Author: midder

The 4th of July is always a big bang-up celebration here in Utah with Julie’s family. And this year was no exception. Luckily Aunt Marilyn was good enough again this year to get us all seats on the bleachers at the big parade in Provo. The difference this year is that the seats were on University Avenue instead of down on Center Street. Traditionally, we have seats anywhere from about 4th West to 7th West on Center Street, which puts us near the end of the parade. Our seats were on about 10th North on University Avenue, which put us right at the beginning.We left the house a little late (as usual) with Grandma and Grandpa Elcock piling in for good measure. We found a parking spot over by the hospital and walked over to our seats, just in time for the first of the festivities. It was quite a struggle trying to push a two kid stroller through all of those people. Then we had to find somewhere to stash it while we were in our seats. The parade was fun, as it always is. There was this awesome lady sitting by us in the bleachers who was a crack-up in all of her red, white, and blue garb.

It turned out to be a good thing that we were at the front. Usually we’re lucky to get back to the BBQ festivities by noon. This year we got back with plenty of time to spare. The traffic as we were leaving gave Julie another opportunity to point out how nice it would be to ride her “scootie” through the cars. That’s Julie talk for “I need a scooter, now!” We’ll see.

Uncle David and Aunt Marilyn volunteered (or were volunteered, I’m not quite sure) their home for lunch and stuff after the parade. They just got done putting in an enormous pool and we were all excited to go cool off a bit. The pool is pretty much a full lap pool that Marilyn swims in everyday. The pools here in Utah are basically concrete with this plastic/vinyl stuff coated on it. It’s pretty neat. And, as my dad and I both found out, very slippery. We both about killed ourselves stepping on the steps. Apparently feet don’t grip that surface as much as it does the Pebble Tec surfaces that we’re used to. Now we know. David and the rest had a great meal that we all dutifully devoured. Speaking of food, here’s the recipe for the marinade that I used on the day of Abby’s baptism. We’ve had a few requests for it. It’s called West Coast Marinade and is compliments of Julie’s sister, Lisa (at least I think it comes with her compliments):

1 cup salad oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup prepared mustard
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 cloves minced garlic

Mix all ingredients together. Marinate your meat overnight and enjoy!!

After the swimming and festivities, we scattered for well-needed naps and regrouping. Julie decided that Gwenyth and Lucy were too hammered to go to the Stadium of Fire, so they ended up staying home (at Jenkins’, that is). We were a little disappointed that they didn’t get to come, but it turned out to be a good decision because the night was pretty crazy. Lucy was so tired that she fell asleep on the coffee table at Grandma Jenkins’ house.

We left for the stadium about an hour or so before the program was to start. I got a little worried when I started seeing cars parked on the side of the road a good 2 miles from the stadium. I had never been to a BYU game where I didn’t just walk to the game, or where I didn’t have a parking pass. So I had no idea that it would be such a madhouse. We parked our mile or so away from the stadium and walked in. It was good to see Catherine, Annie, Patti, and Larry. Patti was the one that got us the great tickets. Thank you! Isabelle and Braden were there as well and they just loved it.

The show was better than I thought it would be. I didn’t know much about the music of Brooks and Dunn, but they put on a great show. Abigail, Grace, and Margaret thought they were pretty hot stuff sitting out on the end of the row. The fireworks were really spectacular and seemed to go on forever. It took us a few days to get home with all the traffic, but it was well worth it in the end.

Julie ended up taking the girls for a low-key fireworks show somewhere in Orem. Is there such thing as low-key with Lucy? All in all, it was a good day. If I was philosophic and was reading a book about John Adams like I was when I was a loner, I might have something profound to say. But, unfortunately, I’m not, so I just have this:

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. — Abraham Lincoln

Happy Independence Day

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After our enlightening time at South Fork up Provo canyon, I was a little hesitant to go and mingle with more of the unwashed masses at Lagoon. You never know what you’re going to get “up in the city” there. Aaron’s mother had gotten us all discount tickets from Deseret Book somehow. I guess she’s wild about the Lion House rolls or something so she goes there all the time. Actually, I have no idea, but I appreciated saving $40 at the gate. It turns out that $40 could buy us a Coke and a churro on the inside, so we were very happy about that.

Julie’s the first one to admit that Lagoon always brings out the worst in her. She seems to forget that she has children and just wants to go ride all the rides like a crazy woman. Somehow I forget this tendency of hers as well and end up being ornery about her ditching me to go stand in line at the Wild Mouse for an hour. But it all worked out in the end.

I think we were both surprised at how much Lucy and Abby loved the rides. There were these two rides called Dinosaur Drop and Ladybug Bop that Lucy just loved. Even today she told me that she wants to go on the “Ladybop” ride. She couldn’t get enough of it. Julie started out the day with Abby by taking her on the swings. Then she took Abby *and* Lucy on the Tidal Wave. It was pretty funny to watch.

We ended up taking her on it a second time. This time I sat on one side of the boat with Lucy while Julie was on the other side with Abigail. Apparently Lucy’s terrified reaction was pretty funny, because Julie couldn’t stop laughing. Poor Lucy was hanging on for dear life and her mother was busting a gut. Once we got off the ride, of course, Lucy was acting like it was the greatest time ever. Go figure. Grace, on the other hand, was much more conservative in her choice of rides. Her favorite was the bumper cars, the sky ride, and the train ride. She’s not so much a thrill seeker like her mother. More reserved like her father :).

Apart from all the rides, Lagoon has this thing called Lagoon-a-beach or something like that that is basically a waterpark inside the amusement park. So you go ride some rides, get all sweaty, then go bathe with the unwashed masses in the various pools they have, then you go get stinky again out with the rides. It’s great. Actually the water park was pretty fun.

Abigail went on Wild Mouse with Julie and absolutely loved it. She wouldn’t stop talking about it. I ended up taking her again 2 or 3 more times. Each time she would tell me which car was her favorite, which part of the track was the best, etc. I was just holding on for dear life, convinced that my weight would force us plunging over the edge. Fortunately that never happened.

Aaron and Julie ended up waiting in line for Wicked, which was pretty good apparently. Aaron and Krisanne were treated to the slingshot, boomerang, throw you up in the air thing, by Aaron’s dad. I don’t think that Krisanne has recovered yet.

All in all, it was a great day, if a little hot. I got to pay $12 for a keg of Dr Pepper that I could refill as many times as I wanted. Gwenyth enjoyed the root beer refill a little too much. And all the kids did really well the whole day. Even Gwenyth and Sofie lasted well into the night. And maybe the masses aren’t so unwashed after all.

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It’s been a busy, fun week. There are lots of things to update you on. I’ll try to do it in small doses. I just wanted to start off and thank everyone who was able to come and see us, especially for Abigail’s special day. She was so excited to have her grandparents, great-grandma, cousins, aunts, uncles, and everyone else here to share her day. The whole week was a race from start to finish, so we thank you all for putting up with us. Some of you who had to travel a great distance are home already. We hope that the rest of you make it there safely. It seems that the entire state is on fire.

Grandma and Grandpa Elcock and Great-Grandma Eslin arrived on Friday evening and presented what can only be described as Christmas in June to the girls. Many of you know that Abigail and Grace share a birthday, so there were those obligatory gifts. And we couldn’t leave out poor Lucy and Gwenyth, so there were plenty of treats and toys to go around. Everything was a hit, as always.

Saturday was Abigail’s big day. Somehow everyone made it in time to see her baptism. It was a crazy morning that gave way to a crazy day. But we were so glad at how it turned out. Abby looked beautiful in her new dress and she was really excited to have everyone. We found out later that one of Abby’s good friends from Arizona, Nate Mariner, was baptized on the same day. After the service, we headed over to Grandpa and Grandma Jenkins’ house for some lunch. Julie and her sisters put on a wonderful spread of stuff for the rest of us. The chicken marinade from Lisa was a hit as well. I got to take credit for it somewhat, as I was at the grill cooking it. Lisa made me look good, which is quite the feat, and which I always appreciate.

Sunday was another fun nursery day for Julie and me. Afterward we had some great salmon, salad, dessert, etc. I found this marinade for the salmon online and decided to try it. It turned out pretty good. Julie’s strawberry salads are always good as well. After dinner we decided to head up the canyon to South Fork. As the name implies, it’s the south fork of the Provo River. We were amazed at how crowded it was up there, and even more amazed at the demographic. The make-up of Utah is certainly changing. Despite the shock, we had a great time. The girls always love getting their feet wet and very cold. Even Gwenyth wouldn’t stay out of the river.

More later. And lots of pictures to come as well. I think we have a few thousand or so.

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Update: I uploaded a video of pictures that Julie took of Abigail. The videos are QuickTime, so you’ll need that plugin. Hopefully it works for you. Scroll down and push play on it. Not the greatest quality. I played around with different compression. This one’s really small in size. I’ll probably update it to better quality soon.

Update 2: The video takes a lot of bandwidth, so I put one of those “more” things in. So click on the “more” link below and you’ll see it. This way the video doesn’t load unless you really want to look at it!

June is always a fun month for our family, and this year has proven to be no exception. There’s always the end of the school year, which means the beginning of summer. We have our anniversary (11 years of bliss — a shout-out to Jij!), followed closely by the girls’ birthdays. Then there’s always whatever happens around the 4th of July (notice my jazzy red white and blue theme?).

Continue reading “Abigail: 8, Grace: 6”