06 June 2013

06 June 2013

The month of June is the beginning of summer and has the longest day on the 21^st. This is the month of which I was born back in 1946 on the 9^th of June. It is also “Father’s Day” month. But most importantly it is the month which we have planned for one year.

Last year I asked Dawn and I talked about visiting her sister Constance Christine Taow in England and then travel to Sweden to visit with our relatives we have never met. As a result of all the planning it took effect this month. In addition, Sarah Taow, Dawn’s niece also planned to visit her mother the same month. In combining our trips we added Scotland to the itinerary as well. And I might add, we were delighted with Scotland.

Sarah and Christine met up with us as Dawn and I flew into Edinburgh the same day they arrived from England. We were in Scotland for three full days. The history and lore came to life as we visited the Edinburgh Castle, Mansion, and other parts surrounding the major city. Golfing was also a must since this is the country that gave birth to the sport. Dawn and I were within walking distance of Portobello Golf Course from the Straven Guest House by the bay.

The Witchery Restaurant , the double decker tour bus, the Britanica (Queen’s boat), the Scotsmen in kilts, Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Abby and mansion were terrific. Plus the people are friendly and helpful where ever we traveled. This was a great adventure.

Next we flew back to England to stay with Christine on Lakenheath AFB. We spent a week in the home of the Willies. They were on leave to the states. So we made ourselves comfortable in their home. Great quarters for AF officers family. While in England we toured the area of our residence. Dawn and I would visit places while Christine worked. We spent a day walking the Lakenheath Fen.The entire area was once a swamp. It has been drained with the help of the Dutch. The peat moss soil is so rich the crops are amazing. One day we drove to Cambridge and rented bicycles. We biked through the town with thousands of others as well as traveled through the country side on the well-developed bicycling trails. Unfortunately, Dawn discovered that biking through a cattle crossing can be dangerous. She injured her left jaw as her head hit a steel post when her bike tire got stuck in the crossing.

Christine had purchased ticket to the ballet “Swan Lake” in London. We drove to Cambridge then caught the train to Kings Cross in town. Before the ballet we visited the London Natural History Museum and Art Museum. Amazing places!!! We walked right by the LDS church in the center of town. We stopped to talk the couple missionaries. How fun!! Then off to the ballet. How wonderful!! I would have never guessed a ballet could be so enjoyable. The troop were so professional, the orchestra so polished. This was a great experience even though we got home very late.

Time passed quickly and we found transportation to Heathrow airport and on our way to Sweden. Two days in Vosteras were remarkable. David Setherberg and Edit Juhlin met us at our hotel (The Best Western) and planned our visit for two days. Related to the Lundblads, these folks were amazing hosts. We had a meal with the family that evening and walked home to our motel. The next day early we met up with Peter and Helena, friends of Edith. They hauled us around the area to ancient burial grounds of the Vikings and then to lunch at the university grounds exclusive restaurant (memorial to Carl Von Linne). Later we toured the city with detailed tutoring of the ecological system of recycling and heating the town. The Swedes are so far ahead of us in this area. We visit the school where Helena teaches next to a 16^th century cathedral. All in all it was a most memorable visit.

The next day were picked up our Renault Hertz car and off to Galve. Traveling through Uppsala we stopped to find a distant relative of the Lindblooms. Barabara Gustavson was certainly surprised and alarmed at first when we introduced ourselves. She had no idea we were related. With the help of a young man interpreting for us she finally realize the connection. Then we arrived in Galve late afternoon at the Best Western hotel, to find a note from the Lindbloom relatives. We met with Hans, Christina and Ingrid later for dinner. How delightful to know these folks had connections with the family in the US so many years ago. Just a work about Gavle, another beautiful city in Sweden, we found Sweden to be absolutely beautiful. The streets are clean and the trees and flowers are beautiful. There is always water channeling through the cities.

The next day we drove over 5 hours following the GPS in our car to Lysvik near Norway. We went through forested areas of little population. Lysvik is a beautiful small town on the lake side. There we met Morgan Setherberg..David’s father. He is an accountant and his wife a nurse in Torsby. Morgan spent two days with us visiting the Brita & Göran Larsson. She is a direct descendants of Per August Lundblade. We visited Tossbergsklatten lookout, the Ski Tunnel and the Setherberg’s summer home. The next day we toured the Selma Largerloft home (Nobel Prize for children’s literature.) She may be related to our family. We stayed in the Selma Largerloft Quality Inn in Sunne. This was a highlight in our visit to Sweden.

The next day (#5) we traveled through rain and winding roads to Norrkoping for a night’s stay at the Presidential Hotel. There we met up with Ingrid Gustavsson a relative of Brita Emilia Nilsson Peterson.  She was delightful and so informative of life in Sweden. We spent the next morning touring Norrkoping. A fabulous city along the beautiful river which coursed through the town.

Finally we finished our tour of Sweden in Stockholm. The Nordic Sea hotel is right in the center of old Stockholm. We turned in our car rental and zoomed back to town riding the fast train from the airport at Arlanda. Early morning before returning to our final motel in Arlanda, we rode the Red Bus Hop on and Off  touring as much of Stockholm as we could. We visited the Nordic Museum, the Nobel Prize theater as well as shopping downtown “Old” Stockholm. All in all it was wonderful.

Finishing our trip with travel back home took 24 hours of flight and layovers from Stockholm to New Jersey to Denver and finally back to Idaho Falls. Two days of jet lag put us back to some resemblance of normality. Never to be forgotten this trip has been a highlight in our travels.

Golfing in Edinburgh Scotland

Straven Guest House Edinburgh Scotland

Open Air Tour Bus in Edinburgh 

The famous Edinburgh Castle

Scotland is BEAUTIFUL!

Cold but exciting tour in Edinburgh 

Holyrood Castle

Holyrood Abby 

Lakenheath Fen 

Church Street Mildenhal England

Platform 9 3/4 Kings Cross London (Harry Potter)

Natural History Museum London

VA Museum of London

Eating downtown London

Royal Albert Theater (We enjoyed "Swan Lake Ballet" )

Biking in Cambridge

Touring the streets of Cambridge England

David Setherberg and Edith Juhlin in Vasteras

Beautiful downtown Vasteras Sweden

The Setherbergs (David, Marie, Esther and Axel)

Lunch in Vasteras

Cathedral in Vasteras

Edith with visiting family!!

Barbaro Gustovson (Lindbloom) in Uppsala 

Lindbloom family members in Gavle Sweden

Beautiful Gavle near the Baltic Sea

Lunch break in Fredricksberg, Sweden

Historical Fredricksberg (Finish community)

The home of Morgan and Ingrid Setherberg (Lysvik, Sweden)

Selma Lagerlof Quality Inn in Sonne, Sweden

Setherbergs and visitors in Tossbergsklatten

View of Lysvik from the tower in Tossbersklatten

Rain at the Selma Lagerlof home

 Brita & Göran Larsson

Selma Lagerlof home near Sunne, Sweden

Beautiful Norrkoping, Sweden

Parliament of Stockholm, Sweden 

High Speed train from Arlanda airport to downtown London 

Old Stockholm

Alfred Nobel

06 May 2013

05 May 2013

The transition month, beginning cold and windy and some promise of warmer weather. It was not until the last week did we start to see seasonal temperatures. Thank heavens we visited the cemeteries two days before Memorial Day. Memorial Day was cold and windy.

The beginning of the month we visited Josh and Danielle and their family. We attended a wedding reception (Elder Burton) of a missionary we knew in Mozambique and stayed with the Russells. It was Golden Corral time for family dining!As you can see the kids enjoyed the meal.

     The cotton candy was a big hit as they stuck it on their faces.

We golfed with Angie Bytheway (Dawn’s cousin) and Tate. He is a great golfer and can drive it on the green 160 yards. It was great to see their family and Danielle is now teaching them at home. They are busy with gardening, caring for animals and recreation. We took the two older boys to then Aquatic Center to swim, then to lunch at Great Harvest.

May brings life back to the trees and flowers around the house. I have to admit spring is one of the seasons in Idaho, all-be-it short! As you can see the back yard apple tree never looked better. It was loaded with blossoms. The front of the house is festooned with flowers for Mother’s Day. The hanging plants are so beautiful. Tulips came up and thrived for a week. The grass started to grow and we started to mow.

Julia and Woody took a real chance and planted their garden before Memorial Day. There were a few days the temperature dropped to near freezing but so far no damage.

Mother's Day flowers in the front of the house.

Dawn became excited about biking and bought herself a Jamis road bike and entered an event with her cousin Angie Bytheway. The Goldie Locks ride is for women only. It started in Harriman, Utah near Kennicott  mine. The route they followed was towards Provo, Utah. There were over 1100 women riding on a very cold and wet day. It was raining heavy at the beginning of the ride and I thought for sure many would cancel. Oh No! Not these women. They were determined to ride if it “Hare-liped every cow in Texas! Away they went and hours later returned after Dawn had ridden 65 miles in rain and hail. All the hard work at the YMCA paid off. Her spinning classes had her in  shape for a fun time.

The end of the month always brings a visit to the cemeteries for the Memorial Day celebration. Dawn and I went to the New Sweden cemetery and cleaned up Brian’s grave. Then the next day, on Friday, we took Julia to the New Sweden, Shelley, Taylor and Rose Hill cemeteries to put on flowers of our loved ones who have passed away. Nancy Need and Gordon Anderson along with his wife Paula visited us that same weekend. She is battling cancer and is doing quite well. Gordon and Paula were up to visit the grave of their family members. The Anderson's are buried in the Taylor cemetery as well as Linda. I sent a message photo to my children to keep them in the loop in remembrance of their mother. I even got out my old military uniform to remind me of those in our family who served their country. 

This is the burial site of Linda next to her family at the Taylor cemetery. Dawn and I rode our new bikes from our house in Idaho Falls to Taylor and back. It was our first bike ride of almost 20 miles. The only difficulty was the strong winds blowing from the south. However, going back home towards Idaho Falls was a "BREEZE" !

Now that summer is approaching there are plans for many things to do. This last week I was busy repairing the windows around Julia's house and painting the trip damaged from the intensely cold weather here in Idaho. As you can see I am still in long sleeves. 

Lastly, it is spring when the geese have their young and feed them on the grassy lawns at the Green Belt. I am so glad for the warmer weather. We are looking forward to many wonderful activities this summer with our grandchildren and family.

04 April 2013

April is the month of undetermined weather, here in Idaho. We had a couple of days in March where the temperatures were above freezing. However, this April stayed cold and windy, very windy. But today is beautiful. I mean warm and wonderful to be outside. I still have on my long underwear and will not move too far from them until I can be comfortable in warmer weather.

The month of April brings Easter and each year we think about the grand kids. So we sent each family a package with candy Easter eggs, basket grass, egg dye and chocolate bunnies. They seem glad to get something from grandpa and grandma. We also sent Burton Mariner and Boe Russel l a Strider bike. Those were the two youngest boys of our family.

Following General Conference we planned a trip with Julia, Woody, and Val to Las Vegas and Bullhead, AZ. Julia, Dawn and I flew to Las Vegas and met Woody and Val the afternoon of the 11^th of April. Woody and Val drove Tara’s 1963 Chevy Impala and stayed with us at the Excalibur hotel. Woody spent the month before repairing the car so it would get us to Arizona.

The next day we traveled to Loughlin, NV. at the River Palms hotel along the banks of the Colorado river. The next day we drove to Glendale and checked Dawn and Julia into the Quality Inn. Then Woody drove me to the Mesa Gateway Airport to pick up a rental car. We spent the week golfing and exercising in the warm weather of Arizona. Dawn spent her days helping Monica with the new baby. Baby Roxy is cute as a bug and growing nicely. Julia and I took her brother, Burton to the Arizona zoo and had a full day of fun. Julia and I also had a chance to shoot my new Ruger 380 at “Shooter’s World” for the first time. We also spent a big part of the day at the giant Cabellas store shopping and having lunch. How pleasant!

Dawn and I headed home so we could be here for stake conference. Julia and Woody flew home on Sunday. The intent of the trip was to find a place to stay during the winter months this year beginning in December.

It was tough being gone during the week before stake conference since there were so many things to schedule for our stake president. Fortunately, our stake clerk Randy Peterson filled in for me. I was sure glad things went well. We also had to have substitutes fill in for us at the temple, since we are ordinance workers.

Today was a golf day for me at Shelley. It was the nicest day I have had this year to golf in Idaho. There was no breeze and the warm weather made it wonderful. Also, I spent the morning working on the lawn and flower beds. The grass is starting to green up and the flowers are coming through the unfrozen soil. It will be a miracle if they do not freeze before June. Our family is not putting in a garden before May. Last year it froze all the garden plants on the first of June. It is cold here in Idaho nine months of the year.

  

This is baby "Roxy" on the day of her blessing.

This is Burton at the sting ray tank at Phoenix Zoo.
He was not about to touch them. However, I did and they are remarkably soft.

Burton on the zebra at the zoo.

 Burton's favorite animal at the zoo. The brass Kamoto Dragon.

We were fortunate to find an East Indian restaurant and you can tell we really enjoyed the Tendori chicken, curried shrimp and spicy rice.

This is 1215 W. Shanee. The house we sold once Brian Hodson came to live with us. We have fond memories of living there for 6 months while we fixed it up.

Dawn and I are loading in the back of Allegiant aircraft on our way home to a much cooler Idaho. Arizona was so pleasant and we really enjoyed being with family and visiting all the familiar places we frequented in Glendale, AZ (i.e Sprouts, Sushi restaurant, and the movies.

 Now you know why we enjoy visiting the Mariners. They have a beautiful little girl. She is growing every day and becoming more beautiful.

 

This is my golfing partner. I just cannot get enough of playing golf especially when Dawn comes along to encourage me.

 Dawn next to Hello Kitty in Las Vegas.

Julia next to a giant M and M. We spent a great deal of time in the M and M store downtown Las Vegas. Not to mention I bought $20 worth of candy M and Ms along with a car for Burton and a bib for little Roxy.

 Val got into the act with her friend Dino! We had a great time together.

The 63' Chevy getting gassed up in Arizona. Woody took the opportunity to drive to Arizona so he could deliver the car to Tara. He has been working on it to travel. We had no problems all the way to Sierra Vista. However, once delivered the brakes failed to our surprise.  It belongs to Tara now and we are home safe and sound.

Lastly, on our way to golf at Adobe Family Golf Club we passed the site of the new Phoenix temple. The building is beginning to take shape and is near completion.

March 2013

Still cold in March! The beginning of March was met with continued cold weather. There was very little snow but below zero temperatures for weeks. As a result of the cold weather we did very little out of doors.

The Beginning of March was very cold!

Most notably, Dawn had returned from Arizona and we celebrated her 63^rd birthday. She is just four years younger than I and a whole lot more energetic. As the Relief Society president of the 3^rd ward, her commitment to service is great, not to mention spearheading many activities. Just this month she planned and prepared for the “Relief Society Birthday Party”.

The above mentioned event took great effort. She made the decorations, prepared much of the food, arranged for the entertainment and executed the event with the aid of her counselors. The theme was , The Wizard of Oz”. There was even a “yellow brick road” , witches hats and ruby red shoes to festoon the event. Frankly, this event took up most of my wife and my time the month of March.

We played lots of cards during March.

In addition to church service we managed to spend time at the YMCA nearly each day during the week. We also had extra service at the Idaho Falls temple. We regularly spend Tuesday mornings, beginning at 5:00AM until 11:00AM, at the temple as ordinance workers. During the month of March we had two extra Saturdays. It was just as well since the weather was too cold to golf!

Fortunately, as the month ended the weather began to warm. 

Still cold the middle of March. 

We did manage to get a couple of days in working outside on the lawn and flower beds. The snow had melted enough to also uncover our two winter stored vehicles. The VW started right up after charging the battery overnight. The Toyota Avalon ignited immediately after sitting for five months under a tarp all winter. We no longer share the Honda Element but have options in driving.

Lastly, Julia, Dawn and I did visit Enid (Julia’s sister) in Pocatello and golfed the Riverside course on a very nice day in March. So, March ended well despite the cold and miserable beginning. There is promise of warmer weather for April.

We are looking forward to our trip to Arizona in April. I will give a full report next month.