Lake Powell Pictures

Hey anyone or everyone who even checks this blog out besides Matt, David and myself. I'm trying to make a video from Lake Powell this last year and looking for more pictures. If you have any pictures from the trip I would love to get my hands of them to add to the video. I have some from myself and Sandy, but could use more if possible. You can just email them to me if you would, or Sandy just put hers on a disk and mailed them to me. I would greatly appreciate it!!!! Thanks :)

It's a happy New Year...

You put your right arm in

you put your left elbow out

and you shake it all about... :)

What a great party. It was fun to see everyone. I also heard that someone bribed Landon to take me down on the floor... I guess that I will have to be more careful when he is skating by me.

One year

It's hard to believe that on Tuesday the 18th it will have been one year since grandpa passed away. I just wanted to post some of the pictures we had of the day of his funeral. It was such a snowy day, but I thought it was beautiful. Although I miss grandpa so much I'm so glad that he is with grandma, our mom, Lucille, Veronica, and many other members of his family. I learned so much from my grandparents. Most importantly I learned the importance of living the gospel. Both grandma and grandpa were missionaries to our family. Without them I don't know if I would have attended my church meetings and stayed close to the gospel. I'm forever grateful for all that they have done for me. I miss them both so much.

Traditions!

The following is part of a talk about traditions that I gave in sacrament meeting in our ward in Virginia several months ago. I know this is two posts about the "long hard pull" in a row, but hey, maybe Grandpa should have thought about that before saying it so much. I'm actually really glad he did.

I'd like to take this chance to invite any and everyone else to write and share essays about grandma and grandpa.

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My Grandpa was a hardworking man all his life. I heard him describe himself more than once as a farmer but as far as I know he never owned a farm. I assume by that he meant that his father was a farmer and that he inherited the hard-working farmer ethic and lifestyle from him. My grandpa was actually a builder: a builder of houses, of buildings, of businesses, and a builder of engines.

While my grandfather didn’t pass his talent for building things on to me, he did enjoy passing on advice – in particular he had one talk that he would recount whenever there was a marriage or birth or other life-changing event in the life of one of his kids or grandkids. It was a short talk the gist of which was “life is a long hard pull…and it just got longer and harder.” This “long hard pull” talk was given as a means of sharing fatherly/grandfatherly advice and mostly the advice was that life is not always easy and you have to work hard for what you get.

Now that Grandpa is gone, whenever the family gets together someone invariably says the words “long hard pull” and when we hear them we think of Grandpa. The “long hard pull” talk is a family tradition that reminds us of our Grandpa and his life and love for us.

We will give the same talk to our own kids and grandkids and tell them about Grandpa’s love and example of a Christlike life and in a way they will get to know Grandpa the way we did. Not only will they get to know him through his unique words but we will also tell them about his love for his family and friends, his hard work ethic, about how he rarely missed a day of work in his life and how he never retired. The spirit of what Grandpa said will carry on if not the memory of Grandpa himself.

This small, seemingly insignificant family tradition serves the dual purposes of bringing us as family members closer to each other through the memory of our Grandpa but also bringing us closer to our Heavenly Father by reminding us of a man who led a Christlike life.

Origin of the Phrase "Long Hard Pull"

I always thought the phrase "the long hard pull" came from farming but this makes me think that Grandpa picked it up in the Navy. Did anyone ever ask Grandpa where he got it?



This is the first page of the book Victory in the Pacific 1945 (History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol.14).

William and Mary Taylor Hiatt

This is the headstone of our great-great-great grandfather and grandmother, William Hiatt and Mary Taylor Hiatt (by "our" I mean Moses Ray Hiatt's grandchildren). I'll write all about the adventures we had in finding this cemetery and gravestone later this week, but I wanted to at least post this picture so everyone could see it and hopefully motivate me to write the rest of the story. Click on the picture to see a larger image.

Who exactly are William Hiatt and Mary Taylor Hiatt? They lived and died in Mount Airy, North Carolina, and are buried there in the W.C. Hiatt Cemetery, a very small and obscure cemetery on the outskirts of Mount Airy. Other than where they lived and died, I don't know anything about what they did but it's a safe bet that they were farmers. They had five children, all boys -- James Madison, Isaac Samuel, Jesse Lafayette, John Henry, and Edmund Franklin.

Three of the sons moved to Utah sometime during their lives. I'm not sure when they went there but according to my parents these three brothers have some sort of pioneer imprint on their gravestones which indicates they made the trek before the connecting of the intercontinental railroad at Promontory Summit in 1869 (well before William and Mary died, in 1891 and 1899, respectively). The three who went to Utah were James Madison, Isaac Samuel, and Edmund Franklin. James Madison and Edmund Franklin are buried in Payson and Isaac Samuel is buried in Salem.

As far as I can tell from a cursory search of the Internet and familysearch.org, all five of the sons were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which leads me to believe that William and Mary Taylor Hiatt were also members of the church. I'm not sure about that but I would like to find out for sure when and if they joined the church.

Edmund Franklin Hiatt (one of the three sons who went to Utah) is the father of Alma Leon Hiatt who is grandpa's (Moses Ray Hiatt's) father.

So, to sum up:

William Hiatt -> Edmund Franklin Hiatt -> Alma Leon Hiatt -> Moses Ray Hiatt

If anybody knows any details that I left out or has any information or where to find it, please let me know by commenting on this post or emailing me. You can also talk to Aunt Sylvia or Uncle Paul.

UPDATE: I was looking again tonight at the records on familysearch.org and if that information is correct the three brothers couldn't have come to Utah before 1869 because they were all married in Mount Airy in or after 1869.

James Madison married Martha Ellen Taylor on 8 July 1869 in Mount Airy.

Edmund Franklin married Elizabeth Martisha Hutchins on 24 June 1877 in Mount Airy.

Isaac Samuel married Martha Francis Bryant on 17 February 1879 in Mount Airy.

Lake Powell

Here are some of the pictures from our camera at Lake Powell. Also, just a hats off to Noel and Sandy for planning such a great trip. All the hard work and effort they put into Lake Powell really made it such a great trip. We are already looking forward to next year!!!! WELL that's if Ryan ever recoporates from Noels boat ride!! He has been going to physical therapy and it looks like he is going to be ok ;) He learned his lesson to never ride on the tube with Landon while he is tanting Noel " Is that all you got cheapo". From Noels famous boat rides to the scrable games, the treasure hunt for the kids, and sitting around talking about old times.....what a great trip. When I tell people that I went to Lake Powell with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and even second cousins they just are amazed that we are all so close. I feel we have truely been blessed with a wonderful family thanks to grandma and grandpa for setting the way. I love everyone and am so excited for next years big adventure. Unfortunately our picture of the entire group didn't turn out so I'm hoping someone else will share that!!