PICTURE from our CAMPING TRIP

TRIP TO IKEA

TUESDAY, JULY 07, 2009 Mondays and Fridays are my days to be with Jayden and Bailey while both Corey and Stacey work. Yesterday morning and early afternoon was spent at their house watching cartoons, riding bikes and playing with friends. Later the three of us drove to IKEA. Bailey wanted to eat there. On the way, Jayden insisted on stopping at McDonalds. I finally relented. He ordered a double cheeseburger then said “make it a triple.” On the way to IKEA he gorged himself. He said he borrowed a stomach from one of his friends to hold it all. I can’t remember the friend’s name. At IKEA they played in the supervised play area for the one hour they are allowed then we went to the restaurant to eat. Bailey got the four chicken fingers with fries and a small Coke. The chicken fingers were large. Jayden got a tub of Cheerios and a carton of milk, a bottled water and the chicken fingers. Bailey ate all hers except some of the fries. Jayden took a handful of Cheerios without the milk and ate that, and then he took two bites of a chicken finger drank the milk and declared he was full. No wonder! After Jayden quit and was up walking around, I sat with Bailey while she finished. I got a bubble in my tummy and had to do something about it. Bailey looked at me and asked, “Did you fart?!” She turned up her nose, picked up her tray and moved to another table. It was nearly time for Corey to get off work and his office was nearby so we drove there and Jayden and Bailey went home with him.

CAMPING AT LILY LAKE

Monday, July 06, 2009 Chris is in town and loves to camp. So do I, or at least used to when I was younger. Now I love all but the sleeping part. Judy is much the same. In fact, her idea of roughing it is black and white instead of color TV. Chris and Sierra drove up the Mirror Lake highway midday Friday with the intention of getting a camping spot at Trial Lake, Lily Lake or Washington Lake. There is no phone coverage beyond Kamas so everyone was on their own finding them. Jim, Austin and Molly drove up later that day and stayed the night in Chris’ pop up camper. Chris and Sierra took along their red canoe on top of their camper and used it on two different lakes. Chris as usual was very well prepared and had enough food for four people for each meal. When we went up we took along extra. He had the outside gas stove on the trailer as wells as a small gas grill on the picnic table. He had an extra card table in addition to the dining table that came with the trailer. These two he sat up outside next to the trailer and its attached gas stove. Judy and I drove up Saturday midday and stayed until dark then drove back home to shower and sleep in our own beds. Driving up we didn’t know where to go so we drove through Trial Lake’s huge campground looking for them. Then, since Washington Lake was next to it, we searched it next. Finally we drove to Lily Lake and slowly drove through its campground. There they were at the second to last campsite. I saw Jim’s car first then Chris’ and the camper. Were we glad to see them. If they hadn’t been there I don’t know what we would have done. Sunday, we went up early and stayed until a bit before dark. Niki and Greg showed up a couple of minutes before we did. If not sitting around the campfire we spent most of the time at Teapot Lake taking turns paddling in Chris’ canoe. Teapot Lake is actually closer to our campsite than Lily Lake is. Lost Lake was right there too, just across the highway. The mosquitoes were pretty bad but we all wore spray and had a zapper, a mosquito coil and a tub or citronella candle. When we went up Sunday we took two slabs of precooked pork ribs we had wrapped in foil. For lunch we sat them of the grill to heat through. It’s a good thing all the fishermen had their fishing licenses because two DNR (Department of Natural Resources [game wardens]) came around checking them. Sierra was bored and because there was no phone service there she couldn’t text Mark, her boyfriend. She said she sent over 4000 text messages last month. E-gad! On our way home we encountered four deer in the road. One of them bounded across just in front of us and we had to hit the brakes. One walked out and we came so close to hitting it that even after braking hard and swerving, we virtually brushed alongside in flank. Lynn and her two boys Wyatt and Cade will be in town on the 24th or thereabouts so Chris is planning a camping trip for them (and all of us). She or her kids have never been camping.

BAILEY THE PUPPY LOVER

FRIDAY, 03 JULY 2009 Monday when I was watching Jayden and Bailey at my house, Bailey asked if she could “go play with the puppy outside?” I wasn’t sure what she was talking about but I said “Yes”. A granddaughter of the Higbees who live across the driveway was visiting and soon she and Bailey and the dog were playing gleefully. Wednesday, I think it was, when Higbee’s granddaughter saw me outside, came and asked “Is your granddaughter here?” She wanted to play with Bailey but I had to tell her “Sorry, she isn’t!” When I mentioned it to Ethelynn later, she said that “She is very social.” I said that Bailey is the same way and I have seen her with her arms around the shoulders of someone she met just moments before. My Bailey is quite the girl. I love her to pieces.

MAKES me SHUTTER (Stanfield Shutters that is.)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2009 Nine this morning Niki called and invited me to help her move stuff away from the windows in her garage. Stanfield Shutters were coming somewhere between ten and noon to install new shutters in her house. We had stored a lot of stuff along that wall in the garage when we made room to park their cars. All this was leftover from their moving in. A lot of stuff will go in the basement I’m sure, but the basement hasn’t been finished yet. The shutter people arrived at about eleven thirty. They had told Niki they would take up to five hours but there was little in their way and they were out of there at about two p.m. While we were waiting for the shutter men, Alexa and I blew bubbles on the back deck. Then Niki took a shower so I went in where I could listen for the doorbell. At twelve-thirty or so, Niki started making Café Rio Chicken Salad. She put five pounds of Chicken breast in the slow cooker but decided it didn’t smell really fresh—it was two days past the sell by date, so I ran to Smith’s and bought some more. When I got back she couldn’t find the garlic and she also realized she needed some other ingredients for the dressing to put on it after it is cooked, so I made another trip to Smith’s. I got romaine lettuce, cilantro, a jalapeño, two tomatillos and a packet of buttermilk ranch salad dressing powder. After the men were finished I excused myself and came home. I had forgotten my cell phone and it was driving me a little nuts wondering if I had missed any calls.

HODGEPODGE

MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2009 Stars National dance competition was this last Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Las Vegas. I drove the paperwork, Judy’s computer and our suitcases etc down Wednesday and met Judy at the Las Vegas airport. We stayed at the Sun Coast Casino, well west of the Strip. Spring Valley High School where the competition was held is out that way also so we were able to miss the worst of the traffic. Jim and Molly drove down separately but shared our hotel room. Molly helped Judy in Tabulation and running back and forth gathering score sheets helping at the trophy table at the end of the competition etc. On their way to Las Vegas, Jim and Molly stopped at some hot springs in Meadow (?), and planned on swimming in them on their way home though I don’t think they did. They were running late. I understand Sierra and her team; Salt City Stars did well but I was working admissions and missed seeing her. Chris and Lynn were there but I only saw them as they were coming and going. This morning Niki called. She wanted to buy me lunch for Fathers Day. Mondays and Fridays Stacey works and I watch Jayden and Bailey so of course they went with me. We went to Niki’s house first and the moment we walked in the door Alexa saw Bailey and Jayden and the house burst open with yelling and screaming and running to and fro. I am afraid it was a bit much on Niki’s nerves though I was glad to see them enjoying each other’s company and having fun. We ate lunch at I-HOP. Oh, while we were waiting for Niki to get ready to go to IHOP, I walked Gavin. He is now comfortable holding onto JUST ONE HAND. At one time I held his hand, not the other way around. Doing this I was able to let go of him. At one time when he was good and stable, I let go and he took seven steps on his own. Of course Niki lamented not seeing it. We ate lunch at I-HOP then Jayden and Bailey and I went to my house. We donned our swim suits and spent two hours at the pool. At one point Jayden and Bailey were goofing off and Jayden grabbed her with one hand, held his other hand to the square and said, “In the name of Jesus Christ amen!” then shoved her under water. Bailey came up sputtering and gasping for air, grabbed him, said, “I take you for my husband” and shoved him under. He came up, grabbed her and said, “I take you for my girlfriend” and shoved her back under. Another time they were doing somersaults under water and a couple of times they faced each other, did a backward somersault, came up and did a front somersault…synchronized swimming. Hmm! My observation is that Jayden and Bailey are the best of friends/worst of enemies; the worst of enemies part lasting for no more that a minute or two; often only seconds. They are so competitive. Both Jayden’s and Bailey’s swimming abilities are improving quickly. For a while the game of the moment was, swim to Grandpa and wrestle with him. One time when I was able to get a good head start, we chased in a big circle in total amounting in distance to about one an a half widths of the pool. And they did it at a fast pace. Bailey also has pretty good form when she dives though I don’t think they went to the deep end once today.

WHAT A DAY!

MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2009 Corey flew out to Atlanta for work this morning. Stacey also had to work. That meant I had the two hellions for the day. The hellion part is said tongue in cheek. They were really good, just comically mischievous. Since Stacey left her car at her work (a long story), I showed up at their house around 8:30 this morning. We took her to FEDEX Kinko. The rest of us got breakfast at Sonic. We stopped at Corey’s office for a couple of minutes. We took him to the airport then Jayden, Bailey and I took their house payment to Provo and dropped that off. Since we were in the neighborhood, we went to the Provo Towne Centre Mall and looked around a little. It was approaching noon by this time so I got them burgers at McDonald’s. Bailey got a child’s cheeseburger. Jayden ordered a double quarter pounder. I thought, “No way is he going to eat all that.” So I didn’t get anything for myself. I told him I would eat what he didn’t. He took that as a challenge and stuffed down the whole thing. I think he had to borrow a gut to accomplish it…and was he proud of himself. Bailey only ate half of hers so I did get a nibble. From the mall to our house the two rascals chanted “Are we there yet?” over and over until we finally arrived—twenty to thirty minutes. Of course I pretended to be totally exasperated and yelled at them, mimicked them, yelled “shut up” and generally pretended to be going nuts with the din. That of course egged them on and they only slowed down to giggle at how badly they were “getting to me”. We were at the pool at a couple of minutes after 1:00 and stayed for at least two and a half hours. The first hour was spent (mostly) in the deep end. Jayden and I did a lot of diving to the bottom. He is amazing at how far down he can dive and how long he can stay under water. There were two boys around his age, one named Lane Benson who latched on to him asking him to teach them to dive and stay under water. Jayden of course was eating it up and worked with them a long time. They improved their skills but never came close to what he could do. The next hour an a half was spent in the shallow end “drowning Grandpa.” And what a fine job of it they did. At some point the bishop’s wife and four children came to the pool and their youngest, seven year-old (daughter) Teanu joined the fracas. (The Hansen kids are all large for their ages.) others; strangers also joined in and I got really beat-up. Leah, the mother expressed amazement at my endurance and swimming speed. I thought I had lost a lot in my swimming ability with age but I will accept the complement. I finally dragged the kids out of the pool. We got dressed and drove to their house in Eagle Mountain. We weren’t there too long when Judy called and asked what was for dinner. We settled on Fuddruckers by the South town Mall. We got hold of Stacey and we all met up. From their place to Fuddruckers, a good half hour, I endured the “Are we their yet” thing all over again. This time they got creative and changed up the tempo and volume and even the wording. E-gads, was I glad when we finally arrived and the chanting was over. Love them to pieces but it was nice to drive home all by myself. Whew