The Deer Hit Us

J and Brooklyn decided to come and stay with Grandma and Grandpa on Thanksgiving night. J called and said he wanted to stay for six days but his Dad negotiated with him to stay six days, but do it two days at a time (we taught Tom well). We put puzzles together, played "The Marble Game" on Grandma's computer, read stories, went to visit Maty, ate at McDonald's, and went looking at Christmas lights on Friday evening. We were going through Mapleton when I told J that Christmas was when we celebrated Jesus' birthday. Now everything took on a different perspective - instead of "look at the lights", J would say, "they are sure excited about Jesus' birthday!" and then the next house would have even more lights and he would say, "they are REALLY excited about Jesus' birthday!". As we were passing a very elaborately lit house, we heard a very large BANG and a very large deer continued to run across the street in front of us, stopped for a moment, then took off into the wooded area. We got out and inspected the car (not too much damage) and then continued on. I asked J if he was still looking for lights and he said, "I'm seeing shadows - I think there are more deer!" Then a few minutes later he was back saying, "they are excited about Jesus' birthday, huh Grandma?".

How excited are you about Jesus' birthday?

OK - Maybe Not

I'm just trying to cut back a little, maybe I'll just cut back on....not french fries.....not quilting.....not seeing my grandkids....not seeing my kids....not sleep....not shopping....cooking - that's it! Here we come McDonalds - filet of fish does sound good. Wait til I post about a deer hitting us!

"So Long, Farewell......"

It has been an experience being a blogger, but I must move on. See ya' later. All good things must come to an end - this one on November 22.

A Visit With "Kids"

We left for Las Vegas on October 16th after spending the morning having our "Check Engine" light investigated at the dealer. We were assured everything was just fine and began our trip about 11:00 AM. We made it a whole six miles before we ran into mega traffic - did I forget to mention that it was fall break for Utah schools and Friday was the opening of the deer hunt - thus, the traffic. I am so glad that we are well acquainted with the metropolis of Spanish Fork (where the traffic jam began) so we were able to take surface streets and avoid all the traffic - saving us, as I'm told by those less familiar with the aforementioned metropolis, approximately 47 minutes. We lost count by Nephi of the number of motorhomes on the road - roughly 42.5 - and we had only gone 30 miles! Our next stop was St. George and the big decision as to where to eat. We always eat at Panda's - let's try something new - not MacDonald's, we ate there last night - how about Subway - doesn't sound good - how about Wendy's - don't see one. Oh, look, there's Carl's Jr - haven't eaten there for at least a week - so we did, that is, eat at Carl's Junior. Next stop, Levi's. We were thoroughly entertained by Aly, had a very nice dinner and then Levi arrived - not before 8:00 PM. We visited and then went to bed and awoke the next morning to prepare for the trip to Craig's. Would we mind going to Aly's gymnastics class first - not a bit. You'll love the family video this year - Aly is quite the performer - when she wants to be. We all loaded into the Cadillac and we were off to Gilbert. Once across the impressive Dam we are on our way. Uh, oh - time for another decision - where should we eat? How about Kingman since that's where we always get lost - and we did, eat (grabbed a few snacks) and got lost. GPS and cel phones don't work too well in Kingman. We did manage to call Craig and get directions, for what good it did us - we still went the wrong way - I did too say we go left not right! We managed to make it to Craig's with perfect timing - Craig just arrived and Diana and the girl's arrived shortly thereafter. Diana and the girl's picked up Pizza on the way home and we had a great evening together. The schedule the next morning included a soccer game starring Cori Bachler and her team - so it was off to bed - and I need to report that Bill and I did not get locked out of the Jack-n-Jill bathroom THIS time so there was no hurrying down the stairs at 1:00 AM - did I say hurrying down the stairs - only to dribble just a little across the floor - thank goodness it was tile and easy to clean up - growing older is not graceful! The soccer game was fantastic - Cori's team (all girls) against those huge bully boys! Next was shopping - of course and then the usual trying to stay up with Craig on the freeways, etc. A wonderful dinner was prepared for us and then later we went to bed - now this was exciting! As I was laying in bed, almost asleep, the huge muscular guy, Bill, went to climb in bed and the bed BROKE! Now, I'm laying on the mattress on the floor with the frame of the bed located in such a way that I couldn't crawl out. Bill tries to help and then he falls and then, well, we start laughing soooo hard - I tell Bill to turn the light on and then he starts laughing harder - he had picked up my glasses and put them on and thought he had lost his lenses until he realized what he had done and then - oh my gosh I haven't laughed sooo hard..... Well, it didn't end there, but I will.

The road trip back was great, just one little problem. I forgot that Bill doesn't like to drive at night, and I took my turn first. That meant that when it started getting dark - Levi had to drive. I just sat in the backseat, closed my eyes, and tried to convince myself that flying over the Dam wasn't going to be that bad!

Trip to Logan

We went to Logan on Friday, Sept. 27 to help with a project, visit, and celebrate a very important birthday. The project consisted of laying about 7500 sq. ft. of sod. The neighbors came over to help along with relatives - it took about four hours of intensive labor. Afterwards we had pizza and pop for everyone.



Saturday we celebrated Mason's 1st birthday. He had lots of cousins, grandparents, a great-grandpa, uncles, and aunts to help him celebrate. His mother made three beautifully decorated cakes that tasted just as fantastic as they looked. One cake was specifically made for Mason by his mother and that's the one in the picture. His mom let him dig into that cake all by himself and he thoroughly enjoyed it - I envied him. We had a fantastic visit. Mason's newest cousins were at his party - twins just born two weeks ago.

While I was at work one day Bill took a trip with (from l to r) his brother Dan, Dan's wife, Nancy, Bill, and Bill and Dan's sister, Kathy. They took a tour of Salt Lake and had a great time. Kathy and her husband, Clark, were visiting from Council Bluff, IA. They need to plan when I can go - I know the best places to eat.

A Labor Weekend of Love

Tom called Thursday night and was in need of a babysitter for Friday and, you guessed it, we just happened to be able to work things out. J had told Tom and Julie the next time he came to Grandma and Grandpa's he would stay for three days. He was right! I have to give a lot of credit to Richard for Friday - he works four tens and opted out of working Friday for overtime so he could help Tom out - both Bill and I had to work Friday. Well, Julie needed to work Saturday and so Grandma suggested we just keep them Saturday night so B and J could go to Church with us on Sunday. We received a call from Michael and Mati was not feeling well and was running a temperature - they ended up taking her to the emergency room Saturday night and finding out she is just like Grandpa - beginning stages of pneumonia! She is doing much better now.

J heard me talking with Kristina about going to visit her Sunday afternoon and returning Monday, he made it clear that he just had to go too and visit Carter and Tyler. Well, that's what he ended up doing . We dropped B off on Sunday and after stopping to check on Mati and then we proceeded to Logan. We had a great time and arrived back home Monday around 5:00 PM.

Needlesstosay, we had a great long weekend! The weather started out windy and raining, but ended up being a perfect drive home with clear beautiful skies and the feeling of crisp autumn weather.