The Studious One

M decided she needed to read my book....And use my glasses. I wish I looked that good in them.

Props to Val and Diane

Val and Diane are currently in Peru with Rotary Youth Link. He is the team leader this year, and loves being able to help both the youth and the Peruvians.

I have copied an article that has been written about them..... or you can go to

http://www.youthlinc.org/index.html

and find out about YouthLINK.

Val Petersen



Val began his YouthLINC experience with the Kenya Alum trip in May 2008 and also had the opportunity to participate in the July 2009 Peru Trip as MicroEnterpise mentor. On both trips he was accompanied by his wife, Diane who is a RN at McKay Dee Hospital. He is currently the Secretary-Treasurer of the Kaysville Rotary Club and had the opportunity to write the Grant Application for next years Rotary involvement in Palmeras Peru for the host rotary Club (Kaysville).
Val has always wanted to get involved in International Humanitarian Service and his experiences with Rotary and YouthLINC the last two years have been amazing. “The mission and program of YouthLINC are so compatable with my goals to see lifetime humanitarians of the rising generations while being able to do good internationally. The experiences in Africa and South America have had significant and life changing impacts on our lives.”
Val lives in South Weber where he previously served 3 terms on the City Council, is involved in community and church service. He served an LDS mission in Northern Argentina in 1972-4 and speaks “forgotten Spanish” but it started to come back after 2 weeks on the Amazon. By day he is employed as the Executive Vice President and CFO of Prime Alliance Bank and on the week-ends he enjoys ATVs, hiking slot canyons, kayaking, volleyball, and traveling. One special interest is exploring the Mayan ruins in Mexico, Honduras, and Guatamala which he had been able to do multiple times in the last decade or so.
He is looking forward to returning to Peru and being involved in the great things being done there, seeing friends there and be part of a new team of future YouthLINC Alums.

UPDATE

Yes, I am WAY behind. I just looked at my calendar and realized that I need to catch up from the first of APRIL.... yikes. I had better get going!! I don't know how to do this so that it is chronologically correct... but if I enter it first to last and then cut in to add the next one?? we will see how it turns out. Wish me luck!!! ( I am putting them in as if I did them on the right days... so the oldest is the furthest away..... sorry to make you scroll all the way to the end!!) And it is pretty long!!! Good luck! . . . . and I should say start at the bottom and work you way up to make the most sense of it.

May 28-31 -- yes that is only a couple of days after I got back. But what is one to do when Memorial Day is the time to play?? Many of us have read "Undaunted" by Gerald Lund and there was a great desire to 4 wheel the trails that those wonderful pioneers did by foot. So we loaded up the machines and headed down. It was a fun trip with Brent Kim and I along with Neil Brienholt and his daughter Iza and her 11yr old son Kai. We saw Indian ruins, did 7 hours on the trail, found a couple of geocaches, and had lots of sun. In addition we got to see the Natural Bridges Nat. Monument, Kayak Lake Powell, and visit Fillmore (Aunt Iris and the cememtary) and basically have some great time together.

We went around the lake by Hites Crossing because we were too late in the day for the ferry. It was really fun watching the creeks go from a tiny drizzle to the very beginning of the lake. It was a beautiful site.

Natural Bridges was a bonus, we decided on the way to Halls Crossing that we wanted to try and see it and we got there just before sunset... so we were RUNNING to get to each one, It was also beautiful, no, more like breathtaking!!!

We stayed at The family Units at Halls Crossing, which is basically 3 bedroom trailers outfitted like condos.

The next day, After our first Geocache, we headed for the Indian Ruins. Neil hadn't been there for 10 years and drove us right to it.... What a memory he has!! It was pretty intact and if you look close you can see the bikes in the bottom R corner pic. from inside the ruins.

Next we tried to find the Hole in the Rock trail. But it dead ended in a canyon slide... but the journey was exciting! (If you look close in the top R pic, you can see Brent and Neil standing on the opposite side of the slide trying to see if they can find where the trail continues around the canyon... but they are but little dots on the huge slick mountain.)

Yes the 4 wheeling was as intense as it looks. But the adrenalin rush seemed to sit well with the drivers. Check out this video ....... Be sure and notice Kim's wheels are off the ground.... that is the YIKES moment. But she did a great job and even took a couple other machines down after she got the hang of it.

As you will see, coming back up was much easier.

We found some old car relics and did some more geocaching while trying to find the Dome... and ended up on another trail that we decided was too long and dry for us, so we stopped for lunch and headed back.

The desert was blooming some... loved the few spots of color!!

Got back and headed for Kayaking Lake Powell.... The round island in the distance of the top R pic is where they headed to .... then over to the cliffs.

That finished the full day there. Sunday we took the Ferry across to Bullfrog and then Sac mtg in Hanksville.

Kim had never been to Goblin Valley and since we were so close we had to stop there for lunch and a little exploring.

Then on to Fillmore. Aunt Iris was the perfect hostess. After the memorial service Monday she even took us around the cemetary pointing out relatives we should be aware of. One interesting note is that our McBride relative was the first person to be baptized in the Nauvoo Temple. We thought that was kind of neat.

Then finally we headed for home. Cut some flowers and went with Mom Petersen to the cemeteries up this direction. All in all it was a wonderful holiday.

May 10-25 -- I got the good luck to get to go to OHIO !!! B&Q went to DC for a convention and I got to play with L&C for 5 days!!! What fun!! Then they came home and we played even more. There were beautiful flowers from Brent for Mother's Day, How sweet is that... he didn't want to get them and have me leave the next day and not enjoy them,..... so he had them there waiting for me!! I LOVE THAT MAN!!! The kids wrote cute " Welcome to Nana" signs too.... it feels so good to be loved.

Some of the fun things we did I will put into a collage to..... My phone quality of pics is not doing so hot right now... but you can see what we were up to even if it is poor quality pic.

Two of the pics are at the preschool party, Puddle stomping, playing at the mall playground, and swimming with Mom and Dad.

New Bunk Beds were sanded, stained and varnished while I was there - but no pics. sorry.

All in all it was a fun couple of weeks. Love that Nana time!!!

May 1 -- I decided to get creative for Ashley's Baby Shower. Her nursery theme is Forest Animals and I found this cute Owl rag quilt and decided it was perfect.... what do you think? (notice 6' Ashley standing behind it.... it gives you a feel for how big it is) Sorry it is so blurry... I took it with my phone.... and I guess I wiggled it.

April 23-24-- SURPRISE!! It was Brent's birthday and we threw him a surprise party. We had lots of friends and family come to East Canyon to help him celebrate in a grand fashion.
The Surprise was successful

Young and Old were there to celebrate

and the Kitchen Crew fed us all well.!

April 7-11 --The weekend after conference we went on an adventure. We (Kim Brent and I along with Val Mike Ryan Blake and Erika) drove to southern Utah and Northern AZ to a couple of beautiful spots to do some exploring. We first went to the Grand Canyon "Walk the Sky" Yep it is that new sky walk that goes out over the GC. When we got there we found out that it was very commercialized and the kids all protested at the cost and stayed in the parking lot while Brent, Val and Jan bit the bullet and went.

You first have to buy a bus ticket to get out there - you can't drive or walk. But that doesn't get you on the sky walk. You have to buy another ticket to do that. Then you can't take ANYTHING - camera, phone, etc onto the walk - and they conviently take your picture and then charge you an arm and a leg to get a copy of it. All in all.... would we recommend it?? It is a once in a lifetime experience, but be prepared to spend LOTS of money to do it.

can you see below? Cool eh!

This kind of gives you an idea of what it looks like.

Yes it was

hot and we were pretty tired by the time we had our pics taken. (Notice the booties!)

The next day we went to Havasupai. We were very limited on time, so we rode the helicopter in (to the bottom of the canyon) hiked back to the falls, spent the night and then hiked out the next day. It was stunningly beautiful... and there is no way to give you a full picture of it's beauty.. We have a 200 page book with over 400 pictures for our 2 day stay. So I will just give you a few highlights and you will need to come see the book for the full story.

Getting off the chopper in Supai

The new fall made by the flood... we named it Ryan's falls because he heard it from the trail and we wouldn't have found it otherwise.... it wasn't on the map.... It was beautiful

You can see where the ground used to be, (before the flood) and where the new growth is starting in the new area.... It was beautiful

This is the other fall after that green area, can you see them walking under the falls?

The MEN overlooking Havasuai Falls

I decided to save some room and make a collage... Things to look for..... Havasupai Falls is the Jagged one (the one the boys were looking at from the top) After it, we had to decend to Mooney Falls. Notice the "Beware sign". You have to climb down through the cave then decend the mountain (notice the ladder - that was the easy part!) once at the bottom it was beautiful with little falls, beautiful ponds.. and the "Green Room" that was mossy and beautiful.

So that is the quick version - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

April 2-4 - - It was wonderful to have Ray and his family here for conference. We loved having him stay at our place and we even had a wonderful hail storm just for them. It was also good to get together with our other siblings and their families for gymnastics and food. I wish I had some pics... but I don't. So if anyone does!!! may I borrow?

WHEEWWWW.... I think I am done, and congratulations to you for making it to the very end!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA VERLO

Happy Birthday to a wonderful man who a whole tassel of people love and miss. We are thinking about you and your wonderful heritage.

Love you!!

Utah Spring

A week ago we were working in the yard and enjoying a HUGE case of Spring Fever. It was pretty warm (close to 65) and thinking winter was over. OH NO.... not yet. Of course it was conference weekend and it is only expected that the weather is cooler, and we had a pretty good thunder, lightning and hail storm, but that was pretty much gone in one night. But last night was another matter. Brent and I went walking in preparation for out Havasupai outing next weekend, got another 5 miles under our belt (or feet I guess I should say) it sprinkled a little and was pretty cool, but was a beautiful spring walk.

Well, about 7:15 that evening we went to his Mom's in a pretty good rain storm, and 2 hours later...... it had turned to a HUGE snow storm and we had a good 2-3 inches of snow!!! and Look at what we woke up to this morning - Merry Christmas!!

What a wonderful few weeks!!!

Sorry, I have been slow again.... but I have an excuse... I have been busy with grandkids. You know those little gold mines that also become land mines!!! Brooke and her kids were here for a couple of weeks and while they were here we got to have two baby blessings. We also had family pic taken - (It was freezing cold!!! I hope we don't look frozen in them!!) I will add some of them later, but for now... here are some great pics of beautiful kids!!!

The Beazer Clan

L's Blessing day with her Family

L & G aren't they cute!!!

G and his proud parents

Isn't he handsome!!!

brotherly love

So, there you go. Happiness in it's fullness!

I am sooooo slow!!

I just LOOKED at my own blog and realized I hadn't updated about my trip to OHIO in January. How in the world could I have not done that!!! especially since G arrived and added one more beautiful grandson to our list of jewels!!

Here he is in all of his beautiful splendor. He is a beautiful baby and a gentle spirit.

His proud Mama

L being a great big sister and helping with the first bath

G with his Daddy

Big C giggling with his baby brother

I do love kissin on those sweet smelling bundles!!!

On the last day I was there we all posed with our babies.

Whew.... I am glad I got that on. I am a most forgetful person some times!!!

Happy Valentines!!!

I decided to do some fun cooking for this weekend and have documented it on Kim's food/book blog. If you want to find the recipe for Tuscan Chicken and Buttered Rosemary Rolls you can go to her site and check them out. It is http://bingeonbooks.blogspot.com/ and here is a pic of all of us enjoying a wonderful dinner.

As you can see it was complimented with fresh fruit with jello mold and was finished off with a fresh raspberry trifle.

Brent's Graduation

We forgot to let you know that in Oct. Brent got to go to a FEMA earthquake emergency response training back east in Emmitsburg, MD (8 miles south of Gettysburg) he really learned a lot and enjoyed the experience. This is a picture of the cabin they had graduation at.

One of his teachers was an expert on Gettysburg and took Brent and a couple of friends there for a personal tour on one of their free afternoons. He really felt like that was a great blessing.

Thank You

Brent surprised me with a beautiful new nativity this year. It warms my heart to look at it - - it is so beautiful. Thank you!!

They are a beautiful addition to my collection. (And at the top of the list of my favorites)

Our Stake had a Nativity Show for the Christmas Activity this year and I got to show some of mine. I really am blessed to have some beautiful pieces.