August 11-12 - Saturday and Sunday

Saturday August 11  We had a full day of various activities as Saturday is our day off this week.

Belnap Family Reunion.  We went to the Belnap Family Reunion held in Sandy, Utah, at the Sandy Crescent LDS Stake Center, located at 2195 Pepperwood Drive.  We were there from about 9:45am until 1pm.  We enjoyed presentations about my ancestor Gilbert Belnap who is my great-great grandfather on my mother’s line.  We finally met cousin Brent Belnap who has been active in the Belnap Family Organization for many years.  Here is the link for their website.  wp.belnapfamily.org

We enjoyed a meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and watermelon.

Picture of Gilbert  Belnap

Quote from Gilbert Belnap on the Trail of Hope in Nauvoo

Car battery replacement.  The Impala started giving the warning that the battery needed to be replaced.  I thought this was the case yesterday but was sure today.  We are so grateful that we got the warning before the battery died.  I realized that the battery had lasted for three years (most last only two years in Arizona).  We went to Pep Boys and got a new three year battery installed.   While we were waiting, Sister Tolman noticed that there was a Deseret Industries store across the street.  We picked up needed items including a bread pan, a crock pot and I picked out a flower vase so I can have something to put the flowers in when I get some for Sister Tolman.

Visiting My Sisters.  We had enjoyable visits with Gerri and Dave Coombs and Glenna Neilson.  Gerri and Dave shared their recent experience visiting our other sister and husband (JoAnne and Craig Barlow) in Nauvoo.  Since we had recently visited Nauvoo in May of this year it was good to remember and talk about Nauvoo and Carthage.

With statue of Joseph & Hyrum Smith in Carthage in May 2018

In front of the Vinson Knight Home in May 2018.  Vinson's daughter Adaline married 

Gilbert Belnap and they had 13 children (11 lived to maturity)

We visited Glenna.  It was good to see her again.  I had seen my siblings recently in early June when I visited Salt Lake for Aunt Helene Kerr Smith’s funeral.  When we were about to leave at it was getting toward time for dinner Sister Tolman and Glenna talked about where to purchase comfortable shoes.  One store is close by so we were going to stop there on the way home until Glenna mentioned she had a pair that was too large for her.  Lynne tried them on and they fit her.  We tried to pay her for them and she said it was a gift for our mission.  Thank you Glenna.

Enjoyed a good dinner.  Sister Tolman fixed a good dinner as we needed to eat something since our lunch at the reunion was at about noon.

Sunday August 12

We enjoyed a relaxing morning of reading and watching the 2018 Pioneer concert originally broadcast in July.  It was so enjoyable with lots of music from Rogers and Hammerstein productions.  You can watch it on LDS.org at Pioneer Concert   Probably next Sunday we will take advantage of going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast on Sunday mornings at 9:30am since it is so close.  During the summer the broadcast is in the conference center instead of the tabernacle.

Church for us starts at 1pm with Priesthood and Relief Society first and Sacrament meeting last.  We enjoyed the meetings which as held in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Priesthood and Relief Society lessons were on meekness based on Elder Bednar’s talk from the 2018 April Conference titled “Meek and Lowly of Heart”   Sacrament meet talks were on forgiveness.  A young elder gave the first talk and a couple was scheduled for the other two talks.  The sister got up and asked her husband to speak first.  This surprised him but he managed to be able to speak longer that he would have if had spoken last.

Sister Tolman fixed crunch wraps for dinner and baked some muffins that we will have for lunch this coming week.  Of course we ate ice cream before calling it a night.

This is the weekend for the Perseid Meteor Shower. The best time is late tonight or early in the morning of August 13.  We are not going to try this year due to the hazy conditions with all the fires in the west.  We as a family have lots of fond memories going to watch the meteor showers.  Maybe next year.