"FALL AT THE FESTIVAL(S)"

It is the final weekend of plays at the "Fall at the Festival" at Shakespeare in Cedar City so we headed north Friday morning. Sherrie stayed in Toquerville with her mom and ran some personal errands and I drove to Cedar to spend the afternoon playing on the computer with my mother.

We had reservations for dinner at Milt's Steak and Seafood and met there with some friends from our ward; Thom and Kathryn Cristensen, Kyle and Julia Stephens, Lloyd and Kris Benson, Mark Zobrist (Kris' brother who is in a different ward), Kevin and Julie Christensen, and Bill and Jane Harvey.

After my "Orange Roughy" (see, I don't always eat steak), we all headed to the Randall Jones theater for "Moonlight and Magnolias". Then it was on to the Christensen's (T&K) cabin in Brianhead where we all talked until about 3 in the morning before finally crashing.

Since it was "Livestock Festival" time in Cedar City, Sherrie and I headed back to Cedar to make it to the parade which began at 10:00 a.m. Lots of tractors, sheep trailers, and even a stagecoach pulled by miniature horses (driven by my nephew, Jason Thomas.) The highlight of the parade is 1500 sheep being herded down the entire parade route. They, for obvious reasons, were the last entry in the parade...well, the next to the last...the last was the street sweeper! There are only two cities in the country that have parades which feature a sheep herd entry; Cedar City and Ketchum, Idaho. (Although I've never seen the parade in Ketchum, I used to see lots of sheep being trailed back and forth next to the highway between Bellevue and Ketchum when I was a kid and we would be travelling to the Ketchum/Sun Valley chapel for stake conference.)

We met at the Garden House for lunch and then it was time for the matinee, "Gaslight" (an interesting play that ran almost 3 hours and which, unfortunately, was held in a nice, dark, comfortable theater)...full tummy...dark and comfortable theater...late night the night before...zzzzzzzzzzz.

Sherrie headed back to Toquerville and I, ever the dutiful son, drove to Christiansen's Deparment Store to pick a couple of "personal apparel items" my mother had ordered. Fortunately, the clerk knew exactly what I needed to pick up, and, unfortunately, she went back to the layaway area and came back holding up both of the "items" for all the world to see. After I paid the bill, I immediately went to the "Men's Department" and bought a man's dress belt (just in case anyone was watching and wondering!)

Then it was back to Toquerville to collect Sherrie and her mom and travel back to Las Vegas. Tomorrow is the annual Primary program at one o'clock in Josh's ward so we are going to go to their ward for church. In the spirit of driving two cars everywhere we go, Sherrie and her mom are going to go in one car and I will drive my truck after our Sacrament meeting at 11:30 a.m. (two of the young men that I sent on missions are home and will be "reporting" their missions.)

See all the pictures by clicking here.

Today I am officially eligible for Social Security! Sigh.

A fun day, that started at the Humanitarian Service room with a "Nothing but Bundt" birthday cake (arranged by Sherrie) after which we prepped for some groups coming in to assemble school kits and hygiene kits. After miscellaneous chores, including a visit to the mission office to help solve a balky network printer problem, I spent the last hour "tying a quilt"...yes, tying a quilt.

Van McCarlie (a boyhood and lifelong friend of Tony, Sherrie's brother) stopped by with some life insurance papers. Great timing. We had a nice visit, however, and he and Grandma Hunter (who came down with Sherrie today...Sherrie has been in Provo helping Rebecca with her movie) enjoyed visiting and reminiscing about the "good old days".

Josh and his family arrived around 6:30 p.m. and we went to dinner at "Fatburger"...ahhh, the "Big Fat Deal" with onion rings! Rachel and I were talking as the food was being prepared (hence the picture of me on the phone...sorry, Rachel and Ryan, but it did taste good.)

Check out the pictures on my website. The first picture is Mr. Will's beard. I took a few of them but only am posting one. I posted one the other day on my blog.

The last picture is of what remains of the Bundt cake and some German Chocolate birthday cupcakes that a member of my ward made for me.

Mr. Will's Birthday Beard

Will returned late yesterday evening from San Jose where he had been visiting Rachel and Ryan and we headed right back across town to celebrate his birthday with Josh's family at Lucile's BBQ in The District.

He has been growing a beard so I thought I would include a couple of "beard" pictures; his, taken today, and mine, taken in 1976.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Will

Love, Dad

Staying Busy

Here are some pictures from the past week or so.

Last week (Friday and Saturday) I went to a couple of funerals. The first was for Brooks and Diane Williams (Brooks was in my Rotary Club). He was flying their airplane to Colorado to their place in Breckinridge and crashed...both died. Saturday I went to Maynard Dye's funeral...he and I served in the mission office together under President Hill. He died of prostate cancer.

Today I am wearing a "Holtor" monitor (to make sure that I can discontinue one of my meds...the fewer the better I think.)

Mr. Will's car was finally finished today (Sherrie backed into it in our driveway). Towbin Automotive has had it for 2 1/2 weeks.