A Walk Down Memory Lane - Back To My Roots~

Here is pictures of my cousin Mary and her husband Floyd~

My dear Cousin Mary's family~

My cousin Mary Evlyn Hummel passed away on July 6th. I loved her very much. She was actually more like an Aunt than a cousin. She had been raised in the same home as my father and he always considered her his little sister. In the passed few months I have lost some very dear loved ones. I grieve frequently over them. Memories come a long with the tears. 

I decided to drive back to my hometown for the funeral. My husband had a business trip so he wasn't able to come with me. I normally don't take off on my own very much; due to not liking to drive. However, I did want to see her family. Her two older daughters Becky and Jacky were such choice cousins. I spent many hours playing with them in their grandparent's home in Sigurd, Utah. There are also two brother, John and Mac that were born later after we had moved from Richfield. 

As I traveled down to Richfield where I was born; I decided to stop at the Sigurd cemetery and visit my parents graves. I wasn't able to go down on Memorial Day so I wanted to put some flowers on their graves. 

                          

My Dad and Mom's Headstone~

As I thought about my dear parents and my two brothers that I have lost in recent years and  months, along with my dear Aunt Della and now my Cousin Mary; I had a difficult time. 

                          

 I started to think about my Dad's parents whom lost my Dad's older brother Max when he was just a little over two years old. On his little headstone it says; "A little bud of love to bloom with God above."

Here is my Dad's Mother's Headstone. She died when my Dad was just 5 months old. She was only 23 years old at that time. Her headstone reads; "Thy life was beauty, truth, goodness and love."

Here is my Dad's Father's Headstone who was killed in the 1st world war when my Dad was just 22 months old. My dear Dad was raised by his Grandmother McMillan.  Five years later my Dad's Grandfather died in a farming accident. That story is so sad. My Grandmother McMillan died when I was very young so I didn't get to know her. I do know she was a faithful member of our church and was a wonderful woman and my Dad loved her so much. She took very good care of him. 

Here is the memorial for the Hardy Pioneers that settled this beautiful valley. My ancestors are the Gledhill's names on this memorial. I love that this was constructed out of the original Rock from a little church in the Sigurd community. 

As I drove down the rode towards the home where my father was raised; I found the door was opened. The home hasn't been lived in for a while and the outside has deteriorated some. I found some ladies cleaning the kitchen. Later my cousin told me that one of her daughters was going to move into it for a while. I felt I had found a treasure. I  became so excited to be able to go in the home again after so many years. I went through the home and took a lot of pictures. Here are a few of them. Wow, this was such a blessing for me at this time. 

I spent many hours playing in this home and on this farm~

These next two pictures are the living room and dinning room. My Aunt Lucille was a fantastic cook. There used to be a long table in the dinning room. She would spend long hours in the kitchen cooking for the ranch hands. There were quite a few who ate at that table at noon each day. She made a chocolate cake that you could die for. She made me one every year for my birthday until we moved away. 

Here is a picture of the dinning room~

Here is the play room upstairs. That little entrance goes into a fairly large play area.
 It was so fun to see this room again. 

This room was the bedroom of my cousins. It was a favorite place of mine because I loved it in the summer. My Aunt would open up the windows and the white curtains would blow gently into the room. I was very amazed at how all the wood floors were in such good condition. 

I was excited to find horses, cows, sheep and dogs on the property.

 I really am a cowgirl at heart. 

I am positive I climbed this fence more than once. 

This is the little house that my Dad was born in. I felt so blessed to get a picture of this one. 

I traveled on to Richfield where I was born.  Here is a picture of the home I lived in as a baby~

I spent a lot of summer time hours swimming at this pool. In my day it was an outdoor pool.

 I pictured myself as an Esther Williams; that will date me for sure. 

I did become LeAnn Williams that should count.

I loved to swim and I thought I could swim across Fish Lake, Utah someday.

 I tried but it was too cold to even swim at all. 

Here is the door into my Kindergarten class room. 

This is a favorite home of my youth. We lived here only a short time and then my parents lost the home and we rented homes until we moved to Salt Lake City, Utah when I was 13 years old. 

This is a cabin built by my great grandfather Eskild Peterson when they first settled in Utah. It is now owned by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. It was closed so I didn't get to go inside. I know there are some items that were donated by his family in there. I hope to see them someday.

The next day I attended the funeral, dedication of the grave and family luncheon. It was nice to see family that I hadn't seen for a very long time. It is kind of sad when we don't see our loved ones very often and then we get to see them at a funeral. I loved the chance to talk with my cousins. I also enjoyed a few moments with my dear cousin's husband Floyd. He was such a favorite of my parents. They visited with each other often through the years. My sweet cousin was 91 years old and I will treasure the memories that I have of her, her family and her parents. 

After the funeral I visited with my Aunt Alene and Uncle Keith. They are both 93 years old. I enjoy a lovely visit with them.  My dear Aunt took me back to the Richfield Cemetery and I took several pictures of graves stones of ancestors that I didn't know were buried there.  

I found that this short trip was a very healing one for me. I do know that I will see all of my dear loved one that have departed this earth again. I have a testimony of life after death and that we will all be resurrected some day. 
Here is a great message on " The Plan of Salvation". 
Here is another wonderful pamphlet on this same subject of what I believe to be true about life and death. 

Have A Wonderful 4th of July Celebration ~

I love this great country with all my heart. I love to hear and sing the National Anthem; "The Star Spangled Banner". I have a great respect for our Flag and for the freedoms that we enjoy from being part of a free land. 
That being said, I am  saddened that many do not put their hand to their heart when our National Anthem is sang or the "Pledge of Allegiance" is said. My heart hurts that many schools are not allowed to teach the "Pledge of Allegiance." This land has remained free because of so many who have served this great land in the halls of congress, in the senate and also in the White House. Now our precious Constitution is being threatened and challenged. 
 Even more sobering are the many lives that have been given for this freedom from the Revolutionary War to the War in Iraq and other areas around the world. We have been a freedom fighting nation, assisting the people in other lands freedom from tyranny. 
I lost my Grandfather in France during World War II. I never knew him but was always proud that he gave his life to free an oppressed people.  I have ancestors who served in the Revolutionary War, Civil War and others wars through the years. They served because they believed in this great nation. They were fighting for their homes and their freedoms, their wives and their children.
 In the Book of Mormon, there were many wars fraught for these same freedoms. In the following verse found in   Alma 43: 45; "Nevertheless, the Nephites were inspired by a better cause, for they were not fighting for monarchy nor power but they were fighting for their homes and their liberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church."
You can read another great story in the Book of Mormon about a righteous leader named Moroni here.  We must continue to support this great country by being more aware of the precarious state it is in. 

This land was given as a promised land to this ancient people by God. Their story is found in The Book of Mormon. These people due to wickedness were totally destroyed by war except for a small remnant of them. 
Are we going to follow this same path? I pray that we can be a righteousness nation. 
The founding father's gave their abilities and total energies to bringing forth the Declaration of Independence.

 This one line is so inspiring: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". I don't see that we as a nation are realizing how important that paragraph is.
 I know that The Constitution of the United States of America was brought forth by the founding fathers through the Spirit. God had a hand in this document.

  How sad that the original intent has been debated for so many years and there have been 33 amendments thus far made to this document. 
May we all take a moment on this 4th of July during our celebration of this great country and pray for our nation and it's leaders. 
Listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Sing our National Anthem; "The Star Spangled Banner". As you listen to that beautiful choir; place your hand over your heart and rededicate your love and devotion for this country which was given to us all by a very Loving Heavenly Father. May this land be preserved and may we never lose our liberties. 

Our Family Is Forever - Family Reunion 2014~

We  believe that Families are forever. We want to be with our family throughout all Eternity. We want "No Empty Chairs" at our family moments together. We just held our Roger and LeAnn Williams family reunion in Bear Lake, Utah. We have these reunions every two years. We had a wonderful cabin home that we stayed in that would sleep 45. We also had a smaller place for one of our families that couldn't stay for the whole reunion time. When we were all together there were 50 total.  We had all our sons, daughters and spouses plus 31 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. We had one grandson missing that is presently serving a mission for our church in Omaha, Nebraska. While we were having fun he was busy helping to clean up areas affected by the Tornado's.

The weather at Bear Lake was cold.  It rained a little bit and in the canyon there was a touch of snow on one of the days. We were concerned about not being able to do lake activities as planned. Our question was how do we keep 8 families with different ages busy inside of the cabin??? We were a little nervous about how it was going to turn out. There were prayers sent and we went forth with faith that all would be well. Our prayers were answered and we had such a fun time. There were no really big conflicts at all. There was just a lot of patience, tolerance, kindness, sharing, love and hugs that went around

Here is a picture of all of our granddaughters, granddaughter in laws and great granddaughters  Back row - Justice, age 18 with our youngest granddaughter, Haven, age 6 month; April, age 15, Sariah, age 16; Gillian, age 22; Jessica, and Dana.
Middle row - Averi, age 11; Alyssa, age 10; Karli, age 11; Lilly, age 2; our and her sister, Jadyn, age 4. These two are our great granddaughters.
Front row - Faith, age 10; Kaitlyn, age 10; Sarah, age 13; Taylor Jo, age 13 with Emma, age 7; Abbey, age 13. 

Here are our grandsons, and great grandsons.

Back row - Christian, age 15, Joseph, age 15, Jed, Jacob, with Sagan our great grandson, age 1; Austin, age 15. Middle back row - Jeffery, age 8; Ethan, age 13; Michael, age 14.

Middle Row - Williams, age 7; Kason, age 6; Joshua, age 6; Jonathan, age 12; Ryley, age 8.

Front Row - Levi, age 6; Benjamin, age 4; Layton, age 4. 

From the front room windows of the cabin,  the view was spectacular. We even got a picture of a rainbow in the upper left hand corner. 

The home we were in had a pool table and plenty of games. The weather was good enough to swim in the heated pool and play basketball that was on the reserve's property. It was so much fun to see the older boys playing pool with the younger kids. Most of the children went down swimming each day and sometimes twice a day.

Along with activities inside and out side, we had family devotionals. We sang songs, and shared stories of our ancestors. 

There was plenty of visiting with one another and that went very well. The adults and children also played games. In the lower left hand corner I am playing a game with my granddaughter Emma. She was so cute. She would come up to me and ask if I was ready for another round of Sorry. How could you ever refuse a sweet  request like that. 

For one of the devotionals My granddaughters from Missouri sang some songs accompanied by their sister Sariah on the Ukulele - 

 On Wednesday morning all of the children ages 12 and up traveled to the Logan Temple, in Logan, Utah to do baptisms for the dead. I had spent some time doing genealogy research and found some names of ancestors for them to be baptized and confirmed for. To find out more of our beliefs on temple work you can find it here.  

Back row - Austin, Roger ( my husband), Travis, Sean, Joseph, Christian, Taylor Jo, James, and Brandon -Front row - Michael, Ethan, Jonathan, Sarah, Sariah, Abbey, April, Christina, Tiffani and David

Logan Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - 

You can find a short history of the Logan Temple here.

One of the really fun activities for the girls was when they braided each other's hair. It was so fun to watch them. They had such a good time doing this. 

We had assigned families doing the meals. Everyone even the younger children helped. 
 We also watched some of the World Soccer games. A lot of the children play soccer so they liked watching the games. There were 4 TV's so the children did watch a few movies while there. 

Saying good by to everyone was hard. We shared lots of love and hugs~

We had a large porch and a great view of the other cabins in the area. Also, a beautiful view of the lake. As we left the cabin we took a few more pictures of the view. We  enjoyed all the precious  moments with each other. It was a super family reunion. 

Just before we left the cabin we all sang again one our our favorite hymns; "Families Can Be Together Forever. " We then knelt in prayer with gratitude in our hearts for this family time together and then prayers for safety in traveling to our various destinations. Our families came from Spokane, Washington; Peculiar, Missouri; Kerrville, Texas; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Sugar City, Idaho; Heber City, Utah; and South Jordan, Utah. 

 After we were all packed up and were ready to roll; we drove down to Garden City to enjoy lunch and have one of the famous Raspberry shakes from there. It was funny because this wasn't planned; we met three of our families down at this place.  It required some more good-by hugs!

Our three youngest daughter's came back to our house for a couple more days; so the fun didn't end there at Bear Lake. They have now all left for their homes. My oldest daughter who has been with us for the last 6 weeks is moving to Australia for 2-3 years or longer. We had some sweet moments together. All of the good-bys were hard because these dear daughters live the furthest away from us so we don't see them as often as our boys. 

Alyssa, Emma and Ben looking for a snack to take while traveling home~

 Mike and Jenni with the three children inside the car~

Dave and Tiffani and children packing up and ready to roll~

 Our daughter, Christina with her family and my husband Roger~

Here I am with my precious granddaughters and daughter~ 

Hugs from my son in law Brandon~ 

 Hugs with my dear daughter, Christina~

I was a basket case of tears as each of these dear families left~

We believe in Families forever - If you want to learn more about these beliefs you can find the answers here. 

Happy Father's Day To All Of The Awesome Fathers In My Life~

I am grateful that  I have a Heavenly Father that loves me and answers my prayers.  I know that all of us knew our Heavenly Father in the Pre-Earth life.  We are his Spirit Children. When we see Him again someday we will be surprised at how well we know Him.  I know that He lives. 
Here is the tabernacle Choir singing: "O, My Father". Listen closely to the wonderful words of this hymn. 


My dearest father now resides in the Spirit World. I know that he is near me. At times I have even felt him close. I miss him more than I can express. He was a very loving and good man. He was fun to be around and he loved to dance with me. He was always singing fun songs when we were traveling. Oh, how I love him and miss him everyday. 

My father Millan

My father-in-law, Lamar

My dear father in law is also not with us. He was such a faithful, stalwart and wonderful man in the gospel and as a father. He was always kind and loving towards us and he loved the grandchildren so much. He was a good example of a man of wisdom and I truly miss him too. 

My Awesome Husband, Roger

My husband is such a marvelous man and he has been an outstanding father to our children. He loves them all and I know they love him. He has always been there in times of need and has taught his son's and daughters to love the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has been a worthy priesthood holder in our family and has blessed his sons, daughters and now grandchildren. countless times through the years. He has always been a caring husband and has shown his children through example how to tenderly care for their spouses by the loving way he treats me.
He has always been a good provider giving our children many opportunities in life. He has and does bless our family with his wisdom and love. 

Next is all of my dear sons, son in laws and grandsons who are all great Fathers.  I feel truly blessed to be surrounded by very good men who are all very good examples of what a father should be. 

Our Son Sean 

Our Son-Travis 

Our Son - James

Our Son in law -Brandon 

Our Son in law, Michael 

Our Son in law, Dave 

Our Grandson, Jed 

Our Grandson, Jacob 

Happy Fathers Day With Love and Hugs for all~

A Moment of Service With My Daughter and Grandchildren~

Back row: Sariah, Abbey, April

Front row: Faith, Christina and Levi

My Daughter, Christina and my Granddaughters, Sariah, April, Abbey and Grandson, Levi went to visit a friend of my late Aunt Della's at the Assisted Living home that she lived in. Nadine had wanted my grandchildren to come out for a visit and share some music with her. At first there was just another lady and her listening to them as they performed. More residents came into the room as the musical moments went on.

 Our Friend Nadine with my family~

This lady has been a piano teacher for over 30 years and

 she was very impressed with the program. 

The girls love to sing with each other. Sariah just learned recently how to play the Ukulele.After the girls sang three songs; Sariah played 6 piano pieces. She is very gifted and has only been taking for a few years. 

Me with my sweet daughter, Christina~

This sweet family of ours are moving to Australia in July. They came out for an extended visit before their move. We are enjoying our moments with them all. 
Next week we are having our every two year family reunion. We are excited to be with all of our children and grandchildren for a few days in Bear Lake, Utah. There will be a total of 49 of us.
One sweet grandson will be missing due to serving a mission for our church in Omaha, Nebraska. Our posterity is huge and this is a big undertaking to have a reunion with them all. 
I will be popping in and out to read your posts but for now I will be taking a little break. 
Just know that I am wishing for you all an awesome summer filled with many delightful moments. Treasure your families and enjoy every minute you have with them all. 
Blessings and hugs!
LeAnn