Tragedy

After feeling so sad for so many people who have been evacuated from their homes because of the fires in Utah, we got a call day before yesterday at about 4 p.m. from our neighbor in New Harmony who said, “Richard, I’m sorry to tell you that your cabin down here in New Harmony is gone!”  A fire jumped the freeway, came up that ravine by your house, burned the dry grass leading to your house and the place caught fire like a torch.  I’m sorry but I can’t tell you any more, I’ve got to go because my house might be next!” 

The news was stunning! How could that happen to us?  It seems as though things like that only happens to other people! After the initial shock we realized that, even though it did have several valuable Indian rugs and wood carvings, it was just stuff.

Rick/Dad, who tends to get emotionally attached to things was emotionally attached at the hip to that beautiful little place where we keep our horses in the winter. As we talked it over we realized how grateful we were that no one was in there and that there were no valuable papers, photos or records there. We were also glad for some insurance, although of course, it was underinsured. We thought we might be able to build a better barn with the insurance money.

Then we called Jonah and Aja  who had lived there for many months while they were building their house in St. George and loved that little place as much or maybe more than we did. We knew that had a lot of food storage there and some furniture and clothes there that they had stored while they were out buying and flipping houses in Washington state and Hawaii. We knew they would be sad.

They were at Sea World in San Diego with their kids and as they registered the shock. Then is when the fire became a real tragedy! We didn’t realize that they had all their most precious things stored there: their designer wedding album, Aja’s journals from her growing up years and both of their high school yearbooks, even Prom dresses as well as the kids’ baby books, Jonah’s life history book that I had given him at his wedding, all the letters, and records of his mission in England, all their memories of study abroad in Jerusalem, as well as all their financial records. The list of precious things goes on and on. They felt that their past had been wiped out!

Since then, they have discovered that they have digital pictures after 2002 which was helpful and last night I combed through all our old albums and found some treasures from Jonah’s childhood as well as my pictures of their wedding which softens the blow just a bit. They had called their professional wedding photographers to see if they still had negatives of their wedding but they had sold the business to another company and threw everything out in 2008. Slowly we will gather things to fill in their past and they plan to do an oral history of all that they can remember from the things they have lost. But it’s still so painful to feel that your past is gone!

Those who are emotionally attached to what we called our Kolob Cabin (we had a spectacular view of the the five fingers of the Kolob Canyon from our porch), better decide whether or not you want to see the following pictures which another kind neighbor sent yesterday. Here we go:

First the smoke. This is from far away. See our little cabin amongst the trees…

 

You can see the fire coming….(our crazy neighbor is planting our field of rye grass on his tractor as the fire approaches).

  

This little deer on the lower left is getting out of Dodge!

I think this helicopter is on its way to somewhere else.

We was our view of the fingers of the Kolob and the burned out trees and berm. 

The Insurance adjuster went by and took some pictures today of what was left. He was standing in the back of the house. We think that black rectangular thing is the cast iron pot-belly stove.

 

About all that’s left is the concrete support posts.

Even with the tragic loss of the precious records, things like this makes us realize how fleeting life is that the only thing that really lasts is our relationships. We are ever more grateful for our family and friends!

Adventures with Grand-Children, Grand-Mother and Grand-Daughter

Man, have we had a week! Noah surprised Kristi for their anniversary with a trip to Latvia where she served as a missionary 10 years ago. We got the privilege of tending their three adorable kids: McKay 6, Lyla, almost 4 and Cubby, 2 (also shown in the previous post) while they were gone.

Since there was a lot to do to open our Bear Lake places for the summer we thought that would be a perfect place to take care of them. Actually it was! And even though we didn’t quite get through our list of “things to do” we had so much fun!  Living with those three musketeers for a week was an eye-popping experience….in more ways than one! 

We begged them to let us have baby Bennett too but they decided at the last minute to take him along.,.which, after six whirlwind days of fun with these kids, we decided was wise. Here they all are with Grandfather just before mom, dad and baby departed.

So six-month-old Bennett showed off by doing “The Trick” and left with his parents.

Their mom left the kids with a new package of disposable cups (thanks for that great idea Julie)and they went right to work:

McKay decided the cups would make perfect earphones to drown out Lyla’s screams. Here is his creation complete with duct tape for a headband and treats in each cup in case he got hungry. Believe it or not one of those cups contains grapes and the other, crackers

Cubby found this cute hard hat that he was given when he was a teenager when he toured the Kennecott Copper Mine. How it survived, I’lll never know!

We got the Grammie Camp tent set up:

Lyla somehow found a dress-up dress which she immediately put to good use!

And Cubby made good use of the box that the new dishwasher was delivered in….

 

And Lyla and McKay got the new tent ready for Grammie Camp!

Friends came to visit and fell in love with the kids and visa versa!

And we went to visit friends….from fifty years ago!  It was Dad/Rick’s 50 year High School Reunion on Saturday night and we had a couple of girls come from Dingle to babysit while we traveled to Logan for the big event. Rick/Dad thinks of it as one of the most fun things he’s done in ages! It was great to put a face to the name of all the people he’s been talking about all these years. Here is just our table. The turn out was tremendous!

 

On our way home we stopped to see sweet Grandma Ruthie and she lit up like a lightbulb. Her life is pretty dreary most days. She’s mad every morning when she wakes up and she’s still alive but she is accepting what life has to give her with sweetness and patience. She loves those hugs!

Watching her grandchildren put the puzzles together that she made with her own hands with a jigsaw many years ago is one of her great pleasures!  It’s the first time she hasn’t worried about pieces getting lost  But she is having a hard time even remembering who we are so I guess that’s just one less thing to worry about!

 

Cubby did this one all by himself!

And McKay did the impossible Santa Claus puzzle which I can’t do myself.

Sweet Grandma. How we love her. We’ll celebrate her 90th birthday in August.

 

Next stop was at the Loosli’s in Ogden. That little cluster of cousins simply loved seeing each other. Liza and Lyla immediately started doing each other’s hair and the boys took of for immediate adventures. Everyone was delighted to hear Cubby talk! He was just a baby last year! They took to each other like bees to honey and Saren insisted on keeping them overnight. Bless her heart!

It was delightful to catch up with the Loosli too! The older three kids had just finished a neighborhood “Loosli Learning Adventure Camp” which was truly amazing! They planned and pulled off the whole thing with sixteen little kids with very little help from their parents. To take a look at the fun click here. They are quite the entrepreneurs!

These Loosli kids are definitely into learning. Oliver has become quite a writer!  Here’s Grandfather reading one of his essays:

 

About 24 hours later with lots of cousin fun packed non-stop into those hours, not to mention a very nice little break for us, Saren brought the kids down to the Ogden train station where grandfather was waiting for them on Frontrunner, the local train that runs along the Wasatch Front. Grandfather loves trains so after, the Loosli kids climbed aboard to look around and get a short tour from the conductor, the kids bid each other a fond farewell and everybody headed for home. I’m not sure who had the most fun on the way home, the kids or the Grandfather!

After a ten hour flight from London and a delayed flight from Chicago, Noah and Kristi arrived from their long journey at 2:30 a.m.  The amazing troopers Noah and Kristi along with baby Bennett were reunited with the kids when they woke up! It was pure glee from all directions! 

Even though Kristi had gotten up to feed the baby at 5 a.m.,and Noah was out helping move some stuff outside by 7:30, they ate breakfast and started the long drive home to California at about 9 a.m. albeit, totally jet lagged! Noah had meetings in the morning. Back to the real world.

What an stellar memory this will be for all of us!

And We’re Home Again Home Again Jiggety Jig

It feels great to be home even though re-entry is always a challenge after being gone so long. Dad/Rick jumped on his horse and headed for the trails in the mountains across from our house  that are (almost) as green as Switzerland this time of year!

 

As much as we love travel, being home and able to be in touch with the people we love most is the best! To add to the fun Noah and Kristi came out for their annual reunion at Bear lake with their friends from their missionary years in Chile along with their wonderful Mission President and his wife.

Kristi’s grandma who was about 98 passed away last week. She was a noble woman who had twelve children and now has about 250 living posterity. What a family they are! Kristi and baby Bennett flew to the funeral in Texas from the Salt lake airport and Noah stopped to work here for the afternoon before departing for Bear Lake.

We basically had a ball with the kids!  We turned on the waterfall….

Had a visit with the horses….

 

and played games galore…..

 

Grandfather took them for a little walk along our new path to our second bridge. With Lyla in her fairy princess costume complete with magic wand, Cubby in his jammies and crocks and McKay with his hysterical sense of humor, fun oozed!

 

One the second trip out to our new wonderland two-year-old Cubby “accidently” tipped Lyla with her sparkly shoes into the three-inch-deep stream and she was drenched!  She was not one bit happy about that!

After that incident, Grandfather said to Lyla, “I think Cubby did that by accident don’t you?”  She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and said, “Actually, NO!” 

Then after thinking about that for a minute she said, “Do you think you should throw Cubby into the stream if he doesn’t say he’s sorry?”

With that prompting Grandfather cajoled Cubby into saying he was sorry and again after a few minutes of thought walking along the path home, Lyla said, “If he hadn’t said sorry, you would have thrown him the stream, right?”  And after another pause she completed her thought…”and left him there!” 

Ah it’s great to be home!

Tennis Anyone?

We went back to the “candy store” a.k.a. Roland Garros on Tuesday.  I got into the grounds and had a ball while Dad/Rick hoisted his big press pass and attended every press conference after the big matches. He got to ask questions and took full advantage of course, of the opportunity to ask a question to Rafa, Maria, Serena and Victoria Azarenka. His question to Rafa was even picked up by ESPN!  He was having a pretty awesome time but tried not to act too excited since they wouldn’t give me a press pass too!  I saw some terrific stuff though and had a lot of fun watching play on the clay of almost anything I wanted to see on the giant outdoor screens.

At the first of the day, all the ball boys and girls came running in like an army of red, chanting something in French and obviously having the time of their lives!

I did get a chance to slip into the press area for a front row seat to see Ferrer.

People were hanging from the rafters to watch!

Instead of giving free samples of stuff this year, they had jugglers and balloon-hat-makers to entertain the crowds as they walked by:

I watched the American David Young lose to a handsome young man who for some reason decided to tatoo his neck with a bright purple swatch. Hummm? Ideas anyone? Maybe he wanted to cover a birthmark?  Strange!

The big screens were really fun because sometimes there were as many people outside the arena as there were in….

Mostly the big players won easily without too much drama, but I think we saw the match of the tournament as we watched Serena gradually lose to a wonderful French woman who had lost her husband/coach to a serious illness last year.  The crowd was ecstatic when Victorie Razzano won in a tie breaker on the second set and went on digging for every point to the very last one. The last game was about a half an hour long and each of them had several (like 5 or 6) match points! It was the most incredible match either of us had ever seen!

Even though Razzano looks pretty discouraged here, in the end, the audience (including the new President of France who was there) was ecstatic! They let everybody on the grounds in for the last set so it was a fun and raucous atmosphere to say the least!

So much to see! Such a fun day…press conferences included!