Special Moments in September

Chris & Lesa, Ben & Cooper, Angela & Eddie, David & Sarah, Ken & I, my mom, Josh & Ashleigh, Salt Lake City Temple

Sarah and David

We have driven the I-15 from Southern California to Salt Lake City, Utah a hundred times over the years, lately stopping first in Las Vegas to see David and Sarah, then in Hurricane, Utah to see Josh, Ashleigh and their three precious children, then to Orem to see Angela, Eddie and their fab five children, then Bountiful to see Chris, Lesa and their fantastic five kids, ending up in Centerville to see my mom. And we've loved every trip, although I may have complained the entire way about the long drive, usually singing the lyrics to "Riding Through the Desert on a Horse with No Name." 

But, this last road trip to Salt Lake City, Utah was very, very special; one that we will always cherish and remember. With a special temple sealing of David and Sarah in the Salt Lake City temple, to our 39th wedding anniversary dinner and David Copperfield show in Las Vegas, incredible memories were made and spiritual experiences were recorded in my personal journal. It's times like these that make everything insignificant and, at the time seems a bit challenging in this life, worthwhile and meaningful. All six of my children were there with me in the temple (and five wonderful spouses), along with my mom and other thoughtful family members. It was pure joy. My heart is still full today as I write and reflect, and it's impossible to describe in words. I am again reminded of how blessed I am with this eternal family the Lord has given me, and I will never take them for granted.

David in front of Salt Lake City LDS Temple

Lesa and Chris on temple grounds

39th Anniversary Dinner at the SW Steak House (patio)

Rooting for the Home Team

Lesa and Chris with 3 of Their Young Kids

Ken graduated from Brigham Young University in business management, and I attended the rival school on the hill in Salt Lake City in music education and vocal performance; the University of Utah. When we were married 39 years ago this September, the rivalry was a bit obnoxious with seeing Ken wearing a BYU golf shirt to a University of Utah function with me. Of course, he did that on purpose, more to irritate me than bother any of my U of U friends. And although I love singing the U of U fight song, "I am a Utah man sir and I live across the green," my loyalties pretty much depend on where my kids (and in the future, my grandkids) are playing basketball (or soccer), or performing.

I've noticed that the rivalry between Utah and BYU is almost as strong as it is with Duke and North Carolina, in my mind anyways. I saw that vicious, at times, rivalry when I attended the Duke / Carolina basketball games. Between the rude t-shirts worn by the Duke "Crazies" at games, the expressed anger with the attending fans during the games, and my true Carolina blue friends, I was amazed at how heated the rivalry was, and still is in Utah.

That leads me to seeing recent pictures with my kids on Instagram, first Chris' family decked in Utah clothing, then Josh's family posting the next day in BYU clothing. I smiled at the competitive spirit brewing. A couple of years ago I saw 1/2 of Ben and Cooper's kids wearing BYU t-shirts and the other 1/2 sporting U of U t-shirts. Ben, you see, graduated from the U of U in marketing and Cooper graduated from BYU in art. In fact, my conversations with Calvin on our morning walks a couple of weeks ago had him talking about uncle Chris and basketball, but then siding with BYU saying, "grandma, I know uncle Chris is coaching there but I think I'm going to BYU."

Chris, Lesa and Family

Chris and Lesa both attended and graduated from the U of U, Chris playing basketball (now assistant coaching there), and Lesa playing soccer. So they are obviously decked from head-to-toe in red as often as possible. Angela, who doesn't seem to have an allegiance either way, graduated from and played basketball at BYU, but rooted for Chris when he was playing at the U against BYU. (No pictures or t-shirts?) But Joshua, Ashleigh and their entire family are Cougs through and through with both Ashleigh and Joshua graduated and played basketball at BYU. "Rise and Shout the Cougars are out!"

Once when their son, Chamberlain, was being put to bed by grandma (me) he said, "I know you are a Ute fan grandma, but I'm going to play for the Cougs (BYU)! Are you going to come to my basketball games?" "Of course!" was my immediate answer. Like I said, I am 50/50 on this entire thing. Wherever my kids and grandkids play or perform ... I'm rooting, and their biggest fan. But all of this rivalry is fun to watch, especially on game days when BYU plays Utah. So, who do I root for? It depends. 

Cousins Kelli Jo and Madison

Utah Fans Like Dad?

Or BYU Fans Like Mom?

California Dreamin'

Shopping

Living in California is very exciting, for sure. But we tend to get so busy working and keeping to our daily and weekly schedules that we rarely take the time to really see what is here. However, when we are blessed to have our family come to visit (or we steal them away as we did this past week with Adelaide), we stop and make it a point to see all that California offers ... or we try. We jammed so much into the week Adelaide was here that it has taken a few days for us to recover. But...we loved every minute with her. We even took in sights we'd never seen; like standing in the middle of the street to catch a picture of the Hollywood sign on the hill, or work our way through the huge crowds of crazies in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. From Hollywood to San Diego, we literally saw it all. Addie never stopped smiling, and neither did we. When asked what was her favorite thing she did, besides the rides at the Disneyland parks - it was seeing the San Diego and LA Mormon temples and buying those cute white skinny jeans at Nordstrom's at the Spectrum!


Day 1 - Spa Day and School Shopping
Day 2 - Sea World and Swimming with the Dolphins
Day 3 - Hollywood
Day 4 - Church
Day 5 - Disneyland
Day 6 - Beach and Spectrum

Nothing better than Disneyland in the Morning!

Tinkerbells Castle

Mator in Cars Land

California Adventure

Lonesome Addie on Cups Ride

Cars Best Ride Ever

Addie Loving Disneyland

Cute Toontown!

Choosing the Ears to Buy

Newport Beach on 15th Street

More Ear Choices

Traditional Ears Decided Upon

1 hour wait to get on the Cars ride?

Grandpa teaching Boogie Board skill

Spa Day

School Shopping

Dolphin Interaction

Learning to Train the Dolphins

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

(Sun in Eyes) Hollywood Hill Sign

Theatre Star Handprints

Love My Addie Visit! 

Lego Love

Lego's, like Barbie dolls, constantly update their inventory with the latest characters, cartoons, movies, and trends with new sets hitting the toy store shelves. My grandsons love lego's and every birthday, Christmas or "grandma visits", the gift requests always include Legos. The only thing I recall about this Legos frenzy is that when walking barefoot in a home that is Legos crazy, I step on one that causes me a little pain. But, I still smile, pick it up, and try to find the rightful owner.

Nolan's 12th Bday Lego's

Before I switched from my Droid phone to my iPhone, I took a lengthy video of Nolan telling me
all about his Legos collection. He started sharing his complex collection with me on one of my earlier visits last year and I was so fascinated with all that he knew, how everything worked within the set, and the psychology behind the various sets, that I said, "hold it ... let me record you." However, that video would not upload from my Droid phone to youtube - it was just to large of a file. So, the memories about that hour of explanation from Nolan is lost, but the excitement about his collections still makes me smile. So, this 12th birthday of Nolan I asked for the hyperlinks to the two sets he wanted, clicked and purchased them. He, obviously was thrilled!

Chamberlain

My last visit with Josh's family saw me heading to the Hurricane Walmart to have cute Chamberlain pick out his set. And of course, Calvin loves them as well, although Calvin tends to like the Super Hero characters sets. On our morning walks he would tell me all the ins and outs of various Super Heroes. I said, "wow, you know lots about Super Hero's. Calvin's confident answer to me was, "I'm a Super Hero genius!"

Calvin's Batman Collection

Peanut Butter and Grape Sandwiches

Mom June 2013 at the Cabin Door

My Favorite Place on Earth

I've traveled the world and have seen some gorgeous places - Paris, Rome, London, Australia, Prague, Istanbul, Korea, to name just a few - but my favorite place on earth is our family cabin in Utah at Pines Ranch. It takes about an hour to get there from Salt Lake City, has no internet service, and if you walk far enough down the road from the cabin, you may get one (1) bar on your Verizon phone to text a quick message, but I love it. This last time spent there was with my mom, my sister (one of the days), and three of my grand daughters. And both mom and I made sure to pass on the traditions of "cabin life," from riding on the front of the car from the gate to the cabin, wading in the ice cold river water until your feet and legs go numb, skimming rocks (and collecting), hiking to the front gate with a bag of carrots to feed the horses, picking the wildflowers for a table centerpiece, playing Chinese Checkers, eating pancakes cooked on the old black griddle, and best of all...eating peanut butter and grape open-faced sandwiches.

Brooklyn and Jacquelyn Love the Wildflowers

Peanut Butter and Grape Sandwiches

Grandma Sharing the History of the Cabin

Feeding the Horses

River Playing

The Walkover Steps to the Meadow

I loved this last visit listening to my mom share the history of the cabin with Madison, Jacquelynn and Brooklyn. It was important. She shared memories of my dad coming there to relax and fish. She shared that after he died she would come up and sit outside looking out to the meadow, and could still see dad walking towards her, smiling and holding up his freshly caught fish. It made her feel close to him for those moments. So, although we have outgrown the cabin as a family, we haven't outgrown the memories that still draw us there.

Food Tastes Better at the Cabin

Riding from the Gate to the Cabin

A Family that Sings Together!

Jane (me) and Adelaide

William Clayton, my great, great grandfather didn't realize how far reaching his musical talents would extend, passing down from generation to generation, when he wrote the lyrics to the hymn, "Come, Come Ye Saints" in 1846. This well known LDS hymn signifies the difficulties and faith involved in the Mormon migration to the west. Besides writing song lyrics, poems and hymns, he directed a small band that comforted the Saints on the pioneer trail, a small orchestra and a number of choirs, and started the first theatrical playhouse after the pioneers arrived in Utah. And his flair for the dramatic and his musical talent has passed down to my children and grandchildren.

Brooklyn - Madison - Jacquelynn

It warms my heart seeing this same love for music, directing and performance coming out in my grandchildren now, as it did with my own children. From Adelaide, Madison, and Kelli Jo playing the piano, Nolan on violin and Calvin on trumpet - to most all of my grandchildren showing great promise with singing and performing.

Nolan had a solo (surprise to his parents in the audience) in the school Christmas program a few years back, Calvin filled in as soloist when I had bronchitis at this baptism singing "I Am a Child of God", to Jane singing "Part of Your World" from Little Mermaid. (That covers Ben & Cooper's family.) Angela's girls all show great promise with singing and performing, and are not shy about involving themselves with every talent show opportunity they can find. And luckily they live near "uncle Kim" so they can take full advantage of developing those performing talents with Clayton Production Studio's there in Salt Lake City, especially Madison. Now Zoey is showing her love for singing with doing her first recital with confidence. And Siri, dressed from head-to-toe in PINK, sings whenever and wherever she is. I love it. Their singing and instrumental playing is "music to my ears!"

Plato said, "Music is a moral law.  It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."  I know that my life would never be what it is today without music. My grandfather Clayton taught me piano when I was seven (7) years old, followed by my grandmother when he died. My father taught me cello, I studied organ in the Salt Lake City tabernacle there on Temple Square with Frank W. Asper, and studied voice for fifteen years with the late (and great) Blanche Christensen. Music has been a way of life for me from performing to teaching to directing choirs. And seeing my grandchildren showing that same love as I have for music is wonderful. A big "thank you" to great, great grandpa William Clayton for literally "setting the stage" for his family to perform and follow.  There's nothing better.

Calvin singing at his baptism

Madison and Kelli Jo

Madison ready for performance!

Siri decked out!

Madison