Birthday Bash

We are heading up to Montana this afternoon for the weekend. Page is speaking at a Young Women's Achievement program up there for Brittany Orton. It just happens to be Lacey's 21st birthday on Sunday too and she has worked it to have the movie theater throw her a party and it is not costing her or her friends anything to watch the movie. They're giving a private showing for her and her friends. I guess it's all about "who you know"! Can't believe our baby girl is already 21. Anyway, we are looking forward to going up north for a few days. Should be a nice weekend.

Corn Dog Madness

Lacey finally had her first corn dog
We came up after 10 pm when we didn't have to pay to enter the Fair. So Lacey, Sean and I made a late night corn dog run.

what I have been waiting for all day.... a corn dog

Lacey and Sean also rode the Kamakazi a couple of times before we came home.

Emerson Drive

Sean and I went to the Emerson Drive concert tonight at the County Fair. It was a great concert. They sang the #1 country song "Moments". Great song. There first #1, but I doubt it will be their last. We also went crazy over the corn dogs at the fair tonight. Sean ate two and I had one, but I wanted more. Lacey and Sean went back up to ride the carnival rides.

Here is the lead singer of Emerson Drive.

Sean actually was having a good time.

Sean andLacey got home after midnight and had a blast. They went to get some corn dogs on the way out and the place was already shut down for the night. So off to McDonalds they went and ran into the guitar player from Emerson Drive. They ended up following him to see where they were staying and found the bus at the King's Motel. They were excited they knew where the band was staying the night, but at least they didn't act like groupies and hang out in the parking lot like some people were doing. But the guitarist did smile at them at McDonalds and talked to them about the fries (they were stale and he made them cook new ones for him).

County Fair

Pig Wrestling! Yep, this is a favorite past time at many county fairs in the area. I have to admit, its fun watching people try to catch a crazed and frightened pig in the mud and throw the pig in a barrel. Sean and I went tonight to watch this great event. We watched little kids and teenagers, by the time the adults were ready to try their hand in it we lost interest and left the event. However, Sean caught a Northwest College t-shirt and water bottle that were being thrown between teams to people in the grand stands. I of course enjoyed a few treats from the fair, a corn dog, an Italian sausage sandwich, elephant ears and a texas twister drink. Haven't heard of a texas twister? Well, it basically is fruit punch with pieces of lemon and lime in it. Sean also got a funnel cake. We shared the texas twister. Tomorrow Sean and I go watch Emerson Drive in concert at the fair. Page stayed home tonight, Lacey had to work so it was boys night out.

Happy Pioneer Day

Big Mormon Holiday today. Hope everyone is honoring the pioneers today. Our Ward is actually celebrating tomorrow with a ward picnic, but I think I will miss it since I am going to the county fair tomorrow to see Emerson Drive. Sean and I are also going tonight to watch pig mud wrestling. Today I am thinking about my great great great great grandma, Abigail Shaffer Woolsey. She joined the church after one of my great uncles joined in Kentucky and got the family to move to Nauvoo. Her husband never joined the church and died in Nauvoo, but she headed west as one of the wives of John Doyle Lee. (Two of her daughters were also his wives... ewww). Anyway he married her because she was old and needed somebody to help her out west. However, my grandma, didn't make it to the Salt Lake Valley. She fell sick in Wyoming and died at the crossing of the sweet water river. They buried her in an unmarked grave along the trail. I think about her more now that I live in Wyoming. I appreciate what my ancestors sacrificed so that their posterity could have the gospel in their lives. For me, Pioneer Day is a day to think back on family. So go celebrate today, go ride a horse or something. For me- I'm going to watch people try to catch a greased pig!

Dinner Party

Page and I were invited over for dinner at Faith & Greg's house last night. Faith is the other VP at the hospital and oversees all the patient care areas. They wanted to get to know Page a little better now that she is in town. Greg made a wonderful dinner. He sauteed some chicken breasts and put them over some home made hash and a wonderful cream sauce with a hint of lemon. For dessert we had Italian bread pudding. Greg is a great cook. They are about our age and have two sons ages 18 and 19. One is in the army and the youngest just joined the national gaurd, so they are empty nesters. It has been a long time since we have been invited for dinner like this. We had a lot of fun and had good conversation. Maybe we can start up a nice friendship.

One True Church

The Pope of the Catholic Church is causing a buzz around the world with his assertion on Tuesday that there is only one true church. And of course he is claiming the Catholic Church is the one. One of the things he said was:

“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church,” the document said. The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles."

I have to say, although I do not believe his church is the true church, finally a Christian church other than the LDS church is stepping up and making that claim. I can respect him for saying it, for standing for something. On my mission, so many people would say, it doesn't matter which church you join. They will all get you to heaven.... etc, etc, etc. It just didn't make sense. Why would Christ have so many churches that have so many different doctrines? How could two or more opposing doctrines all be true?

Howerver, there is one flaw in the Pope's claim to trueness! Although his Bishops may be traced back to the original apostles, they lost the authority to act in God's name. They lost that authority of revelation for the church when the apostles died and did not pass on those keys of the Priesthood to lead. But good news to the world, those Keys were restored again by the original apostles, Peter, James and John when they restored those keys to Joseph Smith, Jr. and the Lord restored his church on the earth again as set up when he was on the earth. We have modern day apostles, with as much authority and priesthood power as the original apostles. Sorry, Pope, there needed to be a total restoration of the church, not a protestant change either. Yes, the Pope was right to say there is only one true church, but that church is one that carries the name of the Savior himself, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Page's Birthday

Happy 45th Birthday, Page! Page had a birthday yesterday. The reason I have Giada De Laurentiis' picture on this post is because Page is really getting into Giada's cooking. So me and the kids took her to Adriano's last night for her birthday to a wonderful Italian Restaurant. It is in Cody, just down the block from the Irma. They really do have great food. We stopped by WalMart too and Page picked up a few things to make one of Giada's recipes. I can't wait.

Page got a nice purse from Lacey and movies from Sean. I was able to find a few Mary Englebreit items for her and a book about Princess Diana's mother (she loves Englebreit stuff and devours anything about the Royal Family).

Our big outing will occur tomorrow. We are taking Page into Billings for her birthday. She wants to hit all the dollar stores in the city to find things for her new Seminary Class. She is really excited. So we are heading back into Montana tomorrow.

Wimbledon ugly

If you haven't figured it out, I really like to watch tennis. My player, Andy Roddick, has been doing very well at Wimbledon this year, or he was.... He played some french player today and was up two sets when he couldn't close the deal and lost the next two sets in tie-breakers (usually he wins the tie-breakers) and lost the last set 6-8. He is out. He was supposed to play Federer next but is now packing his bags. UGH!!!!! That really bums me out. Venus is in the finals and I think she will win, but I'm not as interested in that as I am to see Andy finally win a grand slam championship besides the US Open.

Loving our Independence

Hope y'all had a happy Independence Day. It started out lazy for me. I didn't want to get out of bed. Watched a little of the Wimbledon Tournament on TV and cut the back yard. That was enought for one day. Then last night at about 9;45 p.m., I talked Page in taking a drive with me out to the end of town to watch the fireworks show. It was great. I was impressed that a small town like Powell put on such a big fireworks display. We parked on Lane 8 and watched from our car.

p.s. Thanks to all the troops out there protectings us and fighting those who want to destroy us so that we can enjoy our lives here in the USA.

All Together Again

Saturday morning the Livingston Ward Elder's Quorum showed up at 8 a.m. to help us load up the Livingston house items into the U-Haul van. We knocked it out in about 1 1/2 hours. Of course we were busy the night before packing everything up in boxes like crazy, and somehow I ran my jeep over a huge nail out front of the house and the tire was flat so while we were loading, Sean changed the tire and Page took it down to get patched. We cleaned a little, but all were so sore and tired that Page decided she would go back today to finish the cleaning (I think she regrets that decision today). We got into Powell about 6:00 and unloaded the cars, but left the van items until Sunday afternoon. Yeah, we don't move too fast.... Sean's bedroom doorknob broke off in his hand and we couldn't get into his room until Page removed the entire doorknob. Somehow the heater in the family room kicked on and it was fighting against the air conditioner in the rest of the house, so we had pockets of hot and cold air through the house when we got there. Sunday night the seminary leaders came by the house to talk to Page about being the new seminary teacher for the three wards in Powell. She is going to teach the Freshman and Sophmores. They think she will have about 30 kids in her class. And now today Page and Sean are back in Livingston to clean. I work until 8 p.m. tonight and Lacey has work today from 5-9 p.m. so we couldn't offer to help. We feel so bad...... or do we?

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.