Keeping young

We have gotten to the stage in life where we have found that doing everything that we used to do is not automatic, so we have to work at it.
Here is Sylvia working out with her long time trainer Nazi Kevin. She says that he is the best at being stern enough to keep her going, and he has done a great job.

Sometime they leave the stuffy gym and go for hikes or bike rides, but usually not at this time of year.

Also she often walks down to the temple or Rock Canyon and back, and then there are her famous hikes through Waterton/Glacier park or
across England, Scotland and New Zealand.

This is her dipping her toe, according to tradition, in St. Bee's bay before starting out for her 220 mile hike across the lakes district of northern England. What a woman!

BYU Utah game

Yesterday David proved how brave and loyal he was by taking this poster with us to the BYU vs Utah football game. He's such a charmer that none of the home team fans complained about it and he even got a longish interview with KSL TV!

By the way, the Cougars won in overtime about one minute after I took this picture which took some of the fun out of it for him, but he still seemed to have a great time!

Hunter Jerry

As usual Jerry went archery elk hunting in New Mexico this fall, and as usual he came home with a nice big bull. Archery hunting is a very difficult sport, and only about 1 out of 7 hunters is successful, but Jerry has really got it figured out and comes home with meat every year. I think this is about his 8th elk. As with everything he else does, he pays the price of learning how to do it well, and then exerts the effort required to succeed. Way to go Jerry!

Little red hen

One of Sylvia's favorite children's stories is the one about the little red hen who asked who wanted to help her do some cooking, and none did so she ended up doing it all herself'. Well she is the ward compassionate service leader and when we had a funeral of a wonderful neighbor last week, she did a really good job of assigning several ladies to help with the family dinner, but you can see here how much she ended up doing herself. The funeral was for a really nice old guy that we all loved and she didn't want to serve just any kind of baked goods so the family really was blessed by her work.
Later I was talking to a neighbor about baking some pies for a Christmas event, and her reply was "don't expect me to go pie to pie against Sylvia!" She has an awesome reputation.
Being as humble as she is, she was kind of hoping that I wouldn't post this, but my love and admiration for her made me do it.

Fall trip to Cancun

We just got a new computer last month and it had some windows 7 problems that the tech-support lady in India couldn't solve in two and a half hours on the phone, but we have finally got most of the kinks worked out and are ready for another blog post.

Last week we went back to Cancun where our friends have a time share and have taken us down a couple of times.
Here we are with the the Thomas's.




This is Glen and Kim Overton, and Paul and Deon Coon. They are super people and really fun to play with.

We stayed at this cool place called Moon Palace. It is a self-contained resort with it's own mile of beach, 2500 rooms, about 12 restaurants, Spa's, a nice Gym, 8 or 10 interconnecting swimming pools and a fabulous 27-hole golf course.

It is "all-inclusive", so when you check in they put this bracelet on you and that allows you to eat and golf and go to the shows and everything else as much as you want.

Most of our time was spent on the golf course which was very challenging with some interesting hazards, including crocodiles!

This is a coati, a friendly racoon type of critter. They come out by the dozens in the evening. There were also lots of kinds of birds and lizards.

Here are 2 kinds of wildlife- a lizard and Sylvia. (you'd better believe it!)

Sylvia played well but was glad that she had brought plenty of balls.

In the distance you can see the jungle that this course was carved out of. It is so thick that if you are off the fairway, you may as well be in the water.

The resort has a guard house on the entry road, and other than that doesn't even need fences, because no intruder could possibly get through that jungle. We never saw a place where you could walk more than 5 feet into it!

This scene was fun, but for endurance races I think that I will stick with Lacy!

At conference time Mike brought Jon and McKay up with tickets for general priesthood meeting. It was a relly nice experience. They also had fun 4-wheeling at the sand dunes with Jerry and family, and Mike and I had a fun round of golf. We played against surgeons Dick Thomas and Ron Saunders. We had a nice time beating them, but then Jerry reminded me that that might not have been such a good idea, because Ron was going to do a minor surgical proccedure on me a few days later. I wonder if it would have been less painful if we had been a little more merciful?

Today we had the BYU nephews over for sunday dinner. This is Tom Nysetvold, Barbara Bennet's son, and Josh Bennet, Tom's son. They were both valedictorians, and are brilliant and delightful.

Here's the rest of the group; clockwise- JJ, David, Heather, Ryan Clark, Courtney Clark (Byrne Cook's dtr), Derrick (Tanner's friend), Tanner Low (Bill's son), Tom and Josh.

As usual Sylvia cooked a famulous meal which was eagerly devoured.

Ruff Riders at Pine Valley Mountain

This was the week of our annual Rough Rider fall ride. We had never ridden up on Pine Valley Mountain near St. George so we got a map on decided to try it. Our golf club pro Robert McArthur came from there so we went over the map with him and decided on this Whipple Valley to Brown's Point Canyon trail. The thing that he forgot to mention to us was that he had never actually been there! By our rough estimate it looked like about 12 or 14 miles which would make a nice afternoon ride for our first day, but as it turned out, it was closer to 30 miles!



Usually we plan on travelling at about 6 to 8 miles an hour, but here the terrain was so steep and rocky, that we moved along at more like 2 to 3 miles an hour.

At the top we found this magnificent meadow where our horses had a fun time frolicking around for a while.


But then it was back to rocky, steep and slow.

After a while we realized that it was certainly going to be flashlight time before we got down, and we had only two good and one weak light for the 6 of us. My main worry was that we would get caught in the dark before we got to the Brown's Canyon turnoff and maybe miss it. That would have meant space blankets and bonfires overnight for sure. So we pushed on as fast as we could and managed to find the turn right at sunset.

From here it was 4 miles to the bottom of the mountain and another one and a half to our trailers. We knew it would be hard and slow but if we just kept moving we would sooner or later make it. This night picture doesn't really show how tough it was at times with dozens of steep switchbacks, boulders, ledges, reluctant horses and tired Larry.
So it took us over 3 hours to do that 4 miles, but we finally made it.

We were glad to have had another exciting adventure, but did not get to our beds at Richard's beautiful St. George home until after 3 a.m.

We had planned to ride the next day too, but our horses told us that they needed the day off, so we had a nice time playing golf instead.

Dave had no problem dealing with this hazard at Coral Canyon compared to what we had been through the day before.

Then we played at fabulous Sand Hollow and had a great time.
You can see the dreadful Pine Valley
Mountain peering menacingly down at us between these cliffs.

We all agreed that this golf course is definitely on our "return-to" list, but that might not apply to Pine Valley Mountain!

Texas

Last week we went to Dallas/Fort Worth to see the Cougars play against the number 3 in the nation-ranked Oklahoma Sooners in the inaugural game in the $1.3 Billion
new Cowboys stadium. (Yes that's a B!)
We went a few days early to play some of the famous Texas golf courses with some other couples- the Thomas's, Overtons and Zumbrennens.
Our first game was at the Cowboys Golf Club. What a marvelous experience. The course, as you can see, was very fun and spectacular.


Their "southern hospitality" was amazing. When they found out we were there to support the Cougars in trying to beat Oklahoma they gave us a reduced green fee rate plus a lone star button which was a food pass. We could eat all we wanted all day, and the food was fantastic!

After the dinner I was admiring the trophy case in the lobby with several super bowl cups and the manager came by. I complimented him on the course and the food and the hospitality so he asked if we would like to go to the Texas Rangers baseball game that night, and gave us his personal 4 tickets on the first base line. What a thrill!

Even the insects were friendly!

At the ball game, to honor us I guess, they brought in the Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays to play the Rangers. We loved it.

Here we are at the Colonial Country Club which we had been invited to play because Gifford Nielson had recommended it to me and our club pro, Robert had written a letter to get us on.

It is a very old, traditional course, and hosts a PGA tournament every year.

It was the home course of Ben Hogan and they have a display room with all of his memorabilia- clubs, trophys, photos etc.

This is the Tour 18 course, which is a course patterned after 18 of the best and most challenging holes on the PGA tour. This house behind Sharlene is one of the dozens of beautiful mansions at the course. We all agreed that we had never seen more spectacular homes.

Here are Glen Overton and Glee Zumbrennen Teeing off at the course at the Marriott hotel where we stayed. Golf was part of the package there.

On game day Heather and Mark drove up from San Antonio to go with us.

There were 75,000 fans in the stadium, making it the largest crowd that any of us had ever been in. Oklahoma fans outnumbered BYU by about 5 to 1 because it is close for them and they had the number three ranked team and their quarterback was last year's Heisman trophy winner.

I was really pleased with how gracious and friendly the Oklahoma fans were. They really seemed pleased to have us there.

This is the 50 yard long TV screen that hangs over the field. (yes, that's yards!)
Incidentally this particular passing play went for 45 yards to the Oklahoma 5 yard line; then on the next play the Cougar running back fumbled the ball into the end zone. What a bummer!
BYU was such an underdog (the odds makers had them projected to lose by 21 points), that we had come just hoping to not be embarrassed.

We were behind only 3 points at half time in spite of 3 turn-overs, so we were feeling better than we had expected.

We were still trailing in the 4th quarter when the Cougars defense held a goal line stand against one of the best ranked offenses in the country, for 6 plays inside the 5 yard line. This allowed the Sooners only a field goal making the score 13 to 7. Then the Cougars made a fabulous drive down the field with some big passing plays and scored again, much to everyone's surprise, to win the game 14 to 13!

After the game there was celebration for about half an hour. Our local press called this the biggest Cougar victory in at least 16 years.


For us this was definitely not just another weekend!

Did you hear the story about how lonely Adam was before he had Eve in the Garden? Well he prayed to God and said "Father, I'm lonely and need a mate."

So God said "What kind of mate do you want?"

After a moment of eager contemplation Adam said "I'd like the most beautiful woman; intelligent, faithful, passionate, a good cook and housekeeper, a wonderful mother for my children, talented, faithful, encouraging and always cheerful."

"Well I can do that if you want" replied God, "but it's going to cost you."

"Well what will she cost?" Said Adam.

"An arm and a leg!" was God's reply.

Adam thought it over for a minute and then countered "I don't think I can afford an arm and a leg. What kind of mate could I get for a rib?"

That story is intended to be funny and imply that men have had to settle for less than perfection in their mates. Well that's probably true in most cases, but I'd like to tell you that's not the case with me. I really lucked out and got the arm and leg kind of mate! After 43 years of marriage I'd like to report that Sylvia still fits Adam's description perfectly. What a blessing she has been for me and our family.

I would like you also to know that we are super thrilled with the mates of all of our children as well. We could never ask for a greater blessing in life. Thanks to all of you for being so great!

This week we had the annual 4-day Mulligan golf tournament at Riverside. It was Jerry's idea to wear these outrageous outfits. I was shy about it at first, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Everyone loved them, except for Steve Watts who was playing behind us on Saturday. He said we distracted him and ruined his swing! Larry Rutherford really admired the pants on me, but when I offered to loan them to him, he declined.
We had more luck than usual in the tournament. We came in 2nd in "the derby" (which is a last team standing kind of playoff), were leading the whole field after the first day with a best ball gross of 66 and net of 58. Jerry had 5 birdies and an eagle(!) and I had 2 birdies that day, and each of us won a close to the hole prize.
Sylvia spent a morning helping measure the closest to the holes, and came down later to cheer us on. The course had never been in better condition and the food, as always, was great.

Family Reuonion 2009-
Can you spot the real Barry?


The kids all had turns at riding Lacy.

Our annual July 4 golf match. Jerry hit one short shot and had to wear the skirt until the next tee. I think Mike just wanted company in the outrageous category!

No fire works allowed in our neighborhood, so Mike fixed up a water rocket launcher.

Camping in the High Uintas. Everyone enjoyed Jerry's toys.

Lacy is lonely since the tragic loss of Mysti, but she liked having the attention of all the grandkids and getting away to the mountains.

Me and my girlfriends. What a lucky guy!

Sylvia's big win

Hey check out this Riverside notice you guys. I told you that Sylvia was becoming a great golfer!

Bear hunt

This Saturday (6-6-09) I went for a great ride with LeGrand and his two son-in-laws up Sawmill Hollow in Diamond Fork to a well-known landmark called "Mollie's Nipple".

It was a beautiful cool morning and we had a great ride in spectacular country.

Just behind Molllie's Nipple we met a group of bear hunters with very excited dogs in pursuit of a bear. They told us we could come along so we did.

Within a couple of miles they treed this nice big bear. When I asked if they were going to shoot it they said that first they had to be sure she was not a nursing sow. So one of them climbed the tree (!) and after about half an hour he was able to determine that she was indeed a mommie with fresh nipples. So they let her be for the sake of her cubs. Because of the location and the fact that she had nipples we concluded that her name must have been Mollie!

Another great memorable adventure!