Twin Falls Temple!

The Temple is of course exquisite!

We took some friends of ours to the Open House! A great friend, John, a Federal Judge, (or Judgie Wudgie as a defendant once called him) is a very devout catholic. Parochial school education, Notre Dame, and of Basque heritage.... He was so impressed by the beauty and precision of the hand crafted artistry. In particular the hand painted original murals of the Falls, the South Hills panorama, and the gorgeous hand cut carpets. In the Baptistery he was stunned, and commented regarding the incredible laborious work and expense! Tom retorted, "Yea, but John, seeing as who we built this for; whose House it is, where should we have cut back?" After laughing at Tom, he agreed, saying, "Oh Yea, I forgot...as this is His House, it would indeed be THE finest workmanship!" He and the others were moved by the peaceful warm ambiance of every aspect of the Temple. He was disappointed his wife could not have been there, and made plans to return to Twin with her before the dedication. They live in Boise. They've visited the grounds of several Temples with us, but this tour was a first for him.

Side Bar About our friends.....We have shared some great
experiences with John and Deb. We have traveled several places including
Kalispel and Glacier Nat'l Park where they are building a cabin/home on a huge
tract of wilderness like property! Their own small lake! We always have a great
time with them, fun and thought provoking! We have dinner frequently in a Basque restaurant in Boise. We went to dinner at 6 one evening and left after the chef
and crew had closed up, cleaned up etc! The owner's family has known John's
family for generations and we just talked and laughed obliviously until 1 am!
They kept bringing drinks and dishes; we kept eating and talking! I shall post
one day soon about the beloved "Guppy" the pet duck of a sister of theirs.
...came to live with them for a couple weeks turned years. Beloved by ONLY the
sister, despised by many others, as he is an indoor pet! A sort of 'Lap Duck'!!!
I must get the pictures and John's own words to do that justice! Very funny
stuff!

ANYWAY, back in Twin Falls... Here are some lovely pictures! But the interior is also amazing as one could imagine!

This is not TF, but IS the Jordan River Temple at sunset, taken from Lori's front yard! I just think this is gorgeous!!

Again, we have some computer malfunction on my computer! The bane, and the joy of my existence....digital technology! Yesterday Comcast had a major break down! TV, Internet and Phone went zap! I was on the phone with Lori! Someone evidently hit a line in the area, impacting our neighborhood! Why tell you this? Well.....Last week i suddenly decided to back up my computer to an online back up I have! It was kind of odd timing, I was outside working and had lots i wanted to get done. But I went in, cleaned up the registry, defragged and then backed it all up! I was kind of frustrated with myself for being distracted by this task, but I just kept on it! Then I started downloading my extensive photo library to flash drives. One for each person whom these photos would matter. I love, no, I cherish these pictures! I started with the larger files, Lori's and Regina's. I have many of the photos they have taken themselves as well as my own. I downloaded almost a Gb of Lori's, she probably has copies of them already. Some of Regina's were only stored on my computer, including her brother's wedding. I have tons of other files but they were either mine or shared with me. I have all Scott/Nicole's and Mandy's wedding pictures, including those professionally taken, but so do they! So long story short, I am really quite grateful i did this nutty thing! I will get my CPU into the shop tomorrow, and I am confident i can get my important records and photo files restored easily. I had birth certificates, and other important legal files, e mails from grandkids and other precious stuff stored digitally! Whew! It is not lost!
I share this story of averted crisis, because today in our RS and SS classes we discussed something I had been wondering about and studying in some depth. It involved the receipt of spiritual gifts... to some is given some, others are given different gifts. I have been blessed with just this gift that i just shared about. You reading this may be blessed with "bigger" as it were; impacting many lives or important issues. I have a simple gift! I feel things about people, or about future events. I often just this to myself. Sometimes they are just for my understanding of someone, sometimes it is about an event. Sometimes it is information, requiring no action by me, other times I may have warning feelings. I often watch the incumbent crises which occur when ignored, or reap the benefits of acting upon them. Usually, I keep these to myself to protect them! They are very personal and important parts of me that I hold very close to my heart. I do treat them as if sacred. I also think that these are so simple that they are only valuable to me. I have suffered greatly by ignoring or intellectualizing some of these promptings,and sometimes I have just been ready to assist another, or provide some service because I attended to these feelings. Sometimes regarding family, friends, safety, injury, finances, and sometimes day to day "headaches". Last week,for instance, we were watching Randon and Joelle for Jaime. Tom and Richard were going errand running and wanted to take Randon. I am weird about car seats by some people's standards. (They remain nameless here to protect the guilty!) I take alot of teasing about being so protective. So, when I felt that it was a bad idea to take Randon, I avoided any potential teasing and kept quiet. I kept feeling that it was not a good idea; I intellectualized a bit... it will be ok; it would give me a chance to just play or read to Joelle one on one; blah blah. Then as the truck backed out of the garage, I ran after it, and just took Randon! I said little, just that he needed to stay. Twenty minutes later Randon began to suffer explosive, major blow out style diarrhea! No life was saved, no tragedy averted. He was not ill, or unhappy....just amazingly messy! Not once but 3 times! So, I was happy for Tom and Richard's sake that they were not in the bank (without diapers and such) with Randon at the time! I was also happy for Randon that he was not any more uncomfortable! So, prompting? Maybe. Some would argue that if I had paid no attention and it was important, something else would have occurred to prevent the episodes. Maybe. But I am still grateful.
I am grateful for the things I've learned when I blew it too! Life altering or matters of convenience, it still feels like a miracle; a gift of the spirit; a gift from The Lord to me!
In our discussions at church today, it was mentioned that the day to day miracles were a result of faith that God cares about our individual day to day activities! That only one who knows their Father is actively involved and a real, loving parent is aware of the little daily miracles. It was decided this was solid faith, unshakable faith. Something not everyone enjoyed having in their lives. My days are filled with these little miracles! I do not experience big life altering Alma the Younger , or Thomas Monson type experiences! I just witness in tiny things the atonement in the lives of all I know. I witness The Lord's Hand in lives of all. I see the miracle of every child's little step! I felt somewhat of an ungrateful, selfish brat for not sharing and acknowledging this to other people. It has been my gift to just "know" that was so! My Father in Heaven is indeed my Father! Loving and actively involved in my life, and the lives of all His children. It seems I have always known that, and that You are His child also. But, I also thought you knew that, and so much more than I could ever know, that sharing what I know would seem silly to you. Now i am starting to worry this sounds like a See How Great I am sharing. Not so! It is See how amazed I am. If I am so blessed, imagine how greatly blessed you must be!! I used to think these little experiences of mine were for those of little faith; that if I had more faith I'd have the huge life altering type of experiences that would warrant publicizing! How much greater blessing could there be than to Know God's Love, and His Plan; and to Trust Him with the results!
And I feel like sharing this....do not know why, just do! Please treat it with care, it is so special to me!

Happy Utah Pioneer Day

Happy Pioneer Day Utah! James rode in his first Pioneer Day Parade! His favorite part seemed to be the candy he got from the spectators! I wish we were close enough to all the kids to get to see these events! They are so much more fun as a grandma! No worries no herding of kids! It is just fun! It is the young parents being pioneers!

Sam drove us all in the truck....Toff to look in the rear view mirror and keep your feet on the pedals!

Atkinder 08

Again, a great time at the Fam Reuinion! In the post below are some pictures of the day at the beach!

O there's gonna be a hangin boys!

Back to the Atkinder! The consensus of the fam was:

Beach day was great! Good food, sand castle building was a hit for all! Refer to slideshow on the right...even the babies were playing!

The Story telling Friday was great as well, in fact, it went on and on...nobody wanted to stop! Before we got there several commented that they were trying to think up a story...then there was no end! Still going after kids asleep and well into wee hours. The Uncle John on the horse, the Lycine, several from back in the day when the sibs were kids, and some way back in the day stories! The prizes, I must admit, were hilarious (mostly Scott and Joe's nuttiness, but I helped!) I was toast saturday, but it was well worth it! Sat after the beach many just lounged at the pool while the kids swam and swam! Crazy kids were like energizer bunnies! Some dummy (me) got some sunburn just my back though, and there were some water fights ending in huge splashes and drowned cell phones! Wayne on the roof with a huge bucket of water as Joe lured Tom outside in some pretense....ended wetly! Tom had to change his clothes 2 or 3 times that day due to that and a lil dip in the pool and a water fight gone south! (Was it Becca or LL with the ice water?)

Lucy (that Lucy is so cute and so funny)and James turned into little fish. They were swimming constantly, both too little to be doing the tricks they did! Though all the little ones loved the pool, those 2 were nuts! Several little feet were so pruned and water logged. KK was doing gymnastics in the water, Tine and Hallie were playing some crazy games with Eric, Luis and Ben! The weather was perfect for the pool, and the kids were in Sat, Sun and Mon!

The Trivial Pusuit Challenge was crazy loud wildness! Benny,Emma, Kennedy and Eric 2 (he's too tall to be little Eric) did not miss a single question from the Jr cards (some adults wanted to play those cards too...proudly yelling out answers!) Actually it was unfair Eric and Emma got a lot of adult questions right! Next year they play as adults like the other teens! Smarties!

The Dark Side Team prevailed over the Light Side (hmm?)!! Dark Side included Tom, Tom 2, Joe (I think) Jared, Avery, Tom O, Benny, Scott, Scott's mother, and Kennedy among other brilliant, oppositionally gifted overeducated types! I realize that describes most every Atkinder member! (Where was Ashley? I can not remember, but she clearly belonged with the Dark as well as the Light...)

The skits were a theatrical event...unduplicated dialogue, stunning performances, met with rave reviews and critically acclaimed! Amazing action, special effects, unparallelled directing!! Such drama, such tragedy, such comedy... (really....?!) We shall rename this event Atkinder Idol Review or Atkinder's got Talent...we had Simon as a judge, afterall!

Sundays business meeting was succinct and record breaking in brevity, efficiency , intentionality, and productivity! An Atkin record and in less than 45 minutes! It was agreed that the activities were a full on riot well done Joe and team!

The late night game playing was absent! The all night gamers played poker for an hour or so and that is all. They said that they were all anticipating Dustin and his grand games, and very disappointed he was not there! Without Dustin, it was just lackluster. Poker just did not cut it!

The voting was unanimous, Dustin and Lori MUST come next year.

Also, the women were looking forward to holding the new baby Suzy Grace. She would have been held 24/7.

Among the MIA's were Nate and Mandi and fam, Thad and Sharon and kids,Hap, Frank, and Mike n Molly, Mandy n Katy, and Lori Dustin, Hannah, Olivia and baby Suzy. It really was a big gaping hole left where they would have been. Ouch!

Monday Bear Lake had problems with the water main, and we adjourned to our back yard! There were like 16 cars and trucks out front, the neighbors did not know we were so wild. Well actually they did, now they just witnessed it too a new level! Many were tired, had already packed up once so they left for home or other destinations Mon night. LL, Ben and Benny; Chris,Gina and boys: Joe, Ash and girls; Jaime and kids; Avery, Miranda and Wayne stayed and we played Joe's great game laughing ourselves into oblivion....

BACK To The YARD!

The next 2 days we just sat alot. But we did get going again and were back in the yard dawn to dusk again! Here is a peek at the rock walls!

and our first chili pepper!

Atkinder: Sandcastles at Bear Lake!

TA DA!

James the Builder

Tommy O and Becca

Joe, Ashley and Fam building theirs!

ML and Valerie working on their avant garde floral composition

The Mayan Temple Reconstruction

Kenndy focused on creating!

Riannon building her very own!

Every Castle needs a thone....

thanks to Mary C!!

Detailed spires of Miranda and Wayne's

Miranda and Wayne's Castle


Scotts Star

Joe as The Merman with Simon adding finishing touches!


















The Canal and Castle

Tommy's dream house...landscaped

Sand Princess!

Matt Judging