Beginning of Summer!

Celebrating Nephew/Cousin B's making Eagle Scout

 (Great display table! Uncle R made that cute tent to the left.)


"Paws To Read" Library Summer Reading Program

End of the School Year Jamba Juice Treat

Some very AWESOME sister missionaries who are currently serving and previously served in our ward this year.

 (Sister Sperry, Sister Rasmussen, Sister Roberts, Sister Cavasos)


Spending time with Mom and Siblings.

Shakespeare in the Park

"Twelfth Night"

Runway moments with Designer Lovely Daughter and model, Daisy and her friends.

Movements in May

Son #2 receiving Honor Roll for his first semester being 4.0!

 Celebrating the birthday of Sweet Clarissa who fought for her life for only a few hours.

We honored her memory at "Crafting with Purpose" where 50 sets of newborn infant hats were made and many buntings were cut.

Mother's Day

I love this day!  I feel very loved!  

So grateful for my 3 super sons, my lovely daughter and

 the one precious soul that was miscarried March 2011.

~Very Involved Mom

Love volunteering in Lovely Daughter's Classroom!

and taking 1st Grade classes to the County Fair.

Happy Birthday Very Involved Mom!

Enjoying the multiple flavors from Fruit Infused Water!

Personalized Birthday Gift from Lovely Daughter

Young Women Taco Dinner with Cake Auction

WHY??? Oh .... Why did he bid on this Cake?

The young men who were sitting next to our family were GAGGING (seriously about to vomit) just by the thought of what this cake looked like!  Had to cover it with a paper towel! 

This cake was a layered butterscotch pudding and crumbled vanilla cake.  

Toppings were twisted tootsie rolls.

Actually pretty good cake if you get passed the idea of it looking like a cat litter box!

The 3 Males in the Family who thought this was hilarious!!!!

April's Activities

Very Involved Mom has not attended the once a month Relief Society Meetings in a LONG time! It was nice to finally remember.  Always enjoy the time spent with so many wonderful ladies in our ward.

The craft being made was a birdbath or other ornamental structure made from thrift store glassware.

Love the finished product!

Easter Sunday

River Cats Game!

Hard Working Dad was invited to attend the Bloodsource recognition event.

Because he has donated over 10 gallons of blood, they honored him and his guest (VIMom) with a BBQ meal,  a gift towel, and GREAT SEATS right behind Home Base.

Okay... Very Involved Mom has not attended many baseball games.  She's attended a SF Giants game probably 30 years ago and maybe 1 or 2 River Cats games.  She forgot how baseballs can go flying everywhere!  Hard Working Dad forgot a baseball mitt. VIMom was stressing out because she already saw one guy get hit in the head and taken to first aid.  Well sure enough a ball comes heading right to our section.  The guy right behind VIMom was on his cellphone when the ball lands right on his stomach.  He didn't want to drop his phone so he let it roll down.... right.... next... to.... VIMom.  Classic VIMom turns to HWDad and says, "Should I keep it?"

If it had been a kid, VIMom would have given them the ball, 

but a man... he's got to be aware of the rules of a fly ball, right?

First Time Trying out Curlers for School Picture Day.

Boing!

Uncle T and Aunty P

Over 60 years ago, a young navy gentleman met a cute Hawaiian gal. 

 He walked miles to court her.  They fell in love.  

Her father (a branch president) interviewed him and prepared him to receive priesthood responsibilities, to help him to be worthy to be with his precious daughter.

They married!

The navy gentleman had a pretty cousin living on a farm on the outskirts of town, living with her widowed father.  The cute Hawaiian gal had many handsome, fun, loving brothers.  

Maybe, one of them would like to go on a blind date?

Yes, one would. 

The blind date was to a Christmas dance in a small mining town, Conda, about 2 miles from Soda Springs, ID on December 24, 1952.   It was a memorable night for all and the beginning of a long distance correspondence courtship.  In April 1954, an Idahoan farm girl and an Hawaiian military (Air Force) young man married.   These are my (Very Involved Mother's) parents.  

And it was because of my second cousin/uncle and my aunty that my parents ever met.  

I am forever grateful to them.

On March 29, we celebrated the life of this Aunty.  

(My cousin/uncle died about 10 years before his loving wife.)  

She lived 86 years. It was a beautiful service.  

The time spent with cousins and aunties will be a wonderful memory for me.

These are 12 of my 55 first cousins on my father's side.

Me, my mother and my sister, K.

Other Happenings on this Quick Trip

I haven't seen snow in a LONG time.  

So guess what happened while we were in Soda?

It snowed!

Growing up, almost every summer, my family would travel to Soda Springs for family reunions.  I have many fond memories of camping at Eight Mile or visiting aunts, uncles and cousins at Hooper Springs.

We always enjoyed visiting the man-controlled geyser in town (see below).

Finally, we got to visit the matron of honor at my parent's wedding, my Aunt I.

She's 10 years older than my mother.  We were so happy to see her.  

We'd heard that she was not doing well, but that day, we were surprised to see her energy up!

We had a wonderful time visiting with her.  

We also visited my Aunt V.  She looked to be doing well too!

She was pleasantly surprised by our impromptu visit.

That was my trip with my Mom, the "farm girl" from Idaho.

We visited 4 states (Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona or 5 if you count California) in 5 days!

And I even got to see (fly over) the Grand Canyon!  

A first for Very Involved Mom.

Mini Vacation

Back in November 2011, Hard Working Dad visited his parents who were serving an LDS mission in Nairobi, Kenya.  The rest of us were to pick him up from the airport in San Francisco when he flew home.  Well, Very Involved Mom made it a bigger trip by visiting the Exploratorium and getting a 1 Year Membership. Funny thing, that same Christmas/the very next month, Uncle S and Aunt L gave our family another 1 Year Membership. The Exploratorium recently moved locations and so they extended all memberships for another 2 months.  So, at the End of February our membership expired, and we made it a mini vacation for our family during the President's Day Holiday Week.

We started at the newly located Exploratorium, learning halfway there that Lovely Daughter gets motion sickness in car.  This will be helpful to know when we travel in the summer.

We surprised the children by showing them where Mom and Dad were married-

The Oakland Temple.

 (view of the bay area on top of the Oakland Temple)

 (in the garden on top of the Oakland Temple)

This photo was taken in the same location we had our wedding photos taken almost 22 years ago.

 (February 17, 2014)

(July 17, 1992)

We're getting old!

Our Family is Forever

 Very Involved Mom grew up going to Nation's Giant Hamburgers in Orinda after every Temple Youth Baptism trip.  It was a tradition that had to be shared!

Family Time well spent!!

Bustling Byrds

Building birdhouses is always fun!

Constructing Marble Factories for high school Physics class 

can be an adventure in team work and creativity.

Celebrating 7th Birthdays are a Blast!!

Volunteering at the Muddy Girl Fun Run to help 

raise funds for Cross Country Team for next year 

and supporting Breast and Cervical Cancer is always rewarding.

Folsom Lake and Family History Lessons

January 2014

 The entire state of California is enduring a drought at this time.  It's been coming on for probably the past 3 years, but this year has been the most concerning and the most nationwide impacted.  The newspapers and other various media sources continually mention the need to conserve water. These same sources show area reservoirs, lakes and rivers depleted.  

But even with this situation, there have been treasures to be found.  When Folsom Dam was completed in the mid 1950s, it covered a part of our own family history.  Deep in the valleys of Folsom Lake lies Mormon Island a community where some members of the Mormon Battalion resided while waiting for through the winter of 1847-48 to return to the Salt Lake Valley.  One of our ancestors, Phebe Draper Palmer Brown, was one of 5 women to make it all the way to California, accompanying the Mormon Battalion as a laundress.  So, due to this drought, our family was able to walk where our ancestor walked.  We were able to see the outskirts of the settlement.  (If we were actually able to go the actual Mormon Island town, the state of California would be in a horrific drought situation!)

Grandma and Grandpa B were able to visit us in January, so we got to show them some of the ruins.

All along the foundations of some the old buildings, lie "treasures" or "artifacts" of bygone days.

 (We think we were standing in a former winery.)

Son #3 thought it would awesome to bring his metal detector!  It is illegal to take any "artifacts" from the area, but it was fun to see if we could find more "treasures" to add to what was already there. 

AND YES, HE DID FIND THIS IN THE GROUND!

Can you tell what it is?

 We believe it is a stove top cover.  Pretty cool!!

(Lovely Daughter also found a chip from a dish.)

The first time we came, the children and Very Involved Mom could not find the settlements, but others helped us find the correct outlet, "Brown's Ravine".  It then made me think.... hmmmm.... could this be named after my ancestor's husband, Ebenezer Brown.  The name "Brown" seems too common to possibly be him, but hey, why not look it up and see?

While searching for who "Brown" might be, I learned that Orrin Porter Rockwell went with an alias "James B Brown" to hide his identity from those who wanted him dead. He began here by panning for gold but discovered it was more lucrative to sell whiskey to the miners.

Found this from BYU Religious Studies Center website:

Meanwhile, after finding the hard work of panning gold distasteful, Porter Rockwell opened three saloons. He learned quickly that miners were not stingy when it came to alcohol: “The most accessible money was not in the [gold] claims, but in the pockets of those who worked them.”[18] “When [Porter Rockwell] hauled whiskey from Sacramento by mule train he would arrive at a hilltop above town and blare his bugle. His partner at the tavern would fire a shot in the air. Gold panners along the river knew it was time to celebrate.”[19]

Rockwell used the alias “Brown” because there were many, particularly former Missourians, who wanted him killed. Former Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs and his sons were convinced that Rockwell was the assailant who had shot and wounded the governor over a decade earlier. Rockwell is said to have claimed that he could not possibly have been the assassin, because Boggs was still alive. Nonetheless, the Boggs family wanted revenge.

It must have amused Rockwell to hear tavern patrons tell “Porter Rockwell stories” without realizing that he was behind the bar. For protection, he kept loaded pistols and a trained dog at his side. When he traveled on horseback, the dog rode behind him with its paws on his shoulders and searched the trail ahead for trouble. It was trained to lick his face rather than bark—a silent alarm.[20]

So I'm guessing that Brown's Ravine is named after James B Brown (aka Orrin Porter Rockwell) and not Ebenezer Brown (our ancestor's 2nd husband).

We had a great time exploring and bumping into old friends!