Movies, Mexican and Mourning

Welcome home to me from my snuggly, oh so red bed.

 On Monday after I got home from walking I told Dad the dashboard indicator showed a low tire.  He took matters in hand and we now have two new tires.  

Then we got talking about what we could do to help Trevor and Nell with their difficult situation ... in the end we decided to give the kids a fun outing.  As it happens it worked to include most of the younger cousins too.

It was super fun because our group of 12 were the only ones in the theater, and the kids were all great.

Everyone loved Dumbo.

And, like their parents before them, they are good at entertaining themselves too.

When we got back to Trevor and Nell's our Adi had a little crash.  Oops.

 Uncle Trevor to the rescue ...

And skinned up toes to be kissed better.

 On the way home we stopped and did grocery shopping, and watched a double feature that night.

On Tuesday we finally got back to our Missionary study after 10 days off ... and took Ashley to lunch at Mama Chus' in Orem ... I found out that if you ask you can get a side of lettuce at a Mexican restaurant, but they look at you funny.

Look who's business cards we found at checkout!

It was so fun to hang out with this cool guy, who also happens to be our oldest grandson.

It was fun talking vegetarian recipes.  Did you know that this family of a few more than 40 has 5 vegetarians/vegans?  That's more than 10%, while the general population has just 5%, we also have double the  vegans since we have 2 (4%), and nationwide there are only 2%.  Yeah US!

That night we had a double date to see The Upside, Dad took a lady he ministers to, and I took my ministering partner.  They both loved it, and we enjoyed seeing it again.

But we hadn't had enough movies yet, so we watched the old Sabrina when we got home.

On Wednesday I worked, and found that most of the items I brought in to price were green and white ... Dad got to go to the dentist, and finished his book when he got home.  Then he left to go to his Barbershop practice in SLC. 

I meanwhile met up with Hannah after work for a Mexican dinner, where I tried my ordering a side of lettuce trick again and got another funny look, but netted some lettuce ... I'm supposed to eat two servings of leafy greens every day.

On Wednesday my friend Shirley came in and bought this old noisemaker.  I loved it and took a picture to use the graphic again sometime.  Its funny how many good friends I have made of customers over the years.  I met Shirley at work, then followed her on insta-gram then  invited her talented self to join our art group.  No wonder I never want to quit working here.

Dad was off at the temple, which is closed for another week yet, and he did some projects around the house.  Including rehanging our kids family pictures on the upper staircase, adding fancy new hooks to the armoire, and mowed heavy new growth wet grass.  He said it was a better work out than a full day at the gym. He did reward himself though, by making toast and using the lingon berry jam he'd bought at IKEA the night before, before his chorus practice. Ah the joys of Finland.

That night we watched the movie Mannequin and had faux BLTs and coleslaw!  We know you really wanted to know.

The next morning we had fun, virutally watching them place Emily's new house.  It looks like we'll get to stay there with them when we go to welcome their new baby boy next month!!

 Then  I headed to SLC to meet up with Joyce at Aunt Nina's to go to lunch.  When I got to her house Nina told me she had seen Emory's picture in the paper.  It turned out there was an article about the Sterling Scholar program, and the one year they showed the whole group for the state, happened to be the year he was a Sterling Scholar.  She was so delighted, she misses him so very much.

(He's second from the center isle on the second row down on the left.)

 Here we are at Cafe Rio!!

Then Joyce and I headed to Trader Joe's and I ran into Nikki, who I work with on Thursdays.  Its the first time ever I've run into her.  How fun is that?

Joyce and I headed over to see our cousin Sharon at the Senior Living place by Whitmore Library, and while we were there, her niece (Brent's daughter) dropped by and we got to visit with her too.  This is Joyce and Brenda, who's getting to look a lot like her mom, Darlene.

I got home in time to drive to Spanish with Dad to watch some of our favorite little people. When we got there, they had just come home from a rock show, and shared the rocks they'd gotten at a rock exchange, that were very cool, especially under a black light.  They also showed us this mercury looking stuff that you can heat slightly and pour from hand to hand.  What great stuff they do with their kids.

 So here we see Spider Girl stepping in to help The Dread Pirate Roberts as he takes down Indigo Monoya.

What a girl.

On Saturday Dad met up with about 50 men from the Elder's Quorum in our Stake to clean out Dry Creek, which is obviously not too dry this rainy spring.

 We had fun after that texting with you all to figure out a time to celebrate Spring and have an egg hunt.  Here it is, hope to see you all there.

 Then we headed to a funeral in Elk Ridge, the husband of my friend Sandy who I know from Book Club and We Can.  Such a good man, I told Dad it was the most joyful funeral I've ever attended. 

 He and Sandy knew each other, as reps for Novell.  He had a store in Denver, and she was his uplink.  When her husband left her and her 6 children because he couldn't follow the commandments anymore, Ray, who had never met her, felt a strong need to get to know her better.  This lead to him inserting himself into a family camping trip, and later to his selling his store in Denver, joining the church, and moving to Utah, where they were sealed in the temple. They had more than 20 years together, and though I never really knew him I always heard good things about him.  Those kids love him, and consider him to be their Dad.

 Here is the family he gained.

In other news, Trevor and Nell, et al, went to have lunch at La Cocina, Grandpa Carlo's favorite restaurant, as they were spending time up Big Cottonwood Canyon at a Cabin on a family get away.

 Then on Sunday they attended our old ward in Cottonwood Heights. 

It was fun to see this picture of the plaque that notes all the bishops the old ward had before being disbanded in 2015.  We knew 8 of them as bishop and one of them as a stake president too.

Today Spencer and Britt sent us a cute short of Van talking ... what a cute and happy baby.

It was also fun to see all the progress they are making in the kitchen!!  We can't wait to see how cute their place is going to be.  Keep up the good work.

Sunday was great.  After church Dad went to do sacrament to the shut-ins, and I attended my presidency meeting.  When we got home we did out Come Follow Me, which is geared for a week of study, but which we try to get done on Sundays, because we are trying to keep up our missionary and Finnish language study, and don't want to overload our mornings.  That meant a total of four hours of reading and videos today.  Whew, not the norm though, and it was lovely to get lost in the stories of Jesus' last week, and his resurrection.  Scott ran off to a stake choir practice in the middle of that too.

We also watched the last two Harry Potter movies this weekend as well, one last night and one tonight.  We're still only halfway through the last book on tape, but its been a lovely 8 months listening to the books and watching the movies.  Any suggestions for books to listen to on our Texas trip?

So we had a wonderful week full of time with the people we love the most.  We hope you all enjoyed your weeks as well.