"Be Not Like Dumb, Driven Cattle!"

(The post title is taken from the poem, Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,

and no, it's not to think it's descriptive of the photos, it's to catch your attention,

and make it easier to spot in foregone days.)  ;-)

Here's our group after breakfast, listening to our

father, grandfather, great grandfather

(and great great for one! Other than he and his mom slipped out at this moment):

Lois, Stu, Jo

Alisa, Brooke, Tori, Amy, Aubrey, Rebekah, Rachel, Natalie

Amy, Rebekah, Rachel, Natalie, Jace, David, Neil, Devin

(Alan behind, and Don's behind Alan), Janeil

Neil, Devin, Alan, Janeil, Trevor, Maddie, April, Abi

(Mariah & Wren stepped out for a moment.)

Abi, Cozette, Geg, Donelle, Adam, his daughter Ellie, Gail, Noah, Ethan

The clips chosen were his reciting part of Psalm of Life and his testimony.

(Used at the reunion today, and also a clip of him singing a verse of My Task.)

The reminiscing below is of hikes taken and memories of him.

First person up is Neil (unnamed in the recording), then others.

Reminiscing 7-19-14  (20 minutes)

Courtesy of Greg Rawlinson

(If anyone tries to open this and it no longer works, I can email you the mp3.

Or Greg or Don.)

It's A Long, Long While...(as my Dad used to sing)

... from May to July:

Attended the Best of State awards program for the fifth year in a row.  Jenny, my boss, tells me we'll get to six then quit.  (Because she and I will be goners by the next one.)  Actually five suits me just fine.

Scarboroughs came up for the early July festivities and they were exhausting!  In a good way of course.  Tuesday we drove to SLC and toured City Creek and the temple grounds and treated ourselves to Farr's ice cream.
 

(Raygen had her mom read every scripture along the gallery of Christ's life.)

Wednesday, Jewel's birthday, we got up before the crack of dawn and took in a temple session.  We had lunch at The Pizza Factory in Lindon, and yummy Kneader's pie.  Larry's family took them out for dinner.

Thursday we went to the balloon lift which due to wind gusts got cancelled ... right ... about here ...

Which was fine by us, we got to see several launch, and then the next day when we came over for the parade we saw them all in the sky.  (I dearly appreciate Johnny who is always a great support and was kind enough to be my Mr. Fix-it with various annual chores that are in the hard to impossible range for me.)

Traditional smores Thursday evening. 

 Traditional treats-while-waiting and fireworks at the junior high Friday night.

Saturday we celebrated Raygen's birthday a day early (needing to get back home for church duties) here (and again there).  Missed seeing Hayden, who's turn it was to spend it with the other grandma and grandpa.

More festivities two weeks later!  Celebrated Donelle's marriage to Adam Bringhurst. 

 

(Best I could do with the glare behind them.)

View from Bella Vista in Lindon. (Yes, hot! Dry!)

We started the day with a breakfast at my house (grandpa/grandma's house).  My food assignment was muffins and Ruth gave me a great recipe!

Got all ready for it early as Lois had to spend the entire day with me Thursday for my cataract removal/lens replacement.  Alan and Stu came Friday night to put out the tables and chairs.  I got a gift out of the deal - the old wrought iron table had a loose leg I couldn't fix and it turned out another leg was on wrong, painted over, and Alan gave it a wrenching twist and voila!

Part of the event was a discussion about Neil Fugal memories, for sharing at the Niels/Viola Fugal reunion, July 26th (tomorrow).  Lois made this chart:

Neil wrote the following to his daughter, Lois, when she was in the mission field: "... each day that goes by becomes a part of our unchangeable past.  Omar Khayyam gives this verse which I have often quoted: 'The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, moves on; Nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.'  We cannot change what we did yesterday, or last month, or last year, but we can profit by the experiences we have had and use them to help us build a better tomorrow.  Not only that, but the glorious principle of repentance in the gospel of Jesus Christ together with His atoning sacrifice can remove all stains and scars of past mistakes and make us clean before God.  It's up to us to do our part.  God has done and will do everything for us that we are unable to do for ourselves, but he will not do for us those things that we of our own selves can do."

And we accessorized with:

(Lois bought this after completing her mission.)

 (The last grandchild, Jewel, not in the other pictures.
Taken in St. George when she was three weeks old.)

 (Sheet music to a song he loved and sang,
handout of the homes Neil and his siblings were born in.)

(Calligraphy by Janeil.)

Time to Retire...

You know it's time to retire
when you have to tape your rolling toes together to stop the pain!

CATCH-UP ... Birthday Party & Viral Internetness

If all goes well, this post will show first for anyone looking, of several today, playing calendar catch-up.

In March, I traveled to Jewel and Johnny's to celebrate Hayden's birthday #9 - birthday breakfast pancakes (tradition), bowling, and gift opening/cake sharing with local relatives. (His favorite, I'm guessing, an XBox chair.)

While were were there, the festivities compounded with multiple devices accessing the various webpage links to an article written about a 1,800-year-old Egyptian soldier's letter home, papyrus found 100 years ago, never translated, and given to Grant at a papyri institute he was invited to participate in at BYU the summer of 2011.  The Rice Video which was made in honor of his achievement has (end of May) had almost 6,000 views.  Some of the others were Yahoo.com, Fox News, NBC, Huffington Post, as well as a number of them on other continents.  The original article has had close to 11,000 likes.

Lastly, of note, these are the last photos of the Norma's swingset.  Took them almost 10 years to finally get around to removing it, alas without any grandkid photos since I had it painted late last summer (which, human nature being what it is, no doubt accounts for their desire to finally move it, but I made them cover my expenses).  Oddly, the slide was new when Daddy moved the swingset over from Lehi (on a flatbed trailer then lowered it over the fence with a crane), but they took both.  Oh well.  Two grandsons came, sons of Robert, the oldest of the two BYU VPs, now retired.  They wanted a tour, and even asked to see the new shed when I said I used it as a playhouse, and I said my grandkids don't get much use out of it especially Grant's since they are in Houston.  How was Grant, and I said almost done with his PhD at Rice.  What was his field, and I said Religious Studies.  Is he coming back to the Y, and I said apparently he wasn't good enough for the Y, and the younger of the two said, "TELL me about it!!!!"  (Apparently they have family members in the same boat.)

Spring has sprung at the District Office!

CATCH-UP ... Hooding Ceremony

I got there on Thursday afternoon.

Larry got there Thursday evening and tended while Grant and Ruth

took me out to celebrate Mother's Day.

We went to Thai Cottage and they gave me this

(as well as Bath and Body Works lotion - Twilight Woods - ummmm):

The spring edition of the Rice University magazine included Grant's papyrus translation.

The book is the Rice's first 100 year history (1912-2012).

The Sunday before I opened the most beautiful card from Jewel.

Also had the pleasure of seeing her the week before that

when she was up for Women's Conference with her friend Kennedy,

coworkers in YW. 

They used the bedrooms upstairs, and I tried out my new and improved

hide-a-bed (had it for a week or so but it took company

for the courage to spend the night in the basement *wink*). 

It has no springs nor crossbars.

So ... School's Out Forever as Ruth lead with on her blog post (more pictures).

Didn't get any decent pictures of the Hooding Ceremony

other than the brass band

(which Grant took pleasure in imitating the rest of the weekend).

Hazel's rendition of the event.

(One of Grant's friends commented that the likeness was remarkable

and Brenda agreed with our assessment that it looks like Gru from Despicable Me.)

 Another one she's proud of: