Yesterday was a great day for the Ekins family. Alton's brother, Elmer Holdaway Ekins, received the Melchizedek Priesthood following their block meetings at the LaPoint Ward in LaPoint, Utah. Elmer is 82 years old, and decided he didn't want to leave this earth without receiving his endowments in the Temple. This coming Saturday, November 21, he plans to attend the Provo Temple, with family members, and be sealed to his last two wives, Dorothy and Irene. Elmer is a whole new person. It's exciting to see the change in him. His Ward members love him. All four of his children were there, Ron, Colleen, Kathie and Shelley Kay. Ron ordained him and it was a great blessing he gave to his dad.
About 4 1/2 years ago, a doctor told Elmer he only had about 5 years to live. His heart only works at about 10%. I think that got Elmer thinking he'd better do something about his life. He quit drinking quite a few years ago, so there was nothing holding him back except getting back to church. It was a wonderful thing to see the proceedings, how much he is loved by family and friends. I'm so glad Alton could be a part of the circle. He's 5 years younger than Elmer. I hope he remembers the day.

Barbara Jo, Mark, Susan, Paul, Nina, Karen, Rebecca and Ashlee. Brian is the one missing on the front. See the colorful shirts. We always have a 'stairstep' picture and years ago it actually looked like steps, but as you can see with time we have our 'ups and downs.'

We had our every-two-year reunion on June 25-27. It was held at a huge cabin above Otter Creek in south central Utah. Forty memeber of our family were there. Got there on Thursday, and before everyone arrived, the men killed a huge rattlesnake that was in the garage. Creepy.

Nina planned the reunion, food and location, and she pulled Rebecca and Jeff, and Ashlee in to help with it. Jeff had planned the games for our Olympics, and we only got to play two of them as it poured rain on Friday afternoon. Friday morning Ashlee spearheaded tie-dying tee shirts. What a colorful group we made. The theme of the reunion was 70's/80's and the shirts fit right in with that. It was amazing to see the outfits the adults came up with that they had worn in the 80's.

We played fun games: "Deal or No Deal", "What if...?", fishing, "Pass it along", had a white elephant exchange. And the food was great. Two meals a day, and snacks if you needed them, but we really didn't. There were three dogs there, Max (the Eck's male ShitzZu sp?), Maggie, Nina's Yorkie, and CiCi, Grandma and Grandpa's poodle. They all got along well. Actually, CiCi spent a lot of time under the bed.

We missed Brian and Laura's family this year. Also Dakota Jordan (Nina's son), Elder James Eck, serving in Lima Peru, and Dan Eck who was at EFY in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Those attending were Vern and Barbara Jo Taylor (Jordan, Jackson, Jacob, Allie Jo and Brooke)

Mark and Heather Ekins (Carly, Lacy, Aubrey and Elijah)

Art and Susan Eck (Nathan, Christie, Sophie, Kami and Aaron)

Paul and Kristin Ekins (Kelson and Cole)

Nina Jordan

Tony and Karen Pedersen (Molly, Grace, Olivia, Lyndie)

Jeff and Rebecca Anderton (ShyAnn, Denver, Charlie, BrookLyn)

Ashlee Ekins

Grandpa and Grandma Ekins (Alton and Nancy)

A great time was had by all. Our next reunion is in the hands of Brian and Laura's family. It will be in two years.

I celebrated my 70th birthday on May 22. My two daughters who live in Delta, Nina and Karen, came up to enjoy the day with me and their Dad. We went shopping and I bought a new Dell computer. Then I had to have a new screen. And then a new desk. Wow, I'm in business now.
Last night a neighbor came and transferred the important things off the old computer and put them on the new one. I'm leaving the games on the old one, which is downstairs for the grandchildren to play on. I won't get the internet down there. A bunch of my other children gave us a food storage shelf system, the kind you put the new food on the back and it rolls to the front. What a month this has been.