Dad, Tell Me About the Time (61)

What are  you looking forward to as you grow old together?

I look forward to having more time to do more things together with Lisa. I’ve always loved doing things with Lisa, but out of necessity, most of the things we have done together have been things that had to be done. We clean the house together; we garden together, we go to school & church activities together. While those things are fun (if we’re doing them together) it is more fun sometimes to do things together just because we want to.

Some of the things that we are starting to do more often, because our schedules allow them, are walking on the beach, taking dance classes, going on a trips to Hawaii, Europe or up the coast, visiting kids and grandkids. I am excited that we are starting to be able to do those kinds of things more often.

Where I have lived throughout my childhood life. (List the city/state/country & dates)

I decided that instead of just listing my childhood homes I would list my entire life. Here we go. 

Leavitt, Alberta              August 12, 1958         Summer 1965

Cardston, Alberta               Summer 1965           August 1976

Provo, Utah                          August 1976               May 1977

Cardston, Alberta                     May 1977     August 18, 1977

Provo, Utah                     August 18 1977          October 1977

Turnhout, Belgium             October 1977              Early 1978

Vilvoorde, Belgium                Early 1978     September 1979

Sint Lodewijk, Belgium September 1979       March 26 1979

Linker Oeffer, Belgium   March 26, 1979           August 1979

Edmonton, Alberta               August 1979           August 1982

Bassano, Alberta                  August 1982           August 1983

Rosemary, Alberta               August 1983             July 2 1992

San Diego, California            July 6 1992                    present

Family Reunion (Birthday?)

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Today is my birthday! Happy Birthday to me.

What a wonderful weekend we just had. Last year I asked Ben if he would plan the next family reunion and I suggested it might be fun if he planned it around my birthday and included a float down the Salt River. He happily agreed and this is the plan he came up with.

FRIDAY

5:00 PM Family Dinner at Caldwell County BBQ

6:00 - 9:00 PM - Revel Surf Park - evening surf sessions and spectating

9:30 PM Hangout after bedtime at Kira's for those who would like to

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SATURDAY

8:00 AM Gilbert Farmers Market - breakfast there or light bite before

10:00 AM Pool Party Begins at 8052 E Peterson Ave, Mesa, AZ 85212

Snacks out (fruit, chips, cold drinks)

Pool Games: Cannonball Contest, Water Balloon Toss, Noodle Jousting, Relay Races, Treasure Hunt

Shaded craft table for little kids

12:00 PM Greek-Style BBQ Lunch - kebabs, pita, tzatziki, salads

1:00 PM Chill Swim / Wind Down

1:30 - 2:00 PM - Cleanup & Rest Time - head back to hotels/homes for naps/showers

5:00 PM Dinner at Organ Stop Pizza - pizza buffet & Mighty Wurlitzer organ show

8:30 PM Adults and older kids meet at 8052 E Peterson Ave to carpool to Salt River

9:00 PM Night Float on the Salt River - bring glow sticks, waterproof bags, and life jackets

The weekend went pretty much as Ben had planned except that Justins nephew ended up graduating on Friday night and he thought he should be supportive and attend. That’s alright, we substituted the Caldwell County BBQ with a quieter dinner at Joe’s Farm Grill. Ben & Sharley treated Lisa and I to dinner as a birthday gift. In fact, this weekend was billed as a family reunion, but it felt a lot like a wonderful and extended birthday party for me.

Around noon on Friday, we packed up anyone who wanted to come and headed to the river.

So peaceful

Mom did not like me getting too close to the horses.

Do you see that hole in the cliff wall behind me and Justin? It is near the left edge of the photo just below the halfway mark.

Justin and I swam over to that cliff, climbed up to the hole and jumped from there. It was terrifying. I have never cliff jumped before, mostly because without my glasses I am blind, and cliff jumping doesn’t seem like something I should be doing blind. Today I had my contacts on so no excuses.

I’m telling you, I have never been so scared in my life. I did something I’ve never done before; I closed my eyes. I swore I’d never do that because if I’m going to die, I want to see what’s coming. It was amazing and I will definitely be doing this again. I didn’t want any belly flops or slapped arms, so I basically stepped off the cliff with my arms tight to my body. It was great.

We had some unexpected visitors show up to make the weekend more exciting. Kari Williamson (I don’t remember her married name) came to visit Kira for a week and it happened to overlap with our weekend. It was good to see her.

Vicky and Thomas Cormack also came along. They recently moved to Arizona, and it was good to see them as well.

We got back later than we had planned so we cancelled the surf park and Ben and Sharley took Lisa and I to Joe’s Farm Grill and treated us to a wonderful dinner. It was a nice way to unwind from the exciting day.

The Farmers market on Saturday morning was amazing. I wish we had once this nice near us.

Probably the most interesting thing for me was this rotating barrel full of peppers. It had a propane torch blowing on it from the back cooking the peppers. I would probably have bought one just because I loved the way they cooked it, but I couldn’t find where they were selling them.

Ben’s pool is amazing, and they have a nice shaded area with tables. We spent the day going back and forth between the pool and the food.

We were at a store and Zanee saw Ben and Kira walking towards us, and she got excited. She said, “Oh my gosh, I never realized that Ben and Kira have the same nose. Mom had to take a picture to show that they really do. In fact, it is kind of amazing how much they look alike.

Ben and Sharley recently got back from Greece. They enjoyed the food so much that the meal on Saturday was all Greek food. It might look like Ben is doing the cooking, but Sharley put it all together and it turned out great. Thank you Sharley.

I loved it. It was really good, and I ate way too much. I gained three pounds this weekend, but it was worth every pound.

We took a break for a couple of hours and then Saturday evening we headed out for more food. The Organ Stop Pizza place is quite an experience. They serve some really good pizza, and while you eat it, this amazing organist serenades you. The organ stops activate all kinds of musical clusters spread throughout the room. Right above our head were the drums and a bird in a nest that would sing. They have puppets that sing and many other bells, xylophones, bugles, etc.

You can make requests for the organist to play specific songs, but I think he has his repertoire (which is very good) and ignores the requests. He obviously doesn’t ignore all the requests because they asked him to play happy birthday to me. Mine wasn’t the only name mentioned but Kira made me stand and it felt like the entire place was singing to me. It was embarrassing but fun.

After we stuffed ourselves with pizza (thank you Justin) we got ourselves ready and then headed out for a nighttime run down the river. While the daytime floats are wonderful, the nighttime ones are so much better. With the sun gone it is still nice and warm, and the water keeps you from getting too hot but you don’t feel like you are being fried plus there are fewer people, and it is soooo peaceful. Sorry, I don’t have any pictures from the nighttime run. It was dark.

But the weekend was not over yet. Sunday, Evan was ordained an Elder, so we attended church with Kira and Justin. Their church is starting to feel like home for us, we get there so often. We were also blessed with an unexpected treat at church.

Kira took piano lessons, but she excelled on her Oboe, so we rarely get to hear her play piano. At their choir practice, the pianist failed to show up so Kira played the piano. She will say it was not good, but I thought she played beautifully. She’s definitely out of practice but I could tell she could be an amazing pianist if she had time to practice.

Their choir was small, but I think they sang beautifully. It was a treat to hear them. Kira, Justin and Piper are all in their choir. Justin sang a beautiful solo, but I think the other two men were supposed to be singing with him. Their lips were moving but I only heard Justin.

Ben came to the ordination which took place right after church. Justin gave Evan a beautiful blessing.

Afterward we went to Kira’s and Justin cooked some amazing tri-tip. Ben even serenaded us on the trumpet. He doesn’t remember all the notes, but he can still make a nice sound on it. It was a day of wonderful musical surprises.

After the crowd died down, and before we left for home, I gave Kira a father’s blessing and Evan was able to “stand” in the circle. It was a great experience.

We had an uneventful drive home, and it was great to sleep in our own bed.

Like I said, this was billed as a “Family Reunion” but it felt like a wonderful three-day birthday party. Thank you, Ben, for making it happen and thank you to everyone who helped make it special.

--------------------trivia--------------------

The meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska over the weekend has some interesting ironies. First of all, it took place on land that was once owned by Russia, and second, the primary reason that Russia sold Alaska to America was because they needed the funds to support their war in Crimea. 

Second, but related trivia, when Russia owned Alaska it extended all the way to California.

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Road Trip - part 4 – Alycia & Trevor

Thursday, August 11, 2025

We got to Alycia’s late on Thursday night, July 24 and no one stayed up visiting. Mom and I wanted to attend the new Redlands temple which is blocks from Alycia’s house so we got up early and did a session before anyone got up.

After enjoying a nice breakfast we then headed to what looked to me like St George’s old town. We walked through a couple of shops and a famous candy store and ended up at this cool museum. A lot of these old museums are converted houses but this one was actually built with the purpose of being a museum but the building itself is a museum. It was built in 1938 and was funded by Hortense McQuarrie Odlum. It is run by the daughters of Utah Pioneers. It has a lot of fascinatging stuff in it.

The kids really wanted to spend the day at the pool and that was just fine with me. Alycia was telling us that this was a very old pool and is the pool Trevor used to go to when he was a kid. You would never know it, it has been well maintained. It even had a nice water slide.

We parked our stuff at a table under a nice sun shade and promptly dove into the water. It was a great day with the kids.

We all went down the water slide a few times and then we had to check out the diving boards.

Sawyer and I had planned to make simultanous dives. I dove in and when I came up there was Sawyer walking off the board. I was quite surprised because he didn’t seem at all scared of diving. If you take a close look at the picture, you can see Sawyer talking to the life guard. Apparantly you can’t dive off the board with water wings on.

In the shallow end they have two dolphins that are chained to the bottom of the pool. It is a genius idea and the kids love it. Sawyer kept daring me to tip him off the dolphin. I had to get pretty aggressive in order to dump him until, once again, the life gaurd made us calm down. The kids loved playing on the dolphins.

Once everyone started getting totally exhausted we finally headed home.

When mom was in Arizona watching Bens kids she picked up some little kits for making catapults out of tongue depressors. She never got the chance to build them with Bens kids so she brought them to Utah.

The kids were very excited to build them, but once they were built they shot the little puff balls straight up in the air. That was a little dissappointing we figured out that we could hold the catapult and aim it. It was fun while it lasted but the novelty quickly wore off.

We got up Saturday morning and had a relaxing breakfast and then got ready to head home. Before we left, Sawyer played a couple of songs for us on his guitar. He is getting pretty good.

The kids love to chase us as we drive off, but the road we would normally take is kind of busy, so, rather than have the kids run down the busy road, I left out the back way. The kids gave out after half a block but as we were coming around the opposit side of the block we saw a mini farmers maket in someones driveway. It was basically a garage sale for produce. Of course we had to stop.

We had our eye on some nice looking tomatos but as we were visiting with the lady she said we could go check out her yard. Everything she was selling grew in her back yard. Even the eggs. They had this huge chicken coop and tons of produce growing. When we went back to the front, our tomatos were all sold.

We ended up buying some scruffy tomatos (that still tasted delicous) and some cucumbers.

So that was our road trip. It was a bit exhausting but what a great trip.

--------------------trivia--------------------

According to Phys.org there is no direct evidence 

that microplastics are harmful to human health.

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Road Trip - part 3 – Alex & Lisa

Thursday, August 7, 2025

Wednesday was the last day of the reunion but it was just cleaning up and packing up so Lisa and I didn’t bother going back up to the camp. Our original plan was to sleep in the building where we were all meeting but some how, not all of the information got communicated. They told us to bring bedding (which we did) but no one told us that we needed to bring an air mattress as well. We thought they would provided cots or bunks or something. No cots. There was no way were were sleeping on the floor with no padding so we came down to sleep at Alex’s everynight. That wasn’t much of an inconvenience though and James loved sleeping with us every night.

Wednesday morning Alex needed to work and we didn’t want to wake the kids too early so Lisa and I headed out looking for the sight of what remained of the mill built by Frederick Kesler in Brgham City. Before it was destroyed by an arsenist in 2008, it and the Chase mill in Salt Lake City were the only two remaining mills built by Frederick Kesler.

Lisa had found two possible addresses, so we went to this one first. It was just outside of Brigham City. While something was obviously built here at one time, it probably wasn’t Keslers mill.

This looks more like his mill. After reading up on it we learned that the mill was built as part of the city wall when Brigham City was first built. It was the north east corner of the city wall and the upper windows of the mill actually had gun turrets built into them to aid in defending the city from rogue Indians. One of the windows had tally marks carved into the window frame and they were labled “injuns”.

The mill was a critical part of the original city because it was impractical for the settlers to haul their wheat into Salt Lake City to be ground. After a few decades the mill was not used as much due to the availability of modern technology.

Lorenzo Snow recommended that a man named John H Bott purchase the mill as a place to expand his stone carving business. The mill was located there until the fire in 2008. After that they moved into town. Lisa figured that if the family business had been at the mill that long that perhaps they had some old pictures they would share.

Boy was she right. We spent more than an hour at that place visiting with the fifth and sixth generation of Botts. They showed us several old pictures and told us many stories about the mill. They also told us that in the late 90’s a crew of people came and made detailed measurements of the mill so they could recreate it in the new construction they were making at “This is the Place” Heritage Park they were building. They told us that there is an exact replica built at the site. The only difference is that Kesler had a horizontal wheel on his mill and the one they built at Heritage Park is a more traditional vertical wheel.

The Botts promised to send us digital copies of all their pictures. When they do, I will write about them.

We had planned to do a session at the Brigham City Temple but we visited with the Botts too long, so we took a picture of it and checked out the tabernacle and then headed to Alex’s.

We headed to the Hill Airforce Base Air and Space Museum. What an amazing museum and it was free.

The museum was divided into three sections.

Early flight

Vietnam era planes

Modern jets.

I asked someone why they didn’t have any of the new fighter jets and he told me that new fighter jets are way to expensive to let one sit in a museum unused. He then pointed to one jet, I forget which one, and said that the only reason they were able to get that one was because it was in a hanger during a hurricane and the roof caved in on top of the jet.

A replica of the Wright Flyer, the first plane ever flown.

James really wanted to see the guy who was hurt inside this ambulance.

After the museum we headed for dinner at this covered wagon restaurant. I could tell that it must be one of James’ favorite places to eat. He gave me a tour of all the taxidermy they have set up there between the wagons. It was pretty cool.

James and Adelaide were really getting into the bubbles.

On Thursday, July 31, 2025 we started south, but as seems to be our way these days, we try not to make every trip a dash to the next destination but rather a journey to enjoy.

Our first stop was temple square. We haven’t seen it since they started upgrading the temple several years ago. Well, I guess Lisa has seen it, but I haven’t, and she hasn’t gone in and checked everything out.

The first thing we noticed is that they have created several beautiful little meditation gardens throughout the temple grounds.

There really wasn’t much else to see, the temple was still covered with scaffolding. That was a bummer because Alex sent us an article pointing out that on the front of the temple the big dipper is carved into the stone, and the pointer stars of the big dipper actually point to the real north star. What a beautiful description of the purpose of the temple.

After checking out Temple Square we headed to “This is the Place” Heritage Park. The people at Botts told us that a team of people came to check out Frederick Keslers mill in Brigham City because they wanted to make a replica of it in the Heritage village at “This is the Place” park.

Based on the pictures we saw at Botts Monuments, it’s a pretty good replica. The obvious difference is the water wheel. The water wheel on the original mill was horizontal because that is more efficient. but on this one they chose to make it vertical because it is more traditional.

While we were at the, park we decided we had to check out the Orson Pratt Observatory. It was fascinating. Orson Pratt was the son of Jared and Charity Pratt, who was Lisa’s direct ancestor. I had no idea he was into all this stuff. He seems like my kind of guy. 

Some of the things Orson was skilled at are astronomy, surveying, writing, genealogy, math and he was a renowned speaker. He would also sympathize with Frederick Kesler because Orson apparently had some bad run ins with Brigham Young who subsequently greatly diminished his standing in church history, exactly what happened to Frederick Kesler.

We then continued south to St George with a brief stop at Beaver.

--------------------trivia--------------------

Before Governor Brown took over California we ranked 

second in the nation for new jobs created. Today we are in last place.

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Road Trip - part 2 – W C Lybbert

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

My cousin, Carol Lybbert, now Carol Richardson, and her husband Ken live in St George and they both have issues that prevent them from driving. They asked if we could drive them to the reunion in their car. So, Monday morning we hugged and kissed the grandkids, said our goodbyes and continued north. Ken and I drove in his car and Lisa and Carol drove in ours.

We stopped in Beaver for some cheese curds, ice cream and I tasted rootbeer milk for the first time. It is amazing and is just like drinking a runny rootbeer float.

We dropped the Richardsons off at their daughters house in Uintah, just a couple of miles from Alex’s house, and then we continued on to the reunion.

The reunion was held at Camp Ben Lomond which is just outside of Eden, Utah. We all met in a beautiful building and while there were some activities, most of us just sat and visited. I met so many people, some of them I remembered from when I was younger but most I didn’t remember at all. I wish I could remember their names but I will never remember them all.

This is Louis and Marty Nygaard, she represented our family and Marty sang several fun songs that he made up for the family.

Me and Morgan Lybbert. I shared some of my memories from the trail rides we used to have in East Castle just north of Waterton. Morgan talked about how him and Larue spent their honeymoon night in our hotel and we short sheeted their bed.

Ruth and Dale Renlund were there Monday night. She shared some fun memories about Lesters family.

Lisa, James and Adelaide came up Monday evening. 

James stayed with us when Lisa and Adelaide left, and we brought him home late that night. I think he had a blast. 

Everyone was loving on him.

Dwane Smith showed up. I guess they now live in Illinois. He married Charmain Salmon. She went to school with me, and I vaguely remember her. We shared several memories about people we went to school with. Dwaine and I reminisced about when our families would get together. That was fun. 

These are Van Lybberts two sons. They are both very cool people. I didn't know them at all before this reunion. I knew of them but they lived in Utah and everytime we went to Utah we stayed with Uncle Merlin. 

I am so glad that Lisa took pictures because there were a lot of people and I was having a ball visiting with all of them. If it wasn’t for Lisa, I wouldn’t have any pictures at all.

--------------------trivia--------------------

The Valsalva manoeuvre is when a constipated person forcibly exhales against a closed airway while straining to poop (grunting). While harmless in a normal person, this can overstimulate the vegus nerve causing some people to pass out. A surprising number of heart attacks are caused by this. This is how Elvis Presley died. Many people speculate that he died from an overdose but the cause of death was never released.

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