SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS

Robert has been training for an exciting new experience. Swimming in the San Francisco Bay which is well known for icy cold water and sharks! He has a special wet suit that helps with the cold waters, but hope he is fast enough to avoid the sharks.

Here's what he wrote:
Tomorrow (Saturday) is the big swim with Rick Loveridge and Bryan Phipps (and 297 other people). A 1.6 mile open water race in the Bay from SF to Sausalito under the Golden Gate bridge.  Wish us luck! Last one in gets eaten by sharks. 

Well, he did it and here are the pictures to prove it. The whole family went to the city to support and cheer him on.

 The swim

 A kayaker to keep an eye out for sharks and make sure the swimmers are okay.

Reaching the shore. San Francisco in the background.

Check all those elbows poking out of the water!

 Ready to go or just finished?

 Grandma January and London

GG and Grace

Melissa with all the kids. 

Success, all arms and legs still attached.

 The whole group

The Bros

HE'S OFF AND RUNNING!

Davis is now a full fledged missionary. He entered the Mission Training Center (MTC) on Wednesday.

  Ken wrote this on Facebook about his oldest son.

8/28/2013. I've been thinking about this day for quite some time. Davis Agle is now Elder Davis and in about 6 hours enters into this amazingly place known as the MTC, a portal to Adventure. I'm hoping for the best of everything for him. The ups and even those inevitable downs, but hopefully mostly ups. Best of everything Davis.
May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

And Coppelia wrote this on her Facebook:

I feel a little bit like I did the first time Davis went to camp. But, he is Elder Davis Agle now and not a little boy. Much thanks to his host missionary Jimmy, a happy and energetic young man from the South Pacific who told me, "Don't worry, I will take good care of your Son! He will have the most fun of his life." Could a mother ask for more? — feeling happy.

Jimmy, who is going to see that Davis is well taken care of.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

It's Thursday again and you know what that means . . . Throw-back Thursday. Last year the Chai family got together and pooled a lot of their pictures to put on a CD. Beki sent me a copy and I've selected a few. They are in no particular order, just enjoy!

 Ann holding Beki. Keo, Von, Kim

  Camping up at Pine, AZ. That's me by the car, Jany in the red and Dad on the right.

  The Chais always seemed to have a VW bus and it was fun to climb on the top of it!

 The Chais in their new Christmas outfits.

  Grandpa and Grandma Price at the Chai's house in Phoenix.

 We always got our own Christmas tree. Apparently it wasn't snowing yet.

At he blessing of Nala. I'm pregnant with Ruth.

Sliding down the hill on 'cardboard' sleds. Dennis on the left, Ruth going up the hill, Ken on the wall. (I think that is January on the right, but not sure.)

THE FAMILY SLEUTH

As you may or may not know, Suzanne has caught to Family History bug and has done wonderful work along many lines. As an aside, she made a special notebook for Dad and presented it at the reunion. It contained information on his mother's side,(Leone Irene Christenson), his father's side (Magne Agle) and step father, (Axel Verner Anderson including things like the passenger list on the on which they they came to America, pictures, and many other things. We appreciate the information greatly.

After the return from the reunion and Sashy's homecoming, she is back to sleuthing again and shared the following with us:

" Here I am, back on the Family History trail again. I took a little time off over the summer to gather my thoughts but 2 weeks ago, I started the work on some international mysteries. Yes, I know, being British is international enough! But I have what call 'real international' mysteries in my family. My paternal grandfather was born in Argentina, my great great grandmother was from Ireland, my great grandfather and his father were both in the military and born in Canada and I have 2 great great uncles born in India! These are not records you can find in your local family history center so I knew I had to go up to the world renowned family history center in Salt Lake and search their extensive International records.

 I thought I would try the hardest first - India. After much searching (I also learned a lot about areas in India and the military presence there in the 1800's) I found a record in St. Mary's church in Belgaum, which is in the province of Madras, India that had my great great uncle's birth date and baptism and his parent's names and the military unit and rank that his father belonged to. There are so few records of India, especially in the 1800's. What a find! I was able to make a copy from the microfilmed record. 

It isn't very clear but great great uncle James Alfred Barkham is the top line.

 I have a lot more investigating to do yet but this was such a rewarding start on the more difficult searches.

The old photo of the family is that of my great grandparents and 3 of their 6 children. 

If you look closely in the lower right hand corner you will see the word 'Rosario'. This was taken in Rosario, Argentina, in 1896, 2 years before my grandfather was born in Buenos Aries. The back of the photo has names and dates and ages of the children recorded. It is one of my most treasured historical possessions. I know, I am a nerd!

I have discovered my great great grandfather won a military medal for bravery while rescuing Irish families from an outpost in Canada. It was during the Finnean Raids and Red River Expedition. This is my next quest, to discover how all this came about and if this was where he met his future Irish wife. I feel like Sherlock Holmes! Now all I need is a Dr. Watson......any volunteers?

Can you blame Dennis for loving her so much?

D A V I S

Big week for Davis coming up.

Here's a few things that have led up to this point.

 You have to get those wisdom teeth out!

 We were able to watch (via Skype) Davis open his assignment.

 Sporting his 'missionary' haircut.

 Recently attended the Temple with his folks.

 Davis and his beautiful Mom.

This week he taught his last Kaesung class.

Sunday (August 25) he will speak in his home ward and Wednesday, (August 28) he will report to the

Mission Training Center as he prepares to serve in the California, Ventura Mission.

STEVEN'S HIKE TO THE UINTAS

A CUT ABOVE

Steven (second from right), along with his Scout Troop & in his own words, here's his report.

Hi Grandma, it's me! I went on quite the adventure last week, and I thought I'd write a few thoughts about it for one of those fancy blogs of yours, maybe the extended one!

Just an excerpt of my own journal, is all, in my very own words. You could maybe title it 'QUITE AN ADVENTURE', or even better, after my dumb pun, 'A CUT ABOVE'.

Well, I hope everything is just sunshine and lollipops in San Juan for you, and Grandpa too. One week I was at sea level, and often below sea level, and the next week I'm over 14000 feet above! Kinda neat.

As it turns out, I'm a mountain man now. And what better things are there for a man of the mountains to do than scale the High Uintas?

It was a 5 day trip, maybe 13 comrades among us and 3 more leaders as well; just a bunch of backpacking backpackers. A horde of them.

It's a tough hike, we all agreed. Something about rocky terrain, inevitable rain, high up in elevation, lots of passes and hills, oh, and just being all around really long. But that's what you sacrifice so you can enjoy all the great things up there, and see all the great sights. Memories, and such. It's not something just anyone is willing to do, which makes it a bit special.

Makes it and us maybe, A CUT ABOVE! Because it's the biggest, tallest plateau in America. And I am. (Sometimes.

Eh, I've made better puns before).

The trip could have been deadly if we didn't take Wednesday just to fish and enjoy the outdoors. What else, we played a little game called 'High Uintas Wiffle Ball'. It's like regular baseball but the leaders always win. And, yeah, they did. But only because the wiffle ball decided to snap in twain on their side of an inning.

Also, there was some amazing fishing up there, because the lakes were way lower than normal. I caught 3 my very first ever! I named them Ninny, Minny, and Finny, and then I gutted, and shortly later ate poor Finny. What, it wasn't a pet, it's just a slimy, jumpy fish, who isn't killed by light rock taps to the head, I discovered. And it tasted pretty amazing, considering the freeze dried meals I had prior.

All in all, it was quite the experience, through and through.

My absolute favorite part however was this little area on a pass just after Painter's Basin. On top of the pass that is. You can see the Paintman Basin and the basin with Lake Atwood in it, and it's just something about the ridge splitting the two basins. Or maybe how silent it was. And not to forget the mossy rock ruins and such. It's tough to describe, you really just had to be there.

The trail is also really popular. You can see people go by pretty often, and I think I'm beginning to see why.

Stevie Agle

Thanks, Steven. That was quite a trip.

Here's a picture of the Mapleton group on their first day back at school this week.

A FEW MORE REUNION PICTURES

Here's just a few more pictures of the reunion to enjoy.

 Beach Boys

 California Screaming - check out the guys in the second seat.

 Derek & Erik

A passel of kids watching TV.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE

Nathan P will celebrate his 12th birthday August 21. 

Happy Birthday Nate.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LINDSEY

Lindsey's birthday was celebrated last weekend when her family spent the weekend at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. Grandma joined them on Saturday for a lovely afternoon of visiting, people watching and enjoying the kids enjoy life on the beach. About 5p we sang happy birthday to Lindsey and she blew out 9 candles.

FIRE-PIT PAGODA

The FIRE-PIT PAGODA is close to being done. The electrical is in, the painting is done, the benches with their complicated "compound" cuts are finished and it will soon be ready to use. No work on it this week though, Ken will be in Dallas, TX all week. (Is that a gorgeous Spruce tree next to it or what!)

It all started with this, remember?

 And of course you have to have some fun along the way. . presenting,

THE CONEHEADS!

SCHOOL DAYS, SCHOOL DAYS, DEAR OLD GOLDEN RULE DAYS

It's the middle of August but still, time to return to school for a lot of kids.

 Grace

 London

  Ryan

 Frick and Frack (aka Travis & Nathan)

 Lindsey

Dennis, January, Carol