Michael and Friends Visit St. George

The 2017 Presidents’ Day Weekend was three days of family and fun …. well, except for three days of cold and rain.  Kelly and Gary came for a sunshine break as did Michael and Lilly who brought along Michael’s darling girlfriend Jessica and her three kids, 14-year-old Kirsten, 12-year-old Joshua and 9-year-old Laura (who is also Lilly’s BFF), all who were a little disappointed in the lack of Dixie sunshine.  We didn’t do anything too exciting – a little Parade of Homes, exploring Thunder Junction (St. George’s new all-abilities park), some Phase Ten and Sequence,  some Menchi’s frozen yogurt, and breaking out the WII to dance and play sports, all while getting better acquainted and caught up.

Oh, and Simeon and Stephanie got engaged on Presidents’ Day (February 20, 2017).

The following day, I had a meeting in SLC at 1:00 p.m. so we were planning to leave at about 6:30 a.m.  When I mentioned it to Simeon, he said Steph was leaving on the shuttle to go home to Utah County at the very same time so we offered her a ride so she’d have a credit for her next trip to St. George.  Her parents met us near the freeway off ramp to take her to her car.  When they realized she had a ring on her finger, her dad said, “well, that’s no surprise.  We’ve already put money down on a reception center and a wedding dress is hanging in her closet!”

The happy couple will likely "tie the knot" in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple on Saturday, August 5 with a reception following in Springville.  An Open House will be held in St. George on Saturday, August 12 (watch for more information on times and locations).

DNA Proves Our Ancestry (but, no surprises)

I gave my brother Larry the Ancestry.com DNA kit for Christmas and he finally got his results.

Because my ancestors (on both sides with the exception of my paternal grandmother) have been in the United States for nearly 400 years, I would have expected to find a little bit of Native American – or African – blood in our make-up, but alas there aren’t any surprises.  Here’s how it shakes out:

28%	Great Britain (our Bradford grandparents and their ancestors)
26%	Western European (our Henion ancestors from Germany and The Netherlands)
18%	Irish (this one was a surprise … but Ireland is part of the UK and there are a lot of women on our family tree whose information I do not have)
9%	Scandinavian (another minor surprise but for the same reason)
9%	Eastern European (hmmmm, Estonia, Latvia, Bulgaria … who knew?)

             

Of course, I was disappointed to find out I’m not - even a little bit - Guyanese.  I was so certain!!!

Now I’d like to have one of my children’s DNA tested although I would be surprised it would come back as anything less than 50% Great Britain since their mother is now confirmed to be 28% British and their father is probably 98% British.  It’s all an educated estimation of our ethnicity anyway, so guess we’ll see!