2008 Christmas Letter - Real and Fake

There was the annual Christmas letter ... but Derek also made up a spoof (below)

 ... and the silly one!

Father's Day 2008

Rex and Zada ... A Lasting Marriage

As we were organizing and labeling pictures we came across the photo in the upper left. The Manti Temple. Mom thought it was Rex and Zada's wedding day but wasn't sure. We asked around and cousin Nikki wrote "This was in an album I scanned years ago with their wedding picture. I’m almost positive it’s Rex and Zada’s wedding day. I love it because those stairs are no longer there. I remember Grandma telling me it was a very low-key and small event. She said Rex’s dad drove them to the Temple and there were very few in attendance. I believe they had a little celebration with a few friends after, but not a big wedding like we have today."  The other pictures may also not be of the wedding day, but with the professional shots (likely shortly before) and with Rex's dad (their wedding day was his birthday) and how dressed up they are, it's a good guess that it is. 

Mom noted that early on, Grandma Zada had actually been Zadia on some documentation. 

I had never seen that, or never noticed, but sure enough ... if you look closely at the certificate above!

This is what Grandpa Rex wrote in his history ... 

"In 1937, I got a job as a bookkeeper and parts manager for a Chevrolet garage that opened in town. After a few months, I purchased my first car. It was a new 1937 2-door sedan and was I proud. Up until that time it had been necessary to wash the truck, after getting it unloaded, in order to go out on a date. During this time, I met a girl I was interested in by the name of Zada Howell. I started dating her and finally asked her to dance. She took me and said the answer was yes. Needless to say, we arrived at the dance just as it was letting out. We decided to get married on April 13, 1938, in the Manti Temple."

Grandma Zada recounted ...

"Rex always kids me about proposing to him since I said "yes" on Girl's Day. In a month or two I had a pretty diamond ring on my third finger. We hoped to be married on my birthday but the Temple was closed for Conference, so we waited a week and got married in the Manti Temple on Dad Norman's birthday. This was April 13, 1938. Daddy Howell was having cancer problems by this time and Mother had spent a lot of time in Salt Lake with him... Dad couldn't go to the Temple with us but Mother went and we had a beautiful sealing. Due to Dad's illness a big wedding was out of the question; however, Miriam and Leota gave me a shower and Eva Cox had a wedding party for us."

Rick and Wendy did some interviews with Grandma and Grandpa so you can hear a little about their story in their own words!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7RBNwtkP2U&t=61s

Golden Wedding Anniversary ~ 50 Years

(check out Mom&Dad's Golden Anniversary too)

... and 20 more. 70 years!

Easter 2008 ...

Where are the photos? 

Where's the party?

My gmail archive only goes back to 2009, so I can't check for emails around this time frame (which has been a help writing in retrospect on other blog posts). But looking at my own (Jen's) journal, other pictures from the month of March, the Westra Timeline of Significant Events, and general Googled info, I was able to figure some stuff out.

• Easter was early in 2008 ... March 23. 
• Mom and Dad ... were visiting D&D in Hawaii (left March 19,  so I'm assuming they were still there on March 23)? I'll try to get a blog post up about that trip! Mom ... memories?
• Scott's family ... was in St. George (met up with Blackhams/Jensens a bit while there).
• Blackhams ... were in St. George. They'd gone down Thursday (3/20) and Grayson ran the Pinewood Derby for Jensen's ward (Wendy was in charge. Josh took first place.) Both families participated in the Ivins Easter Egg Hunt, then Blackham's headed home. 

There are some Easter memories/pictures from 2008 on the Blackham Blog (okay, I'll admit they weren't there before I started this blog post, but they are there as I finished it *Ü*). The pinewood derby got a mention on the Jensen Journal, but no Easter activities ... although there seem to be a couple cute egg dying photos with some April anecdotes (included below).

Chris's crew ... do you remember what you were up to?

Shane and Alicia ... any photos or memories from March 2008?

Found this one in a S&A Dropbox folder...