VISIT TO WARRENTON, VIRGINIGA

Dear Family,

We went to Virginia just before Thanksgiving Holiday to see our friends, the Manwarings.  They have this beautiful property that reminds me so much of New England and also southern Germany with open fields and rolling hills.  Larry is an avid upland bird hunter.  He has wonderfully trained Brittany Spaniels who hunt as a team.  We hunted in the long grass and you can see the dogs ahead of us.  Here is a shot of the Dad taking a bead on a pheasant flying through the trees. Believe we got that one.

Here we are at the end of the hunt with the dogs , the hunters, and the birds.  That's Larry on the left Me with my Austrian Drilling.  I took my Drilling that was made in Salzburg, (purchased after the mission in the USA) and it was perfect for this hunting. It is a 16 by 16 gauge doable side by side with a 8x57 JR Mauser rifle barrel underneath.  It is also scoped for deer hunting.

The rifle barrel was used when we deer hunted but I never did get a shot off.  The great hunting vehicle is a Kybota four seater and it took us over hill and dale.

In the morning we got up early and I sat in a deer blind and Larry was up in a tree in an area that was up until opening day, crawling with deer. I did not see anything but Larry saw one down in the woods partially hidden in the bush.  That one got away unscathed.

We decided to ride up the hilt one evening after the pheasant hunt.  Mom  and Madeline met us and we drove through the woods to the top of this hill where you could see the Blue Ridge Mountains.  We ran into no deer which was unusual.  We did run into two large Tom Turkeys but the season ended the day before. I so wanted to bag a deer to complete a perfect New England Thanksgiving dinner.  The only place where we saw deer every day and night was in their back yard.  We did not go out one morning because of the threat of rain but I was awakened with , "Get up, there are four deer in the backyard!" but by the time I got there, the dogs had run them off.

So the next morning we turned the garage into a gourmet shooting blind.  We tested the windows; Larry took one window and I took the one by the ornamental pear trees where there was more sign than anywhere in the woods but alas they read our minds and did not show.  They did show up every day after we left.

On Sunday, we went to church, did not hunt, (even though there were deer in the neighborliness yard) and in the afternoon, we drove up to the Washington Temple to attend the Christmas Devotional.  We took our white suits and clothes.  Larry and Madeline are Temple workers there and invited us as family. It was a great meeting with great Spirit.  We saw two of our friends from the Salt Lake Temple who were there on Temple missions. Also saw one of our former sister missionaries, Annie Baliff, who works for the "Department of Defense".

We hunted all day Monday, went to dinner in the evening and said goodbye on Tuesday. Here are the Manwarings (taken with Mom's Ipad. It was great to be back there and it could be so habit forming.  Larry is also a great cook and showed us how to make whole wheat bread made from fresh ground whole wheat with Chia seeds added. 

It was a great time and I am still unpacking.  We brought a bit of the pheasant and chucker goodies home.

More on Thanksgiving

Love, Dad

VETERANS DAY, NOVEMBER 11. 2011

Dear Family,

Today on 11/11/2011 we celebrate Veteran's Day which date was selected to remember the end of the First World War on November 11th and to remember all veterans and their service..  Here is a photo of the Dad in his dress Navy Blue officers uniform showing the rank of Lieutenant in the Medical Corp.

I only thought about it again today because we were invited to Cheryl's kids performance at their Cardon School.  Each of her five girls either had a signing or reading part in a performance remembering past and current veterans of conflicts.

It was quite a nice program which opened with a prayer, pledge of allegiance, salute to the flag, the choral singing of the National Anthem and readings from each conflict going back to the First World War.

It was very nice and I was moved.  They had each veteran stand and say in which service he served, during what conflict and what branch of the service.  I stood up and said, "US Navy, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Medical Corp during the Vietnam conflict".  They had two men there who were Navy who had fought in the WWII in New Guinea, a few from Vietnam and several from the current conflicts.

I have never talked much about this in the family so this is a short note.  They had a doctor draft during the Vietnam war and you had to serve two years either in the Peace Corp or in the armed services.  Instead of being drafted, I volunteered in the Navy and a friend got me into the School of Aviation Medicine, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida where we served from 1964-1966.  Pensacola was a training command so they were strict about uniforms, saluting, and inspections.  I had to wear a sword with my dress whites during an inspection.

I did not see conflict.  I saw more conflict and gun shot wounds in Boston and Detroit.  The school of Aviation Medicine trained Navy flight surgeons and did a lot of basic research related to the space program..  I was in a pulmonary lab where we measured oxygen consumption and pulmonary functions on the Mercury Astronauts and I  met several of them.  The computation of oxygen consumption involved a series of calculations so I wrote a program in Fortan to solve this, the data was punched on IBM sort cards and run through one of the real old huge computers we had in the school.

We did basic research on vestibular function in hypobaric conditions, (altitude).  This was for the space program where there were problems with vertigo.  I set up a lab where we studied coronary artery flow in awake greyhound dogs at altitude and wrote a a couple of papers. I also had to stand watch in the base medical dispensary at night and you could not leave that watch.  I had to stand watch the day Bryan was born; we had our neighbor who was the Naval Obstetrician pick Mom up when she started labor, deliver Bryan and then he called me on my watch.

The base trained Naval Aviators and the Enterprise was the carrier that they qualified on.  I had such respect for these men and for what they gave.  It is so appropriate that we remember those who have served, those who have fallen  and those who have returned to guarantee our freedom and safety.

Love, Dad

CREPES ON SUNDAY

Dear Family,

Sunday was very busy.  Paul invited me over to his ward to give his Priest class the lesson on Patriarchal Blessings. So we drove over to Holiday and when I got there, they had assembled the Priests, Teachers, Laurels and MIA Maids for the lesson.  there were about 30 - 40 kids,

They were sharp and knew a lot about the House of Israel and the concept of birthright. I gave a half hour lesson and Mom said it was good. (Some adult leaders were taking notes.}

After church, Paul took us  up to his parents for brunch in his new huge van.  Many of his family were there and it was quite a sight with Karen constantly cooking and providing for all the grand kids as they came.  I  had a chance to visit with Paul's Dad.  It was a very good time.

I had a Patriarchal Blessing that evening and after felt kinda tired. .We got a call from Paul Jr. that Cheryl and Paul were having a special Family Night and could we come. Also we think you should  make some crepes.

Well we had spent the afternoon with them but OK, we will gladly come over for Family Night and bring my crepe recipe and special pan. It could be that the kids were behind this request.  After a Family Night, they all pitched in and wanted to help with the crepes.  Someone broke the eggs, others measured the milk, another measured the flour, another the water.  Mary Clare melted the butter, I added a little vanilla flavored Kefir milk for zest and we turned on the blender and viola, perfect crepe batter.

I cooked crepes one at a time for at least a half an hour and they kept coming back for ,more. Finally after the second batch of batter, they were full and wandered off to bed.

The next night I get a call from Loren,  "Grandpa, we are having scriptures now, can you come over for that and make some more crepes?"  I guess they figured out that I am a sucker for Family Home Evening and scripture reading and can easily be talked into making crepes. " I can't come now because it is too late and we are in the Temple Tuesday and Wednesday night but how about Thursday night?"  "Cool Grandpa!" So we have a date for Thursday night.

I guess I like doing sweet things.

Love, Opa

FAMILY FUN AT HALLOWEEN

Dear Family,

We had a busy weekend with Rick and Gemina's visit and many get togethers,  Saturday, Doug and I went to Farmington to watch Rebecca in her La Cross game. She did well and scored the first goal and her team won.  Did not quite understand the game as it was the first one I had seen but there were a bunch of little gitsl with sticks raised high and screaming at each other. But it was fun!

After that, Doug and I made our way to the Bountiful Lyons Club shooting range and sighted in a couple of hunting rifles.  Then it was home.. Mom dropped me off at the University of Utah football game and picked up Rick and Gemina.  Rick joined me in the box and watched the game.  They stayed at Cheryl's so we went there, stayed late, watched a movie.

Sunday was church and then a get together at Paul and Cheryls.  Gemina and Cheryl prepared a healthy meal.     Gemina prepared a hearty soup in California, froze it and brought it up on the plane in addition to a salad.  Mike and Rayanne, Emily and John, Doug and Kristina, and Cathy and Pete and all the kids came for a great visit.  Here is Cathy, Rayanne, Emily and Cheryl enjoying the goodies.

Once fed, all the cousins break up into age groups, the little kids get into the toy room, the teen age boys shoot a few hoops in the basement and the teenage girls get into Madeline's bed and just talk.  Here is Madeline B., Natalie H. and Madeline H. 

The  trick of climbing into bed was not limited to the teenagers.  With the main TV screen out, we had to go to Cheryl's bedroom to watch a movie.   

Here is Mom, Gemina, little Johnny, Rick on the Droid smartphone and Paul Jr. watching Midway.  Cheryl kicked everyone out at 10 PM.  Well it was really fun and Mom says her bed is comfortable.


The next night was Halloween and the family everywhere had a great time.

The next night was Halloween.  I do not have pictures ow what all the family was doing but here is a sampler.  Here is Al and her kids.  They went to Bloomfield Hills and hit our old neighborhood on Kingsgateway. The Breer's emptied all their candy into the kids bags!  All used to start at the Breer's and then work their way to the end of the block, then put on sheets and work their way back up the street.  It was most effecient and they always got the most.

Here is Becca but no matter what she puts on, she will never look like a witch.

Here is Libby, Mary Claire, Madeline and Loren as a 

Popcorn box.  Here they are in front of the house.

Here is Cheryl's gang in front of the house. It was a ;lot of fun.

Mom and I met the kids at the door as ourselves and that was scary enough 

Alles Gute und alles Liebe, 

Dad and Mom

HUNTSMAN EXPANSION DEDICATION

Dear Family,

We had a busy weekend with many get togethers.  We are always finding the smallest excise to assemble and  visit.

This weekend, we were invited to the dedication of the Huntsman Cancer Center Expansion, John, Karen, family and staff built this gorgeous expansion of the Huntsman Cancer Center.  They added 50 more inpatient beds and expanded the outpatient treatment center.  There is also a new OR with MRS capability during surgery.  It allows the Neurosurgeons to check the margins of cranial tumor resections.  They can tell during surgery by wheeling in an overhead MRS imaging device if they got all the tumor.  Fantastic!

 They built a most beautiful outpatient facility with the comfort and needs of the patient uppermost in mind.  Paul took us around the new infusion outpatient ward where patients receive outpatient chemotherapy.  There are individual cubicles outfitted with TV, computer access and comfortable chairs and beds.  It was fantastic!  It has a full floor to ceiling glass view of the valley and this is stunning.

He showed us where He and Cheryl plan to dedicate a nurses station to the memory Julie .  It will have her name aboe the nurses station for outpatient chemotherapy.  If anyone wants to contribute, contact Cheryl.

The dedication was impressive.  The picture shows John and Karen giving their remarks.  There were four members of the Quorum of the Twelve, the Governor of Utah, Senator Orin Hatch and many dignitaries from the University of Utah.  John Huntsman Jr. who still is running for the [presidency in 2012,  gave the keynote address and did a very nice job.  It is such an outsanding accomplishment ot have built that unit with its research facility here in Utah.  I was impressed out of my mind.

Later that night, Rick and  Gemina came for a visit.  We went to the Football game and
Rick came in the box.  We went over to Cheryl and Pauls after and "hung out". So much fun there.

Well that is about all for now.  Love you all.. Dad