Yellowstone Pictures

We had a great time at Yellowstone, and we even saw a bear!  Mariana and Isaac got their patriarchal blessings this morning.  I'll include a longer update later, when we get home.

Grandpa's funeral and a trip to Cody

Anette and I have spent most of the past week on the road. All the traveling was complicated by the fact that we have both been sick for various periods. We started with a trip to Bear Lake for Grandpa's funeral. I got to speak as did Tom. Warren dedicated the grave. I have included my comments below.

It was interesting to me to see how little Paris has changed since I was a child. I think many of the homes might not have even had a coat of paint during that time. The weather was beautiful on the day of the funeral. We drove with the top down and I burned the top of my head.

Sunday we drove with Lindsay, Katelynn and Tagg back to Wyoming. We took one of my horses up to their house. Once we got on the road the trip was uneventful but long. Bo seems to love his new home.

While we were there we fished, went shooting, went to the nightly Cody shoot out, and visited. Yesterday we drove home with lots of construction and some thunderstorms along the way. It was good to be home and now we are looking forward to seeing Newel and his family soon.

Funeral comments:
My paternal grandfather died when I was 6, so for the past 46 years, Grandpa Kennington was my only grandfather.

For most of my youth, my family lived on the opposite side of the country so I did not get to visit my grandparents as often as I would have liked. But I spent many happy summers here in Paris visiting Grandpa and Grandma Kennington and playing with my Uncle David who was just 10 months older than me.

In the early years grandpa was still farming and ranching and I loved to help him with whatever chores he had to do. I know now that instead of being a valuable helper, I made most of his work more difficult.

I idolized my grandpa and I loved to go with him when he baled hay, or fed cows, or worked on a piece of equipment. At each yearly visit, one of the first things he would do would be to drive me to Montpelier to buy me a cowboy hat.

After my mission, while I was going to school at BYU, I visited my grandparents whenever I had the opportunity. By then grandpa was no longer working and each visit he would ask me what I wanted to do. I loved to just drive around the valley and soak in all the beautiful scenery. One time we drove up on the mountain to look for deer. Grandpa drove the truck straight to a patch of quakies on a hill side and we watched several big bucks come running out. I was always amazed that he so easily seemed to know where the wild animals would hang out.

Another time we went ice fishing and we managed to catch quite a few nice trout. Looking back now I realize that he probably wanted me along to chop the hole in the ice.

Once we spent a long day on a trip to Star Valley so he could show me where he lived, places he worked and where my mother went to grade school.

When I was growing up, people would tell me that my Grandpa was footloose. But ever since I was a small child the only place he ever lived was in this valley. I know that he loved it here, although one time about 15 years ago he told me that he might have to move because Bear Lake Valley was getting too developed for his taste. I asked him if he had someplace else in mind where he might want to go. He told me he thought perhaps he’d like to try Heber Valley east of Salt Lake City. I asked him when he’d last visited Heber Valley and he told me that it was while he was working for the CCC—probably around 1940. I told him that I traveled through Heber Valley a couple of times a year and he might be surprised to discover that it wasn’t as pristine and undeveloped as he remembered.

Grandpa didn’t leave Bear Lake Valley very often. But he came to several family events like my wedding and to the blessing of our first baby. I remember one time after such an event we were standing outside the temple and Grandpa asked me if I liked going through the temple. I told him I didn’t mind it. He told me he knew that going to the temple was going to get him into heaven some day. I said, “How do you know that, Grandpa?” He replied that he knew it because every time he went to the temple it scared the hell out of him.

Like all people, Grandpa had faults. But he also had many good qualities. One of the most notable was his generosity. At a fairly young age I learned that I could not be too complimentary about anything that Grandpa possessed or it would be given to me as a gift.

When my grandmother’s health began to fail I was a little worried because Grandpa could be crotchety and gruff and he had some pretty firm ideas about what he considered suitable work for men or for women. But I saw him tenderly help and care for my grandmother when she could no longer do many things for herself. He cooked, cleaned, and did laundry—all tasks that he would normally have classified as women’s work. But he did them because of the love and devotion he had for Naomi.

I know the past several years have been hard for Grandpa because he was held back by an aging physical body. I am happy for him now because I know he has been reunited with my grandmother, his son David, and many other loved ones and friends who preceded him into the next life.

Creed's latest letter 07-12-10

Wow it sounds like you guys had an awesome weekend! I am super jealous I wish I could swim in water in this summer heat instead of just my sweat.

That turkey dinner you made sounds good. We had quite the meal this Sunday too. We made some rice and beans and I made some awesome orange chicken that was pretty yummy. I will try and include some pictures. Those cherries sound amazing--and the potatoes.

I'm so happy you got to see E. Badal. He is one of my favorite missionaries here. That’s too bad you didn't think about opening the pictures to talk to him about them he could have explained them perfectly. The pictures of the big pit are us digging a hole for an out house behind the mission leader’s house. The poor people here all have those behind their houses and they are gross--we never use them.

Yes we did make some pancakes in some of those pictures. The little red fruit in my hand is a cherry and there really weird they have like three small seeds in them. And yes I took a few pictures of some nice houses around my old area but now I have seen some amazing house here in Higuey houses that could compare with Alpine and Park city houses.

I don’t know what you mean by bread fruit but maybe your talking about empanadas that we made they are just like dough with meat or cheese in the middle they are super good. The machete was an awesome service project we did. We cut down an entire tree with machetes one day. I have more pictures of it on the card I have right now though. That was definitely the best service project I have ever done here. We just climbed up this tree with machetes and started hacking at the branches. It was probably one of my many dreams as a kid.

The work out here is going pretty good this week especially has been good for some reason. We were able to put two baptism dates with some older investigators that I don’t know to well. Also we had 8 investigators in church on Sunday and so that means that hopefully we have a good number of baptism potential.

Me and my comp are getting along fine and we are working hard. He is a little ocd about some things but it just makes life easier for me because he likes to clean stuff and keep everything organized so I don’t have to even worry about it to much really. So that is nice. He is a very smart guy and he studied a lot of music before the mission. His main instrument was saxophone and guitar so we get along alright.

Today we played a little bit of soccer in the morning and basketball which means b ball not baseball. I haven’t played baseball more than once here in the mission. Basketball is huge here. Dominicans love it.

The pictures that I gave you guys of Higuey aren’t really the place we work in out here that is the country and we never really work in there. Higuey is also a huge city full of lots of people and so that is where we work. And E. Badal is in so many of them because we did a lot of fun stuff while he was here because he was going home so anytime he wanted to do something fun we would just go with him.

I don’t think I spent a p day in Villa Hermosa without the other missionaries so that was a lot of fun. P-days here are different. We usually always play b ball and clean the house so that like takes up half the day then we email and then do whatever else. Today I am going to buy some glasses because I found out they sell some clear glasses all over the place here that block the sun. So I am going to wear glasses around all the time now. I'm pretty excited. My time is about up. I love you all tons and hope you are well. Wish I could be playing with all those kids.

Watching the summer go by

It is almost July, but we still aren't sure the direction our summer adventures will take us. Today was Anette's last day of teaching summer school. Thursday she leaves for Las Vegas with Brandon and Jenine. She is going to babysit while they look at houses. I'm manning the fort at home taking care of animals and finishing projects.

Lindsay, Katie and Tagg are coming next week and staying with us for most of July. So we will have a houseful. But we are looking forward to it. It has been wonderful to have Brandon, Jenine and Laila with us and we will be sad when they leave. We had a ward luau this weekend and Laila loved watching the dancers. She was moving her hands with the music. We are planning to hit the zoo and a water park while all the grandchildren are here.

We celebrated Harvey's third birthday last week and Cally's birthday on Sunday. Everyone is growing so fast.

Creed is doing well and is now in a city called Higuey. It is the farthest area from the mission home and is on the east side of the Dominican Republic. His first Saturday there he got to do the first baptisms in a new chapel because his was sick and stuck in the bathroom. He said he is loving the Spanish culture and language.

I'm sure we'll be making one more trip to Cody and at least one to Las Vegas before the end of summer. I just wish we knew when it would be!

The Dalley Vacation!

In the Asa Knight store at Sturbridge Village.
James as the Foreman of a jury in Williamsburg. (Guilty as Charged!)
View from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty
On top of one of the monuments at Vicksburg. It was quite a hike to get up here!


We are home from a fun, and very busy vacation! We went to a bunch of battlefields, both from the civil war and the revolutionary war: Vicksburg, Chicamauga and Chattanooga, Gettysburg, Valley Forge. We spent a couple of days in Colonial Williamsburg, and a day in DC. We stopped by the DC temple just before the visitor's center closed. We went to the Statue of Liberty, (and got stuck in traffic). We spent a day in Boston, walking the Freedom Trail. We went to Philidelphia, (and got stuck in traffic). We spent a day in Plymouth, with a whole afternoon spent at Plimoth Plantation, ending on the Mayflower II. We went to Jamestown. We spent a whole day at Sturbridge Village (Asa Knight is a relative of ours, and his store is here), and wished we had at least one more day to spend there!

We spent a lot of time driving, and had one day in particular where I felt we were truly protected from several near accidents that could have ruined the whole vacation and/or seriously injured us.

It was a great vacation. The kids got along really well for the most part and everyone enjoyed everything we did. Rachel was a real trooper and rarely complained, even on the longest days. She walked the whole four plus miles in DC with barely a whimper. She loved the Lincoln Memorial, but wasn't so impressed with the National Archives.

In Gettysburg, we splurged and hired a tour guide to drive us around the battlefield. The kids all said he was worth the money. He really made it come alive and seem more real. It was very impressive.

Elaine got the most confused with all the time travel we were doing. She kept asking what year and/or war we were in!

I will post more photos on Facebook. It seems a bit easier to do there.

Priest-Laurel High Adventure Activity

 

Isaac at the New River Bridge overlook

Isaac and I just got back from an exciting high adventure activity with the Priests and Laurels from our stake.  We went to the New River in West Virginia and did some whitewater rafting down the river on Thursday.  Then on Friday we did a canopy tour where you got to zip between the treetops on long ziplines.  We had a great time.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the rafting part.  Cameras don't do well in the water.  We did get a DVD made by the rafting company that we will bring with us on vacation.

Isaac's Graduation

A picture of Isaac all dressed for his graduation ceremony today.