Thursday, August 19, we attended funeral and burial services for Curtis Chapman, 51, held in Taylor, Arizona.

Curtis is the son of my cousin, Fullmer Chapman and his wife La Donna, residents of Taylor. Curtis was victim of cancer. He was much beloved by his family and friends. Three brothers and two sisters and his parents, children and extended family and friends participated in the services.

This is Tim Frost, a neighbor, across the road from Ann & Steve. He has horses and cattle, scattered about on a 100+ acre ranch. The children love to go over to "Tim's." He lets them help him feed the animals. He is a great neighbor and friend.

Here he is, giving Josh a ride on his quad. The road they are on is the private drive, leading back to the Frost home and other ranch buildings. This is the favorite area for our morning walks, Josh and me.

The Snowflake Arizona Temple is just a few miles north from Show Low.

This was taken from some distance away, while we were driving through the rsidential neighborhoods that surround the temple property.

The temple sits on a prominence a couple of miles west of Snowflake's main street.

On our first morning to take a walk since our return to Ann and Steve's in Linden, we saw Marisa Frost with her horse Freckles. The horse had been injured on the right front leg. They think she got into the barbed wire. Tim Frost, Marisa's father, has been keeping the horse in the corral at the barn and doctoring her injury.

After a quick trip down to Mesa to be present when our daughter Amy and her husband Gary and son Caleb spoke in their ward Sacrament meeting, we settled down for the month of August with Ann, Steve and family in Linden, Arizona. I needed a jacket the first morning we went for a walk.

This is Gracie and her younger brother, Josh, out helping their grandpa get acquainted with the neighborhood.

We were fortunate to find our brother-in-law, David Cooley, still at work at his office (ReMax Realty) when we arrived in Kingman Friday afternoon. We were able to visit with he and Linda's younger sister Lois at their very nice home, located over on the far southeast side of the city. We also got to see their sons Loren and Rex and their wives and some of the grandchildren. We didn't try to take too long, but it certainly was good to be with them for a few moments.

This is David and Lois, outside their home, just before we bid them goodbye. They told us to return when we had more time and they would take us up in a private plane and do a fly-over of the Grand Canyon. David is an accomplished pilot, among his many othe talents.

Here is a view of the bridge from much further away, after we had crossed the dam and begun the climb out of the canyon on the Arizona side.

At the bottom of the photo you see the line of cars making their way slowly across Hoover dam. When the bridge is open to vehicular traffic it will greatly speed travel between the cities of southern Nevada and northwestern Arizona.

This picture, taken from the car window as we made our way slowly round the curves of the old highway approaching the crossing over the dam, cannot do justice to the immensity and beauty of this concrete span. This bridge is wide enough to carry four lanes of traffic. It is over 900 feet above the riverbed below. What a marvel! They expect this Hoover Dam By-pass project to be completed an open to public use before the end of the year.

As we finally neared the dam we had our first look at the great concrete bridge that has been built across the canyon, just downstream from Hoover Dam. It is not yet opened for public use, but it is a spectacular, immence engineering achievement! We were in awe!

As we neared Lake Mead and our crossing at Hoover Dam on Friday, August 6, we were in for a long delay. Traffic was backed up for miles due to construction near the dam.

We had not been over US 93 between Boulder City and Kingman for a good long time, and we were in for a big surprise.

Friday, August 6, we departed from Cedar City where we had stayed the night and continued south on I-15, past St. George and down through the spectaular Virgin River gorge on what is known as the "Million Dollar Highway," (so named because it reportedly cost over one million dollars a mile to cut this roadway through this mighty canyon of rock.

While in Parowan with Diane and Don we accompanied them to the home of their daughter Crystal and her husband Levi Reed. The home is over 100 years old. They have done much to renovate it and make it into a comfortable and lovely home on a full acre of ground.

This is Crystal with her mother, Diane. We took this picture just before saying goodbye and continuing our journey on toward Cedar City and then Kingman, Arizona.

Thursday, August 5, we drove down Interstate 15, stopping in Parowan where Linda's sister Diane and her husband Don Richardson now reside. It was so good to be with them for a few short hours.

This is Don, standing beside the one cylinder engine that he obtained from the McNeill family in Bluewater, NM some years before. He carefully restored the old engine to perfect working order and has displayed it at public events numerous times since.

This engine has a history which is of particular importance to us because it powered the pump that brought water up from a well on the Thomas McNeill property in Bluewater for many, many years. Thomas McNeill is Linda's great grandfather. She was born in a the home that is located just to the south of the old McNeill pump house.

Our grandson, Dallin Funk, the oldest son of our daughter Amy and her husband Gary, has been working at a water park in Draper for the summer and stayng with his aunt and uncle in nearby Highland.

Before leaving from Orem, Thursday morning, August 5, I was able to see Dallin for a few minutes before he had to leave for work. He really has enjoyed Utah! His aunt Julie took this picture for us. He is looking great, don't you think?

On Wednesday, August 4, we went to Murray to the home of Linda's cousin, Lorraine Smith and husband Larry. They are caregivers to Linda's dear Aunt Irene Hatch, age 104.

It was so good to see and visit with this dear woman once again. She is an inspiration! She remembered both of us. She is the oldest of three remaining offspring of Issac & Myra Rogers. Linda's mother, Lucille Burnham, 88 yrs, residing in Gilbert, Arizona, and her Uncle Francis, 86 yrs, residing in Oregon.

We asked Aunt Irene how she had been able to live to such an age. She said, "Good genes!" I believe it!

Greg & Laurie insisted on feeding us supper, cooking hamburgers on the grill, along with all the fixings.

Here we are on the back patio with the chef and two of his grandsons, and their handsome dog, "Rocky."

On Tuesday, August 3, after an overnight stop at Jeffery & Kristi's in Rexburg, we loaded up the car, said goodbye to Jacob & Liz who came to see us off, and took the road toward Salt Lake. This would be the first leg of our journey back to Arizona.

We stopped in Bountiful for a short but very enjoyable visit with my cousin, Gregory Chapman and his wife Laurie. Greg and I are the same age. We entered the mission field at the same time. He went to beautiful, warm Hawaii. I went to beautiful, cold northern Maine. It was great to finally visit them in their lovely home, located not far from the Bountiful Temple, up on the east bench.

We were on a fairly tame part of the river, with only a few sections of white water, but still, for a novice like me, it was great! We were on the river for just over an hour. It really was enjoyable.

Thanks, Kerry.

We enjoyed attending Sunday meetings with Kerry and Brenda at their Valley Ward in Salmon and had such a great time visiting and partaking of some great food and home made ice cream that afternoon and evening.

Monday, before we said goodbye and returned to Rexburg, it was Terry's pleasure to accompany Kerry for a raft trip down a portion of the Salmon River.

Here we are just before putting this rubber raft in the water.

Kerry helped his granddaugher doctor the calve and attempt to get him to eat, but it didn't look good. He would not get up and he wouldn't suck when milk was offered to him.

We all thought he wasn't going to make through the night, but to our pleasant surprise, when Maddy's father got home late that night he got the calf up, got him to eat and by morning he was as frisky as the others!

Three of the calves had no trouble helping themselves to their supper with the family cow, though she is not their birth mother, but the 4th calve was down, sick, unable to stand and in serious need of assistance.

On Saturday evening, not long after our arrival, Kerry and Brenda took us over to their son Jason's home, located some 6 miles back down the road toward town. Jason is president of the Salmon River LDS Stake. He was on a camp-out with youth of the Stake that evening and needed Kerry to help his young daughter Maddy feed 4 new Holstein calves.

This is the Beyeler home, sitting high on a prominence above the river. They are near the end of the road on the west side of the river. The nearest bridge is 12 miles away, so they don't get much traffic. What a peaceful place!

Saturday, July 31, we drove up to Salmon, Idaho, about 3 hours out of Rexburg on US 33, for a weekend with Linda's childhood friend, Brenda Beyeler and her husband Kerry. What a beautiful, relaxing and entirely enjoyable time we had with them!

This is a view from their front porch, overlooking the Salmon River, approximately 16 miles south of the city of Salmon. What a spectacular setting!