Once upon a time we lived by a pond

Another great historical home has been a part of our family history.  In late May of 1982 we moved to Midway in Heber Valley from Bountiful, Utah. I have always been a lover of old houses each with their own history and individual charm.  Sometimes I still dream that I am in this house.  I loved this particular house that much.

I had just given birth to my fourth baby and only girl just two months earlier.  She had joined three older brothers, so at age 29 I had four children under the age of five with the oldest soon to be six.  At some point during our beautiful and magical summer on the pond we took these photos with our Polaroid camera.  I had planted out the flower beds and Glen had patched up the ditch which brought water from the Provo River to the pond next to the house.

It felt like a bit of heaven to be in the miller's house which had been built years and years before just west of Johnson's Mill from local rock.  The boys had so much roaming room but had been told over and over not to go near the pond without one of us.  Ryan asked one day, "If I fell in the pond and drowned would Heavenly Father get mad at me for getting the floor wet?"  I like how Ryan has become keeper of the Polaroids in this picture.

There were swans and geese on the pond.  I learned that geese are the best "watch dogs."  We all learned to canoe and my favorite thing was a sunset canoe ride across the pond and back.  Everything becomes magical during a sunset especially when the sun is setting over the mountains.

Unfortunately, winter comes early in Heber Valley and the winter of 1982/83 was a record breaking one.  Glen was commuting back and forth to Salt Lake before the roads were the easily traveled ones that they are today.  During one of those snow storms he went off the road in his small gas efficient car.  It really shook him up as he realized the responsibility he had to be there for his little family. We also knew we were in over our heads financially in spite of how much we loved this house and this property.  We remained less than a year and thus began our eventual move to Arizona.