Beautiful Pansies

I, Linda, have always enjoyed yard work and I usually have a pretty decent yard. Well...this year I have out done myself. This sweet little "purple pansie touched with yellow gold" has made its way in a crack on our patio. What can I say...I'm quite the gardener!

Our St. George and Environs Road Trip

We started our full day in the St. George area with a road trip, going north out of St. George through Snow Canyon State Park (which we re-visited that afternoon for a hike) and then on to the scene of the Mountain Meadow Massacre. It was a terrible incident, but the site is now peaceful and hopefully settlers and pioneers are now reconciled in the Spirit World. We then took off south...

...visited a cute little Southern Utah town named Veyo,

...saw a dormant volcano just outside Veyo,

...and drove through an Indian Reservation. It was a fun little road trip.

After getting back from our morning road trip, we called Max (Linda's little brother) and Cindy, found out they hadn't had lunch yet and so went to eat together with Lizzy and Amy at the Pasta Factory in St. George. Lizzy, on the end, is getting married to Huck in July and we are all excited.

For me (Tom) the most fun part of the day was our afternoon hike in Snow Canyon State Park. The weather was perfect (low 80s) and as you will see below the scenery is out of this world!

Here I am on the trail next to the Silver Hair Sage. Maybe both of us are silver-haired sages, right!?

Following Kristen's tradition of taking pictures of our feet in Chacos.

Our last day was spent taking the long way home. We left St. George and went through Hurricane and LaVerkin (our guidebook said they are like Buda and Pest except no good food!) and then came to Zion's National Park. These following pictures don't do the park and the scenery justice! But I hope you can still sort of see how breathtaking it is. We then followed Highway 89 up through more beautiful and ever-changing scenery as you'll see below.

My (Linda's) grandma Nicholls was born in Hatch, Utah. It was named after her family. We are important people!

Did you know Big Rock Candy Mountain is in Utah? The one Burl Ives had a song about. We had no idea it was right here! It really does look like yellow candy flowing down the mountain

Graduation for Logan and "Major Award" for Pops

Logan and I on the way to his BYU graduation. You other BYU grads, notice his blue robes. They now sell them "retainable" robes, but Logan didn't know that and turned it in.Logan and his mom right after his BYU graduation with the Hinckley Center in the background, and some other random people. Now he is off this fall to graduate school--probably.

My department chair, Rick Miller reading a short biography before presenting me with the School of Family Life Achievement Award. The plaque I got is nice enough, but I was expecting a "fra-gee-lay" leg lamp. But the check for $2,500 was better. That is almost the exact amount we need for the repair of the foundation leak we have in our house. Oh well....

Here are Logan and me with our award/diploma, and the person who made it all possible!

Blake glares? I don't believe it! Well, maybe once and a while.

Blake's Aunt Andrea thinks Blake glares. Maybe once and a while.... Oh, but how I love that boy, glare and all!

One time he didn't glare was when he had a rifle in his hands. Hmm, I'm not sure what that means?!

Tot, Matt, Ty, and Grandpa Wimmy--They all look good in kilts

Tot didn't know it but he is part of a long tradition of men wearing kilts in his family.

Here is Tot's great-grandpa Wilmer Nicholls in his kilt. Ty and Matt have both worn them for extended periods. Now Tot joins his male relatives (and probably some of his even more distant Scottish ancestors) in the tradition!

And the winner is!

And the winner is...! None of you. You all missed at least two. How come no Youngs guessed?

Here are the answers:
1. My Grandpa Holman (Albert)
2. Logan
3. This one was tricky! It is my old very nice quad combination. Matt would use it for seminary and when he had to read something he would just rip the chapters he needed out of it!!! I guess it was just too big to carry. So the page numbers show the part he ripped out. I thought he at least might remember (and apologize).
4. Mine
5. Mine
6. Grandma Linda. I was just teasing about pages being stuck together.

So I guess I'll have to come up with another contest and double the prize for next time. Any ideas of things I ought to have you guess?

Grandpa Tom

Guess whose scriptures these are. Prize for the person to get it right!

#1 Here is your clue for this set of scriptures: This is a very old Book of Mormon that belonged to one of Grandpa Tom's ancestors.

#2 Clue: This person identifies him/herself in the scripture.

#3 This is a hard one; but the clue is in the page numbers.

#4 Here is the clue: What language is this in?

#5 Clue: This person is obsessive-compulsive with underlining, circling, writing in the margins, underlining again....

#6 Clue: The pages in this one were stuck together for years.