I accidentally deleted this cute picture of the girls, so it is completely out of order, but then so are most of the pictures in this post.

Once again, my pictures are backwards. I obviously haven't done a posting for awhile. One Saturday, after we'd looked at about eight homes with a realtor and driven by several others, we picked up cheese bread and cookies at Great Harvest and headed around Alpine Loop. The leaves were changing, as you'll see in the last pictures, and it was beautiful. We stopped in Wallsburg and looked around the valley and the school house. It was sad and neglected. I took a lot of pictures, mostly because I wanted them. Hopefully it won't be too boring. It sure doesn't look like it did when we lived there.

This is a picture of the library in Heber. I spent a lot of time here and had my own library card. I checked out every Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew book they had, as well as Harriet Tubman, the Little House on the Prairie books and more.

This is the house the uncles built for Grandpa and Grandma Higginson. It used to be white. It sits on the corner of the school house property. I remember watching Gone With The Wind here with Grandma, among other things.

This is the little post office. It is no longer used as a post office. I don't think it is used for anything. We used to walk down the hill to get the mail here. Phyllis was the mail-lady. I read all of the FBI most wanted posters here. I can remember reading the most wanted poster of Patricia Hearst.

This was our church. It is now used as a community center or something like that. I have many memories of church meetings, learning to lead the singing, the ward choir, Primary, Relief Society, being able to say the prayer by myself because I didn't want Velma Ford's hot, wet breath in my ear, Sunday School parties, ward auctions, movies, and more. Everything, it seemed, happened at the church. Even a little scuffle or two.

This is the first house that Grandpa and Grandma Higginson lived in. It was a couple of blocks from our house. The garage is a new addition since they lived there. I have many happy memories at this house as well as a couple of embarrassing ones that I won't go into right now.

Wasatch Elementary--the school we attended until I finished fifth grade and we were moved to the new school in Midway. I had a one great teacher here, one pretty good teacher, two bad teachers and one wicked, horrible, abusive teacher.

Here are some pictures of what was once a really neat house. Now it is sad, boarded up, run down and lonely. When I think of the difference between now and when Dad and Mom had the green lawn, the animals in the field and barn, lots of kids running around, a bright orange front door with a cool door bell, the patchwork carpet floor, the big windows, the garden, and everything else, the contrast is heartbreaking. I wish I were rich and could afford to buy it and restore it for the family to use as a get-away, because it is a huge piece of our family history. I hope someday to write about our years here.

One of the windows was broken out and the board that had been covering it was on the ground, so we were able to look in at what I think had been the principal's office. It was too scary and dark once you got past the broken window. If I hadn't been worried about hanta virus, and mice and broken glass and all manner of boogey men, maybe we could have explored. But I'm a chicken.

This is Joe through the overgrowth, standing at what was once our kitchen door with the pretty little lawn by it. Oh, it is such a mess now.

This cute car was at Sundance, where we stopped for a few minutes to look around.

It was a nice day.

Remembering September 11

On September 11, 2001, I was getting kids ready for school when Mom called and said, "You should turn on the tv. A plane just hit the World Trade Center." We turned it on in time to see the second plane hit, and then watched in horror as the towers crumbled and the events of the day continued. It was such a sucker punch. My heart continues to hurt at the terrible events of that day.
Travis and I were in New York three months before the attacks. If only we'd have known what was going to happen, we'd have sprung the big bucks to take the formal tour. We went back last summer and the gaping hole was very sobering.
This is a picture of the kids at a fountain just outside the fence that surrounds Ground Zero. I hope we never forget the events of that day and that we pray for our leaders to be guided so we never have to feel that vulnerable again.