Comings & Goings

It's late and we're bushed, so we'll touch on the recent highlights. The Kurt and Kara Lyman family are in town for a couple of weeks, and we were glad to have them over for dinner today. Sammy & Riley both adore Haylie, and she seems to like them OK, too. Maybe it's not my place to comment, but Kurt and Kara are both doing Weight Watchers and they're looking good. I've been trying to exercise and eat better the last few weeks (doing better at exercising than avoiding junk food, truth be told) and have shed a few pounds, too.

We got up early today because we had to be at church by 7:30 for choir practice, since today was ward conference. Sammy & Riley were both grumpy about being up so early, and I won't claim there weren't some difficult moments getting them ready, but we made it. Riley was still in pajamas when we left and Sammy was crying but when we got to church they both calmed down pretty fast. It was ward conference today and the choir sang several numbers, all of which went well and added to the spirit of the meeting. Then of course we had choir practice after church, in preparation for Easter Sunday next week.

Yesterday we got a babysitter and went to Park City with Dan & Deanne, where we (what else?) shopped at the outlet mall. We all found some things we liked and had a good time without kids, except for Zeke and Tate, but they weren't any trouble. I'm sure our other boys had more fun at home than they would have had if they'd come, too.

This coming week Christy and the boys will accompany me on a trip through eastern and southern Utah on Wednesday, and then on to Grand Junction on Thursday. That evening we'll head over to the Kent and Kathryn Palmer house, which we're all looking forward to. Rumor has it the Easter bunny will be visiting their place Saturday morning. We'll drive back Saturday afternoon.

So that's our life for now. Until next time...

Happy birthday to me!

Vacation.

I’ve come to a new understanding of this word over the past two days. When I was younger, the annual family “vacation” to visit relatives in Utah or Washington was not really a vacation to me. Especially not the hours in a car with my bothersome brothers (they probably felt the same about me). After Bruce and I got married, we couldn’t afford a real “vacation” to Hawaii, or even the Pacific Coast. And with kids, even when we do something fun like camping, it is far from a vacation for me.

So in January when Bruce sent me an e-mail with an invite from the federal employees in Casper inviting him to a meeting on March 11, my birthday, he jokingly asked if I’d like a vacation to Casper for my birthday. I laughed out loud when I read it, but then I reconsidered and surprised Bruce with my answer: “Actually, yes.”

So here I am, spending my birthday afternoon riding into the sunset across the brown Wyoming plains, having the time of my life. Or at least, the time of my past few months. This trip has fulfilled my expectations and has been a true vacation.

We left Sammy and Riley with friends in Layton, and drove to Casper yesterday. Zeke has been great in the car, crying only when he’s hungry and smiling and sleeping the rest of the time. We got to Casper for a late dinner at a local steakhouse, where the food was even tastier than we expected (sweet potato pie!). The hotel was clean; we lounged in our room and watched movies until we were tired. Free hotel breakfasts are amazing compared to 20 years ago—waffle bars, (fake) scrambled eggs, yogurt, granola. Then I let Zeke nap, packed, read the paper, and had my own nap while Bruce went to his meeting. We had a good lunch in cute downtown Casper, Bruce dropped off one last award at the (tiny) airport, and we headed out. We even stopped for a tour of the Martin’s Cove visitors center, but it was too cold and windy to make the two-mile hike out to the cove itself.

In short, a great vacation. I feel refreshed and rested, and it’s been short enough that I don’t miss Sammy and Riley too much. Who knew I’d have so much fun on Bruce’s CFC road trips? And while it wasn’t as much of a vacation for Bruce, he’s had more fun because I’m here. How often do we get 6 uninterrupted hours to talk to each other?

If only next week’s trip to southern Utah and Colorado promised to be so restful. But Sammy and Riley demand a little more attention than Zeke. Oh well, today was for me (great birthday present), and we’ll have a great time next week too, as long as the hotel has a swimming pool for the boys!

Of birthdays and bathrooms

This will be a short one. On Friday, Christy called me at work and said, "Listen to this!" I then heard her making some tickling noises, which were followed by the sounds of Zeke grunting and laughing. It is so magical the first time a baby laughs -- I could listen to it over and over without growing tired of it.

We survived another Sunday. Lately the sacrament meeting routine is that shortly after the sacrament, Christy and Zeke head to the mother's lounge and I end up escorting one or both of the boys to the bathroom. Our boys are not efficient bathroom goers, and I end up missing the majority of the meeting. So does Christy, of course, but she does have the benefit of a quiet room and the sound being piped in.

Tomorrow we're driving to Casper for one of my Eagle delivery trips. We'll stay overnight, and I'll meet with some people and make some deliveries before we turn around and drive back Tuesday afternoon, which is Christy's birthday. We're taking Zeke, but Sammy and Riley will be staying with some friends. Normalliy I wouldn't have scheduled this on her birthday but the Casper agencies had a once-a-month Federal Executive Committee meeting they wanted me to attend, in order to present the top awards and talk to them about CFC. I still would have passed, but when I told Christy about it she said she wanted to come. So we'll celebrate her 29th birthday with an excursion to exotic Casper, Wyoming. We'll celebrate her birthday for real on Thursday, when she plans to make the chocolate wasabi cake she's been scheming about for weeks. Wish everyone could come!

Until next time.

At the Alma Mater

This week has been busier than most -- or maybe it just seems that way. Yesterday afternoon Christy and I took Zeke down to Provo with us (Dan & Deanne watched Sammy & Riley for us) for a visit to BYU. First we stopped to visit Emily Dunford, a friend of Christy's who lives Pleasant Grove. Emily had a brain tumor removed a few years ago that unfortunately left her with motor skills problems--just walking and talking are big challenges for her, although she's endured her trials well. Although she might claim otherwise, Christy has been a good friend to her, especially considering the distance -- she's made time to visit her and call her many times.

When we got to campus, we parked close to the Wilkinson Center (thank you, Saturday) and grabbed a bite at the Cougareat. Then we walked over to the BYU Museum of Art and looked at the Minerva Teichert exhibit for about an hour. It was great, but I think what really impressed me was the enormous Carl Bloch painting BYU has on display: Christ at the Pool of Bethesda. We strolled around the campus for a while after that, reminiscing and admiring all the new additions. I hadn't actually been on the main campus for years and I couldn't believe how much it's changed -- there seemed to be a new building or structure everywhere we looked. Probably the most impressive new building is the Joseph F. Smith building, which replaced the old Smith Family Living Center. It's huge, but beautifully done.

At 6 o'clock we met another couple at Ottavio's, a popular Italian restaurant on Center Street. Barett Christensen and his wife Heidi were nice hosts--he works for LDS Charities, and has been trying to get them into the Combined Federal Campaign for a couple of years, but meeting with some internal resistance. It seems most of those barriers have come down now and he expects they'll be able to apply in 2009, having barely missed the cutoff this year. Anyway, dinner was very good, and afterwards we went to the Marriot Center to watch the BYU dismantle the Air Force Academy in basketball. We had pretty good seats, in a section where BYU often hosts big donors to the school.

By the time we got to Dan & Deanne's house to pick up the boys, it was almost 11 p.m., and closer to midnight when we finally dropped into bed back at our house. But it was a fun day.

It snowed last night, after a week or so of relatively warm weather, in which much of the snow on the ground had melted. There must have been a hoarfrost covering the new snow, because it stayed on the branches despite the weather warming up again, and the effect was really pretty. I snapped a couple of pictures on my cell camera--hopefully they turned out OK.