Over the river and through the woods!

I don't know when or who wrote the song - but going to grandma's house has always been an adventure. Since we've been married we have lived about a six or seven hours drive from Lori's parent's. The younger the kids the more often we made the journey to grandma's. Now that their older it has become a once or twice a year event - but it's usually been on Thanksgiving. I don't know how many rivers we've crossed, there are a number of canyons or woods - but most of the way is covered by sagebrush and then at the end even cactus. When people ask what we're doing for Thanksgiving I always love to see their faces when I tell them were going to Vegas. "Hey baby let's go to Vegas" and "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" might be the themes of the parting crowd, but when we go it's the same as any other visit to the in-laws in a normal suburbia neighborhood. We never go to the strip or see much of the glitz and glamor - except occasionally we go to the casino's, because they have the best movie theaters or bowling. Most of my wife's family lives there, so it's no big deal to them that we come - but its a highlight for our family. Since most of these stories are for historical remembrances there are a couple of memories I should point out. After Lori and I were married we were making our way to Vegas on a unorganized honeymoon to make it to our wedding reception. In a small town named Meadow we were at a gas station and a little bird flew into the store window and died. For years I've turned off the radio or TV and had a moment of silence as we pass Meadow in remembrance of the little bird that lost it's life as we were beginning our life together. On the way there we always eat in Nephi and gassed up in St. George. On the way back we eat and gas up in Cedar City. It's almost like we're creatures of habit - everyone is fine as long as we don't change the agenda. We always need to switch seats at each stop and we had a portable TV that with the help of bungee cords and a makeshift stand made it nice to pass the time. I'm just glad we never got into and accident and that would go fling thought the windshield. When they would say how much further - the answer was in the form of how many more movies they needed to watch. For the first ten or fifteen years we would stop in Kannaraville to see Lori's Grandmother. When we make it to Vegas then the fun begins - well that depends on who you ask, we do do some things that we can't do in Logan. Spencer was the one that had the hardest time at grandma's - all of his cousins were girls and sitting around and visiting only made it fun for a couple of minutes. SO we went to the go-karts, Red Rock canyon, movies etc. Now the girls always want to go shopping and spend time with thee cousins. No matter what way you look at it - being with family was always the highlight of the trip.

Fast Track

We moved to Logan in the Spring of 1994 - this was coming home for me. One of the first things we did was start building of our new home. So I convinced a friend to rent us part of his house during the construction process, this worked out great for both of us since he was single and had more room than he needed. Since I was coming home there was a real possibility that there would be a number of people that knew me from before - good and bad. Also because I came from a large family there was the reputation of those whom associated with the people I was forced to live with as a child. Now you would have to agree it was forced - but in my case that wasn't bad at all, I actually liked my family. Church wise we lived in a different stake than I grew up in and I had a brother that a few years before had been on the High Council and served as as the first Bishop of the Crockett Ward in our new stake. Apparently he had done a wonderful job - which was good for him, but kind of put me on the radar when I showed up. Within a couple of weeks I was called to visit with a member of the stake presidency and was called as a stake missionary. This can be a hard job especially when there are only a couple of people in the area that don't belong to our church. This was a calling I had held a couple of years earlier in Ogden where there was a little more possibility of success. Lori was called with me and it was the first time we worked together in a church calling. It didn't last very long. After we moved into our house - I received another opportunity to meet with the stake presidency. This time it was all of them not just one of the three. So after only serving a few months as missionaries I was called to the High Council and both Lori and I were released from the stake mission. The greatest blessing of being called to the High Council was that my father was able to ordain me to the office of High Priest - he was in failing health and I'm sure this is the last ordinance he preformed during his great life of service. That was one of the tender mercies that I am so thankful for. Now I met with the stake presidency a couple times a month - but not one 0n one like those two interviews. If that was my goal it didn't take long before I had another opportunity. After a few months on the High Council I was called to be a member of the Bishopric in the 40th ward - a singles ward in our stake. I was the second counselor and had a wonderful experience for a couple of months at which time the first counselor was called to a new position. Well guess who became the new first counselor? There isn't a lot of difference except you get another interview with the stake presidency. They never meet with you along - at least not for all of the time. Lori was always asked to come along, to make sure that she could support what I was doing. We had a lot of little kids and it's hard when your husband is off playing around and your left to fend for yourself. She was great and always said the right things even if it wasn't easy to accept. The hardest part for her was that we didn't go to the same meetings and if the kids were acting up I couldn't give them the evil eye of - shape up or else. Oh well - that didn't last much longer as we received a call in October of 1995 to come meet with the stake presidency again. This would be the fifth interview in less than a year and a half. Like all but the first one, there were all three members of the presidency in the room. After we all shook hands, which is definitely and Mormon necessity - Lori made a profound statement, "don't you guys know anyone else in the stake?" Now having served in the stake presidency later, I know that they had other interviews during the year - but that's what it felt like. At that time I was called as the first Bishop of the Eastridge Ward, that was formed a couple of weeks later. This was another sacrifice for the family which Lori supported - but at least now we were in the same meetings and I could see what the kids were doing.