Qu'est que c'est

Yep, this is the Osterizer.  We borrowed it from Mom and Dad

a couple of years ago.  We pulled it out this past week because we

have a plethora of mangos from my new love, Bountiful Baskets.

Grandma & Grandpa Backlund

Mom and her Mom at our wedding reception
Carl & Louise at Warden (no comments about the shirts and jackets)

Louise, Carl, and Martha as we depart California to return to Warden

Kent & Martha leaving Torrance after our reception

None of you ever saw Grandma Backlund and there are not a whole lot of pictures of her since she died just a year after we were married. These were taken at our receptions in California and Washington. You may see a little resemblance between mother and daughter.

The Jazz Festival was a big success. Lots of people, buses, and jazz. The weather was it's usual pain in the neck. Friday night it was 10 degrees below zero and we have about a foot of snow on the ground. It snowed about 3" while we were in church today. There was no heat in the chapel but we all managed. It was our ward conference. I'll never understand why things like this choose special times when all the stake leaders are here to quit working.

Matt called yesterday to tell me the fire sprinkler system in their new church building went off and flooded the chapel. That would have been my problem if they hadn't brought in a new facilities manager in Post Falls.

I checked with Tri-State yesterday but my new toy had not arrived yet. Maybe this week.

Everyone stay warm, spring is just around the corner, I think!!!!

San Diego

Kelly's brother Adam recently got a assigned to be a recruiter for the Marines and he was in San Diego for the last two months getting trained. He graduated from recruiter school this last week, so we headed down there to see his graduation and search for some mid-winter sun. We had a fun time seeing Adam and taking in some of the sights. On the way home we even managed to check another thing off of the while-living-in-Utah-you-must-do-this list when we hit a snow storm in Cedar City and got to stay the night in a hotel with a bunch of other stranded travelers.

Adam and his classmates walking into graduation. After the ceremony he showed us around the Marine Corp Recruit Depot, which is where he also did his basic training.

I almost had to leave Kelly on the beach with her new sea lion and seal friends. I thought she was going to swim out and join them like some other guy did.The USS Midway was huge! Too bad we didn't want to splurge for the ticket price and get the actual tour inside the ship.


If I ever decide to be homeless I think I'll go to San Diego and live in some form of motor home on the streets. There is apparently no ordinance against this because every side street we turned down had a motor home or two, or five parked on it for the night.