Back From Boise to Magical Mona

You may recall that we drove home from Idaho last Sunday so we could have a productive day on Monday.  As it turned out we were so exhausted Monday that we got next to nothing done. (a couple of hours working on the blog was all we managed.)  We were just sitting in our chairs reading when Nell called around 3:30 saying she had a friend with left over strawberries from Pleasant Grove's Strawberry days. We jumped in the car and drove up there to get them, then went to Jeff and Robin's where I finished cutting them up to freeze dry.

Here are Dad and Jeff in from of the freeze dryer.

Robin sent me a picture about a day later with the finished strawberries.  We were so grateful to have something productive and motivating (the strawberries were not going to last) to do.  We also got to visit with the Heuers, while they fed us left overs from their amazing Sunday dinner.  I miss seeing them.

On Tuesday we puttered around the house, and then in the afternoon we headed north to visit Cheryl  Here we are in front of the Seville.

Cheryl was heading out for a walk and saw us checking in in the lobby.  I love her U of U enthusiasm.  We had a great talk, and took her some pictures of family members she had requested.  Afterwards we went to the sushi buffet place, where I did a much better job of eating healthy.  Dad says I can only go there once a week.  hahahaha

Meanwhile in Texas the Talleys went camping with a few other families.  Looks like they had fun.

About the same time Davin's girls were setting up a tattoo parlor and guess who their first customer was.  Good thing he has mighty guns, so there is plenty of room for their art.

I worked Wednesday and Thursday, the guy with the blue car is a dealer, who brought in his project to show us how much he's gotten done on Wednesday.  The red car was a customer who came in on Thursday.  He bought a couple of heavy metal pieces, the dealer had marked as pieces of railroad track cut up for paper weights.... hahahaha, very creative, the man said they were for hammering out dents in doing body work.  We're always learning at the antique mall.

Dad worked at Darby's as usual on Wednesday, but on Thursday he went back to the temple to do his first shift in literally years.

Because of his temple time, he wanted to work at Darby's again, to give himself a second day for the week.  He suggested that I could go junking while he worked, so I dropped him off at her place after 8 and went to stand in line at my favorite DI, the one in Sugarhouse.  Over the years I found some great stuff, as I was waiting this man came and set up a chair.  I hadn't thought of that, but he said he needed to, because he had been climbing a mountain that morning.  Whoa, he had climbed half way up Mt Olympus.  Here he shows a picture of himself at the half way point ... I thought Dad would get a kick out of that.  He said he does it twice a week.

The pallets of mask and sanitizer were at two different DI's, someone thinks there is no more need for them, anyway.

Darby's hair is almost to her waist.  Here we are heading out to take her truck to the shop.  There was a huge traffic jam south bound in from of her house.  We did some tricky maneuvering to get the truck to the shop and get back.

Dad was able to get the largest bedroom entirely sheet rocked, including inside the closet, all in that one day.  Darby headed off to work and called to say the traffic jam was not just on Redwood Road, but continued up Bangerter and included I-15 ... we decided to spend the night since we planned to attend a flea market at the South Town Mall early the next morning.

Rather than trying to drive to dinner, we looked on line and found this restaurant was just a mile north of Darby's on Redwood road, and walked there and back.  The food was really good.

At the flea the next morning I saw this Blue Bell Icecream freezer and took a picture of it for Sam.  A little our of its element in Utah, don't you think?  I also ran into my friend Nicki at the sale, though I think she found more goodies than I did.

Davin and Bri stopped by after we got home, and brought us Sour Dough bread.  I've been looking for a regular supplier, and had intended to go to Abigail's in Spanish.  The bread they brought was 100 %  whole wheat and had only two other ingredients.  It had herbs, and is exactly what I have wanted.  I may just give up my quest to make good sour dough, which I have been on since getting home from Finland.  Thanks you two.

Next I headed south to attend a barn sale being run by a former fleaology dealer, Brandon.  He is so very talented and has a personality like Ben's, so he is a pleasure to know.  In their add on line they said the Barn doesn't have an address, but pictured a map and said to watch for signs ... these are the signs, I laughed and laughed.  I was so very charmed.

The barn is newer, but has three cupolas to make up for that fact.  Brandon and his brother are reinventors in a big way.

I was tempted to take home one of these tin geese.

Here I am with Brandon in front of a rusty old corrugated silo.  On Thursday night Dad and I had googled fire flies in Utah and found that they are sometimes seen in Mona at the Mona Ponds.  It said the scientists who finally documented them, something like 5 years ago, after years and years of rumors that they existed there, had stood in the marshy water around the ponds in hip waders, just after the sun went down.  We talked about going down to see, but then decided we weren't too keen to be mosquito bait, after all.

I asked Brandon about it and he told me wonderful tales of growing up seeing them.  About the quiet life on the back side of Lake Mona, and riding down the water ditches with his grandpa as they went out to flood irrigate the hay pastures in the late evening, while sucking on green apple sucker.  It was lovely, and I left with a promise that even though there had not been fireflies this year, probably because of the drought, we'd be in touch about the best time to see them next year.

I stopped for a selfie on the way home.

and also stopped by their shop on main in Mona.

The best husband ever put up the sign I had bought, when we got home.  This lead to a chain reaction, -as he moved the Save-a-Nickle sign to the wall over the door to the dining room, (Anyone want the old doorbell), which required a little paint, so while it was out I painted the shelf extension in the family room created when we refloored in there and moved the huge cupboard over to cover the small window.  I not only painted the shelf but started looking around and found the never painted trim in the kitchen from when we tore out the tile, yes, five years ago, as well as the unpainted part of the window frame that was exposed when Dad tore down to the brick wall, sometime before that ... Yeah, I know ....

Isn't it perfect?

We did some shopping after that, and then met up with the Crumps for Mexican food.  They will be released from their current mission in August, after a year, and will start planning another mission that they hope will take them out of state.

This morning we headed to church as usual, then immediately after went to the care center where Dad had arranged for the sacrament all month.  He actually sang a duet with John Clark, they sang God of Our Fathers, and it was wonderful.  I also got to speak and told the story of the Finnish man who saw angels when he was sick as a child, and searched for the true church for 25 years before finding it.  I am sure I have told you all this wonderful story. 

Its amazing to me that I have driven past Mona repeatedly for my entire life, and it took until now to stop and see the town.  I am sure it will not be my last time.

 

Celebrating the Grandest Grands

And here we go again, with another busy week.  It started on Monday with Dad and I doing projects.  I put together this outfit for this antique French bed doll to get her ready to go to the antique mall.

We headed out that night to Monkey Town, AKA Pleasant Grove to celebrate Father's Day a bit early, as we would be in Idaho for Kai's graduation on the real Father's Day.  I had to snap this pictures of the grands in Trevor and Nell's back yard doing yoga, because it was a 102 degrees outside, not quite the stand 105 for Hot Yoga, that Brittany so loves, but close enough.

I love nothing better than a tangle of cousins.

Here's a cute shot of the youngest participant, Mac.  Brit and Spencer had some car trouble, and we were sad to miss them.

Eva was kind enough to run around and take some pictures for me.

Didn't she do a great job!?

It was good to have Dallas come, it was our first time to see him in almost two years. 

Trevor and Nell apparently have the perfect rolling hill.

Titan got a little carried away in his hill roll.

We took Eva home with us so I could make her breakfast in bed.  I took her to Payson Market Monday night to choose her breakfast foods.  She ended up deciding on sushi, so when I got up around 7 she was already awake, so I had her come down so she could learn to make it.  So no breakfast in bed, but she seemed to enjoy learning how its done.  Here she is cooling the rice.

We did a traditional roll, an inside out roll (Which I just learned to do the last time we were at Britt's in Idaho) and a panko crusted one.

Happy Breakfast in PJ's.

Eva and I headed to DI, and got there just after opening.  I still managed to find a few things.  Then I drafted Eva to be my partner in crime in checking out the newish shipping container complex that Legends Motorcycles has built on their property next to DI.  I have admired it, and thought it was time to explore.  

The complex was open but no one was around.  We had thought we'd get an Italian soda at the coffee shop, but no one was inside.  Alas.

When we got back to the house I finished making the dress for the other doll I had found in my old work room, to take her to the mall as well.

Eva made me laugh when she said this picture looks like the French doll is taking a selfie because of her side glancing eyes, and her arm being out.  That made me laugh.

In talking to Eva she had mentioned that her favorite actor is Tom Hanks, she had loved him in Mr. Roger's neighborhood, but admitted she had never see any of his other movies.  So we got out Sleepless in Seattle and watched our first movie in the family room since being home.

After the movie we picked up our friend Janis and the four of us went to see Cruella for $5 at the recliner theater in Spanish.  Dad headed off to his Presidency meeting afterwards, and I took Eva home.  

We are enjoying Hollyhock time again.  Its amazing that these are all volunteers.  We are guessing that birds who have eaten the seeds must sit and on the fence and drop some. We have about 8 different clusters, and they are all different colors.

Dad spent Wednesday working at Darby's as well as Thursday.  Here are some shots of the progress he is making.

I went to the antique mall, though I was not working, and worked on some displays, as you see.  Then I headed home stopping at Macey's to get stuff for Dad to make rootbeer again.

Here are two friends from the ward who I visited with, Janis and Jia Xin, at the ward picnic in Benjamin.

Here we are with Emily who is the CNA who used to come help Cheryl and Grandpa Carlo with showers, which seems like a million years ago.

Here are the cool kids, Dad with Brother Cook.

I finally got around to making my 'girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes' sign for my heirloom room.

Off to work on Thursday, I was impressed with Nikki's flexibility after she took down a couple of chairs for a customer.  

Here she is taking down a couple of other chairs for the same lady, who asked us to hold some of the chairs, then called and cancelled her hold.  Nikki had said the whole time, this lady is not going to buy anything... and she was right.  Alas that's seems to be part of the job.  But isn't Nikki great for a sixty something?  Of course her career was as a gymnastics instructor, but still.

That night Dad brought home the veggie-k-bobs Darby had bought us ... yum.

On Friday we stopped by Davin and Bri's to drop off some stuff, and Davin showed us their fluorescent wall, that they have painted and some fun experiments they have been doing with their kids.

Then we dropped off goodies at Janis', as it was her birthday.  The pop corn is some she had popped for a little party she was having with the people whose apartment is below hers.  I thought that was nice.

We got to Britt's place around seven that night.  I loved it when Charlie came and sat between us as we were hanging out.

Mike's mom, Edi, brought flower leis for Kai's graduation. 

Edi and I helped Britt fold money for money leis, and we wrapped and ribboned candy leis too. This is just one way Britt uses her creativity to add to the family coffers.

And guess who is now taller than his mother ... she does try to make up the difference in hair, but alas, it has happened. They are shown at the open house for a million dollar house she is selling.

She did the open house on both Saturday and Sunday.  It was an amazing house, and sort of surprising that it is just 400 SF larger than our house ... I guess the neighborhood makes a huge difference.

We were happy when we found out that we would be meeting for lunch at a sushi place.

Here's the cool grad with his friend and brother.  We loved the U of U shirt, as he was sitting with all four of his grand parents and all four are grads from the U.  All for of his great grands on the Perkins side are also U grades, including two of them with masters.

The Mitko side

The Perkins side.

Reading our card.

Its fun to watch Edi eating with chop sticks so effortlessly, since she has always eaten with them.  Its fun to see her eating American foods with them as well.

Britt had promised Kai potstickers, but didn't order them initially, so they came at the end of the meal.  I guess when Mike makes them at home Kai has been known to down unheard of numbers. I thought it was fun the three orders came to 18, which is how old he is. I know he looks somewhat daunted here, but with very little help he managed to clean his plates. 

 Here he is with both his leis. 

After lunch Dad took me to my favorite Boise Antique Store.  I loved this patriotic display.

These unusual folding chairs were marked at $800 for the set of four.  I won't hold my breath, but I thought they were super fun.

I might need to make this sign for my kitchen.

Then we headed to the graduation venue.  Love this unexpected shot of Kai with his Bachan. 

all the pictures ....

Sunday morning Papa and Charlie found out they had matching PJs.

Mike cooked all day for us on Sunday ... here he is with the strawberry french toast and hashbrowns.

The raspberries were huge.

After Breakfast we headed to the local ward for church, then it was back to the house where Mike had continued his cooking, with deliciousness available to all. 

For me the crowing glory was the Creme Brulee, definitely my favorite dessert, so throwing caution and sugar restrictions to the wind, we savored every bite.

Here is Dad all loaded up to head out, before Alex lightened his load by a couple of suit cases.  Bless his cotton socks.  We left just before 7 and got home about 1:30 A.M., no trouble falling asleep that night.

We hope you are all having a lovely, if hot summer.  With Sunday being the actual Summer Solstice, we are reminded that our Finnish friends celebrated Juhanus last Friday and have fond memories of celebrating with them both in Finland and here in Utah.  Hopefully next summer we can continue the tradition.  Happy Summer all!