Visiting My Family

Let me just say that family is absolutely the best!  I have so enjoyed being here with my family and friends this week. 

I arrived on Tuesday late afternoon.  As the plane began to descend into the Salt Lake Valley, I looked out the windows.  When I saw the majestic mountains, I couldn't stop the flow of tears.

My dogs gave me a slobbery welcome home.

All of my family came for pizza that night including my brother John who came from Price to spend a few days.  Tracy and Judd are in New Zealand, so I missed them but all of the rest were here.  Such joy and excitement at seeing how much my grandchildren have grown and developed and seeing the two new babies.  I can't express the feelings I felt.  How blessed am I!!!!

My brother, John

Rory

Dinner

Cade and Sophie

David and Luke

Reed

Ciclee, Reed, Me, & Christian

John asked me what I do all day.  It is difficult to tell a person what I do besides take phone calls and texts and try to help the missionaries so on Wednesday, I showed him what I do.  It was a busy day.  A lot of phone calls and texts, insurance things to work out, doctor referrals to send, calls to Missionary Medical, etc.  He decided that I do stay busy.

For lunch I went to Wasabi Sushi with my 11 yr old granddaughter, Ashley.  So fun to talk about school and friends and the things that are important to her.  That afternoon, I was pleased to have the former sister Mikala Anderson and her mother, Melanie, come to visit.  Love those women.

That evening we celebrated my youngest son's birthday at a favorite Chinese food restaurant.  The food was good but the company was better.

Love hugs from Jakey

Pineapple chicken

My family

Rory and Reed and two photo bombers (Cicilee and Kristin)

Silliness times three

Thursday morning, my sister-in-law, Mignon Coombs and her daughter, Linda Maxwell, came to visit.  What a pleasant surprise!  Fun to talk and catch up on all that is going on in her family. 

I had lunch with my daughter, Kristin and her son David at one of my favorite places to eat, Zupas.  Later my son Jake invited me to walk/hike a portion of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  We live in a fantastically beautiful country.  Our hike took about 2 ½ hours and we covered 5.4 miles of the trail.  I have added information on the trail and Lake Bonneville at the end of the blog.  Then that evening my family all came again and we ate Café Rio take out, another favorite eating place.

Suspension bridge

Jake

Watch out for the rattle snakes!

Panorama of the valley

Draper Temple

Another temple view

Waiting for our ride at the end of the trail

Poison ivy

Wolf spider burrow. If you look closely you can see the web.
See info at end of blog.

Flora

Delicate dried weed

Delicate dried grass

Acorns

I got this pic on the web. I didn't see it in person. Only its burrow.

Friday I went to Zupas again (can't get enough) with my daughter Katie.  I love spending time with my children who are now adults and the best people in the world!  After lunch, former sister Grace Loertscher paid me a visit.  So good to see and catch up with dear former missionaries.

Friday evening we had a cookout in our driveway with hot dogs, s'mores, and watermelon. Sitting in the driveway in the cool of the evening, I was able to greet many friends and neighbors who strolled the street for their evening walks.  The temperature in the day time is in the high 80's - low 90's but the evenings cool off to a pleasant 70 with awesome sunsets.

Reed & Jeremy

Rory & Kristin

Davey, Deanne & Shea

Rex & Christian

Ashley loves to play with the little ones.

David

Jakey

Rex, Christian, David, and Jeff (and Luke, facing away)

Zolee, my 2 year old granddaughter (David and Brianna's daughter) loves to look for bugs.  Kristin told me that there had been a lot of June bugs around.  Zolee looked all over for one but all we could find was this dead one.  As a kid, I remember my dad finding them, tying a thread to a back leg and letting it fly around.  It was like a remote control bug.  Info about June bugs at end of blog.

Saturday morning, I picked up my 10 yr old grandson and we breakfasted at Penny Ann's Café.  Their pancakes are "heavenly" and the French toast is to die for.

Then we went to Cade's baptism. It was a special occasion for me.  I had been asked to give the talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Having been a Primary president, I have attended many baptisms but attending Cade's and talking to him about the Holy Ghost was an incredible experience for me.

Jake, Cade, Shea

After the baptism we went to Draper Park for pizza.  The kids played and the adults watched.  I left a little early to go with Cicilee, my oldest granddaughter, to get a pedicure.  We had a tradition before I left on my mission to go every 6 weeks or so to get a pedicure and then dinner.  Had to renew old traditions.

Luke & Davey

Cicilee, John, Jake, Deanne, David, Jeff, Katie

John's daughter, Amanda and her daughter Abbie, and his son's John Jr. and Peter and his son Dylan and a friend Angela came from Helper/Price to eat sushi at Itto.  Dessert at Golden Spoon.  There is no yogurt like Golden Spoon.  Not even in New York!

John, John jr, Rex

Amanda, Angela, Peter

Dylan

Abbie

Brianna and Zolee

Sunday was my Stake Conference so I was thrilled to see many ward and stake friends.  Spiritual meeting and much focus on the Book of Mormon and missionary work. 

At 4:00, Jeff and Deanne had Rory blessed.  A spiritual day ending with another family dinner.

Rory Elizabeth Larsen

Deanne and Jeff

Cicilee and Gentry with the babies

Monday I had scheduled a visit with my eye doctor.  I have glaucoma so I wanted to make sure that there had been no change in my eye pressure.  The pressure is good and the tests performed were good but when the doctor looked at my optic nerve he saw a change.  He wants to do another test which he couldn't do when my eyes were dilated.  I was scheduled to fly home tomorrow, Tuesday, but in order to get the test done, I need to stay a few more days.  I was able to change my flight so I will return to NYC on Friday.

In the eye doctor's office, this collection of eye glasses caught my attention.

Monday night the family gathered for pizza made by Jeff and Katie.  Nothing better than homemade pizza. I was so excited to eat that  I didn't even get pictures.  I was pleased to be visited by former missionaries and dear friends, Jayson Burningham and Parker Young.  So fun!! I made them eat pizza.

Parker Young and Jayson Burningham

This has been a glorious week.  Just let me say this again:  family is absolutely the best! 

As I prepared what I wanted to say to Cade at his baptism, I was reminded about the gift that each of us receives when we are baptized and also that we are confirmed members of the only true church on the earth.  The same church that Jesus Christ organized when He was on the earth.  After the death of the apostles and other leaders, the church became corrupted and disintegrated for a lack of a better way to say it.  The church was restored to its fullness through the Prophet Joseph Smith.  We are blessed to be members of the church.

After being confirmed a member of the church, we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Many gifts we are given wear out, break, are lost, or are not worth anything to us but the gift given to us after baptism is a gift that never wears out or gets broken. It is a gift that if we choose, can be with us to help us to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father.  It is a gift given to us because Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us. 

The Holy Ghost can lead us to the path of righteousness and then act as our compass to guide us along that path.  He speaks to us in a still small voice that we feel/hear in our hearts, minds, or ears. We have to live our lives in such a way that we can "tune into" and hear the promptings.  We must try to obey the commandments and choose the right.  We must keep clean in thought and deed.  The Holy Ghost cannot dwell in an unclean place.

The Holy Ghost is a teacher.  He will help us to learn as we study the scriptures and he will help us to learn all things that will help us to grow and to draw closer to the Savior.

Another name for the Holy Ghost is the Comforter.  He helps us in times of sorrow, trials, loneliness, etc.  We are never left alone if we seek his comfort and care.

The Holy Ghost testifies to us of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  He will let us know the truthfulness of all things.

Remember that the Holy Ghost: comforts and teaches, tells us what we should do, changes our hearts, fills us with hope and love, and testifies of Jesus Christ.

I testify to you that I have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost in my life.  I have been directed and have been comforted.  I know that Jesus Christ lived and died for me and that He lives again and has shown the way I must go.  I know that I am a child of God and that if I listen to and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost I will be able to return to the presence of my Father in Heaven and my Savior, and that my family can be eternal.

I love you my family and friends.


The Bonneville Shoreline Trail is a mixed use (biking/hiking) recreation trail in Utah that will follow the shoreline of the ancient Lake Bonneville where today the Wasatch Front plays host to a growing region of outdoor enthusiasts. Some sections of the trail are complete and some are under developed. The Bonneville Shoreline Trail efforts hope to one day stretch from the Idaho border North of Logan, Utah run South all the way to Nephi, Utah. 150 miles apart, but will weave in and out of many canyons of the Wasatch Mountains, totaling 305+ miles of dirt and paved trails. If completed the trail would be located within 20 miles of 80% of the population of Utah.


Lake Bonneville was a prehistoric pluvial lake (pluvial is either a modern climate characterized by relatively high precipitation or an interval of time of variable length, decades to thousands of years, during which a climate is characterized by either relatively high precipitation or humidity.) that covered much of the eastern part of North America's Great Basin region. Most of the territory it covered was in present-day Utah, though parts of the lake extended into present-day Idaho and Nevada. (Its counterpart Lake Lahontan occupied much of northwestern Nevada while extending into California and Oregon.) Formed about 32,000 years ago, Lake Bonneville existed until about 14,500 years ago, when a large portion of the lake was released through the Red Rock Pass in Idaho. Following the Bonneville Flood, as the release is now known, the lake receded to a level called the Provo Level. Many of the unique geological characteristics of the Great Basin are due to the effects of the lake.

At more than 1,000 ft deep and more than 19,691 square miles in area, the lake was nearly as large as Lake Michigan and significantly deeper. With the change in climate, the lake began drying up, leaving Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake, Sevier Lake, Rush Lake, and Little Salt Lake as remnants.

Lake Bonneville was named by the geologist G. K. Gilbert after Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville, a French-born officer in the United States Army, who was also a fur trapper, and explorer in the American West. Bonneville was noted for his expeditions to the Oregon Country and the Great Basin.

Like most, if not all, of the ice age pluvial lakes of the American West, Lake Bonneville was a result of the combination of lower temperatures, decreased evaporation, and higher precipitation that then prevailed in the region, perhaps because of a more southerly jet stream than today's.  The lake was probably not a singular entity either; geologic evidence suggests that it may have evaporated and reformed as many as 28 times in the last 800,000 years.

Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake, and Sevier Lake are the largest remnants of the original Lake Bonneville. Several levels of the old shorelines are still visible above Salt Lake City, along the Wasatch Front and elsewhere. The appearance of the shorelines is that of a shelf or bench protruding from the mountainside, well above the valley floor. Four main shorelines are associated with the fluctuating levels of the ancient lake. The Stansbury, Bonneville, Provo and Gilbert shorelines each mark a time when lake level remained constant long enough to deposit massive accumulations of sand and gravel.

The Bonneville Bench, at about 5,102 feet above sea level, is part of the preserved ice age shoreline. This shoreline marks the highest level attained by the Pleistocene lake approximately 15,500 years ago. During this period, the lake covered over 20,000 sq mi and was over 980 ft deep in places.

About 14,500 years ago, the lake level fell catastrophically as Lake Bonneville overflowed near Red Rock Pass, Idaho and washed away a natural dam formed by opposing overlapping alluvial fans. The lake level fell some 344 ft to what is now the next lower bench (the "Provo level") in a flood that geologists estimate to have lasted up to a year. It is estimated that this breach released 1,000 cubic miles of water in the first few weeks. The Provo level is the most easily recognized shoreline feature throughout the Bonneville basin and is distinguished by thick accumulations of tufa that formed near the shorelines during the 500 years that the lake was at this level. During this period, the Red Rock Pass contained a river carrying water overflowing out of Lake Bonneville into the Snake River.

Wave-cut platforms from Lake Bonneville preserved on Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake, Utah.

About 14,000 years ago, the lake started to drop again because of changing climate conditions, and by 12,000 years ago, the lake reached a level even lower than that of the modern day Great Salt Lake. A slight transgression or rise in lake level occurred about 10,900 to 10,300 years ago and formed the Gilbert shoreline. The Gilbert shoreline is the least conspicuous of the major shorelines but evidence of it remains at Antelope Island and in large coastal features, such as the Fingerpoint Spit near the Hogup Mountains.

In addition to geological traces, the lake has left a legacy of related fish distributed in now-isolated bodies of water. The term "Lake Bonneville drainage" is often used to refer to the assembly of disconnected lakes and rivers; since the draining happened relatively recently, most of the fish have not had time to evolve into distinct species.

The ten-lined June beetle (Polyphylla decemlineata), also known as the watermelon beetle, is a scarab beetle, living in the western United States and Canada. The adults are attracted to light and feed on foliage. They can make a hissing sound when touched or otherwise disturbed, which can resemble the hissing of a bat. This sound is made by their wings pushing down, forcing the air out between their wings and back. They can be an agricultural pest affecting a wide range of crops because their larvae feed on plant roots and can weaken or kill the plants.

They are relatively large in size, some growing to sizes as large as 1.25 inches or more. As in other members of this genus, the males have large distinctive antennae consisting of several lamellate plates, which they close up when threatened. The antennae are used to detect pheromones emitted by the females. The wing covers (elytra) have four long white stripes and one short stripe each. The underside of the thorax is covered with brownish hairs. This beetle does not bite.

Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae, from the Ancient Greek word "?????" meaning "wolf". They are robust and agile hunters with excellent eyesight. They live mostly solitary and hunt alone. Some are opportunistic hunters pouncing upon prey as they find it or even chasing it over short distances. Some will wait for passing prey in or near the mouth of a burrow.

Wolf spiders can be found in a wide range of habitats both coastal and inland. These include shrublands, woodland, wet coastal forest, alpine meadows, suburban gardens, and homes. Spiderlings disperse aerially and consequently wolf spiders have wide distributions. Although some species have very specific microhabitat needs (such as stream-side gravel beds or montane herb-fields) most are wanderers without permanent homes. Some build burrows which can be left open or have a trapdoor (depending on species).