New Trailer

For several years now I've been using a trail that a good friend left for me when he moved to haul equipment for concerts, and make trips to the dump. It was a great blessing to have, but it has it's draw backs. A high deck, no ramp, fairly heavy, and bit of an awkward shape.

So last week I bought a trailer that I've had my eye on for a while. It's an ATV trailer with two ramps, a low deck, and is pretty light. I added the sides to make it capable of carrying all kinds of loads.

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The sun hit the reflector just right so that it looks like it lit. Cool.

July 4th

We had a reasonably good day on the 4th. It got better as things rolled along. Mel and I both worked on some of the projects that we each have on out lengthy list to accomplish this summer (which seems to get shorter every year).

I prepared the new rain gutters for installation, Mom sewed, I put the air conditioners in the windows, Mom did some other work.

Later I grilled hamburgers and made some home-made root beer. We had our favorite cabbage salad, potato chips, fruit and ice cream with the sweetest black berries I've ever eaten! Yumm.

The best part was the fireworks show that night. I wish I had photos to share, but no luck. Some of you will remember that the folks down the street from us always have a lot of combined ground works, and a few illegal bottle rockets. This year they had TONS of ground works (several combined families) and lots and lots of rockets! Melody & I stood out there and watched for some time. It was the best fireworks display I've seen in years. Hope you all had enjoyable days too.

Camps and Hiking

In the past three weeks or so I've been to both of our stake's Aaronic Priesthood and Young Women camps. Below are photos from the AP Camp. there was a lot of snow very late in the year (who would believe the kids were having snow ball fights, then swimming in the water).

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One of the highlights of this camp was a visit from Elder Robert C. Oaks (Emeritus Seventy). For those who may not know, Elder Oaks is also a retired Four Star General in the Air Force. His remarks to the boys were especially interesting, because he focused on the 13th Article of Faith and obedience to the commandments (specifically: tithing, Word of Wisdom, and morality) rather than just telling war stories (he flew fighters in Vietnam). Afterward, he gave the boys a chance to ask questions, and that's when he gave some details about serving in the armed forces, being shot down over the Mekong Delta, how the ejection seat worked, and whatnot. That's him in the center below. It was great.

Probably his best line of the evening was when he was introducing himself and said: "you may be impressed that I can still fit into my uniform after all these years, well, all it means is that I was fat when I retired."

The two photos below are from a little hike Chris and I took up Adams Canyon, just east of Kaysville. Even though we were a bit concerned that it might rain, we actually had perfect weather for the trip. It was cool and nice. However, there was too much water for us to actually get to the falls where we intended. We got all the way there, but couldn't cross the creek to see them. We had lots of fun.

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And finally, below is a short video of a creek running down from Camp Bountiful, where the YW held their camp this year. I made an exploratory hike down about 1200' from camp (and back up again - very steep - I haven't sweat that much in weeks!) This was a really nice, very overgrown, shaded trail, but steep! I had a good time.

More photos from the Trip

We started our trip in Arizona watching Pam and Rob's children. I had lots of fun playing with them, or rather, doing things with them that make us both happy. Like hiking up "A" Mountain (not "a mountain" - "A" Mountain. It's like how in Rexburg you don't hike "our mountain" but "R" Mountain). Here Grant and Lucy and I head up and then and down the hill. They were great. In fact, it was very much like taking Chris and Pam up and down various mountains. They were good times.

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As we headed north, we drove through Zion National Park. I don't know that I had ever been there before. It was beautiful, and there were lots of fun things to see - thought we didn't have much time to stop and see the sights. Next time. Here are a couple of the more outstanding views.

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Pictured below is part of a plaque in Kanab that was interesting. The plaque showed the City Council for the 1912-1914 term. They were all women. (The woman pictured below is a McAllister, so she's some kind of relative.) What was the reason for an all woman city council in those years? I dunno - I guess they were just better than the men in that election.

One of the other high points was a visit to the old Hurricane Canal. Melody is standing by a pile of bricks with the names of people who contributed to the canal marker. On the other side is the old canal itself. The story goes that Alf Hall (my great grandfather) and his sons had quite a bit to do with building the canal. They certainly worked on it, but what part exactly did they play? Well, they were hard workers, no doubt about it - and they earned enough shares to purchase much of the best farm land in and around Hurricane. Maybe they were more than that, maybe not.

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Peter & Melody's Big Adventure

One of of the things we planned on doing on our AZ/UT trip was to visit some Hall/McAllister family sites in So. Utah. Kanab, Rockville, and Hurricane. So here's some of the details.

If I have the story straight, sometime during the early part of the last century (I forget the exact date) Richard S. McAllister (Dick Mac, who was my paternal grandmother's father) was bishop of the ward in Kanab. He received permission to build the chapel you see below. Since then the Church has added more structure (about 2 1/2 times more) to it. It appears to be a stake center now. It looks to me like the original entrance was where the window now is in the photo on the right.

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Then over in Rockville (which was our favorite place, and it was Flag Day so there were American flags all up and down the main road - beautiful). We stopped at the cemetery and found the grave markers for John C. and Kezia Hall. Below is a couple of overall shots of the Hall section with the gorgeous cliffs in the background.

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The stone of the left is for John C. and Kezia, and the one one the right is John C.'s Utah Militia marker.

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Of note is the pillar (below) with LeRoy Hall (son of Alf and Julia who died in the mission field) marked on one side, and Alfred L. Hall Jr. (son of Alf and Julia) on the other side. Hmm, never heard of him. The marker indicates that he lived only 2 1/2 or 3 years, but I don't remember seeing his name anywhere on the family records. More photos later...

Furlough Friday

So today was a day off from school for Melody and I - a furlough day. At this point in the year I really don't mind. With only two weeks left in the school year, many of the students have checked out mentally, and their teacher is struggling just a bit with that too.

Anyway, we slept in this morning, went to Thrifty Bargain and grocery shopping. We each took care of odds and ends of things that needed to be done, and watched "The Return of Nanny McPhee." (Both of those Nanny McPhee movies have been pretty good)

This evening I built a fire and we roasted hot dogs. The picture below is not of us, but is very similar. ;-)

Actually, this one is more accurate

And one more - I could totally beat this guy in a hot dog eating contest!

These are a Few of My Favorite Things (Photos)

These are some of the photos I like best from the weekend of Emily's weeding. The two sweet little girls below were so much fun to have around. I' feel sorry that Pam and Rob have to put up with kids that are so much like their silly grandpa. Which reminds me that to them I'm not grandpa, but "grandma - the boy one." Another phrase oft heard by Melody was: "where's your boy?" And "Where's the boy grandma?" I love these girls. At least as much as all my other grandkids.

Lucy loves to pose;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Molly loves to walk on the walls

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Here they are - in step, heads down, arms swinging.

After the temple we met at the Black Bear Dinner.
(Lucy's the one on the left)

Beautiful girls;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;And what's that growing out of their heads?
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Nathan and Emily

The Hall side of the new family;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;The Halls and the Bates and the Bates

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Emily and her sisters.

The Whole Fam-Damily

Mom and Pam catching up on things;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Kim and David looking sharp
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We had tons of fun, but man, it was a busy time. And it really hasn't let up since. A busy week last week, and a very busy weekend this past weekend. We had a special priesthood leaders training with visiting General Authorities Elder Christofferson, Elder Hallstrom, and Bishop McMullin. I was responsible for helping host the event and it was really and great day. Add to that, three wedding receptions, a Ward Conference, and all the regular weekend duties made things tight.