I do not remember when I definitely made up my mind to go to Utah for William's wedding. It was probably not until Nicola offered to have me tag along with her and Mark and Jonathan. How could I resist when all the arrangements were being made for me? The bookings, the insurance, the places to stay, things to do, Nicola arranged them all. I was happy to go, and very glad I went. Thank you, Nicola.
The wedding was all we had hoped for. Everybody concerned got to Manti in good time. The Country Inn Motel had three lots of Pettys and one Chadderton booking the night before the wedding. The proprietors knew all about the wedding by the time we had all signed in. Mark and Nicola had William stay in their unit, so that they could be sure he got to the temple on time! William had a goodly crowd of his Petty family at his reception, which perhaps was not so remarkable as half his aunts and uncles and cousins on our side are now living in the States. We could have hoped for a warmer day for the post-wedding photographs. But it was not raining or snowing!
Ray and I now have 22 descendants and spouses bearing the Petty name. As we originally did not plan on having children, that is something remarkable. When William and Jessica came to stay at Orem we had three generations of Mrs Petty in the house. That may never have happened before!
Despite all of us being around, it was surprisingly difficult to get us all together at the same place at the same time. We managed it on one day only. We all turned up at the10-pin bowling activity that had been arranged. That was enjoyable. We failed to arrive at the same restaurant to eat afterwards, but we managed to spend a good bit of the evening together at the Ellis home. That was when Eldon and Dorothy Walker visited us, to see the fruits of Eldon's labours in his mission field. Eldon it was who taught me the gospel in 1956. There seemed to be a houseful of people that evening. Which was because there was! Twenty-two of us (though not the same 22 as aforementioned). Fortunately they came in a few at a time, so they could be presented to the Walkers individually. Later, while members of the youngest generation were making considerable noise at the other end of the room, Eldon reminded me that once I was not going to have children!
Prior to this, Mark and I had spent most of a day with Eldon and Dorothy. We had dropped off Nicola at her conference. Jonathan had been left at the Ellis place. He did not mind at all. He had countless television programs to 'watch'. After Dorothy had given us a lovely lunch, the Walkers took us into Temple Square, and showed us the new Church History Library. Eldon and Dorothy have a mission call to work there one day a week. They are trying to find the names of all the pioneers who crossed the plains. They read journals and correspondence and I do not know what else. Eldon does some of the work on his computer at home too. Mark and I were given the official tour of the public part of the building, then we were issued with paper badges to show we were authorized to visit other floors, and we were taken by the Walkers to see where they worked. We met several people. After that we were let loose in the Distribution Centre, where we each bought something.
I spent another day with the Eldon and Dorothy the following week. Mark and Nicola dropped me off at the Walkers' place before they, that is Mark and Nicola, went into the City shopping. We had a tour of the Conference Center with Dorothy's niece, who is a tour guide, and who gave us a personal tour with lots of extras. By this time I had already attended General Conference, so was interested in some of behind-the-scenes information. I was also able to gaze at length on the paintings. We could not go out onto the roof garden because of the bad weather, but looked out through several windows, and saw a video of it.
We had lunch in the restaurant under the Church Office Building. Only church office workers and missionaries are allowed to enter. I did not see the sign proclaiming this until we came out. The Walkers being 'missionaries' were able to use it. After lunch we went, with a guide, up to the 26th floor to the observation deck. It was raining, but not so much that I did not go out on the deck to take a photo or two through the peepholes in the glass panels all around. We did a session in the Salt Lake Temple, and then visited the Church History Museum. This deserves a lot more time than we were able to give it in one afternoon. It was really impressive. Then the Walkers took me back to Orem.
One other thing I did independently was attend a very early morning session at the Provo temple with Claire Field. It was the only time we were both free. It was altogether a beautiful experience. Also I phoned Ken Nickell, who was off on another mission the next morning. I was lucky to catch him home. For the record, Ken Nickell and Bob Field were the missionaries who finally got us to baptism. They were both tall baskeball players. When for publicity purposes the mission decided to put a basketball team in the local tournaments in Ottawa, 'ordinary' missionaries like Eldon Walker were moved out. Bob Field died last year.
The wedding and attending General Conference were not the only big events . I got to see David and Laurie's house! I loved that house! I thought I loved their last one, but although I liked its mountain views, I did not like its location near a busy street. This one has a near-perfect location, from my point of view. I hope they can live there long and happily. One evening I went to see Anna's school production. When Mark, Nicola, Jonathan and I first visited, Anna was at a rehearsal, and came in later. Before we left, she whispered to David to ask us to come and see her in the play. It turned out I was the only one able to do that. She had not known I was there until afterwards when I went up to the stage to find her. She was so happy I had been there. It was worth attending just to see her face light up! Then David showed me over the school, with its astronaut theme.
Another highlight was going to BYU for lunch with Vernon Heperi, being taken on a tour of the campus, seeing the Carl Bloch exhibition at the BYU Museum of Art, and visiting the BYU bookshop – though it was awfully hot in the bookshop. This was the day we were all on our way to Manti. Because Mark and Nicola were not going to BYU that day, I travelled to Provo with the Chaddertons, and with Nathan, Vernice and Janet from Provo to Manti. That was a lucky thing for me! As we left BYU, Nathan expressed a desire to see Provo Canyon. So we did that before heading south. We parked the car and walked to see the Bridal Veil Falls, then drove up the canyon until we came to Deer Creek Reservoir. We turned back, but instead heading straight to Provo, turned up Alpine Loop Road, because Vernice thought there was a coffee shop at Sundance, where we could get a snack. There wasn't, but we carried on up the road into the mountains for some distance. I had wanted to go up into the mountains, but had not the opportunity. We stopped for a while after turning around when the road got narrow. Nathan enjoyed being out there in the snow, taking pictures of snow, mountain and trees. And so did I! It was the crowning of the day!
One more adventure was driving home from Manti. Nicola had decided to take a longer, more scenic route. We drove south to Salina, where we had a little adventure trying to find the pharmacy, then we took to the hills – along the 'no gas for 100 miles' road to Green River. Green River was a miserable little town, but the route there was worth taking. We were crossing the San Rafael Swell, as the map named it, the San Rafael Reef as a sign identified it. The rugged scenery was amazing.
And I got another wish fulfilled, I got to smell the sagebrush again, and see a juniper bush.
We did other things. We had the thrill of waking up to snow one morning. I went for one walk only, around the streets of Orem the first morning after our arrival, and mainly gazed at the surrounding mountains. I never tired of looking at the mountains. I considered some of them old friends because I had been up on their slopes on previous visits. Altogether, it was a great two weeks that I spent in Utah. I am grateful I had that privilege. And so glad to have seen all the family. Almost all the family. Within the past year I have seen all the family.
No comments:
Post a Comment