Oh how I love these summer days! They are going by all too quickly for me!  

Now the garden is giving us all kinds of goodies!  It's been so fun to be able to pick all the different lettuces, kale, spinach, radishes, raspberries, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, beans and of course crookneck squash.  We've had yummy squash the way mum used to do fried in eggs about every other day!  

 And how cute are these two sunny sunflowers!

They are growing all over in the garden and just make me so happy!

We went out to dinner to celebrate Katie's birthday Monday night.  She chose Texas Rhode house which is always delish.  Jackie and KC met us there and we had a fun dinner.    

8 We were in Lake Powell on Katie's birthday and had a little celebration there... I[ll do another post on that!

 My little sweeties started school on Tuesday.  Olivia is in middle school and Emily and Sam are going to a new elementary school that they just built there quite close to Camille's house.  Gosh I can't believe how grown up they are all getting!  Olivia will be going to Young women's in a couple months!  

We had a fun day at racquetball celebrating Pat's birthday.  I can't believe she is 70 years old!  She still beats all of us easily!  She has had some health challenges but is never one to complain about it, or let them keep her from doing what she wants to do.  She's one of those special people who is a friend to all and makes everyone around her feel special and loved.

 Ha ha!  We sounded pretty bad!

 Yesterday we got together to celebrate Brenda's birthday.  It was such a fun day!  I picked up Teina and we drove to Logan to see Brenda's new house.  Her and Dennis moved to Hyde Park a couple months ago. Denise is going to be staying there while they go on their mission.  Angie is going to come stay there too in November.  

Brenda showed us all around her house and it's really lovely!  They have plenty of room for all the family when they come to visit now and a big yard to play in! It's a big change from their secluded home in Mantua with neighbors all around but She seems happy with it. I should have taken pictures there, they have decorated it so cute.

We went to lunch at Angies restaurant for lunch then up to the Aggies creamery for an ice cream cone!  It was so fun to spend this time with my sisters! The more I talk to people, the more I realize and appreciate the blessing it is so have these dear sisters and the fact that we all love and support each other through whatever life brings us.  I know not everyone has this and I'm mighty grateful for it.   

Well after blogging for about i10 years I finally figured out how to find my pictures that are "in the computer"!  It's been so frustrating and an ongoing joke because I will download my pictures, then when I go to use them, only part of them will be available.  Ha!  I am always asking the kids to help me find them and bless their hearts, they are so sweet and try their best to help me but we still couldn't find all my pictures. Anyway, while I was trying to post about Lake Powell and could only find about half my pictures and videos, I started searching and found a place where you could enter a date or place or person and they would show you all the pictures that had any of these things in it!  Woooo!  It's like Christmas! Still seems like it can't be this easy but here goes!  This day below was from a get together my sisters and I had several weeks ago...

So for Leslie's birthday we decided to get together up in Willard and go to the cemetery there.  There are a lot of Braeggers that have lived and died there, in fact, that is where Abraham, (grampa Braegger's dad) was buried there.  So we went on a search to find his grave.  We walked over most of the cemetery and found a few distant cousins headstones, but not any names we were familiar with.  We were about to give up and Teina said that there was another Willard cemetery that was an older pioneer cemetery.  We drove down the main road highway there and saw a big monument and a park looking area.  We pulled over to see if that was what we were looking for.  There was an older lady there pulling weeds in the flowers around the monument.  We walked around for a minute looking at a few headstones that were there (there were probably only about 5 graves in the whole area) then we went up to the older lady and started talking to her.  

I tell you this had to be divine intervention!  The lady was really friendly and said she goes there all the time and tries to keep this cemetery looking nice.  She said back in 1995 there was a big flood that came down the canyon and actually washed away almost all the graves in the cemetery.  Caskets were unearthed and broken up and bones were washed  down into a big pile.  She said they didn't know who belonged where so they buried the bones under the big monument and listed all the names there.  Wow!  She asked us who we were looking for and we said Abraham Braegger.  She said "you've got to be kidding me! I'm Merlene Braegger!"  We were just flabbergasted!  Merlene Braegger (she has a different last name now after being married a few times) is the name we would see on all the geneolegy that was submitted.  I mean she was the go to for any info on the Braegger line. But we had never met her.

She was the cutest lady and told us all about her life and how she ended up taking care of this cemetery.  Then she said "well I can show you where Abraham is buried...it's in the other cemetery.  Let's drive over there and I'll show you!"       

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So we drove back to the other cemetery and she took us to an area we hadn't looked at before.  We talked for a while and she said "I've got a family tree at my house if you want to see it!"  And of course we did!  So we followed her to her house there in Willard.  It was such a neat house with a beautiful yard with flower beds and garden and big lawns.  She said she mows all the lawns and takes care of most of it herself, but her grandkids help with some of the heavy work!  Ha!    

 We went in her garage and behind her 4 wheelers that she says she likes to drive around, was this big board with all of the Braegger family geneology on it!  She had made it years ago, but has kept it up to date with the latest information she would find out. It really was the coolest thing!

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She had all our families on there down to Katie and Camille. 

 Seriously. what a treasure!

Then she took us on a tour through her house. It was the neatest old house!  And her stories as we walked through it were priceless!  She had a whole room that was filled with shelves and cabinets of geneology records, family history sheets and pictures.  We could have spent a whole day just in this room!

 Walking back to the car she told us about her blue bush.  Ha ha she was the funniest lady!  She said last year this bush she had really liked had died and she didn't want to pull it out so she spray painted it blue!  Now she say's people always ask her what kind of a bush it is!  

Then I saw growing along her little irrigation ditch these batchelor buttons and I just had to take a picture.  I have a memory of picking these cute yellow flowers that grew along the ditch on the way to church when I was a little girl.

Merlene had a cute story and a song about planting a rose bush near the lilac tree, then she showed us where she had done just that.  She was the coolest lady and reminded me so much of mum.  

It really was such a special day and I don't believe it was a coincidence that we found Merlene.  I mean what are the chances of us showing up at that cemetery at the same time as her?  It was one of those times when you just look up to the heavens and say "Thank You!"

We just got home from an amazing trip to Lake Powell and I have a gozillion pictures I can't wait to share!  Priceless time with the family and wonderful memories made!

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