Cortez, Grandpa and Uncle Dave
Raees (2016)
8 years ago
Friday, October 24, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The Artist’s Night Shirt
I thought you would enjoy reading Lauren's essay that she submitted for her reflection contest. She did a great job.
The Artist’s Night Shirt
My Favorite Wow
By: Lauren Finlinson
I open my eyes and adjust them to the dim light. I wasn’t sleeping. I had been crouched in this car’s tiny space for six hours and was ready to get out and onto a bed. Even if it was a bed over the water.
I haul my bag over to the edge of the dock where Grandpa heaves it on to our little boat, Sundance. I hop on, stretch out over the nose of the front seat and wait for her to deliver us to our house boat, Spyglass.
I haven’t been here since last year, but I can remember nearly everything. How to win every card game my aunts manage to set in front of me, the steep free fall that separates the slide from the water, and the moon. Especially the moon.
We would camp out in the usual spot, with smooth cliffs surrounding us that cut out all but the sky, positioned in a square like our own little room. Right by it, we’ll have to rediscover the sneaky path that we found last trip that winds around the abandoned rattle snake nest to the shallow quick sand we can play in. And this year, I’ll be allowed to ride the jet ski all by myself around the cove if I like. If we’re lucky, it will rain, and the walls around us will turn into waterfalls. I love that.
I can remember one more thing. My favorite thing. I look up and there’s my sky. If could choose one sky to live with for the rest of my life, it would be this one. The full moon hangs like a white button on a black night shirt that an artist was wearing when he used white paint. The paint has dried, now it flecks the shirt, and makes the stars.
“Wow,” I whisper.
I make a mental note to sleep on top.
The Artist’s Night Shirt
My Favorite Wow
By: Lauren Finlinson
I open my eyes and adjust them to the dim light. I wasn’t sleeping. I had been crouched in this car’s tiny space for six hours and was ready to get out and onto a bed. Even if it was a bed over the water.
I haul my bag over to the edge of the dock where Grandpa heaves it on to our little boat, Sundance. I hop on, stretch out over the nose of the front seat and wait for her to deliver us to our house boat, Spyglass.
I haven’t been here since last year, but I can remember nearly everything. How to win every card game my aunts manage to set in front of me, the steep free fall that separates the slide from the water, and the moon. Especially the moon.
We would camp out in the usual spot, with smooth cliffs surrounding us that cut out all but the sky, positioned in a square like our own little room. Right by it, we’ll have to rediscover the sneaky path that we found last trip that winds around the abandoned rattle snake nest to the shallow quick sand we can play in. And this year, I’ll be allowed to ride the jet ski all by myself around the cove if I like. If we’re lucky, it will rain, and the walls around us will turn into waterfalls. I love that.
I can remember one more thing. My favorite thing. I look up and there’s my sky. If could choose one sky to live with for the rest of my life, it would be this one. The full moon hangs like a white button on a black night shirt that an artist was wearing when he used white paint. The paint has dried, now it flecks the shirt, and makes the stars.
“Wow,” I whisper.
I make a mental note to sleep on top.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Tate's Soccer Game
Here are some pictures from Tate's soccer game two weekends ago:
Cute little Wren
Tate
Tate
Tate
Tate's Team
Bryce
Laurie and little Wren
Blaine and Bryce
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Happy Birthday Grandma Luella!
Okay, so Grandma's birthday was several weeks ago, but we're just getting around to downloading the pictures of Grandma Luella blowing out the candles on her cake - wow! What an amazing woman she is!
Grandma Luella blowing out her candles, with little Lacy looking on
And one more of Grandma!
A MOVIN', MEMORABLE OCTOBER WEEKEND
A MOVIN’, MEMORABLE OCTOBER WEEKEND
Prepared by Fred W. Finlinson
October 3 – 5, 2008
This “movin’, memorable” weekend started just before 4:00 pm on Friday afternoon. I called Chris and requested a rescue. She wanted to know why I needed to be rescued. When I explained that I was listening to Shawn Hannity and he was starting to make sense, she agreed that I needed rescuing. She quickly arrived on the scene, Lyndsey agreed to feed, and Chris and I left in the Dodge for Heber City. Our rational for the trip was that our horse trailer needed to return from the Heber Ranch and Feed to the F2 Place. However, the best part of the rescue was the chance for us to check out the fall colors in Provo Canyon and the great food at the Snake Creek Grill in Heber. This is one restaurant where you can get “Hanger Steak.” This is a fancy name for Tri Tip Steak, one of our favorites.
The meal was delightful. When we finished, we headed for the Heber Ranch and Feed and picked up our trailer. We were tempted for a minute to hook up to the nice, bigger trailer parked right next to our, but it didn’t have the special bumps that our trailer has acquired through its faithful service at F2. We hauled it back to F2, pleased that we could park it on our “new trailer” pad. It fits just right next to the Raptor. To those who helped with the construction of the trailer pad this summer, we say “Thanks” once again. On the ride down the Canyon we planned out our Saturday. It included a run to Costco and a trip to Bangerter’s to order a special birthday present for Chris. It would probably rain, but we could deal with the rain as we watched conference.
Early Saturday morning, I thought it would be a good idea to start the day with a good work out. I did all of the Physical Therapy exercises for my shoulder and then worked pretty hard on the Elliptical for 40 minutes. As I finished up, I really needed a cool down and a shower, but Brett and Lyn were getting ready to make their move to Genola. It was their movin’ day. It was a perfect morning for Cowboy Tom’s Wheat Pancakes. Brett agreed to feed while I cooked breakfast. Just as we were getting ready to eat, Brett’s friend, Brett Barrow showed up. The test of true friendship is found in the willingness to help on the day of movin’. Brett and Brett are pretty good friends. They rope together and still like each other. More than that, they help each other move. It was the least I could do to fix them a good breakfast. Brett and Lyn assured Brett that he had better try Fred’s pancakes, so he did. There was a smile on his face as his pancakes vanished.
Brett Barrow is the owner of Patch, Fanny’s 2nd colt. He had some great photos of Patch packing out Brett’s big bull elk earlier in this week. Patch has grown up to be a real horse. The Bretts and Lyndsey started hauling stuff up from the basement and loading it in Lyn and Brett’s new horse trailer. This was the first time that the trailer had been used to haul, so it was a “clean” movin’ experience. I made a decision to put our plans aside and help the kids with their move to Genola. About the time the horse trailer was starting to fill up, Brent Fox showed up to pick up his big Volvo front end Loader. It’s really big. The only problem was that the batteries were completely dead. It was going to take some effort to get it going. I changed out of my exercise outfit, pulled on my Wranglers and a short slicker and headed out into the rain to help Brent. It took the Dodge truck charging one battery and my battery charger on the other side. We finally got it going, loaded it on the trailer and then Brent shut it off. As the engine shut down, Brent realized, it might not start again. It didn’t. So now we had to go through the two battery jump start all over again with the Loader now on the trailer. It kept raining and finally the Loader started up again. This time Brent kept it running all the way to Spring City, Utah where he is starting a job on Monday to build a cement reservoir for the Town’s water system. He had already hauled the track hoe to Spring City earlier this morning and this would be his second trip in preparation for Monday morning and the start of this new job.
While Brent and I were working the Loader, Brett, Lyndsey and Chris were loading both the horse trailer and Brett’s work trailer. Then Lorrie, Brittany, Brian and Tracy showed up with a load for Lorrie’s “movin’ in.” Lorrie has successfully closed a sale on her home, put some good equity into the bank and she and Brittany will be with us until Lorrie and Brian are married and have time to purchase their home together. So we have one movin’ out and one movin’ in. Pretty soon, we had people taking stuff in and then loading up and taking stuff out. Brett and Brett took both loaded trailers, headed to Lindon to pick up a new washer and dryer and then headed to Genola to unload the two trailers. The rest of the crew helped Lyndsey clean out their room, the laundry room, the kitchen and the basement storage area of their stuff. It went up into the south half of the garage to await the return of Bretts with the utility trailer for its second load.
It is really amazing to see the power in Lorrie and Tracy when they decide to move something. Chris overheard Tracy counseling Lorrie while lifting a dresser up the stars to groan a little because that’s what the men do when they lift and move things. Lorrie’s Bryan and I watched Tracy raise “the bar” on us. She packed two dresser drawers full of clothing up the stairs. We both had been thinking about just taking one at a time, but since Tracy packed two, we both had to pack two dresser drawers full of clothing up the same stairs. Fortunately for Chris, Lyndsey and I, Tracy, Lorrie and Bryan left with the Dodge Truck to make a run to the dump, the DI, and then back to F2 .
At 1:00 pm it was time to stop for lunch. Lyndsey was attempting to recover from a very bad cold by working all morning. Chris was punishing her toes by going up and down the stairs and Fred was still on the “stair master” going up and down the stairs with added weights. It made for a very long morning. Chris and I made a run to Arctic Circle and we really enjoyed just eating. We really needed the break. Then it was back to work, making sure that everything was moved out of the downstairs that needed to go to Genola. Lorrie, Bryan, Brittany, Tracy and the kids came back with another load for Lorrie to move in. About this time, the Bretts came back and the stuff in the garage went into the trailer for Genola. Brady and Tracy were moving a lot of stuff into the trailer. The “movin’ in” and the “movin’ out” turned out to be pretty seamless, no net loss at the F2 Place.
I had been able to get two tickets for General Priesthood meeting from the Bishop. Scott agreed to accompany me. It gave me an excuse to leave the movin’ crew, but all of the heaving lifting at F2 had been finished. I drove through the rain storm to pick up Scott, and then through the heavy rain to the Conference Center. This was the first time that I had attended any meeting in the Conference Center. It turned out to be a nice intimate experience shared with 20,000 other Priesthood holders. We had to go through a metal detector to gain entrance into the Hall. I was lucky, they let me keep my Henry knife. I never would have made it on an airline with it. Our seats were in the balcony. The speakers were a “long ways” off, but the big screens worked well. The difference between these seats and the ones that years ago I had sat on for a General Priesthood meeting clearly identified great progress. Cushions beat pine boards any day. The acoustics of the conference center were wonderful. I don’t know if you could hear a pin drop like in the old Tabernacle, but the music from the choir was clear. It was easy to hear the respective parts.
The messages of the evening where given under the inspiration of the Spirit and as we listened in the congregation, the same Spirit bore witness to each of us of the truthfulness of the Gospel. The remarks of the First Presidency were some of the best and the seminal talk of the evening was by President Uchtdorf, “Stand closely together and lift up.” This will become a theme taught for generations.
Perhaps the most important thing about this evening was not the messages heard, but the messages felt during the evening. The opportunity to be with Scott was special. During the evening we were able to share little thoughts that added up to a great sharing time. As we left the Conference, Rob called as he was leaving the Stake House in Las Vegas where he attended the Priesthood Meeting. We arranged to call back as soon as we got in the car utilizing the speaker phone. We talked all the way from down town Salt Lake to Scott’s home in Murray. It was a great way to catch up on Rob and Amanda and the twins. Amanda is now at 36 weeks in her current pregnancy, and she is scheduled for a C Section in her 39th week. They have selected the name of Sophie for their expected daughter. The twins are turning into “movin’ memorable experiences.”
I had wanted to and had planned to listen to conference, but the decision on Saturday morning was easy, “help with the movin’.” On Sunday morning, Pres. Monson counseled us to help when and where we could. It seemed like a confirmation of the decision to help rather than just sit and listen to conference. Sunday provided an opportunity to listen and then to share those messages with our Study Group as we met to discuss the messages of Conference.
From Friday evening to Sunday evening, it had truly been a “movin’, memorable experience.” The focus for us had been on helping those that are closest to us, our family. The service rendered by each person, blessed the lives of each member of our family. There was a lot of individual effort that went into “lifting up.” We stood close in the bonds of family and lifted up together. It just doesn’t get any better than this. It didn’t matter that it rained the entire day.
Prepared by Fred W. Finlinson
October 3 – 5, 2008
This “movin’, memorable” weekend started just before 4:00 pm on Friday afternoon. I called Chris and requested a rescue. She wanted to know why I needed to be rescued. When I explained that I was listening to Shawn Hannity and he was starting to make sense, she agreed that I needed rescuing. She quickly arrived on the scene, Lyndsey agreed to feed, and Chris and I left in the Dodge for Heber City. Our rational for the trip was that our horse trailer needed to return from the Heber Ranch and Feed to the F2 Place. However, the best part of the rescue was the chance for us to check out the fall colors in Provo Canyon and the great food at the Snake Creek Grill in Heber. This is one restaurant where you can get “Hanger Steak.” This is a fancy name for Tri Tip Steak, one of our favorites.
The meal was delightful. When we finished, we headed for the Heber Ranch and Feed and picked up our trailer. We were tempted for a minute to hook up to the nice, bigger trailer parked right next to our, but it didn’t have the special bumps that our trailer has acquired through its faithful service at F2. We hauled it back to F2, pleased that we could park it on our “new trailer” pad. It fits just right next to the Raptor. To those who helped with the construction of the trailer pad this summer, we say “Thanks” once again. On the ride down the Canyon we planned out our Saturday. It included a run to Costco and a trip to Bangerter’s to order a special birthday present for Chris. It would probably rain, but we could deal with the rain as we watched conference.
Early Saturday morning, I thought it would be a good idea to start the day with a good work out. I did all of the Physical Therapy exercises for my shoulder and then worked pretty hard on the Elliptical for 40 minutes. As I finished up, I really needed a cool down and a shower, but Brett and Lyn were getting ready to make their move to Genola. It was their movin’ day. It was a perfect morning for Cowboy Tom’s Wheat Pancakes. Brett agreed to feed while I cooked breakfast. Just as we were getting ready to eat, Brett’s friend, Brett Barrow showed up. The test of true friendship is found in the willingness to help on the day of movin’. Brett and Brett are pretty good friends. They rope together and still like each other. More than that, they help each other move. It was the least I could do to fix them a good breakfast. Brett and Lyn assured Brett that he had better try Fred’s pancakes, so he did. There was a smile on his face as his pancakes vanished.
Brett Barrow is the owner of Patch, Fanny’s 2nd colt. He had some great photos of Patch packing out Brett’s big bull elk earlier in this week. Patch has grown up to be a real horse. The Bretts and Lyndsey started hauling stuff up from the basement and loading it in Lyn and Brett’s new horse trailer. This was the first time that the trailer had been used to haul, so it was a “clean” movin’ experience. I made a decision to put our plans aside and help the kids with their move to Genola. About the time the horse trailer was starting to fill up, Brent Fox showed up to pick up his big Volvo front end Loader. It’s really big. The only problem was that the batteries were completely dead. It was going to take some effort to get it going. I changed out of my exercise outfit, pulled on my Wranglers and a short slicker and headed out into the rain to help Brent. It took the Dodge truck charging one battery and my battery charger on the other side. We finally got it going, loaded it on the trailer and then Brent shut it off. As the engine shut down, Brent realized, it might not start again. It didn’t. So now we had to go through the two battery jump start all over again with the Loader now on the trailer. It kept raining and finally the Loader started up again. This time Brent kept it running all the way to Spring City, Utah where he is starting a job on Monday to build a cement reservoir for the Town’s water system. He had already hauled the track hoe to Spring City earlier this morning and this would be his second trip in preparation for Monday morning and the start of this new job.
While Brent and I were working the Loader, Brett, Lyndsey and Chris were loading both the horse trailer and Brett’s work trailer. Then Lorrie, Brittany, Brian and Tracy showed up with a load for Lorrie’s “movin’ in.” Lorrie has successfully closed a sale on her home, put some good equity into the bank and she and Brittany will be with us until Lorrie and Brian are married and have time to purchase their home together. So we have one movin’ out and one movin’ in. Pretty soon, we had people taking stuff in and then loading up and taking stuff out. Brett and Brett took both loaded trailers, headed to Lindon to pick up a new washer and dryer and then headed to Genola to unload the two trailers. The rest of the crew helped Lyndsey clean out their room, the laundry room, the kitchen and the basement storage area of their stuff. It went up into the south half of the garage to await the return of Bretts with the utility trailer for its second load.
It is really amazing to see the power in Lorrie and Tracy when they decide to move something. Chris overheard Tracy counseling Lorrie while lifting a dresser up the stars to groan a little because that’s what the men do when they lift and move things. Lorrie’s Bryan and I watched Tracy raise “the bar” on us. She packed two dresser drawers full of clothing up the stairs. We both had been thinking about just taking one at a time, but since Tracy packed two, we both had to pack two dresser drawers full of clothing up the same stairs. Fortunately for Chris, Lyndsey and I, Tracy, Lorrie and Bryan left with the Dodge Truck to make a run to the dump, the DI, and then back to F2 .
At 1:00 pm it was time to stop for lunch. Lyndsey was attempting to recover from a very bad cold by working all morning. Chris was punishing her toes by going up and down the stairs and Fred was still on the “stair master” going up and down the stairs with added weights. It made for a very long morning. Chris and I made a run to Arctic Circle and we really enjoyed just eating. We really needed the break. Then it was back to work, making sure that everything was moved out of the downstairs that needed to go to Genola. Lorrie, Bryan, Brittany, Tracy and the kids came back with another load for Lorrie to move in. About this time, the Bretts came back and the stuff in the garage went into the trailer for Genola. Brady and Tracy were moving a lot of stuff into the trailer. The “movin’ in” and the “movin’ out” turned out to be pretty seamless, no net loss at the F2 Place.
I had been able to get two tickets for General Priesthood meeting from the Bishop. Scott agreed to accompany me. It gave me an excuse to leave the movin’ crew, but all of the heaving lifting at F2 had been finished. I drove through the rain storm to pick up Scott, and then through the heavy rain to the Conference Center. This was the first time that I had attended any meeting in the Conference Center. It turned out to be a nice intimate experience shared with 20,000 other Priesthood holders. We had to go through a metal detector to gain entrance into the Hall. I was lucky, they let me keep my Henry knife. I never would have made it on an airline with it. Our seats were in the balcony. The speakers were a “long ways” off, but the big screens worked well. The difference between these seats and the ones that years ago I had sat on for a General Priesthood meeting clearly identified great progress. Cushions beat pine boards any day. The acoustics of the conference center were wonderful. I don’t know if you could hear a pin drop like in the old Tabernacle, but the music from the choir was clear. It was easy to hear the respective parts.
The messages of the evening where given under the inspiration of the Spirit and as we listened in the congregation, the same Spirit bore witness to each of us of the truthfulness of the Gospel. The remarks of the First Presidency were some of the best and the seminal talk of the evening was by President Uchtdorf, “Stand closely together and lift up.” This will become a theme taught for generations.
Perhaps the most important thing about this evening was not the messages heard, but the messages felt during the evening. The opportunity to be with Scott was special. During the evening we were able to share little thoughts that added up to a great sharing time. As we left the Conference, Rob called as he was leaving the Stake House in Las Vegas where he attended the Priesthood Meeting. We arranged to call back as soon as we got in the car utilizing the speaker phone. We talked all the way from down town Salt Lake to Scott’s home in Murray. It was a great way to catch up on Rob and Amanda and the twins. Amanda is now at 36 weeks in her current pregnancy, and she is scheduled for a C Section in her 39th week. They have selected the name of Sophie for their expected daughter. The twins are turning into “movin’ memorable experiences.”
I had wanted to and had planned to listen to conference, but the decision on Saturday morning was easy, “help with the movin’.” On Sunday morning, Pres. Monson counseled us to help when and where we could. It seemed like a confirmation of the decision to help rather than just sit and listen to conference. Sunday provided an opportunity to listen and then to share those messages with our Study Group as we met to discuss the messages of Conference.
From Friday evening to Sunday evening, it had truly been a “movin’, memorable experience.” The focus for us had been on helping those that are closest to us, our family. The service rendered by each person, blessed the lives of each member of our family. There was a lot of individual effort that went into “lifting up.” We stood close in the bonds of family and lifted up together. It just doesn’t get any better than this. It didn’t matter that it rained the entire day.
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