Pioneer Day

The LDS Church celebrates one of my favorite holidays every July 24th. This was the date that the first pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. Over the next 20 or so years many people made great sacrifices in order to get to Utah to be among the Saints there. Both Elder Terry and I have pioneer ancestors. I am proud of the great heritage that I have.

David White Rogers and Martha Collins Rogers, the first Rogers ancestors to join the Church and who later travelled to Utah and settled in Provo.

This is Jacob Er Terry, one of the first Terrys to travel to Utah. His wife was Mary Riley Terry but there are no pictures available of her that I could find. Jacob Er was a childhood friend of Joseph Smith. When he heard about the Gospel when he was older he didn't want anyone but Joseph to baptize him which Joseph did.

In Utah, Pioneer Day is celebrated with a parade, fireworks and family get togethers. In Oregon, the Crane Branch held a Pioneer Day party which we were able to attend.

The sheep are in the meadow.

The Clark family has lived in this area for many years. This is the original home that was built in the early 1900's. It is in disrepair and nobody has lived in it for years, but it still stands as a reminder of those who first settled in the area.

We enjoyed good food and conversation. You can see me on the right hand side talking to Ann Clark. She is a teacher in a very small school and teaches K through 3rd grade. What a challenge!

The little girl making the funny face is Esther, the Branch President's daughter. I just loved watching her. I was ready to take her home with me at the end of the day. So cute!

While the adults visited, the kids had fun swimming in the river.

After the swimming. 

A family we have enjoyed getting to know. Don, his wife, Lucettie, who we hope will join the church one day, and their son Donald.

Elder Terry relaxing and enjoying the outdoors.

Sisters, Oregon Quilt Show

Last Saturday we took a field trip to Sisters, Oregon to attend the annual quilt show. We met up with three other senior missionary couples from our zone and spent the day together.

Here are the sisters. Sister Wyman, Sister Terry, Sister Birt, Sister Blake.

And here are the patient companions who followed us around all day.

Elder Blake, Elder Wyman, Elder Birt and Elder Terry

Sisters is a quaint little town, famous for its  shops, classes and quilt show.

The poem on this quilt is hand painted.

Since we won't be going to Yellowstone this year, here's something to remind us... a Yellowstone quilt!

And of course Elder Terry managed to find a fishing quilt!

A womens barbershop quartet. They were pretty good!

A quilt based on the painting "Starry Night" by Van Gogh.

When I get home to Las Vegas I want to learn to quilt. Would this be good for a beginner?

3D Block quilt.

For those of you (men) tired of quilt pictures, here's somethng for you:

Tucked away in a corner were some really nice wood carvings. The guy in the picture is the artist. Too bad we don't know his name.

Another one for Elder Terry. Nice fish woodcarving.

Pretty horses.

And now, back to the quilts!

Hand embroidered and beautiful!

Love this flower quilt!

A little hard to see, but this quilt was made with all kinds of lace. Beautiful!

Stained glass quilt.

It was a great day. After we left the show (we didn't even see everything since there was so much) we went back to Elder and Sister Blake's apartment for lunch before heading back home to Burns. And you can bet that in a year from now if we are anywhere close to Sisters I will be dragging poor Elder Terry there once again! Thanks to my quilting friend Joan for telling me about it months ago before we even got here. It was so worth the three hour drive to get there.

Fourth of July... small town style!

We had a great time celebrating the 4th of July small town style. There were events all day long. First, was the ward breakfast...

The men were in charge of the cooking. They did a pretty good job too!

The food table! French toast, sausage, potatoes, fruit. Yummy!

Two sets of twins in two years and a new baby! These two little boys "beat" Elder Terry at air hockey when we had dinner at their home and fought over who would get to sit by him when we ate.

The Reed Sisters. They grew up in Burns and after marriage, they all live here still. They can and quilt together. What a great group of ladies!

A special family. Robert (closest to the fence) and his three daughters (standing behind him) recently lost their wife and mother. They are pulling together pretty good in spite of the difficulties they have faced.

After the breakfast it was parade time!

First up were the veterans on their motorcyles.

And here's Norm, from the ward on his red Harley. He's in his mid 70's and still riding.

Here's Alan! Our friendly State Trooper also known as the Ward Mission Leader.

This is Jeff who is quite talented on stilts!

One of the neat cars in the parade. And in the background note the quilt shop. It's a good thing Sister Terry left her sewing machine at home!

We had to include this for our grandson Spencer who would have loved riding inside along with the other children.

After the parade it was time for the community hot dog lunch at another park. Good food, fun for the kids and great entertainment.



Great music! Kevin and Stacey are the two brothers on the end. In the middle are Dorman and his daughter Traci.

This is Benny, a great drummer and he cooks the best Brazilian food. We love having dinner at their home!

We saw the fireworks later that night, but they weren't really that exciting. So I borrowed this picture from my friend Melinda. Credit goes to Photography by Nicholas. A nice Oregon 4th of July with Mt. Hood in the background.

The 4th of July celebration ended a few days later with a Ranch Rodeo. We had a great time!

Happy 4th of July from Oregon!