Dad's inaugural blog

Well, I guess this is one way to get my share of the communicating with family going. Hopefully now that three of my kids are doing this blog thing, if I start it will be a way to keep in touch with you three. I am home alone tonight so I have enough time to do something for fun. We heard from Ammon this morning and they are safely in the Lansing area and looking for an apartment. They found one that sounded really good to me provided that something happens with their home in Cedar. Louise is with Jared and his girls on vacation. I think they would have asked me, but there was absolutely no room in the car, and I have to get ready for school to start. I'm watching an old BYU game on T.V. but may turn it off and watch an Alfred Hitchcock Thriller. Sounds perfect for a night home alone, don't your think? Dad

Truffle

Hello,

I am very happy to announce that I have (finally!) completed the duvet cover (aka quilt). Jen (my roommate) always names her quilts, which I think is a fun idea. However, I need to ponder a bit and spend more quality time with mine (to truly understand its personality) before I know what it should be called. For now, since a few people have mentioned that they crave chocolate when they see it, I am calling it "Truffle." It's in the washing machine now and I'm excited to see what it looks like when it is properly frayed. You can't really tell from the picture that it has four separate squares of material sewn on top of each other--so 'in person' the quilt has more depth than what appears in the picture.

When I tell people I'm making a quilt they always ask me if I'm giving it to someone... Having to say, "No, actually it's for me" has made me feel rather selfish. So, when I've recovered fully from this experience (in say, four or five years...) I will be happy to make a quilt for someone else. If any of you would like to get on the list of potential recipients, let me know. ;-)

Fun-Filled Family Weekend

So I think since Mom & Dad got home we've been together just about every day (except the 24th). I did see Ammon & Jesica and their family and Gary and Daneene and their family at the parade on the 24th. We spent most of the day in St. George - everybody except mom spent some time at the temple. Mom and I watched the kids while everyone else either did sealings or an endowment session. We went and saw Christy and her new little baby Erin. (Isn't she cute). I got to hold her for a few minutes - she is so tiny - we got her a bunch of clothes and blankets from the family.

After that the family and grandma went to Cafe Rio for lunch and then to Costco ( I spent too much money!). Anyway, I'm here working on my lesson for Sunday and then planning to go to the broadcast in an hour for the 24th! I'm sure it will be wonderful! Have a great weekend - I hope to get Mom, Dad, Alicia, and Gary/Daneene on here soon! - Jared

Hi

Hello everyone
I'm just trying this out.
Ammon

My uneventful July 24th

Hello Megan (yes- I think it is just you and me for the moment). Your dinner sounds very eventful. My day was quite dull. After the parade (with the Thunderbird Club) I went to the office. Ispent more than an hour on the phone trying to fix my flexible spending account(It didn't work- it is still all messed up). I came home around two for lunch. Jess called and wanted to know when I was coming down to St. George. Needless to say, I went to St. George. Grandma made us dinner and we played "Mexican Train" dominos. We all had a lot of fun! I got home and started watching Harry Potter five with Alicia, who is spending the night. (It's the third time in two days that I've watched it). We texted Cha Cha and found that movie six comes out November 21! We can't want!

Waiting...

I'm waiting for a file to upload so that I can post it to another blog (one that we use to share files with our clients... definitely boring, you wouldn't want to read it) and it's taking a while (it's a big file), so I thought I would stop in and say hello (to Jared anyway, is anyone else reading the blog yet?). 

I went to dinner tonight with some friends. We went to one of my favorite restaurants in Logan: The Indian Oven. It was a fun, but uneventful dinner until after we had finished eating and were waiting for Brittany, who was in the bathroom. In the midst of our conversation, my eyes started burning. At first this didn't seem odd because of the infection I have (Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis, a rather painful eye infection that I've had for several weeks). But then they got significantly worse. I'm guessing that I had some hot sauce on my fingers (which is another funny story, it took a lot of effort to convince our waitress that I REALLY like spicy food, they still wouldn't make my food very hot, but they did bring me some extra hot sauce on the side). I couldn't open my eyes at all because they hurt so badly. I had tears (and of course, mascara) streaming down my face. It was so bad that a few people stopped at our table to ask me if I was alright or if I needed anything. What I needed was to wash my eyes out, but the bathroom was occupied. When I explained that to the two very concerned women at the next table, they suggested I use the men's bathroom... then they got into a rather comical discussion of whether not I was that desperate. Anyway, by the time Brittany came out of the bathroom I had cried most of it out of my eyes and was feeling quite a bit better--she missed the whole thing. 

Well, my file is done, so I'll post both blogs and the go to bed (YEAH!). :)

I love you!

Coincidence

I'm glad you figured that out. I knew we were related somehow; but, like you, I never knew exactly what the connection was. For anyone interested, I just read the book Mormon Scientist, and it talks about the Romneys in Colonial Juarez. There was a saying back then that if a Romney drowned, you should look for him upriver (apparently a fairly determined lot). :)

And here's the coincidence: I had a dream two nights ago that I was helping run Romney's campaign. In my dream he was still running for president. Maybe I should contact him... ;) 

A long lost relative

So last night, as I was cleaning my office (o.k. I really didn't clean at all, I was too busy playing with blogs) I stumbled into a website with a story about Mitt Romney and his ancestor who was a deserter. It just so happens that his great, great grandfather is Charles Henry Wilcken. I haven't been able to figure out what our relation is to Mitt, but I'm guessing it is some kind of cousin- I'll keep working on that. There is a great article about C.H.W. On the Jared Pratt Family Association webpage. I don't have the address because I'm on my phone- I'll try to add it later. I saw Mitt on the Today show Friday and they were asking about him running as a vice-presidental candidate with McCain. Who knows we might up with a cousin running for VP of the US.

-Jared

Here is a picture with Grandma Grimshaw on one of our recent visits! - Jared

This is a recent outing to see Grandma and Grandpa Wilcken. We just had to get a picture with grandparents and grandchildren. - Jared

Scout Camp

It's been more than 20 years since I attended Thunder Ridge Boy Scout Camp. I spent last night at Thunder Ridge with our troop. I'm actually the 11 year old scout leader, but they needed me to go up for the last night. The scouts were out-of-control! It didn't take me long to decide our 11 year old scouts will be camping on their own - I don't want them to learn any bad habits from the older scouts.

I spent the night in an 8 man tent- by myself! It was cold! Then I listened to the scouts complain about my music the entire way home. I told them, I didn't have any music where you couldn't understand the words - I think they were disappointed. We stopped at the Maverik in Parowan for drinks. I waited in the Fails (neighbors) Durango while everyone when inside. When they came out, one of the scouts said, "Dude, you have a flat tire". Sure enough the front driver's side tire was completely flat. So after changing the tire, we headed back home. The one really bright spot was when I found the perfect stick for my patrol's flag (now we just need a flag)!

I forgot my camera so no pictures - Sorry - Jared

My first blog!

Hey family!

First of all, let me apologize for the randomness of my two blogs. I couldn’t get the pictures to work within the formatting options offered by the blog--probably just ‘user error.’ So I put the pictures together in a separate document and tried to post them into the blog--that didn’t work really well either. So you get two separate posts--one with the descriptions and one with the pictures (and with weird formatting still). I doubt I’ll be posting so many pictures all at once in the future, so my next posts won’t be quite so confusing. :)

I thought I'd take advantage of our new blog to post some pictures of recent trips. If you don't recognize the people in the pictures, you probably stumbled into the wrong blog...

In the background is the Oakland temple. It's a beautiful temple with a very unique exterior design. I really enjoyed walking through the gardens with Aunt Annette, Joan, Allison (Brian's wife), and mom. 

And I had to include this picture of mom and Joan on the cable car. We all loved riding the cable car around San Francisco, especially when we had a fun and friendly driver. I almost had my foot knocked off while passing a parked truck that was a bit large... it was a tight squeeze but our driver handled it beautifully and I still have all my appendages. :) 

Now for the Virgin Islands pictures. I wish I could include all of them because I've never seen such a beautiful place. To be honest I have never really been a fan of tropical islands... which sounds funny, but I just mean that tropical islands have never been very high on my list of places to visit. So I wasn't expecting to really love the Virgin Islands. I was pleasantly surprised and must now confess a new addiction: snorkeling! I find myself thinking, "Maybe I should go to Hawaii for a short vacation before the summer ends." Or, "I wonder if there are any good snorkeling locations in [fill in the blank--generally the locations of our clients and business interests]. Clint (my coworker) and I are now constantly on the lookout for new clients in tropical locations. :) We just got a notice regarding another meeting in the Virgin Islands for the grant we wrote and we're all jumping at the chance to go back. And this time, we'll skip all the other attractions and commit ourselves to full-time snorkeling (and a business meeting or two). ;)

Washington, D.C. was awesome, one of my best trips there (nothing can compare to our Spring Break trip!). I especially loved Gettysburg. If / when you get a chance to be in the area I think you should all visit it. I went to the DC temple on the same day as Gettysburg and both places were sacred. So I’m including one picture of Gettysburg and the picture that I had to climb fences to get--it was definitely worth the ‘risk.’ :)

I loved Chicago and Nauvoo! It was so much fun to be there with Lou! (and my roommate Megan, but that doesn’t rhyme with Nauvoo…) We had many grand adventures. If any of you haven’t heard of our encounter with the fine officers of the Chicago DUI cadre you’ll have to ask for the story--it’s great! We saw most of the major attractions of the city: Sears Tower, the giant ‘bean’, the river and Lake Michigan, a great pizza place (for the record, attempts in Utah to recreate the Chicago Deep-dish pizza pale in comparison to the real thing--WOW!), the Fire Dept., the Chicago Art Institute, etc. All of it was great. Seeing Wicked was definitely one of the best parts of our trip--despite the stress of getting there. :)

Of course, my favorite moments of the trip were in Nauvoo and Catharge. Seeing the temple there for the first time was overwhelming. I want to go back again (even more than I want to go snorkeling). :) I could go on and on about the beauty and peace of being there and the privilege of being able to honor the early saints for the sacrifices they made, but I can’t really find the words, and I’m sure you know what I mean.

Now I should start working on my talks for EFY. I’ll be in Rexburg in a couple weeks for my EFY session. I’m excited to be there and to go to the new temple. I am also VERY excited for my upcoming sleepover with Jess, Bryn, and Amanda (and the grown-ups). :) 

And, in a random bit of other news, we get two days off work next week for Pioneer Day and I’m taking half of Wednesday as well. I’m using my time off to make a quilt. I bought the material this week and I’m very excited. I’ll post pictures of it when it’s finished. Thanks Jared for creating this blog. I think it will be a lot of fun. I can’t wait for all the news and pictures from all of you!

Pictures of trips

The 1st Blog

The Wilcken family blog has officially been started. With Ammon and Jesica moving to Michigan in about a week, I thought it a good idea to start a blog so we can all keep up with what is going on with the family. I hope it works.