California reunion trip - part 1

The week of our California reunion trip started with Monday at the mission office and a visit from two of our favorite missionaries - McKaden Packard (l) and Tyler Hatton (r) - back for a few days from their homes in Florida and Utah.  And, since Mondays are mission office meeting days, they posed with the whole group of us.

back row:  President & Sister Collins, Elder Wall, McKaden, Tyler, Sister & Elder Harris, Steve & me, Elder Williams
standing in front of back row:  Elder & Sister Poulson
kneeling:  Elder Shad Johnson and Elder Cade Richardson, our APs

And, then TUESDAY and we were on our way to San Diego....


where we had to relinquish our oranges at the Arizona / California border - but not our grapes or apples.  I had completely forgotten about this process because I remember going through the inspection any time we drove to California when I was a little girl.



We drove by some pretty cool sand dunes out in the middle of the California desert.  We spaced out and almost ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere.  Happily, there was a Chevron station in the teeeeny berg of Ocotillo where we were got gasoline at $4.79 per gallon!  We were NEVER so happy to pay that ridiculous price!



We arrived in San Diego in the mid-afternoon and had time to rest and catch a quick dinner at a nearby McDonalds before heading to the San Diego temple for an evening session.   Even with remodeling scaffolding, it is a beautiful structure.  Elise had arrived in town earlier in the day and she and her friend, Rachel, joined us.

WEDNESDAY morning, Rachel brought Elise to our hotel where we ate breakfast and then Elise, Steve, and I headed to Cabrillo National Monument at the tip of Point Loma.

As we drove there, we passed by thousands of graves in the military cemetery.

After Cabrillo, we went to Old Town and to the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center.  I have been to numerous church visitors centers in my life and this one is exceptional.  It is more like a Disneyland ride as we went from room to room following the story of a few of the members of the Mormon Battalion.  In the end, we became "honorary members of the Mormon Battalion" and then we got to pan for gold.  It was really a fun experience.

Then, we drove up to the Los Angeles area and checked into a hotel in Costa Mesa.  My high school friend, Susan Lyon, and her husband, Russ, met us for a picnic dinner at Newport Beach.  It was so great to catch up our lives and to realize that, regardless of time and distance, our friendship was still the same.

THURSDAY

Another day, another temple.  This time, the Newport Beach temple for another session.

After the temple, we drove to Hacienda Heights to pick up Beckie.  She had flown to California on Monday and had spent a few days in Santa Barbara with her good friend Tracy whom she worked with in Hawaii.  After a nostalgic trip to an Aldi in Whittier for food and by my old home at 641 Ryan Street in La Habra, we drove to Burbank to the AirBnB we had rented for the night.  Beckie cooked a delicious dinner and another high school friend, another Susan (Lendroth this time) came over to dine and she brought her daughter, Kyla.  Again, lots of visiting and gratitude for long-time friends who keep in touch.

That evening,  we added the Merrills and Steven to the increasing family group.  Kirsti, Ryan, and Alice joined us from their long drive from Utah and Steven was picked up by Steve and Elise from LAX.  

FRIDAY was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter day for Steven, Elise, and Emily and Noah (their family had arrived in California on Wednesday and they were staying in Torrance with good friends)

and it was to the Santa Monica pier day for the rest of us. But, first, we picked up Julina from the Burbank airport. 

Friday evening found us in a different AirBnB, this time in Palmdale.  And, our family was made complete when Sarah drove in from Ogden. 


Hooray - we were now all in California for the Ike and Florin Young reunion the next day (and next blog entry)

First week in July

Happy anticipations

Departure update - Still no official word from Salt Lake regarding the Thorntons.  However, Elder and Sister Thornton have a grandson here in north Phoenix who is receiving his Eagle on Sunday, July 14th so they WILL be down here for that and, whether they arrive at the mission office on July 15th as official missionaries or just volunteers, they WILL be here on that date.  Steve and I will train them that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and we WILL be driving away on Thursday, July 18th and pulling into Columbia on Saturday evening, July 20th. 

Car update -back when we thought it was just our air conditioner, we made a Tuesday appointment with C&R Auto.  After we realized it was just an empty radiator issue, we still thought it would be good to keep the appointment to make sure our car was road-worthy for all the driving trips we will be taking.  A lot of dollars later, our car IS road-worthy.  The radiator actually had to be replaced, among other things.  It means we won't be replacing our current computer with a laptop as soon as we had hoped but we have peace of mind regarding our car.

Why I Believe devotional update - it went SO WELL last Sunday evening.  I was very happy with all the performances.  Elder Harris in the mission office summed it up pretty nicely - it was a walk-off home run.  Here we are with Sister Wells.


I am returning the borrowed Relief Society sewing machine today.  It has been such a joy to use these past two years.  I think I will need to buy one for myself sometime.



Steve and I went to see Aladdin Friday evening.  It was SO good.  I smiled all the way through the movie. 

These next two weeks will be full of family reunions.  We leave Tuesday for a week in California for the Young reunion.  We will be back in the office Wednesday and Thursday, June 26th and 27th and then we leave on Friday the 28th for three days of Lambson reunion and be back in the office Monday July 1st - just in time for the July 2nd transfer.  And, so it has been a busy week at the office as I have prepared for being gone for two weeks.  But, not so busy that we couldn't have another senior sister lunch at Costa Vida on Friday. 

 Here at home, amid all the usual weekly chores, I have been preparing for our trips and I have been packing up all non-essentials for our return home in July.  But, we also found time to feed our ward's sister missionaries, Sisters Jammet and Rossi, last night. 

Lastly, here is Elder Dano and Elder Cruz, Zone 8 Leaders, picking up all the packages that have accumulated for missionaries in their zone. 

Life here in the desert

After a gloriously unseasonably cool spring, summer has finally arrived where everyone stays in their air conditioned environments most of the time.  Mornings are still tolerable and Steve and I still go on our 6:00am walks or bike rides.  I saw this tenacious desert flower one morning...

As temperatures have heated up, we were dismayed on Thursday when our car air conditioning seemed to phase in and out of cool mode.  It continued on Friday and, on the way home from the office, our engine even began to overheat.  I am sure you can imagine our 30 minute drive home with windows open going 65 mph and the heater going full blast in an attempt to keep the temperature gauge away from that big red H.  It was the longest drive of my life!  Saturday morning, Steve checked the radiator fluid and it was WAAAY down!!!  He filled it up and we took a test drive to Wal-mart - first with the AC off and the windows down.  Temperature stayed normal.  That was good.  Then, we drove around a bit more with the windows up and the AC on.  No phasing in and out of cool mode.  More good.  Maybe that was the problem all along????  We have an appointment set up with our mechanic on Tuesday and I think we will still keep it just to make sure everything is all right since we are preparing for a lot of driving during the last two weeks of June (family reunions) and mid-July when we drive home.   The frustrating thing is that we just took the car in last Tuesday for a routine oil change.  Don't they check all fluid levels???  I guess we stop depending upon that to happen from now on and check all our fluid levels ourselves every month.  Even in our mid-sixties, when we should know everything, we still are learning.  

Salt Lake sent someone to train our new Financial coordinator on Wednesday.  Her name was Whitney and her training took most of the day and she also trained the Housing coordinator and Steve, the Vehicle coordinator.  And, she took the whole office to lunch.  I was elected to choose the place and I picked Thai food.  Here we are at the restaurant...

(me, Whitney, Sister & Elder Poulson, Elder Wall, Elder Williams, Steve)

We had planned one last Arizona outing for yesterday but with our car problems, we just stayed home.  It was a lovely, peaceful, restful day for which I am very grateful.  We watched an interesting movie called "Jack and the Beanstalk - the Real Story" which was a Hallmark mini-series made in 2001.  It had an all-star cast and it was good story.  We also watched "Breathe" which was also quite good. 

Last Saturday, if you will recall, we were supposed to have Eric Stott and his son Xang (pronounced Sang) over for pizza but he completely forgot and double booked.  We rescheduled for Tuesday evening.  I admit, going into it, I was kind of resentful of having to alter my usual Tuesday night schedule to accommodate someone's forgetfulness.  But, the dinner turned out to be very enjoyable.  Eric and Xang came but so did the daughter who is going to college - Dalia - and her boyfriend Garrett.  We had lively and pleasant conversation and everyone liked the food and they didn't stay too long (at 8:30 each evening is when we start our end-of-day routine).

Speaking of end-of-day routine, I try to spend my 8:30 - 9:00 time sewing and practicing.  Fifteen minutes on each doesn't seem like very much time but it is amazing how much I can accomplish over a weeks time.  This past week, I had a dress to sew for Lucy and I am accompanying two musical numbers for tonight's Why I Believe devotional.  And, throughout the week, I worked on both and am happy to report that Lucy's dress just needs buttons to be completed and I feel prepared to play tonight.

Steve has had intermittent right ankle pain for the past few weeks and he decided to see a doctor about it Thursday morning.  Happily, the office has a walk-in option so that is what he did and he was able to get in right away with Dr. Willden.  He ordered some x-rays at a lab right next door and Steve also has a July 8th appointment with a local podiatrist.  Happily, the x-rays aren't showing anything too serious so Steve will just have to occasionally hobble around until then.

My adult cello student, Nate Coons, is baptizing his daughter this weekend and so both sets of grandparents came into town to take part.  And, with that, he wanted to reprise his two cello solos he performed at my May 16th recital.  His two oldest children are taking piano lessons and they wanted to perform.  He also talked his mother to play something on the piano and me to play some Bach on my cello and so we had a little recital Friday night.  It went very nicely.