DOUGLAS GETS HIS MISSION CALL

Another of the grandchildren, Douglas Wirthlin, got his mission call yesterday.  He was anxious and received the packet at BYU yesterday. Since he was in Provo, a Skype connection was set up for the opening of the envelope event with Doug and family.

He had a funny mission call dream in which he was called to the two year "Provo Theatrical Mission".  Bit of a nightmare as there is no such mission but it woke him up good.

The mission is to the Piura, Peru Mission.  He enters the Peru MTC on June 5th.  Congratulations Douglas! He has taken Spanish in High School. He had a hunch that he would go to Peru in spite of the little nightmare.

It is interesting to see where the family has gone on missions.  In my generation and previous generations, all went to Switzerland, Germany and Austria. My brother Alvin went there, also my sister Barbara as did I (twice).  My cousins and uncles past went there as well.  My great Grandfather, Leopold Wirthlin, went back to Switzerland 13 years after he travelled to Salt Lake City crossing the plains as a pioneer.  He left wife and children to complete his mission.  Great missionary faith in those days.  I have often wondered how many of his descendants have served missions.  Of my eight sons. three went to Spanish Speaking missions, two to France, one to South Africa, one to Russia and one to Taiwan.  The grandchildren will be further spread around the world as missionary work picks up.  I have been trying to have sessions with those leaving on Preach My Gospel. So exciting.

What a great time to see this work unfold.  Nice job  Douglas, I know ou will be a great missionary!

Love, Opa

VALENTINE WEEK

Dear Family,  

There has been lots of action on Sherwood Drive this week.  I believe we have the busiest house on the block .

We had Oma's great valentine party on Sunday.  I don't usually like doing these on Sunday but we thought it might be a family dinner and Family Home Evening but there were so many little kids around, we had to settle for a Family Valentine Dinner.

Crowd control is getting to be significant activity when about 50 show up.  We had John and Kaley and boys, Suz and Scott and their children, Cathy and Pete and kids, Emily and John and family, Hannah came up from the Y, Mike and Rayanne and gang, and Cheryl and Paul and their children all came for Mom's yearly Valentine Get Together.

Since it was Sunday, all preparations were done on Saturday.  We decided to serve the food of Love which consisted of Quiche and Crepes.  Suz did a entire day of cooking making 125 Quiches shaped as hearts as you can see in the photo.  Some are with broccoli and ham (recipe in previous post) and some with Swiss Cheese, bacon and onion and they were fabulous!  She also made seven larger Quiches.

I  cooked crepes and made 60 10" crepes one at a time.  Suz took over and got two crepe pans going and made another 60.  I believe we went through four dozen eggs, two gallons of milk.  On Sunday, we only had to warm things up.

Here are some lined up for the above with salads and other treat.  It was interesting that this time, all stayed longer than fifteen minutes and there was continual snacking and conversation for three hours.  The kids ate all the quiches and most of the crepes.  Mom set up a crepe bar with Nutella, jams, strawberries, bananas and whipped cream and it was a hit.

We could not get them all settled for a 

family night; it was difficult when we had 17 children but now it is a real challenge.

Mom had a craft setup in the kitchen and some painted valentine boxes and others made valentines cards for their family.

Then there was a second Valentines party on Valentines day.  John and Kaley had a sewage problem in the newly rented house and they came over.  We had a spontaneous party with Suz and her family and John and his.  I won't get into the menu but it was great!  Suz then made a chocolate fondue and here are the kids lined up.  There is Grant, Timmy, Zandy, Juju and Tilly (Opa too).

For a further Valentine treat, Cheryl invited us to the Ballet West performance of Cinderella.

Cheryl's daughters Mary Clare, Lauren and Olivia were in this one.  They did not dance but were there as children, Mary Clare and Lauren holding flowers with Olivia driving the enchanted carriage. This is what the reviewers said about the children; "The children in the production blended so well with the company that they only stood out due to their adorable faces."

Could not say it better myself.  Well more action;  Mom speaks in Sacrament meeting on Indexing and Catherine comes by for her Patriarchal Blessing.

Love to All, Dad

RICK'S 50TH; ALL THE BROTHERS MEET (AND THE DAD)

Dear Family,

The occasion was the celebration of Rick's 50th birthday and all the guys were invited to Rick's mountain ranch in the Sierra foothills,  and all came!

This was an unusual event as I believe this was the only time all sons were together with their dad for more than five minutes over the years.  The wives were supportive and it was a classic family event.

Here are the players from right to left in order of birth: on the right is Roy,successful computer entrepreneur, then Rick, partner in a fancy Beverly Hills law firm, Doug, vascular surgeon deluxe ( a bit of a chip), Bryan, President of Sandpoint Ltd, The Dad.  To my right is Mike, Professor of electrical engineering at BYU, then Jeff, pediatric psychiatrist in Spokane, Rob, retinal surgeon in Spokane (he does my eyes) and John, now a lawyer in Salt Lake City.  All gave up time to come down and celebrate with Rick.

We stayed in Rick's log cabin with extras including an outside shower where you can get clean and watch the stars at the same time.   There  is a stream running through the property, several outbuildings, four wells, and a 800 gallon water tank on top of a hill.  Here is the living room complete with wood burning stove.  Rob and Mike elected to stay outside in the old large family tent.

Here is the tent that I bought, first thing, when I got on the staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1970 and was the basis of many camping trips in Maine with all the kids for several years.  A great barn in the background. We stayed up late each night but all slept so well where the air is clean and crisp,

The deal was that we would do several improvement projects on Ricks place for the two days we were there.  One crew was the road builders completing a road uphill and circling back.  Brush and small trees were cut down, boulders removed and a road cut into the side of the hill.  I told Rick he could have a guy come with a D6 and cut the road in little time.  "Nah, I have my Chinese road crew here and we will do it by hand!"

They had to remove some big roots and here is Rob tearing out a huge root.  He was always pretty strong.

Here is the road crew cutting the road.  All did hard physical work that they were not used to in their various professions and daily work.  They also got pretty dirty.

I was on the log splitting crew for a couple of days.  Rick and I are in the background as I ran the log splitter and Bry fed the logs.  Rob is stacking the split wood in a version of a German Holzhaus but not quite as even as they are over there. Jeff helped with the stacking as well.

There was a shooting break in the afternoon.  This was the fifty yard plinking range and here we see Bryan shooting the new Winchester 1886 in 45-70, (my get over the presidential election blues).  Rick had a nice shooting range with hanging steel targets and we all had a blast! 

Roy, Doug and Rick went up to the 400 yard shooting range and did long distance sniping.  Here is Roy, a true Sharfschuetzer with his 400 yard result.

I should mention something about the food.  Gemina bought all the food and this was not done on a tight budget.  She went to the Italian stores in LA for the pasta, sauce, meatballs and sausage.  This was the first dinner and the guys did all the cooking and clean up.  As I sat there surrounded by my sons around this table I just had to chuckle.  Here were all these professional people, Carhart suspenders, soiled shirts, messed up hair and they reminded me of the old pictures of loggers in northern 

Michigan sitting at the table in the bunkhouse but at that moment I also felt pride for these sons and it was a great moment. 

Everyone had a cooking assignment and all helped with the cleanup.  Their wives would have been proud!  Rob had breakfast which was toasted bagels, gourmet lox, scrambled eggs and sliced onion as in the picture.  It was so good!  On Saturday night, Gemina had bought rib eye steaks (thick) and Roy did the honors.

Here is Roy doing an Assada or the grilling technique he learned on his mission to Argentina.  Coals are kept at the edges with an open center and the meat slowly cook in the middle. This was done perfectly!  This was a real lumbar jack feed and the best rib eye I have ever had.  We spent the evenings "hanging out", watching old movies, Rob and Jeff played advanced squad leader every moment they could and some just wandered off to collapse in bed.  John usually parked on the couch and did not need any sleeping medication. Roy sharpened all the knives on Rick's present from Doug, a gourmet sharpening wheel with a leather stropping wheel.

Then it was time to go; the much anticipated event, the highly planned and coordinated

 activity was well lived and like all good things came to an end.  It was a historic moment for me as I was able to enjoy the company of my eight sons and as we stepped back in time and once again worked together.  I am very blessed and so are they and it was great!

Love, Dad

LOTS OF SNOW!!!

Dear Family,

As many know, we have had a ton of snow here in Salt LAke City and especially here on the foothills.  We were gone when there was about 3 feet of snow and Suz and Scott had to deal with the driveway.  Our neighbor, the Prices, always do the sidewalks with the snowblower.

The backyard is also full of snow.  Scott and the grandkids built this gigantic snowman in the backyard.  It is Kosmo, the BYU football mascot. Scott managed to get a BYU shirt and shorts on him and he is holding a football.  Neighbors said it was a good thing it was in the backyard as all are UofU fans here.  Here is Mom next to this 6'5" snowman.  Now that it is melting a bit, the shorts are almost half mast!

Snow is piled high along the street.  When Kaley came to look at their rental, she had to use my Toyota FJ cruiser to get through all the unplowed streets.  She is coming here with John and two boys this week, leaving sunny Tampa Florida for good.

Suz and I drove past their rental today and it is a cute house north of 39th South not far from REI and Smiths.  Can't wait to see those little guys again but am not sure our house is insured with Timmy, Johnny, Grantli and Garret on the loose here.  It will be fun as these cousins get together

Lots of snow in the backyard.  Scott built a snow run o the lower level and the kids had fun going down on sleds.

The skiers in the family are having a ball as well.  Suz is going to ut two of her daughters into a ski school sponsored by their school.

Well off to California to see Rick on his 50th birthday.  All the sons will be there along with the Dad.. 

Love,  Dad

CATHY STARS ON TV AND MOM HOSTS THE DUP

Cathy appeared on TV!  She was invited to talk about home internet security about which she is an expert.  Her site is securemomma.com.

She appeared on channel 4's "Good Things in Utah".  She talked about internet security and protection from all the internet smut that is awash in our society.  She did a good job but I thought she should have had more time.  Cathy is a TV star now! She of course is the best looking one on the right!

Mom joined the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and is secretary of the local chapter.  They get together quite often and it was Mom's turn to host them in our home.  Most of the members make a really big deal out of this and Mom was nervous.

They serve a luncheon so Mom decided to make crustless Quiche.  Click on that link to get the easy recipe from Suz's blog.  Mom had the recipie and Suz helped her cut the ham, broccoli and Suz did the measuring.  The Quiches were perfect!!!

Here it is in the oven.  (Notice how clean the oven is!  It was a hit with the ladies.

There were some left over and we had another mini reunion that night.  Roy and Jim Pack were in town and Doug came over, Suz was already here so we visited in my study and polished off another Quiche.  Roy said, "This is the best thing Mom has ever made!"

I did not stay for the luncheon but went with Suz and Cheryl on a power shopping trip.  These gals are fun..they decide how long we stay in a store and set their iPhone alarm to go off when we need to split.  I took them to Cabelas for a short visit and then it was to the new outlets just behind Cabelas in Lehi.  We went to the Le Creuset outlet where they have those enamled cast iron pots that are so expensive and between the three of us, we did much damage.  The alarm went off so out the  door but we found we had a few minutes so it was off to Amerigo, the place where they have inexpensive bulk food and produce. That is a great place to shop!  Well it was an interesting afternoon.

There was one more event I should mention.  Doug invited some Chinese guest to his home.  There was this neurosurgeon whom Doug was training in vascular surgery, Dr. Wang (my age) and his daughter and son in law.  They wanted to show us how to make Chinese dumplings or potstickers.  Theymade 100 - 200 dumplings.

It was interesting to watch.  They were highly skilled and used only chopsticks and a Chinese knife.  It was amazing to see them work the dough, make the little wafers for the dumplings and stuff them.  There was left over dough so they simply stretched it by hand and made noodles for a soup.  Really good!

Well Catherine comes over next week for her Patriarchal Blessing. The guys will have a Father and Sons party at Ricks ranch in the Sierras celebrating his birthday. It looks like all will be there including me. Should be fun.  Next family event will be Oma's valentine party.

Love you all, Opa

MADELINE GETS HER MISSION CALL!

Dear Family,

Madeline H. received her mission call!  She is our second granddaughter to apply after the drop in the qualifying age.  She put in her papers and we were all excited when she received her call packet.

We were up in Spokane so were not there for the opening of the letter event.  But she read her letter and she is called to serve in the Scottish-Ireland Mission.  She reports to the London MTC on May second and will not spend very much time there. Here she is with dad Paul and Mom Cheryl.  Cheryl, can't believe you are starting to send out missionaries. as they say in German, Zeit vergeht!

We are so excited for her!  She has a little Scottish blood through Mom's Mc Entire line.  That clan has it own tartan and colors.  It would not hurt to mention over there that she does have a wee bit of Scottish ancestry. Also her late great grandfather, Elder Haight, served there as mission president.  That mission is apparently doing well and they are expanding their Sister Missionary complement.  These mission presidents are very lucky.

Congratulations Maddie, we know you will do well.  Now the exciting period of preparation.

We love you Maddie,

Oma and Opa

JANUARY TRIP TO SPOKANE

Dear Family,

We went up to Spokane this last weekend to see Jeff and Tammy and Rob and Eva and their families.  I also visit Rob's Spokane Eye clinic where I have been getting treatments to the left eye.  I receive an injection in the left eye for macular edema and it works immediately.  I only trust Rob to do this.

We stayed at Jeff and Tammy's this time but there were frequent visits in both places.  They have these 'dinner wars' and both put on the best meals and treats.  This is a combined breakfast at Rob's and there are all the kids.

We had a dinner at Rob and Eva's one night.  Rob cooked the rib eyes perfectly.  I think one can get better steaks at home than in a restaurant.  Eva made a great salad and garlic potatoes.

The next day, Jeff and Tammy put on a lamb roast that was so great with homemade mint jelly.  I lost my appetite during a recent strong bout with the flu but the appetite returned on this trip.  They always go way out to please.

This was a hobby trip after the eye injection.  We went to Cabelas in north Idaho about 6 times and checked on gun stores in the area.  We went to one in Cordelane and it was busy and even the
Mom's were getting involved.  Everyone was stocking up!

Well, I did a little looking myself.   I have been a little depressed after the last presidential  election and one way to get out of a funk is to purchase a new rifle for shooting at the range.

We went to Cabelas in North Idaho (only a few mile from Jeff) and even though my eyes had been dilated and still blurry, I spotted a Pedersali 1886 45/70.  Had to make a snap decision and told them to hold it with a down payment.  When the salesman looked at my license, he turned to Rob and asked if he were a doctor.  Rob said, "yes".  "Do you have a office in Liberty Lake?" " No that is my brother Jeff; this is my Dad and we all three are doctors!"  "Well Dr. Jeff is treating my stepson and doing a nice job!"

With thatI was able to get quite a good deal on the purchase.  I call this the "Jeff Rifle" and here is Jeff at Cabelas.  And yes it did help with the post election blues!  We got Jeff set up to reload ammo and it was all fun.

We combine as much as possible with these trips.  Julius turned 12 and we participated in his ordination to a deacon.  I also gave him his Patriarchal Blessing which is always a very special time and event.  Julius is doing well and I am proud of his progress.

We have to up again in April.  I look forward to it as it is always an adventure.  Oh I should say that the guys were fooling around, Mom and Eva took the kids to a special science museum to which Rob and Eva contribute.  We went to church in Jeff's ward and they are all very nice.

Lots of action here at home.  Suz and the gang are fun all the time.  John and Kaley and kids comes up the first week in February.  They rented a home in the Millcreek area and he will begin his new job at a law firm here in Salt Lake City.  Lot's of family action here.

Love, Dad