Late December & January 2014 Update

 

One of the nice things about being here, is that family and friends often come through the area on their trips.  Sterling and Jeanie and family came by and what fun to visit with them.  What a handsome family!  The kids just keep growing up while we just grow older.  Oh well!!

 

Alicia, Audra, Michael, Michael & Lindsey MONCUR

Brieann, Jeanie & Sterling EMFIELD

 

We had several days off from work during the holidays, so we decided to travel to the Idaho Falls area, to visit the Emfield brothers, who all live in that area.  We stayed with my brother Scott and his wife Donna and had a wonderful time just visiting with them.  Sterling and Jeanie and Gary all came over, and we were able to visit with a number of extended family during the next few days.  I have never seen so many redheads along with a bunch of other cute kids.  What a neat family we have.  We had a wonderful reunion sharing some of the sweet memories from our parents.  I’m sure they were smiling in Heaven as we shared our thoughts.

 

        

 

After we returned to Utah, Daniel and Susan came by, and we were able to take them to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights.  The Church puts on lots of concerts during the holidays.  We went to a Broadway Sing-a-long on New Year’s Eve in the Assembly Hall, and that was a blast.  What a sweet spirit there is among the people here. What a nice way to welcome the New Year.  There were other performances in the Joseph Smith Memorial building and all over the downtown area.  It was nice to see families spending their New Year’s Eve together in such a wholesome activity.  Susan got lots of pictures, so that was fun.

 

        

 

Gerald was out for a walk the other night, and bumped into and talked with Ryan Murphy, who is one of the conductors of the Tabernacle Choir.  He knows Sequim and has some relatives who live there.  We went to the Tabernacle Choir rehearsal that night.  What a joy it is to hear them live.  We always try to spot Gerald’s cousins, Jeanie & Cary, who sing in the choir, but we try not to wave too wildly.

 

We went to Earl & Cathy’s house to celebrate Earl’s birthday.  It is always fun to be with our kids and grandkids and their enlightened cats.  What a nice and fun family they are.  Earl says that it's wonderful to be born on New Years Day, because the whole world celebrates his birthday. 

 

    

 

The weather continues to be cold, but most of the snow is gone, and the sun is shining most days.  That part is nice for our walking, but it does get smoggy when it doesn’t rain or snow.  We still continue to meet interesting people in various places.  Not too long ago when we were in line to the Savior play, we met some folks in line with us.  As we talked with them, they mentioned that they were originally from Beaver Utah.  I mentioned that I had a cousin named Clarece Bowler and her husband who used to run the fish hatchery there for many years.  The man we were talking with said that he had grown up with the Bowler son, Steve. I asked if he knew where Steve lived now and he said yes.  He lives closed to Salt Lake City in Draper.  I thought I would call him sometime and say Hi, since I hadn’t seen him in many years.  The other day we were in the area visiting some stores, and while Gerald was in one of the boring computer stores, I called Steve’s cell phone to say Hi.  He answered and said he was within a few minutes of where we were and would come by and say Hi.  When Gerald came out of the store, he found me hugging some tall handsome stranger.  He was relieved to find out he was my 2nd cousin.  We had a great talk and will get together again soon.  We do meet many interesting people, that’s for sure.

 

         

Steve Bowler                                                                                 David & Gemma Hooson                                          Gerald with Hooson's tie gift

 

Also, while we were talking with my cousin Steven, he told us his daughter was attending BYU abroad in London.  We mentioned to him that one of our great elders, David Hooson, from our West Indies mission, had just been called to be a Bishop in the Hyde Park ward in London.  Guess what, Steve’s daughter Kelsie is in Bishop Hooson’s ward.  It sure is a small world in the Church.  

 

There is a huge sporting equipment store named Scheel’s in the area that is quite unusual.  We decided to check it out.  It has a full size Ferris wheel with full sized animals depicted in their native environment.  One of the most fascinating things was the talking mannequins of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.  They speak and give their famous public addresses, and their eyes move and look right at the observer.  It is neat, but a bit eerie. 

 

                   

 

One final note.    We don’t usually watch football unless we know the team.  We had heard our coworkers talking up the game for several weeks prior to the event.   So we decided to watch the game on Sunday after Church.  We have to admit:  it was a fun and unusual game, that’s for sure.  When we went to work on Monday morning, there is one brother who is from Washington, and he was one happy guy!  Here is a picture of me with him and his custom made tie tack. That’s the short and tall of the story.

Lorna Malmrose and Joseph Brignone