UTAH 48, BYU 24

Well it was a great game if you are a Utah fan. BYU has always managed to beat Utah in the last few minutes of the game but not on Saturday.

Our family is split. Mom and Dad are Utah graduates but 15 of the 16 kids who attended college all graduated from the "Y". In fact I believe we have 18 or 19 degrees from the "Y" among that group so the feelings are intense. I guess we should cheer them on as well but I just can't.

We were invited guest in the box next to the President's box on the 50 yard line. Seats were going for outrageous sums and scalpers were all over. There were some interesting people there again. Elder Wirthlin was there... the GA's all wore blue blazers and a red tie .. a down the middle approach. Pres. Uchtdorf and his wife were there.. there were two senators from Utah in the President's box. Elder Ballard and his wife were in our box and the Governor showed up as well. Jon H. and his wife were there right after he received a medal of honor from the American Cancer Society for his support of cancer research and treatment. It was an interesting group. Cheryl and Paul have seats in the stadium but they always come up to the box which was fun.

The game was pretty even in the first half with Utah demonstrating the most momentum. In the second half, something happened to the "Y" quarterback who began to throw interceptions.

There were five interceptions and one BYU fumble that added 28 points as the U capitalized on those turnovers. One pass was intercepted by a U player from Orem who looked like he would run it into the endzone but from up high, it looked like he tripped on the 10 yard chalk line. Paul Jr and his friend joined the storm on the field. Paul asked this player how it felt to almost score a touchdown on an interception and he said it was good except he tripped over his feet.

I began to feel a little bad for the Quarterback but not enough to stop jumping for joy as the Utes finally trounced BYU.

Becca had a Y party going on at her house with Emily, Doug, some of Al's kids, some of Cheryl's girls and it was quiet there at the end. I rubbed it in a little with Doug but finally stopped as the pain was palpable over the phone.

Utah received a whole pile of money for the win. There were also these big guys dressed in orange blazers who were up there... scouts from the Orange Bowl.

Well I found that whole thing pretty exciting and what a Saturday.

Alles Gute, Opa

ANOTHER BUSY SUNDAY

Our Sundays are very full. Yesterday was no exception.

I had to visit the 47th Student ward which is in the Taylorsville Institute building at the same time as Paul's ward. I had to carry out some Stake business and after a moment into the second talk in Sacrament meeting, the counselor turned to me and said, "Would you mind speaking a few minutes at the end?" So unprepared, I talked about missionary work which was the theme. I told them about Ke Yang and her conversion and how we visited her in Beijing and how we are so connected through the Gospel.

Then I went to two meetings in Paul's ward and they had the best "mingle" afterwards. The ward clerk had smoked about ten turkeys and they had turkey sandwiches and Tang for the treat. 100% attendance and they actually mingled.

Then I drove home and Mom and I drove to Provo. My brother Ralph is here from Virginia and is suffering from the effects of strokes and is in a beautiful hospital where they try to help chronic patients. It was so sad to see him like this. Laura and their son Alvin with his kids were there.

Then we drove up to Cheryl's. We were invited to dinner and Cheryl did a great job with salmon, chicken and a Pomegranate salad. Little Annabelle was in charge of family night and did a great job on the subject, "Gratitude". Three members of Paul's s student ward were there as well.

Then there was a special fireside for all the University of Utah Stakes.. two married and three single stakes at the University of Utah. Elder Ballard and Huntsman were the speakers and it was held in the Huntsman Center which is the huge basketball arena. This was Jon and his family's contribution to the school. It holds thousands.

We went through the front door and down about 100 steps to where there were reserved seats for family and Paul got us a couple of seats in the third row. Jon gave a great talk. He has accomplished so much. He mentioned his first year at college and the students broke down to the A, B and C students. The A students got to be doctors, the B students engineers and leaders. The C students got buildings named after them. Funny.

Elder Ballard gave a great fireside address. There must have been 10,000 there filling the seats in front of the podium. He admonished the students to give equal time to spiritual matters.

We left through the tunnel.. we got a chance to greet the speakers.. then home.

I slept ten hours that night.

Love, Opa

FARM DAY WESTERN STYLE

We do not have a real farm out here in the west as we did in Michigan, but we do have a place in St. Charles Idaho that is farmed. We have, as you know, eleven acres on Rt. 89 on the edge of Bear Lake.

The acreage is farmed and the hay is cut and bailed and cows graze the fields after the hay harvest so it seems like a farm.

We used to have farm days in Michigan and it seems that the patterns are are deep still ongoing but shifted in space and time, down a generation.

Here is a picture of Opa giving the kids a ride around the place as we pick up fallen branches and timber.


Doug and Mike came to help close the place for the winter. They each brought five of their kids so we had 10 kids including teenagers in addition to four adults. It was a blast.

We drove up Friday night, started a fire in the potbelly stove and of course settled in for a little DVD watching. Mr Bean is always a favorite but they watched something else. I can't say when they went to bed as the Moms might object but even going to bed, there was conversation past midnight. Here are the kids watching a DVD/
In the morning, Opa cooked a huge breakfast for everyone and 3 1/2 dozen scrambled eggs, many pancakes, toast, juice and bacon laid the foundation of another work day at the farm.

Doug and Mike were full of energy and started on the projects. Take the rack and tire off the roof of the Rock climber (the Induna) and fit it into the garage. Start up all the motors and bring the equipment to the yard.
We then picked up many trailer loads of branches and sticks everywhere. Cottonwood trees shed branches. Then we had a huge fire.

Here is Nate tending the fire. Doug found a huge pile of buried fencing and we pulled that out of the brush. Everyone went around and picked up loose scrap metal and we filled the trailer for a dump run.

No farm day was ever complete, even in Michigan, without the dump run. The dump is in Montpelier and has a nice view. It is so great to get rid of junk fouling up the place.


Here are the guys at the dump.. almost a ritual for farm days.












Then it was to winterize the place, clean it up and load the gear. Mom did a huge job of cleaning and as it got close to leaving, getting the kids out of the house for the final clean. They found places high in the Cottonwood trees to climb.

The equipment is loaded and off to Salt Lake. Doug and Mike did a great job and the kids all helped on a memorable farm day in Idaho.











While we were at the farm, Bryan was hunting in Michigan and was in my Taj Mahal blind on my favorite spot and bagged this monster Michigan buck.

Ah well ......it was fun at the farm.

Love, OPA

UTAH WINS FOOTBALL GAME

We are guests in a box at University of Utah football games and it is always a blast. You go there early and they serve food which is pretty good. You meet all sorts of friends and church leaders who come to the President's Box next door. We ran into Elder Nelson, Scott, Ballard and Zwick last evening. We chatted about old times in Germany with Elder Zwick. Relatives are there and it is just a great event.

And oh yes, there is a game too! This time they played TCU. This game was advertised as a Blackout. I think Underarmour company supplied new uniforms to the team and they were black with red stripes. Everyone wore black of course except for me who had not heard about the "blackout". It was cold so I came with my Austrian jacket, hat and Loden cape (Wetterflecke) that German hunters wear. Well at least I was different but did not blend in.

When you looked at the crowd from the box, it was like watching a huge nest of black ants. Even the cheerleaders wore black. Usually the crowd is red which has been the traditional color of Utah's teams since the days my Dad played football for the U (82 years ago). By the way, my Dad, your grandfather, was the first member of the family to play college football and was on the UofU team that won their first conference championship. There used to be a football in the Union building on display with my Dad's name on it. Dad always wore his red letter sweater when working on the farm in the cold. Dad was a tight end and a very fast sprinter.

Well the game was closely fought with the score TCU 10 and Utah 6 right up to the last two minutes of the game.

We did what we always do and decided to leave two minutes early to beat the huge traffic jam (Stau) As we left, there was a roar as TCU missed a field goal. We turned on the car radio to hear Utah win the game in the last two minutes. Paul F. thinks it is sacrilegious to leave a football game early and we learned our lesson.

Now on for BYU.

Alles Liebe, Opa

HALLOWEEN

Halloween is here again tonight. They even closed the Salt Lake Temple so everyone could get home early.

Here you see a picture of Mom and Pete's Mom at Cathy's wild psychedelic Halloween party. We have had a ton of kids come by our Sherwood Drive home and empty all our candy supplies. I wanted to put the full mount male lion on the front lawn but was worried that someone might paint ball shoot it. It used to be pretty menacing when we placed it on our front lawn in Michigan.



Our kids, when growing up, were great halloweeners. We had so many children at home that it was a real event. I started to chart and plot their production; we first counted the number of pieces of candy they would bring in. Then we went to weighing the booty and the largest combined haul one year was 96 pounds of candy. No wonder they were so nuts.

They were quite brilliant and organized in their Halloweening approach in Bloomfield Hills. The homes were not so concentrated as here in Salt Lake so they made plans. A drawing of the neighborhood was mapped and strategies were organized. Al and Mary were the most efficient and had the greatest production.

They took two Halloween outfits; one they wore down the street and one they wore on the way back! At the end of the block, they put on Ghost sheets with holes cut out for the eyes and worked the same street backwards posing of course as new kids. They would get 13 pounds each and since we did not buy candy, they tried to make it last until Easter..I now find out.


Here we see a picture of Al's kids following in their mother's footsteps as they visited our home. It is a happy time for all.

Love, Dad

Back To Reality

Here is a picture of Emilie Eva but she was not carrying a pumpkin on Sunday

It is hard to write about an adventure every minute. We have our fair share of them but we will not be able to top the trip to Beijing for a long time.

We are getting back to normal and adjusting to the time zone changes. But last Sunday it was a challenge. I had a lot of meetings starting at 7 AM with Stake PEC. You know it is fall when you leave in the morning and it is pitch black. Then there was the Ward PEC at 8:30 with Paul. Then there were two more meetings so by the time our Sacrament meeting rolled around at 11:40 it was getting tough.

I sat on the front row but off to the side and I did not think many people noticed. I could not see Cheryl and her kids except for Jonathan as he crawled in the isle and had a ball. The talks were inspirational; young singles who were getting married. But in the last talk about 12:15 PM, I thought I would close my eyes for a second and give them a rest.

After a minute or two, I opened my eyes and there was Emilie Eva standing in front of me staring and although she did not say it, she was thinking, "Opa you should not nod or go to sleep in church." I think Cheryl sent her up to the stand. I put her on my lap and noticed some of the kids were chuckling and caught the rest of the meeting.

Pretty bad when that was the adventure of the week. By the way. I had another meeting in the afternoon, a quick trip to Cheryl's for some yummy roast beef and then a fireside in the Cottonwood stake.

Love, Dad

WE VISIT KE YANG AND HER FAMILY

In a previous post, I mentioned Ke Yang and our meeting in Vienna, Austria. We have kept in contact through the Internet and through Doug's visits to Beijing. It was a real thrill to see her again and spend time with her and her husband and little guy. Her son is 2 1/2 years old.

They have special parenting laws in China and one can only have one child. When she was pregnant she went in for ultrasound and the rule is that you do not get told the sex of the child, only that the fetus is healthy so she did not know she would have a boy until the delivery. This is to prevent family "engineering" or only having sons for children. She had prayed for a son and he is quite a little guy. She speaks to him in Chinese and English and he can count to ten in English. These kids are bright.

We spent three days with Doug and Dr. Jhang and his associates and when they left fo Xian, we had two days with Ke Yang and what a treat it was. She took us to the Temple to Heaven (see below), to the markets, to traditional resturants and explained much about Beijing. She took us to church.


Church was in this building in a entire floor. Three branches meet here. Two English branches for "Westerners" and one branch for Chinese Nationals. They meet in the afternoon at 3 PM. There are strict rules as to who can go to the Chinese branch and those who do not have Chinese pasports cannot attend this meeting. This is strictly observed. I asked a member of the English branch what was going on in the Chinese branch and got a lecture on how they do not know. But I do know that there were about 10 members three years ago and maybe 100 now attend as Chinese students from all over the world, join the church in many missions and return home.


It was great to go to church there. It is such a small world in the church. The branch president is an Austrian from Klagenfurt. "Na was denn von Klagenfurt?" "Ja klar". They set apart a coucilor in the Elder's Quorum who recognized me. He was a German from Erlangen, Germany and he knew me on our mission. The church is so great!

Here is Mom and Ke Yang out side the church. She took us around and showed us many things and spoke of their Chinese culture. We visited her and her husband in their fine apartment (after she was side swiped by a touring bus). The little guy like all children the world over rule the roost! It was such a thrill and blessing to visit Ke Yang and her family and visiting Beijing could very well be habit forming.

Love, Dad