Temples We've Visited.

First: Salt Lake City Utah, where Mike and I were married in 1991.

Second: Ogden, Utah Temple, the city where we live during the summer months. We were also privileged to attend the dedication.

Third Temple is in Mesa Arizona. We live in Apache Junction, about 20 minutes east of the Temple. We try to go to both temples once a week. We don't always make it though. Live is so busy!

Fourth: Oahu, Hawaii. We were there May 2007. I went through it in 1978 during it's re-dedication. The Hawaii Temple and The Mesa Temple are very
similar.

Fifth: Los Angeles Temple. I went through it in 1960.

Sixth: Rexburg, Idaho. It is still under construction and doesn't look like this picture yet. The outside is completed. We were at the temple site June 2007.

Seventh: Manti, Utah Temple. I have been there to witness two weddings. John and Sherri's and my niece Joey and her husband Ed.

Eighth: Provo, Utah Temple. I was there when Joey was preparing for marriage.

Ninth: Bountiful Temple in Bountiful, Utah. Chris and David and Jake and Amy were married there. My son Mike worked here for three years, until he was transferred to the Rexburg temple, where he will probably retire in 20 years.

Tenth: Logan, Utah. Mike and I were married there to our first spouses.

Eleventh: Las Vegas, Nevada. Mike and I were at this temple with my uncle Dee, and cousin John and his wife Karen about April 2006.

Twelfth: Dallas Temple, Texas. Mike and I were in it briefly with his brother Boyd and wife Lou who volunteer their once a week.

Kenny and Joey

This is one of my favorite pictures. It's Kenny with Joey, who is now 26 years old, and has two sons of his own.

Joey is my oldest grandchild. He was a joy to be around, and always happy like in this picture.

Kenny doesn't like this picture because he has sunglasses on. Well What's wrong with that?

Joey is Kenny's nephew, and my daughter Cari's only child. They were all living in Seattle at the time this was taken.

Going To Arizona

These pictures are in the Superstition Mountains just east of our home in Apache Junction, Arizona.

Grandpa Linton's picture "Apache Trail"

The Lake is only 1o minutes away. And my grandfather painted a picture of the these very mountains, and the picture hangs in my Arizona room at our home.

We plan to make a trip back to our Arizona home in a week. We want to see how our home and yard have faired ( I should say fried) since we've been gone.

My brother John thinks we're nuts because we are going back to Arizona to suffer in the 110+ heat!
I called our neighbors Marlene and Tom last month to see how the yard was doing and they said that our yard is doing great! I was worried about our new little palm tree, and they said ours is doing better than their palm tree is doing.
We can't wait to see what the yard looks like. We worked hard planting lots of new bushes, and plants, and we want to see what they look like.
This is the cactus that is on the border of our yard and Maureen's yard. It is really hers.

I asked about our Ficus tree that got caught in the freeze last winter. They think it's dead. It had new leaves coming when we were there, and we were hoping for the best. Maureen didn't think it looked like the tree made it.
The leaves were at the top of the trunk and headed down. That's not a good sign. Maybe when we get back we will have a new bush, instead of a tree. That will be okay. It's all good!

"Katie" The Bunny

Kim






"Katie" is Kelsie's bunny and Kim has a bunny named "Sugar." We were playing with Sugar the same day when these pictures were taken. I don't know where Sugar is though. The bunnies were so tiny when I first saw them, but they grow so fast! They are pretty big now. Still very soft though.

You can see Leah and JJ with carrots in their hands. We had a lot of fun feeding Katie carrots. She was really going to town on carrots until she started getting a little full.

Katie wanted to stop eating but leah insisted that she was still going to eat more carrots, not because Katie was still hungry, but because Leah was having to much fun to stop. I tried to tell her that we don't make her eat when she doesn't want to, but no amount of rationalizing worked. I just told her to quit, and we put the carrots away. She threw a small fit, and then finally gave in.

Ogden Condo

We returned to Utah from Arizona mid-April and the temperature was a nice 62 degrees at 6:00 PM. The following day was a beautiful 72 degrees.

That was the day that Pam and Joan came over and helped us paint the condo.

The very next day it was 45 degrees and snowing! Burr! I think next year we will wait until May to come back. This spring stayed colder longer than normal. It wasn't really warm this year until June. Now it is July and we are burning up. It seems like we never get spring!

People always say, "I love the four seasons in Utah." And I always come back with, "what four seasons? We only have two season - Hot or Cold!

You can't see it very well, but the cinnamon car is our new car.

The bottom picture is the view from our condo

Family Get-To-Gethers

We are lucky to have 19 grandchildren. and 13 of them are under 10. It is so fun to have so many cute little kids around us. We feel very, very, blessed!

We get together often, and our daughters have sleep-over's quite often so that our grandchildren get together with their cousins all the time.

They love it! Just last week J J slept at Aunt Kim's house to be with Kim's nephew Malachi, who was visiting from Idaho.

Kim overheard JJ say to Malachi that it was too bad that he couldn't sleep over a second night. But before he could ask his mother's permission to do so, she told him he had been invited to sleep at Quincy's that night.

J J was instantly happy again.

Quincy is the one in the center of the second picture. J J is in red in the third picture. Ben is in the blue and just moved to Rexburg Idaho, he will be missed, especially by Quincy. Those two were good friends!

Anna is in the pink with the cute pose. And Anna, Leah and Quincy are in the bottom picture.

John Barrett Linton

These are just a few of my Grandfather, John Barrett Linton's paintings.

I wouldn't have these shots if it weren't for Robyn. She's wonderful! She's very interested in Grandpa's paintings and takes pictures of them when she finds them.

We will never find all of them, because he painted pictures for all his neighbors and friends, and for his huge family.

I have more than fifty cousins on my mother's side! And some of the cousins have moved out of state, and we I haven't seen my cousin Terry for possibly 50 years, and she has three siblings that I have never seen. I know they have a few of Grandpa's paintings in her family too.

I have at least four pictures that Robyn doesn't have. I better get busy and get them on here, so she can copy and move them to her blog. One of my favorites, is the snow covered mountains at the bottom.

The one at the very bottom: Apache Trail is my picture. I inherited it from my mother. It hangs in my Arizona room, in Apache Junction, Arizona. which is only a few miles from the lake and mountains that he painted.

He painted it from a picture. He has never been to Arizona, unless he's doing some extra-terrestrial traveling.

Wouldn't surprise me! Before my mother died, she said she and Joe (my sister Jeri's husband who passed away in 1969, and who she adored,) was going on a world tour when she got up there. I'll bet they did too!

My pictures are at bottom. They are the painting that Grandpa Linton personally gave to me. One is almost 100 years old. He painted it in 1915.

Inside Our Condo

Inside Our Condo

We're not very creative or imaginative because of the many colors and choices in the world - we chose the same carpet and paint as we have in our Arizona home.

We also chose much of the same furniture. The computer desk, and bedroom set are the same as the ones, in Arizona.


We already had the living room furniture. We bought the computer desk new, from the same place as the one in Arizona, and it is very similar.

We love the color of the carpet, and couldn't go back to brown or tan because most of the furniture is brown. No more brown!

4th July - Clint's Birthday

We had a wonderful time yesterday at Kim and Clint's house in Brigham City, Utah, celebrating the 4th of July and Clint's birthday. Everyone brought salads and side dishes to share.

Kim and Clint provided the chicken, which was really good. And Kim made macaroni salad.

We had watermelon and of course, birthday cake for dessert.
It was very hot yesterday, about 100 degrees, and we sat outside in the shade where it was very comfortable and watched Clint, and his band members play song after song.

Al, Marty, Clint and Clint's brother Dee helped out on the drums. Trevor, Clint's brother is very good at the guitar, but they didn't need another guitar player. Their drummer Niel, couldn't be there.

The neighbors got wind that the band members were here and asked that they come outside. I guess they were originally going to have it inside.

There were probably 30 to 40 neighbors sitting in the shade of their home watching and enjoying the band. They were celebrating a birthday also.

At rest time, we had karaoke. Lisa and Mike sang, "I got you Babe." Kim and Lisa sang a few songs, and Mike and I sang, "Crazy, and I Fall to Pieces." It was fun.

I've counted 34 of all of us and probably forgot some people. The party was a great success. Kim and Sharalyn cleaned up, and when we left Kim was hot and sweaty taking out the garbage, and working too hard.

I felt badly that I hadn't helped her. I didn't know they were cleaning up.

Bottom two picture are me and Kim's new puppy "Bella." She is so cute!

The cutest pictures would be of her in action. She chases Sparkle, their other dog, who is a large full grown dog, and who doesn't appreciate Bella one bit. She barely tolerates her.

Bella loves to catch on to Sparkles tail or beard and be carried around.

I've asked Kim to get it on a movie, so we can upload it onto U-tube, and embed it on this blog.

I'll have to keep nagging her about that. I don't want to wait so long that Bella is grown.

Fourth Of July Celebration

Our 4th of July celebration will be at Kim's house. It is Clint's birthday, and he likes to have a barbecue and he plays in a band that he sets up at his house.

I think it will be fun to be with the family, and Clint's brother and family are here from Priest River Idaho, and it will be fun to be with all of them as well.

Lisa has invited us to have an early breakfast at the park and then watch the parade, and we will probably watch fireworks in the evening.

The state officials have asked that no fireworks be done except at professional places, because of worry of wild fires. Our state, Utah, is the second driest state in the nation, and right now we are very dry. Our water numbers are dangerously low!

I doubt that it will make any difference in asking people not to do fireworks though. Because they pretty much do exactly what they want to do. It's pretty sad. I wish people would think about other people and their surroundings before they think of themselves. But, I understand because I like fireworks too.

We can celebrate the 4th, and have a wonderful holiday without fireworks.

p.s It's 10:14 PM on the 3rd and they are doing fireworks in back of my house right now. Of course, they will do them tomorrow night!

Closing On Our Condo! Yeah!!

I need to quit blogging for a few hours and go get ready for our closing on our condo. Yeah! We've been waiting 2 months for this day. What should have been a breeze, since we were approved the same day we applied, since turned into the loan from heck!

Not really, but the underwriter thought we were investors, which we're not. We truly intend to live here. But it shouldn't have mattered anyway since we are putting 20% down, and that is what is required for an investor.

The biggest problem was that the equity looked like it should go to my son and daughter-in-law, since they were the owners.

We had Mike and Susan sign a gift letter, giving the equity to us and that solved the problem!

Were Out To Lunch

No, we're not nuts. That's what you might think of when someone says, "they're out to lunch." We were literally out to lunch. Mike and I have spent a relaxing day, doing odd jobs around the house, running errands, and stopping for an afternoon lunch out.

Our life is relaxed now that we're retired, and it's so much less stressful! It's nice to not have to run around, have a time frame to meet, or always feel hurried.

We're enjoying just watching TV, (that's Mike, I live at the computer,) listening to music, surfing the web, reading, or taking a walk. We are loving retiredment as some of our grandchildren call it!
It's a better word for it. We are tired!