GRANDPARENT'S DAY AT TOM'S FOOTBALL

Dear Family,  So much going on in the family today.  Bry and his kids drove to the BYU -  Notre Damm football game.

It was Grandparents Day for Doug's son,Tom's football team, the Bengals.  Tom is eight years and has started full contact football and is carrying on a tradition of Wirthlins playing football that was started by my father who played first string college football for the University of Utah in the 1920's.  He had a great red woolen sweater with a large "U" on it that he wore often even when deer hunting.  Elder Wirthlin was the next one to play collegiate football and we have had scores of high school football players since.

Grandparents were invited to Tom's game and given a pass with the picture of the grandson and his stats.  It also entitled us to a free Hamburger and cold pop and brownie at the end.  Here is the football player with Oma and Opa.

Here is Tom in his full regalia and pads.  I was not certain what position he played but on defense, he was in the middle facing the center on the front line.  I thought he looked pretty fierce.

I like seeing the family name on the back of sporting shirts.

Here is Dad, Dr. Doug, serving as a line marker guy and our little bantam weight Lineman, Tom.  It was a beautiful fall afternoon and great to spend it with Tom and Doug.

Alles Gute,  Mom and Dad

BIRTHDAYS AND FALL FUN

Dear Family,

Well it is really fall now with the leaves turning, the garden finished, conference is over for six months and it is a beautiful time of the year.

We have 112 birthdays in the family and two of Cheryl's kids have just had theirs.  Lauren turned 11 and had a big party with friends, Moms complete with autumn decorations and goodies.

Johnny turned 5 and here he is with Madeline  and his UofU football having a special luncheon at Paul's office.  They seem to have several days of birthday celebrations.  Johnny has spent time in our home over his short years and knows every nook and cranny.  He knows where every treat is hidden and discovered Oma's toy and birthday gift stash that was up high and hidden.  He found a castle with knights set and laid claim to it a few months ago.  Mom forgot about it but was reminded that she had promised him this on his birthday and he was tickled to get it.  He is a little character.  He had a party, then a special Family Home Evening where we all told good things about Johnny, then another cake and today the special luncheon.  He went to a movie with Paul and Opa as well and It was all great fun.  Our lives are full of these family events.

We have had our little garden harvest.  This is a shot of the grapes, now two years old.  We should have a bigger crop next year.  Mom picked a lot of grapes at our friends, the Keslers,  and she made many quarts of great grape juice.

We closed Bear Lake this last week with Mike, Rayanne and several of their kids.  It was cold but nothing had frozen.  All the vehicles had dead batteries except for one 4 wheeler.  This was all fixed, the boat cleaned, the Induna rock climber cleaned and started and all put away.  Rayanne did the meals and it was delicious.  Food tastes better at Bear Lake! We got everything stowed, the pipes drained and Mom set off and insect bomb before we left.  Of course Mike, Michael and I did some serous plinking with .22's and little Michael is quite a good shot.  He stalks deer in his neighbors yard in Mapelton and nailed them with his air soft pellet gun.  Mike went to Walton Feed and loaded up on storage supplies and picked up a ton of pellets for their wood burning stove and after all the closing preparations were complete, and we did not forget too much, we drove home.  It is definitely Fall

Love, Dad

ST. GEORGE MARATHON

Dear Family,

There was a marathon in St. George and our family was represented.  Rebecca and Paul were training for a long time, Cheryl and Paul also, Doug and Douglas worked  training into their busy schedule and Mary trained in Michigan.  They all came together and stayed at Becca's in St. George.  Suz came up from Phoenix and made cookies.  They all tanked up on carbs of carbs the day before and ran on Saturday.

They all did well, three qualified for the Boston Marathon, Becca, Mary and Cheryl.  Becca had best time but the others finished very well indeed.

They were moving a little stiff the next day so here is a session at Cheryl's in her Pilates work out gym.  Cheryl could be a Pilates instructor so she did a work out with Doug, Mary and there is Cheryl in the back.  They were able to straighten out the kinks.  Mary got to stay with us one extra day and listened to conference.  So much fun...while they were running, we had our post Priesthood Meeting barbecue with John Hickey and his boys, Mike and his boys and two of Doug's boys came to the meeting and the barbecue.  That was a great night and I was able to find New York Sirloin at a good price.  We reviewed each talk during the dinner.  The boys were sharp.

It was a great weekend with a great conference as well

Love, Dad

GENERAL CONFERENCE AND MISSIONARY REUNION

Dear Family,

It is Church General Conference time and of course time for all the missionary reunions.  My Swiss Austrian Missionary reunion now going on for 55 years met also and Mom and I went.  Here is a picture of what the Zurich district circa 1957 looks like now.  There is Elder Sipherd, District President Elder Wirthlin (me in Austrian Trachten), German missionary Sister Michael, my junior companion, Elder Woodruf (direct descendant of Wilford Woodruf) and Elder Goates.

It was a nice evening.  There was a musical program and we sang the hymns in German.  We also sang some Swiss songs like Ich bin ein Schweizer Knabe.  I then thought of my childhood and my Swiss mother who spoke to us in Swiss German especially when she was irritated. I could not speak it but thoroughly understood it.  When we could no find our shoes, the reply was, "gang ga luege" (keep looking).  When we delayed in going to bed it was, "gang ga schlafe" or go to sleep.

I remembered the Swiss songs she used to sing to us and some I can still sing in Swiss German like Rote Roesli im Garta.  Here are the words of that little song:

Roti Rösli im Garte,

Maieriesli im Wald

Wänn de Wind chunt choge blase

so verwelked si bald

Chlini Fischli im Wasser,

grossi Fische im Meer

Hei lueg wie si gumped

und schwümed juhee

Liebi Sunne chum füre,

liebi Sune chum bald

Das mir chönd go spaziere

                                      über Wiese und Wald.

Well it was great and asI heard these songs, I understood again the great influence my Swiss mother was on my life and again how grateful I am for it even at this late date.  

We are excited about the new opportunities for missionary service as the age has been lowered for men and women.  I think it is great and there should be a flood of applications.  Some of our granddaughters and grandsons are making their plans.  Conference was great and there is always new enthusiasm for the work.

May Heaven bless you all, love, Dad

BACK TO SPOKANE

Dear Family,

We went back up to Spokane for another eye injection, had not been back for three months and the treatment was overdue.

We had another grand time.  We arrived on Thursday and Jeff and ordered half dozen fresh New England Lobsters from Lobersteryguy.com.  Tammy steamed them and it was great.  We also had pizza and here is the gang of kids.  There is Julia, Elise, Rob, Anna, Zander, little Luke and Melissa.  

We had such a good time again; we spent a day at Rob's range on the banks of a river and then went to dinner at a fancy hotel.  We had also found a German Restaurant and I was able to chat with the chef in German.  There was a gun show where Jeff, Julius, Rob and I visited where much damage was done to pocketbooks.  Here is Rob sighting in a Russian 30-06 Double Rifle that was picked up.

I apparently overdid it a bit and got sick for the third time this summer but Rob went out and got the right antibiotics that Doug called in and I was able to get on the plane and head home.  All better now.  It is hard not to have a wonderful time when one is with the family.  These Spokane kids are great and talented and progressing in school. Jeff is busy with his child psychiatric practice and also covers the psychiatric wards in Idaho Falls Hospital.  Rob is busy with his Retinal Surgery practice in a group that services Eastern Washington, Northern Idaho and Western Montana and has done a good job with my retina.

Mom spent a lot of time with Eva and Tammy.  She went with Eva and visited great estate sales.  She also wrote a play for Thanksgiving and had the kids put on costumes and act out the Thanksgiving Pilgrim drama

Rob and I head to Texas for a Whitetail deer hunt in November. Will miss the election returns but we vote with an absentee ballot.

VISIT FROM POLAND

Dear Family,

Have to catch up on the Blogs and there is continually something going on even though we feel that little happens.

We had a visit from Alexzandra Zan Cwertnia, formely our Sister Cwertnia the  sister missionary from Poland.  She came from Breslau, Poland, a city which used to belong to Germany but given to Poland after WWII.  Most of the germans left after the war.

Sister Cwertnia was a great missionary who spent a lot of time in Augsburg with the former Rachel Alley.  She now goes by "Ola".  Ola was visiting a conference in Salt Lake City relating to a product being sold in Poland.  Ola got together with Rachel who  spent  time showing her Salt Lake, Tabernacle Choir program on Sunday and Temple Square.   We though if would be nice to have a mini reunion with some of the sisters she worked with on her mission in Germany and Austria.

Here we all are, the former Sister Tullis, Cwertnia, Mom and Dad, Sister Nuttal and Newren.  All are married now and have children.  Following her mission, Ola moved back to Breslau and married the Branch President and they now have three sons.

I remember once chatting with Sis. Cwertnia who was not sure she was doing well.  I told her what my polish patients in Detroit used to tell me that, "one must be strong like Bull" She was a great missionary with success. We had a light dinner and then had a Family HomeEvening during which everyone updated their status and we heard about the church and missionary work in Poland.  We were so proud of these missionaries and what they have accomplished since. We will never tire of our little "Missionary Family". We took her to the airport after the FHE.  There are few borders in the Church.

Love, Dad and Mom