MOM'S BIRTHDAY

Dear Family,

Mom had a birthday this month and it was celebrated quietly.  She did not want a big party so we had a lunch at the Red Butte Cafe.  Here is  a picture of little Emily, Cheryl, Emily, Mom and Cathy.  I crashed this "girls luncheon" and it was fun.

It is hard to find Mom a birthday present:  when I buy her a piece of jewelry, she says I am turning her into a "Fourth Generation Nephite"!  The one piece of jewelry she likes is the silver necklace I bought her on Mikanos Island that has the Greek glyph for eternity.

So this year she wanted a little playhouse for the backyard and finally the several hundred parts were put together, a base landscaped and the house was erected in the corner of the garden.  This is truly a Kindergarten now.  It even has a doorbell and carpet.  Little Emily wanted to sleep over to play in the little house.  This may also be preparation for the gigantic family reunion this fourth of July.

The backyard is pretty cool now with the roses in bloom and the little fruit tress growing.  The grapevines are doing well and it should be a god year.  The tomatoes and other plants are in; I just miss the farm.

We go to Spokane this weekend for a visit and another eye treatment and will be spending time with Rob, Eva, Jeff, Tammy and  kids at a lake.

We love you all,

Dad and Mom

HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION STARTS

Dear Family,

May is busy enough but this year we have 5 high school graduations.  Rachel, Natalie, Douglas, Madeline H. and Madeline B. graduate from High School!

Here is a picture of the first round of graduates, Rachel and Natalie at their graduation ceremony in Orem, UT. As a Grandpa, I am as proud of them as if as I was for our kids.  All 17 of our children graduated from Andover High School in Bloomfield Hills, MI.  Deep roots there.  Mary presented  the Julie Wirthlin scholarship award this year at their Honors Night. Check out the Facebook link to Mary's post!

Rachel and Natalie graduated from the Mapleton Mountain High School which has students from Mapelton and Spanish Fork.  There were about 400 graduates and there was Natalie at their head.  As senior class president, she walked the graduates into the arena, stood up and greeted all, gave instructions and gave a very nice graduation message.  Both Rachel and Natalie graduated with high honors.

I did not bring a huge telephoto lens but here is a shot of Natalie at the podium with her picture blown up  on the televised screen.  I was struck that there were not many National Merit Scholars in this group as opposed to the High School in Michigan.

We are proud of these two and wish them the best at BYU which they will begin this summer.

We went over to Mikes after and he and Rayanne put on a great barbecue.  Rayanne's parents came down from Oregon for Rachel's graduation. More graduations to come this month We love you all.

Maybe next year all the Andover graduates in our family  should gather at Andover High School for their last Honors Night as they will merge the high school.  Wouldn't that be a spectacle and lots of fun?

Love, Dad and Mom

WE OPEN BEAR LAKE FARMHOUSE

Dear Family,

With all the activity, we found time to go to St. Charles, ID to open the house on Bear Lake.  Doug brought Spence, Izzy and Tom Tom.  Mom and I drove up with them on a Thursday night. We loaded up the trailer with an ATV, chain saws, battery chargers, food for an army and headed up I80.  We got a late start and arrived about 1 AM.

Roy drove over from Colorado and brought Adam.  He came over in his new BMW rental and traveled well over the speed limit as must German vehicles do.  We arrived about the same time and met him at the farm.
We got in, turned on the furnace, finally got the water pump to work, started a fires in the stove and went to bed thoroughly pooped.  We woke up to a  rainy day.  I have never seen it rain there in the 12 years we have owned the property.  I brought the grill and griddle outside and cooked a mammoth Bear Lake Breakfast and it was fun.  It continued to rain all day so we could not do much outdoors.  Luckily all the equipment started right up.

Roy had trouble sleeping because he hears some live action in the wall making a noise all night long.  He took off a panel on the wall upstairs and found a birds nest with three little birds making a fuss.  Those darn Barn swallows found a way to peck their way into the wall and set up house.  The kids removed the nest and transplanted it in a tree.  Doug and Roy sealed up the hole.  Otherwise the house was vermin free.

When the weather cleared we cut the grass and noticed that there were cows in the immediate field behind and next to the house.  There were about fifty or more Angus cows in what is normally the hay field.  This disrupted our choosing lane towards the lake and we could not shoot off the back porch.

Three year old Izzy managed to step in a fresh "Cow Pie" and Doug took care of that.  The kids could not play in the field behind the house because of the bulls and cows that were right up to the fence..

It is early Spring time there and the apple tree at the side of the house is in bloom.  Saturday, the weather cleared and we found a great shooting range in Montpelier and had a blast there literally.  Roy brought some of his gourmet long distance rifles; we sighted in several rifles and the kids shot their 22's.

We did not get the boat out as it was chilly.  We need to go back again and spend more time there. I love it up there; it is as if the rest of the world with all the hassles is totally irrelevant to life in St. Charles.  Mom was cleaning constantly and the place really looks good and everything works!  The triumph of opening Bear Lake.  We headed back Saturday night so we could go to church here and Roy made it back safely.

See you all soon.  Discussion abut the reunion is heating up and we look forward to that.  We visit Rob and Jeff soon for another eye treatment.


Love, Mom and Dad

ANDREWS BAPTISM IN ST. GEORGE, UTAH

Dear Family,

We had a chance to go to St. George to visit Rebecca and Paul  and attend the baptism of their oldest, Andrew.

Paul is the master of barter.  Sky West owed him and he converted some of that for two tickets to fly to St. George.  We could have driven but our long distance driving days are getting harder.  It was a 45 minute flight on this small airplane but was pleasant and easy.

We went down on Saturday and got there just an hour or two before the baptism.  The baptism was sweet. All participated.  I gave the baptism talk, Mom led the singing, Paul baptized and confirmed Andrew, his dad gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and His Mom gave the closing prayer.  We were proud of Andrew.

Becca baked these cookies for the occasion.  There is a way to down load a photo on some icing layer and come up with these great Andrew cookies.  I felt funny biting a chunk of his head.

We had an ice cream sunday for a treat.

Later, Paul, Becca, Mom and I went to a movie and we saw "The Incredibles".  I was unaware of the characters of this super hero movie except for Captain America who was around the comic books when I was growing up.  Luckily, I sat next to Rebecca who explained the various characters.  There is no character development in these movies; you are supposed to know who everyone is.  I downloaded Captain America and Thor games for the Ipad and the kids loved playing that.  We had a barbecue after church and all in all, it was a great visit to send time with Becca, Paul and their kids.  The boys played with me constantly.. it was so much fun!  Congratulations Andrew and be good!

Love, Oma and Opa

JOHNNY AND JENNA GET MARRRIED

Dear Family,

Most  of you know that Johnny and Jenna were married in the Salt Lake Temple.  Johnny was the first of the grandchildren to make the move.  Here they are with family on the steps of the temple after the ceremony.

It was a great celebration.  It is also interesting to watch the next generation going through the drama of organizing a wedding and receptions.

Emily did a great job.  She and John hosted a dinner for the immediate families the night before. Sisters came up as well.  Suz and her daughters came up from Phoenix and Rebecca and her family drove up from St. George.

The ceremony was performed by my cousin David and was sweet.  That is always the highlight but all the other matters, although important, seem to distract from the sacredness of the moment.

There were all kinds of preparation.  Here are Rebecca and Suz getting Lauren, Abigail, Juliana and Alexandra ready for the wedding.  We had Cheryl's kids over as they were out of town.  I love all the activity in the house.

Emily did a great job and I was particularly happy that sisters and sister in laws were so very helpful. Rebecca and Suz did the wedding cake.   Suz made about 300 little flowers for the cake and drove them up from Phoenix.  Rebeca and Suz baked the cake and did the frosting and carefully took it to the reception.  Cberyl helped with the flowers while Kristina and Rayanne worked in the kitchen and helped with the food at the reception.  Cathy prepared a great video for the wedding reception.  It was a great event.

Congratulations Johnny and Jenna and congratulations Emily and John.  You all did a great job and we are proud of this first marriage among the grandchildren.  Johnny and Jenna are off to Texas where Johnny is doing a summer job for a bog oil company.  A great event and beginning in the family.

Alles Gute, Oma und Opa

CATHY GOES TO WOMENS CONFERENCE AND TAKES MOM

Dear Family,

One of the events of the month was the LDS Womens Conference.  It is held BYU University each year and women come from all over the works to attend.

This year Cathy was invited to host a display,  She is an expert in computer security issues and when she worked for Price Waterhouse, she was assigned to see if she could breech company security systems.  She even came to Germany wheel we were over there to test the security system of a larger German construction company which made huge construction machines.  She breached their security and gave them instruction as to how to better it.

Lately Cathy developed a website for Mothers called Secure Momma which gives helpful hints on how to keep the filth out of your home that is so readily available to children and teenagers. When she developed this blog, she had 1000 hits the first night!

Well the Relief Society asked her to set up a booth at Women's Conference.  She wrote a 20 page pamphlet that she had to submit before going for approval and Mom helped her with the little manual.

Mom went down and helped Cathy set up and they had a great time.  Mom stayed down there for the duration of the conference helping pass out information.  Many friends came by including Sister Perry who suggested we should do lunch.  The display was successful.

Anyone with children, kids at home with computers or access to the Internet should visit Cathy's site to gain information on how to keep your home secure from the filth of the World.

Way to go Cathy and thanks Mom for your help.

Love, Dad

TRIP TO DENVER WITH RICK AND ROY

Dear Family,

I have been so busy trying to keep up with family events, that I had had little time to post them.  Maybe it is better to live life than to blog about it but we have been busy.

This was a trip To Roy's in Erie Colorado.  I heard that Rick was going up there and decided that it would be fun to get together with the oldest sons.  Mom did not go on this one as it was a shooting trip.

I have wondered whether there is a "shooting gene" and decided that it is in our Swiss heritage.  Our family name comes from Switzerland and my mother was Swiss (Stiefel) and I have many Swiss relatives.  As you know, the entire male population of Switzerland is in their army.  Each male in Switzerland has a fully automatic assault rifle in his closet with a sealed container of 25 rounds.  They are instantly mobilized if there is any threat. I can't imagine that would work here in America.  The Swiss are disciplined and law abiding.

My Swiss cousins are all marksmen.  They have to regular qualify and they practice in local shooting ranges.  Not uncommon to see a group of uniformed men casually walking down to the local shooting rand with their assault rifles on their shoulders.  They practice by shooting head size targets at 300 meters with  open sights.  Some of my extened Swiss family compete in matches and one showed me his many medals for marksmanship.  So I blame it on our Swiss heritage.

Roy is an accomplished long distance shooter and competes in 1000 yard competitions.  Rick was going up there to look over the arsenal and get a little feel for the sport.  The picture  above (a little grainy) shows Rick at the range with Roy spotting in the background. We had a ball!  With one of Roy's gourmet long range rifles, I was able to hit a quarter sized target at 200 yards (even with tired eyes).

We spent time in Roy's Sancta Sanctorum getting the sniper rifles ready, took in some great dining places and had a ball!

For Rick it was like a smorgasbord of shooting possibilities and he became pretty good as well.  Here is Roy getting the Blaser sniper rifle ready.

Well this is an odd subject for a family blog but the gene is deep and starting to express itself throughout our gang and it has been very technical and much fun.

Love, Dad