School for the Gifted: June 2016

19 June 2016 - Father's Day, and a Special Experience

This week my old friend Luis Andrade came to visit me at my house. Luis and I were mission companions in Rio Branco more than 22 years ago. We worked very hard, had wonderful success, and became lifelong friends. Luis has since served twice as a bishop and until recently served as stake president in Sao Paulo. He is here in Utah to be trained and set apart as president of the Brazil Londrina mission. To my right are Luis's wife and daughter.

On Thursday, Luis invited me to join him at church headquarters where I was privileged and honored to join as Elders Jeffrey R. Holland and Ulises Soares set him apart as a mission president. I know I look goofy in this picture, the sun was extremely bright and I had just taken off my sunglasses for the photo.

After a wonderful and spiritual experience that I will never forget, I took this photo of the Salt Lake temple as I walked across Temple Square back to my car.

On Friday evening the girls had a pre-camp overnighter up Hobble Creek Canyon in Springville. Our whole family attended.

The theme was Unity. Joanne is the Laurel advisor and this is her unity activity. Each of the girls got a balloon and they had to work together to walk around the camp without dropping their balloon -- no hands.

On Sunday morning, the girls got up early and made me Father's Day breakfast.

Bacon-wrapped quiche....mmmmm.

A Father's Day spread fit for a king.

Daddy with his girls for Father's Day breakfast. (I know I look pretty bad in this pic, I woke up with cold for Father's Day).

As if grand breakfast wasn't enough, when I got home after church, there were ribs and potatoes waiting for me. These girls know me, and love me.

12 June 2016 - Hershey with Cousins

To conclude our trip, we spent a couple of days in Philadelphia with Karl's family. On Monday we went to Hershey Park.

Jessica loved the boogie board in the water park.

Here's Emily having a go at it.

Waiting in line to ride the Fahrenheit roller coaster.

Cousins Jake and Kurt with Emily on the Ferris Wheel -- Lightning Racer in the background.

It's been 10 years since our families' first outing to a theme park together. This is Jake and Emily at Sea World San Antonio in 2006. They've only changed a little.

5 June 2016 - A Visit back to PA

When we left PA three years ago, we promised we could go back to visit some time. This week we made good on that promise. We attended Washington Ward on Sunday, and visited W&J campus, including North Ave.

We went back to Mingo Creek park, where the kids used to love cooling off on hot and muggy summer days.

Visiting the old pre-school that Emily and Madeline attended.

Jessica at her preschool.

All three girls attended Trinity East. For one school year they all attended together when Madeline was in kindergarten, Emily was in second grade and Jessica was in fifth grade.

We timed the visit (not intentionally) to coincide with the once-in-17-years emergence of the Cicada bugs.

We stopped at the catholic cemetery to pay respects to old friends Bob and Dee.

Jessica had an epic pool party with old middle school friends. Lots of love to go around.

Back in the City of Bridges. (With our Idaho shirts on -- it was cold).

It wouldn't be a visit back without a trip to PNC Park for a Pirates game. We got rained out on Monday, but made it to Tuesday night's game.

There are few parks more idyllic than PNC. I've been to 20 parks in the majors, and PNC stands up against them all.

A view of the city skyline from the grandstand.

The girls with friend Leah at the ballpark.

We had dinner at Manny's inside the park. Excellent overpriced BBQ, and Manny actually sits out and greets his guests. Manny Sanguillen was the catcher on the Pirates last World Series winning team in 1979. He was also teammates for one season with my favorite Pirate of all time, Vern Law.

Manny autographed Joanne's Pirates visor. Alas, the visor went missing a couple of days later.

This photo was taken in 2008 when Jenni and Ed came to visit for a Pirates game. Madeline wanted to compare her hand to the statue of Roberto Clemente.

Still not quite as big!

A view of the city at night after the ballgame from Mt. Washington.

On Wednesday we went to Ohiopyle State Park. We were going to do a pedal paddle on the Youghigheny River, but it was windy and too cold. So we did the peddle part -- 20 miles of it.

The girls in from of Ohiopyle Falls.

That evening we stayed in Grantsville, PA. I didn't know it, but the town had a very cool pioneer village that we enjoyed touring.

We didn't take any photos, but we took a couple of days to visit Joanne's cousin Jeremy in Washington D.C., and took the girls to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was a good, if somewhat somber, experience for all of us.

29 May 2016 - Memorial Day

During the week of Memorial Day, to celebrate the end of the school year, one of the Young Women's leaders invited all the girls to a pool party at her house.

Joanne got this very cool silhouette shot of Emily and Madeline doing a rock jump into the pool.

The garden box is coming along. Got some tomatoes and zucchini planted!

Joanne's also been beautifying the yard. She put in a flower bed around the power box in our front yard, and built a little fence (again, pallet wood).

On Saturday, we reunited with old friends, the Larsens, who moved away from Washington, PA shortly after we did. After two year stints in other areas, we now live close again having both moved to Utah in the past year. We connected with them for a Provo Canyon bonfire and ruckus with the kids.

22 May 2016 - Yard, End of School

Joanne has had me busy helping whip the yard into shape. Pinterest has given her all kinds of ideas, including pallet garden boxes. At least the materials are free, since our neighborhood is loaded with discarded pallets and other forms of wood.