Vive L'amour!!

47 years ago today, Harry and I got engaged.  This photo is not from that occasion - in fact, this photo was taken when we had 99 days until our wedding date.  That summer - after Harry came home from his mission and we spent weekends getting to know each other - has not been preserved in photographic annals - there is not one photo that I'm aware of from those wonderful weeks.

 The night we got engaged we had tickets for the Hollywood Bowl performance of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyef dancing Swan Lake.  We were pretty excited about the decision we had just made - and a summer night at the Bowl seemed like the perfect setting to celebrate.  This photo of the the principals is our only memoir!!

(Last year, on a whim, we watched a YouTube video of that very performance - it was pretty sweet.  Who needs photos when you can sit and reminisce?)

And to add to the fun, it was Bastille Day!    The above photo of Harry and me was taken in October of 1967, when we were back at BYU happily making marriage plans for December, and we were having a "crepes party" to celebrate all things French.

And that is the convoluted story of why today is special to Harry and me!!

But I still would enjoy someone coming up with a never-before-seen photo of that special summer!!

Daily Relationships

I am very blessed to be in a situation that has allowed me to spend lots of time, often in day to day situations, with my grandchildren.  This summer, Hannah and Rhoda are spending several weeks with us.  It is so nice to see her smiling face each morning  - and even nicer to see the recognition - I am real and pertinent to her little world.

It was fun last year to have Eve come to my room each day and then to drive her to gymnastics.  We had some great conversations - that happened naturally as we went about our routine.  I  spent the year before last tutoring Porter 2 afternoons a week.  That was a learning and growing experience for us to share - and it's a link in our lives together.

I also often sit with the children in Sacrament meeting or they come and sit with us.  That is especially nice to share the gospel setting with them.

I have done "Grandma's Birthday Weekends" with most of the grandchildren, and they are the best.  One of my favorite Grandma Birthday Weekend stories is when Agnes said, while we were walking to get mani/pedis on her birthday last year, "I love that we do this Grandma."  I said, "I love it too, but I wish there was something to do with the boys."  "Oh," she said dismissively, "just buy them a Nerf gun."

Not all the grandchildren live nearby, but we visit often enough with them that we are able to be familiar with their routines.  And their parents are great about keeping us "present" for them.

I am just thinking that possibly through no fault of my own, these wonderful connections have been formed.  But now that I am feeling aware of their value and how they are formed, I am doubly determined to be "daily" in their lives, to have relationships that transcend time and distance.

This  photo was taken as Harry took off for South America with the Utah Symphony in June of 1971.  He was gone for over 6 weeks.  We did not have the joy of texting and blogging and Facebooking and Facetiming and Skyping.  We exchanged letters - I don't think we even had  phone calls.  It was hard to be apart, but I came down to California and spent most of the time with my parents.  Bonny was just about as old as Rhoda is now.

Funny how history repeats itself!!