What a week!

The Dodges went to Sacrament meeting with us and then headed up to Brenda's in our truck. She took them to the airport the next day.  It was hard to say good-bye!  We have Thanksgiving to look forward to and next year's reunion.

We planned a trip to the temple to see the newest film and pick up the truck. The Andrei decided they wanted to buy the truck (yay!) so we took the title up and then went to the temple. The film is beautiful and the music in it is amazing.

This morning at sunrise we drove over to Albany to see the hot air balloons. Pictures will tell the story:

Three balloons were shaped like bees!

An unusual shape

Eldon Olsen reunion

I was impressed by the number of descendants, their humor, attitude of love, and each one's uniqueness. Not to mention talent, cute babies and general helpfulness.

Okay, that's enough bragging.

The only ones missing were our four missionaries--Jason in Las Vegas West, Esther in Virginia Richmond, Berkeley in Utah Ogden, and Zachary at the MTC in Provo preparing to go to Cambodia. We missed them, but we wrote them letters.

The first day there was a photo shoot taken by Michael Brewster.

Sheryl's clan

Ken's clan

Carl's clan

Brenda's clan

Neil's clan

The girls had organized a 50th anniversary tribute for us. What a hoot! First Ken reviewed what was happening in 1964, the year we married, and then led his family a cappella in "Families Can Be Together Forever." Impressive.

Then Neil reminisced, particularly about what we did as a family in the great out of doors. Brought back a flood of memories. Then his whole family sang "My Heavenly Father Loves Me." Touching.

Then Sheryl, bless her heart, paid tribute to us as a married couple and then introduced Jonathan as comic relief. He told a joke about Adam and Eve--the perfect wife would cost an arm and a leg, so Adam asked what he could get for a rib! Jessica and Michael sang a duet, "We Two" which was supposedly popular when we married. Schmaltzy.

Then Brenda's Sam and Sydney read something they'd written about us and Maia read a cute poem.

Then Brenda and Mike sang "It Had to Be You." Catchy and apropos.

Then Carl told a joke about how Dad was once asked to speak on Christmas, he didn't know why. But Dad said he knew it was because if they said five minutes, he'd only take five minutes. His girls each read a verse of a nostalgic poem called "Piano" by D. H. Lawrence.
Kate:
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.
Laura:
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.
Grace:
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamor
With the great black piano appasionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

Carl and his girls

Then Jessica had made a slideshow of pictures down through the ages. Sweet.

Then fancy cakes.

What a celebration! We thought it was perfect.

The rest of the reunion was fun too. I'll just throw in some random pictures. Hopefully I'll get one of each grandchild and great grandchild! (Looking it over, I only missed Steph and our wonderful daughters-in-law.)

Annabelle and David shooting rockets with Jessica

Sydney and Brenda distracted from reading

Rachel and Ariana puzzling

Jessica at Alsea Falls

Carl's and Brenda's girls playing with baby Quin

Erik, Curtis and Sam

Trevor at the falls

Joseph wasn't too sure of the pond

Neil with Gideon

Ken, the mad scientist, shooting off rockets with Maia and Grace

Laura and Kate in a talent show skit

Robin at the archery range

Kate on the land zipline

Jonathan and Sheryl relaxing at the pond

Annie in a canoe

Gabriel playing with a frisbee

Mike and Brenda on the pond

Farewell to a boy

And in two years we will say hello to a man, tried and true after serving as a missionary in Cambodia.

We went to Central Point on Tuesday, July 8th. Six of us went to Ashland that evening to see the play, "A Wrinkle in Time."  It was interesting how they performed it. Grandpa watched Gideon and Joseph while we were gone.

On the 9th, Neil's birthday, we had a privilege of going to the temple with Zachary. Eldon and I were asked to be the witness couple. It was joyful to see Neil, Pam, Emily and Zachary arm in arm in the celestial room.

Neil's birthday dinner was a joint effort--special salad by Pam, tofu and veggies by Emily, and a chocolate torte by Zachary! 

The next day we took off to the coast. We stopped at the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. It was amazing walking through those huge trees.

We stayed in Brookings for two nights. We walked at the Harris Beach where Eldon looked for driftwood.

The next morning we headed out early on the Oregon Coast Trail. It was wet with the morning mist and we got soaked up to our knees.

The Whaleshead viewpoint was cool.

We drove up to Gold Beach and visited a myrtle wood store and watched a guy making a bowl.

Then we drove up the Rogue River to the Shrader Old Growth Trail. It was a mile long loop that was self guided.

Not much further on up a steep trail was the largest known myrtle tree in Oregon.

Tomorrow we head back to Central Point so we can go to church and hear Zachary's talk. It will be sad to say goodbye, but we're really excited for this chance for him to serve and know that he's worthy to do it.

I Want to Live the Gosepl

In Primary we are going to learn a song called "I Want to Live the Gospel." It goes:

I want to live the gospel, to know that its teachings are true,
To follow the plan of my Savior and live as he wants me to do.
I will try in all I do and say to live the gospel more each day.
I will try in all I do and say to live the gospel more each day.

It reminds me of a personal experience I plan to share with the children and I think I should share it with you too!

When I was about eleven or twelve I remember sitting up in our old apricot tree reading a book.

I liked to eat the apricots while I was reading! I remember how yummy they were.

The book I was reading was called "Added Upon" by Nephi Anderson. It was the first LDS fiction ever written. It is the story of a boy and girl who knew each other in the pre-existence, before they came to earth. Then they came here and met, and the last chapters were about them after this life was over.

It was the first time I understood about the Plan of Happiness, that this life is just a small part of eternity where we come to earth to live by faith.

I remember a strong feeling came over me that I wanted to know what Heavenly Father wanted me to do so I could return to Him.  If I only knew what that was!

Later I realized I did know.  I had learned it in Primary.  I realized what he wanted was simply 5 things:

1.  Have faith in him and his son, Jesus Christ.
2.  Repent of our sins (which we all need to do)
3.  Be baptized
4.  Receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and let it guide us
5.  Endure to the end (or don't ever stop living the Gospel)

I hope I can do that!

50th Anniversary

Tomorrow is our 50th wedding anniversary. It seems like quite an accomplishment to me!

When Eldon told his Dad he was getting engaged, his Dad told him to think about it seriously because 50 years is a long time to sit across from the same face at breakfast!  But through the good times and the bad, the fun times and the sad, he's been there for me. He made up his mind early on to stick with his commitment, no matter how confining or irritating it might become at times.

I suspect it was one of the kids put an article in the Gazette Times about it. We would never have seen it since we don't take the paper any more, but our friends the Tingeys, saw it and e-mailed a note of congratulations to us.  For those of you who don't take the paper, here's the article quoted:

"Janeil and Eldon Olsen of Corvallis will observe their 50th wedding anniversary on June 8, 2014.

"Janeil Fugal and Eldon Olsen were married June 8 1964, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

"Eldon and Janeil have lived in Utah, Connecticut, Indiana, Montana and Oregon. Eldon was a professor at Oregon State University and Janeil was a secretary at the Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion next to the OSU campus. After retirement they served missions for their church in San Diego, Baltimore and Nauvoo, Illinois.

"They now reside in Corvallis, where Eldon volunteers for Dial-A-Bus. They have five children, all married; 21 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren."

Almost reads like an obituary! It's factual except that we only have 6 great-grandchildren. But who knows, maybe another is on the way and I just don't know about it yet!

Thanks to whomever wrote the article. I also think Sheryl and Brenda have plans for an FHE at the reunion that might include mention of our 50th. Can't wait to be together at the reunion.