2011 Mulligan

This week was the annual Mulligan Golf Tournament at Riverside.  Jerry and I have played in it for about 12 or 14 years.  It coincided with the grand opening of our new clubhouse which is very nice, but probably more extravagant than we deserve.  Some years we have done better than others, but we were lucky this time. Jerry has a new Titleist driver that he was hitting over 300 yards so that helped a lot.  On Friday I was so depressed because I had missed several short putts and our score was just so-so.  We were about a third of the way from the bottom, out of 116 teams.  But on Saturday we came to life and got lucky.  Jerry made 6 birdies and I made 2, and we “ham and egged”  very well.   Our net score of 14.2 under  par was by far the best we have ever done in one day. 

In addition to that 4th place prize, Jerry won a range finder and some money and I won a putter for being close to the hole on a par 3. 

Another successful and really fun tradition.    

Ruf Riders Return to Idaho, Aug, 2011

This is about the 12th time we’ve been to Idaho in the last 16 years, but we never seem to get tired of it.

This was a wet year so the mountains were very lush.

We have never seen better wild flowers.

Between rides we played golf on the 2 local fabulous  courses, Teton Springs and Teton Reserve.  They are both world class courses, and with the way the economy is, they were almost empty, and not very expensive.

Golf at Red Ledges and Salt Lake Country Club

For the last few years Dick Thomas and I have had a fun time going to play in some really fun tournaments.  Yesterday we played at Red Ledges, this unbelievably hard course near Heber, in a tournament that was a match between BYU sports fans and U of Utah sports fans.  Today we went to Salt Lake Country Club to play on the Doctors team against  the Dentists. 

Jerry went with us to this one and played really well.  Here he is with his brand new Titleist driver.  He averaged around 300 yards per drive with it and came in 2nd gross and first net!   Dick and I did not do quite as well, but will recover. 

Family Reunion 2011

Another wonderful week with endless food, fun and wall-to-wall grandkids.The kids are growing up but still know how to ham it up.

 

We went riding, picnicking and fishing.

A great golf match at Hobble Creek.  We made 8 birdies.

The pie-eating contest was a hit.

Fun in the gully.  My knee is still sore.

Pretty girls. 

Springtime in Midway

We went again to Midway with the Coons’ to stay a couple of nights and play some fun golf.  After a wet spring the courses are beautiful.

James Low’s Wedding

Sylvia’s sibs were all here for James’ wedding this spring.

 

The beautiful pine trees in our back yard have become overgrown so we finally got around to taking them out.  Our ward had a services auction to help finance the youth’s trek  sp we bought a few of them and this was one of their projects.

 

 

John is on the Utah State Golf Association board of directors and he invited me to the annual banquet  where ou friend Dan Forsman, a PGA tour pplayer was being inducted into the hall of fame.  This picture was published in the quarterly magazine.  It was more notoriety than I deserved but it was fun.

ward auction

Today our ward had an auction to raise money for the youth pioneer trek project this summer. Sylvia donated a cherry pie and if there ever was any question about her legendary reputation there should not be now. It sold for $45!

Rough Riders at Escalante 2011

This spring ride was in the fabulous canyons around Escalante. We boarded our horses at the abandoned race track which worked out really well. It was great to have Lisa back to remind us all what real riding is all about. This was her first ride in 13 years!

We had a bigger than usual group, but the more the merrier!

Lisa, Matt, Larry, Carol and Bruce Selk, Richard, me, Legrand, Dave and Todd.

We rode the beautiful Casto and Losee Canyons the first day. They are called "little Bryce Canyon without the crowds."

Then on to fantastic Coyote Gulch, which may be one of the best places to ride on the planet.

It was a little tough to get in.

But then it was just magnificent. I'm not sure that Matt and Lisa noticed though, because they were so focused on each other!

This is jacob Hamblin Arch. I don't know if it is the biggest arch in the world, but it is certainly the biggest that I have seen, and beautiful.

It was really fun to gallup along the smooth sandy stream bed.

There is miles of wet sand that the horses love.

Todd's Lady is 24 now and still going strong. She is the oldest equine Rough Rider.

Matt rode Dave's horse Silverado who was really rough at first but Matt got him right under control and rode very well. It ain't easy to find a mount to match Matt's size.

For years I had heard about "Muley Twist" and it was a kind of "bucket list" item for me, so we trailered down the Burr trail to get there. They say that the pioneers used to drive wagons down here, but they must have hauled a lot of rocks to get past places like this.

I wonder what Richard's back surgeon thinks about this?

After a short struggle in the lower Muley Twist, we went on to the upper branch and it was superb! This is where we had lunch, overlooking the "Waterpocket Fold".

Here is the other view of that remarkable geologic formation.

We found several nice arches and rock formations in the upper part of the canyon.

The trail was really fun with some nice variety.

Another view of interesting rock formations and a prety Lady Rider.

Coming back Legrand and I galluped our horses for the last 3 miles and they loved it.

On Saturday we took a short ride in the mountains above Bryce. The cool mountain air and majestic Ponderosa Pines were nice.


There were a few low points on this trip; like the 34 mile washboard Hole-In-The-Rock Road, Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches in the bottom of saddle bags, a crumby restaurant next to our hotel, lost horseshoes, a balky truck, the impassible lower Muley, etc. But the beauty and fun far outweighed all that stuff and we now have another great memory!

James and Hannah wedding

Bill's son James married Hannah in the American Fork temple today. We had seen them a lot since they have both been going to BYU.




It was fun to have all 6 Low siblings together.

Here's the happy couple leaving the temple.

The Low and Lybbert families.