Wordless Wednesday - Barely Made It...

Sister's Weekend with a Grunge photo effect - Click on me to see me larger

San Diego

We just got home from the midwest and within 7 days were on the road to San Diego for a Sister's Weekend plus. It was another great year for the sisters and even though I wasn't invited (and yes they reminded me of that often) we were staying for a few extra days to enjoy San Diego and the David and Krissie. Sally did bring Sammy and he was thoroughly enjoyed by all the girls. They all love a baby!

The excitement of the trip had to be on Saturday when a small airplane pulling a banner had its engine quit, drop the banner, make a left turn and land in San Diego harbor. We were there and we watched the pilot make a 90 degree turn to the left and head down. We were too far away to see the landing, but it was in the harbor. Both the pilot and passenger got out okay and were quickly rescued. The airplane sank, but was later floated to the surface. It could have been much worse.

The girls arrived 2 days before JoAnn and I did so they had a great time together. I was only with them on Saturday when we went downtown. They wanted photos. I have posted some photos below of the girls. They are unretouched, so while they are okay, the finals will be better.

It's always awesome to see my daughters (and yes sons too, but I saw them the week before). Enjoy the few photos I have posted.

L-R Donna, Sally, Suzanne, Jeni, Krissie, JoAnn and ignore the first 2 showing
off their Disneyland bracelets

Wordless Wednesday - Sort of...

Our adventure in a VW Bus - circa 1969-1970 - Donna went to Tucson in
this vehicle as a 5 week old

Traveling Ruminations

Joshua in his favorite pose - running!

Since March 17 JoAnn and I have been on the road visiting family so much it feels almost as if that is all that we have done. And we are not done yet! But we are taking a short break before we travel to visit more family. Our travel since March has taken us to Utah, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri. These have all been wonderful trips and were organized around vacations and family special events. You have already read about the Eagle Court of Honor and the Personal Progress Pursuit on this blog. You may yet read about graduation, a new baby, sister's weekend, and a marriage.

In between these trips families visited us from Idaho and Utah. Families from Colorado and Idaho have yet to make a visit this summer, but they are planned. So even when home, we seemed to keep awfully busy. The next two weeks we will be visiting San Diego and then Modesto, California.

Mother's Day in Iowa

We love our opportunities to visit family. Not only does it make us feel good about how well our family is doing, but it gives us a chance to see our children and grandchildren as they grow and face the joys and challenges of life. It is rewarding for us to see the personal and professional development of each of our children. We are always totally amazed by what they're doing, how much they are doing, and how their families seem to be blossoming.

At the end of our last trip we spent time with my Aunt Marge and her family in Missouri. We always look forward to this visit. We take time to catch up on the family, talk about travel, family history, and the like. It was a chance for me to spend a couple of days going through historical records of the Merriam family that my grandfather had collected and organized. I scanned almost 200 documents and photos. Some of those will appear in future posts of this blog. What I discovered was that I didn't have enough time to get all of the Merriam family information. That means another trip to the midwest next summer, but this time we will drive and not fly!

Our newest pride and joy - Nicholas!

I also have plenty of family pictures that I will be sharing along with stories about our recent and future trips on this blog. Of course the challenge is finding sufficient time to write all of these blogs. So bear with me and have patience.

Art Museum Wednesday

While we were in Denver in early April we spent some time in the Denver Art Museum. It's wonderful enough that JoAnn and I want to go back again. I took a few photos with my iPhone in the "Americas" exhibit and thought I would share them here.

This is a modern piece of art that I really liked. It is called "gossiping."

This last photo is a piece of art done by a Native American and was actually created right in the museum. It took several months and the creation was an exhibit in itself. I thought that was a great approach to engaging people in creating art - even though most of what they did was observe.

Personal Progress

In March I wrote about attending our grandsons Eagle Court of Honor. In April JoAnn and I attended a "Young Womanhood" recognition program that included our oldest granddaughter, Alyssa. The "Personal Progress" award is the equivalent of the young men's "Duty to God" award. Both are awards focusing on religion and specifically on commitments, actions, and progress in religious education, personal development, morality, and family. To me these 2 awards are more important than the Boy Scout Eagle award. They receive less recognition, but for the individual completing them, they have a more significant long-term influence and impact.

The Young Women's Personal Progress award recognizes young women for their "worthiness and for completing all the Personal Progress requirements." As a recipient of the award, they show that they have established a pattern of progress in their life. The award recognizes that young women "are prepared to make and keep sacred temple covenants … are committed to keeping the commandments, serving others, and developing and sharing your gifts and talents."

Our daughters participated in this award, and I think they all completed it. I was and am so proud of their efforts. The recognition is completed over a period of time and involves making and keeping commitments, learning to work with others, learning how to plan and carry out plans, and become young women ready to enter the world with a strong foundation in faith and belief in God. There theme explains it far better than I can:

"WE ARE DAUGHTERS of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him. WE WILL “STAND as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places” (Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are:

Faith • Divine Nature • Individual Worth • Knowledge • Choice and Accountability • Good Works • Integrity • and Virtue

WE BELIEVE as we come to accept and act upon these values, WE WILL BE PREPARED to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation."

I am so impressed with their 8 values and the power and preparation it gives these young women to live their lives. I have watched my own daughters, and now granddaughters, pursue and now begin to receive this award. The requirements have changed over the years to reflect the challenges facing young women as they grow to maturity. What has not changed is the commitment to excellence. I'm humbled by the strength, maturity, and compassion that I see in our own daughters and being carried forth by our granddaughters. I know that working towards the Young Women Recognition award was one of those tangible factors that influenced them for good.