I’m Back!!

My awesome regular readers may have noticed that my blog was a bit quiet last week.  I didn’t post my weekly Fab Finds List or my regular Sepia Saturday post, let alone any other posts during the week.

The reason?  My family and I were on a week-long vacation in Utah.  We had a lovely time visiting with our immediate and extended family, and with a 3rd cousin of mine.

We not only enjoyed each other’s company, but we also enjoyed

the magnificent beauty of Utah,

Bridal Veil Falls at Provo Canyon Utah

View from Bridal Veil Falls at Provo Canyon Utah

shopping at the new City Creek Center Mall in Salt Lake City

City Creek Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

City Creek Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

visiting Park City’s Historic Main Street

Historic Main Street, Park City, Utah

Family Tree Center on Historic Main Street, Park City, Utah

visiting the Utah Olympic Park at Park City (so cool!).  Do you see the skier about to go into the water?

Amazing Training Facility at Utah Olympic Park - Park City, Utah

Training Facility at Utah Olympic Park - Park City, Utah

eating delicious food at various restaurants including Cafe Zupas, Kneaders Bakery and Café, Maxwell's East Coast Eatery, Cafe Rio Mexican Grill, Nick's Greek Café, The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Café, and Chunga’s Mexican Food in Salt Lake City.  Oh, and how could I forget the BYU Creamery?  YUM!

We also took a tour of the beautiful LDS Temple Square Conference Center.  We have done this tour before on past visits to Utah, but it was still fun to take the tour again.

Conference Center at Temple Square - Salt Lake City, Utah

View of the Salt Lake Temple and Temple Square

from Conference Center Roof at Salt Lake City, Utah

And of course, the genealogist in me made sure we spent some time visiting a couple cemeteries.  More on those visits in future posts.

All in all, it was a very fun vacation with family, food, fun and laughter as we spent time together.

Now it’s time to get back into the regular swing of things.

Thanks for reading!

Jana


Copyright © Jana Last 2012

Sepia Saturday 135–A Family Portrait Before They Leave

Sepia Saturday provides an opportunity for genealogy bloggers to share their family history through photographs.



Today’s Sepia Saturday prompt shows a photo of the “Health Fairy” with a group of children at Ithaca High School in 1920.

I’m going to be way off-theme for today’s post…unless we change the “Health Fairy” into the “Tooth Fairy.”  Hmm…yes…I think I will do just that.  Voila!  The “Health Fairy” is now the “Tooth Fairy.”

So, in keeping with my new “Tooth Fairy” theme, I will share a photo of my Dentist Grandpa, Debs Webster and his family before they left Brazil to immigrate to the United States.  If you’ve been following their story, then you’ll remember that in the last installment, they just arrived in New York City in July of 1952.

This family portrait was taken in Sao Paulo, Brazil on June 10, 1952.  Included in the photo are Debs and my step-grandmother Willis, whom I introduced to you in a previous post, my mother, and my two uncles.
 

I promise to continue with their story as they travel across the United States by car on their way to their final destination of Southern California.

Please click here to see what other Sepia Saturday participants have written about this week.

Thanks for reading!


Jana

Copyright © Jana Last 2012

Follow Friday–Fab Finds for July 20, 2012

My Fabulous Finds for this week are (in no particular order) -

1. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Own Newspaper Article by Genea-Musings
2. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: guest post by Wendy Mathias by Wrote by Rote
3. Forgotten Cemetery Found, and I've Been Vindicated! by Olive Tree Genealogy Blog
4. Who can register for FamilySearch Family Tree? A definitive answer? by Genealogy’s Star
5. you might be a genieholic if: by Hopelessly Addicted to Genealogy
6. Build Better Blog SEO with Rich Snippets by Matt Beswick at ProBlogger
7. The Diary, 3-7 Jan, 1895 by Ancestral Breezes
8. FamilySearch Adds 76 Million New, Free Historic Records for Brazil, China, Ireland, Italy, Russia, and Spain by FamilySearch Blog
9. Out of the loop...for a good cause by Leaves for Trees
10. Follow-up on the Research Plan webinar by Marian’s Roots & Rambles
11. Garage Sale Linens: Treasure Chest Thursday by Journey to the Past
12. Their Magnificent Old Home by Kinexxions
13. Treasure Chest Thursday — The Gillespie Family Bible by Finding Forgotten Stories
14. Marathon Scanning Project by Not Your Mother’s Genealogy
15. Templates from the Citing Your Sources presentation on facebook by Ancestry.com Sticky Notes

New Blog Discoveries

• Sifting Through The Past
• Denise's Genealogy Journey
• From A to Zophar
• Ancestry Search
• Pearls Of Great Families
• Wrote By Rote
• One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
• Hopelessly Addicted to Genealogy
• Garrison Family Roots

Those Places Thursday - Speaking of Camping….

For those of you who follow my Fab Finds posts, you will know that my family and I went camping last week.  We spent several days at Shaver Lake enjoying time with our immediate and extended family.

We had fun kayaking…

swimming and jumping off the “jumping rock”…

and cooking in our Dutch Oven.

And for the first time in the 10 years we’ve camped at Shaver Lake, we saw cows meandering out of the forest to walk through the meadow.

So, what does all this have to do with my ancestors or genealogy?

Well, it turns out my grandpa and grandma, Arthur and Ingrid Iverson, spent time camping too.

Here’s what Grandma Ingrid said about her camping experiences:

“I know for every vacation it seemed like we would go to Yosemite.  It was just a beautiful place.  To get away and to be alone, but I of course, was frightened of the bears because it was always a little frightening to go where the wild animals were.  Where they were able to roam at ease.  And they would come around your tent and sniff and the fearful thought of the children in the tent, hoping they wouldn’t crash in.”  (Vocal History of Ingrid Gilberg Iverson Crawford)

Yikes!  I would not want to go camping where bears were sniffing at the tent!  No thank you!  I'll take cows in the meadow over bears around my tent any day!

Here are some photos of my brave grandparents from a few of their camping trips.

I love this picture of Arthur at home in his camping gear.

Arthur at Home in his Camping Gear
circa 1934

Ingrid in Front of Yosemite Falls
1933

Ingrid and Arthur at Yosemite

Ingrid at Yosemite

Ingrid at Yosemite

I think I see a box of Kellogg’s cereal sitting on the table behind Ingrid.  Do you see it?

Ingrid at Yosemite

Don’t you just love that old car in this photo?

Ingrid at her Campsite

This photo of Arthur is fun too.

Arthur Needs a Shave After Camping

What about you?  Do you enjoy camping?  Do you have a favorite place to go camping?  Share your camping stories in the comments below or on your own blog.  And if you’d like to, you can include a link to your blog post in the comments section below.

If you don't have any camping stories, I'd still love to hear your comments.  Thanks for reading!

Thanks for reading!

Jana
Copyright © Jana Last 2012

Illuminating Blogger Award

Susan at Family History Fun has nominated my blog for the Illuminating Blogger Award, which is presented by Food Stories.

Thank you Susan for this amazing honor!  I am very grateful for your kindness in considering my blog for this award.

The rules for the award are (quoted from the Food Stories blog):

If you are nominated then you have been awarded the Illuminating Blogger Award. Just follow the steps below:

1. The nominee should visit the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/) and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way that we can create a blogroll of award winners).
2. The Nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting & including a link to their blog.
3. The Nominee should include a courtesy link back to the official award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/) in their blog post.
4. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.
5. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their illuminating, informative posts and nominate them for the award. Many people indicate that they wish they could nominate more so please feel free to nominate all your favorites.
6. Notify your nominees by leaving a comment on their blog, including a link to the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/).

Well, per rule 5, I’m supposed to share one random thing about myself.  Actually, I’ll share two random things.

First random thing:  While attending BYU when I was a young single adult, I tried out for the Ballroom Dance Team.  Did I make the team?  Nope.  I did make the first cut though.  Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained right?

Second random thing:  So the other random thing about myself isn’t that extraordinary.  In my spare time I enjoy reading.  Who are some of my favorite authors?  The photo I’ve included will give you a hint.  I took this photo while taking a photography class at our local community college back in 2008.

Yes, you’ve guessed it, some of my favorite authors are Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis.  I also adore books by Lucy Maude Montgomery.

 Here are the five blogs I’d like to nominate for the Illuminating Blogger Award:

1. Rosehaven Cottage by Cindy Garber Iverson
2. Ancestral Breezes by Jen Baldwin 
3. Ancestors Live Here by Leslie Ann
4. Climbing My Family Tree by  Jennifer
5. Abbie and Eveline by Kathy

There are so many other blogs I enjoy...I wish I could just nominate all my genealogy blogger friends, but that list would be way too long.

Thanks again Susan for nominating my blog.  I appreciate your kindness!

Thanks for reading!

Jana


© 2012 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved