Molly

We had to put down our golden retriever, Molly, this morning. It was one of the hardest things we ever had to do. Molly was almost 16 and had cancer and hip problems. It was hard for her to get up anymore and her back legs would give out on her. She also was in pain. We have had Molly since she was a little puppy. She practically was raised with the kids. Sean was 3 and Lacey was 6 when Santa brought her to us for Christmas.

Molly loved to bark. She barked at everything. She could bark for hours! She was also a sweet and loving dog. We love her so much. She loved to chase cats and squirrels. She caught a squirrel once in Louisiana, it wasn't pretty. She also was a mama many times over with two different litters.

She lived a full long life in California, Louisiana, Texas, Montana and spent a few weeks with me in Wyoming too. We took her to our vet this morning and things went very peaceful. She slowly went to sleep and we petted her and told her how much we loved her. The vet was very sensitive and professional. Our good friends, the Bowdens, let us bury her up on their property located on the Wine Glass above Livingston. She is overlooking a beautiful view. We are very sad to lose her, but she had a happy life with us. Our other dog, a black lab, Liberty, is lost without her. They were joined at the hip for four years. I'm sure anyone who has lost a loved family pet knows how we are feeling today.

Molly's grave is just in front and to the right of the post up on the Wine Glass, near Livingston

This view is from Molly's grave looking over to Paradise Valley

Beartooth Highway

Mom, Lacey and I decided to go to Red Lodge, MT for dinner on Wednesday. What usually takes 45 minutes took us 4 hours because we decided to go up and over the mountain on the Chief Joseph Highway and Beartooth Highway. These are probably the most scenic drives in the lower 48. Here we are looking down into Sunlight Basin. We were on a lot of wynding roads, saw lots of rivers, creeks, lakes, trees, waterfalls, snow, huge prairie dog type animals. It's a great drive. Just plan on spending most of the day on it. We had so much fun. Lacey is already planning another trip to show Sean.

There are some pretty spots on the Chief Joseph Highway. Lacey and I kept getting out of the car to take pictures. Grandma Wilma stayed in the car for most of the trip, but got to see some pretty country.

Is this the Bear Tooth? We saw a sign on the side of the road here that said Beartooth. It was a big mountain range across a deep valley. This point looked like a tooth to us, so we are guessing the Beartooth Range got its name from something that resembled a bear's tooth. Anybody know?

Don't you think this looks like a bear's tooth? At first I thought this was the "beartooth" This was shot where the Chief Joseph Highway ended at the Beartooth highway. We turned right to head for Red Lodge.

Lacey was hanging over the bridge to take this shot. I had a hold of her belt loop! I'm getting too old for all this daredevil stuff.

Lacey was standing very close to this waterfall. I was yelling at her to not stand so close. I was nervous, she thought I was over-reacting.

Lacey loved this lake, she said it was one of the most beautiful spots she has ever seen.

Mom and Lacey wanted to take a picture next to the snow wall near the top of the mountain. The air was so thin that Mom got dizzy walking back to the car. I bet we were about 10,000 feet up.

King of Queens

Way to go Andy Roddick! He won his 4th Queen's Title at the Artois Championships in England today, equaling most wins in this tournament with John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Lleyton Hewitt. He played an unranked Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut, who beat Nadal earlier in the tournament. Mahut won the first set and was at match point in the second set tie-break when Roddick dug deep and won the second set and then a tough third set. Let's see if Andy has the same success at Wimbledon next week.

Nashville

I went to Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday for a business trip. It went very well until I got to Minneapolis Friday night and found out the flight to Billings was canceled and I had to spend the night in Minnesota. I caught an early plane to Bozeman and had Page pick me up so I could spend Father's Day in Montana withe family. They lost my luggage. They thought it was in New York, but then found out it was in Billings, so I will pick it up on Sunday on my way back to Wyoming. But I only have one pair of underwear and no church shoes. I will be wearing sandals with my suit tomorrow. Should me interesting.

But the real joy of going to Nashville was to hunt down my secret crush, Shania Twain. I looked everywhere and I found her a couple times. I hope she doesn't think I was stalking her.

I ran into Shania at the Wax Museum and she even let me give her a little kiss

Here I spotted Shania at the airport!

I stayed at the Gaylord Opryland. It is right next to the Grand Ole Opry. The first night they had "plant" people playing soft jazzy music. Interesting since this is a country music kinda town. The h otel has gardens, shops, pools, music, and great food. Even the outdoor gardens are under a huge glass roof and everything is kept at 70 degrees even with the hot humid weather outside the "dome".

An interesting "vine lady" was entertaining the crowd

There were waterfalls throughout the resort.

The resort was a garden paradise. Trees and flowers of every kind. I thought these purple orchids looked pretty.

Butch Cassidy - but no Sundance Kid

While Lacey was working tonight, Mom and I took a little drive down to Meeteetse. It is a cute litte town in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming. A few things they are famous for: they found black ferrets near town a few years ago, when the world thought they were extinct. Thank goodness we still have black ferrets in the world. Another item is that Butch Cassidy used to hang out here in his younger days. He was arrested in Meeteetse too. The only time he went to jail was when he lived here. So we had a burger in the old saloon where they nabbed him. Pretty neat if you are into Butch Cassidy. Mom saw a picture of him and said he didnt look like Butch Cassidy. "Paul Newman only played Butch Cassidy, Mom!" He didn't really look like him. We liked the Sundance Kid (Redford) too, but I don't think he ever set foot in Meeteetse.

June in Wyoming

Wyoming got a freaky storm yesterday in the middle of the night. In our town, we lost power for awhile. We had high heavy winds, that I thought sounded like a tornado, and hail. About 3 inches of rain fell over night. This place usually gets 6 inches a year, so we are half way to normal in one day. Just to the east of us in Lovell, they got hid hard. They even had snow that way. We just got hail. I woke up several time during the night with all the noise. My mom, who is here visiting slept through the whole thing. Can you believe it? Trees fell, fires started, it was a mess, but at least mom got a good night's sleep.

Tennis Expo

Sean's friend, Eliza, agreed to play a set of tennis with Sean so Grandparents could watch. Eliza was this year's valedictorian and also came in 3rd at State for Girls Doubles. (Sean beat her 6-1 today).

Grandpa Art, Grandma Sherry, Page and Grandma Wilma

Sean and Eliza put on an exhibition game this afternoon so the grandparents could watch Sean play some tennis.

Laptop

Sean was excited to get a laptop for graduation from Grandpa Art and Grandma Sherry. He will use it at BYU next year.

Grandma Wilma was also very generous and paid for his Senior Band Trip to Salt Lake City, Utah as a graduation present

Lacey got him a stereo that has a docking station for his I-Pod.

And parents will be getting him a digital camera.

I would say the kid did good. Don't you?

GRADUATION

Sean graduated from high school Sunday afternoon. It was a wonderful ceremony. Grandparents from California were here and his family to witness this great occasion. He marched in and he looked so good in his purple and the National Honor Society sash. We heard some funny speeches and we saw a wonderful slide show. They showed a picture of Sean when he was little at the River when he caught his first fish, a picture of him on a swing as a small boy and his senior picture. Later we were surprised to see one of him and Sant flexing their muscles, and then another one of him at the winter formal. It was exciting to hear them call his name as he stepped up on the stage to receive his diploma. He was all smiles. He has worked very hard and has had a great senior year. Now he is preparing to go to Brigham Young University in the fall. After graduation today we went to a few graduation parties around town. It was a lot of fun.

Sean marching in to Pomp & Circumstance

Sean, receiving his diploma

Now all the Gilmores are high school graduates!

Mom and Dad are proud of Sean, he has the National Honor Society sash on. He has a black fly on his gown too that Mr. Gates gave all the seniors in band to wear.

Lacey and Grandma Sherry

Sean and Sant showing off their diplomas

Here is Sean with a few of his good friends.

Duty to God

Sean received his Duty to God Award Sunday morning at Church. He completed the entire program which included the Deacon assignments, Teacher assignments and Priest Assignments. It took him 6 years to complete. I don't know too many boys who have accomplished this.

Sean was also sustained and ordained today an Elder in the Melkezedek Priesthood. I was able to confer the Priesthood on him. What an honor for me as Sean's father to do that. He gave a very sweet testimony today too. He has really prepared himself for this big step.

Here is a picture of all of us who made it today from our family to support Sean. Later we would watch him graduate from high school. It is a pretty important and busy day for us.

Sean with Grandma Wilma

Sean with Grandpa Art and Grandma Sherry

Baccalaureate

Sean with Pastor Kelvin Hoover who was the speaker tonight. The Pastor is also Sean's tennis coach. He spoke about the "Key to Success"... which wasn't getting rich but serving others.

Sean and about another 20 graduates showed up at Baccalaureate tonight at the 1st Baptist Church. The Seniors are also having their all night party at the Civic Center tonight from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow. There are going to be a lot of tired graduates tomorrow.

Graduation Party

We threw Sean a Graduation Party today. We were celebrating him graduating from high school tomorrow, for graduating from seminary last Wednesday and for earning his Duty to God Award tomorrow. He is also being ordained an Elder tomorrow. So why not throw a party. We had his grandparents from California here and friends from school, tennis and church. We had a lot of fun and Sean was in the party mood with his 2007 glasses.

Outside we hung streamers and balloons

Inside we hung streamers

Grandma Sherry is helping get the table ready with veggies, chips, dips, cheeses, meatballs, pasta salad, cake and punch

We made his graduation cake look like a tennis court. You Aced It, Sean!

Friends from Church

Friends from church and school and tennis

Friends from school and tennis team and Grandpa Art

Last Day of School

I snapped this picture this morning before Sean ran off for his last day of school, last day of high school! He was going to have a pretty easy day of it: graduation practice and then a Senior BBQ. But one of his teachers had a great idea that his class should write a paper that was due today before 8 a.m., since grades had to be turned in. He worked on it last night and got up early and finished the paper and ran it up to school. What a good student.

Sean just showed up at home around 7 p.m. He was out with his friend, Sant, and they hit a couple parties already. I guess it is time to celebrate.

Here is a picture of Sean on his first day of school as a Senior in August. He started his Senior year at Lufkin High School in Texas and ended it at Park High School in Montana.