Trip to Utah for Brittney's and Sarah's Graduation, Part 1

Curtis and Marla's family stayed with us Wednesday night, and we rode with them to Utah on Thursday, April 21st, arriving at Beth and Todd's about 7:00 that evening. Friday, the 22nd, was an eventful day beginning with Sarah's graduation with the School of Education at 8:00 a.m. and Brittney's graduation with the College of Life Sciences at 11:00 a.m. that was followed by an open house for Brittney, Sarah, and Derek's brother at 2:00 p.m. We also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Museum of Art at BYU to enjoy the Carl Bloch exhibit.

Grandpa Sam, Brittney, Sarah, and Grandma Narene

Sarah with the flowers Derek gave her.


Sarah with her diploma and flowers after graduating
Magna Cum Laude in the Department of Teacher Education.
(Narene, Karry, Maggie, Derek, Haley, Sarah, Curtis,
Maren, Marla, and Sam)

Brittney with her Grandma Kathryn and Grandpa Gary Judd.

Judd, Brittney, Scott, Kristine, Jenna, and Shannon

Brittney and a friend at the open house
following her graduation in the Department of Exercise Science.


Karry, Derek's mom and Marla, Sarah's mom.


The Carl Bloch art exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art.


Christ Healing the Sick at Bethseda (Carl Bloch, 1883),
one of the original paintings we saw at the museum.

The focal point of the exhibition is five large altar paintings, which include the one shown in the photo above that was acquired by BYU in 2001. The other four large altar paintings were originally installed in the late 1800s and are on loan from Lutheran churches in Denmark and Sweden. They include: The Doubting Thomas, 1881; Christ and the Young Child, 1873; Christ in Gethsemane, 1879; and Christus Consolator, 1884. In addition to these five large altarpieces, there are nearly thirty other religious and genre works included in the exhibit. We rented iPads with information, pictures, and talks that aided in a greater appreciation of the exhibit and the artist.

An interesting sculpture in the BYU Museum of Art by Adam Bateman
that is made out of approximately 80,000 pounds of books
intended to resemble a geologic cross section of the earth.
(Narene and Marla)


Leaving the museum to go to the graduation open house.
(Shannon, Jenna, Haley, Maren, and Maggie)

After the open house, we returned to Todd and Beth's home where the children enjoyed an Easter egg hunt.

Hunting for Easter eggs.
(Rebecca, Isaac, Haley, Jared, Brittney, Shannon)


Joshua found a bucket full of colorful eggs.


Amanda, Shannon, and Megan cuddle little bunnies.


We received an early Mother's Day and Father's Day
gift from the Grahams, Smiths, and Doug & Shannon.
The box holds items for our 72-hour kits.
(Sam, Rebecca, and Narene)

The next blog posting will have photos of activities on Saturday and Easter Sunday.

Sarah's BYU Graduation - April 21, 2011 Video

We wanted to have a short video of both Sarah and Brittney receiving their diplomas from BYU, but Brittney's video did not get recorded properly. Sorry, Brittney. Anyway, here is the video of Sarah.

Sam's Farm Update

Last fall we traded air seeders and tractors; however, neither arrived until the 8th of April. There was quite a lot of work to do before they were ready to go to the field. I think we are about ready now but still don't have anything planted because of the rain and snow for the past week, and more is predicted. Spring wheat should have been planted by the first part of April--we may not be able to plant as much as we had intended. If we can ever get into the field and don't have too many problems, we should be able to plant two or three hundred acres per day--the air seeder will cover a 60 ft. swath.

New air seeder


The cart holds the seed and fertilizer and has fans
to blow each forward to the planting units.

Granddaughters Honor Grandpa Sam

Rachel's Grandparent Essay was a third-place winner. She received a certificate and $10.00 for her winning entry about her Grandpa Ireland. Her picture was on the front page of the local Bennett County Booster. Unfortunately, her grandpa had a busy working day and missed being in the photo; but he was very pleased about the honor.

Maren, another granddaughter, also had a winning Grandparent Essay in her school in Mitchell recently that also told about her Grandpa Ireland. Congratulations to Rachel and Maren; and, of course, congratulations to Grandpa Sam!

Rachel wrote about her Grandpa Sam
in her winning Grandparent Essay.

Maren (left) also wrote about her Grandpa Sam
in her winning Grandparent Essay.
(Maren and sister Haley)

Celebrating Aunt Laura's 100th Birthday

Aunt Laura is Sam's mother's sister, and she turned 100 years old on March 2nd. Her family hosted an open house for Laura at the American Legion Hall in Philip on Saturday, April 9, where many friends came to join family members to celebrate the occasion.

Laura Rossiter Morgan (100 years young!)
with her nephew, Sam.


Laura with her two nieces, Karen and Phyllis.


Laura with Sam and his sisters and brother:
Phyllis (lives in California), Karen (lives in Nebraska),
Sam and Roy (live on the farm/ranch in South Dakota).


Laura with some of the Irelands:
Barbie & Roy Ireland, Karen & Bill Hicks, Randy Daniels,
Phyliss Ireland Gordon, Ashley Daniels, Chad Ireland,
Narene & Sam Ireland, and our granddaughter Rachel.
(Randy is Phyliss's son, and Ashley is Randy's daughter.
Chad is the son of Roy & Barbie.)


More Irelands: The family of our son Brent & wife Tauna.
(Seth, Brent, Weston, Sam, Tauna, Rachel, and Laura)


Part of Roy & Barbie Ireland's family: Chad, Barbie, Steve
and Steve's daughter, Kennedy.


Laura was pleased to get our gift with pictures
of her parents in the center with her paternal
Rossiter grandparents on the left
and her maternal Sutter grandparents on the right.

Laura had one sister, Mabel, Sam's mother, who was two years older than Laura. Their parents were immigrants who met in Pierre, SD when they came to the United States as young adults. Their father was from England, and their mother was from Switzerland. She describes herself as having been her dad's helper in the fields while Mabel was their mom's helper in the house. The two girls always remained very close, and after marriage their two families have also enjoyed any time they can be together. Sam's mother passed away May 8, 2000.

We also gave Laura a framed picture of herself taken in 1931
when she was at Spearfish Normal to get a teaching degree
(now Black Hills State University). She enjoyed teaching,
but gave it up to marry Homer Morgan, a farmer, in 1932.


Following the open house, there was a supper for relatives
and music provided by a family band for listening and dancing.
(Brad Parsons, Scott Morgan, Glenn Parsons,
and a granddaughter of Keith and Norlene Morgan.)


It was obvious that Laura was pleased when
Glenn began to sing one of her favorite songs,
Long Black Train.


Connie (right) with her daughter, Marla Rae,

who has the same name as our daughter's.

They tell a funny story about when one of Connie's twin boys (Glenn or Grant) was at a wrestling tournament in Philip when they were in high school. Scott and Ryan were wrestling in the tournament as was Connie's son, and our Marla was a cheerleader. I think it was Glenn who came over to give his "cousin" a hug, and his girlfriend was not pleased about that. He tried to explain to her that this BCHS cheerleader was his cousin, but she was a little suspicious when he couldn't tell her the name. He later told his mom about it and said he thought the name was kind of a different one and hard to remember, and then his mom reminded him that it was the exact same name as his own sister's.

First cousins, Karen and Kyle Morgan Taylor.


They had family pictures taken prior to the open house,
and I look forward to getting some copies later.
They also had a display of photos, and I took a picture
of this framed photo of Laura and Homer's family
taken years ago when they were all younger.
Front: Al, Homer, Laura, and Gerald;
Back: Phil, Connie, Eddie, and the triplets,
Kent, Kyle, and Keith

Laura said she has made it to this age by "laughing a lot, I think." She added, "I have never been a sweet eater. You should exercise, besides your work, whenever you can. Thinking positive is a good one. That just about ties it up." (Copied from the Haakon County Review, April 7, 2011)

Laura has 10 great-great grandchildren . . . and counting.

We are grateful for this lovely lady and for her life. It is always a joy to be with her and her family. Laura has been blessed with good health through the years and still has her own apartment. (She has been a widow for many years.) When she was younger, Laura enjoyed dancing, horseback riding, and playing games. Now on an average day you might find her reading a good book, doing a puzzle, fixing a meal, or making her bed. Of course, she always enjoys visiting with family and friends.

In 2009 in the Pioneer Review, at age 98, she was quoted as saying: "I had no idea I'd live this long, but I take it a day at a time and figure while I am here I will enjoy it. When it's time to go, I'm ready! Life should begin at 90, because you are forgiven for everything!"

Branding the Early Calves

Each spring we have two branding times, one for the first-time calves of the heifers and then a couple of weeks later a second branding for the rest of the calves. April 8, they branded the early calves; and Bill and Karen from Nebraska and Phyllis, Randy, and Ashley from California were here for the event.

Sam is branding while Seth (left) is one of the
calf wrestlers holding the calf still.

One calf is being branded while a roper brings
out another one.


Roping another calf to get the Ireland "Bar, V, Open A" brand.


This calf is branded and off to reunite with his mom.

Rachel is at the branding with their new puppy, Hampton.


After the branding, there was a hearty meal waiting for them
with strawberry shortcake for dessert.
(Randy, Sam, and Bill have finished eating, and you can
see Brent beyond at another table.)


Sam's sisters, Karen and Phyllis, came for
Aunt Laura's 100th birthday celebration
and so were here for the branding.
They are standing by the sculpture in
Roy and Barbie's front yard, which is made out
of an assortment of what would separately be
referred to as pieces and bits of "junk."
The brother and wife of Jeff Prang (who works
for Ireland Bros.) made the sculpture.