A DAY IN PROVO 5/2/2012

The day before we flew to New York and Maryland, we got to spend a day with two of our grand children, Batman and Pineapple.  While their Dad was teaching and Mom was teaching someone the ropes of her job so she could be replaced when they move, we stole the kids!
Of course Batman wanted to go where he could look at trucks and tractors, so we found a place on BYU campus where construction was going on.  Little boys can stand for hours watching trucks and tractors work!!

Another favorite haunt of these two little ones is the campus duck pond.  To get there is a long walk and when we passed by a lawn that had recently had plugs removed for ariation purposes, Batman got all excited.  We thought he would run over and start throwing the dirt plugs.  Instead he was concerned that the lawn was broken and spent 20 minutes trying to put as many plugs back in their holes to "fix the broken lawn".  Batman is an environmentalist!!!

 Finally we got to the duck pond and armed with a bag of bread pieces, we began seeing how many ducks and turtles we could hit, er, I mean feed.

Pineapple is such a mellow little one and was overjoyed to watch her brother from her grandstand seating.

 She tired of the boys' antics and began giving her grandma a facial....

...and manicure!

  It is a marvel to watch these two siblings play together.  Both received minutes of joy playing peek-a-boo.

 This picture series is called, "The Many Faces of  Batman".  Later in the evening, after Dad got home from school, we all went for a barbeque and a nearby park up in the hills.  While the food was cooking, Batman and Grandpa went for a walk and found a play structure.  Batman found different ways to use the peek holes.

Dad tends to the cooking of a barbequed a huge roast and shiskabobs.  Yummy!  Kevin has a way of turning semi veterinarians into juice slurping, meat devouring, meataholics!!!  We are blessed with several sons that are master barbeque specialists!

While all this was going on, Mellow Pineapple was content to pose for the camera and be doted upon.

Batman, on the other hand was busy dis-robing and re-robing, finding the bathroom to demonstrate his mastered potty skills and telling all the other kids on the play structure his life story.  Did I mention he can run????

Dad used a blanket to let us know it was dinner time.  How did we manage to get a whole evening of activities and not get a picture of Mom?  All those that love their Mommy and wonder why Grandpa did not take a picture of her, raise your hand!

Pineapple casts her vote.

And so does Batman!! 

Then after the evening was done and we returned to Kevin and Megan's little apartment, we all relaxed a while before putting the kids to bed.  Wayne found mother and son having a heartfelt discussion and sharing of life stories.  It was touching, so I just took the picture and closed the door.  A perfect day!

 

The next day we were to fly to New York!

MR COWLEY #2 AND #4 5/2,23,24/2012

One of the great honors in life is to be able to see your children grow up, become adults, spouses, parents and to be successful in a career.  For a few days in May we were able to see our #5 son, Kevin, in all these capacities.  Kevin has completed a year of teaching 4th grade as an intern as he completed the requirements for a B.S. in Elementary Ed. at BYU.  These were his kids, his classroom, his full time teaching job at half pay and full benefits for a full year.  We got to support him in his completion of requirements and graduation and participate in his last few days of teaching.

Proudly, what we witnessed, was a man skilled in his occupation, wise beyond his years of experience and loved by "his kids".

 

Wayne was excited and honored that he was allowed to put his feet in the stirrups once again and try his hand at story telling and teaching an art lesson.

My, it was fun.  Wayne misses teaching kids, but does not miss all the misdirected political figures that know nothing about educating kids and attempt to mandate how things should be done.  But, it was fun to be back in the classroom again.

And it was fun to see a powerful teacher that is going to bless the lives of many students for many years and know that he is your son, the 4th Mr. Cowley.

To team teach with the likes of Stan Morkert, Dave Scafani, John Finkbiner, Amanda Pyle, Bill Dietz, Carol McCay, Ethel Rogers and others was a career full of honors.......

.....but to team teach with one's son was beyond honor, pride and joy.  It was plain ol' powerful!

Watching Kevin relate to his kids, watching him integrate the technology way beyond what Wayne used, watching him love his kids and be loved back by them was beyond grand.....

....such that Mr Cowley #2 just had to take a seat and just learn from Mr Cowley #4.

Time marches on.  Parents step aside.  The children become the leaders.  Life is good.

WE LOVE AMERICA

You know, we have been traveling this country of ours for a few years.  We have seen some of the ugly parts and many, many of the beautiful parts.  We have met some people that I would not want to associate with and so many, many people that we have grown to love.  We have seen a side of America that is not something to be proud of and we have seen so much that we are proud to say we are part of.

But the over all picture we see of The United States of America is that it is a grand country, established by divinely led patriots, fought for and maintained by devoted men and women that loved our country and what it stood for.  But today we see some of our leaders and some of our people leading America away from the greatness that it was and still is.  We see morally empty people attempting to change the principles upon which our country was founded.

We say, "God Bless America!  God Bless us all to stand for morally correct principles!  May we choose not to demoralize our standards that has made this a beautiful and free country."  Let us not try to be like the rest of the world.  Let us not try to be accepting of every whim and fancy that comes along.  Let us stand strongly as the leaders of the world that is in moral decay by letting our light so shine as a country established by God and is still led by moral leaders that follow Heavenly Father's plan for us.

Please listen to this powerful anthem and love song for our nation performed by a great songstress of the mid 1900's, Kate Smith. (Delete the little political announcement that pops up at the beginning so you can enjoy the whole video undisturbed.  Unfortunately, at the end, there is a political announcement that does not stand for a leader we feel is fit to lead us in the direction that would be best for our country.  Feel free to delete that portion also.  But if you lean towards his leadership, you can still have enjoyed an inspiring song.)

This song has and still does bring a tear our eyes every time we hear it.  It makes us proud to be Americans!  May Heavenly Father help the United States of America and its people choose the path that will lead us back to a morally solid country that can lead the world by a God inspired example.

 

PROUD PARENTS! 5/7/2012

No pictures at this time, but lots of pride gooshing out all over the place.  We are in New York and have spent the last several days being immersed in the world of our son, Jed Cowley, and the film making world.
We attended the premiere screening of two of his recent films, Shale and Dear Dog, I Love You!  We felt the audience's approval strongly outdoing the approval of the other 5 films screening with his each night.  Then to boot, he received many compliments and invitations from producers and other film festival producers that invited him to show at their programs.  We stood back and watched him mingle with and share the stage with Michale Moore, Chevy Chase, Jerry Stiller and many others.
Proud?
Yup!!!  More to come!
More..... New York.... I have seen another side of life this time in this city that has not been seen the couple visits we have made before.  A side that disgusts me and frightens me.  I see in some of the film makers, a need to be crude, base and carnal in their films.  I see a crowd of entertainment industry hopefuls polluting that which has the opportunity to be entertaining, uplifting and beautiful.  I see the crowds of audience people accepting and awarding filth and vulgarity.  I see and hear people walking on the streets, riding subways and eating in restaurants using vulgar language and telling stories of their exploitations.  I see young ladies allowing that kind of language to be used around them and even using it themselves.
But, overshadowing that is the fact that our son's two films were uplifting, told good stories and did not expose the baser side of this world.
Oh, and this evening we got to see Angela Lansbury while walking in Times Square on her way to her Broadway play she is staring in.

RED CLIFFS CANYON, UT 2/24-5/?? 2012

The fixing of our refrigerator ended up taking more time than we planned.  We had planned to have it fixed and be headed north on 4/24 to spend a week with our #5 son and his family up in Provo, UT.  But the part we need is not even scheduled to arrive until 4/30.  We may not leave here until 5/2.  We spent a fair amount of time being frustrated and then decided there was nothing we could hurry by allowing ourselves to steam, so we occupied ourselves with more temple, a night at the movies and out to dinner, and something we love to do... go for a day hike.
The beautiful red cliffs had been beckoning us, so we drove to the Red Cliffs Recreation Area and found the small parking area and campsites full, so we drove back to the next closest parking area, parked our rig, and hiked around that area.  Then the cliffs called us, so we hiked about 1 1/2 miles towards them on hot blacktop.

We finally got to the original place we had wanted to hike today!

As we got off the road and got into the park and campground we were reminded why we love the desert in the spring time.  The blooming cactus and other plants are just amazing!

 We began hiking towards a canyon someone had told us of....

 ....enjoying more beautiful scenery and flora.

 In the day use area of the campground, we stopped for a much needed shade, lunch, water and rest break.  Do we look hot and tired yet?

Then up the trail headed towards the canyon and a small creek.  See the green trees?  That's where the creek is.

The canyon began to narrow and we were hiking closer to the creek so it got a little cooler.

Narrower and narrower!

Then we began hearing excited youth voices up the canyon.  After a while we found water sliding and cliff jumping youth.  It made us miss our boys and their families!  We wished they were here with us!

 

Then there was a little narrowing of the canyon trail that required some climbing and squeezing.

And it opened up to more beautiful canyon.  This hike was reminding us so much of hiking The Narrows in Zion National Park!

We both experienced aging realities on this hike.  As much as our minds approached things youthfull with no care or worry, our bodies were telling us to walk and act like old people.  It is and amazing part of the aging process, as ones body forces caution.  Slipping and falling in our minds is no problem, but our bodies make us more careful.  Our minds are 17 years old and rebels at our bodies telling us loudly to be careful.

Though we progressed up the canyon at a less rapid pace than the youth passing us and we took more breaks than we used to, it was an exhilarating hike and day together!

Further up the canyon we reached a place that the concern over falling told us we had gone as far as we should.  But Wayne, with Ann telling him not to, had to overcome his body's reluctance and prove he still could be younger.

With legs shaking he overcame what once would have been something he would have not even thought twice about.   Aging is interesting!

So, we rested at the end and then returned down the canyon to the campground, then 1 1/2 miles back down the road and to our truck which was parked at the parking spot of this old restored pioneer home.  One of the few left of the now non existent 1860's farming community of Harrisburg.
If you look closely to the left of the house and off in the distance at the base of the mountain, you can see some white spots.  One of those is our trailer.

Our hopes are to be in Provo no later than 5/2 because we have a flight to New York on the morning of 5/3.  There we will visit son #3 and then to Maryland to visit son #1 and both their families.  This will be the last entry until we get back from that trip in a couple weeks.

HURRICANE, UT 4/19-24/2012

We love this drive from Las Vegas, NV to St. George, UT, especially from Mesquite on.as we drive through the Virgin River Canyon.  We love the violent geology of the canyon and then the beautiful BLM land after that where we hope to some winter spend a month or so out in the desert with all the other dry docker snowbirds.

 We were excited to cross once again into Utah.  We have grown to love southern Utah and most of Arizona and their red rock desert mountain formations.  It is beautiful here and there is lots of good hiking areas!

 Cresting a rise, we come into St. George.  The freeway's not so beautiful, but the St. George Temple with the beautiful Southern Utah mountains in the background was a welcome sight!

 We set up camp in Encore's St. George RV Park using our Coast to Coast membership ready for a 5 day short stay.  While we were in Mesquite having a bite to eat, we noticed an ammonia smell coming from our refrigerator.  Not good!  That means there is some coolant leakage and will cost us money.  So we contacted a local RV fix-it shop to begin the process.  Easy right?  More on that in the next bog entry.

During the five days we were here we spent some time at the beautiful St. George Temple.

 The grounds there are so peaceful. A good place to sit, contemplate and relax.

 While walking there, we heard our names being called.  We turned around and saw a young man with a group of other college students.  Turned out to be a missionary we had served with while in Oakland a few years back.  It was so good to see him and catch up on where his life has gone since we last saw each other.  But... forgot to take a picture of him.  Here's one of us though!

 And another one too!

 While here in Hurricane, we got a call from another missionary we had served with in Oakland.  She had noticed on Ann's Face Book thing that we were in town and called to invite us to get together.  So, on Monday night we went to their house in Hurricane for a BBQ and visit.  This is our missionary's husband, Sam.  He did an awesome job of BBQ'ing hamburgers for us!  I didn't notice until just now that he had a Crater Lake tee shirt on!  Wow!  Sorry Sam!  I'll bet you wore that just for us Oregonians and we didn't even notice!!  Well we see it now.  Thanks!!

 Here we are in their house getting ready to chow down.  There you see our missionary friend, Lizzie Markham, now Lizzie McGee.  The gentleman on the left is a return missionary friend that was staying with them for awhile.