Ada Vera Webster Udall, born March 13, 1927 in NYC died peacefully May 7, 2010 in Provo, UT. Ada was the eldest of 5 children born to of LeRoy Kingsley Webster and Mary Olive Mason. Ada married the love of her life, Addison Richard Udall on August 22, 1946 in The SLC Temple. They had 54 wonderful years together here on earth.
Ada and Addison lived 40 years in Merced, CA where they raised their 5 children. Addison practiced medicine and Ada became a consummate homemaker, mother, wife and devoted member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She was a generous hostess and often shared her home and resources with those in need. She loved her husband, children, grand children, nieces and nephews, and all of her extended family of Websters and Udalls. The Udalls had many dear friends in Merced. Ada and Addison moved to Provo, UT in 1992 to be closer to their children.
She will be remembered for her concern for others, a life of spreading joy and of service, her warm laugh and smile, her gift for making friends and putting people at ease. She also had a great love for animals, and many a dog and cat found heaven on earth in her home. She was intelligent, well read and a willing traveler of the world when she had the chance.

She was preceded in death by Addison (2001) a son Noel (1968) and her parents, and brothers Wayne Webster (Mary) and Scott Webster.

She is survived by 4 children, Marc Richard (Ruth), Sara Henderson (Robert), Lee Bennion (Joe), and Matthew (Geri), 13 grandchildren, 8 great grandchildren, sisters Gayle Sims (Bob) and Sharon Harvey (Ray) and numerous nieces and nephews.

A viewing will be held at Berg Mortuary, 185 E. Center in Provo, Utah from 6-8 pm on May 14. Funeral services will be held at the Lindon 19th Ward Meeting House, 44 S. 400 E. Lindon, Utah on May 15th , viewing from 10 am to 10:45 and services beginning at 11 am.

After Dixon’s demise I unloaded the last firing of 2009 and conducted the last studio sale as well. Lots of good people came and a good time was had by all. I can’t say that we broke any sales records, but considering the economy we did alright. We have been and continue to be blessed.

After these were fired I did make a few more small pots to send out to California for some friends to fire in their New Year’s Eve firing. Those will be 2010 pots.

Friends, family and tourists all came by on the sale days.

Lee, Geri and Matt The Schultses Kenny Nealand and Joe the Potter

Rochanne, Joe, Sasha, Sara, Lee, Zina, Esther, Lee, Bev, Rachel, Sarah and Zina.

Zina and Marc Pulsipher.

Our good dog Dixon followed his brother Kane down the West Road today. Because the kiln is cooling I took the day off. I was out walking in the hills west of Spring City with our three dogs when a hunter shot him through the chest with an arrow. He claimed that Dixon was chasing game and that Utah law allows him to kill dogs that harass game. I will not bother you with details of the case. It doesn’t matter. My friend is dead. My body aches all over. Telling Lee was the hardest thing I have done in a long time. My next task is to wait on my heart to soften so I can forgive. It is a tall order, but part of the path that I signed onto.
I posted an album of images of Dix on FaceBook.

Our good friend Kate Mcleod posted this vid on Youtube that says some of what I am feeling.

“I’m making peace with losing a loved one
Lark in the morning, let it go free”

While Juniper’s mother was out visiting with Lee she and I went hiking up Canal Canyon. Jun is Gabe’s sister. W had a great time. She brought cookies, pop and an apple which we shared. We took a trail she had never been on before so she was pretty keen to show it to her mom. On the trail we visited Craig’s grave. He was “Uncle Craig” to her.

Of course the doggie boys came along. They would not stand still.

We have been home from our 2009 June river trip for two and a half weeks. It has taken me a while to get the photos up as I have been out on another river trip and busy trying to get caught up here at home. It was a sweet trip with Lee, Louisa and me on crew with Steve Bocagno as well. Here are few images worth a thousand words each to give you a sense of the adventure. We are currently booking for our 2010 june trip.

Lee’s brother Marc joined us with his wife Ruth, her sister Louise and Marc and Ruth’s daughter Sarah.

Paul Bakkom came with his son Erik.

Susan Weeks and Mark Conley and their friend Judy Stone joined us from Colorado.

Julia came to us by way of Tour West. She was a fine addition.

Paul and Erik hanging out. The canyon is a great family place.

Are we having fun yet? Joe leads Team Bedrock on a tour of the left side of everyones favorite obstacle. Can you tell that the boat got COMPLETELY full? In this photo the boat is just coming down from a mighty highside effort by the crew. Also check out how quickly Steve Boccagno got up on top of Bedrock with a throw rope. It is nice to have that kind of people backing you up on the crew.

In the eddy below Bedrock Joe finds out how hard it is to move a boat full of water as the team bails.

Team Bedrock at Owl Eyes beach.

Joe catc hes a nap at the Deer Creek Patio later that day.

Hanging out at Doris camp after the Bedrock fun.

Louisa engaging in a little chub petting during a lunch break at 60 mile rapids.

Who needs dishwashers?

Lee and Sarah lead the Diaper Train at the Little Colorado.

Not only can she clean a peanut butter knife she can make great Freedom Toast.

Marc caught this heron and digitized it.

“No s**t, there I was…” That is how all good boatman stories start.

“If you take that picture I am going to stick this carrot in you.”

The nightly game of pick up sticks.

Petting fish….kissing rocks, what is next?

Louisa Becker, our hero, hiking Havasu nine months after bilateral knee replacement surgery.

I don’t know, it just happened.

Why are these canyoneers smiling? The picture was shot at the shady ledges below Lava Falls.

When the going gets tough, the tough find a rock and pass out on it.

Stepping into North Canyon.

The pool at North canyon.

The true happy hour.

Reaching for it.

Actually the only reason Lee gets to come is because she looks so good on the front tube of the boat.

After the coffee, the ecstacy.

Oh gosh, not Tuna Creek again?

After the nap at Blacktail.

Would you let this guy row you down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon?

Cousins.

Erik catching some quiet time at Matkatamiba.

My new Black Diamond Mega Lite came in handy when it tried to rain one night.

Marc snapped this amazing image at Havasu. The Grand Canyon makes everyone into a better photographer.

Sarah resting up for more fun at Last Chance camp.

Team Havasu demonstrating the Monkey dance that got us off the rock in the top of Havasu Rapids.

The game.

This was the Bennion Grand Canyon charter trip 2009.

Floating to the chopper pad the last morning.

Hiho Silver….away.

John Bennion was born in the little village of Hawarden in Flintshire, Wales. Family legend has it that to avoid prosecution for poaching rabbits he crossed the Mersey River to Liverpool and took up residence with his brother Samuel there who was apprenticing himself to a baker. The Bennion boys met a Mormon missionary named John Taylor who baptized them. They were soon on their way to American to build up Zion. John embraced the principle of plural marriage and took a second wife, Esther Ann Birch. Their son Israel is pictured below.

Israel was one of many children in a big polygamous family. He worked very hard as a young boy and spent a lot of time away from his mother. As a young man he settled in the south end of Rush Valley in Utah where he helped found an intentional community of Latter Day Saints called Benmore.

Glynn Bennion is the son of Israel Bennion and his first wife Jeanette Sharp. Glynn grew up at Benmore on a little farm called Ben Lomond. In his lifetime Glynn proved up and sold a number of homesteads in western Utah.

Owen Cannon Bennion is the son of Glynn Bennion and Lucile Cannon. He grew up in Salt Lake City and spent his summer helping Glynn work his homesteads in the desert. As a young man he met and married my mother, Lenore Wood.

Lenore is from Berkley, CA. She met my father shortly after WWII at college in Utah.

I was born to Owen and Lenore September 4, 1952 in Salt Lake City. I married Lee Udall on June 29, 1976 in Provo, Utah.

We managed to reproduce three amazing daughters who have all grown up and flown the nest.

I am sleeping next to a little brook that makes a lot more noise in the spring than it did most of the winter. It is warm enough now that we leave the windows open at night and it provides a very nice white noise. Not that we need that sort of thing to drown out the occasional dog or car in the distance.
For most of the past month I slept at various points along the Colorado River as it makes its way through the Grand Canyon. I was on the river for 18 days. There is nothing quite like sleeping on the water with the boat rocking a little and the stars arcing above you. It is hard to come back to a stationary bed but the water sounds do help. Then there are the little night noises that Lee makes to remind me I am home.
The show in Scottsdale is over. I went and gathered yup our remaining pieces before returning from the river. Phoenix is such a pig when your AC quits in gridlocked traffic. I listened to Luis Alberto Urrea’s “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” on the drive. That helped a lot.
Lee’s new studio is good to go on the inside. The Heritage Day tour is today and we are in final prep mode. I am looking for a few hundred tourists to drop by today and make it happen.

In 2002 I got a permit to run the Grand Canyon for a month. We launched on December 13 planning to be at Phantom Ranch on Christmas day so we could call our daughters Zina and Louisa in Ithaca, New York. Zina was there serving a LDS mission and happened to be stationed in the same town where Louisa lived.
Our river trip was small, four boats and nine people. As we traveled down the river I gaged our trajectory to get us to P.R. on the 25th of December.
On December 24th We scouted Hance Rapids in the early afternoon and ran it. As I floated free of the tail waves I began setting up to miss “son of Hance” by working my way right as the current was taking me toward those rapids. My then 15 year old daughter Adah asked me if I was watching the large flat and almost submerged rock we were drifting into. As I
looked to where she was pointing we ran up on it and stopped. We were not wrapped, just beached on this gently sloping rock. I was running lead so the other three boats pulled off above as we began planning strategy to get off. Luckily we had a hand held radio set and were able to converse with the rest of the party on shore. They got a long rope out to us and tried a couple of different Z-drags with no success. We worked on this for a couple of hours as my wife and the two teen aged girls on my boat got progressively colder and the sun worked it’s way behind the rocks. It was decided to try a different type of leverage. We ran the long line from my bow through a pulley on shore to the bow of another 18 foot boat that was rowed out into the current. This worked much better and with some jumping around on our part we edged
off the rock and back into the water.
By now it was 3 p.m. and we should have made camp at Grapevine or
Zoroaster, but being determined to get to the camp at Cremation Creek just above Phantom Ranch for a Christmas layover we pushed on and ran 85 mile rapids in near darkness. Ron Smith was running last and was a bit behind us as he was thrown from his boat. He had no passengers and it was a little tense as we tried to get back to him and gain control of his boat. The real hero was Shawn Dalrimple who got him in out of the water and rescued his boat. We
pulled into the lower Cremation camp in total darkness and set up camp. My wife was pretty shook up by Ron’s swim and went right to bed while we all got dinner on and decorated a tamarisk with tinsel and hung stockings from it’s branches. The day’s work was a big lesson to me in safety before all other concerns. Having a swimmer in the dark on winter trip
is a scary as it gets.
The next day Lee was feeling better. And we rowed over to Roy’s Beach and hiked down stream to P.R. for some fun at the Phantom Ranch cantina and phone calls to our girls in New York. On the way up to the Canteen I ran onto Bob and
his wife. Pam. It turns out they had heard that we were going to be at P.R. on Christmas and had called in and gotten a cancellation for a cabin there. Being the good Jew that he is Bob had brought gifts and a Christmas cake just for us. The best of all was when he offered the girls a shot at a hot shower. This was day 12 and when the
women emerged from the bath house they fairly glowed. I being a tough
old river rat had just bathed in the river every few days when I could no longer stand myself.
We invited our friends over to Cremation Creek and shared a totally Kosher dutch oven ham dinner that couldn’t be beat. Gifts were exchanged all around and it was as good a holiday as I have ever had. Later at school when Adah was asked by friends what her best gift was this year she said “A hot shower”.

This is probably somewhat self indulgent, but then what are blogs for? My brother Howard put this slide show together that follows my father’s life.
I helped bury Dad not quite a year ago and miss him a great deal. When I look in the mirror or view video of myself I am struck with the physical similarities. I hope that this apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

Our first born is taking a break from her job at Jack’s Stir Brew and is here for a few days. The house smells different. What is up with that mug?