Paul Emmer at 75

Our good friend, Paul Emmer, is 75.  On February 29, 2020, we attended a birthday party for Paul at the home of the Emmers' daughters, Emily, Janalee, and Camille.  Paul and Julie, their son Eric, and their daughters posed for this photo.  

At the party, we ran into other close friends, Deanne and Bob Wilde and Spencer and Jane Jones.  With the Emmers, the eight of us have parties and take trips together several times per year.  Last year we spent a weekend in Southern Utah, with the first day at the Jones' sheep ranch near Cedar City, and the second day at our home in St. George.  Deanne and Jane were my bridesmaids, Paul worked with Dave at LDS Hospital in the late 1960s, and we have all been friends since college.  I think of the old Girl Scout saying, "Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold."

My Beloved Rootstech

I sign up for the annual Rootstech genealogy conference in September, and then I can't wait until it begins in February.  I maneuver trips to avoid it, and I clear my work schedule so I can attend the entire four days of the conference, from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. each day.  I have attended eight of the 10 years that Rootstech conferences have been held. 

 Rootstech is one of the largest genealogy conferences in the world, with more than 15,000 attendees.  It has hundreds of classes, and I rush from one to the next, fascinated.  Some of my favorite classes this year were "Obituaries" (about the trove of family history information found in obituaries), "3 Cool Cases Solved--How to Identify Your Photos" (about the improving AI technology in Google searches, including facial recognition), and a hands-on lab titled, "Using Ancestry DNA to Make Family History Discoveries."

Steve Rockwood (my third cousin) is the director of Family Search, which sponsors Rootstech.  Since this is Rootstech's 10th anniversary, he gave a fascinating talk on how far the union of technology and genealogy have come in the last ten years, and what's coming up.

 I also enjoyed hearing Gilad Japhet speak.  He is the Israeli founder of My Heritage, one of the four major genealogy DNA and family record sites.  He told about My Heritage's new tool to easily colorize old black and white photos.

Part of the excitement of Rootstech is exploring the booths, where I find new genealogy products, such as this excellent magazine and website.  This year, I kept a running list of genealogy skills to master and projects to complete when I got home.  My list ran to 35!

A Taste for Bulgaria

 For months, or even years, Naomi Flindt and I have talked about cooking a Bulgarian dinner.  Naomi was an LDS missionary to Bulgaria, and she is now married to my grandson, Spencer.  On February 23, 2020, we finally performed.  "This may be the best ethnic dinner I have eaten at your home," my son, Mike, said.  That was high praise, since Mike is a connoisseur of ethnic cooking and I have served him dozens and dozens of ethnic meals.  The menu included Chicken Varna (with an onion, tomato, and wine sauce), red peppers stuffed with spiced pork and served with a white sauce, cheese bread made with phyllo dough, and baklava with apricot ice cream for dessert.   I decorated the tables with my collection of brightly colored, hand-embroidered Bulgarian table runners.  Naomi made the cheese bread and Chicken Varna, and helped with all the rest.

Bulgaria is in Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea on the east and wedged between Romania on the north and Turkey on the south.  My granddaughter, Emilie, who was a missionary in Romania, talked with Naomi about the similarities and differences of the cultures of their neighboring countries.  Naomi emphasized that Bulgaria has almost more in common with Turkey than the rest of Europe.  Hence the baklava.

The iconic landmark in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, is this Bulgarian Orthodox church.  Naomi visited it a number of times.

 We served pepper jam at both the Romanian and Bulgarian dinners, since it is a favorite in both countries.

Emilie and Annie Ebert thanked me for sponsoring so many dinners at which they can enjoy their cousins.  Here is Annie next to Eli, a BYU friend of Grant Flindt's. 

 And here's another mix of cousins--Grant Flindt and his friend, Meg, with Sophie Ebert.

I especially appreciated Camille and Sophie dropping by for dinner, since they had tickets to fly to New York City later in the evening to begin Sophie's radiation treatment for cancer. 

Audrey's Babylife

 Audrey is the star of Mike and Heidi's family.  She is pampered and adored.  She is also the heroine of a monthly video series Mike is creating, titled "Audrey's Babylife."   Dave and I spent the weekend of February 15, 2020 in St. George with Mike, Heidi,and Audrey.  We got to see Mike's artistry, as he created Volume 6 of Audrey's Babylife.

On Saturday, February 15, we took a five mile walk together, with Heidi (and sometimes Mike, on the steep grades) pushing the stroller.

 Mike filmed Heidi eating breakfast with Audrey in her arms.

Mike used his drone for the opening sequence of the video, having the drone zoom from above the Coral Canyon church, a few streets away, to our house.  That shot made a dramatic introduction!

Mike showed us how he merges the drone shots, interviews, and close-ups of Audrey on his computer.

 Mike brought with him his Italian phrase book.  He practices Italian with a tutor several times per week, in preparation for his family's trip to Italy this summer.

 Audrey is learning to roll over.

Heidi is a loving and careful mother, and she keeps Audrey looking cute in an endless collection of pink clothes.

 I, of course, brought my ironing.  I remember my mother telling how Grandma Eyring immediately picked up the mending basket at her daughters' houses whenever she visited, because she just had to keep busy.  I am the same way.  I cannot watch a movie, or even the news, at home without the ironing or some other useful handwork.

 Dave and Mike, on the other hand, snoozed convivially during a televised JAZZ game.

Weekend in LA

This photo of Dave with a trident doesn't look like a temple trip.  The main purpose of our weekend in Los Angeles, from February 6 to 8, 2020, was, indeed, to visit the Redlands Temple, near San Bernardino.  However, we squeezed in lots of other fun, as well.

The Redlands Temple was small but beautiful, with a lovely stained glass window in the foyer depicting Christ.  Murals around the walls of the endowment room depicted the nearby San Bernardino Mountains.  I felt a strong sense of connection to this area.  I remember driving into the San Bernardino Mountains, from Los Angeles, when I spent a weekend with Lisa and her family at Lake Arrowhead several years ago.  This was also the temple for my grandson, Spencer, during his mission to East Los Angeles.  And, I heard my mother tell of how she nearly took a job teaching college in San Bernardino after getting her Ph.D at Berkeley.  If Mom settled in San Bernardino, would I be a Californian now?

 I have an insatiable appetite for cooking and eating ethnic food.  Part of my fascination in visiting ethnic restaurants is seeing what the dishes I cook at home are really supposed to taste like!

Dave and I stopped for lunch at a fun Hawaiian fast food restaurant.  Southern California has many immigrant communities, and they share their culture in various ways, including lots of great mom and pop restaurants.

 Dave and I shared a coconut smoothie with bubble jellies.  Ymmm!

The highlight of our trip (other than the temple) was a tour of the Warner Brothers film lot.  Mike suggested that outing, and it was even more fascinating than I expected.

 We rode a tram through the back lot, where buildings of all styles are used as backdrops in filming movies and TV shows.

 This street had the "middle class" homes used for many sitcoms.

 This street could be Manhattan or Boston.

 I had never been inside a sound stage.  The stage we visited had a list of the movies and TV shows made on that stage posted by the door.  Ours included "The Goonies" and "Batman and Robin."

 All of our tour members wanted to pose in this sofa, made famous by a sitcom I had never heard of.  "This is the golden age of television," our guide reminded us.

 We also visited museums at Warner Brothers, including one that showed the story boards that are used to plan a movie.

 We saw creatures used in sci-fi films.

 And I posed with cardboard characters out of a recent sci-fi epic.

 I was fascinated by the collection of costumes.  Whenever we see an outrageous costume, Dave always suggests, "Maybe you should wear something like that to work."  He likes to see me squirm, just at the thought of it!

 The museum included an area of Harry Potter props and costumes.

 It included another area of Batman props, including five or six of the actual cars used in Batman movies.

 At the end of our very busy Friday, we tried a Spanish restaurant in Long Beach, Cafe Sevilla, and then stayed overnight at a resort in nearby San Pedro.

 On Saturday morning we visited the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  It had wonderful exhibits on fishes of California, tiny jungle frogs, and penguins.  There was also a touching pond, where we could reach into a pool and handle starfish.

 We made time for one more ethnic restaurant--"Uncle Fung Borneo Eatery." 

 I love Indonesian food, and Uncle Fung's food was delicious--rich and spicy, but not hot.

Our next visit was to the USS Iowa, a battleship built in 1942 as a sister ship of the USS Missouri, on which the Japanese surrendered in 1945.  

 As I looked at the huge, 16" guns arrayed around the hull, I thought of my dad teaching Naval Ordinance at Princeton during 1942.  He taught naval officers to use the guns on just such ships as these.

 Dave also enjoys learning about World War II, so this was an adventure we both enjoyed.

 The ship even had a statue matching the famous Life Magazine photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse he didn't know in New York City during the celebration of the end of the war.

 Our final adventure, before running for the airport, was a stop at the San Pedro Fish Market, where mostly Hispanic families were enjoying Sunday dinners of fresh fish and barbecued ribs.

From the fish market, we took a ferry boat ride around the Long Beach harbor.

 Long Beach is one of the busiest ports in the world, and we were awed by the multitude of huge cranes hoisting containers on and off ships stopping at Long Beach from all over the planet.

 The containers were attached to huge trucks that immediately left to carry the goods around America.

 I love ships and the sea, just like my father did.  I enjoyed seeing all the ships in the harbor, from Coast Guard cutters to container ships to sailboats.

These seals enjoyed the balmy weather and the gentle rocking of the buoy.