Happy Thanksgiving 2017

It was a busy, noisy Thanksgiving, 2017.

Although Michael wasn't here on "the day" he came the weekend before to attend the wedding of his good friend Derek Smith who lost his wife a few years ago in an ATV accident leaving him a single father of 4.  Michael brought along his sidekicks Lilly and Laura.  Jessica and the older kids stayed home because she had a concert to perform.  It was a quick trip but such a pleasure to have our son and grandkids in our home.

Kelly, Gary, his son Brian and wife Miriah and their two kids arrived on Wednesday evening.  Kelly came completely prepared to take over cooking this biggest dinner of the year.  Selwin and Brianna, Simeon and Steph joined us for lots of good food, laughter and high-volume chit chat.  It was a lovely day.

On Friday, in an effort to keep people happy and energized, I loaded them in the car and took them on a "mystery trip" to the Family Search library.  At the front door, Gary told me he knew very little about most of his family ... didn't even know the name of one of his grandmothers.  When he repeated this to the missionary at the front desk, the man suggested he set up an account to see if there was any information.

A little aside ... Gary's grandmother, I am told, crossed the plains with Brigham Young and the early church pioneers to Salt Lake City - the second largest "exodus" in world history.  Soon after they arrived, his grandmother - as the story goes - got her feelings hurt and as such left the Church and took all of her posterity with her ... or at least Gary thought!

Gary set up an account and then we left for other destinations.  When we got home at about 5 p.m. Gary queried whether he could access his Family Search account from his own computer or had to go back to the library to do so.

Then the miracle occurred.  Gary got back into his account and began putting in names he knew which resulted in generations of his family popping up!  By 11:30 p.m., only Gary and I were still awake ... and he had traced 5 family lines back to the mid-1500's.  It was an astounding experience for both of us.

Our Trip to Branson

On our third trip to Branson, MO, we enjoyed the company of Tom and Merna Summers (Tom and Ed went to school together in Ririe, ID) and Bob and Katie Beecher (they took our place as missionaries in Guyana, South America) in our 3-bedroom condo.  

Branson’s population is approximately 10,500 fulltime citizens with more than 14,000,000 visitors annually.

During the week of November 4-11, we enjoyed seven Branson shows: Maxine’s Christmas, a Hallmark sponsored spoof on “A Christmas Carol”; The Lettermen (wow, so good even with only one of the original singers); Texas Tenors (they came in 4^th in the 8^th season of America’s Got Talent … and fantastic); Pierce Arrow, a comedy /musical group – very fun; The Miracle of Christmas at The Sight and Sound Theater (very well done and with amazing costumes); Six, (brothers of the same number singing and dancing in Osmond-esque style); and the Haygoods, with incredible music, amazing special effects and a talented family of five brothers and one sister celebrating 25 years of entertaining in Branson.

We also enjoyed a few side trips to Shepherd of the Hills; the Henning Conservation Area, Branson Landing for the obligatory shopping and strolling …. lots of eating out, getting lost at least once a day and a few raucous hands of Phase Ten.

The high point of the week was a day spent at Top of the Rock where we rode golf carts through 2.5 miles of spectacular Ozark country.  We saw Amish bridges, amazing waterfalls created out of the Ozark’s signature large, flat, tiered table rocks.  We watched the excavation of a sink hole near the golf course while enjoying our lunch in Arnie’s Barn (the original 150-year old structure moved from Arnold Palmer’s hometown of Latrobe, PA).  This fun day also included time spent in the site’s Natural History Museum, including prehistoric dioramas, expansive exhibits from the Civil War and the American West, and one of the most significant collections of Native American artifacts ever assembled.  This is the lifelong work of Johnny Morris, owner of Pro Bass Shops / Cabela’s … in short, David’s boss. It was an incredible day … just not long enough.

Of course, nothing ever runs exactly as planned … there are almost certain to be some glitches along the way and this trip was no exception. We bought roundtrip airfare with American Airlines in May.  Our trip to Branson was flawless, but the day after our arrival, we were notified our return flight had been cancelled so we were handed over to Delta Airlines where we were put on standby.  We left Branson at 7 a.m. heading for the Kansas City Airport … and arrived safely back in St. George at midnight!!!  What a day.

The week was wonderful – made more so in the company of good friends - but our 7 days in Branson went by entirely too fast.  Can’t wait to visit Branson again sometime soon because according to a quote from an old-time resident, “When God looked upon th’ work of his hands and called ‘hit good, he war sure a-lookin’ at this here Ozark country.”