Visiting the Villa

We wanted to have a Saturday get-away, so we decided to go to the Getty Villa (not to be confused with the Getty Museum). The Villa is located in the beautiful Pacific Palisades. We have been there before, but it has been a while. The difference between the Getty Villa and the Getty Museum is that the Villa has more statues and artifacts and the Museum has more of the wall art. The grounds at the Villa are simply spectacular. 

This is the entrance. They built a stadium for performances just outside the entrance.

The Greek architecture is spectacular. I loved the detail in this portico.

Alan mimicking one of the statues.

The largest of the pools

More detailed architecture

This is the ceiling of one of the porticoes. It reminded me of some of the ceilings at Hurst Castle.

We're not great at taking selfies yet.

 Overview of the immaculate and spectacular grounds.  

We found this "play-dough" art a little out of place, but somewhat intriguing.

After we finished at the Getty Villa, we went to Santa Monica beach to ride our beach bikes and to walk the Pier.

The pier was pretty crowded!

I call him "the pigeon man".  He was quite popular with his fair feathered friends.

This seal was lurking at the end of the pier. He put on a show for us as a spectator would throw food (fish, I think) in the water and he would retrieve it.

This man put on a Trump mask and entertained the audience. (Be careful, Trump impersonator, you might get assassinated. Way too many angry liberals in California.)

 I doubt we will visit the Getty Villa again before we leave California, but I'm glad we went. It was such a fun Saturday get-away.

Random Act of Kindness and Paying It Forward

Much has been said in recent years about how nice it is to perform random acts of kindness for others...especially those you don't personally know. I have done that a few times myself, but until a couple of days ago, I was never the lone recipient. Don't get me wrong, many times we have had goodies left on our doorstep or Christmas Carolers from Church serenading us with Christmas songs, and youth groups performing service for us, but those were done by ward members who we love and associate with. My experience this week seemed different somehow. This is how it all went down:

As I left for the temple on Wednesday and was on my way to pick up a friend (Billie Jean Rose), I realized that I had left the snack I had packed for my break in the refrigerator at home. I decided that rather than turn around to retrieve it and be late picking her up, I would just purchase something from the cafeteria. Later, as I was waiting in line to pay for my "lunch",  Brother LaLanne (another Ordinance Worker on my shift) and I were chatting with the cashier. During the conversation, he let us know that he had celebrated his birthday the day before. I started to sing "happy birthday to you" and then he told the cashier that for his birthday present he wanted to buy my lunch for me. It didn't amount to much, but I thought that it was such a kind gesture on his part. It was a true random act of kindness.

Interestingly, at the end of my shift I went back to the cafeteria to purchase a sandwich for Billie Jean and the cashier recognized me as the recipient of a random act of kindness earlier in the day. She told me that three other brethren had purchased lunch for others after Bro. LaLanne did it for me. I guess that act was going viral that day, which is a very good thing. In order to "pay it forward" I purchased Billie Jean's sandwich for her and I also went home and bought her a new temple dress so she won't have to rent one each week. It feels good to serve others.

My Testimony of Christ

I bore my testimony of Jesus Christ in Fast and Testimony Meeting last Sunday, focusing mainly on my experience with memorizing "The Living Christ" document. A few days later, Sister Andrea Over - The Relief Society Secretary - asked me to send her a short paragraph summarizing my testimony so she can print it in the R.S. Newsletter next month. She is hoping that it will inspire other sisters in the Ward to memorize it. At this writing, I believe I am the only person to have memorized it so far. I am very surprised by that. I know, however, that Andrea is close to finishing it and others are working on it.

Here is the paragraph I produced for her that will appear in the September newsletter:

"I am so grateful that on May 20^th our Relief Society Presidency encouraged all sisters in our Ward to memorize “The Living Christ”.  I knew it would be hard, but I knew it would be worth it. Not only was it worth it, it has literally transformed my life. I tried to memorize it a few years ago but got discouraged after the first paragraph because I found it too difficult. I just simply wasn’t motivated enough. This time around, I was much more motivated. My motivation-- I didn’t want to be the only Relief Society sister to not memorize it nor be the last one to finish memorizing it. Because of that, I excitedly started to memorize it that very day after Relief Society. I was blessed to be able to memorize it in 6 days. In order to retain it in my memory, I recite it out loud at least once a day. Every Sunday during the sacrament, I recite it in my mind to keep my thoughts focused on Christ. I want to encourage everyone to accept the challenge. Don’t give up! You can do it! I testify that Jesus is the Living Christ. He is the immortal son of God and the redeemer of the world. He lived an exemplary life. If we want to live exemplary lives, we need to adopt His attributes and live as He did."

Since this is my third post about this memorization challenge, it must be plain and clear just how much it has meant to me. I'm so glad that I accepted the challenge and came off conqueror. It really gives me a great sense of accomplishment. It certainly was worth the time and effort I put into it. I want to be an advocate for Christ, for I know that He lives. I also know that He atoned for my sins. I appreciate His gift and accept it with open arms. It is worth more to me than all the riches of the world!

The Gift

On Friday, July 27th, the day before the reunion and after a family meal at Chuck-A-Rama,

 Jared, Kyle, Cheryl, and I went to visit Grandma Stott. She is now 97 years old, so her time on the earth is limited. Who knows how many more visits we will be able to have with her.

On the way there, I was telling them that the last time I spoke with her on the phone, her cognitive abilities were so compromised that she was not able to communicate at all with us. It was so sad. I was silently hoping and praying for better results this time around. My prayer was answered!

Grandma Stott was very aware of us and able to visit with us for an extended period of time. Although she was in her nightgown, we wanted to get pictures with her.

Pictured here is Kyle showing Grandma photos of his wife and children.

Grandma was her typical funny self. I was able to secretly video several moments. These will be a treasure to have after she is gone.

On the way to the car after the visit, I told my kids that tonight we were truly given a gift. All hope of having a great visit with grandma was realized. It was an amazing gift, for which I am eternally grateful. As my mother-in-law, she has been a joy in my life for 42 years.

Burton Reunion 2018 - Provo Canyon

My sister Janice was in charge of the Burton reunion this year. The location was at Big Springs Park up Provo Canyon. I was unable to attend the last two reunions, so it was fun to once again be reunited with family members I haven't seen for a while.

The day started with a mountain bike ride for those diehards who like excitement and have a lot of stamina. Ryan, Jared, Cheryl, Parker, and Kyle all participated in this ride which was led by their cousin Sean Foster. I understand that what was supposed to be a pretty easy ride turned out to be more difficult than anyone anticipated, but they were all troopers and survived triumphantly.

 Interestingly, 29 of my parents 40 grandchildren attended the reunion. Five attendees (Jonathan, Emily, Bryan, Katelyn, and Jordan) aren't in the picture. They arrived too late, unfortunately.

(Pictured here: Bottom row: Kellie, Cheryl, Jeni, Brad, Sean, Angela, Jamie.

Middle row: Amberly, Heather, Paul, Jana, Emily, Ashlianne, Jeremy.

Top Row: Matthew, Michael, Ben, Kyle, Ryan, Jared, Eric, Nathan, Christopher, and Trevor.

 (Grandchildren missing from the reunion: Melanie, Alisa, Raymon, Tami, Craig, Michelle, Dan, Allison, Kristen, Blake, Derek)

Ryan thought it would be fun for our family to wear Burton Snowboard shirts so he brought enough for most of us in our immediate family. He is going to see if the Burton Snowboard Company will sponsor our reunion next year so everyone can have a shirt. I hope he is successful! 

 This is the only picture I got after Ethan, unfortunately, had an accident on his bicycle. He got pretty banged up after trying to avoid hitting Ella when she had to stop suddenly to avoid a car. Many parts of his body were cut and scraped up: shoulder, side, hand, knees. Dr. Neal said that the cut on his right knee probably needed stitches, but Eric's first aid kit had steri-strips so those were applied instead. Ethan was pretty miserable. I hope he is healing well.

Janice asked Gayle and I to play the ukulele so my siblings and I could sing "Open Up Your Heart and Let the Sunshine In" - a song my mother used to sing. She also played the ukulele. Her brother brought it back from his mission to Hawaii. It was a lot of fun singing with my siblings. 

Front row: Jane, Gayle, Janice, Joan

Back row: Neal, Kent, Phil

Not Again! It's Like Lightening Striking Twice

My favorite form of exercise, a morning swim in our pool, has been hampered lately by the discovery of deceased jack rabbits who like to escape the heat by resting in the shaded cavity where our automatic pool cover rests while in the open position. The problem is that we aren't aware that they are there so when we uncover the pool to use it, the poor bunnies are trapped and crushed.  This has happened twice now. 

Our first discovery was a couple of weeks ago shortly after we got home from our vacation. Alan and I decided to go for an early evening swim. We could smell something foul, but didn't know where it was coming from. The next morning during my swim, the smell was even worse. By using a flashlight that night, Alan was able to locate the carcass and was able to successfully dispose of it.

Yesterday, during my morning swim, I could smell decaying flesh again. I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe Alan just didn't bury the first bunny deep enough or something. I was wrong. As I was covering the pool after my swim, a deceased bunny somehow popped out while the cover was unrolling and ended up on top of the cover. This was a gift because Alan didn't have to hunt for this one. He came home for lunch and disposed of it, thank goodness. No, he didn't have rabbit stew for lunch!

I had to laugh at Ryan's comment in a text when I was complaining about the discovery of a second bunny. He said, "that's some extreme hare loss."

I certainly hope that this will be our last bunny incident. I'm starting to dislike rabbits - except for this kind: