baptism on Sunday. They do baptisms differently in Utah. Usually it is a stake baptism as there are so many at one time and the wards do not all have baptismal fonts. Emily invited me to speak at the baptism of one of her children before we went on our mission. I thought this would be a little private thing but there must have been over 100 kids with several wards involved. It was like speaking to a Stake conference.

This time Spence was the only one so they allowed a private baptism and it was arranged so both grandparents could be present. Must of our gang arrived and there was the Bleak family as well who came down from Oregon.

Here is a picture of Opa W., Spencer and dad, Dr. Doug. Spence had asked me to do the baptism. We wondered before we began, "When was the last time I had baptized someone?" As you know, I did not baptize all the kids as when the boys were Priest age, they baptized their siblings. I guess Julie was the last one of the kids I baptized and that was 20 years ago. Paul F., Alison's husband, reminded me it was exactly 15 years ago that I baptized him when he was a student at University of Michigan. So this invitation was a high honor and everything went well.

As we were changing, members of the family spoke with grandparents (not me) expressing their feelings. All the little kids, mostly our grandkids sang Primary songs. There was a terrific spirit there. The baptistery was totally filled with family and friends. Here is a picture of all the kids participating in song at the baptism.

Afterward there was a dinner at out house. Doug's house was all torn up in renovation. It was another grand family event with everyone bringing something. Mom did the fruit. Becca made two hundred bread sticks that were simply snarfed. I had my sourdough bread, Emily helped with the salad and brought cupcakes and cake, Christina brought the lasagna and everything was consumed quickly. Alison made the best Creme Carmel and unfortunately set it in front of Doug and myself. It was a great family event where we celebrated Spence's baptism and Joseph's birthday.

The next family event will be the high protein low veggie dinner after General Priesthood Meeting this coming Saturday evening. Watch the broadcast in our ward and treats at our house. Doug may bring something special.

We are looking forward to General Conference this weekend.

Alles Gute, Opa

ANDOVER HIGH SCHOOL

We lived in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan for 27 years. All our children, all 17, graduated from Andover High School in Bloomfield Hills.

We had one or more kids as students at Andover each of those 27 years. Recently there was a Andover High School group formed on Facebook and you had to meet the following requirements to join:

"If you were a Andover Baron in the 80's......

you had Mr. Kwasny or Miss Hubel for science...
you had Mr. Dain or Mr. Buford for history...
you took Driver's Ed. with Mr. Shegina...
you listened to WBFH...
you thought that Lahser was the "Leisure School"...
you thought the Baron Village Inn was a real restaurant...
you remember the hockey team going to state finals ...
you knew someone with a Camaro and that was cool...
you knew a Wirthlin ...
you dressed up for Halloween at school...
you wore your collar up on your Izod shirt...y
ou remember when they added the freshmen class...
you used the terms "bogue" and "types" "

I guess we are still rememberd there

Alles Gute, Dad

JOSH GETS HIS EAGLE AWARD!

Josh, Emily's second son received his Eagle scouting award. Johnny who is on a mission in Athens Greece was the first in her family to get his Eagle. We have four Eagle grandsons now; Johnny, Douglas, Aaron and Josh.

They had a great court of honor in Mapelton. They are pretty hard core about these things there. There was an "Eagles Nest" where all those who had ever received an Eagle award sit. Once an Eagle, you are recognized for this for life. There were 8 young men who received this award at that court of honor.

They brought a live Eagle, Liberty, from the Hogle zoo and she was the star.. calling out and constantly flapping her wings. It was a very large Eagle an her handler talked about the American Eagle and its symbolism. These are vivid court of honors.

All our eight sons received their Eagle award and we are so tickled that this great tradition is being carried on in the next generation. It is an accomplishment that has lasting value. There was a great get together after at Emily and John's house where so much of the family gathered. Congratulations to all Eagle scouts and those working on this award.

Other upcoming family events include; Spencer's baptism next Sunday, (he asked Opa to do the honors) with a family dinner at our home after the baptism and don't forget the All Guys barbecue after the Saturday Priesthood session of General conference. We meet in our Ward for the televised meeting transmission and then it is up to the house for the high protein, low veggie serving. We hope all can come. (We will have a salad).

We would like to plan a Opa's and Oma's Family Home Evening here at our home maybe every other month. We know everyone is over scheduled but the numerous cousins have a good time together and I do not believe this is overdoing the schedule. Leave your comments.

Alles Gute und alles Liebe, Opa

FOOTBALL SATURDAY

Dear Family,

School has started and so has the football season. We have three grand sons playing football, Paul H., Nate and Douglas. Here is a picture of Nate's team gathering for their game in the shadows of the Wasatch mountains.

Dr. Doug, Nate's father is one of the football coaches which he manages to do when not operating.

I took James and we watched Nate play football. It was fun to watch because Nate plays tough football. He is linebacker and a half back. When he blocks or tackles, you can hear this loud smack clear across the field and the other player is either flat on his back or airborne. He ran a touchdown in, made a great cut and stiff armed a potential tackler. A Mom at the side line said, "that kid is an animal" and when he made the touchdown, there was this shout, "Way to go Wirthlin!" Kinda warmed my heart. He plays with an intensity that is not learned and he reminded me of Rob when he played high school ball. Nat's team won 50 to 0.

Here is a photo of Defensive coach, Dr. Doug and Nate.

After the game, we did treats at Artic Circle and then it was home to watch the Michigan, Notre Dame game on the big screen. Paul F., one of the more rabid Michigan fans, was there and Doug came over...both graduates of a Michigan school.

The tensions and anxiety levels were high and there was nail biting and frequent calls to Spokane where two more Michigan fans, Rob and Jeff got together to watch the game. They are also nutso fans!

It was a great game and when Michigan scored the winning touchdown in the last 11 seconds of the game, Paul went nuts as did everyone in the room. Paul started jumping up and down and at six foot six, I thought he would go through the ceiling. He did this high kicking dance much like the drum majors strutting across the field; I have never seen anything quite like it. When things settled down, we watched that winning touchdown about 50 times again with much cooing and satisfied high fives from the die hard fans.

Then of course we had to stay up and watch University of Utah win their game after watching arch rival Ohio lose theirs. I have never watched so much football in one day in my entire life and felt only a little bit guilty.

Great Saturday... love, Opa

WARD QUORUM SUMMER PARTY

Our ward is a little unusual. It has many ex Mission Presidents, Stake Presidents and church leaders. They are well connected in the community and in the Church. This year our Quorum summer party was held at Kim G. ranch in Midway. Midway is whee people build Swiss chalets and the main event is "Swiss Days". Kim has this large ranch with a beautiful home and this was the site of the party. The picture shows a view from his porch. Elder Holland is his next door neighbor and also attended the gathering

There was barbecued steaks and chicken, jello salad with all the fixings. There was a Cowboy singing group that sounded a lot like the Sons of the Pioneers as they sang their favorite cowboy songs. It was great.

Elder Holland spoke for a while and mentioned several intersting things:

1. The Twelve and First Presidency will attend Stake Conferences only rarely breaking a long tradition. They will focus on regional conferences and that has already started here.

2. Missionary work: He mentioned that the complement of missionaries in non productive areas will be reduced and used Europe as an example. More missionaries will be sent to the more productive missions and although they will not remove missionaries, their numbers will be reduced. Our mission now has 130 missionaries as opposed to 160 - 170 that we had. I always thought we could obtain the same results with fewer missionaries. This is also necessary because the number of 19 year old men has also dropped.

3. He talked about the work in Africa which is ever growing. He described early attempts in now Rwanda. He mentioned in some areas, if missionaries stood on a street corner and announced that they had a religious message, 400 would gather within minutes. He mentioned the interval closing of a Nigerian Temple which is in the best neighborhood. This affluent area now is the center of kidnapping of Europeans. Security will be beefed up but he stated that the Temple itself was never the target of trouble.

It was interesting to note how up to date these men are with the current difficulties in the world. The church is growing worldwide. It was interesting to hear hims speak so fluently about world conditions and the growth of the church in an ever changing scene. These men are on top of the problems.

Spencer gets baptized soon and Josh gets his Eagle this Sunday.. lots of family stuff

Love, Dad

ILLEGAL, UNDERGROUND, UNANNOUNCED FAMILY REUNIONS

Dear Family,

Sometimes family reunions just happen and they are sometimes the best. Recently Cheryl decided to take her family back to Michigan for her 20th High School Reunion. Mom and I thought this would be a good time to go back and visit Mark and Mary, and Bryan and Kristina and their families. John heard about this and decided to come up from Florida by himself to see the crew. This is the Eastern part of our family. Jeff and Tammy decided this would be a good chance to see both sets of parents and they, in the last minute, drove 40 hours from Spokane to be at the mini gathering.

We stayed the first night at Mary's home in Bloomfield Hills. The photo shows the block she lives on near Wing Lake in Bloomfield Hills, MI. It is so beautiful there now with these old trees, large and spacious lawns and lots...memories just flooded back

We went to Leo's on Telegraph for dinner and I sent Suz down in Mexico City, a message on Facebook, that we were at her favorite eating place. She sent back a note wondering why she had not heard of this underground reunion. They just happen and mostly in the last minute.

Thursday we met at Walled Lake. It was so pretty with perfect weather. Cheryl and Paul and their eight kids showed up as did Jeff and Tammy and their kids. Bry's family came and John was there.. I think about 30 people and it was Heaven. Pizza all around and just the best time.

Here we see some of the gang at the Wing Lake picnic. There was swimming, eating and catching small fish.

Mary put up Paul and Cheryl and their eight kids at her house and we drove to the farm. Since Bryan purchased the farm, he has been hard at work to fix it up. It looked so great with his improvements. It is a constant battle with nature as there is so much moisture in Michigan, nature quickly;y takes over any piece of land.

Bryan has done such a great job of fixing up the farm, My job was to cut the field. It is not baled as there are no animals there anymore but it needs to be cut back so I bushwhacked the 20 acre field on the John Deere Tractor and it was fun.

While the work was going on, the grandkids were running all over the placewith ATV's, dune buggies, motorcycles and my old green machine. They had a blast and Cheryl's kids wondered when they could come back to Michigan again.

Then we had a party in the orchard. With each windstorm or tornado, trees are knocked over and there was a huge pile of fallen apple trees stacked in the middle of the orchard.

Here is the team, me on the John Deere, John in the Bobcat, Bry on the chainsaw and Jeff tossed the chunks and kept the chain saws sharp. John would take the Bobcat with the grappler attachment and pull the logs from the pile, hold them horizontally so Bry could cut them up. We made quick work of the pile.

Here is the log splitting crew where the grandkids, Scotty, Julius, Zander and Nicky put the logs on the splitter and stacked the wood.

Mom was in constant motion, deep cleaning the farm house and sorting our treasures stored in the barn,

Friends came to the farm on a visit. Here is a picture of Karen and Josh and their baby, Emily. Karen was a friend from Andover High School and helped one memorable time with picking up the bales of hay. She is now an endocrinologist and Josh is an anesthesiologist.. they are a great couple.

We went to church in the Bloomfield Hills ward, our ward of 23 years and it was moving to see everyone again. Monday it was back to the farm with more projects. This was one of the best underground family reunions we have had. The next offical reunion that we hope you can come to will be next July around the 4th as we celebrate our 50th anniversary. My goal is to make it there.

Alles Gute, Love, Dad