Our Trip to Anaconda and Beyond

Our trip to Montana – the first since Thoryn was born in October – was 11 days of travel, smoke and friends.  The first two nights on the road were spent with Stan and Diane Blackett in Logan where we got caught up, did some shopping and had dinner together.  On Saturday morning, we left for Ririe for Ed’s 55^th high school reunion (see “The History of He”), spent the night with Blair and Jodi Grover (she was one of his classmates), and on Sunday morning we climbed back in the pick-up (with the camper on the back) and arrived at Kaytee and Josh’s home in Anaconda,  MT at about 4 p.m.  On Monday, Ed got the bathroom ready for paint while we finished our preparation for this Cuz’N Camp with two little sisters – Adyn, age 7 and Skylar, age 4 (guess we should call it Sister Camp ... maybe next year Michael and Tara will let us bring Lilly along).  

On Tuesday morning, the four of us headed north to Glacier – considered the most beautiful of America’s national parks – on the U. S. / Canadian border.  We spent the first night of our adventure outside the park.  Sadly, the smoke from two fires raging in the park and in other parts of the west, had already reached our location 20 miles away.  The second night, we ventured into the park hoping the smoke would dissipate and those famous vistas (we had hoped to see) would come into view.  Didn’t happen … so for the third night we decided to drive south out of the smoke.  As it turns out, before we drove out of the smoke, we were camping at Georgetown Lake … 20 miles from the girls home in Anaconda. 

Kaytee warned me “Skylar will eat anything … Adyn eats nothing!”  We ate hot cakes every morning (sometimes with eggs … sometimes not).  Adyn loves “cow” so we had steak and Dutch oven potatoes one night.  Skylar ate everyone’s portion of Bush’s Bourbon and Brown Sugar beans – even wanted them for her daytime snack and for breakfast.  They enjoyed roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.  Bedtime was hard … not because they didn’t want to go to bed but because it was soooooo hot in the camper even a couple of hours after the sun went down. Our final stop was the Sweet Palace in Phillipsburg – the girls favorite place in all the world!

After dropping them at home – happy and full of candy – we started for home, with an overnight stop at Michael’s where we enjoyed the chance to catch up with our youngest son.  On Sunday, the last day of our adventure, we took a detour off the I-15 to travel to Richfield where we attended Sacrament meeting to hear Kimball and Cyndi Poulson’s report on their mission in Guyana.  We also enjoyed dinner at the family home, got some good pictures, then left for the last three hours of our 2000 mile round trip!

It was a very full 11 days … we’re glad we got the chance to see friends and family and to spend time with those three precious little girls – but we’re happy to be back home, catch up on the mail and the laundry.  Can’t wait to see them all again.

The History of He: Ed’s Life in Ririe

We attended Ed’s 55^th high school reunion on August 8, 2015 on our way to visit Kaytee and her family in Montana.  His Ririe High School graduating class of 28 now has 21 survivors, but only 11 came to the reunion.  Still it was a fun evening for him and a chance to re-connect to those who were so very important to him as a young man when he was a popular sports figure in his high school … and played the clarinet in the band during intermission.  Some of his best friends were Zane Mason, Rex Lewis, Jerry Lounsbury, Tom (“Tommy” to his “Eddie” in high school) Summers, Barbara Anthony Groom, Jodi Grover (formerly Joann Williams) and Janet Keeler Wilcox.

We also took a quick pass through town (only about 900 residents so it really was quick) for a picture of his family home … his high school gymnasium (now the Community Center) … his father’s drug store where he and his friends hung out … the bank … Robert’s grave (in the Ririe-Shelton cemetery) … and a canal similar to those he and his friends swam in during the summer months.

He still cannot believe he is the same age as all the old people who attended his reunion!  That’s probably the same reaction everyone has when attending a class reunion … which is likely the reason most people DON’T attend their class reunion!

The History of Me: Remembering Our Life in Rexburg

We took a 25-mile detour off the I-15 freeway while driving home from our visit with Kaytee and her family in Montana, to visit Rexburg, Idaho and for a walk down memory lane.  Of course, Rexburg has changed dramatically in the 50+ years since we lived there.  Our apartment is no longer there.  The center court of our apartment complex has long since been filled in and replaced by a street between Porter’s Bookstore (it was there when we were there) and a hairstyling school.  We enjoyed seeing the temple – much larger at four stories - than I had anticipated and how big the city had become (a little more than 27,000 people today compared to about 5000 when we were there in 1963-64).

I was on the switchboard ("google" it) at Ricks College (now known as BYU-Idaho) on November 22, 1963 and took the first call to the campus regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (the 3-story building in the collage above is a rebuild of the original main building).  

We also tracked down the offices of ArtCo, a wedding invitation company, for which I worked for two years when Ed was going to school at then-Ricks College.  At 19-years-old and newly married, I worked as the assistant to Art Porter, the company’s owner.  Art told me I was hired because of the 20+ applicants he had interviewed, I was the only one who knew how to spell – an important skill to have in a printing company. 

Three stories I remember about working at ArtCo:

·               I have been plagued all my life with hiccups.  While working for Art, I developed a particularly persistent case and my desk was very near his.  After a couple of days, he told me if I couldn’t stop hiccupping he would have to fire me.  I don’t know if it was his threat which scared me enough to make them stop, but they did stop.  He later told me he probably wouldn’t have followed through on his threat because he would have had a hard time replacing me, but still …

·               As mentioned, I was newly married.  One day, he told me he would have to let me go if I got pregnant because he didn’t want a pregnant woman running around his office (times have certainly changed)

·               Art and his wife had three sons:  Art, Gary and Randy.  I didn’t know Artie well and Randy was a few years younger than me, but Gary was about my same age.  When I left Art’s employ, the very quiet, reserved businessman told me he loved me like a daughter … so when I heard he had passed away, I called Gary and Randy asking if I had been remembered in the will.  I don't think Artie thought my question was very funny, but Randy and Gary got a big kick out of it ... and were happy to hear from their "sister."  

Those were good days and happy memories.