Happy Birthday to Dad, as Our Mission nears its end.

So, we started the week off with Dad's birthday!  That included us meeting Becca at her office.

Here is where two of our favorite people put in their time. 

She had made arrangements to take her Dad to lunch, note her license plate. 

We always like the sculptures that come and go from La Casita in Springville.

And here we are after a fun lunch, all ready to take our leftovers home.  Thanks, sweet girl!

That evening it was off to the SLC Hale Theater.  The Heuers joined us to further celebrate Dad's 71st birthday!  Oh, how we loved it, the dream scene was fabulous!!

I got the idea to attend when some Hale Center employees came into Treasures and bought a dozen chairs, including four like the one in the lower right hand picture corner of the picture above, from me.  (I had just bought them that morning for much less than I sold them for.  I told the folks selling them that I just didn't have room for a dining room set, they sell notoriously slowly, then he said they were on the way to DI and I could have the table and set of chairs for $20.  You can see one of the chairs in the bottom left pictures, as there were 20 chairs attached to the header decor piece.  I'll bet there were about a hundred chairs in all, the effect was great.  The cupboard above the chair is another piece of mine they purchased, though I did not see it on the set.

On Tuesday morning we got to see Tyler Griffen from the Come Follow Me podcast we used to watch, as a guest on the Follow Him, the podcast we watch now.  It was a pretty remarkable program. 

Dad went to Ashley's to check out the work done by the plumber toward the finishing of the basement bathroom.  He is going to be doing the other work, including tile, and installing the sink cabinet. 

My project was much smaller, and a lot longer in the process.  I started collecting items out at Mosida for this Mosida shadow box, last year.  I had planned to make one for all the missionary couples, but when some issues arose between other missionary couples, it sort of knocked the breath out of me, and I lost the desire to do it.  This year with our wonderful new couples has been very healing, so I added a few other things, and found this cute shadow box to display them.

You can see a pioneer spoon here, with a little bottle of flint shards, left by Indians hundreds of years ago as they traded flint and made arrow heads.

Here we see buttons picked up around the site, some from the farm dump that used to be on the property, rocks, a trek carving pin, given to us by a ward trek, and a pelican spoon, perfect to represent the pelican on Utah Lake. 

Dad went shopping after Ashley's house and found this $269, brand new shower pan at Habitat for Humanity for $30, for our gym/sauna room.

Then he went to work breaking out the old cement to put in new plumbing to drain the shower.

I could feel his pounding all the way up in the Garret, 3 floors away.

At work on Wednesday I asked this dealer if he would sell me this pitcher for $20, he's had it in his booth for years, and its Majolica ... He happily took the cash sale, but when I took procession I noticed  that the tag it had was one I had made.  Turns out he low balled me 8 years with an offer of $15, hahaha, I didn't start loving Majlica until about 2 years ago.  I told him I thought the $5 was OK for storing it for me.  He laughed too. 

On Thursday when I worked this gal came in and her last name is Donaldson, so I asked if she was related to Harold Donaldson (My next-door neighbor growing up) she said yes, he was her husband's uncle.  Thus, she is Debbe Donaldson's first cousin, by way of marriage.  Such a small, small world.  I took this picture to send to Debbie.

On Thursday night Darby took Dad to a Jazz game for his Birthday gift.  He enjoyed seeing the Finnish player Markkanen in action.

It was great Father-Daughter time.

Not the best score ...

But happy people none the less ...

and she sent him home with a sugar free Tiramisu for lucky me!

Friday was groundhog day, and this birthday girl did not see her shadow, so I think we are in luck!

Here is Dad's collage for his Facebook post ... note all the pictures are from our recent trip to Idaho.

After work that night Dad and I went to the viewing for Jerry Taylor, his wife KD is in my book club. Interestingly he is a brother to Larry Taylor, who used to live in our ward with his wife Ginny, who was my walking partner for years.  We saw Ginny and her girls when we got there.  KD still looks pretty much the same, though she is over 70 now.

Here's a more recent picture, but probably 10 years old at least.

I met up with my book club ladies there.

On Saturday morning Eva had a swim meet near Viewmont High School, though it was regional.  She improved her time in both events in which she participated.  It's fun doing activities with your bestie.  

On Saturday morning it was off to Mosida for us, this may be Dad's last time to get to wear these cool striped repro pants.  Here he is with Elder Newman, too bad this detail doesn't show when worn with a vest.

Sister Hardman has a pretty cool peplum on her vest ... I'll definitely miss the dressing up aspect of this mission.

This couple on the left are Elder and Sister Harris and they are replacing me and dad.  She is a first cousin to Sister Smith, shown on the left, and was actually one of my fleaology dealers for a few years.  It's such a small world.

Here Ron starts the presentation to the leaders of a few of our summer treks at this Trek Leader Training Session.

It was fun to meet Ashley and Andy's former neighbors.  They lived in the cul-de-sac to the west of them, in Otis' old house.  They still live in the Geneva Heights Stake, and he was actually Ashley and Andy's home teacher.  He is also a brother to Gordon and Stan Peck, who we know here in Payson, they are Gerald and Moe Peck, again, small world.

Here is Sister Lathrop during the Hoedown,

Elder and Sister Newman lead the way.

This is Suzi Salsberry from our ward, who will be coming on trek as a Ma with her husband Tyrel as a Pa. 

Here Elder Marvin and Sister Crump join in the fun.

Dad gave his part of the presentation before heading up the back of the lake to SLC to catch the last half of a coaching session with his chorus. 

Here is Steve Scott, the Barbershop music coach who came out from Nashville to help us with our presentation and vocal production.  It was a lot of hard work and fun.

I caught a ride home with the Newmans, which was nice of them since they live in Spring Lake. 

Also on Saturday, almost the entire Moe clan went to Disneyland to surprise Kylie immediately after she became engaged.

Here Barb takes a picture through the window of a nearby shop as John drops to his knee to propose. 

Even Pooh thought it was time to celebrate.

Congrats John and Kylie.

At church it was announced that 3 wards would be divided up to make 5, and a meeting would be held to show us how.  We are the blue ward on the bottom, or what is left of us.  Our ward had gotten very big, I just hope taking about 2/5th of the ward won't make it too small. If Kews had still been here we would not have been in their ward. 

We hope you all had a good week, for those of you who remember Caren Kirk, when we went to visit her today at the rehab center she had been moved. I called her friend in the ward, Cristie, and she told us that Caren went back to the hospital yesterday.  Then our Relief Society President texted to tell us that she passed away this evening.  She's certainly had a rough time of it lately, and I know she is happy to be with her husband again. Dad found these pictures on her FB page.