Joseph Christian Bolander

Our ward had a Family History day.  Joe was asked to come as one of his ancestors and tell about them as if he were him.  He chose to come as the person he is named after.  His Great Grand Father Joseph Christen Bolander

 

He did a great job.  This is what he said:

My name is Joseph Christian Bolander.  I was born on April 10, 1907, in Orderville, UT.  Orderville was established in 1875 at the Direction of Brigham Young, specifically to live the United Order.

 After graduating high school I went to work herding sheep.   I was a cowboy.  I spent time on the Arizona strip ranching and herding animals. I loved to chase the wild horses.  I caught a few of them and they made for some of the best horses once they were trained.   This job allowed me time to study books. I always loved school especially learning about history.  So  I loved to read and study about the history of Utah, and had a great knowledge of this land.

I married Pearl Batty on April 5^th 1934  After we were married I went to work on the Zion Mt Carmel tunnel in Zion’s national Park  Every night before going home after work I would shake the used cement bags and collect as much of the leftover dust out of them that I could.  I used it to build the foundation of the home I built for my family in Orderville.

. I served my country during the Second World War.  I had known the war was going on, but I was 37 years old and a father of four children so I was pasted the age of those who might have to serve,  So it was quite a shock to everyone when I was drafted and then an even bigger shock that I was deployed out to battle.   Being deployed to the Phillipines.  I remember the lowest point of my life was watching the Golden Gate Bridge recede into the horizon as the troop ship I was on headed out into the Pacific Ocean.  Later on that trip, our battle group was attacked by the Japanese as we neared where we were to land.  I watched a kamikaze pilot fly his plane into the aircraft carrier that was part of our convoy.    We had a warning that it was coming and were told to run down into the ship, but I stayed on deck and saw it happen.  I was not sure I was going to make it back to see my family. .

After the war I returned to my family in Orderville where I began working for a lumber company and went into the chicken business.

At the age of 57 I got a job  as a caretaker at Pipe Springs National Park in Arizona. Later I became a guide.  I loved to tell the stories to the visitors who came.   This is a picture of me telling people about my experiences living and working at Pipe Springs.  This picture appeared in a issue of National Geographic along with a story about Pipe Springs.  Once, a friend of mine and I were working with some of the Piute Indians from the Kiabab Reservation.  We convinced a few of them to be baptized.  My friend went and bought them some new clothes for the baptism.  A few months later they came back and asked to be rebaptized so they could get some more clothes.  I loved this job  "My work of interpreting the Mormon Pioneering of the west was interesting and challenging. I  met people from every state and many foreign countries. And I feel I have enjoyed some measure of success.  

  I served in the Orderville bishopric for eighteen consecutive years the last eleven as the bishop. While I was bishop we built the Orderville chapel. Funds for the church building had to come from the members.  Many members of our ward sacrificed to contribute so we could have a building.    After I was released as bishop I was called to be the stake patriarch

Throughout my life I was blessed to be able to work outdoors.  I loved being in nature.  I was also a gifted orchardist and had an apple orchard behind my house in Orderville, and a few more around town.  People would come from all over southern Utah to buy the apples from my orchard.  Later in life, I served a mission with my wife at temple square.  While I was never a rich man I was happy and loved life.    I died in November of 1993.

Too Long Between Visits

Brian, Michael, Connie, Merna, Hillary, Lydia and Susan

 

     A few months ago I was thinking about my cousins on my dads side of the family.  I love my cousins.  we used to get together every Thanksgiving and spend the weekend together as kids.  When we all got older and started having families of our own that tradition stopped.  After that we still saw each other at least once a year at Weddings or Grandma's birthday celebrations or other family events.  Then we got to the point where everyone was married.  Grandma passed away and it seemed like we did not have a reason to get together anymore.  Or maybe it had just become harder to get together.  Our family was now spread out living in at least five different states and getting everyone together was going to take some work, but I decided to give it a try.  I am so glad that I did.

     After a lot of messaging we planned a cousin reunion.  A lot of the out of town cousins were going to be in town around the 4th of July, so we planned it for the Saturday after.  We did not get a full turnout.  In fact we were missing about half of our cousins,  but the seven of us who were able to get together, plus Aunt Merna,  had such a great time.  While most of us had been keeping in touch on facebook, it was even better to get together and talk about our memories and see what everyone is doing now.  I love my cousins.  After our fun afternoon together we scheduled our next reunion for two years from now.  I am already looking forward to it!  In the mean time I hope I can be better at keeping in touch with everyone. 

Grandma's Birthday Surprise!

Grandma Bolander planned a special surprise for Valerie's 5th birthday.

She took her for her first mani/pedi.

Valerie is always asking Emily to paint her nails, so it was fitting that she got to join in on the fun too. 

  

 

She loved it.

Thanks Grandma!

Valerie is 5!

Valerie is 5 years old!!!

 

 She has been planning her party for months.  I was a little surprised that she was requesting a dinosaur party around Easter.  I was tempted to stock up on egg candy then,  but I thought she would change her mind as the party got closer.  I was wrong.  Her friends Emily Call, Leah Rodgers, Maci Pitcher, Abigail Gurerro, Kaylie Wesphal, Mason Carmon, Susie Michaelson, and Kavika Saluona all came to join in the fun. 

We made dinosaur fossils, stomped on dino eggs (balloons)  and played a few more dinosaur games. 

Valerie is so excited to be five and she is ready for kindergarten.  She has many friends and loves being with them.  There is very little that Valerie is afraid of.  I love that she is so confident even if sometimes it worries me.  I am so excited to watch her on her new adventures this year. 

4th of July Block Party

One thing our street knows how to do is celebrate the 4th of July together.  Every year we have a great time at our block party.

 

The kids decorate their bikes and have a parade.

 There is always lots of good food and fun games to keep the kids entertained until firework time. 

 This year we even had live music.  Valerie and her friends burned off a lot of energy dancing to their music. 

 And the firework show was great.  It is so fun to celebrate our independence with our neighbors.  

Memorial Day 2014

Most Memorial Days we head out to Tooele.  Grandma Bolander and I both have a lot of family there.  when I got home and looked through my pictures I had around 30 different headstones we had visited.  Here are a few of the highlights. 

This is Tamra's Grandfather, Ryan's Great Grandfather.  He died very young.

 

 

This is My Grandfather.  He passed away 4 years ago.  He had a great sense of humor and was such a great example to me. 

 

We like to polish up the headstones while we are there and clean up around them.  The kids are getting really good at doing it. 

 This is Grandma Bolander's Aunt.  Ryan was really close to her before she passed and we named Emily after her. She was Ryan's Grandma's half sister. 

 As I said up above Tamra's Grandpa passed away at a young age.  After he passed away his wife married Fred Warburton and they had Emily Joyce.   When my Grandma Atkin first met Ryan just after we got engaged somehow Ryan's Aunt Joyce came up.  My Grandma was very concerned that Ryan was related to Warburtons from Tooele,  because we also had Warburton's from Tooele in our line and we had to be related.  Once Ryan explained that he himself was not connected through blood then it was ok, and the wedding could go on as planned. 
       I had not really looked into it further until last month when we visited the Tooele Museum for Joe's school report.  It was then that I saw the picture of Emily Atkin Warburton and realized that she was probably the connection.  I came home that day and looked her up.  Sure enough she was.  She is my Great Great Grandfather, Thomas Atkin Jr's Sister.

 

  Emily Atkin is Emily Joyce Warburton's Great Grandmother.  I am still not sure what that makes her to me,  but it is a little crazy that Emily is related to the person she is named after through both sides of her family.  we had not found her grave site before when we visited Tooele,  but this time we did.  I guess it was meant to be. 

 

This is Ryan's Great Great Great Grandfather.  We take a picture here every year, (since we found it)  because it is the biggest headstone and it is fun to see the kids by it. 

 

I love remembering our loved ones that have gone before us.  It is so fun to see all of these names and talk about them.  Happy Memorial Day!

The Epi-Pen Incident

     Last month I did a post about Valerie and the determination she has.  I don't know if I mentioned her lack of fear.  These two qualities together are quite dangerous.  She climbed everything she could as soon as she could  when she was a baby and now she loves riding her bike quickly down the hills.  From a very young age I have wondered how many times I would be in the emergency room with her, because she is not afraid to jump off the cliff...so to speak. 

 

I am happy to say that we have avoided the emergency room up until this week.......... 

 

     Monday morning after dance class we ran a few errands and then headed for home.  When we got home I told Valerie to go in and change her clothes.  I had just planted my flower bed a few days earlier and went to check to see if I needed to water it.  Valerie went inside.  Not more than three minutes later I heard a scream and crying come from the house.  I ran in to see what had happened and I found Valerie in the office with an Epi Pen sticking out of her shin.   I tried to pull it out,  but it was in there pretty good.  She had stuck it right into the bone in front.  With a little more umph I was able to get it out.  My first thought was to call poison control,  but I also knew that the first thing you are always supposed to do when an Epi-Pen is used is to head to the ER.  The closest ER to our house is about 30 minutes away.  So I decided to get headed there and call poison control on the way.  It was then that I realized I had left my cell phone at dance. 

 

     So off we went, not knowing exactly what effects this could have on her and hoping they were not bad. 

 

     The whole time this was happening questions were running through my head.  Why did she get up into the top of the cupboard where the Epi-Pen was stored??  How did she know to pop the back off first before she stuck it in her leg??  WHY???? would she stick a needle in herself???? 

 

     I figured that the best thing to do on the drive was to not let her fall asleep and keep her talking to make sure she was breathing and coherent.  So I started asking her all of my questions.  Starting with why did she go right in and get the Epi-Pen?  Once she answered the first question it all made a little more sense. 

 

     We have been doing the softball routine with Emily for awhile now which means that she packs her bag and leaves it in the office so I can grab it when I come to get her from school everyday.  That way she does not have to carry it around with her everywhere at school since it is too big for her locker. 

 

   When we returned home form dance Valerie was hungry.  She knows that Emily has granola bars in her softball bag for game days when she is gone from 1:00 - 8:00pm and needs a quick snack.  When Valerie looked in the bag she did not find the granola bars, but discovered the Epi-Pen.  (I had forgotten it was in there,  but it is required that Emily has one with her at all times during softball activities.)  When the Softball season began Emily and I took out the Practice Epi-Pen (the one they give you without a needle and meds in it so you can teach how to give it)  I showed Emily how to do it and then she did it a few times.  I can't be sure,  but Valerie may have been watching, and she might have even "practiced" herself. 

 

    When we got to the Emergency Room  Valerie seemed to be doing just fine.  We got her checked in and hooked up and every thing looked good.  The doctor was surprised that Valerie would have given herself the Epi-pen, so he asked why she did it.  she just said, "I don't know."  I started explaining to the doctor how she got it and my thoughts on why she did it, and did it correctly. Except for putting it in the wrong part of the leg.  Then Valerie interrupted me and said.  "Mom, I just followed the pictures on the back."  Sure enough there are really good pictures on the back of the pen.  

 

 

Thankfully everything turned out fine and aside from a headache later that night Valerie did not have any side effects from the Pen.  I still question her motives of doing it,  and I am a little worried that she was not afraid of the big needle.  But I don't think she will try it again.  It hurt.