Nauvoo 2025

After leaving Branson, we traveled north to Nauvoo for our two weeks working security at the pageant.  

We again attended church with Jared and Cheryl Willyerd in Fort Madison.  We ran into the Allens there.  We served with them for a year on our mission.  Not my favorite people but kind.

We had some of our meals at the pageant building.  This was one of our desserts.

Sammi and the kids came for a few days.  Evelyn was able to go to the temple.  Then we found Darth Vader in the fudge shop.  Henry is a huge Star Wars fan!

I was able to walk around the Country Fair with Henry and we played a lot of games but mostly stick ball as he LOVES baseball.  

This year I worked many of my shifts with Linda McKinney.  We got to know one another and I really love her.  She is a HUGE John Bytheway fan and I was able to snap this photo for her. 

Our overnight shifts were quite boring as one of them was on a Sunday and nothing happens at the pageant stage on a Sunday.  Still, I love the stillness of the night.

We worked with Jared one Monday morning.  Pat glazed windows while I peeled glazing off of another. 

Those overnight shifts give a great opportunity to see just what the crowd would look like from the stage and what great shots of the temple in the evening and at dawn.

Our weather this year was crazy.  We had one night rained out.  They wouldn't cancel until 8:30 when the lightning was within 10 miles.  One just had to look at the radar to know that the thunderstorm was not going to pass or go around us. 

There was one day where I thought I might die.  The heat was incredibly horrible.  There was no breeze and I thought I might literally melt.  

One of the wonderful things that happened was meeting up with Jeff Belnap (and his family) who served a mission in Gresham in the late 90's.  He actually taught Chad Thorne!

Biking home in the rain after the cancellation, I hit a spot in the road on the corner of Wells and Knight streets and my bike slid out from under me.  I hit my leg in two places and it left these wounds.  

Another successful two weeks in Nauvoo.

And with that, another photo that we will use for our mission application.

 

Branson 2025

Another trip to Branson because we love it so much.  This time we took Tom along and he loves it too!  A stop at Buc cee's in Springfield, Mo was a first for all of us. Delicious brisquet!

We went to a Murder Mystery show where we laughed a lot.

Pat played the part of the doctor in the cast.  He sang "Doctor, doctor, give me the news!"  Not in the script.

That was one of Tom's favorite things to do.  Perhaps because it was so interactive.

We saw the Hughes Brothers show where we reconnected with Hannah Hughes from our mission.  She's now married with two little ones.  

We enjoyed the Garth tribute show.  He was good but his wife came out and sang and she has a set of pipes that blew me away.  That gal can sing!

The Haygoods is a must see show.  One of the brothers did a duet with Elvis!

Their show was full of lights, special effects, laughter and great music!

The Blues Brothers was the best part of a decades show.  None of us was a fan of the emcee "Cyndi Lauper."

The Duttons are a multi-generational show.  They're all very talented and put on a good show.  

I will say that they were not my favorite. Still, a good, clean show. 

Another successful vacation in Branson!

 

Kay

I was blessed with the best mother-in-law I could have ever imagined.  Kay was spunky and independent and practical.

She knew the challenges of raising a family on limited income.  Therefore she often shared her commodity food with us.  

Once we had children, there was always rummage sale finds and thrift store goodies that came to our home.  A lot of clothing for the children plus some other "things" that included toys, games or decor.

Anytime we would visit, she would always pull out chips & dip, cheese & crackers and pickles and whatever else she could find in her fridge.  She was the best!

When we arrived home from our mission in 2021, we asked Pat to help her get her "affairs in order."  We got on Legal Zoom and created all the documents she would need.

It wasn't any too soon as only a few months later she had the onset of dementia and it took off like a rocket following an emergency surgery.  Six weeks after that surgery she was living at Oak Haven assisted living facility.

Pat visited her most every week day.  At first she hated it there but as the dementia progressed it was different.  She had some days/nights where she was combative but those were not the norm.

At the end, she did not recognize any of her children.  She knew Pat was the nice man who came to visit her but did not recognize him as her son.  Still, she had some great delusions that kept us entertained.    

On April 9th, in the late afternoon or early evening she finally slipped through the veil.  What a blessing for all of us but especially her!

A funeral at the Swedberg funeral home with mostly family was held.  Pat was the officiant and gave a sweet message.  Jon Crowe's son played his guitar and sang "Amazing Grace".  It was phenomenal!  Evelyn sang the song that she had requested and even when the phone quit playing the music she finished strong.  It was only about half an hour but wonderful.  One of the nephews who was to be a pall bearer didn't show so Brock stepped in for him.

Carole, a niece, gave a prayer at the graveside.  A meal was provided at the church building in Shawano afterward.  When all was cleaned up we went back to the cemetery where Andrew dedicated her grave with just our immediate family in attendance.  It was a sweet and tender time. 

On May 30th and 31st, our family went to the temple in St. Paul where Adam baptized Evelyn as proxy for Kay.  She was then confirmed by Pat.  Erin was proxy for the initiatory ordinance where I was able to perform two parts of it.  During that time I had an extraordinary experience where I knew that Kay was okay with being sealed to Pete Pleshek.  I couldn't have asked for a bigger sign!  Clare was proxy for the endowment and then we all headed to the large sealing room where Pat sealed Kay to her parents and then sealed Kay to Pete.  President Foote came in and sealed Pat to his parents afterward.  Sammi and Andrew were proxy for most of that.  

Eternal families are what God's plan is all about.  We had a truly celestial day!

Mesa and Gilbert

 

We have wanted to go to the Mesa Easter pageant for some years.  This was the year we made it happen!

Tom joined us for this trip as well as Cami.  

Kevin and Mary Ballard were kind enough to let us stay with them.  We went out on a river cruise for a morning and enjoyed the wonders of God.

It was a beautiful, but HOT, day.  We had temperatures up to 100 while we were there.  

Tom bought a new shirt at Deseret book store and also represented Green Bay at the same time.  

We had to spend an evening with Jason and Laura Roe.  Cami came with us as a graduation gift to spend a long weekend with her best friend Olivia.  They had a great time together.  

I enjoyed our evening with Laura and Jason.  I've missed them.

Ice cream was the treat of the evening.  When we couldn't get prickly pear we went to another spot instead.  

I love seeing the cacti in the desert.  They're majestic in their own way.

While at the pageant we also saw the Stapleys and Browns whom we served with in Nauvoo.  What a great surprise to see Jim and Shelley Brown.  We knew we would see the Stapleys.

The pageant was a wonderful representation of the life of our Savior!  I only wish that the men sitting directly in front of me were a tad bit shorter.  

A lovely long weekend with forever friends!

Ice Storm

It's been a while since we had freezing rain that turned everything into a slick sheet of ice.

I don't really need to do it more than once in a lifetime but living in Wisconsin gives us a chance every winter.

I will say that the sun shining through the ice was so beautiful.  Shiny and sparkling as the trees moved in the breeze.  

Unfortunately, the heavy ice caused many trees to have limbs break off and land on power lines.  

Our church was cancelled due to slick roads but we went to Shawano anyway.  The roads were not clear but not slippery like they could have been.  

When we got home, our power was non existent.  Pat pulled out the generator and fired it up.  It ran just fine but as soon as we plugged something in, there was no power.  

Fortunately the Gourley home had power so we went to their house and borrowed their generator.  

We ran it all the rest of Sunday and into Monday morning.  We were without electricity for over 24 hours! We have since replaced that defective generator with a new one!

 

The Greenhouse

We have some daughters  that would love access to a greenhouse. Pat purchased one this spring and we spend hours assembling most of it in the garage. It was cold so after some time my frozen fingers had to quit. 

Several weeks later we finally got it finished just before Easter. 

We went to see a movie that evening after moving it to its designated place in the garden. We had some rain and light winds while we were gone and we found it flattened the next morning. 

Pat spent many more hours putting it back together. It wasn’t quite done and we were expecting some intense storms. We moved it too where Pat thought it would be safe. As the storm rolled through the greenhouse rolled into the front yard and up against the maple tree. 

Once more Pat spent hours attempting to straighten it and get it back together. Just a tiny breeze blew through between the house and garage and the greenhouse blew into the car and bent it once again. 

Enough!!!

Pat took the next few minutes kicking out the panels and disassembling the thing.   Then off to the dumpster and recycling with the entire thing. 

What was supposed to be a blessing turned out to be a huge headache and waste of time!

 

New Firepit

 This fire pit was first put in by my dad when he owned the house. We didn’t care for the weeds coming through between the pavers so we tried something different.  The first change was taking out the pavers and putting in ceramic tiles.  That worked great until Pat drove over some of them with the tractor in the winter.  Ceramic tiles and tractors don’t mix.  Cracked tiles.  We covered those with another type of tile that looked good for the summer.  They didn’t fare too well with the winter weather.  

A few weeks ago we pulled up all of the old and installed these new snap-together tiles.  It didn’t take long to find out we didn’t have enough.  Another order only to find out that color was not the same.  I came up with a pattern and I think it looks great!  Here’s to spending time around the campfire!