Visiting Grandpa and Grandma Blad

Lily liked this picture of her the best.

 When my dad married Debby (almost 12 years ago), my family grew.  I now have another set of grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa Blad.  They are so very welcoming and endearing.  We got to see them in May at my dad's Lauret-Bennion family reunion in Antimony, where Grandpa brought his boat and ATVs and grandma brought her cookies and famous potato salad.

After dinner at the reunion, Grandma and I sat at a table and just visited about our lives and illnesses and testimonies of God's timing and Jesus' grace.  I found her to be one of my kindred spirits.  Oh, and I just had to get her potato salad recipe!  She told me that the recipe is published in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Recipe booklet.  We literally conversed until bedtime.

Grandma Blad's All-American Famous Potato Salad

Ingredients:

• 4 medium Potatoes, boiled, skin removed, diced
• 6 medium Eggs, boiled, peeled, diced
• 1/4 of a large Onion, finely chopped
• 1 small jar Sweet Pickles, chopped, or sweet pickle relish
• To taste- Miracle Whip
• To taste- Salt and Pepper

Cooking Directions:

Combine all together in a salad bowl and chill. It is even better the second day.

A week or two later, Grandma Blad wrote to me telling me how much she enjoyed visiting with me at the Blad family reunion, and that she put my name on the prayer roll at the temple, and that she would love for us to come and visit them sometime and she would cook us a meal.  I was touched, and I jumped on the chance to visit and partake of a home-cooked meal.  I was in the middle of planning our trip to Vegas for the Guting reunion, so I arranged to stay with them for a night on our drive home.  Their home is the perfect half-way point between our house and Vegas.  Grandma Blad was so excited for our visit and she planned what she would fix for us to eat.  She really spoiled us silly.

 We arrived late in the evening on Saturday night, around 8pm.  Grandma and Grandpa had already eaten.  Grandma had fixed a BBQ stew of sorts with cubed steak, potatoes, carrots, and BBQ sauce.  She had also made her famous potato salad, since she knew how much I liked it, and also a green jello salad.  It was yummy and I was ready for a good home-cooked meal after several days of eating out.

The next day was Sunday, and Grandma had breakfast all cooked up for us at 8:00 a.m. sharp.  Grandpa was off to meetings at the church, so we ate the wonderful meal without him.  She had fixed up homemade french toast, with homemade strawberry jam, bacon, and hash browns, milk, and juice.  See?  We were so spoiled.

We went to church at their Kanosh ward, and loved every minute of it.  Then we came home, and grandpa joined us for a nice hearty lunch.  Grandma made meatloaf, baked potatoes, layered green salad, corn from their garden, homemade rolls with homemade strawberry jelly.  Seriously, I felt so at home and loved!

 After lunch, and before we hit the road, we asked grandpa for a garden tour.  He obliged and showed us around his property of produce.  I'm still in awe at all he did.  I blogged about our garden tour on our Wild West Gardeners blog.

 It was a lovely tour and we loved visiting with them!

 Oh!  We also did one more thing before we left.  Grandma did a family home evening with us using all her props that she made for her primary kids to learn the first vision of Joseph Smith.  That was truly a memorable family home evening!

Steve was the "prosbertyrian" preacher and also one of the puppeteers.

Amara wore a vest and was Joseph Smith.

Grandpa and I read the scripture accounts of the first vision.

Lily was another minister and also the pillar of light (holding the lantern).

 Grandma Blad makes the cutest puppets that you ever did see!  She has a Joseph and Emma Smith.

 And she made God the Father and Jesus Christ puppets, which she and Steve were the puppeteers for.

I bet you wish you were there.  But since you weren't, here's the next best thing- Click on the smilebox below to view the video.  It's a little over 10 minutes long, but worth watch!
Maybe you could watch our F.H.E. and do your own rendition of the first vision.  Or just watch ours and be a part of the great times we had!  :)

Another digital greeting by Smilebox