Preparing for My Parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary

I am very lucky to have parents that will be celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary at the end of 2020. They don't like the limelight, so I won't picture them, but here's a logo one of my brothers designed for them.

One of the things we've been doing to prepare for this momentous occasion is ask them a question every week via email. They respond, and we'll put a book together about it so all the kids, grandkids, and future descendants can learn more about the people who are partly responsible for their existence.

I got this idea when an ad for Storyworth popped up in my Facebook feed before Christmas. The service sends a question to the person you choose and compiles their answers into a book. I bought it for my mother-in-law, as I'd like our kids to know more about their family history on that side.

For my parents, I wanted to personalize the questions more (although you can do that with Storyworth). Okay, the real reason is I didn't want to pay the fee and I wanted more creative control. But that also meant I had to figure out the questions on my own. I did some Internet searches and didn't find lists that I particularly liked, although did find some questions that worked. I came up with some on my own. And I asked my brothers all to contribute.

We've finished 25 weeks of questions, so I thought I would list them in case that helps anyone else find out more about their history. And one of my brothers recommends answering these questions now, not waiting until after 50 years of marriage, as it might be hard to remember the answers to some of them!

25 Questions to Ask Married Couples as They Celebrate Anniversaries

1. What is your first memory of your spouse?
2.  Describe your most memorable pre-wedding date.
3. When you decided to get married, whose parents did you tell first? How did they react? What were your impressions of your spouse's parents?  
4. Describe how you planned your wedding. How did you pick your wedding date, who would be in the wedding, venue, first song, food, etc. 
5. Were there any lighthearted scandalous moments at your wedding? For example, did an elderly guest suggest the bridesmaids' dresses were too short, did someone had a wardrobe malfunction, or did a guest drink too much and made a scene? 
6. During your first year as a married couple, what surprised you or was not what you were expecting? 
7. What were your most memorable Valentine’s Days? 
8. What did you do for your honeymoon? 
9. How did your time in [your first town you lived in] shape your relationship? Did you form habits that stayed with you when you moved?
10. What were your first impressions of [the town you moved to and lived most of your life in]?
11. What are your favorite holiday traditions? Did you develop any new ones as a couple? 
12. How did having children change your relationship as a married couple? 
13. What do you remember from your [big overseas vacation]?  
14. What games have you enjoyed playing together the most during your wedded years? 
15. What advice do you have for your grandkids when they get old enough to contemplate marriage?
16. What areas have you learned that you can't agree on and what issues have you learned to agree to disagree on to keep the peace?  
17. How did you pick your parenting style? 
18. Tell about some of the funniest, unexpected events that happened since you got married. 
19. If you hadn’t settled in [town], where would be your ideal place to live?
20. What is something on your bucket list?  
21. How did retirement affect your relationship?  
22. Are there any hobbies, trips, or activities that you wished you would have taken up during the formative years of building the family? Are there any that you are glad that you did take up?  
23. What are you hoping or expecting for the next few years?  
24. What is your favorite Bible verse and why?  
25. What do you know now about marriage that you didn’t know when you got married?

      What additional questions do you suggest?

Hinckley Rodeo

 In July we headed to the Hinckley Rodeo one Friday night. It had been long enough since we had been to a rodeo that Desert Girl couldn't remember the last one (she was a baby at this one). This is a small town rodeo, but it sure had plenty of excitement. The bronc riding featured a couple people we knew, and one of them won!

I'm fairly terrified watching.

They also had some events that weren't scary, like the calf money chase. They duct tape some bills onto some calves, then all the kids chase after them.

And they're off!

Of course the calves don't want to be by all these running kids, so they run away.

But eventually the kids caught up with the calves and pulled the money off.

There were more events like barrel racing and roping, but I just had my phone so didn't get great photos. The night ended with the bull riding. Here's a view from behind the chutes as the riders were getting ready.

 And then they went, trying to stay on for that magical eight seconds. I have to say I'm really glad that our kids have no desire to do this. Having them participate in a kids rodeo  a few years ago let them see more of the reality of a rodeo. Nevertheless, it's fun to go and watch occasionally.

Miscellaneous May

 Once again I have lots of miscellaneous photos for the month. Since my filing system is Year and then Month and then Event, it makes it easy for me to find these photos. My brother Ed came out in May and we took a drive up the Scenic Drive in Great Basin National Park. The road was closed at Mather Overlook, so we stopped there and shivered. It was fun to have some rain.

Down lower, Ed was able to enjoy the trampoline with the kids.

Desert Boy turned 11 and we celebrated with an Escape Room challenge. Even though it was aimed at kids, it was hard for them to solve, and there was definitely some frustration.

With a few clues, they were all able to escape.

Desert Boy really enjoys birthday parties. We'll see if he can practice enough to learn a couple songs on the ukelele.

Jenny showed amazing balance skills on the steel drum.

At work, we did a cave rescue practice, starting outside through an obstacle course.

Then we headed into the cave for a scenario.

We also spent lots of time at the settling pond, aka swimming hole. The mountain stream water is still cold, but that doesn't stop the kids. Having extra pool toys has allowed them more time on the water.

We helped briefly on a highway cleanup project.

Desert Girl and I got matching dresses from Svaha. They sell science-related apparel. We're wearing the cross-section of coral reef dresses.  (Click this link if you want to try them out and save 15% and help me earn some points to get discounts.)

Our rhubarb did well this year, and Desert Girl brought home a coupon from school that was an offer to make a rhubarb crisp. I took her up on it and it was delicious!

Desert Girl reached a milestone with her First Communion.

 Afterwards we went and looked for garnets at Garnet Hill and found a nice assortment.

We kept an eye on the owls. And Mama Owl, pictured below, kept a close eye on her two owlets and on us. To our amazement, all 7 of our chickens survived the backyard inhabitants.

We got 4-H t-shirts for our club and helped do a service project at a local cemetery to put out flowers for Memorial Day weekend.

Even though I was dreading the work, we got a small garden planted. This part followed the Square-Foot-Gardening method, where everything is planted densely to decrease weeds. Then I put down ag bag on the rest of the garden and made small holes for plants to keep weeds down there. Finally, I put a sprinkler on an automatic timer. So overall, the garden is relatively easy to maintain. We've been eating lettuce, spinach, cilantro, and peas out of it so far.

The end of school meant it was time for Field Day, a track and field event.

The events are so much fun to watch.

It also marked the retirement of the school custodian. He will be missed! Happy retirement!

Yikes, May is always a busy month. June doesn't have as many special activities, so we'll be focusing on play dates, sleepovers, and swimming. Hurray!

Desert Girl Helps at a Branding

It was time for another branding, and we wanted to see more. We headed down to the action, where the moms and calves had already been separated.

It didn't take long to see some action. First the roping, which included roping the head and then roping a hind leg.

Then once the calf was secured, it was time to vaccinate, ear tag, ear cut, and mark the calf.


Desert Girl wanted to take some photos. Here's one from her perspective.

And she really likes the horses, so she got lots of horse close ups.

And another.


There's so much action during a branding, that it's captivating to watch.


Of course working with such a beautiful backdrop doesn't hurt!

It's always fun to try and get some different perspectives too.

Desert Boy helped for a bit with the calf wrestling, but he took an elbow to the eye and went home early. It turned out the elbow wasn't too bad, but his allergies were, and his eyes were nearly swollen shut.

Desert Girl did better. She wanted to help, so Aunt Tana gave her lessons on the first job: loading the ear tagger. Since it contains a pesticide, she had to be careful not to touch her face.

Breanna made the calf wrestling look easy.

And back on the barrels, Desert Girl was getting the hang of her job.

She was quite serious about doing a good job. She also enjoyed it.

It's cool seeing these traditions carry on and the kids learning about them and participating.

Till next time!

The First Annual Old Capitol Storytelling Festival

 We received a note home from school in early March saying there would be a First Annual Old Capitol Storytelling Festival. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but they were having two nights of concerts/storytelling in our area, plus a storytelling contest for the school kids.

First off, the Old Capitol refers to Fillmore, Utah, which was the first capitol of the state of Utah. And before the state of Utah was declared, it was the Territory of Utah, which not only included all of Utah, but most of Nevada, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.


We talked with the kids, and Desert Girl decided she wanted to enter the storytelling contest. She started practicing right away for a maximum of a five-minute-long story, and she decided to talk about camping at Ibex playa.

On Sunday night, we went to EskDale High School, where we listened to the orchestra play beautifully.

Then it was time for some stories. This night's theme was about different religions and beliefs, and I found it quite interesting.

Various speakers talked about different belief/religious systems.

One pastor couldn't make it in person, but had recorded a video. He lives in Salt Lake City and drives down to Delta every weekend for his congregation. Except when he does missions in Africa, and then he preaches via video, so it was very apropos.

On Monday night we went to the Border Inn for the last night of the Old Capitol Storytelling Festival.

Clive Romney, who had visited the schools earlier in the day, provided some entertainment.

Then the two winners of the storytelling contest told their stories. Desert Girl's teacher was so glad that only two kids had wanted to tell stories this year, as it made it very easy to judge!

Desert Girl did a great job, talking about how when we took an old camper out to Ibex playa and a window broke, Dad fixed it with "marshmallow glue." The next time we camped there, we just took a tent. The wind blew so hard that night it broke the tent poles and pushed the tent down on us. "Mom cheated and got out of the tent with her sleeping bag and slept on the other side of the rock."

Desert Girl then concluded talking about how the next day we went to the Leamington Rodeo, where she competed in mutton bustin'. She wasn't so good at it, and it hurt when she fell off, but she did get some Skittles for her efforts.

The kids got their prizes, which made them very happy.

Then it was time for the adult storytellers. Delaine talked about the Massacres in the Swamp Cedars.

Dave told a few stories about experiences around the area.

And Denys had fun relaying some family history.

It was very enjoyable to listen to live entertainment. Next year both the kids say they will compete in the storytelling contest. They have until next March to figure out their stories. For more information, check out the Old Capitol Storytelling Festival website.