Both Devoted Wife and I forgot to pack warm clothes for our trip to Utah for Memorial Day weekend. Seeing as I grew up there and Devoted Wife went to college and grad school there, you'd think we'd remember that it can get cold in May at 5,000 feet above sea level. But since Memorial Day weekend is supposed to be a time for barbeques, lawn darts and shorts, we packed a little light. Luckily we were able to ransack my parents closets once we arrived and come up with some good, warm clothes.
Within minutes of me arriving at my parents house the phone rang. Devoted Wife had arranged with my sister and her husband Ray for us to do a little off-roading, and they arrived to pick us up in Ray's pride and joy International Scout II. As an aside, this vehicle has to be one of the best off-roaders there is. My grandpa had one when I was a kid and my first experience driving it was when I was fishing with him at age 8, and he tossed me the keys and told me to hike back downstream and get the Scout and come back up and pick him up. I made it back to the car, but because I had no idea what the clutch was I was still trying to start the car 45 minutes later when he showed up. He was visibly frustrated with his 8-year-old grandson who was obviously an incompetent driver. He impatiently reminded me that my dad could drive the tractor when he was 6 years old.
Anyway, Ray and Margo arrived and picked us up and drove us up to the foothills overlooking the valley. The elevation here is certainly a Mile High, and there's a great view all around the valley.
Within minutes of me arriving at my parents house the phone rang. Devoted Wife had arranged with my sister and her husband Ray for us to do a little off-roading, and they arrived to pick us up in Ray's pride and joy International Scout II. As an aside, this vehicle has to be one of the best off-roaders there is. My grandpa had one when I was a kid and my first experience driving it was when I was fishing with him at age 8, and he tossed me the keys and told me to hike back downstream and get the Scout and come back up and pick him up. I made it back to the car, but because I had no idea what the clutch was I was still trying to start the car 45 minutes later when he showed up. He was visibly frustrated with his 8-year-old grandson who was obviously an incompetent driver. He impatiently reminded me that my dad could drive the tractor when he was 6 years old.
Anyway, Ray and Margo arrived and picked us up and drove us up to the foothills overlooking the valley. The elevation here is certainly a Mile High, and there's a great view all around the valley.
We had a great time on our ride, and once we were back on safer ground (where our thoughts were no longer occupied with determining the number of times the Scout could roll before we'd have no absolutely chance of surviving), Ray let Devoted Wife and I each put the Scout through its paces around the muddy hillsides.
All of my siblings (other than the one currently in Brazil doing missionary work) were in town for this weekend, and we'd offered as few weeks before (it may be pushing the definition of the word offer) to help my mom declutter her house and go through her storage and determine what she no longer wanted and could sell at a yard sale. After sorting through items all Friday, we were able to accomplish a successful yard sale on Saturday. While my mom had a few close calls, no one ultimately had to call the paramedics to prevent her from going into cardiac arrest when she saw some of the treasures that we wanted her to part with. Seriously, mom did great; I'm sure we were too pushy in trying to get her to get rid of a few things that she really wanted to keep, but we asked ourselves this question: is 50 throw pillows enough for one woman to own?
Baby Kate was in overstimulation mode all weekend with her 14 cousins. My parents have 15 grandchildren under the age of 8, with two more on the way, and they were all together for nearly the entire weekend. Here's Kate (second to youngest) with her oldest cousin, Sarah, who's the ripe old age of 7:
Baby Kate was in overstimulation mode all weekend with her 14 cousins. My parents have 15 grandchildren under the age of 8, with two more on the way, and they were all together for nearly the entire weekend. Here's Kate (second to youngest) with her oldest cousin, Sarah, who's the ripe old age of 7:
Sarah's already a great babysitter, and if we can just get her to move to California we'll be set.
We had a great time with my family and after 4 days all together, I think we were all ready for a rest. Kate was great on the flight home, once again charming all of the passengers (including the 50-year-old Alice Cooper look-alike who sat behind us and played an hour-long game of "Way High!" with Kate all the way through the flight). With all of the people who keep telling us how cute our daughter is, I keep racking my brain to try to figure out how to make a few bucks with her. There's got to be an angle . . . . Guess I should write to Dina Lohan for some advice.
We had a great time with my family and after 4 days all together, I think we were all ready for a rest. Kate was great on the flight home, once again charming all of the passengers (including the 50-year-old Alice Cooper look-alike who sat behind us and played an hour-long game of "Way High!" with Kate all the way through the flight). With all of the people who keep telling us how cute our daughter is, I keep racking my brain to try to figure out how to make a few bucks with her. There's got to be an angle . . . . Guess I should write to Dina Lohan for some advice.
2 comments:
i have to think of some more creative ways to say this because "YOUR BABY IS TOO CUTE TO BELIEVE" is going to get old eventually. i just want to eat her up.
Fun times with the family - and the off roading! That place looks like a mountain I thought I would roll down in High School - somewhere in Davis County maybe???
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