What's In This Blog

I created this blog for my journal. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this blog I keep many of the things I come across as a member of the church. I also share my experiences on the ACE Train and getting to work, my experiences in Manteca where we have lived for three years, and other things I think are noticeable.

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Tucson LDS Temple

 This temple has a bit different design to reflect the Southwest.  The desert gardening reflects this as well.  It was Monday when we visited and there were men their working.






design above the window







Catalina State Park Camping in Tucson

It was a bit warm the first day in Tucson and we put up a shade, but after that the weather was nice.  Catalina State Park is inthe foothills to the Catalina Mountains.  There was a big saguaro cactus close to our campsite.  Only bad thing is they were redoing the restroom on our side.  They did have port-potties in place, or the restroom on the other side which had showers.  The mountains were pretty an I understand there are many trails.  

Charlie was in the same campground but on the other side with the good bathrooms.  He invited us over for s'mores.  He had a portable fire with propane for the marshmallows.  









Miami and Claypool Arizona--Mining Towns

 We didn't stop but I got a fw pictures from the car.  This is country to return to; especially in light of Globe having a museum Besh-Ba-Gowah Museum featuring the Salado People.  It includes the ruins of an ancient pueblo as well as the museum. 

Miami and Claypool are copper mining areas and I tried to get a picture to reflect this.  




mountains and cliffs along Highway 60.


Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Five-Year-Old birthday boy

 Look who had a birthday last week.  His day we went to the zoo, swimming at the Lied Activity Center pool and had dinner and cake.  He chose homemade chicken noodle soup.  The cake was chocolate with an almond flavored frosting which was very good.






Weekend of March 13 to 15th

 This is a journal entry for this week.  A couple things I have already written about but a couple other things I missed.  

The weekend started early as we decided to have movie night on Thursday instead of Friday.  we watched Zootopia 2.  This freed up Friday for me and I went to the Croatian Community Center fish fry and also took cardboard to the recycles and saw San Nicholas Serbian Orthodox Church.  Friday also my sister called to inform us that her son had passed away.  He was found up Logan Canyon by some snowmobilers and had frozen to death.  The police found his car stuck by Tony Grove Lake 3 1/2 miles from where his body was found.  His death changed our travel plans as we decided not to go camping in California but to go to the funeral in Logan, Utah.  Consequently instead of leaving on Sunday we left on Wednesday.  Ironically my sister was at a gender reveal party for her daughter Natalie when the police called.  She is having a girl.  

Saturday the 14th started with a pie-for-breakfast Elder's Quorum activity at the church.  I had a lemon pie and a chocolate pie.  I also had good conversations with other members.  Sad part is that the Kanes are moving to England.  

Sunday was my first time leading the music in church.  I went well but one sng the down bat as always off.  After the first verse I realized I was beating 4/4 for a 3/4 song.

We had dinner at our house on Sunday.  It was cold and freezing, nd we had had a skiff of snow.  Consequently the road was so frozen Miranda and Anthony couldn't get up the hill outside our house.  They had to go down and around to the next road which isn't as steep.