October 29th through November 4th

October 29^th through November 4^th:  Monday we were picked up by Brother Abadillo at 5:00 am and he drove us to the airport.  

Thanks Brother Abadillo for getting up early and driving us to the airport.  We love you.

We are sad to leave Guatemala, but we are happy to be headed on a new adventure.

We arrived home about 5:00 pm and were greeted at the airport by lots of family.  John, Charlotte, Kate and James’ families were all well represented.  

Our reception at the airport.  

We went straight to “Chuck-a-Rama”, a buffet style restaurant, in Bountiful for dinner.  It was so much fun to see everyone and get hugs from all our grandchildren. We were sad that Ginny and family live in California and that we will have to wait till Thanksgiving to get our hugs.

Click below to see Luke's skills.  

Luke in action

Tuesday we went shopping.  We bought a 2007 F150 truck from our son James and went with Charlotte to Costco to get our membership card.  

My new truck.  We also got phones and a Costco card--what more do we need?

Mom got an appointment to get her eyes checked so she can get new glasses. We then went to our storage unit and found that the key we had for the unit was, in fact, not the key and that we would have to have the lock cut off.  The unit is in Charlotte’s name so she would have to come down and sign to get the lock cut off which would take 24 hours.  Rats.  My ankle started hurting and by the end of the day I could not walk it was so painful.  This had happened a few times in Guatemala before we left, but not this bad.  We “googled” orthopedic doctors in Bountiful and found one that could see me at 7:45 am the next day.  

The sunsets here are always very beautiful.

Wednesday we found out that I have arthritis, 2 bone spurs, almost no cartilage, and a part of my bone that has died from lack of blood supply.  Welcome to old age.  The doctor said that walking through 3 airports on Monday and shopping all day Tuesday made my ankle mad at me.  There are a couple of options as this will only get worse over time, but for now I will try and not overdue it and control the pain with Celebrex.  I have an apartment to build before I can take time off for an operation.  We next went to the Halloween parade at the elementary school for Kate and Charlotte’s children.  It was so fun to see them walking through the school showing off their costumes.  

Abby has afternoon kindergarten so she sat with us for the parade.  She was an alacorn.

Miles as an ostrich rider.

Luke as a Death Eater.

Kimball as an ostrich rider.

Stanford as Master Chief from Halo

We then went to American Fork to see James’ children’s Halloween parade.  This was a treat for us to see them so happy.  

Campbell and James

Kirstin, James' wife got into the spirit of Halloween.

Rigby as a raptor dinosaur.

Emme as an alacorn (a unicorn with wings).

Charlotte was able to finally get down to the storage unit and sign to get the lock cut off.  Thursday we went to the storage unit and found some winter clothes.  It is that time of year and the mornings and evenings are chilly, in the low 30's which is about 0 degrees celsius.  I then started the demolition on the basement.  The only room that will not be remodeled is the storage area under the porch.  It will be a big job and one that we want to get done as soon as possible because living out of one bedroom is hard.  Mom says it is like camping out.  We are sleeping on a futon in Badger’s bedroom and he has moved in with his brother, Moose. 

This wall is coming out. On the other side is a hot tub room.

The wall is down.

This is the hot tub room that will soon be our kitchen.

We had to cut the hot tub in half to get it out.

The wall and the hot tub are gone.

All the paneling and carpet have to go.

This was a hall closet but will soon be our office/laundry room.

The office desk will be along this wall.

James bought mom a 2016 Chevy Equinox at the auction and brought it up to the house.  

Mom's new car.

Friday I spent the entire day tearing down walls and making a big mess.  Mom spent the day tending Kate’s children while Kate was at a trade show.  Friday afternoon I made the first trip to the dump.  Saturday was another demo day.  Chip Gaines and I feel the same about demo day.  Badger and Moose helped me a lot.  We made two more trips to the dump and Moose helped me get a new beam into the load bearing wall so that I can widen the opening into the office/laundry room.  

Saturday morning at the dump.  That is my new truck.

Moose, my assistant, really likes smashing walls.

Lunch after the second load to the dump.

Maybe you can't see, but the new beam is in.  Thanks Moose for your help.  I could not have done it alone.

My ankle is holding up as long as I don’t try and walk 5 miles.  Mom took a bunch of the grandchildren to see the play, “The Secret Garden” at the children’s theater.  She had a good time with them.  I took a break midday to watch a few minutes of Miles and Ellie’s soccer games.  

Mom and grandchildren at the play.

Miles just finished his game and Ellie's was about to start.

Sunday we went to church at Charlotte’s ward.  That is where our membership is right now.  When we get the apartment done we will move it to John’s ward.  It was fast meeting and mom and I took the opportunity to bear our testimonies.  We will miss not speaking and bearing testimony of Christ and his House every week.  

Tilly gave a talk in primary.

We had dinner at Charlotte’s home and then played some games with her kids.  We then went to Kate’s and played a card game with her family.  We have not had so much fun spending time with our family in many, many years.  It is great.  Sunday was very special and very emotional for me.  I cried all the way through the opening song and didn’t stop until after the sacrament.  The mantle might be gone, but the Spirit is still supporting and sustaining me and for that I am so grateful.  We are so blessed.  The opening song was “Count you many blessings” and so you can understand what made me emotional.  It has been a whirl-wind of a week with getting new phones, new cars, all the family time, and the start of my project. Maybe I should just call it our new adventure, because that it what it is.  Life is good and God in Great. We will be speaking in Charlotte's ward on Sunday the 25th of November.  The meeting will start at 11:00 am and is located at 720 East 550 North, Bountiful.  We will also be speaking in our old ward on the avenues, on Sunday the 23rd of December. The chapel is located at 589 East 18th Avenue, Salt Lake City and the meeting begins at at 12:50 pm.