Ski Trips to Utah 1950's-1980's

When I started at BYU, we got married during our freshman year. Kaye had taken a ski course for PE. The next year she talked me into taking the ski course. I signed up and the first lesson was at the top of Brighton Area. Kaye had told me not to sign up for the very beginning ski class, but the other beginning ski class. I misunderstood and signed up for the intermediate class. I fell getting off the chair lift. The instructor had the class line up at the edge of the steep face that we were supposed to ski down. He said, "Follow me," so each of the students except me followed him down the hill. The instructor yelled, "Come on!" I went straight down past the class and ran into a tree and broke my ski binding. It took the rest of the day to climb back up to the chair lift so I could ride it down. By the time I got back down to the bus the lessons were all over and they were waiting for me on the bus and they were all mad. The instructor told me I would have to learn on my own if I wanted to stay in that class. He couldn't hold everyone else up. I learned fast and I was the best in the class by the end of the class.

By then Kaye was pregnant with Cathy, who was born March 24th. I went skiing at Mt. Timpanogos just before Cathy was born and sprained my ankle. I borrowed Marge's crutches because her foot was in a cast. When it came time for Cathy to be born I was on crutches, Marge was in her walking cast and Kaye had to carry her own suitcase. When we went in the hospital the nurse asked which of us wanted to be admitted.

Later on I would go skiing with Hal, Kaye's uncle, at Snow Basin by Ogden. On one of the trips I broke my ankle there. When I went to dental school in San Francisco, I sometimes would go skiing in Utah when we came up there for Christmas.

When I was in Orthodontic School, Kaye and I went skiing at Mammoth, California with our classmates. After we graduated we took several ski trips with our classmates-Squaw Valley, California; Aspen, Colorado; they were really fun trips.

We took our family to Squaw Valley skiing because they let children ski free with the parent's paid their our lift tickets. Cathy and Cindy picked up skiing fast. Greg started when he was 7. Kaye skiied with Brad between her legs when he was 5. He used to get mad and throw his poles on the ground and lay there and cry. He finally did learn to be a good skier. All the kids became great skies-way better than us. Our family skied a lot of places in the Sierras. Mostly around Lake Tahoe. Later on we took Cindy, Greg and Brad to Banff, Canada. We stayed at the Banff Springs Hotel. It was beautiful. Some of the young guys that worked there took a fancy to Cindy and sent up huge trays of fruits and cheese to our room. They had an outside hot springs pools that you could swim in with snow all around. You could enter it from the hotel dressing rooms without walking outside.

One of the really fun things we did was to take a sleigh ride across the valley to a really big tent where they had a big barbecue and a dance. It was at night and the stars and moon were beautiful on the snow.

We went skiing at the Sunshine Ski Area. Greg and Brad entered the ski races there. Brad won a second place medal and Greg won a fourth place medal. We also skied at the Lake Louise Ski Area where we could ski and look down at the beautiful Lake Louise. That was one of the best trips we ever took.

Aspen

The trip we took to Aspen was great. We stayed at Snowmass Ski Area. We could ski out of our condo to the lift. We also skied at Aspen. We went to a lot of nice restaurants in Aspen. One had a melodrama show. The waiters and waitresses were the actors. It was really fun. On the way home we stopped in Utah and went to see Lou Jean, Kaye's aunt who was dying of cancer. then we flew home.

Big Bear, California

We were going to take a family to Lake Tahoe, but Marge had a stroke so Kaye decided to stay home with her. Cathy was married and gone. I decided to take Cindy and her friend, Gabe Crabtree, and Gerg and Brad skiing. we headed towards Tahoe, but the road was closed so we headed toward Big Bear. We were in a VW van and we went to the little town of Big Bear. Cindy was driving. We headed toward the ski area and it said Chains Required, but there was no snow on the road. I told Cindy we would wait until we got to a place on the map that said Lone Tree to put on our chains. then there was some snow on the road and Cindy got stopped by a cop who gave her a ticket for not having chains. We put the chains on and went up to the ski area. We went to the lodge and they gave us a room and we took our stuff up. Later they called and said we couldn't have the room. It made me mad and before we left I stripped all the bedding on the beds and opened all the soaps and threw the key on the desk. We started back down the hill about half a mile and there was a big lodge. They hadn't cleared the driveway into the lodge. We parked the car and climbed over the snow and went to the lodge. We were the only people at the lodge. We stayed there 3 days and had a great time. the kids went into the bar and got cherry cokes. The bar tender taught them how to tie knots with the stems of marichino cherries in their mouths. When we came back Cindy had to go to court for her ticket. The judge told her that this was very serious and she would give a nervous giggle. He would tell her it wasn't funny and she would giggle again. "What do your parents think about this?" he asked. She said that I was with her. He looked at me and said, "Case dismissed."

We bought a condo near South Shore of Lake Tahoe. It was on the Nevada side of Heavenly Valley Ski Resort. It was near the Stagecoach lift and we could walk over to the lift. We skied a lot there. We also took trips to Virginia City, Carson City and Reno from there. It was at Virginia City that I saw the beautiful antique wood stoves. After that I bought 4 antique parlor stoves. We have one in our game room now.

Events in my Life at the Ranch

My grandchildren Jimmy Pace in 6th grade and Alicia Pace in 4th grade came up to the ranch to live with us because their parents Greg and Louise Pace were living in a 2 bedroom condo with 5 kids. Louise's two kids, Danica and Justin, Megan-Greg and Louise's daughter, and Jimmy and Alicia were all in one bedroom. It was too crowded. Jimmy and Alicia lived with us several years until after they graduated from high school.

Soon after Jimmy and Alicia came to live with us we took them to Hawaii. We took them to the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu. After we saw the sites on Oahu, we took them to the Big Island of Hawaii where we had a condo in Kona. We took them around the island to see all the points of interest there. Jimmy took a surfing lesson.

First they went to Elk Trail School. Later they went to Shady Cove School. When Jimmy was in 8th grade and Alicia was in 6th grade they transferred to Prospect School. Jimmy played football and basketball, and golf. Alicia was a cheerleader and played volleyball and was in the band. We went to most of their games which took us many miles for some of the away games. Jimmy did well in sports. Alicia's volleyball team went to State two years-her junior and senior years. I became a meber of the school board for many years. Jimmy graduated in 2004. His senior project was to take flying lessons. He took Grandma Kaye over our ranch and even flew into the airport at Prospect. Then he went to junior college and then to heavy equipment school in Eugene. He has worked in California, Vancouver, Washington and around Trail. Alicia's senior project was on becoming a beautician. She then went to Phagan's Beauty College and has since worked in Medford and Bismarck, North Dakota, as a beautician. As a school board member, I got to sign and hand out both of their diplomas.

I have put in a beautiful vegetable garden every year that we have lived here. The first year we were here I put in a family orchard. I have spent ten years on the Prospect School Board. The board has gone from easy to complicated. Prospect School became Prospect Charter School a few years ago.

When Megan, Greg's youngest daughter, was in 4th grade, she moved up here with us because she was having a very difficult time in school. When she got here, Kaye had her tested for learning disorders. They found she had ADD. She was on medication until she was 13. She started to do better in school. She still has a hard time concentrating on her school work. She had great success with Mr. Zeller in the band. She played the bass. She also sang in the choir. Greg and Louise came up to see her at Christmas and Spring Break. She spends every summer with Greg and Louise in California.

I had a very bad illness in 2008. I nearly died. I became very ill on a Wednesday night and started throwing up. The next day I was very sick and called Kaye, who was substitute teaching and told her I needed her to come home and take me to the doctor. They couldn't get someone to take her place until lunch time. She hurried home and took me to the emergency room at Providence Hospital. They took me in and put me in the hospital. It was determined that I had pancreatitis and needed my gall bladder taken out. They gave me drugs to get rid of the infection before they could take my gall bladder out. That took about 3 days to get it under control. All that I remember was that Jimmy came in and held my arm. The anesthesiologist told me that he was going to take care of me during my gall bladder surgery. Kaye and lots of family were there, but I don't remember it. They did the surgery on Sunday morning. All I remember was dreams about being kidnapped and put in the basement. I was trying to figure out how I was going to jump the kidnappers when they came in the room. I thought if I slid down to the end of the bed I could get out of bed without the alarm going off, but it didn't work. Evidently they had to strap me to the bed because I kept pulling out my tubes and was trying to get out of bed. They had to have someone be with me all of the time. Kaye was there every day, but I was unaware of it. Other people, including Kim Marhsall's family and Cathy and Marvin, Alicia, Megan, Jimmy and people from church were there and I didn't know it. I had two blessings. I couldn't talk so that they could understand me. I told Cathy to get out of there, that people were trying to kill me and that she wasn't safe and to leave and don't come back. Kim had her whole family put my name in the temple in many different temples. The following Friday morning I woke up and could think clearly and speak. I had been unconscious for 10 days. When Dr. Bailey came to see me when I was so sick, he was afraid I might not survive or end up with brain damage. They sent me home on Friday. I was home on day and I couldn't urinate. Kaye took me back to the emergency room. I was in terrible pain. They had to put a foli back in my bladder to get rid of the urine. I had to wear it for 15 days. Then I started to feel better and gain some weight back after they took it out. I had a great home nurse named Anna and physical therapy that helped me recover.

During 2008 and 2009, Kaye had both her knees replaced and back surgery for sciatica. The back surgery left her with back pain and pain down her right leg. She also had two bad shoulders, the left a torn rotator cuff and the right shoulder needs to be replaced.

In 2010, Megan has become a cheerleader and is very busy at Prospect High School. She is a sophomore this year and very pretty. Alicia is engaged to a nice young man, Mitch Jaffe. He has done three tours of duty in Iraq. On October 10th, 2010, Jimmy married Stephanie Harsha. She has a 7 year old daughter named Hailey. They are expecting a baby boy named Carson James Pace. Justin (Louise's boy) is going on a mission to Salt Lake City. Danica is living in Santa Cruz. Greg and Louise have moved into a new rental in Bonnie Doon.

Cindie and Rob are busy in Utah. Cindie flies a lot and Rob is trying to start a new business. Amber and Roger lived in the same area. They have 6 kids between them. Austin and Stacie lived down by Kennecott Copper Mines where he is an engineer. Casey and Ashley live in Idaho Falls by Casey's family. Adam is back from his mission and going to BYU Idaho.

Cathy and Marvin have been busy this year shutting down their old fabric and framing store and moving into a smaller place where they will only do framing. Lisa and Greg Mapel are busy with Gavin, Amy, Dylan and Kaye and Ethan are busy with work and kid's school activities. Ryan and Melissa and their 5 boys moved into a nice new rental house in Eagle Point. Dustin is separated from Lina and is going to work in Pruneville, Oregon, as an electrician for a while. Ian is working on getting his GED.

My sister (Fern) Sis is in a rest home in South Dakota. We went to see Sis and Ken last summer. Sis is 85 years old now. Sis' real name is Rhoda Fern Anderson.

Things I Did to Improve the Ranch

First I had cement floors put in the RV barn. Then I put 3 automatic doors in the RV barn. I also added cabinets from an old school. I ran lines for new electrical outlets. I had several 220V outlets for welding. I put peg board on the walls to hold tools. I put in a welding table, a bookecase, a desk with a sink.

Then I built a house to cover our well. I put barn doors on our barn and tied down the metal roof. I fenced the pastures. I moved the road going up to the top of the property. I had a wet spot where there was a spring dug out and made it into a pond with an island in the middle. I put decorative rocks in places around the pond. I put a weeping willows tree on the island. I planted an orchard with pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, apples, walnuts, mulberries and cherries. I also planted grapes, rasberries, currents and blueberries in where the corrals used to be. I also planted a big garden there every year. I built a new horse corral by the barn.

I painted the house, garage and RV barn first with primer. Then I painted it a color that was supposed to be white. After I finished Kaye and I started to drive away and Kaye looked back and said it all looks green, not the white we wanted. Kaye went back and told the paint store that they gave us the wrong color. They gave up $750 worth of pure white paint to repaint everything. I repainted it all-what a job. Then I did all the trim in dark green.

I took out one of the lawns and made it a gravel parking lot. We put a new septic drainage field in. Inside the house I tore down an old chimney and took out the old wood stove. I put in a new rock hearth and a new efficient Avalon wood stove and a fan system that carried the heat to the bedroom area. We put in new carpet in the family room.

Next we changed our garage into a game room, bathroom, spa, and laundry room. I put a stone hearth and stone walls and mantle in one corner and put our antique stove there. I put a bar with our milk cow stool in one corner and made a small kitchen behind it with cupboards, sink, refrigerator, microwave. I used the redwood countertop we had in our gameroom in California to make the new bar. We moved in a new spa before we finished the wall in the game room. It was brought in the opening for a large window in the game room, put in its place, and then after it was installed, we built the wall where the little kitchen was. I put a bath with anew sink and counter, toilet and shower next to the spa. We made an attic storage area above this area with a door going into it above the bathroom. We put in a separate laundry room coming in from the breezeway. David Reid did the construction on this remodel. Kaye and I did the paint in all the rooms. Game room-burgundy with gold sponging, spa-cream and tan textured paint, laundry room was yellow. We tiled the kitchen spa and bathroom and carpeted the game room. I put a real nice pool table in the middle of the room, a side bank shuffle board on the wall next to the bathroom. I hung our 1917 Hershell carousel horse from the ceiling on a brass pole over the shuffle board. We also put my portrait and Kaye's portrait on that wall. On one wall under a window I built a bench that held our massage table in it. Next to it we put in our antique hall tree. In the corner next to the door I made a pool cue rack out of a round antique table. Next to it we put in an antique armoire. Next to that I put in my mother's cedar chest that was made by my mother's brother, Uncle Harold, for her 18th birthday. My dad cut the legs off so I replaced the legs and restored it. Kaye tole painted it. I put our poker table next to that with a red antique lamp over it. Later we put in a sofa bed. Before long my grandkids, Alicia and Jimmy, took turns living in there. Kaye put a mural by the spa and on the door to the storage room in the attic. I put some cupboards in the laundry room, painted the cement floor, painted the walls yellow and put in a fruit border at the top of the walls. I cut a piece of burgandy carpet left over from the game room and put it on the laundry room floor.

Remodeling the Kitchen

On Thanksgiving Day in 2008 our cooktop stove blew out. Kaye had her other knee replaced in 2009. I decided to remodel our kitchen while she recovered. I replaced the floor with a wooden floor. I cut out the cabinets for a new stove where the broken stove top had been. I cut out cabinets next to the sink to make room for a dishwasher. I extended the cabinets to cover the garbage compactor and to make a storage area for baking pans. I took off all the doors and hardware. I sanded all the cabinet doors and drawers and frames. We painted them a pewter color. We installed new stainless appliances-a double oven stove, microwave and stove vent, twin door refrigerator, dishwasher, and a stainless sink. We had a granite counter top put on the top of the cabinets. I also took out a wall heater and Jimmy put in new oak paneling on the dining room wall. I also put up wallpaper on one wall iwth a grape border. Cathy made us new black and gold curtains.

Living Room

I put up new hardware and drapes in the living room. I also bought a new brown leather couch and chair. It has a motor that reclines both pieces of furtniture. Kaye redid the old chest that we had for 40 years after I sanded it. It is now an antiqued gold color. The living room and kitchen look very nice now.

Preparing House Site on Top of the Hill

In order to prepare the house site at the top of the hill we had to build a new road. To prepare the home site we had to blast the rock to make a pad. We sat up on the hill to watch the blasting. We didn't get far enough away and rocks were flying over our heads. We had plans for approximately 4,000 square foot house drawn by an architect friends of ours, Curtis Folsom. We had to go 800-900 feet deep to get a well that had water. We put in a septic tank and a drain field. We put the foundation in but due to financial problems we couldn't continue to build it.

The Sale of Our Muir Drive House

We decided to sell our house and move to Oregon, but the real estate market wasn't good at the time. We wouldn't accept any offers that we got, so we took it off the market. Just before my surgery the Smeads from church referred some people who had come to look at their home to us. I gave them a figure of $950,000 to buy our house. They accepted the offer while I was in the hospital during my chemo scare. The stipulation was that we had to be out of the house in three weeks. Kaye couldn't see how she could get everything ready to move since I was so weak, but I told her we would accept the offer and we did.

Su Rudy came and helped Kaye pack. Cindy and Rob and family came down and helped us pack. Somehow we got everything packed. In May, we had come up to Lisa's wedding in Oregon and finalized the sale of a ranch we had been trying to buy for two years by Lost Creek Lake.

I rented 4 big 24 foot U-Haul trucks. The first weekend we loaded two of the trucks and Rob and Greg drove them to Medford. Kaye and I drove our cars up. We had to put everything in 4 big storage units in Medford because the state policeman and his wife who had been renting our house and were supposed to be moved out by June 16th lost their grandson in a swimming pool accident and we decided to give them another month or two to move. The next weekend we brought the other two trucks up to Medford. I drove one of the big trucks and Greg drove the other truck. We unloaded the other trucks into the storage units. Kaye and I made several trips back and forth to bring our other vehicles up from California.

We finally put the camper on our big Chevy truck and camped at Stewart Park by the ranch until we could move into our house. Before we moved into the home, our grandsons helped us move our stuff out of the storage up to the ranch. It took a lot of trips. We left a lot of our stuff in storage because we didn't have room for it at our house.

My Cancer

When I went to the bathroom, I had a lot of blood. My internist was on vacation so I went to his on call internist. He examined me and took a sample of my blood. The next day I called his office and the nurse told me it wasn't cancer and didn't give me advice about what to do about it. I had no more symptoms for over a year. i went to Dr. Seftel, my ENT. I had previously done his orthodontics.

He said nothing was wrong with my ears, so he sent me down to have a sonogram on my carotid arteries to see if they were blocked. They were clear. He was puzzled and took a sample of my blood for a blood test. It came back that I was severely anemic. I went to my regular internist immediately and he scheduled me for a colonoscopy and a biopsy. Dr. Jackson should have done them, but he was arrogant.

The colonoscopy showed I had a tumor. The biopsy showed it was a squamous cell carcinoma. Dr. Alexander scheduled my surgery for April 6, 1996. During  my surgery Dr. Alexander found a tumor the size of my fist in my colon and a tumor on my liver. After the surgery, Dr. Alexander told Kaye he was sorry but he didn't think that I would survive the cancer. They took out 3 feet of my colon. The tumor on my liver turned out to be benign.  The biospy of 6 other sites showed that the cancer hadn't spread. The doctor wanted to be sure that they got it all and so he wanted to have some chemotherapy. Dr. Alexander said I was a very lucky person.

Lisa, our granddaughter, and Greg were going to be married in May in Medford, Oregon. Kaye and I flew up to Medford to go to the wedding. While we were there I kept having a fever and chills. We went to the doctor in Medford and they couldn't find a reason for it. While I was in Medford, I negotiated to buy a ranch that I had been wanting to buy for two years at Lost Creek Lake. We made the deal and then I went back to Santa Cruz.

I started chemotherapy. It made me very sick. I told the doctors that I just couldn't go anymore. He told me that they had a pill I could take that was very expensive that would help with the nausea. I asked how much it was and it was $9, I said give it to me. I took the pill that Saturday and came back that same day and did another session of chemotherapy.

Sunday I woke up with shaking chills. Kaye took me down to the emergency room and my doctor's partner came in to the emergency room. I had shaking and spasms while he was there and he immediately put me in the hospital. Three days later I woke up and they told me I almost died. They said it was due to a little infection that I had since the surgery. It was low grade and caused me to have a 100 degree temperature. They shouldn't have given me chemo until they cleared up the infection. I continued to get better at the hospital, but I was very weak. I was in the hospital about ten days. Kaye told me that the High Priests came in and gave me a blessing. I started to get better the next day.

Greg & Louise's Wedding

After Greg and Bonnie got a divorce, Greg had custody of his two children, Jimmy and Alicia. He stopped commercial fishing and started in Mechanical Engineering at San Jose Sate. He started to go to the single group and met Louise Rudy. She was divorced and had two children, Danica and Justin. They decided to get married. They were married at the Capitola Church in the Relief Society room and their reception was in the cultural hall. Susan Rudy made a beautiful bridal gown for Louise. The Rudy's put on a very nice reception for them.

Greg & Bonnie's Wedding

Greg and Bonnie Whittaker met on his birthday. He thought Willy and his friends were going to give him a surprise birthday party, but no one even said anything about it. He was very disappointed. Bonnie brought him a red rose and that was when they started to date. They were married in December at our house. It was a beautiful wedding. Greg looked handsome in his tux. The attendants all wore red satin dresses and white muffs with holly on them. The wedding was by our swimming pool, overlooking the ocean. They had a beautiful cake. Sis played the organ. Johnny Linda played the accordion for the guests while they ate. Bonnie's mom, uncle and grandmother were there from back east. Greg and Bonnie went to Hawaii for a week on their honeymoon. They wen to our condo in Kona.