Ohio, Here we come!

August 21st Halle Kate Huber was baptized.  We had been planning a trip out to see the John Huber family for quite a while.  They recently moved to the Dayton Ohio area.  In the process of the trip, we decided to borrow Matt's pickup and take the pool table we had given to Debbie (and that they now have decided they won't use) out to John (they have room in their new home for it).  While Debbie was here in Utah, she found a table she loved, so she bought it and we rented a trailer to take it to her in Denver.  So, that was the beginning of our Table Trip.  We delivered the table, 8 chairs, and four stools to Debbie's house in Denver.  Then we loaded up the pool table into the pickup and started off to Ohio.  We had great weather and everything went good.

Going through Kansas, we stopped in Abilene and went to the Dwight David Eisenhower Presidential Library/Museum.  It was very interesting.  That was a big thing for me in elementary school when he was elected President.  We had mock elections in our school.

We saw lots of fields of soybeans, corn, maize, etc. as we traveled. 
Kansas was a big state to travel through. It is the Sunflower State and we saw fields of sunflowers there. 

We stayed in some nice motels as we went along.

 This one was beautiful with ponds and fountains behind it. 
It was neat to see the Mississippi River again.

We made it to Ohio!!  Then on to Springboro and to the Huber's home.

 We unloaded the pool table.  They had a professional come out and put it back together with new felt etc.  It looked beautiful!!

Paul and John did a big project of adding ceiling lights and fans in the bedrooms.  That meant work up in the attic etc.  They did a great job and it will be nice for them to have them finished.

Here are a few pictures of John and Kristen's home:

One afternoon we drove over and went to the National Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB.We saw lots of airplanes- some that Paul used to fly.  We also got to see the building where John works. 

Cute picture of Griffin! 
Then, it was the big day.  The day that took us to Ohio in the first place.  It was Halle's baptism day!

We were able to participate with Paul being a witness and I gave a talk on Baptism.  We were so happy we were able to be there.
The children of both families sang a song together.

On Saturday afternoon, Halle and some friends set up a stand to sell Lemonade and trinkets they had made.  They also performed some songs.  It was quite successful - they made $44 that day and plan to continue it on other Saturdays.

It was soon time to leave Ohio and start on the trip back to Utah.  We drove back to Denver and picked up Debbie's old table, loaded it up in the pickup and brought it to Sarah who was about to have movers come to her place to move her to Helena Montana.  It was a successful trip and we enjoyed seeing some of the beautiful country we live in! 

August Surprise

August brought the culmination of a lot of planning.  For months all the kids had been planning to have a surprise party for Paul for his 70th birthday.  I told them that where we live it wasn't a big deal to turn 70, but they still wanted to do it. 

Holly created the invitation and then started getting the word out.
It was hard to not say anything and I wondered several times if it would all end up being a surprise.  But, it did!  It was a total surprise for Paul.
The plan was that we were invited to breakfast at Eric's home Saturday morning the 7th of August since they were going to be out of town on Paul's birthday on the 9th.  Carrie and Matt were here since they were in the process of moving to Salt Lake.  Sarah lives close and Glen and Emily were also invited.  So we planned to arrive around 10:00am.  As we walked in, ALL the grandchildren had on party hats and were blowing horns and yelling "Surprise!" along with all of our kids and spouses.
This was kids while waiting for us to arrive:

 As we walked in this is what Paul saw!

 After a few minutes Loralee, Carol, Mary, Sheryl, Karen, Doyle, Cheri, and Steve walked out!! It was so fun to have them come!

We had a wonderful breakfast at Eric's then in the afternoon we had a great lunch/dinner at our club house that they brought food from Meiers Catering.  We had lots of food for everyone!!
After dinner we had some family pictures taken.  Then an open house in the evening for anyone that wanted to come!  As we get more pictures, I'll add them to this.

Day's of 47

Today and tomorrow at the South Town Expo there is a Float Preview Party going on.  It was pretty neat to see the floats that will be in the Day's of 47 Parade next Saturday.  Lots of work has taken place to make all the floats. 

 We met thWittwers there.  They are in our ward and Marcus is Paul's home teaching partner.  We also took Arlene Ashby with us.  She is one of the sisters that Paul and Marcus go home teaching to.  We had a nice time.  

The theme for the Parade this year is "Then and Now."  It was fun to see the different ideas using that theme.

This one was Global Warming   ---  Blanketing the World with Service.  They had lots of blankets on it that I'm sure will go to the Humanitarian Center when the parade is over. 

This one was so cute -- Trekking Now and Then.  The modern day vehicle is on its way to Nauvoo and the covered wagon is on it's way to Salt Lake City!   On the back of the covered wagon it says Zion or Bust!

This one was neat with being prepared then and now.  There were the seven years of plenty etc. back in Joseph's time and then food storage now.  Paul took a picture of the lady that created the cow heads. 

Lots of work took place with all of these floats. 

This one was about "Guidance" then and now.  The Liahona in the back and a GPS in the front. 

Canyon Water sustains life then and now!

This one was amazing with all the crickets.  The seagulls are making treats out of the crickets in lots of ways.  They also had lots of crickets that were in front of the float on the floor that they are going to sell tomorrow.  They were really neat!

This is more of the cricket float showing the seagulls  --  Turning trials into treats: Then and Now

The next picture is of our Stake's Float.  Sister Sleight in our ward helped a lot with this float and a young family from our ward will be riding on the float in the parade.  This came from an idea of a family in the stake whose ancestors lived in a dugout when they came to the valley. One day they were in the dugout and their cow wandered up the hill and came back on top of the dugout and fell through the roof!  It is a cute float.  The back says how now we, in South Jordan live in the shadows of two temples --  Oquirrh Mountain Temple and the Jordan River Temple  -- only town to have two Temples! 

This isn't even all of the floats.  It was fun to see them and will be fun to watch the parade on TV Saturday after we have seen the floats up close.  Hope you get to see the parade too!