Being in the Right Place at the Right Time

It is wonderful having two dentists in the family who have helped family members out so many times.  Kent told his dad that he would be glad to put some new crowns on some of his teeth which were starting to look a little worn.  We set a date to fly to Washington to have the work done.

We actually flew into Spokane where Kent and Natalie picked us up.  We then drove over to Coeur-d-Alene, Idaho--one of the most beautiful spots in the whole world.  I haven't been there for probably 35 years and George had never seen it!  It is absolutely stunning--and I must say, George was finally impressed with the scenery of Idaho!  (He loves lakes and trees and Northern Idaho offers all this!)

We would love to take a dinner cruise or just a day cruise next time we go there!  We just didn't have enough time this visit!

Ethan is just like his dad who did the same thing with his dad and brothers--take a football and throw it to each other every chance they got!

I finally got a picture of Natalie--and isn't this such a precious picture--mother and daughter in front of a whole field of geraniums.

Next we went over to the golf course there in Coeur-d-Alene which has a floating green. 

You can see a boat ramp there because you actually have to take a small boat over to play on it.

Kent and Ethan  made reservations to play 18 holes before we left.

That night we had a wonderful meal at a floating restaurant.

 The next day, even though we had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, the kids just couldn't pass up the fresh Krispy Kremes.  We actually went inside and watched them making them.

 

Ella was such a good sport to let me snap her "diving" into her pumpkin doughnut.  I love her copper bracelet which she wears all the time in honor of her little brother, Cannon.

One of the main reasons we timed our trip to see Kent and Natalie was that Ethan had an AAU tournament in Spokane and was playing four games in one day!  We were so excited to see them.  In Spokane is a huge warehouse that John Stockton purchased and renovated for the community, as well as all lovers of youth basketball in the surrounding area.  He had the actual floor from the Delta Center transported here when they took it up in Salt Lake City.  Now it is a memory of the many years he played on it. 

We saw John Stockton who Kent sees often at the tournaments because his youngest son plays AAU, and he is actually his coach.

George and I love to watch all of our grandchildren in their activities.  Sitting in a gym reminds us of so many years of doing the same with our sons playing basketball and daughters while they performed in the drill team at half time.  Those were such good days! 

Ethan is one great player!

One of my favorite pictures--Grandpa George giving Ella a hug!

Since the four games were spread throughout the day, we had a chance to do other things between the games.  We got a chance to go over to the Spokane Riverfront Park.  One of the most beautiful and fun parks I've ever been to!  Yes, this is my picture that I took myself in that park--not just one downloaded from the internet.  It is beautiful, if I do say so myself!

Inside a covered building is a wonderful carrousel or merry-go-round as we have always called them. 

George and I sat in the party area so we could watch Ethan and Ella have three or four trips on the merry-go-round.  Natalie snapped this picture in the exact booth where her parents had last been--but they were holding little Cannon at the time.  Natalie wanted to send this picture to her parents to show them we had returned there.

 
Notice how Ella sits on this horse just like she does when she rides her real horse!

What makes this carousel so fun is that they go around and catch a small loop on the side and then after going around a little further, they have to try to get it into the target.  Those kids loved doing this!

Sometimes they scared me to death by how far they leaned out, but I guess they haven't lost anyone doing this yet!

This scene is right outside the window of the carousel house.

Such a sweet family!

One of the kids saw a lobster right off the shore of the lake.

Ethan and Kent had to get back to the gym early, so George and I walked through the beautiful park with Natalie and Ella.  The falls leaves were so beautiful!

Kim had taken a picture of Brady throwing autumn leaves and I thought it was so cute,  so I told Ella to do the same thing.  The pure joy kids have when doing this just makes you smile!

We then got aboard a gondola for a trip down the canyon above the river to see the beautiful colors and the source of their electricity for the area.

Disney can't make it any more beautiful than this!

Back to the games . . .

Kent has always been the coach or assistant coach for Ethan's team.  He has watched most of the boys on this grow up since they were five years old!

This is Ethan's Sunnyside team--such a nice group of boys.

Three generations of basketball players--George coached his sons, Kent is coaching his son, and hopefully some day Ethan will coach his son or sons, too!

One of the highlights for Kent and Ethan was playing the Coeur-d-Alene golf course.  They even had their own private caddie!  They hadn't planned on playing on this trip, so after arriving they had to go into the clubhouse to rent their clubs.

After dropping them off at the course, the rest of us went to enjoy the scenery some more.

Driving by the lake with the low hanging clouds and fog is really a picture to see!

Where are the alligators?

The colors of the leaves still continued to fascinate all of us!

More pictures of Ella having so much fun throwing those leaves--and I was having so much fun clicking these photos!

Ella hugging a tree--but it was actually too big to get her arms around!

For a minute I thought I was in Danville!  Alison sees these regularly around her home there--real live turkeys!

These remind me of that cereal that has so many colors--Fruity Pebbles?

It was almost lunchtime, so we headed for the hotel there to have lunch overlooking the lake.

The lunch was wonderful, and we all enjoyed our time there so much.

After picking up Kent and Ethan at the golf course, we started on our way.  I had told Kent I had lived in Moscow, Idaho, until I was five years old while my father was attending law school.  Although I knew there was very little I remembered about the town, I remembered a lot about my neighborhood that I lived in.  I told him if it wasn't too much trouble, I would love to drive back through Moscow on our way back to Sunnyside.  Kent was so kind to do this, although it really was out of the way.  Thanks, Kent!  It meant so much!

This is a brand new L.D.S. Institute Building that has been built since the days my dad and mother actually lived in the old institute building when my mother was pregnant with me.

And here is the old law school building where my dad attended until 1951 and received his law degree.  It is now the administration building.  This really brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes to be right here where my dad's career days started.  He and my mother ended up going to school for all but one year of his bachelors and all three years of law school having three little girls during that time.

In order to help provide for the family, my dad hashed (that's what he always called it--served the food in a girls' sorority house), and later worked on this golf course while attending school at the same time.  He always brought home golf balls he found while working on the course.  Those balls ended up being our favorite play items--we built all kinds of imaginary houses with them on our floor for years after we left Moscow.  You might say they were like our Legos of today!

My dad has always been proud of his Idaho Vandals.  He has contributed a great deal to the law school there and also served on the board for the law school for many years.

After leaving Moscow, I observed the beautiful sunset which was fiery bright.  Everything in my heart was so happy for the beautiful weekend we had just had.  Soon, however, the warm fuzzy feelings I was feeling quickly evaporated.  George started saying how bad his teeth were hurting.  I knew it must be bad because George rarely ever complains of pain!  I felt him and he was fiery hot!

We stopped at Kent's dental office which was about five hours away and Kent said George had a lot of infection going on in his teeth.  He gave George a pain medication and antibiotic, but then when we got back home, he called his friend, Dr. Weaver, who told him to go over to the emergency entrance of the hospital where they would either put in an IV or give him a shot in order to get his fever down and start working on the infection.

The next five days would be filled with George sitting in either Kent's dental office, Chardonnay Dental, or in the endodontist's office in Tri-City.  The first day, George was in the dental chair for 8 1/2 hours with only a break at lunch for a milk shake.  That part was the only good part of this whole ordeal--he didn't mind eating the milk shakes because his teeth were bothering him so badly!  (Note:  I love how so many things are in remembrance of Cannon--notice how the CD is made out of copper.  It's the same way in the office inside.)  Finally, after the five days were over, George had four root canals and three new crowns.  He was whipped!

One of the days was picture day and I just had to add this darling picture of how cute Ella looked for her picture day at school.

We, also, got to go see the house Kent and Natalie are building in Prosser.  It is going to be so beautiful!  However, after all they have gone through to get it so perfect, they are just going to rent it because they have decided they aren't ready to move out of Sunnyside yet.  (Again, notice the copper roof on some of the roof line.  Again, in tribute to Cannon.)

It seems that I am always in Sunnyside when Kent needs to do his Cub Scout Pack Meeting.  And it seems that he always forgets to tell Natalie until the day of or night before!  With being at the dental office in Tri-City for most of the day, Natalie and I were literally running around like mad women getting everything done.  But, I think it turned out amazing and the boys seemed to really enjoy themselves!

The theme was "Responsibility" and we decorated with Halloween decorations because it was so close to Halloween.  We had even picked up dry ice in Tri-Cities for the black cauldrons.  The boys really thought that was cool.  They each got to decorate their own sugar cookies!  Forget making any--we weren't home the entire day to even be able to think of baking anything.  But, they were pretty good and the boys didn't seem to mind at all that they weren't homemade!

 We were going to get pumpkins from a pumpkin patch that they advertised were for free, but we just simply ran out of time, so we just placed the decorations on the table rather than stand them up by pumpkins.  All the Halloween characters were to remind them of being responsible for what they say and do.

 Kent showed the film of "Cars," where Lightning McQueen tears up the road and affects all of the town's business, then fixes it but does a terrible job of it, and then finally realizes he must do it the right way and take responsibility for his actions.  
Kent then passed out white strips of paper with words that were character words like responsible, self-control, etc., to half the boys, and then the definition of these words on orange papers.  The boys had to mingle and get in pairs to match the word with the definition.  After that, each pair was given a scenario where they would talk over what they would do, such as, "You called someone a hurtful name . . ." or "You left the counter in the bathroom a mess after you got ready . ." or "You saw someone being bullied . . ." and then one boy would read the scenario while the other told how they would handle it.  The boys' answers were great, and I felt they really learned something from this, plus had a great time!    

 All in all, it was a very successful Pack Meeting even if we had to put it together so quickly!

 Natalie and Ella left the next day for Logan because Natalie's nephew was getting married and Natalie was doing the pictures for them.  Kent worked on George a little more, then Kent, George, Ethan, and I started out for Boise, a trip of about five hours.  Kent had bought us tickets for the BYU-Boise State game.  It was one of the most hurtful games I have ever seen in my life!  The fans were not the hurtful ones because they were actually very nice.  I just mean that I can't watch a little puppy continually getting kicked in the head and that's what it felt like at that game.  I'm not really ready to go back to a BYU game until they get it all figured out why they have lost all of their self-confidence and just can't play at all.
After the game, we said "Good-bye" to Kent and Ethan.  We always have so much fun visiting with their family in Washington, and this time they even added extra fun with the trip to Spokane, Northern Idaho, and Boise.  Minus the teeth incident and ballgame, everything was just plain fun.  But George and I said, "What would have happened had we not been where one of our sons who is a dentist was?"  We were definitely at the right place at the right time!  Thanks to your entire family, Kent and Natalie!  And thanks, Kent, for all the hard work on your dad.  It was so appreciated!

 But the best part of going to Boise was being able to stay at Larry and Beverly's home and to be able to visit with them there. 

 My sisters always have such beautiful yards.  They have all really inherited our mother's green thumb.  I know Beverly puts a lot of time into this beautiful yard, along with their son David.  It was absolutely gorgeous!

 It was so great to see Larry feeling so much better.  However, we couldn't believe how skinny he has gotten.  He says with his medication, he just isn't hungry.  I need to take that medication, I decided!

 

 
 Larry and Beverly then took us over to the Idaho State Capitol which I hadn't visited since my dad served there as a State Senator from 1965-1972.

The Boyle told us the State of Idaho had done a giant renovation of the capital in 2009.  It is absolutely beautiful!

 Because Beverly had worked for several years in the State Capitol for some of the leadership there, she knew lots of inside facts that she shared with us.  This was one of the very old elevators that had been covered up with walls until they did the renovation.  What a shame it would have been had they never found it again!

 This is the Senate Chambers where our dad served.  His desk was the last row on the right, second desk in since he was the Assistant Minority Leader.  I remember coming over to the State Capitol when I was in Girls' State in 1963 and sitting in this same room as we passed our mock bills.  It was such a great experience to be in such a historic building and learning so much about government through that experience as well as our dad's years of service there.

 You used to be able to climb the spiral staircase up to the rotunda, but that is off limits now.

 I love this statue of George Washington.  As the plaque states:  It was all carved out of Idaho wood and presented to the Territory of Idaho on January 8, 1869.

 Another item I had never seen before which I recognized instantly is this plaster version of "Winged Victory."  George and I have seen the original in the Louvre in Paris.  This is a plaster replica of the original and as this plaque states:  It was given as a gift to Idaho by the city of Paris as a thank you to the U.S. for its aid in liberating France from Nazi Germany in World War II.  "All the states received a train box car of gifts from France and Idaho's Winged Victory arrived on the Merci Train on February 22, 1949."  So cool!

 Overlooking the House Chambers from the Visitor's Gallery.

 

We then went downstairs in the underground area below the Senate Chambers.  You would never know this part is underground because of all the skylights down there.  Many of the offices of the state are there, as well as caucus rooms, and committee planning rooms.  We found the picture of our dad during his first year in the Senate:  1965.  (He is on the bottom row, second in from the left.)

 In 1967, he was appointed the Assistant Minority Leader so he is on the second row, third picture in.

 In 1969, he was again appointed as Assistant Minority Leader and is right next to the "9" on 1969. 

 In 1971, our Dad (this time this third one in from the left on the bottom row) was presented with a porcelain owl in both the House and Senate Chambers with a speech in both that he was "a wise, old owl" in all that he did there.  He was always proud of that as well as the many other awards he was given for his untiring energy in all that he accomplished during his eight years as a State Senator.

 Larry pointed out that this building was something our dad had worked so hard in getting built to better serve the State of Idaho.

From there, we drove to the Federal Court Building.  We wanted to see where Larry worked.

At the present time, Larry is a Magistrate Judge for the Federal Government.  
 
He welcomed us into his office and gave us a tour of his office and the court room there.

 Larry began his judgeship duties as a Justice of the Supreme Court in Idaho.  He is standing with his hand on the Bible, which my sister is holding, and being sworn in by Governor Cecil Andrus.

These are the men who Larry worked with while on the Idaho Supreme Court.

From that position, he was appointed as a Federal Judge.

 He wanted to take the picture with George in his chair.  George felt mighty privileged!

 I loved this letter hanging on Larry's office wall.  It is a congratulatory letter signed by J. Edgar Hoover written to Larry's dad when Larry was born.  Really a fantastic keepsake!

 Here is Larry's robe he wears that makes him look so official!  Look inside the neckline--his initials:  LMB.  They have to make sure each judge is given the robe that is measured precisely for him or her.

 This was, also, a very interesting remembrance--an artist's rendition of Larry when he was the judge for the Paul Ezra Rhoades case presented before him in 1987.  This was a very famous case in Idaho because of the atrocities of the murders committed by Mr. Rhoades which terrified the entire state.  He was convicted of three separate kidnapping and murder cases and was eventually put to death by lethal injection in 2011. 

We then visited the one of the Federal Courtrooms.

 I am now standing and looking out to what the judge would be seeing sitting here. 

 George, Beverly, and Larry are sitting in the jurors' box.  There are twelve seats with one alternate.  So interesting!

 We then walked a little ways on the Greenbelt Walkway.  Larry told us it actually goes for 26 miles!  What a great idea for a city to allow for walks, biking, and just enjoying nature, right in the middle of the city!

 We soon had to say "Good-bye" because it was time to go to the airport.  Seriously, we had such a fantastic time in Boise with Larry and Beverly.  They treated us like kings and queens!  Thanks so much for all you did to make our time there just perfect!  Beverly had even fixed a divine breakfast and all the foods she thought wouldn't hurt George's teeth!  So thoughtful!  We definitely will have to return for more fun times in this beautiful city with Larry and Beverly!  Thanks so much!