Remembering Ian

Memorial Day is a time for honoring those who have lost their lives serving our country and for remembering those we have lost. This weekend we were able to go to Pine Valley. 

The flags lining Grass Valley Road were so beautiful!

A year ago today was our son Ian's funeral and burial. We feel blessed to be able to be here with family to remember him and grieve together.

We drove to Pine Valley on Sunday to put out some flowers out.

My sister Bonnie was in town and she brought the succulents that we planted. John's brother Jeff and his daughter Amara were in town too and came with us.

We love this photo of Ian in his dress blues with his Grandma Betty. 

Another fun memory with his cousin Kjirsten. I love to see photos of smiling Ian!

We commissioned this beautiful sketch by Ian's cousin Rebecca Davis Stevenson and we were happy to get it hung in the loft library in Pine Valley.

We had all been dreading having to mark the first anniversary of Ian's death, so we decided to gather in Pine Valley as a family to share memories of Ian, eat the foods he liked and have fun together. John  started this fire Ian style - using too much lighter fluid and a match! John reminded us that Ian could start a fire with nothing but a bow drill and a fire board he had carved himself, or with flint and steel, but this was his preferred method. Ian always said, "Why work harder when you can work smarter!" 

It was very healing to gather at the gravesite as a family. After this photo, Ian's oldest son Braden said, "Can we have a group hug?" It was a sweet moment for all of us. 

The kids loved riding 4-wheelers around the pasture. The younger ones often got stuck in the ditch and the older ones would come to the rescue!

Ian would have loved Lauren and Cody's new toy, the Can Am - and little Luna loved it too!

Lauren had fun helping her two youngest, Liam and Luna have fun on the little 4-wheeler. One year old Luna got so she could sit in front of her mom, turn it on and make it go!

She thinks she is one of the big kids!

We took the toys out to Grass Valley for an afternoon and Cody gave us rides in the Can Am.

John had to run to the store in Veyo, so he took grandson William on a quick Harley ride. William has his own dirt bike that he bought but I still think he enjoyed a ride with grandpa.

John and son-in-law Darryl went to a hardware store in Enterprise and of course they chose to go on two wheels! Notice the "social distancing"!

On Sunday we took a break from the toys and took a walk on the beautiful River Walk.

Shauna and Darryl worked hard removing a strip of grass and planting some flowers for me at the cabin as a Mother's Day gift. I am so happy with them! I wish I had gotten more photos of Shauna, Kim and Eliana working hard on it!

Darryl not only helped with this project, but he also fixed two major problems with our sprinklers!

He is always so generous with his talents.

The finished product! Now we hope the rabbits will leave them alone!

This is a photo of John and I taking a ride in the Can Am - in Sunday clothes and missionary badges!

We were in town for the fly over done to honor health care workers, but we were a bit too far East to get a good photo. This was taken by our talented friend Debbie Jameson.

We are trying to re-seed part of our front lawn after lifting the lowest branches of our pine trees last year. 

We enjoyed every minute of our daily walks in Pine Valley. This view of the reservoir is so beautiful!

The weekends were more crowded even though the road was still closed, but during the week it was pretty quiet. 

On May 2nd we had a really fun preparation day by going on a motorcycle ride!

We stopped in Cedar City for lunch at Centro Pizza - one of our favorite places. They were still doing pick up only, but they let us sit at a table on the side walk.

Elder Davis showing that he is still a missionary even though he is in Harley gear.

Yummy wood fired pizza!

The views up Cedar Canyon were so beautiful with the red rock, snow and green trees.

We made a quick stop at Duck Creek.

This is looking out over Navajo Lake, still frozen over.

It's nice to see a lot of snow in the mountains. We sure haven't had enough rain this spring.

We started moving back into our St. George home the first week in May. It was hard to leave the peace and beauty of Pine Valley, but being closer to our kids and grandkids makes it worth it. Grandpa is always up for a game of Uno!

It still seems unreal sometimes that we are back in our old surroundings.

Asher and Liam are sporing their spring hair - they look pretty good in blue! 

I'll miss this raven supervising our coming and going with loud squawks!

We love the variety of birds we see in Pine Valley.

A view from the top of a hill.

We hiked up Forsyth trail on one of our p-days and were rewarded with some beautiful little wildflowers blooming.

We crossed the stream a couple of times.

Someone built a shelter along the way.

This meadow is a favorite spot of ours, the horses always loved to stop for a snack here!

Our first dine in experience in a long time at the Brandin' Iron steakhouse in Pine Valley. They were very careful about spacing tables, wearing masks, and paper menus.

It was so fun to be here again - as usual the food was great!

This weekend Jeff and Amara road down to join John for an overnight motorcycle ride on some of  their favorite roads! John was invited by our ward Elder's Quorum President, Brent Croft, and they met at the church so it was definitely an approved activity ;-D

If you look closely, behind the Diet Coke and the Slim Jim, you can see the missionary badge on his chest!

They rode through Zion, Bryce Canyon, Highway 12, Torrey and Capitol Reef, over the Freemont cut-off on highway 72, quick lunch in Salina,  then up Gooseberry Road to Fish Lake and finally home via Panguitch Lake and Cedar Canyon. 

Rainbow Point, Bryce Canyon

Lots of great views and red rock along the way!

John pointing our one of his favorite over looks on Highway 12.

A Yamaha, a Honda and two Harleys getting along!

Up over Gosseberry road the trees were frozen as were the riders!

It still felt like winter up this high.

Only one lane was plowed in some places.

Jeff, Amara and John. Amara is only 13, but she had a great time on the long ride! 

Dr. Davis, Dr. Croft and Dr. Hubbard

The group still smiling after almost 700 miles in two days.

We are still doing missionary work, even though we are also enjoying family and friends! All of our missions have started to get missionaries that have been reassigned from foreign missions. Most got 30 - 40 missionaries in the last couple of weeks and will continue to get more over the next couple of months. The mission presidents all say what amazing missionaries they are. They have gone to a foreign country, many have learned a new language, adapted to a new culture, been quarantined in an apartment, traveled back home, quarantined again, and were willing to go back out and continue serving. All because they love their Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and want to share the message of the gospel with anyone who is willing to listen . We are so proud of them and we are still supporting them via, computer, phone and WhatsApp! We love you and hope you are staying well!