Bob and I went to Las Vegas to welcome the new year, 2011. We go to the Consumer Electronics Show each January, but we went a little early to see the Christmas decorations in the Atrium of the Bellagio. We have put together some of the pictures we took. Here are pictures of the Christmas Decorations.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Fun Summer
It has been a long time since I have written. This has been a busy year. We have been blessed with 2 new grandchildren. I went to New Jersey in March to help Debbie and Brian with the children and welcome Chloe, born March 21, 2010, into the family. Then on June 9th Brad and Jersha gave birth to Helena Christina. They came to visit the next week and I tried to take care of them. They left for Yellowstone on June 25th and Debbie and Brian came with their family. That Sunday, the 27th, Chloe was blessed in our ward and we had a dinner here for the Hunters and Neffs. Brad and Jersha returned on the 28th and we had a Neff BBQ, which they missed. The traffic coming through the park was bad and they got here late. On Tuesday the 29th we had a dinner for Sandy for her birthday and a good visit. Most of John's family and all of Steve's family were busy elsewhere, but Sandy, Brad, Debbie and their families and John were here.
On the 30th we all went to Lagoon and had a full day of fun. Thursday Brad and family went home. Friday Gail and I set things up for the Johnson reunion at This Is The Place State Park. Saturday, Sandy, Debbie, David and Steve and their families were there to enjoy the day with Gail, Diann and I. Brian returned home on the 4th and Debbie and the children stayed until he returned on the 15th and they went to Idaho to spend time with his family and returned on the 24th for a few days and flew out on the 26th.
Also on the 15th of July was the FHC Staff Party in the backyard. It was a Western theme and we had a great turnout and a good time.
On the 27th and Relief Society Meeting was in our back yard. We had a good turn out. I talked about the garden, flower arranging and freezers jam. Janet Groneman taught a canning class.
For our August Staff Meeting I taught Google. I have classes lined up for the fall in Google.
It has been a long time since I have written. This has been a busy year. We have been blessed with 2 new grandchildren. I went to New Jersey in March to help Debbie and Brian with the children and welcome Chloe, born March 21, 2010, into the family. Then on June 9th Brad and Jersha gave birth to Helena Christina. They came to visit the next week and I tried to take care of them. They left for Yellowstone on June 25th and Debbie and Brian came with their family. That Sunday, the 27th, Chloe was blessed in our ward and we had a dinner here for the Hunters and Neffs. Brad and Jersha returned on the 28th and we had a Neff BBQ, which they missed. The traffic coming through the park was bad and they got here late. On Tuesday the 29th we had a dinner for Sandy for her birthday and a good visit. Most of John's family and all of Steve's family were busy elsewhere, but Sandy, Brad, Debbie and their families and John were here.
On the 30th we all went to Lagoon and had a full day of fun. Thursday Brad and family went home. Friday Gail and I set things up for the Johnson reunion at This Is The Place State Park. Saturday, Sandy, Debbie, David and Steve and their families were there to enjoy the day with Gail, Diann and I. Brian returned home on the 4th and Debbie and the children stayed until he returned on the 15th and they went to Idaho to spend time with his family and returned on the 24th for a few days and flew out on the 26th.
Also on the 15th of July was the FHC Staff Party in the backyard. It was a Western theme and we had a great turnout and a good time.
On the 27th and Relief Society Meeting was in our back yard. We had a good turn out. I talked about the garden, flower arranging and freezers jam. Janet Groneman taught a canning class.
For our August Staff Meeting I taught Google. I have classes lined up for the fall in Google.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Summer 2008
Wow!! I have finished posting my vacation within a month of my return. I have been home since the 2 of July. Over the 4th, I went to a Parry Family Reunion in Spanish Fork Canyon. On the 7th we held the Neff Family BBQ here.
I bought and planted 20 flats of flowers in the garden. I am not so good at keeping them, however, between the snails and the very warm weather we have enjoyed. I got them for a good price and there are enough living to add some color.
I was able to help with John and Rhonda's children a few days after Rhonda's gallbladder surgery on the 10th. It was fun to be there and watch them play. We planted a few flowers in their front yard.
On July 17 we had the Family History Center Staff Dinner in the back yard. We had a good group and lots of good food.
July 22 was the first meeting of a ward book group. We read and discussed "Rachel and Leah" by Orson Scott Card. On the 23 I went to Lagoon with Steve, Corey and their family, Sandy, Martin, Dusan, Jamie and her children (David came after work), Kylie and Taylor. I had fun going with the youngest ones on the Terror Ride. I like it because it is cool and shaded inside and the kids are soooo brave to go on it, over and over and over again. They are really funny.
Uncle Karl Shaw's father passed away and we attended his funeral on the 29th.
On the 30th and 31st I met and worked with a granddaughter of Grandma Jane C Parry's sister Ivy. She had found my name through the new family search and is here from Las Vegas. I have a lot of pictures of the Johnson family and Grandma and Grandpa when they lived in Mexico. We have been scanning the ones she wants into the computer so she can take them home. It has been fun to get to know her and to learn more about the family.
I bought and planted 20 flats of flowers in the garden. I am not so good at keeping them, however, between the snails and the very warm weather we have enjoyed. I got them for a good price and there are enough living to add some color.
I was able to help with John and Rhonda's children a few days after Rhonda's gallbladder surgery on the 10th. It was fun to be there and watch them play. We planted a few flowers in their front yard.
On July 17 we had the Family History Center Staff Dinner in the back yard. We had a good group and lots of good food.
July 22 was the first meeting of a ward book group. We read and discussed "Rachel and Leah" by Orson Scott Card. On the 23 I went to Lagoon with Steve, Corey and their family, Sandy, Martin, Dusan, Jamie and her children (David came after work), Kylie and Taylor. I had fun going with the youngest ones on the Terror Ride. I like it because it is cool and shaded inside and the kids are soooo brave to go on it, over and over and over again. They are really funny.
Uncle Karl Shaw's father passed away and we attended his funeral on the 29th.
On the 30th and 31st I met and worked with a granddaughter of Grandma Jane C Parry's sister Ivy. She had found my name through the new family search and is here from Las Vegas. I have a lot of pictures of the Johnson family and Grandma and Grandpa when they lived in Mexico. We have been scanning the ones she wants into the computer so she can take them home. It has been fun to get to know her and to learn more about the family.
European Vacation June 2008
On Monday June 9th I left Salt Lake and flew to London, arriving on June 10th. Debbie, Lizzie and Jamie met me at Heathrow Airport and took me to their home. Jamie was all smiles, but Lizzie was very tentative about me.
Debbie had asked me to bring a travel bed for Lizzie so she got in it to see how it worked. She tried to get Lizzie excited about it, but Lizzie's reaction was to escape as fast as possible.
Lizzie had on a California shirt. They will be moving to California at the end of the year.
I went with Debbie to enrichment that evening for lessons about 72 hour kits and how to crochet. We then enjoyed some delicious salads.
Thursday, June 12 , we flew to Pisa, Italy. It was a short flight to a different culture.
Italy, the land of the scooters. They are probably needed because the roads in the cities are very narrow and the towns are far apart.
They needed some help holding up the leaning tower. I was surprised to find out that the reason it is such a famous building is that it was built leaning. The first 3 floors were completed in 1178. Then because of wars and such they didn't work on it. Meanwhile the foundations and subsoil settled, causing it to lean. But in 1272 someone came along who thought it was cool and that he could build it higher and stabilize the lean. After 2 more floors were added they had other wars and it was not finished and the bells installed in 1372.
Debbie, Jamie, Brian and Lizzie in front of the tower.
Lizzie and I in the city, I think this is a better view of the leaning bell tower of Pisa.
We then drove south to Volterra, a lovely old walled city. Sunny Italy was not very sunny when we first got there. We saw a lot of very heavy rain the first few days we were there. These clouds are behind the Villa, Il Poggino, where we stayed.
Here are my traveling companions, Debbie, Lizzie, Brian, and Jamie.
In the garden at Il Poggino is a very large solar panel. We saw a lot of solar panels in Europe, mostly on roofs of shops and houses.
Friday we went to see Tuscany with a visit to Siena and my introduction to Italian ice cream - gelato. We had to have gelato, it was raining and we had to dip into an open shop.
Lizzie enjoyed the ice cream and the mirror wall in the shop.
We then decided to visit a little walled town up on a hill and walked around Monteriggioni. Monteriggioni is a fun little town with few tourists and no new town springing up around it like the other towns we had visited. The local artists live above their shops. We really enjoyed the beautiful little place.
Monteriggioni is very small with a plaza in the middle, surrounded by buildings.
In back of the buildings facing the plaza is a small alley with houses and gardens lining the inside of the city wall.
Debbie enjoyed looking at the surrounding country from the parking area. This is Tuscany, row upon row of grapes, and the hills fading into the mist.
Saturday we drove to Colle di Val d’Elsa. Brian and Lizzie are crossing the mote to the entrance. This is a wonderful place that helped me understand the city of Jerusalem being built on 3 hills. The town was built on top of 2 or 3 hills, the roads and alleys go up and down these hills.
But around it a modern city has sprung up below the wall.
The little family posing in the street. Elsa has tiny cobblestone streets that go up and down and the houses and shops are all built touching each other.
There are a few little alleys, some of them covered. We found a cute crystal shop where they do their own glass/crystal blowing and then engrave pictures and designs on it.
Here we are looking back from the road below Colle di Val d’Elsa. It seemed that through Tuscany there was either a walled city, some surrounded by more modern city, or a villa, surrounded by grape vines, on top of every hill. The roads were not built at the bottom of the hills, but along the sides. When it rains it really comes down and fills the streams through the valleys.
Next stop was the Residence San Rocco in Soiano del Lago. When we arrived, Heinz Sprenger was waiting for us. The management had left a key for us with him. We stayed for 2 nights in these beautiful condo style accommodations. Heinz and Erika are German and Heinz's hobby is genealogy research. We have been emailing for a couple of years. He has helped me find information on the Neff famiy and the Mennonites living in Germany.
They had a swimming pool here, as in the last place, but again it rained all the time we were there. This is a view of Lake Grada from our window.
We attended church Sunday morning in Verona. The ward was in a residential area with a beautiful arched entry way and very little parking. The cars were packed in very tightly and Brian let us out by the door before going to the street to park. The people at church were delightful, very friendly and helpful. A young women translated in RS and a young man, who had served a mission in Scotland, translated in SS and Sacrament Meeting.
Debbie had asked me to bring a travel bed for Lizzie so she got in it to see how it worked. She tried to get Lizzie excited about it, but Lizzie's reaction was to escape as fast as possible.
Lizzie had on a California shirt. They will be moving to California at the end of the year.I went with Debbie to enrichment that evening for lessons about 72 hour kits and how to crochet. We then enjoyed some delicious salads.
Thursday, June 12 , we flew to Pisa, Italy. It was a short flight to a different culture.
Italy, the land of the scooters. They are probably needed because the roads in the cities are very narrow and the towns are far apart.
They needed some help holding up the leaning tower. I was surprised to find out that the reason it is such a famous building is that it was built leaning. The first 3 floors were completed in 1178. Then because of wars and such they didn't work on it. Meanwhile the foundations and subsoil settled, causing it to lean. But in 1272 someone came along who thought it was cool and that he could build it higher and stabilize the lean. After 2 more floors were added they had other wars and it was not finished and the bells installed in 1372.
Debbie, Jamie, Brian and Lizzie in front of the tower.
Lizzie and I in the city, I think this is a better view of the leaning bell tower of Pisa.
We then drove south to Volterra, a lovely old walled city. Sunny Italy was not very sunny when we first got there. We saw a lot of very heavy rain the first few days we were there. These clouds are behind the Villa, Il Poggino, where we stayed.
Here are my traveling companions, Debbie, Lizzie, Brian, and Jamie.
In the garden at Il Poggino is a very large solar panel. We saw a lot of solar panels in Europe, mostly on roofs of shops and houses.
Friday we went to see Tuscany with a visit to Siena and my introduction to Italian ice cream - gelato. We had to have gelato, it was raining and we had to dip into an open shop.
Lizzie enjoyed the ice cream and the mirror wall in the shop.We then decided to visit a little walled town up on a hill and walked around Monteriggioni. Monteriggioni is a fun little town with few tourists and no new town springing up around it like the other towns we had visited. The local artists live above their shops. We really enjoyed the beautiful little place.
Monteriggioni is very small with a plaza in the middle, surrounded by buildings.
In back of the buildings facing the plaza is a small alley with houses and gardens lining the inside of the city wall.
Debbie enjoyed looking at the surrounding country from the parking area. This is Tuscany, row upon row of grapes, and the hills fading into the mist.
Saturday we drove to Colle di Val d’Elsa. Brian and Lizzie are crossing the mote to the entrance. This is a wonderful place that helped me understand the city of Jerusalem being built on 3 hills. The town was built on top of 2 or 3 hills, the roads and alleys go up and down these hills.
But around it a modern city has sprung up below the wall.
The little family posing in the street. Elsa has tiny cobblestone streets that go up and down and the houses and shops are all built touching each other.
There are a few little alleys, some of them covered. We found a cute crystal shop where they do their own glass/crystal blowing and then engrave pictures and designs on it.
Here we are looking back from the road below Colle di Val d’Elsa. It seemed that through Tuscany there was either a walled city, some surrounded by more modern city, or a villa, surrounded by grape vines, on top of every hill. The roads were not built at the bottom of the hills, but along the sides. When it rains it really comes down and fills the streams through the valleys.
Next stop was the Residence San Rocco in Soiano del Lago. When we arrived, Heinz Sprenger was waiting for us. The management had left a key for us with him. We stayed for 2 nights in these beautiful condo style accommodations. Heinz and Erika are German and Heinz's hobby is genealogy research. We have been emailing for a couple of years. He has helped me find information on the Neff famiy and the Mennonites living in Germany. 
They had a swimming pool here, as in the last place, but again it rained all the time we were there. This is a view of Lake Grada from our window. 
We attended church Sunday morning in Verona. The ward was in a residential area with a beautiful arched entry way and very little parking. The cars were packed in very tightly and Brian let us out by the door before going to the street to park. The people at church were delightful, very friendly and helpful. A young women translated in RS and a young man, who had served a mission in Scotland, translated in SS and Sacrament Meeting.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Switzerland and the Neff House.
When we left there Monday the 16th, we drove up to Switzerland. We had hoped to go see the Matterhorn, but again it was raining and the clouds covered the tops of the lower Alps we were traveling through, so we thought it silly to pay to go see the higher ones. We drove up to Altdorf where we decided to leave the freeway and find a room. We drove through the town and up the mountain. We went through Burglen and on up the mountain, until we could go no higher. So we turned around, we found a room in Burglen.
The room was nice and we had a beautiful view out the window. We walked down to the Tell Museum, but it was 5:01 and it closed at 5. We then went to the Tell Chapel, cemetery and church.
B, L and D in front of the Tell Church.
They had very interesting headstones in the Tell Cemetery. I had never seen stones with copper relieve designs or little pictures of the person on the headstone or below it.
D and I by the cemetery wall, overlooking Burglen and Altdorf. We couldn't figure out why William Tell was such a big deal in this little town. So I looked it up on Wikipedia.
The Legend of William Tell
William Tell from Bürglen was known as an expert marksman with the crossbow. At the time, the Habsburg emperors were seeking to dominate Uri. Hermann Gessler, the newly appointed Austrian Vogt of Altdorf raised a pole in the village's central square with his hat on top and demanded that all the local townsfolk bow before it. As Tell passed by without bowing, he was arrested. He received the punishment of being forced to shoot an apple off the head of his son, Walter, or else both would be executed.
Tell had been promised freedom if he shot the apple. On November 18, 1307, Tell split the fruit with a single bolt from his crossbow, without mishap. When Gessler queried him about the purpose of the second bolt in his quiver, Tell answered that if he had ended up killing his son in that trial, he would have turned the crossbow on Gessler himself. Gessler became enraged at that comment, and had Tell bound and brought to his ship to be taken to his castle at Küssnacht. In a storm on Lake Lucerne, Tell managed to escape. On land, he went to Küssnacht, and when Gessler arrived, Tell shot him with the crossbow.
Tell's defiance of Gessler sparked a rebellion leading to the formation of the Swiss Confederation.
Tell fought in the Battle of Morgarten in 1315. He died in 1354 while trying to save a child from drowning in the Schächenbach, an alpine river in Uri. There is a fresco from 1582 in a chapel in Bürglen showing this scene.
We drove through Lucern and then on to Zurich on Tuesday. The whole town was excited about the Euro 2008 Soccer Tournament. There was a game that night and people were wearing there national colors, dancing in the streets and singing their national songs. The display below was in the train station in Zurich. I think they had a statue for the best player on each nations team. They were huge.
We went to the Landis Museum in Zurich and saw the Adam Neff sword.
D, B and L in front of the Adam Neff Sword.
D and J in front of sword. Below is Neff house in Kappel am Albis. I am in back of the house with L, D and J.
Here I am in the Neff Room in the Neff house in front of a picture of Adam Neff with his sword.
B, L, D and J in the Neff Room.
Here I am at the wall of Soloturn with Bea and G on Wednesday June 18. We had arrived the day before and spent Wednesday morning walking around another castle. With our personal guides we went through Soloturn and learned about the city. Below is the cathedral.
Bea, D, J and B in front of the cathedral.
G pointed out that on ceiling there are 4 prophets painted around the center.
One of them is Melchizedek receiving tithing from Abraham.
Here are D, B and L in front of the Solothurn Castle. It is a long castle with a porch on each end and then another room, both upstairs and down ...
But as this picture of L shows, the castle is only one room deep. Kind of funny.
Good bye our good friends, we hope to see you again soon. Off we go driving through the Swiss countryside.
J has been in his car seat a lot, but he is still smiling. We followed the road signs through Zurich, there is a freeway headed into and out of Zurich, but not through, so it took a while. We headed out toward Germany. I had picked up some brochures and looked through them. There was one showing rooms in Appenzell, so we got off the freeway in St Gallen and headed toward Appenzell. B drove up the mountain, we passed several small villages, and cute hotels. When we finally got to Appenzell, we went to a service station and asked about the hotels, we found that the hotels were in the villages we had driven through. B saw a sign saying there were hotels up a road, so he headed out of town and up into the hills. Every once in a while we saw another sign saying there were hotels ahead. We suggested we turn around, but B just kept going on and on up this step mountain road. Finally we found a hotel way up the hill. It is a lovely place with a playground for the children and a pool in the basement. We had a lovely dinner and went swimming before going to bed.
Here I am with L, J and B in front of the hotel.
The room was nice and we had a beautiful view out the window. We walked down to the Tell Museum, but it was 5:01 and it closed at 5. We then went to the Tell Chapel, cemetery and church. 
B, L and D in front of the Tell Church.
They had very interesting headstones in the Tell Cemetery. I had never seen stones with copper relieve designs or little pictures of the person on the headstone or below it.
D and I by the cemetery wall, overlooking Burglen and Altdorf. We couldn't figure out why William Tell was such a big deal in this little town. So I looked it up on Wikipedia. The Legend of William Tell
William Tell from Bürglen was known as an expert marksman with the crossbow. At the time, the Habsburg emperors were seeking to dominate Uri. Hermann Gessler, the newly appointed Austrian Vogt of Altdorf raised a pole in the village's central square with his hat on top and demanded that all the local townsfolk bow before it. As Tell passed by without bowing, he was arrested. He received the punishment of being forced to shoot an apple off the head of his son, Walter, or else both would be executed.
Tell had been promised freedom if he shot the apple. On November 18, 1307, Tell split the fruit with a single bolt from his crossbow, without mishap. When Gessler queried him about the purpose of the second bolt in his quiver, Tell answered that if he had ended up killing his son in that trial, he would have turned the crossbow on Gessler himself. Gessler became enraged at that comment, and had Tell bound and brought to his ship to be taken to his castle at Küssnacht. In a storm on Lake Lucerne, Tell managed to escape. On land, he went to Küssnacht, and when Gessler arrived, Tell shot him with the crossbow.
Tell's defiance of Gessler sparked a rebellion leading to the formation of the Swiss Confederation.
Tell fought in the Battle of Morgarten in 1315. He died in 1354 while trying to save a child from drowning in the Schächenbach, an alpine river in Uri. There is a fresco from 1582 in a chapel in Bürglen showing this scene.
We drove through Lucern and then on to Zurich on Tuesday. The whole town was excited about the Euro 2008 Soccer Tournament. There was a game that night and people were wearing there national colors, dancing in the streets and singing their national songs. The display below was in the train station in Zurich. I think they had a statue for the best player on each nations team. They were huge.
We went to the Landis Museum in Zurich and saw the Adam Neff sword.
D, B and L in front of the Adam Neff Sword.
D and J in front of sword. Below is Neff house in Kappel am Albis. I am in back of the house with L, D and J. 
Here I am in the Neff Room in the Neff house in front of a picture of Adam Neff with his sword.B, L, D and J in the Neff Room.
Here I am at the wall of Soloturn with Bea and G on Wednesday June 18. We had arrived the day before and spent Wednesday morning walking around another castle. With our personal guides we went through Soloturn and learned about the city. Below is the cathedral. 
Bea, D, J and B in front of the cathedral.
G pointed out that on ceiling there are 4 prophets painted around the center.
One of them is Melchizedek receiving tithing from Abraham.
Here are D, B and L in front of the Solothurn Castle. It is a long castle with a porch on each end and then another room, both upstairs and down ...
But as this picture of L shows, the castle is only one room deep. Kind of funny.
Good bye our good friends, we hope to see you again soon. Off we go driving through the Swiss countryside. 
J has been in his car seat a lot, but he is still smiling. We followed the road signs through Zurich, there is a freeway headed into and out of Zurich, but not through, so it took a while. We headed out toward Germany. I had picked up some brochures and looked through them. There was one showing rooms in Appenzell, so we got off the freeway in St Gallen and headed toward Appenzell. B drove up the mountain, we passed several small villages, and cute hotels. When we finally got to Appenzell, we went to a service station and asked about the hotels, we found that the hotels were in the villages we had driven through. B saw a sign saying there were hotels up a road, so he headed out of town and up into the hills. Every once in a while we saw another sign saying there were hotels ahead. We suggested we turn around, but B just kept going on and on up this step mountain road. Finally we found a hotel way up the hill. It is a lovely place with a playground for the children and a pool in the basement. We had a lovely dinner and went swimming before going to bed.
Here I am with L, J and B in front of the hotel.
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