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...

2007 Christmas Letter

The original 2007 PDF is available in Dropbox.

Father's Day 2007

A memorable moment was a family "lightening" tournament ... there's even video below!

Cookies & Cousins ... and Flies Up

Time for a Westra Cookies&Cousins. It was up at Shane and Alicia’s new house in Pleasant Grove. The big boys had fun playing flies up. Derek and Danielle watched Colton, giving Jen a little break. Cooper had fallen asleep on the way and was in a mood, saying "I ready to go home" over and over. He finally relaxed a little and played with Adria, running up and down the hills in the yard. There was a little excitement when a tick was discovered on Taylee (got it off before it burrowed in her). Chris’s boys had birthdays so they got to do the penny plunge. There were plenty of treats, and Alicia made her yummy meltaway cookies.

Not many pictures ... some out-of-date video though! 

... something as simple as a football can bring the family together!

Easter Party 2007

Easter was April 8th this year. The party was the day before on Saturday, April 7th, 2007.

Scott had rented a cotton candy machine for a ward party earlier in the day and was brought it to the Westra Easter party. Grayson also loaded up the bicycle built for two (I swear I have memories of photos of the kids on the bike. Can't find them though.) At the party we ate, then hid the eggs and let the kids have their hunt. Scott, Shane and Derek were funny hiding them, using duct tape to stick eggs way up high. Everyone laughs at how many eggs Jen brings, but it really isn’t that many divided among all the kids (and Wendy’s family didn’t come up this year).

Some Adria additions I found after I made the first collage ;)

and a cute one of a little Rella-bunny

An egg "oops" at the Blackham house prior to the party. Colton was "helping" ...

Here's a little video from the party ...

Cookies&Cousins (and Cakes&Coins!)

Cookies and Cousins ... and cakes and coins. Mom/Margie was trying to host monthly family gatherings, and for February, we were celebrating some birthdays too. Mckenna, Alyssa and Callahan. So in addition to lots of cookies, there was cake. And coins. The "penny plunge" where the birthday kids could attempt to grab as many pennies as they could from one container and carry them to another.

Here's Jen's Journal entry ... "Made some cookie-press cookies for the “Cookies and Cousins”. At 6:00, we went out to my parents, we were actually the first ones there. Mom set up a “penny plunge” for the birthday kids (McKenna, Alyssa and Callahan) to see how many pennies they could transfer from one bowl to the next in 30 seconds. Shane and Alicia brought sugar cookie hearts for the kids to decorate. Landon ended up going home with Scott and Amy, as his sleep overs with Kellen are one of the highlights of his off-track time."

Later in the year (in August) Grandma and Grandpa would come out to the Blackham house for more birthdays (Cooper and Keaton) in the Fall. They brought the pennies and the bowls. This Penny Plunge was caught on video camera.

https://youtu.be/CtTQ9jItlrY