Spying on a marriage proposal

 

The ring is ready.

So is the painting of the place they met (and where they'll get engaged)

Dan and I got to help set it all up-candles, roses, ring, painting, and our son, Mark, set a camera to take a picture every ten seconds.  Here I'm getting a text from Tom to say they are coming. 

  

We get to the car, our hiding place, and realize we forgot to set out the roses.  In this picture Dan is running a mad dash to put the flowers in place.

Phew, he made it.  Dan set the flowers down.

Sixty seconds later, here comes Tom and Megan.  Megan is now suspicious.

And, Ta Daa, the proposal.

  

Tom didn't get the text to let him know we had the camera set to take pictures every 10 seconds :-D

But I'm glad we did.

One can't get engaged without a kiss.

The happy couple.

Not quite as guilty

I'm one of those people who squirms in her seat when the lesson is about genealogy.  I don't do it.  Ok?  I'm guilty.  Rotten.  Slothful.  Lazy.

But.....this week I felt a little piece of heaven in the genealogy department.  Dan has been playing around with the new family search program on the LDS church site.  He's been trying to clean up some of the work that has been done on my lines.  Low and behold, he found 4 names, 1 female and 3 males who had been sealed to their parents but never had the other ordinances done!  I was so excited.  There was one of my female ancestors that needed some work done and I could do it!

Last week I completed her work, doing the endowment.  From the picture above you can see she was born in 1802, sealed to her parents in 1902,  and for some unknown reason the rest of her work wasn't done.  She had a long wait but it was finally completed on Feb 16, 2010.  Happy Day!  I had a very good feeling in the temple that day.

A tie that matches

 

So, tonight, John is going to Sweethearts Ball with cute Madi.  It's nice because they are good friends so none of the awkwardness that I felt when I went to a dance at 16.  I remember hardly knowing one of my early dance dates and so spending a whole evening with him was, well, uncomfortable.

Not so with John and Madi.  

Now a days the dates like to match.  This week John brought home a swatch of fabric from Madi's dress so he could chose his shirt.
 

We went shopping and found a shirt that was close to the same color of tan.  For a tie, Madi told him her dress had a pinkish color.  We found two ties that were "pinkish" but we didn't know which was the right "pinkish."  John got out his phone, took a picture of the ties and sent it to Madi.  She said that neither tie was right. Her color was more of an orangeish pink.   Hmmmm.  We looked some more  and found an "orangeish pink" tie.  Once again, he took a picture and sent it for Madi's approval.  Her answer?  "Perfect!"  We bought the tie.

From this picture you can see it's a pretty good match.  Phew!

 

And here you can see that Jameson and Aly did a pretty good job matching, too.

I hardly dared talk to my date and John's date is helping him chose his attire.  I have a feeling he's going to have a lot more fun than I did on that early date.

Best run of the day

Today, as Dan and I were getting on the ski lift,  a snowboarder joined us on the chair.  We'd seen him talk to his mother as she went to get help from the ski patrol.  The previous run the family had taken a  new trail that none of them had skied before.  The 9 year old sister/daughter had become separated from them and now they could not find her.  I knew, being a mother myself, the worry that mother must have been experiencing. 

We talked to the snowboarder as we rode the lift.  As he described the trail they had gone on with Bethany (that was his sister's name) Dan and I told him we knew that trail well.  It is a lesser known run but one of our favorites.  The brother told us what had happened, how she'd been separated, and what she was wearing.  Dan and I told him we'd go on this trail, that was so familiar to us, and look for her.

As we searched on the ski trail we saw 2 ski tracks going off in a different direction than most skiers normally go.  We followed the tracks which went through some trees and to a different area of the mountain than the family had expected Bethany to be.  As we came out of the trees, there was Bethany, sitting in the snow, waiting for her family to find her.

We asked her if her name was Bethany.  She was a bit hesitant to talk to us, after all, we were strangers.  We told her her family was looking for her and where her mother was.  Bethany stood up and headed off toward her mother.  Dan and I followed her until she was with her family.

I saw the look of relief in her mother's eyes when she saw Bethany skiing toward her.  The mom was with a someone on the ski patrol who organizing a search.  No more need for that!

Dan and I got on the lift and headed up the mountain for another run but we both felt a little warmth in our hearts knowing that Bethany was okay.  The run we found Bethany was by far the best run of the day.

Inversion

My son Mark suggested that we hike Saddleback Mountain one morning to get some pictures from above the inversion.  If you don't know what an inversion is, the cold air is heavy and sinks below the warm air and, in the mountain valleys, becomes trapped in the mountain bowl.  In the above picture the large cluster of lights is USU.  The white light above and to the left is the temple.

This is Mark, close to the top of the mountain.  We left at 5:30 am and got to the top before sunrise.

 

I've heard it said that you can look down on the inversion and imagine what the ancient Lake Bonneville would have looked like, although it would have been blue and not white, of course.  Here we are on top of the mountain.

If Mark had taken a few steps backward he would have had a very long fall.

As we went down the inversion moved away from the edge of the mountain exposing some of the homes below.  We were eventually able to see my house.

While the inversion air is very unhealthy, it sometimes causes the trees and plants to be covered with a light frost.  It's beautiful!

The inversion lasted a long time this year.  A storm came through this week and blew it all away.  I'm glad it's gone and hope it won't come back but if it does one can climb a mountain or go up the canyon for a breath of fresh air and a view of our beautiful world.

Who'd a thunk?

I've always felt different.  Most women my age like to shop, wear cute clothes and spend a lot of time and effort decorating their houses.  I'm weird.  I hate shopping.  My clothes are, well, average.  I need help in the interior design department.  But, I love the outdoors.  I love to hike,  snow ski, water ski, cross country ski, and more.  I wish I had more time to be out side.  I've felt I've been cut out of a different mold than other women my age.  Well, I was wrong! 

Today it was -12, yes, -12 in Logan but 11 women  met me at the church parking lot and we headed up Logan canyon for a snow shoeing adventure.  They WANTED to go.  We drove to the Limber Pine trail near the summit of Logan Canyon, put on our coats, hats, gloves, boots and snow shoes and had the BEST time!  We laughed, sang, crunched, climbed, enjoyed nature and each other.

I've come to the realization that a lot of women like the out doors, or at least would like to like the out doors, but they don't know what to do or where to go.  All they need is a friend to go with and they are there.  My heart was warmed today as 11 women braved the cold for a snow shoe adventure.  I guess I'm not as weird as I thought I was.  ( I still hate to shop and need a lot of help  with my house but that's another blog post)

By the way, it was much warmer up Logan Canyon-close to 20 degrees when we started.  The temperature inversion in Cache Valley doesn't reach the summit in the Canyon.  We removed a lot layers along the way as we hiked.

I love January

January is one of my favorite months because:

• It seems so quiet after the busy Christmas season
• It's a perfect time to wrap up in a warm blanket and read a good book
• A new year, clean slate, lots of goals, start over, start fresh
• Soup month-yum yum- Minestrone, cabbage, taco, split pea, chicken noodle to name a few
• 2 birthdays-Jim and Tom
• Winter sports-down hill skiing, cross country skiing, and, this year, snow shoeing
• The days are getting longer
• The world looks beautiful with a fresh blanket of snow

Yes, I love January