Darlin and Pa

Monday, June 1, 2009

Memorial Day - part 2

On the Sunday before Memorial Day, we had a wonderful day at church in American Fork. At home we celebrated Uncle Nolen's 59th birthday with cake and ice cream! You can see he did quite well blowing out the candles - it was great to be together this night.
(As you know, we were shocked just a few days later to learn Nolen had a heart attack and passed away. We'll provide pictures of the funeral once we get back from Elko later this week)

Enjoying birthday cake together!

Anyone remember playing in this ditch?!

Dad Turner's gravesite adorned with beautiful flowers.

Mom T and her 3 kids surrounding Dad T's head stone

After a great program at the Bluffdale cemetery, we went to Uncle Elmo's church for a Turner family reunion and had a great time.

Scott with a favorite cousin, Randy Turner

Scott and Nolen playing "attack each other with small marshmallows fired through PVC pipe"!

After a fun day at the park, we stopped back at the little Bluffdale cemetery with its colorful flowers. We had a wonderful day.

Memorial Day in Utah - part 1

For Memorial Day we had the opportunity to travel to Utah and be with family. Once we arrived in Salt Lake we did something we've never done before. Though we've been in the conference center dozens of times for conference, we've never taken an "official tour" of the building! But we did the Friday before Memorial Day. Here are some things we learned:
· It was dedicated in April 2000 (the whole Turner family was there!)
· It was finished in 3 years because there were as many as 1,000 workers at any one time working on the project
· From the podium to the back of the balcony is 130 yards or more than a football field
· There are no obstructed views in the conference center. The ceiling contains a beam made in Belgium that weighs 650 tons and smaller beams radiate out from it to help hold up the ceiling.
· Several 10 foot square skylights help light the center during the day
· Capacity is 21,000 and the center has 1,400,000 square feet
· Garden on the top of the center is 6 acres; the flowers and trees are planted in peat moss which is much lighter than dirt
· The heating and cooling system is so massive that it is located in a building 2 miles from the center

Marcie T crossing the street above the conference center - they had orange flags on both sides to help us get across without incident!

A view from the side of the center towards the Salt Lake Temple.

The fountain starts here on the roof and run down the side of the building, making a waterfall.

On the roof - 6 acres of trees and flowers and flowing water.

View from the top of the center towards the temple.

A great piece of art work depicting the stoning of Stephen in the book of Acts.

Glasswork depicting Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Saturday May 16, 2009

Dad had a "show your stuff" day at work before Mother's Day. It was part of public service recognition. Anyway, Dad took in his plum and rhubarb jam to share, and one of the ladies in his building brought card making stuff to share. Your dad made this mother's day card for me with his own hands. I was quite proud of his "craftiness"!!

Red plate just for you Meg!!

Highlight of the day was talking to all 3 kids!

Star Trek has its 7 of 9 - well today we went from 2 to 9 - that is of course in number of rhubarb plants! It was clear that the current two plants needed to be split up - but we never dreamed we would create 7 new plants from what we had! We may need some help next summer preparing all that jam:)

Roto looks a little tired after working hard today - he's a bit slanted off to the side!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Daffodils Galore!!

We took a wonderful trip to Mt. Vernon and LaConner Washginton, in the Skagit Valley to look at tulips and daffodils - the tulips were not quite ready but the daffodils were in fine fashion! We used to take this trip quite often when you kids were little - but haven't made it for a number of years - what a fun day we had!!

One of the daffodil varieties up close - don't you love the orange center?!

The 2-thumbed gardener taking a closer peek.

This was a great view of the yellow and white variety growing side by side -

Dad T's attempt at a long left handed take-it-yourself picture - good thing we didn't save the first one which happen to be on zoom!

Mom T with a never-ending field in the background. Appears she wore the color of the day, eh?!

Nice view of how straight and long the rows are.

One of the things we learned first when in town: "share the road"! We weren't too tempted to fight with this big-wheeled one!

One of the great little shops we found in LaConner was Sempre Italiano - or "Always Italian". Mom has been looking for an oil carafe for some time and found one she loves! It can be seen here in the store window off to the left of the big plate - same design as the plate.

The new oil carafe - cleaned and getting it's first dose of product:)

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Dad Turner Funeral

This is the last picture I took of Dad T when I was in Utah in July 2008 to hike Mt. Timpanogos with Brigg.

He died Wednesday night February 4 at home with his wife of 56 1/2 years and his 3 children at his bedside. It was truly a sweet experience.

All of Dad and Mom T's 11 grandchildren were able to attend the funeral. They sang "Love at Home" during the service - here is a picture of those 11 with Grandma Turner in the middle.

The 3 Turner grandchildren with Grandma

Each of the kids putting a rose on Grandpa's casket.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

New Years in Erie PA!

Erie PA - the coldest place we've been since Rexburg - this is a visit to Lake Erie - the shoreline is ice!

Beach volleyball, anyone??!

Christmas in Pittsburgh!

We finally arrived in Pittsburgh for Christmas the night of December 26! We celebrated Christmas on the 27th when it was 70°!! What a wonderful time to be with family - here are some pictures from our few days together.

The whole crew