The Magnificent Seven (Almost)

We are still running around like crazy trying to accomplish more than is humanly possible. But we are trying to have as much fun as we can while we do it. Brandon enjoyed his soggy and cold trip to Washington, D.C., where he spent the majority of the time in classes. However, thanks to a political associate of mine, I was able to get him and two co-workers on a private tour of the Capital. They even got to use the underground tunnel. He is still very busy trying to get all of the organizations reorganized at church (except the Primary Presidency) before his time is through.

Alyssa is busy preparing for the recital on June 11th. The one with the little kids will be at 1:00 p.m. And the one for the older girls on competition teams will be at 7:00 p.m. She has around 7 or 8 dances to prepare (with a different costume for each one), but she is not worried. The following week she will be going to the 5th grade campout from Monday through Friday. She is excited and I am nervous. I asked her best-friend's guardian if he knew a Melanie Bolton (since he is the owner of Brick Oven) and he said he did and that he was delighted to know that Alyssa was related to her. Alyssa has been to their house many times and enjoys the Zumbrennens. Alyssa really liked Which Witch by Eva Ibotson. (I read it too and thought it was clever.)

Kyle is enjoying the summer so far. He is thoroughly enjoying being with Jason and David at Grandma's. He starts planning Thursday evening what they will do together the next Wednesday and Thursday. He really likes going for bike-rides around Nephi and can't believe that I don't want to drop everything and move there. Kyle really liked the second book by James Dashner (after A Door in the Woods) called A Gift of Ice.

Megan is also busy getting ready for the recital. She only has four dances and is really excited to have costume changes in the back like the older girls. She is having a lot of fun with the neighbor girl and riding her bike in the parking lot. Megan liked Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary.

Matthew is thoroughly enjoying having all of the kids around. He has so many people to play with right now. His favorite book is Skippyjonjones by Judy Schachner. It really is one of the best read-aloud books we have. Anyone who has a child with an imagination as great as Kyle's will really appreciate this book. Plus, it lets us gringos practice our Spanish accents. I highly recommend it and so does Matthew.

I am enjoying all of the blood tests that are being prescribed. I was likely exposed to Fifth's Disease in early May and already had one test for it four weeks ago. Unfortunately it showed that I hadn't had it as a child and therefore have no immunities. (My friend Joanie's baby died in her fifth month from anemia caused by Fifth's Disease.) So I just had my second batch of tests today. I also failed my glucose test so I get to go in later this week for the three hour fasting test and be tested over and over and over. Other than that, things are fairly normal and keep at a semi-wild

and frenetic pace.

The Runnin' Utes, June 2

Sorina

Oh, to be 2 again--to be so happy and content with life. She wakes up in the morning and says, “BOO” (her favorite game is Peek-ABoo or Chase-Me). Her Dad had the biggest laugh the other day, because Sorina awoke before he left home. One minute she was sleeping, and then she just opened her eyes and said, “boo” without any warning. He thought that was one of the cutest things he had seen. Sorina is happiest when she can be outside holding hauling around (torturing) her Sophie (cat), or sneaking out of the house with food to feed Lady (dog), or swinging. It all only gets better if water in somehow involved. Sorina is also the child who picks out her silverware and then asks for “something to eat” – the silverware being more important than what she’s eating. But you had better give her something she can eat with that piece of silverware. For a long time she would only listen on the phone (and would only talk on toy phones), but she finally will talk to her Dad on the phone and not just listen. Of course, Shawn only understands “hi, daddy” and agrees with the rest of whatever she says.

Toren

Kindergarten has been hard this year – with illness. Toren has caught just about every illness that they serve at the elementary. The boys are on year-around school and it never fails that Toren gets sick the first week he goes back on track. Toren is so happy to have warm weather, as water is his favorite hobby. He enjoyed finishing off the soccer season, and had fun scoring some goals. He is having a great time in t-ball and loves to go to his games twice a week. His team is the Boston Red Sox and everyone comments on his baseball cap that he

proudly wears. Toren is the only child in the family who loves to wear caps; maybe he should get some tips from Uncle Todd. Toren and Dane are also beginning to have fun with the minimarshmallow guns they made this week. Toren also still likes to ride his bike, and has to constantly be reminded to stay close to home (he likes to wander the neighborhood to see if some friend or another can play) and to wear a helmet when he rides.

Dane

Dane participated in the fist overnight campout as a Webelo with his Dad’s Scouts at the Trapper Trails Council Duty to God Encampment. He said he had a great time. He was little miffed at the older boys because they got ahead of their leaders (Dad and Brother Ward) and then missed seeing them, so the oldest boy said they should head back to camp. Dane said they needed to stay where they were, when lost or separated. The older boys though said they were the leaders and that he needed to listen to them, so they went back to camp.

Meanwhile their Scout leaders were looking all over the arena for them. The Scoutmaster (Shawn) kept thinking, “this is not like Dane to not try and stand out or find us to find.” Finally Shawn felt he had exhausted the search and should perhaps look back towards camp. Sure enough, he found the boys and lectured them about staying where they were, when lost or separated. Frustratedly Dane said, “That is what I said, but they wouldn’t let me stay and you told us we had to stay together.” Shawn was impressed with his good sense of what to do. The buddy system, though, was somewhat trying for Dane also; he sometimes wanted to do something that he could not convince the others to do. But Shawn continually stressed the importance of the rule, and he complied. Dane is also doing great in his baseball, hitting a double a few weeks ago, the team still lost, but it was a really good game. He also hit a single tonight, and then scored a run. His team is the Seattle Mariners.

Brigitta

I (yes they’re making me write this myself) haven’t really done anything exciting this month! I’ve babysat some of the cutest kids ever. I have also finished soccer-- we didn’t get trophies this year we got bands and hackysacks. I’ve also written 2 stories that are pretty cool. I have also been trying to pass up my dad’s scores on Amped (a snowboarding game on X-Box). Oh yeah, I made it into honors science for 8 th grade. Well I’m done! See ya!

Shawn and Kimberly

Well, we are coming up on 15 years of marriage in a week or so. Wow, where did all the time go? We (yes Kimberly and I have to write this ourselves) haven’t really done anything exciting this month! Ooh, wow, that was kind of like, totally deja vu. Actually we have seen more soccer and baseball games than even some of the most avid fans, and all without putting a red cent into an overpaid, worldly athlete’s pocket. 

Shawn is glad to be done coaching the soccer season, with nearly a balanced win-loss record (which is somewhat stressful for him as a coach). He has to keep reminding himself that despite the concerns of parents, his goal is to teach the players to love sports and to have fun (whether they win or lose) so that they will want to have a lifetime love of and participation in

sports (even if it isn’t soccer).

Kimberly is having fun with strep, to which she succumbed on Monday. She is currently reading a book, to distract her mind from how sore her throat is (and probably so she does not have to talk). Kimberly is enjoying being a Cub Scout leader, and also brought Cubs up to the Duty to God encampment for the Saturday activities. It seemed all the boys were mesmerized by an ingenious launcher that would launch (using a valve and compressed air) the paper rockets that the boys would make in a few minutes with a regular sheet of paper, a glue-stick, some tissue and tape. The rockets would sometimes fly over a hundred feet into the air.

We are also kept busy trying to help train Lady for her obedience class (and so we can walk her without her trying to bolt towards and bark at every dog that she sees or hears). Lady, from what we are gathering, is about three-quarters Australian Shepherd, and one-quarter Great Pyrenees, both of which are sheep-herding breeds. She likes to do things, and we will have to work to find more for her to do. She currently likes to try to control people, to get them to do what she wants (such as to scratch her head and back, or rub her tummy). Lady is smarter than I am, because she can usually get us to do that. I have been trying to get Kimberly to scratch my back for years, with little success – something about dead skin cells and all. I thought about telling her that if she

didn’t scratch my back the dust mites might go hungry, but decided that may not help the situation.

I told a few of you that my office had training on how to deal with angry individuals, and they taught us to use the catch phrase “That sounds frustrating”. Some of you mentioned that you had seen or heard of similar training in other areas (such as the juvenile courts). I have actually heard a couple of people before say they were flusterated, but that is a different story. In my systems area (that I manage) it has become somewhat of a joke. In fact (on my own time, although I really did not spend long on it) I once drafted the following explanation, which I shared with my area, based on the fact that some individuals seem to constantly be “frustrated”, and that they may think some people intentionally try to frustrate them. I told a few of you about it last Saturday, so I thought I might pass it on (if there is room). An obscure yet ubiquitous property of existence regards a design constraint of the universe which affects a particular subset of sentient beings with a perpetual sentiment of frustration. The gravity of the situation, though, is that one may point out that some particular manifestation of the sentiment exists in a particular situation, but the benefit of doing so would likely be nullified if one further indicated to any degree of succinctness that the individual might continuously or even continually be affected by this sentiment. One must also recognize that another subset may be falsely implicated as participating in perpetuating  events that contribute to such a sentiment, where the accuser does not correctly attribute the causality to the constancy and consistency of the design constraint. Even though participation in perpetuation of the sentiment may appear voluntary, and may even appear to contribute to the overall hedonism of certain others, such affectivity is simply a token manifestation of the universal property, and any attributions of willful participation lack veracity. Interestingly, the resulting inability to convict magnifies the sentiment, and provides no source for resolution other than the nonsuccinct acknowledgement "that sounds frustrating".

Spilling the Boston Baked Beans

This month has been a fun month for all the Boston Boltons.

Siovhan has been working at Tyco Healthcare since the end of April. She is doing data entry. She loves being on the computer. She sits at a desk from 7:30 until 4:30, Monday thru Friday. Then, when she arrives home, she eats and sits back down to the computer. You would think that she would be tired of being at the computer, but Siovhan says the computer is her way of connecting with all of her friends, who are at this time, scattered throughout the world. Siovhan has been called as the Faith In God For Girls leader. There are about fourteen young ladies, and two adult women that she is in charge of. She has a plan for activities that was given to her when she was called, so she basically just has to pull the ideas together and get the girls and women to help her out. She has had plenty of practice, she was the Youth Camp Leader of all the YCL's and Fourth years at Girl's Camp two years ago, plus she has been the class president of the Mia Maids and the Laurels. She has had to come up with plenty of activities, and carry out her duties. She is good at delegating--much better than her mother. One of Siovhan’s roommates, Heather, will be coming and staying a week with us at the end of May and into June. Siovhan is taking a vacation from work while Heather is here. Siovhan will be taking her into Boston to do some site seeing. Siovhan can’t wait for Heather to get here. It should be exciting. Heather has a little brother that is named Braden—so it’s like fate to have them friends.

Braden is currently in Washington, D.C. The eighth grade took a history tour there. They will be gone for a week. Braden wasn't too sure that he was excited about going. He tends to love to be at home. He has been studying US History all this year, and this tour is to help the students relate to the material they have been learning about. His Mom is very envious that he gets to take this tour. The tour will include many wonderful sights: Kennedy Memorials, the Tomb

of the Unknown Soldier, the Smithsonian, the Holocaust Museum, the Old Post Office Pavilion, Reagan Building, Embassy Row, National Cathedral, the Vietnam, Korean and World War II Memorials, Lincoln Memorial, Union Station,

Jefferson, FDR and two Iwo Jima Memorials. That is all on Wednesday. On Thursday they will be going to Ford's Theater, the Spy Museum, lunch at the Smithsonian and tours at the Smithsonian, then off for dinner at a dinner theater where they will watch “The Pajama Game.” On the last day they will go to the White House and Lafayette Park, after which they will go the National Zoo, then leave to come back to Massachusetts. It is usually a nine-hour drive

from Washington, D.C. Braden has been sustained and set apart as the Secretary for the Teachers Quorum. He likes the Presidency and has worked with them one time before, when he was in the Deacon's Presidency. He is excited for some of the new activities that he will be experiencing. In June he will get to attend his first Youth Conference. This is the first year that they won't be doing three full days. Because of all the snow this year, the Stake had to cut back a day as a lot of the schools will still be in session.

Ben is our forever pessimistic-optimist. (Yes, I can guarantee that you can be both—I’ve seen it first hand.) He is working on the biking merit badge. This requires a lot of bike riding, something that my boys haven’t done a lot of. They have to ride on the highways and I don’t trust other drivers. They need to have two ten miles rides, a fifteen-mile, 25 mile and 50 mile ride. Being the pessimist, he knows that is going to require a lot of work, but the optimist in him says that he is sure that he can work up to it. He and Braden have been earning money for Scout camps by doing yard mulching. This past weekend, they spread thirteen yards of mulch. That is a LOT of mulch. It took them pretty much most of seven hours to do all the work. They had help from one of the Bishopric members and one of the owners of the house that they were mulching. Ben surmised that yard work is a lot of hard work. It is much easier to pay others to do the work. He does want to mow our yard—it takes forever to mow the lawn, but he still wants to learn how, because Mom pays well. Ben will be marching in the Memorial Day Parade on Monday. He isn’t too excited about marching. Braden gets the year off as the eighth grade band isn’t a marching band, but next year and the year after, it is mandatory marching. Siovhan doesn’t empathize with them very much; they deserve to march, because she

had to. Ben says the hardest part of playing the saxophone is the carrying of the case to and from school. His mom isn’t very sympathetic. She says that the hardest part is the paying for him to carry it to and from school. Very unsympathetic family. Poor Ben.

Mikaela is doing very well in school still. She isn’t as involved in extra curricular activities. She is still struggling with her Asthma, but we feel like we are doing the best for the area that we live in, but wish that life could be easier for her. Spring and Fall are really tough on her. She loves being outside, and especially on warm days. We have to give her baths at night, and she doesn’t always appreciate this, but she has come to realize that it is part of her life. Mikaela is a very special girl. She loves to be around a lot of people (so different from the shy child that she used to be!) She has a few friends in the neighborhood and would love to have all the friends in her class have her over to play. One girl’s mom told her that her daughter had enough friends, so Mikaela would just have

to play with her daughter at school. She loves people and doesn’t understand why people can’t seem to like her—after all, she such a wonderful girl, why wouldn’t anyone like her? I mentioned that Mikaela’s reading had really changed over the past few months. She is constantly reading and writing stories. She has

evolved into a regular lover of reading. With experience comes good news. Mikaela is very excited for Memorial Day. She was elected by her teacher to be a participant in the Memorial Day celebration at Brookside Elementary. Memorial Day here in Massachusetts is a very big thing. The Soldiers from all the past wars get to march in their units and they get cheers, the bands play, there are boy scouts and girl scouts honoring the Veterans. Then there are cookouts and all kinds of activities, so for Mikaela to get nominated to be a reader at the celebration is a fantastic thing. All of the schools do their own Memorial Celebration, and Mikaela’s will be out in front of the building, which will have a flag raising ceremony and songs from the three grades that attend that school, then they will have a short reading and some short speeches on Patriotism. Mikaela will be a part of the reading. We plan on taping it and taking pictures. Siovhan says that Mikaela takes after her.

Howard told me that I am not allowed to mention his golf game anymore. It is frustrating for him to have to relive it on paper, as well as having everyone else know that he isn’t doing as well as he has done in the past. He told me last week that he wasn’t going to inform me of his score, but just that he and his partner won the round. He does have a new golf club, and for those who don’t golf, it is like unto having a new child in the family. It takes time to get used to, it can keep you awake at nights with wonder, and when it is a good day, all hear the wonders of its qualities. Howard did hire a new worker. She will be taking over some of his travel responsibilities. I have met her and she seems like a wonderful person. Howard will be training her during the next month and showing her all the areas that they need to travel to. They have a couple of trips planned. The first one starts out with Howard going to Canada to see one of his nephews, Stephen, married in the temple. Stephen is Joy’s son. Then he will be off to South America. What a change in climates, in just a manner of hours. He will be in South America for while, come back to Massachusetts, and then off to the other side of the world. He informed me that he has to get some major trips in, just to keep up his Platinum status with American Airlines. It has been fun having him home, though. It has been nice to not have to worry how I am going to get all the children to all of their destinations and then pick them all up. Howard and I just returned from a weekend in New Hampshire. We had Siovhan be the parent for the weekend. We went to the White Mountains. It is so beautiful there. We went driving around, climbing some of the smaller trails, and just loving the nature. It was interesting to see that the trees that far north still didn’t have leaves. There was still snow on some of the peaks. The highest peak, Mount Washington, was socked in fog, but we were still able to drive to the 4,200-foot level and then we walked a ways up the side of the mountain, just to see what we could see. It was cold! It has a tundra like look, which was interesting to see. There was moss and short, scrubby pines on the sides of the mountains. On the way out of the canyon, I saw a car from Ohio driving erratically. I commented on it to Howard. Then I noticed the driver was driving with a camera out of the window, I looked to see what he was trying to get a picture of—it was a huge moose! The first one I had ever seen in the wild. It was HUGE! It was a mother, no antlers and it was eating the grass on the side of the road, next to a river. Howard managed to swing the car around a take a few pictures. Then we tried to hunt it down (at a distance) but it had gone up stream. It sure drew a lot of attention, there were cars stopping all up and down the highway to get a view. It was great to get away. Siovhan wasn’t so sure that it was great. She had to get the boys to Karate, to the service project and make sure that they had their baths, and then she took them to Stake Conference. Dinners were interesting, Mikaela informs me. I didn’t care, they were healthy and were glad to see me when I got home, and those were the important things. I think it made them appreciate all that their parents do on a typical weekend.

That’s all for now. The summer is shaping up to be a busy one.

Mina Ericksen Pritchett Photo

Since I am the only one left alive in my family (as evidenced by the lack of communication on this project), I guess it won’t do any good to ask you how old you think Great-grandma Mina is in this photo. But, if by some slim chance, any of you are left alive, give it a guess—30, 40? I never was good at guessing ages. M

Kevin Childs wrote: I think she is in her 30's.  

Pritchett Information

Leonard H. Trauntvein Brief Personal History

I was born in Kenilworth, Carbon County, Utah. I was born during the Great Depression but I do not remember any of the depression. I remember the Bombing of Pearl Harbor and the war with Germany. The way we received the news, as to what was happening during the war, was to read the newspaper or

listen to the radio. Each evening our family would listen to the radio to find out what was going on with the war and in America. Three young men from Kenilworth were killed during the war.

During the war, there were metal scrap drives throughout the town and everyone would hunt for unused metal, even tin cans. The collected metal was stacked up in the schoolyard and then it was hauled away to the iron works. There was seldom any chocolate candy and very little soda pop; it went to the soldiers.

Each day, the students would bring what change (money) was available at home and then once a month the students were taken up to the post office where they exchanged their stamp books for war bonds. The day the war ended the miners came out and there was an all night celebration.

The town had a mixture of nationalities. There were Blacks, Mexicans, Japanese, Greeks, Italians, and Scandinavians. There was no discrimination in the school. We all played together and did not know there was any difference between each other.

The company owned everything in the town, except the post office and school They owned the store, made some of their own money (called script), the show hall, had their own doctor and hospital. They sponsored the American Legion Baseball team and the company baseball team. They helped the scouts and in the winter had a nice ice rink and sleigh riding hill. Every summer they had Kenilworth Days. It was a big celebration. There were all kinds of races and other competitions and the scouts would compete in first aid treatment. The company first aid mining teams would compete with other company’s mining teams in first aid. The competitions were held outside on the grass in front of the hospital. 

They would have a program and all the town’s people would sit and listen to it. The company would block off one street, up by the hospital, and it was covered with tables. They would always serve a big roast beef dinner--all you could eat style. During the dinner, there was musical entertainment. Once a year they would have a watermelon bust. Again this was held up on the hospital lawns. You could have all the watermelon you could eat and they would cut big slices the length of the melon. At Christmas time, Santa came after a show and he would give us a paper bag of candy, an orange, an apple and nuts. It was not one of the dinky kinds of paper bags; it was the big one.

The company would buy free-swimming passes to the Helper or Price swimming pools for those who liked to swim. They money for a lot of these activities did not come directly from the company. Each miner would pay a given amount of money into a fund and that is the money that was used for recreation and etc.

During the winter, we did a lot of sleigh riding, ice skating, and bumper hitching, Sometimes the hitching took us to the town below which was about three miles down. We would then wait at the sop sign and try to hitch another ride back up. This could be done until the company would sent coal trucks loaded with slack and the men on top of the truck would threw the slack out with a shovel. The slack would quickly melt the snow and ice.

During the summer, we would ride our bikes everywhere. There was always a baseball game going on so we would go play. We hiked around in the mountains a lot. Even to the extent that, I now would say, we put ourselves, many times, in harm’s way. It is a miracle that more kids did not die in the mountains. 

To earn money, I peddled newspapers and worked at the company store.

We went to the eighth grade in our town, then the ninth grade in Spring Glen, the tenth grade in the old Price Junior High, the eleventh grade at Carbon College (now the College of Eastern Utah), which, at the time, served as the high school, and college.

The town is still there but the mine, tipple, and railroad tracks are all gone. The people who live there own their own homes and have a 99-year lease on the property. Many of the homes have been moved to communities south of the town.

After graduating from high school, I like most of the other young men, started to work in the mine. It was great pay and the working conditions were not too bad. I worked in the mine for three years then I took on a job in a service station in Price. I worked there until I received a mission call from my church.

My mission would be in Denmark, where most of my grandparents and great grandparents came from. My dad tried to teach me some Danish before I left but I had a hard time with it. One point of interest, one of my father’s nicknames was “Danish.” I was in Denmark for two and a half years.

I then attended Carbon College. My wife, Myrna, and I graduated from the college. We then moved to Provo. After four years in Provo, I accepted a teaching position in Nephi, Utah. After teaching for fourteen years, I became a principal. I was in administration for the next sixteen years.

Ten years ago I retired. Four years ago the superintendent called me and asked If would teach for half of a day and I agreed. I did that for two years and then I told them I would not be coming back the next year.

One year ago, Myrna and I flew to Denmark for two and a half weeks. While we were there, we watched President Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, dedicate the Danish Temple. We renewed some old acquaintances and did some touring.

One of the highest honors I have ever received was to have been named as an Olympic Torch Bearer in 2002. Two of my sons nominated me for the honor, which was a wonderful thing in itself. I was honored, along with others selected to represent our state, during programs at the Utah State Capital, in

Provo and in my community, Nephi. The night I carried the torch for my turn as it moved through our community, I was treated like a hero. All of my family who could came to watch and to celebrate with me. Coca Cola Company sponsored me; bought my uniform and the torch I carried which I still display in my home.

Sister Anderson

Dear Trauntwein and Myrna
 
I.m writing this to let you know that mother is dying. She would not let the doctors take more of her leg, she wanted to go home and she will. It is a little hart on everybody to se her laying there just waiting for here to die We take turns being with her night and day. She does not communicate but we think that she knows we are there and she likes to here us talking. She sleeps most of the time. She does not get any dialyses anymore. The doctor says it will be better for her to dye X-Hotmail-From: from a kidneystop than from the “koldbrand” in her leg. They keep her out of pain. Will you leave a message for Strates at the Manti temple. So he knows. This is hart on everybody, please put her name on the prayerroll. I don’t  know when I have a chance to go.
Love Else

Directions to Fabuloso Kirsten's‏

Take I-70 East (about 435.5 miles)

Exit onto C470 East toward Colorado Springs (you'll go about 30 miles on this road)

Exit onto I-25 South toward Colorado Springs (you'll go about 40 miles on I-25)

Take the Interquest exit and head East (I believe the off-ramp wraps you in a circle over the Freeway)  

Turn Left onto Voyager Pkwy (I believe it's the first stop light; on the corner there will be a huge church that says "World Prayer Center")

Stay on Voyager, you'll see a housing development on your left called "Trail Ridge South"

From Voyager, take your second left (entrance-wise) into the development onto Longs Peak Trail

Take your first right onto Lookout Springs Dr.; we're second from the end (1312) on your right hand side.

(total miles = +/- 560 miles)

Let me know if any of this is confusing.

Love you guys!  Can't wait to see you Friday!

Kirsten

A photo of Nephi girls heading to Girl's State

Help!

Dear Myrna,
I'm not sure what the problem is. I'll phone you this afternoon and talk
about why you can't open them.

Donnette