July and August

So the summer went by quickly--from the time I visited Iowa until now. But I think I'll keep this brief since Dianna and the girls have done a great job of summarizing our activities.

Dianna and I kept busy working on the house this summer--painting the stucco where the ocean breezes had shown its affects and repainting the railing on our lanai off the bedroom. We thought it helped make the house look like new again.

Preparing for our trip to Australia also occupied our time. Megan stayed in Hawaii and Aunty Betty and friends stayed at our home while we were gone. We appreciated knowing all was well back home, Megan enjoyed having Aunty here and spending more time with cousin Alana, too.

Highlights included:

• Spending a few days and touring Sydney, located along a harbor. We took the hop on/hop off tour that toured the whole city and then returned to some of our favorite spots. Dianna selected a great hotel in the midst of the best spots, within walking distance of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. Even though it was winter time and the wet weather added additional chill, we were out and about a lot of the time. We also took the tour of the Opera House and then attended the musical, Billy Elliot, which was held at an older Sydney theater. The sidewalks along the harbor were also impressive.

• We boarded a bus for our trip to Canberra to await the birth of baby "Avery William." He was due on July 27 but arrived on August 7 (1 a.m.--but it was still a day earlier or August 6 in the U.S) so we enjoyed our time with Erin and Will as they "patiently" awaited the birth. Erin did great in the birthing process and is such a great mom--they love their little boy--and a highlight was being able to participate in his blessing (in the hospital room) before I left the next day on the 8th. Saying goodbye is always hard but Erin and Avery will be here for Thanksgiving!

• Erin was growing increasing more impatient about his birth; the day the contractions started I had a call from Jenny to tell me that my dad had passed away. He had been showing more signs of weakness, but then showing improvements. So even though we knew his death was imminent, hearing the words that he passed away were still a shock. I'm hopeful that his spirit and little Avery's spirit crossed paths--perhaps Dad told Avery it was ok to come and that he was joining a great family and would be greatly loved and nurtured, in a gospel environment. I know my dad was happy to be reunited with his mom and dad, son Robert, sister Dorothy, brother Donald, and other family members. Now we can also complete his temple work in a few months as well. Erin and Avery:
  

• While I left on the 8th, Dianna stayed a few more days to help Erin get settled at home. It was great to spend some time with Betty before she returned to Iowa.

• Dianna got home a few days later and we began the process of helping Megan prepare for her transition to move to Utah and begin her college studies.

• I had beginning-of-the-year meetings and retreats so was quickly involved in school activities after being gone for nearly two weeks. A major project is preparing our action plan that implements the Design Team recommendations. This looks like a busy year now that I also oversee the University Relations area . . .
  

• But that will be another blog--

Aloha for now.

Procrastinating

I have lots of weeks to catch up but think I'll do something easier and procrastinate my catch up (read Dianna's):

1 rule: use one word that comes to mind to answer the question.
1. Where is your cell phone? drawer
2. Your significant other? forever
3. Your hair? gray (unfortunately)
4. Your mother? transitioning
5. Your father? reunited
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? unremembered
8. Your favorite drink? A&W
9. Your dream/goal? celestialized-family
10. The room you're in? living
11. Friends? students
12. Your fear? needles (still)
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? mission (or travel somewhere)
14. Where were you last night? home (and church)
15. What you're not? unbusy
16. Muffins? warm (fresh out of the oven, preferred)
17. One of your wish list items? Steinway
18. Where you grew up? Iowa
20. What are you wearing? red (it's a patriotic holiday)
21. Your TV? HGTV
22. Your pets? allergies
23. Your computer? Dell
24. Your life? Packed
25. Your mood? Even
26. Missing someone? Family (grateful for blogs, chats, Skype)
27. Your car? Camry
28. Something you're not wearing? Shoes (Hawaii!)
29. Favorite Store? Music (more piano music!)
30. Your summer? Traveling
31. Like someone? Dianna (and love)
32. Your favorite color? Ocean
33. Last time you laughed? Today
34. Last time you cried? Goodbyes (saying goodbye to family--see #26--and final farewell to dad)

Visit to Iowa

I left on a Thursday, June 26, for Iowa, arriving Friday morning, sans luggage. It arrived later on Saturday morning. I stayed with Betty and we drove to Shell Rock and surprised my parents--they didn't know I was coming. So instead of my weekly phone call, they got a personal visit. Visits with dad are usually brief, 20-30 minutes, but he seems to appreciate the time, though he says he doesn't recommend getting old. He still has his sense of humor and keeps up with what's going on in the world ("Who are you going to vote for?") by keeping CNN going on in his room. Beyond that, he only ventures out of his room for meals and not interested in much beyond that. He goes to the cafeteria a few feet beyond his room--doesn't complain but I could tell from his reaction that the meals aren't great.

Mom keeps busy with shopping and some of the activities at the care center--the sing along, playing for their church on Sunday, and club. We visited Dave and Susan Nicholson (she was one of my classmates throughout school from Shell Rock through graduation, played in band, and dated one of my friends--we triple dated a lot) and I played the organ for their wedding. They're building an impressive home with 2100 square feet on the first level and 2100 square feet on the second level with geothermal heating and cooling--Dave is a retired engineer.

Another treat was seeing Jason Meyer and Sunny (Layne) in church and then going to dinner with them later that week; Sunny is a news anchor for KWWL (Channel 7 in Waterloo) for the morning show; she graduated from Kahuku (niece to President Shumway) and Jason was a studying business while he was at BYUH. They both transferred to Provo and I hadn't seen them for several years.

I enjoyed my visit with mom and dad each day from Saturday until Wednesday--it's always hard to say goodbye to everyone! Eating maidrites, doing some shopping, walking around UNI, staying with Betty and of course seeing other family members were also highlights--Betty will be visiting us in a few weeks! But emails, phone, and blogs help us all to keep in touch--I even set up a blog for mom, though she hasn't added anything after our first entry (www.loisneal.blogspot.com)

I headed to Cedar Rapids on Wednesday evening to see Gaylord and Mary and to catch the flight on Thursday mornikng--they gave me a tour of downtown CR to see the effects of the flood--and later we enjoyed talking and eating Mary's chocolate pie. We always love our time with them! It was fun to see the albums Mary assembled with our Canada trip pictures, too--many great memories.

A lasting impression from this visit is how the floods and tornadoes dominate the newspaper, TV, conversations, and thoughts of everyone there--it's hard to imagine that the flood level in Cedar Rapids was so high that the river flowed over the top of the bridge railing! http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hw95ek5Sllmi4SoQ_N4HJvwHE0ZAD91AL9C80 Everyone talks about the floods, reads about it, and will remember this summer for the rest of their lives. But I was also impressed with the resilience they demonstrated in Iowa--some areas have shown full recovery; though sadly some areas/homes will never recover.

The trip back was uneventful--three flights: CR to Chicago, Chicago to San Francisco, SF to Honolulu. All flights were on time and the luggage made it in spite of the short layovers. AND glad to be home again! Dianna and Megan were at the airport to greet me.

I didn't take the camera this time--so no pictures this time.

Megan's Graduation

Our May highlights were Megan's graduation from seminary and from Kahuku High School. We began our Hawaii public school affiliation with Lindsey entering kindergarten in 1985 and ending 23 years later with Megan's graduation--thus 23 of our 24 years here in Hawaii.

Megan was one of the speakers at the seminary graduation; since they were studying the Old Testament she was asked to identify someone one from that book whom she admired and why. She chose Jonah and shared how initially he didn't want to do what the Lord wanted him to do but was able to overcome and served as an example. She was confident and powerful in her delivery--of course, we were proud!

Seminary Graduation, Sunday, May 18, 2008

Kahuku Graduation, Thursday, May 29, 2008

Lots of leis!

It was a good evening and the reality that this was our last high school graduation made it more eventful. Now Trevor starts kindergarten in the fall so we'll be watching and supporting on the sidelines as Lindsey begins her adventure into public schools with her children. I have a strong feeling she'll also be involved with the programs like we were as well.

Megan's next adventure is LDS Business College in the fall and then BYU Idaho in January! Three college graduates, one to go!

SIFE--Chicago and Nauvoo (May 14-19)

My last post was when we were in Palmyra and enjoying all the church history.

On our return, I stopped in Chicago to meet with the BYUH group to attend the SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) conference on May 14-16. I met our delegation of 19 students there who were busily engaged in preparing for the competition and enjoying some of the downtown Chicago sites when I arrived. This was the hardest working group I have advised, lead by an outstanding president, Al Doan. Their presentation and report were phenomenal, the judges were complimentary, and they received First Runnerup in their league, putting them in the top 40 in the country. Actually I think they would be in the top 25 at least, based on some of the other presentations we saw. (pictures to be added later)

From there, we drove to Nauvoo; most of the students hadn't been there before and it's fun to take groups to Nauvoo--much to see and to experience. We left after the awards assembly and arrived safely at about 12:30 a.m., traveling in four separate cars, and pulled right up to the temple for pictures and reflection.

After some sleep, we spent the day on Friday touring Nauvoo and Carthage--the group enjoyed some play time and some serious moments as they walked the "Trail of Hope," attended a session in the temple, and visited the Carthage jail.

Trail of Hope, where the pioneers walked, leaving their Nauvoo homes

Nik and Jordan ready for a ride

Our BYUH SIFE "Pioneers"

This was a quick but memorable trip as we then returned to Chicago (airport) for our 8 a.m. flight. We left Nauvoo about 12:30 a.m. Saturday and arrived in Chicago around 4:30 a.m., in time to check everyone in and to get to our gate. After an all day flight, we were glad to be home and greeted by family and friends.

Next year's officers and members have already begun planning for next year with the hopes of doing even better in Philadelphia in 2009.

Palmyra and Fabius, New York (May 6-8, 2008)

Before we arrived in Pennsylvania, we enjoyed a few days in Palmyra, NY, near Rochester. We arrived first at the visitor's center which is at the base of Hill Cumorah; the main feature inside the visitor's center was a display about the Dead Sea Scrolls, which we enjoyed. While in Palmyra, we stayed at the Liberty House Bed and Breakfast (http://www.libertyhousebb.com/).

After lunch, we headed to the Joseph Smith home, the rebuilt cabin where the Smith family first lived and then the two-story home where they later moved. This is the upstairs of the reconstructed cabin on the actual site where the Angel Moroni would have appeared to Joseph Smith. There were two beds where the six boys slept upstairs.

Across the road was the Sacred Grove; we were the only ones walking through the grove so it was a great experience to stop and just listen--birds were humming, the brook was singing for us...

The next day we drove to Fabius, New York, about 90 minutes away from Palmyra, to do some family history work! This is the small village where many of the Rowleys lived, were born, married, and died. My great grandmother Olive Rowley was born here before her family moved to the Iowa area where she met and married James Shelby Neal.

Olive's father was David Reynolds Rowley (married Arlatia Woodruff) and David's father was Newell Rowley (1814-1897), and David's mother was Eliza Jennet Porter Rowley (1814-1847). In the Evergreen Cemetery in Fabius, we located the graves for Newell and Eliza.

After working on their family history, we enjoyed getting a connection to this village (located in a beautiful area near the finger lakes area of New York, lots of hills and trees, apple tree orchards, and other scenic vistas) and especially the people. These ancestors, Newell and Eliza, would be my great great great grandparents--three greats!

In the same vein, we attended a temple session in the Palmyra temple--small, quaint, and very friendly officiators. It topped our visit to this "cradle of the church restoration," as it's called here.

Graduation Night - May 9, 2008

It's been a while since I've posted anything new! Preparing for our trip and the end of the semester!

But we're here in Pennsylvania now, and enjoyed being able to attend the graduation exercises for Jenny and Aaron. Here are some pictures from the event!

Before leaving for graduation, we took a picture with mom and dad and . . .

. . . . Jenny and Aaron at their apartment. Jenny graduated with honors (cum laude) which means she graduated with above 3.5 and wore the "ropes," or cords. Since Aaron finished his Master's degree, he wore the hood and was "hooded" at the ceremony. He's wearing it in the picture above, before leaving for the commencement exercises.

Afterwards, some evidence that Hawaii was a part of the ceremony with the leis from the islands!

Afterwards we came back and had brownie sundaes with Aaron's parents, his brother and sister-in-law, and all of us. It was a fun memory and we were really glad we were here to participate in it.

We're staying at a bed 'n' breakfast a few miles outside of town, an older country home, originally built in 1830, called the Partnership House (http://www.partnershiphouse.com/). We have enjoyed our country style breakfasts both mornings and learning more about the area.