March 2016

After that fabulous, but much too short visit to Portland the first week of March,

I returned to my other life.

You haven't lived unless you've listened to a recorder concert lately.

The music teacher enhanced our enjoyment by making sure these kids played all 26 songs they had learned. And then she had them play a few of them twice. Remind me to write her a thank you note. 

Here's a picture I have no explanation for, other than Makayla is adorable. And she has a blue mystery object on top of her head. I must have still been in a recorder music coma when I took this picture, cause I have no idea what that blue thing is.

Hailey and Makayla were thoughtful enough to dye a bunch of eggs

which we promised never to eat. Shh! Don't tell but we took them on a little road trip with us the next day.

We drove over to Boise.

Stan's best friend from childhood, Alan Gergen, was sealed to his wife, Juneanne in the Boise temple.

We had way too much fun together.

We had a beautiful, nearly snow-free drive to Boise and back.

Our favorite gang of elk were wandering around. A gang--isn't that a grand name for a group of animals?

The drive through Idaho is always interesting.

We managed to hit Nielsen's Frozen Custard coming AND going. I've had serious and unpleasant withdrawals now that I don't have anyone to visit in Rexburg.

Hailey had a couple of dental visits this month. Hailey's greatest anxiety in life is the dentist. I took her the first time, Amy the second. I did at least three weeks' worth of serious cardio exercise holding her down and talking her though it while the dentist removed two baby teeth that refused to be pushed out of the way by her completely grown-in permanent teeth. 

The second visit was for a cavity, and they tranquilized Hailey into near oblivion for Amy, then I picked her up and took her back to school. Next time I get the second appointment duty.

The school called about fifteen minutes after I dropped her off to say she couldn't stay awake. 

It seems the dental tranquilizer really, really, works. She spent the rest of the day with me doing various levels of this:

About the time school was over, Hailey finally regained consciousness. Hmm. I wonder how that timing happened?

She is currently having a "green machine" obsession.

Our most significant family event of the month was Grandpa's birthday.

We put together some food 

invited some old friends (including McKay's grandparents on the bench),

and partied!

There were quite a few well-wishers, including family and friends,

  the sister and sister-in-laws,

the brothers and brother-in-law,

the kids,

the original Joneses,

and all the rest. Happy birthday, Dad! Here's to 90 more!

Pre-Wedding Fun

Stan, Amy, Hailey, Makayla, and I headed south on Thursday, December 13. I must thank Hailey and Makayla for reminding Stan and I how fun it is to strap little people into car seats and drive and drive.  I'm thinking it was fun enough we don't need to do it again for quite awhile.

After we got to Salt Lake on Friday, we checked in to a Howard Johnsons just a few blocks from Temple Square that looked just like this, only with cold wind blowing and sloppy snow in the parking lot that made wading through to and from our cars a barrel of fun.

We got a fabulous deal on rooms--do you think it was because we rented most of the motel for the weekend to house all of our family? We even managed to clean out their breakfast bar for them every morning.

Megan took out her endowments on Saturday. 

Salt Lake temple is still my favorite temple.

On Sunday morning Stan, Ken, Kailyn, Jordan, Scott, and Kelsey managed to get in to the Tom Brokaw/Morman Tabernacle Choir special broadcast. They thought it was pretty spectacular.

 

Afterwards we wondered around the Church's interactive Children's Museum.

Clearly Grandma needs better toys at her house.

Cute Ava, feeding the missionaries

and dressing up.

Hispanic Hailey and her chicken.

The museum had "native" costume the kids could dress up in and dance along with computerized dancers.

A busload of kids.

Hailey, Brinlee, and Kailyn strolling outside the museum.  Poor Brinlee got enough cousin attention to last 3 lifetimes.  She's just so dang cute and agreeable!

Traveling around with such a large group is not without its challenges. We had a hard time finding places to eat that could seat us all in a timely fashion. We tried ordering pizza, and it arrived 1 1/2 hours late because "they didn't have enough ovens for such a large order". With the Backmans still in Idaho for their family wedding and Megan and David mysteriously MIA, we still were a group of 17.  It was good that we could walk everywhere we needed to go.

I love to watch the cousins enjoying each other's company.

On Sunday evening we returned to Temple Square to enjoy the Christmas lights and other things.

You can tell by the rosy cheeks it was a bit nippy, even for us cold-hardy Northerners.

I think we walked ten miles on Sunday. The kids were wonderfully tough, and never complained. That was me doing the whining.

Brinlee, delighted to be in Ashley's arms, momentarily away from her entourage.

 Of course, after all that walking we worked up quite an appetite and had to find another place to eat.

We managed to spill only 20 gallons of chocolate milk/milk/water this time, once again necessitating an enormous tip for our poor waiters.

We ended the day walking through the outdoor mall where Kailyn found the name of a famous Olympic helper

named "Ken Bassett".  Kailyn acted like she knew him or something.

By the end of the day, we were all clearly frozen, exhausted, and more than a little crazy.  Proof positive: the grandkids had a fabulous time running through the randomly spouting fountain trying to avoid getting wet in the 33 degree weather, and all of the parents just let them.