Tour de Idaho, Montana, and Washington and back again!

What a grand week we have had this past week. I finished up at Utah Valley University (UVU) on Friday, and we left on Saturday morning for our Idaho and Montana tour to visit family and friends along the way before we leave for our mission in the California Riverside Mission on June 24.

Lou Jean, Kevin, Brian, Gayelynn, Marla Jo, Joanne, Karen, Jeff, Julie, and John

First stop was Joanne’s cousins’ reunion at Brian and Karen Andersen’s home in Idaho Falls. It was wonderful to see these incredible people. Ironically, I went to school with two of them Gayelynn and Marla Jo at Rigby High School. Who knew then we would become family later on when I married their first cousin Joanne. 

Idaho Falls Temple (thanks to Dennis Hammon Photography for this beautiful shot!)

Then, we went to the Idaho Falls Temple dedication at my brother Brad’s stake center. The Idaho Falls Temple has special meaning to Joanne and me. We were both sealed to our families there. We were married there. Anna Rose and Christiaan were married there. While we would have loved to have been inside during the dedication, sitting in a beautiful stake center and watching it on satellite was almost as good. We enjoyed being with Brad and Kathryn.

On Sunday, members of my family came to Brad and Kathryn’s house for a BBQ. What a great event! Dennis, Telecia, Brad, Delaina, and I were the siblings who could make it. They brought some of their family members. The ones who couldn’t make it were Shawna and Jaralyn. My cousins Lloyd and Doyle came as well. It’s been ages since I have since them. We ate great food and just visited. We love these people.

Clark, Joseph, Hailey, and Avonlea (Dennis Hammon Photography)

On Monday morning, we headed to Cheney, Washington, to spend a few days with Hailey and her wonderful little family. We drove up I-15 to Butte and then on to I-84 and Cheney. Everything is green, green, green! It never ceases to amaze me at the beauty of Idaho and Montana, particularly as you drive along I-84 west. You can see why people want to visit and live there. Who wouldn’t? Lots of trees, mountains, fresh air, rivers, and streams galore.

We arrived in Cheney and experienced a great greeting with Hailey and family, especially the little ones. They, too, have grown. 

Grandma and Avonlea

We enjoyed being with them and spending time with Clark and Avonlea. 

Grandpa and Avonlea

They are so cute and so smart. 

Grandpa and Clark

We spent a lot of time eating, cooking hotcakes with chocolate chips (Is there any other way?), watching movies, playing T-ball and soccer in the yard, eating Dutch oven cooking (Joanne was teaching Hailey how it is to be done), 

Clark and Grandma touching the Spokane Temple

going to the Spokane Temple (Joanne and Hailey while I was able to stay home and play with the little ones), preparing and planting flower beds for Hailey, and just hanging out.

Darrel and Joanne--Boise River

After four days there, we headed south to Boise, passing through some incredible country. We landed in Boise on Friday night. How it has changed! We stayed at a hotel on Park Center. We drove around after checking in. Change! Major changes! Wow! 

Lone goose checking out the Greenbelt

We arose early and went for a walk along the greenbelt. 

No running or walking here. Perhaps, swimming at your own risk!

The Boise River has taken over everything along the way!

Apparently, the Boise River didn’t know we were coming and basically flooded most of the greenbelt. We did find a patch to do some walking. Incredible! What a great asset Boise has in the Boise River and the greenbelt.

Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, Idaho

From Boise, we headed home, stopping at Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls. If you haven’t done this stop, you ought to. Lots of water and an incredible falls on the famous Snake River. We loved it. We arrived home on Saturday evening. It was fun seeing Anna Rose, Christiaan, Emiline, and William. We missed them.

Outside of Cheney, Washington--the beginning of the Palouse

Overall, we had a quick tour of Idaho, Montana, and Washington—all beautiful states. The best part was visiting with our family before we leave on our mission. We do hope many of them will visit us while we are serving.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers and potential mothers. Many of us have experienced a loss of our mothers, and on Mother’s Day we reminisce about them and remember things and stories that have kept them alive in our memories and thoughts. On this glorious day, I urge all of you to take a moment and pen a story (or two, three, or even more) about your mother and what you have learned from them. Here is one of those stories and some of the values I learned from my mother.

Barbara Hammon, my mother who died way too early!

Learning from mothers: Using the raspberry patch to teach and learn

Mothers can be subtle in their teaching. Thankfully. Most mothers do not sit down with their children and say, “OK, I’m going to teach you X. Now get out your pencils and notebooks (iPads, Twitter and Facebook accounts, and all those other social media things) and take notes.” Rather, mothers teach through showing and loving their children. Many of those teaching moments happen during a work project or just being together.

Taking time in the raspberry patch was just one of my mother’s ways of teaching me. Although I may not have realized it at the time. She didn’t intentionally try to teach me anything. Her way of teaching was showing me how to do lots of things, in particular as we worked together picking raspberries during the summer months.

Here are five things she taught me while we picked raspberries:

Complete a task from start to finish

Completing the raspberry picking didn’t stop in the middle of the row, nor almost at the end. Picking to the end of the row was the completion of the task. Granted, we stopped periodically to rest and carefully pour the berries into little green pint baskets, but we never quit until the entire patch was picked for the day.

Always to do a good job

Most mothers are fanatics about making sure you do a good job, and do it well. She wants to make sure you do the job correctly and proficiently. When you pick raspberries, you should pick all the ripe ones, which is no small chore because many of the berries are hidden beneath leaves, inside of the bushes, and way down low on the hanging branches. Over the years, my mother showed me how to lift the vines gently with a leather glove on the left hand and pick with the right. I can still hear my mother’s voice, piercing the still morning air, saying: “Darrel, bend a bit lower and pick the big hidden ones, hanging on the lower limbs.”

Review the work you have done to make sure you did it correctly

Often, it seems, you have to look back on what you are doing to see if you are following the right steps, or look at the job from a different angle. Looking at it just one way doesn’t always give you the perspective you need to complete the task. Picking raspberries was no different. Once finished, we walked slowly back up the rows we had just picked so we could review what we had done — reaching out and picking one of the berries we had missed. Rather, I had missed. My mother’s words, “Good job,” never failed to give me a wonderful feeling for the day.

Work together because it is more fun

The age-old adage “Many hands make light work,” is just plain truth. Working together not only makes work a little easier, it also brings families closer together. What I enjoyed most was working side by side with mother. Sometimes we would talk about whatever, often nothing really important. We would have contests like who could pick the biggest raspberry. Winning wasn’t totally the point. It was working together as a team, finishing as a team, and having fun simultaneously.

Help others finish their tasks

Perhaps, helping others with their work was an important concept in my learning. When you work in teams, working together toward a common goal is paramount in bringing a project to successful fruition. Picking raspberries meant working as a team. While we each had a side of the row, we truly worked in tantamount. My mother would normally beat me to the end of the raspberry row. She would turn down my side and work toward me. But I suspect she held up once in a while to see if I would reciprocate. If I ever finished before she did, which was seldom, I started on her side and picked toward her. It didn’t bother me to help, and I continue doing it.

Often we learned things from our mothers that weren’t overt at the beginning. Only when we look back on the situation does it finally occur to us, “Hey, I actually learned something from that incident.” Now, as I continue to complete those events, I realize I have personally reaped great benefits from the early mornings picking raspberries with my mother. A very Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful wife and my two daughters are incredible mothers because of the values and teachings they have learned and implemented from their mother:

Joanne, an incredible mother!

Hailey, Anna Rose, and Anna Rose

From: https://familyshare.com/1942/learning-from-mothers-using-the-raspberry-patch-to-teach-and-learn

Happy Temple Anniversary to My Family!

Sunday, March 26, 2017—Happy Temple Anniversary to My Family!

Idaho Falls Temple (Idaho)

                Today is the Dean and Barbara Hammon Family Anniversary. When I was almost seven-years-old, our family went to the Idaho Falls Temple and were sealed for time and eternity. I remember parts of it as vividly as if it happened today.

                I remember arriving very early in the morning. We children—Dennis, Telecia, Darrel, Brad, Shawn, and Delaina—went to the Children’s Center where we waited for our parents. While there, we played a variety of games, including red light, green light. I must have been wearing red socks that day because one of the older boys who was playing with us called me “Red Socks.” I think we were way more noisy than we should have been.

The Hammon Family sans Delaina, Heber, and Jaralyn

            I believe the part that stuck out the most is dressing all in white and then being led to a room upstairs where my parents were kneeling across the altar from one another. The children gathered at the altar and placed our hands on top of our parents. I remember Uncle Milt and Aunt Stella, Uncle Wilford and Aunt Beth, Brother and Sister Heward, and others in the room. I remember my mother and father crying. I don’t really know exactly what happened that day although I knew we were being sealed together as a family.

The Hammon Family sans my mother

                Since that day, I have been back to the temple numerous times and performed sealings for those who have passed on and witnessed other sealings. My most vivid sealing was that of Joanne and my sealing and marriage to each other for all time and eternity. Surely, there couldn’t have been a happier day in the scheme of earthly things. While we were physically here on earth, we were in an eternal House of the Lord where eternal ordinances are performed.

Our engagement photo (by Dennis Hammon)

                I know my brothers and sisters—excluding Heber and Jaralyn as they hadn’t been born 

yet—remember that day. Perhaps, it is a bit fuzzy for Shawna and Delaina as they were five and two respectively, but I remember it. I knew I liked being in the temple and have since learned the why. I enjoy going now. Joanne and I were just in the Payson Temple (Utah) on Saturday morning (yesterday), enjoying the glorious moment being in the Celestial Room, discussing our own family and the things we need to do to maintain our sealing to them.

It is in the House of the Lord where we make eternal binding covenants with our Father in Heaven. We who have been to the temple; we who have knelt at the holy altars and made sacred “covenants and obligations relative to exaltation” (Packer, p. 162); we who have received our holy endowments; we who have basked in the glory of God within the walls of this holy shrine--surely the Lord is happy with us and our title: “Keepers of covenants.”

New Provo City Center Temple

Happy Anniversary to the Dean and Barbara Hammon Family. It is now up to us!

Snow Day

It has been snowing a ton in Utah! Consequently, I thought I would pen a poem about snow with photos: Here goes:

Snow Day

It’s the whiteness that overwhelms you at first,

the softness of the snow, floating lazily down

like bags of feathers dropped from on high,

somewhere beyond the grayish imbued clouds.

It settles peacefully on branches of Blue Spruce

and leafless peach and apple trees, covering them

Photo courtesy of Karen Larson Watson

with a blanket of pure quietness and serenity.

Some limbs are more burdened than others.

Perhaps, they are stronger, feel more connectedness to snow,

like mothers to babies and people to their dogs.

From the window, we watch closely, surreptitiously

as the snow piles deeper and deeper, clogging roads,

our driveways, our senses of wellness.

As the breeze caresses the heavy-laden branches and boughs,

and sticks of dead daisies and lilies, it flicks bits of snow off

and into its melodic breeze, carrying the white fluff

beyond and then slowly, lovingly to the ground, where it will sleep

for days, perhaps even weeks,  and then melt into the ground,

savoring the moments when its hoard moisture seeps

into new roots of the sleeping grass and flowers and life.

And we sit there, observing from our perch behind sheer curtains,

in front of a glowing fire, warm, comfortable, and complacent

while contemplating our lives and who or what will nourish them.

The whole poem here:

Snow Day

It’s the whiteness that overwhelms you at first,

the softness of the snow, floating lazily down

like bags of feathers dropped from on high,

somewhere beyond the grayish imbued clouds.

It settles peacefully on branches of Blue Spruce

and leafless peach and apple trees, covering them

with a blanket of pure quietness and serenity.

Some limbs are more burdened than others.

Perhaps, they are stronger, feel more connectedness to snow,

like mothers to babies and people to their dogs.

From the window, we watch closely, surreptitiously

as the snow piles deeper and deeper, clogging roads,

our driveways, our senses of wellness.

As the breeze caresses the heavy-laden branches and boughs,

and sticks of dead daisies and lilies, it flicks bits of snow off

and into its melodic breeze, carrying the white fluff

beyond and then slowly, lovingly to the ground, where it will sleep

for days, perhaps even weeks,  and then melt into the ground,

savoring the moments when its hoard moisture seeps

into new roots of the sleeping grass and flowers and life.

And we sit there, observing from our perch behind sheer curtains,

in front of a glowing fire, warm, comfortable, and complacent

while contemplating our lives and who or what will nourish them.