It's a Small, Small World

I will start the day before we left for Utah. My brother Bruce and Sara and I went to our cousin Eldon McGilvary's viewing.  Nice to see Don and Mary and Jean and Cyril and John, our cousins, and some of their children. We were in a group picture with everyone, but I don't think anyone has posted it.

Our Alberta trip went well. It was too short in some ways, too long in others, and just right in still others! We (Bruce, Patrick, Josie, Rosie and I) had a good time. (Also Scott Navratil drove with us.)

The first two days were spent in High River with Abra and her kids. Amy and Scarlett also came down on Thursday evening, and we spent some time with them also on Friday morning. Abra gets a reduced rate at the Heritage, so Bruce and I stayed there. The kids stayed at Bernie Koltun's house, just across the street from Abra. Bernie is such a great hostess!

Back: Amy and her boyfriend Colin, Josie, Abra, Rosie and Scarlett. Middle row: McCall Edmonds, Piper, Patrick, Deklan. Front: Leola (Amy's mom), Shelby and Quinton Edmonds

Bruce, Abra and Deklan. Love the look on Abra's face as she looks at Deklan.

Rose, Amy, Abra, Patrick and Josie with Scarlett in front

Malachi at the graduation

Abra, Malachi, Deklan, Jordann (D's gf), Allison and Billy Baker, Piper. In front: Patrick, me, Josie, Rose.

Bruce and I also visited with the Thompsons, and Bruce spent the afternoon on Friday with Jim, finding willows to cut down and strip the bark from, while the rest of us went to Deklan's graduation ceremony. Which was pretty good actually--all the talks were short, and the native blanket ceremony and drum circle were very awesome. We could not really see, but we could hear, and it was great.

We stayed in Grassy Lake for the rest of the nights. We were in Colleen's upstairs, while Heidi and Robert Lawrence and their two cute kids, Beth and William, were occupying the basement. And Heidi keeps the house SO COLD. Oh my goodness! I could not even stand to go downstairs--brrr!

Saturday morning, we went to the Raymond parade. We watched with Ron and Deanne Hancock and family. Also Don and Mary and Helen. Don and Mary drove Diane Bennett's car up to Alberta (daughter of Joan and Kendon) and they were staying at Ron's house.  One of R & D's granddaughters, Emily, really took a shine to Rosie and Josie. Her mom would try to get her to move with her brother and the boy cousins closer to her age, but Emily wanted to sit with "the girls."

Josie, Rosie, and Emily. "The girls."

After the parade, we were honorary Navratils for the picnic. Also Dennis and Lavon Leavitt were honorary Navratils, and Carol and Ron Smith, Maya's parents. I had a lovely visit with Carol as well as many cousins.  The food was good and plentiful.  After eating, we went back to Grassy because Bruce and the girls wanted to rest, and Patrick is always okay with just chilling. It was super hot, and not much shade, so inside was good.  After dinner (which was mostly the food we had taken to Janet Navratil's house but did not eat, and some leftovers Michael and Craig had) we settled down with the Lawrences to watch Blackbeard's Ghost.  Then went to Taber to watch the fireworks, but they were cancelled due to high winds. The funny thing was, we didn't know that, but Nancy (in North Carolina) did, because they posted the cancellation on facebook, but we didn't know that! So we went to Taber, got some gas, and went back.

Robert and William Lawrence and Michael Torrie

Rosie, Josie, Craig and Patrick

Slept in on Sunday, went to church at Taber Third Ward, had a nice chat with Joan and Kate and Darlene Layton. No sign of John and Ellen.  We took sandwiches for after church, ate them in the park, and then went straight to Raymond for the Family Reunion Fireside.  It was nice--I shared Colleen's mission experience. Others had to report, and some people read excerpts from ancestor missions, including Patrick. Then we played a memory game that Lavon and Helen planned, and then we went home to Grassy.

Josie, Janae Hardy Purnell, Kayleen Hardy Evanson, Rosie

Josie and Ron's granddaugher Josie who is 25

You can see some of us (at least Bruce and Patrick) in the far corner of the room.

Back row: Brent Hancock (Roy), Rita, Priscilla, Lori, Rod (all Celia), me (Pearl), Lavon (Zilpha), Kerry (Celia), Mary (Lillis), Darrell (Celia). Front row: Keith (Alma), LeRoy, Janeane (Roy), Chari (Alma), Helen (Zilpha), Ron (Earl).  So seven of the ten who had children were represented. Missing Edna, Loren and Leo's descendants. (But Mary and I would see two out of three of those at the funeral for ALeda.)

We had decided to play hooky from the Hancock Reunion on Monday to just do our own thing. We went to Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, including a trip to Fort Walsh in Saskatchewan. Holy cow, that was a bad road!  So on the way back, we took the highway to Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. We ate lunch at a Subway there, where we were served by a Chinese guy who literally did not speak English and who really was clueless about Subway and how their sandwiches are made. So some of us had some pretty funny things to eat!

Evidence that Patrick was there

Then we headed back to Elkwater for some swimming. Roses and Josie went in the water, Patrick settled on a bench in the sun, Bruce sat in the van in the shade, and I was watching the girls when I heard "Myrna Layton!"  I looked around confusedly--it was this lady in sunglasses and a hat, so I had no clue who it was. It was Natalie Conrad, Paul's wife!  We had unwittingly crashed a Clyde Conrad Family Reunion--which was almost over.  Only Perry and Ellisa and John and Ellen with left, as well as Paul's family, who had only arrived for the one day, and Ben Paquette, who Christine was leaving with her parents for a couple of weeks.  But we took pictures with them, and had a short visit, and Perry invited people to stay with him if we are in Calgary, which was awesome for Patrick since he was staying in Canada to meet up with Jeff and Shaylee, and Perry's house was a great location to stay compared to Lavon's house in Okotoks, which was his other choice.

Bruce, John, Perry

Rose and Josie with Paul's daughter Savannah and her little brother

Paul and Natalie Conrad with five of their six children. The oldest, Bethany, had to work.

John and Ellen, Bruce and me, Ellisa and Perry

Tuesday we dropped Patrick at Raymond at Janet's and picked Scott up. We were detained at the border due to Bruce's willow sticks. Had to wait for the agriculture officer to get there, and she said they were fine and apologized for the delay. We got home in time for people to enjoy fourth of July fireworks--I didn't even look out the window, personally!

Which brings us to Saturday. Mary and Debby and I went to Brigham City for ALeda Mitchell's funeral. It was so lovely. Only 45 minutes long. Short talks interspersed with musical numbers. Quilts on the backs of almost every pew, showing off ALeda's quilting talent.

The dinner was immediately after. The three of us sat with Rod and Martha (Hancock) Rasmussen. We were joined by one of ALeda's sisters (she came from a family with 14 children, so there were plenty of sisters there) and two of her grandchildren.  First small world moment: all of the people at the table had some connection to Rose Park and/or West High School. Don and Mary raised their family in Rose Park. Rod Rasmussen served his mission there. Debby attended West High. My husband grew up in Rose Park and attended West. Both of ALeda's sister's grandchildren attended West High and grew up in Rose Park, but somewhat west of where the Phillips and Laytons lived, and somewhat later, because they were respectively about 32 and 40 years old. The grandson, Steven Thompson--his father was a Spanish teacher at West High.

And somehow, we learned that Steven will be the new Civs teacher at Provo High, so we talked about Provo High some. And of course Canada came up, because Ted and ALeda lived in Canada early in their marriage--and we learned that Steven's wife's mother had married a Canadian a few years ago, and now lives in Coaldale.  Her husband is named Gerry Anderson. Gerry Anderson? Could that be my friend Dorothy's BROTHER Gerry?  No--he was married to someone else. I couldn't remember her name, but I knew it was not Becky Wickham. And also Wickham? That is our son-in-law Allen Jones' mother's maiden name.

So today I FB stalked--and the Gerry Anderson from Taber who is Dorothy's brother DOES live in Coaldale, and his wife's name IS Cathy Wickham Anderson. And so then I popped over to her page and my common friends with her were Dorothy, Irene (Dorothy's mom, who has passed away) and Allen Jones! So--a lot of connections! Through ALeda, Dorothy and Allen!

After the funeral, Mary, Debby and I went to the temple, where Debby's elbows were getting worn out poking Mary and I to stay awake! Sitting in the middle was hard work! I had a great day with my cousins! Despite the whole funeral aspect of it.

Mary, me, Debby, with Rod and Martha in front