England 2014 Days One and Two

We were packed and ready long before Uncle drove us to the SLC airport for our flight to New York Kennedy Airport. It seems that our last couple of trips have been at the mercy of Mother Nature who created monster storms in the cities from whence our aircraft were traveling. This time the storm was in Phoenix where there were torrential downpours and massive thunder and lightning storms. So our aircraft remained there on the ground and our connecting flight and its replacement grew impossible. The Delta people, however, were great and rerouted us through Atlanta so we arrived in England just a few hours behind our original schedule. The flights were good, but sleeping on the plane with its cramped seats is a near impossibility for me.

Matt picked us up at Heathrow and drove us down the M25 and on to Edenbridge. The countryside is lovely as always. When we were settled here, he headed to the hospital to pick up Kim and baby Brigham, who we found to be a fine chappy. In an attempt to avoid falling asleep, I played catch with Nashi for quite some time.  Matt and I went to the former Co-op to get a few supplies for supper and the like. Rod will be interested to note that the Co-op has been converted into a Waitrose and is now posh but with less local charm and a much smaller candy and treat aisles than the former (no yards of Jaffacakes).

As yet, there is no schedule for today and the days ahead, but we will try to figure that out soon.

Ready to go!

I do love me some clouds

The sunset as we descended into Atlanta was spectacular

Unable to sleep properly, I watched the sun come up 

over the Atlantic Ocean

The ride down into Kent was beautiful

Near Chartwell, the view of the Weald of Kent opens up

The Coach House on the Main Road on Marlpit Hill

The tulip tree is in full bloom

Cute siblings

Connor is in AZ and we are staying in his lovely room again

Nashi and Chibi

Nashi will play catch forever if you are willing

Baby Brigham is a keeper

Waitrose

Fuel for my day

Grammy gets some time with her new nephew

She never loses her touch

It's lovely to be here. I slept through the night and am ready to roll. We will keep you posted, but this is all for now.

OXO

D,

The Hill Gang

In the 1930s my father and Uncle Lynn built houses on the Provo foothills near the mouth of Rock Canyon, a place we simply referred to as "The Hill." The Calders, backdoor relatives through the marriage of mother's sister, also built a house and moved to the hill. Some were related and some only kind of related, but we considered ourselves cousins and the parents were aunts and uncles. It was one big extended family. I guess we have always been drawn to compound living. We grew up running free over the foothills and climbing the mountains, and as children established life-long friendships.

While in Tennessee, Hank and Colette became involved in the story-telling culture of that area, an interest they have since pursued. They thought it would be nice to get those who grew up on the hill together to share stories of their youth in that beautiful spot. Last night we met for dinner and storytelling at their cabin. 

 This painting by Aunt Alice Taylor Nelson, showing the view 

from the hill of an undeveloped Utah Valley, hung 

over the fireplace in Uncle Lynn's house

 Colette visiting with Janet Calder

 Ann Calder, KBT, Janice Taylor DeGraw, Debbie Taylor

 George Terry Taylor, SKT, John Arthur Taylor

 Jim Calder and Lynn Anne Taylor Richards

 Brian Richards, Lynn Anne Richards, George Taylor, 

Debbie Taylor, Catherine Taylor, John Taylor

 Colette, SKT, Ann, Janet Calder

Hank started the stories

It was delightful to be in the canyon and recount happy memories of a really enchanted time in such a special place.

We are off to England tomorrow, so there will be more, but this is all for now.

OXO

D.

Ogden and More

Friday afternoon, 15 August, we drove to Ogden for the temple open house. What was formerly the twin of the Provo Temple, has been completely rebuilt in hopes of helping with the downtown revitalization of Ogden and to make it more of a wedding destination for young faithful. That will probably work. Overall it is nice, but, apart from the murals in the baptistry and a few original landscapes scattered here and there, the art reproductions are horrible, and as Daniel noted, distracting. The other low point for me were the lanterns in the entrance to the Celestial Room which were also an unwanted distraction. 

We then headed north to Brigham City for dinner at Maddox. While we waited for our reservation, we visited the beautiful Box Elder Tabernace, and the grounds of the Brigham City Temple. That temple design was a missed opportunity. It is made of precast stone, but all the landscaping walls are made of beautiful native stone. It would have been wonderful to build the temple out of that material.

Back in Provo we dropped by to bid a fond (and sad/happy) goodbye to Madeline who is on her way to Logan to attend Utah State University. She is a pistol and will land on her feet, but we will miss her.

 Dress for the occasion was specified as "modest" and I won't dress
up unless I have to -- so there

Baptistry with fine murals of local landscapes

Celestial Room with lanterns

 Mount Ogden in the distance

 A dramatic change from the 1970s original

 Box Elder Tabernacle

 A volunteer missionary gave us a quickish tour

 Brigham City Temple

 The Colvers in the temple forecourt

 Tabernacle view from the temple

 Dinner at Maddox

 Good food

 Emotional farewell

 We wish this girl the best

Katy and Daniel also stopped by to say farewell

We are creeping up on our Tuesday departure for London. There will probably be one more post before then.

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Wedding and More

This post features the wedding dinner of Janey and Josh Hjelmstad (the H is silent). Janey is the daughter of nephew Brad Taylor and his wife Ann. There are also a couple of odds and ends to start.

Tom thought a group photo of facial-haired men was a good idea

 This girl, like her son, has a hard time not making a 

funny face, but she makes great shepherd's pie

 The Ostergars made dinner for the group (that is

growing back toward critical mass) and then we saw

Million Dollar Arm at the dollar theatre

 HDT, AW, SKT, and KBT at the Country Club

 Josh and Janey Hjelmstad

 The happy couple with Ann in the background

 The radiant grandparents

 The Taylor brothers and wives

 These cousins were color-coordinated

 Jeff, Amy, Michelle, and Brigham enjoying the program

The obligatory brothers shot

There will likely be one more post before we head for England one week from today. This, however, is all for now.

OXO

D.

One Month to Another: July to August 2014

The months zip by at a frightening clip. In July we finally got together with Hank and Kristy. We spent the afternoon and evening at their cabin home in Sundance with a break for dinner at the Grill Room. It was wonderful to see their nice place and catch up after several months. 

Pioneer Day turned out to be pretty calm. It seems we never established a 24th-of-July tradition, so the day just kind of slipped away from us. We did manage to acquire a Danish flag to expand our honoring of the pioneer ancestors. 

Mike and Linda Gibbs flew into SLC for the Sunstone conference where Linda was a presenter. We picked them up at the airport and took them to our favorite Brazilian restaurant. It was great to see them again.

We changed phone plans and Kris and I got new iPhones. The camera is fantastic. The photos have incredible resolution -- it seems better than my regular camera and does very well in low light without a flash.

For the last two weeks I have been going to Telos to do a tutorial for one of Daniel's students. He has some interest in design and I have been giving him some Readers'-Digest versions of design and design history.

Last night we had dinner with Leanne at her new home. She has moved to a new facility called Treeo in Orem. The food was delicous, the building is well-planned and tasteful, and her fourth-floor studio is great with a spectacular view of the valley and mountains to the east. 

 Kris, Kristy, and Hank

 The ladies checking out the jewelry at Sundance store

 Kristina and Dickie

 Hansens, Mortensens, and Andersens were honored this year

 Kris, Mike, and Linda

 The first photo with the new phone

 Katy (sort of) and Daniel in his office at Telos

 Dinner with Leanne at Treeo

Hansen cousins

We will be off to England in a couple of weeks and there will be plenty of posts from there. In the meantime, there may be a few more things from here. We shall see. This, however, is all for now.

OXO

D.