January 2026 Continued
The last bit of January 2026 we traveled to Utah again to watch Ethan at the district wrestling tournament. The tournament was in Riverton Friday and Saturday, January 30th and 31st.
We arrived Thursday evening in time to have a tour of Olson's greenhouse in Salem. Esther showed us around and explained several things. It's a huge operation just there. Then when you think about all the other locations, it's pretty massive.
Esther suggested a place for dinner called Crust Club. We each had an individual chicken pot pie pocket we took to go and ate at her home. She gave us the grand tour of the townhouse. The living room was recently cutely decorated by Chrystal. It inspired me to think about ways I can better decorate our home. We were highly impressed with the closet Esther organized with new drawers and shelves. It's skillfully made.
We did use the time to visit some other family as well. Friday morning before the tournament started, we went to see EksAyn and Patty. They served us some lunch. We had a very nice visit. EksAyn moves slowly. His health is declining somewhat. However, he was so cheerful and positive about so many blessings.
It was quite the contrast to our visit with Kathy. She has had some health setbacks and feels quite hopeless. She cried a lot during our visit. I think that's a regular occurrence for her. She may need some help for depression, but she's not very willing to hear opinions she doesn't like. We took her a hamburger and visited for about an hour or so.
Sunday after church we visited my brother Scott. Gayle was napping, so we didn't see her. Her health is very delicate. We brought Scott two pint jars of chili sauce. He says that takes him instantly home to taste, or smell that chili sauce. He was planning to cook some steak later that day and was looking forward to tasting it then.
Earlier at church I enjoyed watching Scott Tanner as primary chorister. He has amazing energy! All the kids are excited to learn from him.
Nicolina served a yummy dinner of lamb roast. Their new every Sunday dinner tradition is chocolate Bundt cake. Esther and Becca came for dinner too.
That evening I accompanied Nicolina to her book group at her next door neighbor's home. It's a group focused on improving marriage by studying the book The Empowered Wife. About eight ladies were there. There was some good comments and I learned too.
The tournament for Ethan did not have as high of results as we hoped. He did not place but the next week at JV State he did amazing! (More on that when I get to February 2026). I did ask him as we were walking in the parking lot between matches to get some snacks from the car what he likes about wrestling. He talked about mental toughness, visualizing goals, not giving up. I said those will be good skills for your mission. He said they are good skills for life. He's also learned how much he can push his body and how important it is not to be a couch potato.
Unfortunately I did not get photos of our extra family visits. I need to be more aware. I did snap a few of some Tanner kids. I also include here Ethan's match that I recorded on my phone. The other matches were on Nicolina's phone.
This is the match I recorded. I'm not sure I have it completely in sequence. but enjoy!
