September 11, 2012

Dike Failure Pics. . .

This morning, around 11:00, I was driving into town, passed the dike pond and thought, "Tomorrow is a canoeing day FOR SURE!!"  There was SO much water in the pond I couldn't believe it!

As I was driving home from my meeting around 1:00, I received a text from Dad, saying he hoped I wasn't canoeing on the pond because they had gotten word that the dike was looking like it would fail.  I assured him I wasn't, then hurried home, being diverted the back way.  But even Pioneer Parkway was closed off, so had to detour back by the high school, and went up Little League Drive.  There was water clear back to that road.
I picked up MaryAnn, stopped at the house and got my camera, and then we hightailed it to the park.

We snapped a few pictures, and took some video.  Then I looked down towards the dike and noticed a small "chunk" missing.  I quickly told MaryAnn and we RAN down as close as we could get.  Within a few short minutes there was a HUGE section of the dike gone, and the rushing torrential river that came from behind the broken dam was incredible.  It made my heart sick for so many of the families we know right in the path of the raging river.  Everyone was evacuated before the failure, but there are many many homes (at least 30) that have been slammed by this event, and I've heard only 2 had flood insurance.  TOUGH STUFF!!
  
  
  

  


  

Elder Hunt

I'm not sure how to handle this for the family blog.  Any suggestions?  I don't want to duplicate ElderHunt's blog, but I also want to make sure some of his stuff is in our Family blog as well.  So maybe I'll cut and paste a few of the pics, and some of my own personal notes and see how that works...


Wednesday (Sept. 5th), when I was doing some grocery shopping, I kept getting some really weird phone calls from a number I didn’t recognize.  Every time I answered, there was no sound from the other end.  I arrived home with my groceries, and Amelia was already there with Dezmond.  I was telling her about the phone calls when another one came in.  I told her I wasn’t going to answer it, but after 3 rings I finally did.  And it was DALLIN!!  I’m SO glad I answered!!  He was having trouble with his phone cards (4 of them), and the one that WAS working was almost out of minutes, so I told him I would re-charge it, and to call me back in 10 minutes.
I did, and he did, and then I got the whole story!  The flight from SLC to Detroit was fine.  But Detroit to New York was diverted to Connecticut due to a storm.  Their plane sat on the tarmac for two hours before flying off to New York.  By the time they arrived, they had missed their flight…which had been cancelled due to weather.  So, here were 14 elders stranded at LaGuadia Airport.  They got a hold of Pres. Leavitt (their mission president), who got a hold of the New York South mission president, who, with his AP’s and wife all driving vehicles, went and got the 14 missionaries, with their luggage, put them up for the night and fed them.
Dallin commented, “Who would have known that our first area would be ‘The Bronx’ in New York!?!”
So, we were able to talk to Elder Hunt several times on Wednesday, last being when he was in Toronto, waiting for his flight to Halifax.  They were all pretty ready to be in THEIR assigned mission field.


Later in the week, on Friday afternoon, I noticed a comment on Facebook from Sue Hampson.  She said, “Guess which elder is serving in my ward?  And guess who just had a roast beef dinner at my vt-ing companion’s house?”  I screamed!!  I could NOT believe that Dallin had actually been called to serve in Sue’s ward for his first area!  What an incredible blessing!!  She sent me her phone number and I quickly called her for all of the details.  It was SO much fun!!

Here’s what I found out without having to talk with Elder Hunt at all:  He’s in the Cole Harbour Ward; there had been 4 elders serving there, but they were all transferred out and now Elder Hunt and his companion are covering the area, which is a driving area.  They live in Dartmouth, close to the Stake Center and Temple, which two buildings share the same parking lot.  Stake Conference is on the 15-16th

Sue also told me that Pres. Leavitt spoke in the Cole Harbour Ward a couple of weeks ago…after the meeting Sue went up to President Leavitt and said, “So I hear you have a special elder coming in a couple of weeks…the son of the missionary that brought me into the gospel.”  He replied, “Oh, yes...I’ve talked with his mother!  You never know, he just might be serving in your ward!”    Surprise, surprise! (Now I have to make a note here...I NEVER talked with Pres. Leavitt.  We had correspondence through email ONE TIME!  So there was no undue influence here...I hope!)

Either way, it's pretty cool!  And Sue mentioned on Facebook Sunday evening about how great it was to walk into church, see Elder Hunt there, and have him come up and give her a big bear hug!!  I think Elder Hunt may be just what the doctor ordered for Sue right now.  I am happy for BOTH of them!


September 6, 2012

Labor Day Weekend















What a FUN weekend!!  Dad and I drove up to Mapleton Friday afternoon (when he was done teaching at the high school, and I was done riding horses in Pine Valley with The Hat Ladies...Even though it rained, lightening[ed} and thundered while we rode, we had a blast!!)














Nat, Erika and I went to the store for some "hiking food" and kind of got carried away with the camera and having fun together!



























Gives new meaning to "Just hangin' around!"


Saturday morning we woke up to lots of rain, and some pretty good lightening and thunder...but everything cleared up as we got to American Fork, and the hike to Mt. Timpanogos Cave was 

GREAT!  Kristy had come down from Salt Lake City, plus Dan, Janet, Rebecca and Kyle joined us.  It was rather strenuous, but not too bad.


















Saturday afternoon we headed to Brandon's and Tannya's, relaxed a bit, then got cleaned up and headed north to the Brigham City Temple Open House.  We were greeted with more rain, but it wasn't too bad.  There were TONS of people waiting for the shuttle to the temple and I was wondering how long it would take...Brandon did good to calm my ruffled feathers, and it really didn't take too long.  The temple was beautiful, and it was wonderful to be there with Brandon, Tannya, Nikki, Kristy and Rod!!










Sunday was spent mostly in South Weber, and then we headed back to the Mapleton Barton's, where we spent the night, and then hiked the Y mountain on Monday morning!  

We thought the Mt. Timp hike was a good workout...well, the Y mountain was even MORE of a workout!!  Whew!!