We arrived back home last night at 10 p.m. to find that Pocatello had a lot of snow! About six inches of snow had fallen on Saturday and Sunday followed by strong winds. The drifts across the front of the house were about three feet deep. Some Good Samaritan had run his snowblower on part of our driveway and shoveled a path to the front door. We were very grateful because otherwise we would have been parking on the road and walking through the drifts! This evening I fired up the snow blower and finished the job. We’re supposed to get more snow tonight and tomorrow, so I needed to clear away the last batch before the new deposit arrives.

The trip back was OK. Our flight was delayed about an hour, but was only about a half-hour late arriving in Salt Lake City. Nina’s checked baggage arrived, mine did not. It’s amazing to me how I can check in two and a half hours early for a direct flight and the suitcase doesn’t arrive. They delivered it this afternoon, so all is back in order. Jared’s flight was delayed a couple of hours due to air traffic control into Chicago, so he was very late getting home to Seattle. Everyone got where they were going, however.

I had a wonderful time at Dawnmarie’s over the Thanksgiving weekend. She and Kirk were marvelous hosts. They worked very hard to make sure everything went smoothly for everyone. They cooked and cooked and cooked. I ate and ate and ate. A great combination! Rachel gave up her bed for Nina and me. Madison gave up her bed for Daryl and Jared. Kate gave up her bed for Jared’s girlfriend Arlene. We all were very nicely accomodated. The Thanksgiving dinner was great. Food in prodigious quantities, well prepared, and well presented. Ham as well as turkey, apple, cherry, pumpkin, and chocolate cream pies. A garden variety of vegetables. Relish plates with all manner of goodies, including my favorite olives. As I said, the eating was very fine.

Actually, I should better describe our stay as being at Dawnmarie’s Bed and Breakfast! We arrived to find bath towels with bows and chocolates and bath supplies on the bed along with a menu for the time we would be there. She had gotten a small bucket and filled it with all the toiletries that one would need and put that in the bathroom. I can only say that few hotels provide this much service. No wonder I had such a great visit! Thanks, Dawnmarie, for everything. Nevertheless, I’m glad to be back in my own bed…!

It’s been a lovely Saturday here in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. While the sky was cloudy all day, temperatures went above freezing and the roads were much better. Since we all were going to Spencer’s baptism, that was a very good thing. I’ll put up some pictures from the baptism later. Nina took the best set of pictures and she’ll put those on her website. However, I did get a nice picture of Jared’s girlfriend Arlene and that’s the picture accompanying this post. She’s a delightful young lady and we’ve really enjoyed having her here this weekend. She’s had no problem fitting right in with the family. Jared is certainly smitten with here, and it’s easy to see why.

It’s fairly late on Friday evening the day after Thanksgiving. We’re having a good time in New Wilmington. This afternoon Kirk built a bonfire in the back yard to cook dinner. It was dang cold, but a lot of fun being outside around the campfire. We ended up cooking the hot dogs, brats, and hash potatoes on the campfire and then eating inside. There are some twenty people congregated here for the weekend and Spencer’s baptism tomorrow afternoon. We’ve had a lot of fun, lots of conversation, and lots of noise.

Today was bright and sunny … and cold. The temps maybe got into the mid twenties. The kids had a great time outside sledding down the small hill in the back yard. Madison had no sooner gone outside than she was back inside bleeding and bordering on hysterical. She had fallen and split open her chin in the same place as her bicycle accident last year. She needed to go to the emergency room, of course, and get stitches, of course, and that was not what she wanted to do today. Five stitches later, she’s now the wounded soldier and feeling rather sorry for herself. That was the major event for the day.

Tomorrow afternoon is Spencer’s baptism and then people start leaving. We’ll head for the Cleveland airport on Sunday about 11 a.m. to get folks there for their flights. I expect that the airport will be very crowded. The trip is coming to an end far too quickly. It will be nice to be home for a while. Our daughter does have a cablemodem and broadband access, so I made the early trip to Staples this morning because they had a Netgear wireless router and firewall on sale. That’s now installed and all of us can now be online at the same time — Nina with her laptop, James with his tablet, and me with my notebook along with Dawnmarie on her regular computer. It’s quite nice. Every home should be set up like this!!

The suitcase is almost packed — just need to put in the ditty bag and breathing machine tomorrow morning. We’ll leave the house about noon tomorrow to drive to Salt Lake and catch a very little jet for a four-hour flight to Cleveland, Ohio. We’re on a Regional Jet which seats two on the left and two on the right. The seats are tight and there’s almost no shoulder space. Ugh. But, it’s frequent flier miles and a direct flight. All of that is goodness. Jared is flying in from Seattle and arrives a bit before we do. His good friend Arlene is flying in from Syracuse, NY and arrives about the same time. Then all four of us will drive to New Wilmington. James and family will be coming up from Kentucky. Daryl is flying in from Philadelphia. Kirks parents will be there from Spokane. I think this is going to be one full, noisey, and fun house for the weekend. I’m looking forward to the trip and the few days there. When we get back, we’ll be home for the next three months and that’s also a Very Good Thing!

We’ve had cold winter weather with no snow of any significance. The weather in Pennsylvania, however, looks to have all the elements of winter while we’re there. For instance…. Wednesday: 50 % chance of snow with accumulation possible. Thanksgiving: Cloudy with 40% chance of snow. Low in the low 20’s, high in the upper 20’s. Friday: 50% chance of snow. I think we’ll see some snow!!

The past several days have been fairly nondescript. I’ve spent most of the evenings selecting pictures and getting them posted on the website. Saturday afternoon we drove over to Soda Springs to take dinner for mom and dad. We had a delightful visit with them. Dad has been up on the ladder and scaffolding putting heat tape up on the roof and in the gutters to hopefully keep the load of ice and compacted snow from accumulating on the roof. Sunday was a busy day, particularly for Nina. I spent the morning at home while she was up at the prison for her meetings. I had been asked to substitute on the organ, but had been given the wrong song numbers (we had sung them the week before), so some time was spent chasing down the right music and getting that ready. I had choir practice after church and got home about 4:45 p.m. We went to the Stake Center for a fireside on Joseph Smith at 6:00 p.m. After that we made a Home Teaching visit and got back home about 9 that evening. It was a good day.

The fireside was very interesting. The presenter was, interestingly enough, not associated with the Church Education System, but rather a local anesthesiologist. For the past several years he has been researching the authenticity of a purported photograph of Joseph Smith. This photograph was copyrighted by Joseph Smith III in 1879, the year that Emma Smith died, and a copy of the photograph is in the Library of Congress. The question being researched was whether or not this photograph was a picture of a painting or a photograph of the prophet himself. The evidence pulled together so far indicate that the photograph is most likely an authentic picture of Joseph Smith. His evidence and the discussion of the remaining open questions was very interesting and well worth our time to be there. But, now we’re wrapping things up to leave for Pennsylvania! Perhaps I’ll be able to post something from there.