SPRING TIME IN THE ROCKIES

Dear Family,

This is our view of the Wasatch Range as we drive over to Doug's or Cheryl's home. It is a spectacular vision of natures beauty and I think I am in the Bavarian alps.

It is springtime in the Rockys; it rains in the valleys and snows in the moutains and as we live on the foothills, it snows at home when it rains in the city. The phrase "Springtime in the Rockies" comes from an old love song in the days when songs were great. The link is to a U Tube version of Johnny Ray singing the song to someones trip in the Rockies.

Springtime has the promise of new life and energy. It is also a time of getting together, a time of reunion. "I'll be coming back to you..." goes the ballad. It is time for General Conference and that is one of the biggest reunions as members come from all over the world for training and for the inspiration of General Conference starting next week. We so look forward to that.

Before general conference, there are the missionary reunions. We hold ours in the spring and we will host it in our home on Friday, April 2nd. At first when there were so many missionaries here in Salt Lake and Provo, we had large reunions at first. Now many have graduated from college or married and moved on to opportunities away from this valley. We expect about 80 to come which might include some toddlers. We so look forward to this!

My thoughts go back to those great mission days in Vienna and Munich where we had so much talent among our missionaries. Here is a great violin duet played in the chapel in Vienna.

We also look forward to our 9th semi annual Fathers and Sop's post General Conference Priesthood Meeting steak and ribs barbecue for all the gang.

Love, Dad

PINE WOOD DERBY TIME

Dear Family,

Spring is here and it is time for all good cub scouts and their Dads to build a Pine Wood Derby car and race in int the local Cub Pack Pine Wood Derby. Winners go to the district Derby race.

Having had eight sons in Cub Scouts and with Mom as a Cub Scout den leader, we had our share of pine wood derby cars. Here is a picture of one of our early specimens before we went pine wood car Spazz.

We lived in Boston where most of the fathers in the church were engineers and scientists. After the very first competition, it was clear that this was not about nine year old boys building cars but mostly about fathers, their manhood and reputation! Our first attempts were primitive. On the second one, Rick and I built a beautiful version of a "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" car with all the accessories and it was gorgeous but it came in second. We then tried to win speed and we ground the wheels to thin discs, polished the nail axles but we could never beat the engineers and their sons.

The move to Michigan was worse as many of the Dads were automotive engineers and put all their engineering skills to produce winners. We kept making cars and it was fun mostly for the Dads.

There are a lot of rules now but once Jim Pack one of Roy's friends participated in a unlimited Pine Wood Derby race for members of the Elders Quorum. One guy entered a little car that when it started down the track, friction ignited a little rocket engine built into its rear. That did not win because it flew all over the place. Jim built one where the car was firmly anchored to a long stretch of surgical rubber tubing stretched along the track. when he pulled the car back, it was like a sling shot and he won the race.

Now the Pine Wood Derby car building has shifted down a generation. Here is a picture of Roy's boys, Adam and Sam with the cool Hummer and race car.

Doug has an eighty page book on the subject and

Mike is gearing up for his kids. So fun to see this happening and the fathers working so hard to make the best car.

Upcoming events include our Missionary Reunion at our home on Friday. There is the Father's and Sons After General Priesthood Meeting Barbecue this Saturday at our house and the Easter Egg Hunt at Mike's on Sunday

Alles Gute and good luck with the cars!

Love, Opa

EIGNER TIERGARTEN

One of the German words for Zoo is der Tiergarten which literally translated means the animal garden. We have had a herd of deer in our backyard garden now for a couple of months. They come in the early morning, eat the bushes and relax in the sun or the shade of a large spruce tree in our garden. They come when it rains, snows or even in good weather. Sometimes the buck or male of the group comes with them and they stay all day!

Bryan is here on a visit, stepped out on the back porch and took these picture of four does in the garden. You can see why they call them mule deer as they have those big floppy ears. The does are all pregnant and hang out here just before they deliver somewhere up in the mountains but they have been coming for two or three years.

It is amazing to me that they would seek out the yard of a "Great White Hunter" (African term for safari hunters) for refuge, comfort and safety. They watch us in the house and do not budge. This time Bryan has an Iphone and one of the Aps is a collection of animal sounds; there are about 30 deer calls. We opened the window and played the doe in heat sounds, the fawn in distress, the buck in the rut grunts and the horns rattling from two bucks fighting. They all pricked up their big ears and wondered what the devil was going on in the house but settled down for a long day rest.

Well it is too tempting for a life long deer hunter not to practice. Bry snapped a picture of Opa with his Austrian hunting rifle taking a bead on one of those cheeky deer in the back yard.

It relives the thrill of the hunt by seeing a deer in the cross hairs of the rifle scope without having to clean up a mess in the backyard. I have seen more deer in the rifle scope in our yard than in a lifetime of hunting them in the woods. I gues they are pretty safe here, we even threw them carrots and I put out a salt lick to be sure they get their proper minerals.

It is fun to have your own Tiergarten!

Love, Opa

BIRCHERMUESELI

It has been a slow week when I post a recipe!

Actually we are pretty busy with our church assignments. I have been busy with my new Stake calling and it has been an honor to be active in this. Have met some wonderful young single adults and it is always a very moving experience, It has been a particular honor to bless the grandchildren. Madeline and Cheryl are next in line in April and then Sarah when we visit Bryan and Kristina in Michigan when we visit in April.

We are going back to be at the blessing of Al's new baby in the Bloomfield Hills ward. I wanted to do this before the baby weighs 50 lbs. It will be great to see everyone back there. We are going to see Jon and Kaley for Jon's graduation from law school and to give the baby blessing another try, this time without the Apalachicola oysters!

Well the picture is of a souped up bowl of Birchermueseli from the Internet. I learned about this on my first mission to Switzerland years ago. It is a great thing to prepare and Al doses this on Saturday night so that on Sunday morning everyone has a filling bowl full without a lot of Sunday morning fussing.

Birchermüseli (named after Dr. Bircher of Zürich)

This is a dish made from rolled oats and plenty of fruit and you can feel how healthy it is when you eat it. We used to live on this on our missions in Switzerland and after a Bern zone conference fast, we would head down to the Bärengraben Restaurant for a big bowl of this topped with whipped cream.. you can of course omit the latter but it is really good.

1 ½ cups of Quaker rolled oats
1 ¼ cup of milk
¾ cup of plain or fruit yogurt
1 Tbsp lemon juice (or take a small lime and squeeze it; I took a small lime that grew on Rick and Gemina’s front yard)
¼ cup orange juice
Mix well
Two unpeeled apples grated or shredded
10 Strawberries sliced if you have them
½ Banana sliced thinly
1 cup halved seedless grapes

My Variations: You can try a lot of things with this

If you do not have the seedless grapes, half cup of raisins. I use Kefir Milk instead of milk or yogurt.
I like to add a handful of chopped nuts (unsalted) either hazel nuts,walnuts, pecans or whatever you have around.. can get them in bulk at Costco.

Refrigerate overnight in a container (lasts a long time)… serve with a whipped cream topping and it is heaven and healthy

Well anyway it is good and the kids usually love it!

Alles Gute, Dad

SOMETHING YOU DON'T SEE EVERY DAY

Here is something you do not see every day. Here is a picture of John with Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas.

Justice Thomas was down in Florida and gave an address in John's law school and as you recall countered what the President said about the Supreme Court in his State of the Union Address. He posed with John and this is one of the great shots of all time.

John is graduating in May and then has a position at a prestigious firm in Tampa Florida. We will go down there again, go to the graduation from law school, bless his new baby boy and stay away from Appalachacola
oysters.

We are proud of John and Kaley,

Love, Dad

MADELINE'S SWEET SIXTEEN SWEET PARTY

Madeline B. had her Sweet Sixteen birthday party. It was a "50's Formal". Rick and Gemina and one other parent teamed up to do a duo party for these kids from West High School . SLC.

They rented Memorial Hall, had a DJ, food, a snapshot booth and kids in what they thought was 50's outfits and they were pretty good. Here is a picture of the cousins, Catherine, Madeline, Madeline, Natalie, Rachel and the two Dudes, Douglas and Paul. There were about 80 kids there and the placed rocked.

This reminded me of all the Daddy Daughter High School dances I went to in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Having nine daughters, I went to many of these dances over a 20 year period.
One time we had a daughter in each class in high school so I danced with three at once. I was friskier then.


Here is a picture of John H and Emily in their 50's garb, John with his Buddy Holly glasses and Emily in her peddle pushers and white bobby sox. Emily still has the moves and can really twist and shout.



When they finally played some music that you could dance to, I got a chance to dance and twirl the granddaughters around. It was so fun! Here is a picture of Opa and Madeline to fifties music. I danced with Mom too and it was fun.

It is such a blessing to see you granchildren grow older and blossom. "Little" Mary was looking for real estate in Bloomfield Hills. The Real Estate salesman fiqured out who she was and said, "Your father, Dr, Wirthlin, operated on my Father-in-law as no one else would touch him. He removed a large aneurysm and my Father in law lived to see his grandchildren grow older. I am learning what a great blessing this is. And I find what is even greater, is the chance to give them their Patriarchal Blessings.

Life is Good, love, Opa and Oma