March 2012

The month of March has been a rather unusual month of events. It is mixed with joy and anxiety. I normally do not report the difficulties in life in the blog but sometimes life just is tough. Along with the pleasant comes the difficult.

Dawn and I began the month by visiting our family in Salt Lake City. Our daughter Holly and her two wonderful children gave us a place to stay on our way to St. George, Utah. We always enjoy staying with Brock and Ella and Holly offers us a meal that is so delicious and healthy.

We next stayed with Steve and Charlotte Nebeker in St. George, Utah. We had a wonderful visit for the first time since returning from our mission in Africa. They were the only senior couple there when we arrived in Mozambique. We made plans to accompany them on a trip to India in November of this year. Dawn and I also played “Pickle Ball” on the housing complex tennis court with Charlotte.

Following our visit to the Nebekers we headed to Glendale, Az for a stay with the Mariners (Adam and daughter Monica). The weather was perfect and we began to enjoy our visit when the news came that my son, Ben was scheduled for an emergency open heart surgery.

I caught a flight to Sacramento and met the family at the Mercy General Hospital. He was in surgery for 15 hours and had a difficult aortic valve replacement and a triple bypass of all three major coronary vessels. I was not sure if he would survive the night but in the morning he was still with us. After a week’s stay in the hospital he is now home and recovering slowly.

Once I was certain Ben had recovered from the surgery and stable I returned to Arizona. Dawn and I cared for little Burton, son of the Mariners for another week. We took him to the park, YMCA and shopping. We were able to golf a few times as well.

After leaving Glendale we traveled back to California to see Ben and his family. We spent a couple of days with them enjoying their new home and encouraging Ben in his recovery. It is complicated.

We also stayed one night with Robyn and Wayne and the two boys. Wayne’s day had his 52 birthday celebration at Lee’s Canton restaurant while we were there. It is a delight to have this extended family as friends.

After three weeks of being away from home we drove back to SLC to visit with Josh and family as well as Angie and Bill Bytheway. The Bytheways are Dawn’s cousins. They were gracious enough to allow us to stay the night before finally returning home.

What a surprise, returning to Idaho Falls we were met with beautiful weather. It was actually warmer than in California. Once we were home we spent the day cleaning the garage and putting away our belongings from the travel.

Dawn and I had a great time with the family members on our trip. Most memorable is the quality time spent with the grandkids. We really got to know them better. Since we have been gone for two years the real young did not know us very well. Burton, Sage, and Indy were very unfamiliar with us as grandparents.

We are now working on the plans for the Sage family reunion in July of this year. I will be researching the family history as well as planning activities along with other family members here in Idaho Falls. The plans are coming together for a huge three days with over one hundred committed to be here.

Julia, Dawn and I have had two days of terrific golfing. Now the last week of March seems more like winter today. I got out early before the temperature dropped to 40 degrees and a 40 MPH wind. No more golfing for some time.

I will just have to put the brakes back on the VW and them we paint it another color besides pink.

March has been a very busy month.