August 2011 - Picture of the Month

Crossing the Sweetwater, Trek 2011, for the Colrado Springs North Stake

August 2011 - Executive Office of Ken Woodward

Dear Family

To you five ancient members of our clan, I failed to mention last month of the passing of our dear neighbor of 57 years, Mary Sidebotham, 85.  She died about the middle of June. Her husband John, 90, is living alone at the house.  How long he will be able to continue to do so is uncertain.

Sixty four years ago today (August 1, 1947) I arrived in Sacramento via greyhound bus  on one of the hottest days of the 20th century, wearing a straw hat and carrying all my possessions in a  small suitcase.  I had no place to stay, and knew not one person in the entire city. Fortunately, today is a bit cooler.

A thousand thanks to Kristy for arranging and hosting on July 21 a very enjoyable gathering  of the Utah-contingent of our family, some of which I had never previously met, i.e., Ryan, Seth, Maija and Averie.  Ryan passed inspection and I’m now willing to forget and forgive Alexis for her violation of my long-standing pre-approval requirement.  But that doesn’t exempt Cassie and Arianna. I was also pleased to find a New York Yankee fan soul-mate in Jilina.  Kevin would be well advised not to get involved with Jilina in the milkshake baseball betting contest..

It was also good to see John Christiansen, although an early departee from the gathering with the weak excuse of a golfing engagement. ( My definition of an early departee is one who leaves before me.)

Whether the afternoon and evening was enjoyable, some sage once said a picture is as good as a thousand words, Jilina, Alexis and Katelyn speaks for the entire group.

Road construction presently underway along Interstate 15 between Salt Lake and Provo should be a deterrent to any temple recommend carrying visitor.. When President Obama said he was looking for “shovel ready” projects to spur the economy he must have looked only at the Salt Lake-Provo corridor

 

When I drove Susan to BYU to enroll as a freshman in the late 1960’s the main route to Provo was State Street, with a traffic light at every other intersection. For a simple southern Idaho farm boy, now living east of I-5, the State Street route now looks more attractive to me than the I-15 speedway.. 

Even the light rail trip from Sandy to Salt Lake and back was an abomination.  The train broke down at its Salt Lake City terminus causing  a 45-minute delay on the return trip, and then it stopped every few minutes because there was an obstruction on the tracks.  We could have walked it faster. Kristy, next time lets just drive.

We were gone seven days.  Zach, Josh and I stayed in Lehi, mostly to honor the birthplace of Earl Taylor.  Earl, who had a major hand in my calling to the stake presidency in 1967 was interred in the Lehi cemetery earlier this year.. 

We visited  BYU, Bingham copper mine, temple square, the conference center, Joseph Smith Memorial building, Thanksgiving Point, and drove around the Alpine Loop. 

The boys traveled well, missing very few rest stops and fast food restaurants en-route. For all you naysayers who questioned my sanity in driving instead of fly, I might even be tempted to do again.

Love, Dad

August 2011 - Haupt, Levi & Torrie & Family

July has been a fun month here in the Haupt household. It started off with us fully enjoying the Fourth of July weekend. Since Levi’s Brother Reuben and his wife Chantile are still with us, we’ve been geocaching like crazy, the fourth was no different. We rode a ferry across the Sound to Kingston and enjoyed a Farmers market, a hometown parade complete with a zillion princesses that Charlotte had to wave at, and more geocaching. When we arrived back on our side of the water we visited some tide pools with Levi that the girls and I had previously frequented. We had a fantastic long day.

Since moving up here Levi has known that he would most likely be involved in cycling the STP aka Seattle to Portland bicycle ride. His dad has been doing it for the past 10 years, he’s a seasoned pro and this time he was able to have 2 of his sons complete it. Its usually a weekend event, however Dave and a bunch of his friends from their ward ride the 200+ miles in one day in order to still be able to be at church the next day. Its quite the accomplishment and I know Levi is grateful he did it and that its over, until next year.

After the STP we left the girls in Portland to enjoy Levi’s parents, Levi left for a week -long meeting in Utah and Reuben, Chantile and I returned to Mukilteo to continue our conquest of the endless painting jobs we’d given ourselves. My kitchen is well on its way to looking wonderful, I hope to post before and after pics next month.

We also got to enjoy the rare opportunity of a midnight premiere since we were sans children. Levi returned from Utah just in tiem for the four of us to gather on early Friday morning to watch the final Harry Potter installment. What a wonderful end to an era. For those of you who haven’t seen it, what are you waiting for?!   

The girls continue to enjoy the outdoors, our backyard especially, and we even spent the last Friday of the month on our very first Family camp-out, complete with tent and sleeping bags, it was so much fun. It brought back wonderful memories as we made our own.

We should have a lot of fun pics next month and more adventures to post about. We love you all and hope you enjoy August!

With love,

Charlotte, Emma, Torrie & Levi

Kingston Ferry

watching the parade  (I have a similar pic of emma exactly 3 years ago)

tromping in boots around the tide pools

start of STP, 4am-ish and proudly sporting our "Haupt Cycling" pride!

halfway stop for lunch

very proud of Daddy at the finish line!

Miss Fix-it!

First Family camp-out

August 2011 - McClintock Robert & Susan

July was more interesting that expected.  Aunt Susan went back to Los Angeles to visit Emily and Justin one more time before they left for Boston. It was an eventful trip and one Aunt Susan is so glad she made.  In fact, on Sunday, Aunt Susan and the Ekins attended Kimber's ward instead of the UCLA ward.  When Aunt Susan introduced herself and Emily in Relief Society, Aunt Susan made mention that they were related to Kimber Scott.  The sound of acknowledgment from the Sisters was highly satisfying to Aunt Susan. It meant that Kimber was still known in her ward  and any concerns about her testimony or activity can be brushed aside. Aunt Susan wonders if Kimber got back home in time for Carmageddon. (The folks in the southland do have some interesting ideas about what is important.)

Rocco was a bit of handful, according to Emily, the day the movers came.  He set up such a fuss Justin and Emily had to sit with him in a closet while the movers removed the furniture and boxes from their apartment.  Oh, nay.  Aunt Susan can not even image how Rocco stood the trip across country yet again.  If you recall, the week the Ekins drove across country they drove into the worst heat wave in the Midwest and East Coast in a decade. 

Pioneer day went well in this neck of the woods…nothing like the celebration in Utah but still a decent commemoration.  Grandpa and the boys returned from a glorious trip to Utah on that day but they were not greeted with Pioneer parades or bands. Aunt Susan was eager to hear the particulars and Grandpa obliged.  It occurred to Aunt Susan that Jilina was able to meet her very own Great-Grandfather because of that trip.  Grandpa will probably give you a more accurate recounting of just how well they got along and why.

This McClintock wishes all the rest of the family a reasonably interesting rest of Summer.

August 2011 - Slade, Jeff & Crystal & Family

I know that we are getting this in on August first, but we do have great news.... Jeff and  I both have found jobs that willl keep us in the area of a while.  Jeff i s working for Anderson Merchandizing (he will have to explain it.) but is in the process of applying for doctoral programs in finance and I believe that that unltimatley we will do something in that area.  I will be working full-time as a achool psychologist in the Poudre School District in Ft.Collins.  We are very happy as are kids can stay in the in the district ehy are most commfortable with and we have access to top destricts in the state.  We are also thrilled to be having a temple come in aboot 1  5 minutes from us!!!!!  so many wonderful things, so few words to decscrible them.  We love you!!

  
  Crystal

August 2011 - Woodward, Kevin & Tammy & Family

During the month of July, I took a short business trip to the nation’s capital.  It was pleasant, interesting and productive, but it paled in comparison to the experience which Tammy and I enjoyed a week later, as we accompanied 300 youth and 130 adults from our stake on our quadrennial pioneer trek over 30 miles of the Mormon Trail through central Wyoming.  We couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather, something which the members of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies did not enjoy in late October of 1856.

 
We began our journey, right out of the gate, going up and over Rocky Ridge, the highest point along the entire Mormon Trail.  There were numerous, massive boulders jutting up in the trail, making it extremely difficult to pull the handcart.  For a one mile stretch along this torturous path, only the women in our party of 430 pulled the handcarts.  This was referred to as the “women’s pull”, representative of those families whose husbands and fathers were either too sick to pull their handcart, or who had died along the way.  In a word, the “women’s pull” was brutal, but it served as a wonderful object lesson for each of us about priesthood service, and about the need for men and women to work together in our journey back to our heavenly home. 
Once over the summit, we continued for another 12 miles to Rock Creek Hollow to camp for the night. 

For the Willie Handcart Company, which was two weeks ahead of the Martin Company on the trail, the 15 miles up and over Rocky Ridge to Rock Creek Hollow was a forced march in blizzard conditions.  It was 27 hours of non-stop effort to get to where supplies awaited them.  Unfortunately, once they arrived at Rock Creek Hollow on October 24, this march took the lives of 13 individuals in one night.  Even the 22-year old young man who dug the mass grave for these 13 died the next day.  There is a monument which was placed there to honor those who died at Rock Creek Hollow.  This was the company for which 23-year old, returning missionary William Woodward served as a captain of a hundred.  Each one of us on the trek represented someone who actual made that journey.  I had the privilege of representing William Woodward.

On the following day, our company of 430 climbed aboard air conditioned buses to head back east to where the Martin Company would have been on the trail in late October.  Tammy represented Elizabeth Robinson Condie, a great grandmother of ours, who was 19 years old when she traveled with the Martin Company with her mother and her sister Dorothy.  The Martin Company had crossed the Platt River not far from Casper, Wyoming where they were discovered by the advance rescue riders from Salt Lake.  They were likewise told that they needed to move quickly about 50 miles west where supplies awaited them.   As they moved westward, they came to the Sweetwater River.  Crossing the Sweetwater was necessary for them to get to a nearby cove where the entire company could find relative shelter from the winter storms.  The company remembered well the deadly crossing of the Platt.  The Sweetwater isn’t nearly as big as the Platt.   But because they were totally drained of strength, it was on the banks of this river where grown men simply fell to the ground and cried.  It was here where four young men from the rescue team sent from Salt Lake carried nearly the entire company across the Sweetwater.

Our party of 430 had a chance to spend an evening of quiet reflection up in Martin’s Cove.  We came to the cove in four groups of 100.  As each group departed the cove, I had the chance to give each member a hug and to thank them for coming.  As I waited for each group to arrive, I had a chance to enjoy some quiet reflection of my own.  As I sat there in solitude, I heard a noise overhead.  I looked up and saw a commercial jetliner flying high above me.  A definition of a miracle is a condition where higher order laws, that we don’t currently understand, are at work (Bible Dictionary). Obviously in 1856, the physical laws that permit air travel certainly were not understood.  Yet if an aircraft could have been there to carry these valiant saints safely to the Salt Lake Valley, that would have been a miracle.

The following day we each had a chance to cross the Sweetwater River.  It was a moving experience for everyone.  President Hinckley referred to Martin’s Cove, as well as the other areas we had traveled, as the outdoor temple of Wyoming.  It is no surprise as to why he would designate this area as such.

 We love you,

The Woodwards

Kevin and Tammy Crossing the sweetwater