November 25, 2008

Week in Salt Lake

It was nice to visit with Nana and Papa in Salt Lake.

We found out one of Lexie's friends from Rexburg was in Primary Children's Hospital with her new born baby. The baby, Evelyn, was having some breathing trouble that was getting treated. It turns out Evelyn has Treacher's Syndrome and a small jaw. She should be able to outgrow the breathing problem as her trachea hardens and her jaw grows. In the mean time it sounds like she will have to use oxygen until she is 5-7. I dropped Lexie off at the hospital to visit with her friend Adonia and then took the kids to a park and played with them. There was a small hill that the kids started rolling down which developed into races. I called the starts to the races and declared the winners. At the peak of participation we had eight kids in the races, four of them mine of course. A development in our game that I found amusing was that I started offering a dead leaf to the winner of each race. The area we were playing in was carpeted with fallen leaves. The thing I found amusing was how excited the kids were to win one. After each race one little boy in particular would all but bounce as he ran back to hand his prize leaf to his mom.

Lexie was able to visit with her friend Adonia. Adonia is holding Evelyn.

That evening I went to the Jazz game with my father-in-law. We were on the very top row but could still see enough of the game to make it enjoyable and of course something you don't miss no matter where you sit is how loud everyone is. Compared to other games I have been to at Energy Solutions Arena the crowd was calm for most of the game. Anything that may have resembled calm broke down in the fourth quarter as the Jazz were pulling ahead and Kirlinko solidly blocked one of Shaq's shots. After the Jazz scored on the turnover created by the blocked shot Kirlinko followed with another block of Shaq which kept the crowd in its usual frenzy for the rest of the game. The Jazz had lost to a couple of weak teams recently so I had been expecting to watch my first live Jazz loss. It was a nice surprise to see a win.

During the week Lexie was able to make it to the Planetarium with the kids. I stayed at camp to work. Lexie and the kids were able to spend some extra time with her mom and dad. They went to the church history museum, where the kids loved to play at the children's section. They toured temple square and Nana and Papa explained to the children which country each nativity set represented.

Adonia was scheduled to be in the hospital until Friday. Originally we were only planning to be in Salt Lake until Wednesday but decided to extend our stay a couple of days so Lexie could offer support to Adonia. On Friday we left for my brother Rob's house to visit and to see his girls in a junior/high school musical. It seemed a bit of a shame to leave Salt Lake one day before BYU and Utah played. I must have set a bad precedent by leaving Salt Lake early in that BYU didn't seem to stick around for the fourth quarter of their game.

Altamont

We had just finished the book "Holes". The kids were very eager to get at Rob's dirt pile.

I think it is mostly just to full fill my duty as a little brother and get jabs in at big brother, but I have trouble going to Altamont and not reminding my brother that the early saints had walked over a thousand miles by the time they got there and they kept walking. Altamont really is a pretty area. I am especially interested in the wilderness to the north of it which includes King's Peak, Utah's tallest mountain. I am hoping to find an opportunity to climb King's Peak with Robert some time. The climb isn't technical like the Grand but it is a fifty mile round trip.

The musical was a lot of fun. The title was "All Shook Up" a play which featured a lot of Elvis music. Rob's wife Becca played supporting piano, my nieces Rachael and Emily had major parts. They all did wonderfully. There was a lot of effort put into the sets including one scene in which they brought a classic Corvette onto the stage. I found it ironic that just that day on our drive over I had been telling Lexie that I believed I was finally mature enough that no matter how much money I ever had I would not spend it on a Corvette because it didn't really represent any of my life's values. Seeing the car on stage caused a definite lapse in my resolve. I'd like to think I'll stay strong but the truth is it seems apparent that I am living a virtue supported more by my current financial circumstance ( lack of $50,000 disposable dollars) than by inner strength. If I ever do buy a Corvette I'll need to think of some wonderful reason to support the decision. Get to the grand kids little league games faster? Bolster the American auto industry? Save metal? Well I don't have to think of it now. I really would like to think that an extra $50K of mine would be feeding people in Haiti and not just roaring around on the road but as my feelings during the play revealed my character may not be as strong as I would like to think it is.

I'm not really sure what happened to Saturday. It doesn't seem like the activities reconcile to a full day but somehow the day went by. I did have some nice time visiting with Robert as we hung a rain gutter on the garage he is building. I am really impressed with Robert's garage. He has done a great job on it. I know he has been wanting the garage for a long time. I think every visit to him and many of the phone calls to him over the last ten years have included conversation about the garage. It is fun to see him as close as he is to getting it. I am really happy for him.

The kids had a lot of fun with their cousins. (photos by Becca)

On Sunday after church I was pleased to see that my brother Dave, his wife Lisa and their little girl Anna had come over from Vernal to visit. We called my brother Jeremiah and were able to talk him into coming over without his fiance Krista who had to work. Jeremiah is getting married in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. When we asked Jeremiah why he had decided on Las Vegas he told us that the original plan had been to elope. They had scheduled their service and then decided to invite people. My favorite part of the visit was when we started tossing the smaller kids back and forth. Tyrell got thrown once but he was quickly disqualified as a candidate projectile in as much as he would lead his flight with his knee, not a nice thing for the receiver considering where his knee lines up when he is caught. Jeremiah even threw me a very short way to Dave once. I was impressed both that Jer could throw me and that Dave could catch me. Anymore it is very much tongue in cheek that I call them my little brothers. My little boy David probably got most of the air time and wouldn't stop asking for more.

We had a lot of fun tossing kids. (photo by Becca)

Super Nate! (photo by Becca)

The Party is at Rob's House! (photo by Becca)

Brother Picture (photo by Becca)

On the road again

Monday morning we continued our migration south toward warmer weather. There are some options in route getting from Altamont to St. George. We decided to go through Indian Canyon to Price. I was very pleased with the decision. I had forgotten what a pretty drive it is. We stopped for lunch at a pullout with a vista that reminded me of some of the places we had been on the Alaska highway for its remoteness. It is something wonderful to be able to fill one's eyes with a landscape that does not reveal a man made structure.

I really appreciate a vista that lacks man made development.

In an event of good bad luck we had a blowout sometime as we were coming into Price. I really don't know when the blowout happened. We were at half a tank of gas so I decided to be conservative and stop for fuel. While we were fueling a car pulled up and asked if we were aware we had a blown tire. We were not. The lady explained to us where it had happened so we assume she saw the tire go. The gas station happened to be two doors down from a tire shop so it was reasonably simple to get the problem resolved. The tire was in the same position as the tire we had blown in California last February. The tire is under our fresh and waste water tanks so my current theory is that the problem is one of load. We put a tire with a heavier load rating on. I hope that solves the issue.

Our run of good bad luck. We were only two doors down from a tire shop when we discovered this.

We arrived at Richfield at 5 PM and pulled into a Flying J. Flying J's often allow free overnight parking so it seemed a nice place to have Family Home Evening and sleep. We were pleased to find that we were indeed allowed to park overnight.

Random Tidbit

My kids now out weigh me. When we were in Salt Lake we all weighed ourselves on my in-law's scale. If I remember correctly I weigh 188 pounds and my kid's weights sum to 191 pounds. So now I am not only out numbered by my kids I am also out weighed by them.

Family Portrait.

I made this one link to the full size image because some people have been asking for a family portrait from us. After clicking the link, right click and select 'save picture as ...' to grab the photo. (photo by Becca's sister-in-law Jenica)