mike and ruth

I spent three great weeks working in Costa Rica with engineers there. My job is to train Technical Support Engineers how to support the product we take care of, which is hardware and software storage systems from NetApp. The people I worked with are very talented and I had a great experience. I am grateful to them for the opportunity to work with them and hope we will get to work together more in the future. Hopefully I will also make it back to Costa Rica sometime. Their Trainer came to the US for a week and we worked through a class together there.

While in Costa Rica I got to know some other people there very well, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and value greatly the friendship we developed. Andrey was very generous with his time and provided me a way to get to church each week. The people in the Ward were very friendly and I enjoyed the meetings with them. Their temple is beautiful and I very much enjoyed the time I was able to spend there. I went to the Carara National Park not too far from San Jose one Saturday thanks to the kindness of a local tour operator. This was also a very unique and enjoyable experience.

We celebrate birthdays all the time at our home. We have birthdays every month of the year as you might expect. We were celebrating Derek’s birthday last week and had a nice time together and so did the kids! It was very fun and entertaining to see how tender Chase is with Olivia (see the picture) and how Daphne and Chase interact. He goes and tries to give her hugs and she hugs him back, but sometimes they both fall down being knocked down by each other. Julia blew up balloons and Chase LOVED them. Click on the picture of the kids at the piano for a little movie.

Things have been busy in our lives as they are for everyone. We drove to St. George two weekends ago to be with family there and then back up to Draper for a military event. Last week we took a quick trip to Rexburg ID for the wedding reception of our daughter-in-law’s sister. We were more inclined to go when we heard that Emily was traveling clear over from Finland to be there. It was great to see the family again. It has been a few years since we have seen them. We spent time with Melodie also and got to skype with Kristen at home for a while. We were very blessed that the snow we saw in the morning on our way to the temple was gone and we didn’t have to drive in it on the way home that afternoon and evening. It is snowing right now outside the door but fortunately this weekend we don’t have any plans for travel anywhere that is too far away other than to SLC for Tab Choir on Sunday. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving next week. This week we will celebrate twice; witn Mom’s family on Thursday and with my family on Saturday. We take turns, and my family meets every year regardless of whether it is actually on Thanksgiving Day or the following Saturday.
We heard on the news today that Nordstrom is closing its Orem University Mall store next February, citing that the sales expectations had never been met by the store. We are saddened that there will be nearly 200 employees affected by this closure and hope that they will find other employment qukckly.

We want to congratulate Quentin for an advancement he has earned in the Utah Army National Guard. He is now a Sergeant in the Guard which means he has more responsibility and gets a raise in pay (I guess). Congratulations! Sharisse and her Mother were there along with Grandma Hill, Mom, and me to be witnesses to this event. There were several other soldiers receiving rank advancements and it was a nice ceremony to be a part of. The commanding officers said that there was more family support for this event than they usually had, and was pleased about it. We drove directly from St. George to Draper to make it to the ceremonies, making it a very full day for us. This was a very happy day for all. Again, CONGRATULATIONS Quentin! We love you and are very proud of you!

Kristen has a fun birthday celebration tonight along with the trick-or-treaters who stopped by to get thier treats. We had a nice visit with everyone and Chase went out with his siblings dressed as a little dragon. Daphne was a little princess with a wand and a tiara. It was warm enough that the kids didn’t have to wear coats over their costumes, which made for a wide variety of little ghosts and goblins running around the streets.

As most of you have probably already heard, our 18th grandchild was born on October 20 at 9:11am in Provo. Olivia Grace weighed in at 8 lbs 1 ounce and was 18-inches long. She looks a lot like Daphne, who is delighted to have her little sibling here now. Their mother is doing well and little Olivia has dark eyes to go with her dark hair. We heard he cry for the first time a few days ago. She sleeps so much that we haven’t seen her eyes too much either. We are very proud of Charlotte and Andrew for not waiting to have their family even though Andrew is still in school. We know their children will bring them much joy, and they already do. They are so fun to visit with and enjoy time with. We are grateful that they live close and we can see them often!

We drove up Provo Canyon and then took the North Fork past Sundance and Aspen Grove up to the turnoff for Cascade Springs today, and took Grandma Hill with us. It was quite busy in the North Fork Canyon and there were quite a few cyclists too, but we were about the only car going to Cascade Springs after the turnoff. We didn’t get away until about 5:30 so we were worried we would not have enough daylight to see things, but it worked out beautifully. It was quite cool in the mountains, a nice contrast to the warm temperatures that got up into the 70’s and felt quite warm in the sun. (We went walking during the day in the sun and it was quite warm.) The scenery was beautiful as you can see and even though there were quite a few people there it was not particularly crowded. We took the road to the east up and over the ridge over to Wasatch Mountain State Park in Midway just for a change of pace. It was paved on the Cascade Springs side but on the other side of the ridge it was well-graded gravel and very wide. This was a nice quick and relaxing trip for us to see the beauty of that place and some of the colors of fall that were there. We need to do this next summer during our family reunion if it turns out to be convenient!

Grandpa and I attended the concert last night of the Orchestra at Temple Square at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. The first piece was a new double concerto for violin and viola by Paul van Brugge, with Igor and Vesna Gruppman playing the violin and viola solos respectively. Violinist Mark Emile, who is also a respected and experienced conductor, directed this world premiere performance. The piece was described for the audience before the performance by Igor. He said it was written as a voyage through the lives of a couple who go through life together and their good and bad times, beginning with two individuals before they become a couple. He said that “this piece isn’t easy to listen to”, and he was right. His description included the word “hope” for the musical content all of the pieces in the concert program. Much of this piece was quite dissonant but there were several moments of consonance through the piece. Grandpa said that he liked it pretty well even if there was some atonality that was very present in the music. The percussion players had quite a bit do to in this piece including counting a lot. The meter changed many times, making a difficult piece even more challenging to keep together. Mark Emile directed his players successfully through the maze with clear and distinct gestures. [During this piece there was a woman in the balcony not too far from where we were that apparently had a health issue of some kind resulting in quite a bit of traffic in the front of the balcony with people walking quietly in front of us back and forth, getting help and then having the helpers come and go with emergency equipment. During the interval between pieces the paramedics came in with a wheelchair but ended up carrying her out, probably because she was unconscious. Since we were on the first row right on the aisle, we were asked to move away while they removed her from the Tabernacle.]
The second half of the concert featured music that was well-known, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, and the Suite from West Side Story by Bernstein. We know both of these pieces and they were played with much gusto by the orchestra conducted by Igor Gruppman. It was a very enjoyable evening of music.

The choir visited St. George Saturday afternoon for a concert that evening in the basketball arena at Dixie College. This was to celebrate the anniversaries of the college and of St. George which are being celebrated together in the community. The audience was very large and appreciative of our efforts. It was nice to have a short tour experience for the new members of the choir, allowing them a “taste” of what is coming up in the summer. We stayed that evening and went to a Sacrament Meeting that was specially organized for the Choir and Orchestra on Sunday morning in the St. George Tabernacle. This is the very building where President Lorenzo Snow spoke about the importance of tithing to the members of the church in St. George. The rains did come, as those who know the story will remember. The same pulpit has been preserved and is still in use although it appears that other physical features in the front of the building may have been updated since that time.
The group filled the entire main floor and part of the balcony of the building. We had two very inspirational talks from choir members and a very nice musical number from members of the Orchestra at Temple Square. The choir president gave us a few remarks at the end of the meeting which we very much enjoyed. Rick Elliott really made the 10-rank pipe organ there sound much more full than one would have expected. Thank you everyone for a wonderful Sabbath experience.

The Utah Music Educators Association held their annual mid-winter clinic in St. George the first weekend in February. There was a virtual smorgasboard of activities for everyone. There were performances, demonstrations, classes on many subjects, and inservice training for both active and retired professional educators in the music profession. The subjects of Choir, Orchestra, Band, General Music, and Jazz Band were included for teachers of classes from Elementary to College. This was one of the best varieties of educational opportunity for the music teacher we have seen for a while. A great experience. Makes me proud to be a UMEA member.