All the Other May Things

In between big things, there are some little things worth mentioning that happened this month.

James had his 3rd grade track meet. He did track with the city last year so he was familiar with how these things go but he liked this even better because all of his friends were with him.

He's a speedy guy and loves running. He and Calvin would run up and down the street each morning before school the week leading up to the meet.

I found these beauties at the thrift store. I offered to buy them and give one to a sister so that they could share secrets between our houses but no one wanted one. I went back the next week and one was gone. Who would buy just one?

I did end up buying this beauty though. Sometimes DI is the best.

So I felt like a really bad mom when I found out James had never seen the Lion King. We fixed that one night when everyone else was at mutual. I got the disc from the library and we got drinks from the gas station and then watched it in my room. He liked it but I think he would have loooooved it when he was 4. 

Speaking of lions, Erica got to be the lion and pass out candy during her orchestra's concert's performance of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

She has loved orchestra this year. Everyone loves orchestra in middle school because Mrs. Harmon is the best teacher in the school.

We have a mailbox on the sidewalk problem around town. I could make an entire album just of bad mailboxes. These are some of the typical offenders. What are people in wheelchairs or small kids on bikes to do? 

But this mailbox takes the cake for worst offender. What were they thinking? I'm getting irritated all over again looking at this. We reported it to the city on their "nuisance" form under "sidewalk obstruction." We'll see if anything is done about it. I might become a sidewalk crusader. It's a worthy cause.

Speaking of other people's property that annoys me (that could be an ongoing series on this blog), why why why would you pay premium money for a lot in Mapleton (a large lot, I might add) and put in a joke of a yard like this?

What even is the point? Grass island surrounded by rock river and a sea of bark?

My constant reminder of "don't do things people don't like" wasn't working and Justin and I were getting tired of hearing about who did what so Justin told the kids we would only consider reports in writing.

I finished my America's 250th birthday quilt. I could have finished it weeks ago but I kind of ran out of motivation when all I had was 3 feet left of the binding. I kind of didn't want it to be over and I also didn't want to sit under it when it is so warm. But I buckled down and did it.

I'm standing on a chair. It's big enough to fit a twin size bed. I'm not sure where it's going to go.

Henry got a job at a snow cone shack in the parking lot of Reams. All of his shifts are with his friend Tom so you know he's having a good time. "I did my job perfectly today except for when I messed up an order." Now if I can keep him from buying Little Debbie inside the grocery store on his bathroom breaks.

From our stake summer breakfast. "What, you don't make pancake batter in a Home Depot bucket?"

Later that day we had my dad's 80th birthday party. We had 23 or so of my family come. The food theme was cruise buffet so Justin cooked two kinds of chicken.

There was also French fries, salad, fruit slices, pizza, nachos, shrimp, rolls and mocktails. I was hoping it would be as random as a real cruise buffet and my family understood the assignment. 

We played a "who knows Grandpa the best" trivia game and then a game called "Wilford or Jerrol" where my family had 25 seconds to correctly identify which pictures were of Jerrol and not Wilford Brimley.

It was pretty funny. Even my dad was trying to figure out which pictures were of him. I was cracking myself up while I made it so I'm glad my family got a kick out of it too. 

My niece Allison won on a tie breaker and went home with a canister of Quaker Oats.

Seriously makes me do a double take.

Happy birthday, Dad! We didn't get to celebrate big on his 75th because of covid restrictions. He purposely went out of town on his actual birthday this year but we were determined.

Nearly two years ago Erica lost her most precious stuffed bear camping with Corey and Nadine. They searched everywhere. In the trailer, in the tent, in the truck, retraced their hiking steps and drove back to spots where they got out. It was gone. For weeks Erica cried every night missing Teddy and then after awhile she couldn't even talk about it without getting all choked up so she just stopped talking about it and tried not to think about it. She had this image in her head of Teddy sitting in the mud and snow deteriorating, or worse, torn apart by a real bear. Nothing could console her; I just had to tell her that she would always be sad about Teddy and that's okay. Some things always make us sad.

She got Teddy for Christmas from Nadine when she was 10 months old.

The second picture is the day we find a duplicate at DI. "Teddy Fresh" we call him."

(She's crying because I wouldn't let her take home "Bunster" from the little house but consoled her with a photo instead.) 

Corey and Nadine are living in their trailer for their mission at Heber Valley Camp. Well miracles of miracles, Corey was looking for his mission badge in the seat of the recliner in the trailer. He grabbed hold of something waaaay back there and thought it was cushion stuffing. He pulled out Teddy! He was shocked since he thought they looked thoroughly in all the furniture two years ago. He sent a picture to Justin and I right away but we didn't tell Erica so she could be surprised today when they came down for one of their p-days. 

She's all teary eyed. Although she has Teddy Fresh, she hasn't even wanted that one around since it's a reminder of the real beloved Teddy that she lost. Teddy and Teddy Fresh are now in the prime location on her bed during the day and perched on her bedframe at night.

A lovely happy way to end a lovely month of May. 

20 Years

 Justin and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary by going back to where it all began, Manti. We left the kids to their own devices and  stayed at a couple of nights at a bed and breakfast off of main street. With the kids out of school, we felt okay leaving them without any adult supervision. The worst they could do was watch TV all day and eat all the ice cream in the freezer.

We had some time before we could check in so we unloaded the motorcycle and drove up a canyon. As luck would have it, it began to rain pretty good on our ride so we cut it short and headed back down to the truck.

Of course the rain stopped once we made it back to the truck. Justin rode the bike to Manti while I followed in the truck.

We went to the bed and breakfast The whole place was pretty charming. The owner gave us a key and sent us to our room but all the rooms were open anyway. "Right above us, above my office." We relaxed in the room for a bit before we left for dinner but our key didn't work in the lock. Then I looked at the door across the hall and it matched the name on the key. Hold on a minute. Justin pulled up our reservation. She had sent us to the wrong room! We moved our bags, smoothed out the bedspread, laughed and moved across the hall. Luckily the other couple hadn't arrived yet or we hadn't made our selves even more at home. That would have been awkward.

The bed and breakfast had a pretty extensive library with very comfortable chairs. Look at these original copies of the American Girl books. 

We had pretty bad luck with weather the entire time. The next morning, anniversary morning, we went to the golf course but there were no tee times so we rescheduled for the next day. But then it got really windy, just a constant wind and strong gusts for the rest of our trip so we never did go golfing.

We drove up a different canyon this time to find Duck Fork or Duck something because Justin heard there was good fishing.

There it is. Isn't that so pretty?

From the parking lot we parted ways. I followed the trail around the lake and he found a spot on shore to fish. The ground was muddy and slick, the logs soggy and also slick. I had a thought while hiking through this with shoes caked in heavy mud, this is weird that I'm doing this by myself.

I heard LOTS of rustling in the trees. I didn't get scared but I kept a steady pace.

I startled an eagle from it's perch in a tree and it flew out right in front of me. Then another eagle joined it and they began swirling and swirling in the sky. 

I had trouble crossing a stream because the fish were spawning and splashing all over but I finally just had to hope for the best and jump. Seriously, what was up with the wildlife today?

This is about where the heavens opened and it began to pour.

I took this picture of my beloved across the lake and then I ran the last quarter mile around to the car.

Trying his best to get the mud off his shoes.

The roads were so slick with mud.. I've never been that nervous on icy roads. But we managed to get down to drier roads and the rain stopped.

We had just enough time to make it back to our room, change our clothes, buy a snack at the tiny grocery store in town and then go to the temple to do sealings. After we were done I asked a temple worker if we could go take a look in sealing room #5. She said she wasn't to let anyone go down the hall but she would ask. I told her never mind but she went anyway to inquire. She came back and said that we could. So we stood in the doorway of sealing room #5 (also called the Persian room, we learned because of the ornate blue carpet) and reminisced about what we remembered about 20 years before. When we passed the temple worker again, I thanked her and told her it was the room we were sealed in 20 years before, to the day. "Oh I'm so glad you said something!" she said. Me too.

It was still really windy so these are the best pictures we could get.

After that we drove to Richfield to eat at Severo Restaurant. It was delicious but we ordered too much food like we always do (despite them being sold out of a few of our first choices) and had to get a few boxes to take home. We ordered cheesecake to go because we had cheesecake at our reception and that felt right.

The next morning was just as windy so we forwent another motorcycle ride and opted to explore Main Street instead. We ended up at a candy store. We bought chocolates for ourselves, chocolate covered Oreos to take home to the kids and got some ice cream to eat in the shop. Then we drove to Ephraim to check out an art gallery there. The gallery was closed (we were having all sorts of bad luck) so we got fries and sodas at a restaurant instead. We wanted to try their fries because they are cooked in beef tallow. They were delicious. And then we drove home.

I can't believe it's been 20 years. It's been quite the ride.