Finding Marden...

In my brother-in-law's words. He found Marden Sunday morning.

Well, what do i say? We have all Been looking for my step grandpa. He had gone missing wed afternoon. No one has heard or seen him in a long time. 84 year old stubborn cowboy Marden Stone that has alot of land down south in a small town scipio. He loved it there, lived there his whole life. After a long and gruling search party with well over 250 people, planes, helocopters, 4 wheelers, cars, trucks,horses. After 4 days of searching they called off the search party, I knew my inlaws go riding on sunday so i called up my father in law dennis and asked him if he would come down there and bring the horses. He was happy to come down, kyle and kari came to and brought me a horse to ride. We took off and went up near his favorite spot my step mother told ... about. We found him, and i knew he had passed on his truck had sleed off the side of the road and there he laid peacefully inside of his truck. he is in a happy place now. What a great life that old boy lived and i'll never forget all the great times i had in scipio growing up there as a kid and getting in trouble for tipping over the hay stack or running the horses to hard. Love ya marden and we'll see ya later...

The sheriff held a meeting Saturday morning and called off the official search. At that time he estimated 150 GROUPS out searching for Marden. Sunday morning it was mostly family and extended family searching, and no one wanted to give up. Family of family of family were all involved. On horseback, they took a closer look in the area called Cutler Canyon. They saw where a tire had spun out in the dirt, and shortly after his truck was spotted.

Brent told us that when he got to the truck, Marden looked so peaceful, so he thought he was asleep. Marden had taken off his hat and put it on the dashboard and taken off his boots. He had a very peaceful expression. He didn't seem to be injured. Brent and his in-laws left after the officials arrived so they could do their job in getting Marden out of there. The truck had slid and wedged in between some trees, so they had a big job ahead of them.

Sheriff Dekker personally knew Marden, so this was especially hard on him. My husband Brian helped out in the search and he said he was so impressed by the police's involvement and work. He doubts he'll ever see the kind of care that went into this search in any other city.

The mood back at the house where the family was waiting changed from one of intense worry to one of relief and there were even some laughs. I was expecting a room full of tearful family. There were tears, of course, but there was a feeling of relief and calmness too. And smiles.

My husband called me from the mountain to give me word earlier in the day, and my sister-in-law Kacy, the kids, and I all drove down to lend support and condolences and to gather our husbands for the journey home. We got home about 7:30 or so, and I know Brent and Kacy didn't get home til well after 10 pm. It was a long, rough weekend with an ending that could have been much, much worse.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and wonderful support and caring. I told Grandma she had many people praying for her and she is very thankful. Very thankful.

♥

There are still mysteries in the world.

Case in point: Marden Stone was last seen August 5, 2009 at approximately 1300 hours in Scipio, Utah. Marden is 84 years old and has Alzheimer’s Disease. He is described as being 5’07” tall, weighing 180 lbs, and having gray hair and blue eyes. Marden is known to wear cowboy attire and a dusty brown hat. He should be driving a 2007 white Chevrolet pickup bearing Utah registration 530PBJ. Marden also has bad knees and would probably not get out of his vehicle. If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Marden Stone please contact the Millard County Sheriff’s Office at 435-743-5302.

This man is my husband's step-mom's dad, basically our Grandpa. He owns tons of land and cattle in Scipio, Utah, which is a small town about 112 miles south of my house.

My husband and his brother drove down there early today to help with the search. He's been missing since the 5th, when he went out to check out some of his fences and cattle, as is his routine. He just never came back. There's absolutely no sign of him. Family and friends have offered ideas on where he might have gone, and one relative even took a helicopter ride to point out some areas to check out. They've literally run out of ideas of where to search, after searching every possible place. They've had helicopters, planes, a Jeep Posse, friends, neighbors and strangers searching.

The Millard County Sheriff has been very actively involved in organizing the search. He's been at his family's home and has made Marden's disappearance his top priority. The LDS Church's Relief Society has jumped into action, keeping everyone fed, not accepting a "no thank you".

One area my husband and his brother stopped in was the Maple Grove campground, not far from Scipio, to see if they could post a flier about Marden. They were given the ok by the campground host. He also mentioned a worrisome bit: he's been a camp host for 7 years and has never seen one rattlesnake in that time. This year, there have been at least 30 in the campground alone.

Not much more information right now. The Sheriff wants to gather all the volunteers and search members together in the morning, hopefully to make new search plans. Hoping like hell he doesn't change it from a "search and rescue" to a "search and recovery". Nearly 36 hours since Marden was last seen, the latter is a very real possibility. (That's just my theory, nothing official)

We aren't close with Marden and his wife Claris, but we do consider them family of course. It's awkward to call him Grandpa, but he is...ours and his biological grandchildren's.

Update as soon as I know anything.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

SCRABBLE! I've been playing online Scrabble with my sister, and let me tell you, I am LOVING IT! I love how the internet can bring people closer together to do things that wouldn't be possible because of your geographical distance. Even if she only lives 10 minutes due East. :D But I also love it because I love word games, and these people I live with (I won't name names) only indulge me in Boggle like once a month. WTH? And lastly, but not leastly, I have at last found a worthy foe. That game right there mostly just shows MY awesome words (hey, it's my blog) but let me tell you, she makes some kickass words! She's going on vacation next week and I'm not sure how I'll sleep at night...we've been playing late and I fall right to sleep after, something my sleeping pills can't or won't make me do.

I didn't win the Ugly Quilt Contest, but that's ok. The weird thing is, while I was looking at the other entries, I thought some of them were cute! I'm sure there are some deep psychological issues to be examined there, but let's move on.

My boys started 6th and 4th grades. I know, it was a short break. It's because of year-round school. We went to "Back to School" night and met with their teachers. They seem pretty good! Speaking of which, I need to do *my* homework assignment...I need to write an essay about my oldest, for his teacher. Has to be a million words or less. I think I can handle that limit. I am quite chatty.

Well, I guess that's it! Oh, I turned word verification on, I was getting a lot of irritating Chinese posts. I translated some, and I determined that they are indeed spam. If I see one that begins: 我进來和平 I will know it's legit. (It says "I come in peace" according to a translation site). The only reason I've even translated them is that I've had postcard correspondence with some people in China, and I believe they might read my blog. I don't want to be flat-out rejecting all Chinese posts on the assumption that they are spam. Ok?

Ok then! Peace out!