24TH JULY PIONEER DAY

While all the birthing and birthing preparations was going on, Cheryl did not forget to have a 24th July pool party and barbecue.  As most of our family events, this was a spontaneous planned party and many flocked there.  Suz and the kids came, Scott had to work at his office.  There was a great pool time and it was a blast.

Here is Paul who is definitely a barbecue master. They had the best hamburgers on a special French bun.

Here are some of the treats.. it was 24th of July all the way.  Mom and I came over and brought some supplies.  Here is Suz the day or two before giving birth texting away.

Paul made a better hamburger than you can buy anywhere in the city.  Mom particularly likes hamburgers.  When we went out to dinner with Rick and Madeline she ordered a gourmet hamburger.

When Cathy came over as Suz came home from the hospital, we took the kids to the movies, {Despicable Me 2) Mom stayed home with Suz and Cathy.  At 10 PM Cathy announced ,"We should get the 10 PM special at Wendy's, a double cheeseburger, chili fries and a large drink for $5.00!" So they did.

Here are the wet kids lining up for goodies.  Timmy is doing his strongman pose.

Always fun at Cheryl and Paul's pad.

Love, Opa and Oma

SUZ AND SCOTT HAVE THEIR BABY GIRL

Dear Family,

Another baby in one week!  Suz went in had had her little girl named, Elizabeth Mary. The obstetrician was was new and she was probably younger than Suz.  She let Scott do the delivery!  I will not post that one! Medicine has gone astray.  They wouldn't let husbands in the OR when all ours came but I would not go in anyway as I would have been a sold pain for everyone.  Every thing wen well for Suz and little baby and here she is.

The hospital floors have become more lenient with visitors.  Here we all are visiting Suz complete with John, Rick and Gemina and Cheryl with all her girls.  Cathy and Pete came as well.

Suz went in early in the morning and they did not let her eat and even after the baby was born they did not serve her a tray so Cathy went to the cafeteria and brought up three meals, a reuben sandwich, full Caesar salad, and chicken tenders and tater tots.  Suz was hungry and went after it.  We all stayed until 10 PM without nurses complaints!  It was so fun!

We had Tilly and Timmy over and Scott came over to sleep as the basement apartment is really cool at night.  Juju and Zandy stayed at Cheryl's.  When Suz came home, we had a birthday party at our place for Juju. 




Here is Suz and baby going to Church on Sunday.  They saw Rick and Gemina before they left and put the two new babies together.

Well we are all happy that things went so well and there is continual joy in the family.  Becca will have our 80th grandchild in October.  Zion is growing!

Love, Oma and Opa

RICK AND GEMINA HAVE THEIR NEW BABY BOY (OUR 78TH GRANDCHILD)

There has been a lot of excitement around here for the past month!  Rick and Gemina were having a child through the surrogacy program and the term was drawing close to the end.  The surrogate mother lives here in Salt LAke. They received a report that things were moving along so they quickly drove up and set up shop at Cheryl's bonus apartment.

Turned out that the report was a false alarm so they decided to stay.  Rick set up his office with computer, several monitors and a fax printer so he could carry out his law work from Cheryl's.  Baby monitoring showed that this was a large baby.

When the time came, the surrogate desired to have the birth without anesthesia.  The baby was 9 pounds, 11 ounces and measured 22" long. Rob was 9 pounds 12 ounces when born and was the  largest of ours.  All did well. and all were filled with joy.

Here is Gemina giving a bottle and the little guy looks like he is already a month old.  His name is Luken which is a Basque variant of Luke.

Here is Rick, proud father, holding little Luken.  While we were waiting for the arrival, we had time to spend with Rick and Gemina so there were several lunches and dinners and it was so much fun.  All the baby books of advice were brought out as they tried to make their way through conflicting theories of child raising.  I had to chuckle as I observed.  Rick discovered that he is a little further down on the attention list as the new arrival takes the demands of the mom.  But they were all thrilled and there was much joy.

The little guy quickly outgrew the newborn clothing and proved to be a very strong little guy lifting his head at the beginning and doing pushups when laid on his tummy.

Gemina arranged to rent a home over in the 'Harvard
Yale area for two weeks and Rick set up shop again and tried to do some work as there while all this maternity stuff was going on.  There were new bassinets, strollers and other paraphernalia.

Here is the Opa checking out his new Wirthlin Stammhalter and Grandchild # 78.  Gemina's sister came to help when they moved into the house and now Gemina, sister and little Luken flew back to LA.  Rick loaded up  his pickup with all the office supplies and all the baby stuff purchased here in Salt Lake and drove back home.

Tis is so great and we are happy for Rick and Gemina who have been wanting a little child for several years.

Love to all,  Oma und Opa

SPOKANE AND MORE VACATION

Dear Family,

The month of July was really busy!!!  We took some time out in the middle to go up to Spokane so that Rob could check and treat my left eye.  Both He and Jeff took some time off and we had a ball!!!

I managed to photo Rob,  Eva and their family to stand for a picture before going to church. Their kids are all getting bigger and there is Luke,(a tank), Anna, Julia, and Elena.

We arrived on a Thursday and Jeff took me to Rob's great eye clinic  in Spokane.  He did the intra-ocular injection which improves sight almost immediately.  We stayed with Jeff and Tammy and they are always great hosts.  They put on a feast for all of us with fresh New England Lobster, flat iron steak, corn on the cob with ton of desserts.  Boy it is great  visiting there.

Friday, Rob had to work so Jeff and I drove to Cor d'Lane to pick up some reloading supplies and then we set up Jeff's reloading bench and made a bunch of ammo.  Mom, Tammy Eva and the kids drove up to Washington University to see a cheese manufacturing operation and sight see.

Saturday we went to the Spokane Gun Show which is a good one. They have all these elderly guys there who sell their great collections.  I picked up a Winchester 450 Alaskan lever gun which is like a 45-70 plus.  It came with dies and 100 formed cases as it is a wildcat cartridge.  Jeff picked up what every Preppar should have, a grenade launcher, which attaches to an assault weapon.  This is good for sending up flares, smoke bombs, mortars and is reload able.  We met all the family at a McDonalds with a huge playground and the kids kept busy for three hours.  It was like a European dinner where you sit around and talk for hours only at an air conditioned McDonalds.

Sunday we all went to church and had another great Sunday meal.  For Family night, the kids put on a play Mom wrote called the "Unmerciful Servant", the story or the parable on forgiveness.  Here is Zander who forgives his servant a debt.  Julius played the servant who did not forgive a debt and was carted off to jail by sword wielding Luke and Leo.  Zander is wearing a crown that was the crown Jeff was given when he was homecoming king at Andover High School.  The kids had a good time.

Monday, it was off to Rob's gourmet shooting range.  I took the big whomping 450 Alaskan which was not sighted in.  Rob's first shot hit the dirt and I managed to hit a steel post and put this huge hole in it.  We were then carefully observed as Rob and Jeff sighted in the powerful lever action.  It was still fun. Here is Jeff and Julius sighting in a rifle.

It is interesting how people in the family resemble others.  Here is Melissa, Jeff and Tammy's daughter.  When I saw her with her long blond hair I was immediately reminded how Suz, her aunt, looked as a young girl.  Great to watch these grand kids growing up.

We have the best time in Spokane and enjoy our families there.  Well there is more action that I will report on.

Love you all,

Opa

FOURTH OF JULY BEAR LAKE 2013

Dear Family,

We had a fourth of July celebration in St. Charles on the banks of Bear Lake.  Suz and her family and Becca and her family were there and it was a blast. Suz and Becca were up there already so Scott drove our truck with us and loaded with all kinds of food and gear.

We stopped off in Evanston Wyoming and stocked up on fireworks.  We bought the biggest mortars you could buy and here is one of them going off on the Fourth.

When we got to Bear Lake, most of the batteries were dead and I replaced the batteries on the Polaris ATV and my old Totyota Land Cruiser and that was expensive.  We got everything finally working.  Paul came up and cut the grass which was knee high. We got the boat going and they took it to the beach.  It was packed but they were able to put the boat in and all the kids had fun on the tubes.  Here are Andrew and Zandy with their canoe on Bear Lake.  Paul and Scott were great help.

Becca and Suz did the menus most of the time.  We did breakfast on the fourth and it was the typical fourth of July breakfast in Idaho.  Scott went fishing in Logan canyon and brought fresh trout for dinner.  He is a really great fisherman and is rarely skunked.

We also got the grill going and here is a proper Bear Lake Hamburger: 1/2 ground Elk meat, 1/2 ground seasoned beef as a patty on Canadian bacon with avocado, mushrooms, pickles, tomato, lettuce and Swiss cheese.  One of these lasts for an entire day.

Suz and Becca are gourmet cooks and they provided all the great meals.

We went to church on Sunday and it was once again packed to beyond the building with over a 1000 to Sacrament meeting. Our two families left on Sunday for a long drive to Sale Lake and St. George.

Mom and I were up there alone for a few days.  It is always so quiet.  One can read, take afternoon naps (which I never do really) and enjoy the cool evenings.  We made our peace with the mosquitos and had two bug zappers going inside the house.  Mom and I watched old videos of operas La Boheme and Hansel and Gretl.  It was a quiet and peaceful time.  I did a little shooting off the back porch.  I feel the altitude up there more than in Sale Lake so we had to come back via Logan Canyon.

We were still in our soiled working clothes when we got to Logan.  I said to Mom that absolutely no one in Logan knows us so we could maybe go into the local Kentucky Fried Chicken place and not see anyone who might know us.  We still looked like we had been in the fields.  Well wouldn't you know there was this young mother staring at Mom.  She came to the table finally and asked, "Aren't you Cathy Wirthlin Olsen's mother?, and you must be her father!"  We were caught by a member of Cathy's ward who was over the booths at the Women's Conference in Provo and worked with Mom and Cathy on Cathy's booth. It is very hard to go incognito in Utah as there is always someone who recognizes you.

I was in the Temple and a young man came up to me and said, "Dr. Wirthlin..do you remember me?"  "Give me a hint!"  "I was a missionary in Boston and we had dinner in your home." One of the other random sightings occurred in the El Rancho Mexican Market.  Suz got me in there and it was like being in Mexico.  A lady came up to me and asked, "Brother Wirthlin, do you remember me?  I was a member of the Lynnfield Ward" "That was 60 years ago" I replied. "Say hello to Mary!", she quipped. Some people have great memories.  So when you live in Utah, you need to always look your best as someone from your distant past will surely recognize you.  It was actually hard to stay under the radar with 11 kids in Boston and 17 kids in Michigan.

Anyway it is good to be home again as there is a lot of cation going on here.  It was a memorable fourth.

Love, Mom and Dad

MY COUSIN GWEN

Dear Family,

Yesterday we attended the funeral of my cousin Gwen properly known as Gwendolyn Wirthlin McConkie Cannon.  Here is a picture of my two cousins, David and Gwen. They were the last of Joseph L and Madeline Wirthlin's children.  Others included Joseph B (Elder Wirthlin) Judy Wirthlin Parker and Richard Wirthlin who have passed on.

Gwen was 92 when she passed away last week and was as sharp as a tack. I had known Gwen and her family for many years.  When she was newly married in the 40's, she and her husband, James McConkie (Brother to Bruce R), came back to New York City where James earned a Phd in music.  They were always in our home and came for Sunday dinner once or twice a month and of course on holidays.  It was so great to have family close.  I loved it when Gwen and James came to our home in Flushing.  She would bring happiness, sunshine and joy that she radiated, always smiling,always happy and always very gracious.  They had their first son their and he came as well.  We had a little farm in upstate New York and James went with us.  It was about 200 miles away and it was a six hour drive.  Once on the way up to the farm, I had James tell us about the time he had to parachute out of a B17.  He was a navigator during the war and flew in the B17 flying fortress.  They had had a lot of flak damage to the plane over Germany but they made it to the shores of Britain and parachuted out of the plane.  James was a great pianist and musician.

When he got his Phd they moved to Minnesota where he taught music at the University.  He contracted bulbar polio and died at a young age.  Gwen had three children and went back to school getting a masters at the U and then a Phd in education at Kings College in New York.  She did this while raising her little children.  She taught at various places. She married  Phil Cannon who worked for Hoover and they moved to England.  Every time I would go to Europe, I always stopped off in London to see Gwen.  She would take me shopping at Harrod's where she advised on a little dress for Emily. We named one of our daughters Allison Gwen Wirthlin after my cousin Gwen.

When we lived outside of London for six months for additional surgical training, we would visit Gwen often. We bought a used Morris London Cab (200 pounds) and hauled our eight children all over.  The very first trip in the cab was a drive to Gwen's that took us through Oxford and by the time we arrived, I was almost a total wreck driving on the wrong side of the road and trying to negotiate the round a bouts.  It was a relief to get there and Gwen got a kick out of all the kids piling out of the cab like dwarfs at a circus. She used to take us to antique shops in the country.  We went to church with her there as well.  They moved back to Utah when Phil retired.  Gwen flew to Michigan to attend Julie's funeral representing the Utah family.

We did not see her for several years while we were in Germany.  When we returned and moved to Salt Lake, we went to an opera one night and I spotted Gwen coming out of the opera.  It was great to see her again, always smiling and happy.  I would go to lunch with her and David on occasion and she was always great. She was gracious and kind.  She was a strong member of the church who never wavered during troubled times.  She was simply great and I loved her for her goodness.  We will miss her smile and her totally positive approach to life.  She is among the group of people whom we feel fortunate to have known and her memory warms my heart.

Love, Dad