Greatest Moment Ever

Memorial Day May 31, 2016

My Dad was asked by the Mariner's to throw out the first pitch.

He has been very involved with the Puget Sound Honor Flight Organization and that is how this all came about. The veterans in this organization were honored at the field that day.

On our walk to the ferry this cute brunette came up to Dad and put her arm around him and thanked him for his service. They had a little chat. Then she came and found him on the ferry and asked to have her picture taken with him again.

A little while later this young sailor came up to Dad to talk. It was pretty special. He is from Saipan and that is where my Dad served in the Navy. This sailor left Saipan four years ago so they were able to talk about locations and a little Navy lingo type stuff. I don't know if it like this everywhere, but in the Pacific Northwest the people are so patriotic. It is really fabulous.

We walked to the official check in point.

We found the best place we could to record the big moment. First they rolled out a big red carpet for the veterans to walk out on. There were about 20 Veterans lining the 3rd and 1st base line. 

 Each Veteran was introduced by name, their military branch and rank. Each Veteran was projected on the big screen in the stadium. I didn't realize that at first. I just saw the tv screen where we were standing so I decided to take a picture of that screen. Here is my Dad during his big moment. He was doing a signal. He was a signalman in the Navy. He was a ham of course.

After the National Anthem, the Veterans were escorted from the field and Dad trotted out to the mound.

Here are all the links we have tracked so far:

Original Video from Mariners Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Mariners/videos/10154248650448979/?pnref=story

Fox Sports Interview in the seats at SafeCo:

http://m.mariners.mlb.com/news/article/181112058/mariners-honor-memorial-day-with-ceremonies

King 5 Interview:

http://www.king5.com/sports/mlb/mariners/92-year-old-throws-out-epic-first-pitch-at-mariners-game/225186702

MLB Coverage:

http://m.mlb.com/video/v756176983

ESPN coverage:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=15849612

Then I realized he was up on the big screen in the stadium so I started taking pictures of that.

Here he is taking the mound.

Waving to the crowd.

All around.

This is the official MLB photo.

Do you see he brought a pen for autographs?

 Dad requested to meet Edgar Martinez. This is them walking to the dug out to get his autograph. 

I decided I better get a selfie before we left the game.

 I really can't put into words the emotions of the day.

It's so fun to be his daughter. I love being able to say "That's my Dad!"

He is a great example to me that we can become better people in our lifetime. 

I'm pretty excited that we get to have him live with us. 

I'm hoping he rubs off on us in all the good ways.

pics from my phone

Since there has been nothing out of the ordinary happening in the last week I decided just to pull some pictures off my cell phone to share.

I think this was Corinne's birthday/Mother's Day celebration. Ben and the boys bought her a chocolate fountain for Mother's Day. Life with boys.

 Corinne and Ben have registered the three oldest boys in baseball this year.

This was taken last night at Richard's first game. 

From their report, the boys are all having a good experience.

I'm glad!

Henry was enjoying the game - lots of clapping!

 My Dad went over to SeaTac to welcome home the Honor Flight. 

They put on a really nice show at the airport.

This is a little lady that Dad would be keeping his eye on if he weren't moving here.

 This is a picture that we had taken in about 1974. I posted it on Facebook a couple weeks ago for Throw Back Thursday.

These are my good friends who were in my Laurel class with me. We had this taken professionally and gave it to our Laurel Teacher. She had it hanging in her family room for years. I wonder it it's still there????

Drew Thomas, Millie Chalk, Me & Dana Thomas (twins).

One of my new "friends" here in St George posted on my facebook post 

"Are you the blonde?"

I was like "what the heck"? Am I really so old, fat or ugly that it isn't obvious which one is me?

I think she was just jealous.  :)

I had to post this picture of Mima & Shannon on my monitors at work.

I just love the look on Mima's face.

 A few Mima pictures that make me smile!

 Little Tootsie!

Zions National Park for Mother's Day

Fred and I drove up to the Springdale entrance to Zions National Park on Saturday.

The first thing we did once we got there was eat lunch.

This isn't a very good picture because it's off the internet. 

Oscar's Cafe. So so good! That's all I can say.

We ate on the patio and it was a little nippy, but they do have heaters hanging from the ceiling. 

We left our car parked here and hopped on the shuttle. 

Took the town shuttle to the shuttle that goes into Zions.

It was cloudy and did rain a little. Most all of my pictures are taken from inside the shuttle.

We have photo contest ongoing at work. I won February of 2015 with a picture from Kolob.

So I was trying to get another one to enter.

There tends to be lots of photos that look like these. The criteria for the contest is scenes and nature from Southern Utah. So you can understand why there are lots of photos of the mountains. 

 The shuttle driver stopped so we could watch these three deer. All three of the pictures I took had the flash reflecting in them. I was bummed.

 Here is our selfie on the shuttle.

 You can get off at any stop and walk/hike the trails. We only got off once. I was carrying my purse.

Lame.

 The shuttle in town and in Zion is free.

Getting in for two of us with no pass was $30.

If you go in with a group, it's still only $30.

Here is Fred taking a picture of me taking his picture.

 We stopped here for ice cream on the way home. 

Now that is some gift shop in there.

They make their own ice cream. It was good.

 We think this will be a good stop with grand kids. 

 Almost back home and we saw this cloud formation. Fred said it looked like an atomic bomb and I thought it looked like a mushroom. It's pretty either way.

It was a very nice day. I haven't wanted to drive to Zions since we moved here because I didn't want to spend my Saturday driving anywhere since I sit at my job all week. I've finally gotten over that. 

I'm glad we went.

Mother's Day

So we have Mother's Day this Sunday. Here is my favorite picture of my Mom. She had it taken at the beauty parlor she use to go to in Carson City, Nevada. It just happened they had someone that day taking glamour shots. I love this picture. 

After we moved away from Canoga Park, CA in 1969, my Mom remained pen pals with a friend there and used the pen name of Mrs. Gotchalks. I think this is a fitting picture of her for that identity.

Mom passed away in July of 2010 at age 87. Almost six years ago. How is that possible that she has not been on this earth for so long? I grow to love her more and more as the years pass. I realize now that there was so much more to learn from her. 

I have become more aware that Mom ALWAYS had a cheery disposition. I can only recall one instance where she said something kind of negative about someone. It was my Primary teacher. She said "she wears too much mascara". The only other negative comment she would make came as she was advanced in her age and felt more sensitive to people who did not seem to give her the attention or treatment she felt befitting a woman of advanced years. She did not like to be "set aside" so to speak. 

I miss her. I wish I could honor her this Sunday in person.

I hope that my life for the most part brings her joy.

I hope she will be the one there to welcome me as I pass through the veil.  

 Toehead Taye 

Actually her given name is Elinor Taye Ensign

I'm pretty sure this is her missionary photo. 

She served a two year mission in the Northern States mission.

Here is my Mom's family. Dad - H.D. (Horace Darwin) Ensign, 

Laurine Ensign (the mother who raised her. Mom's mother Zelma died when Mom was 2 years old), 

In the back left to right: little brothers Gaylord Ensign and Tad Ensign. 

This is Mom's mother Zelma Webb Ensign. She died at age 24 1/2.

Wedding Day September 13, 1949

Sealed in the St. George Temple

I'm going to be so happy to see my Mom again,

Happy Mother's Day Mom!!

I love you!!!!

Second installment of vacation

These are pictures that Fred took. I definitely forgot some stuff.

We went to the Natural Bridge Caverns in San Antonio.

Over the years on road trips, we would stop and wander through caves. Usually lava caves.

Definitely, this cavern was far more magnificent. It was about 70 something degrees, but like 90+ humidity. Kind of miserable after a while. Jess again was a real trooper. She really doesn't complain. 

Here we are. 

The Natural Bridge Caverns are the largest known commercial caverns in the U.S. state of Texas.The name was derived from the 60 ft natural limestone slab bridge that spans the amphitheater setting of the cavern's entrance.

Here we are headed out for our excursion on Cozumel. I had my eyes closed because it was really sunny.

Here we are in the Razor that we drove around in.

Our driver Fred.

This is the road out of town.

Now we are in the wilderness.

One night in the theatre they put on a folded towel puppet show. At the entrance they had all their different towel animals on display. We thought we would see the puppet show, but after about 10 minutes, we had to leave. It was too painful.

We never ate at the buffet on board. We went to a sit down dining room dinner and breakfast. 

This is the fruit tray (with cottage cheese) yes that little dabble of white stuff is cottage cheese. Fancy food presentation is just so fun.

Here I am reading - you know, these lounge chairs are not comfortable at all. 

My butt went to sleep.

The last evening we finally went to a production. It was a 50's, 60's, 70's & 80's musical review. 

Not bad, but SO SO LOUD.

Now we are gearing up for our Alaska cruise in September.

I will be happy to wear layers for warmth instead of experiencing heat & humidity.