Author: midder

Boo hoo, i know. Julie left yesterday morning for her somewhat-semi-annual pilgrimage to wherever the other 6 sisters happen to be gathering. This year it’s in St. George and it sounds like a rip-roaring time. For them, at least.

We’ve actually been holding out pretty well here at home. Lucy spent most of yesterday asking if she could “go have fun with momma.” Poor girl just thinks her dad is a wacko I’m afraid. I’ve commented a few times to people that I have no idea how Julie gets anything done. My excuse is that I’m trying to work, but it’s really only that. Though it was interesting trying to get on a conference call today.

We’re going to have a fun weekend, I’m sure. The biggest struggles are what to wear, what to eat, and going to bed. Lucy was up until about 11 last night. She is, of course, napping on the couch right now, gearing up for an encore tonight.

Tomorrow morning the 3 oldest girls are going to a birthday party across the street. So that should give me time to pawn Gwenyth off on someone so I can go cut my mullet. It’s pretty bad. I’ll write about all of the other fun things we’ll be doing this weekend. We just have to figure out what they are first.

Julie will be back Sunday night, after I’ve spent church with Gwenyth, Lucy, and the rest of the 2/3 year olds. I’ll be fresh, the house will be spotless, and dinner will be on the table. Or something like that.

The girls had spring break last week, Wednesday through Friday. And anyone that knows Julie knows that this means a mandatory going somewhere. Because we’re obviously deprived if we don’t go somewhere. She’s been this way our whole marriage, but knowing her parents I don’t think that’s how she grew up. Somehow she comes by it honestly, though I’m not sure.

We had a great surprise visit from the Bowmans on Friday. Troy posted a comment to this here blog earlier in the week and said they’d be in town. So, I called him and they were able to arrange their tight schedule to come on by. They have 2 daughters that line up pretty close to Abigail and Grace age-wise, and then 2 boys, who were definitely boys. We had a good visit. We both commented that we’ll probably see them more living up here than we did in Arizona. Crystal ran in the Salt Lake City marathon on Saturday. Go girl.

Friday evening we went up to Salt Lake City for our “vacation.” We started off with a nutritious meal at Fuddruckers and then went on up to the Embassy Suites. Since I’m a tightwad, I just got the one suite, so we fit 6 of us in there. It wasn’t as tight as I thought it would be, but it’s always interesting to try and get the girls to sleep in a new area. We had to feed our addiction by watching the rest of 24. There was no DVD player in the room, so we gathered round the laptop and finished it off.

Saturday morning we got up a bit late and went down for the fancy breakfast. We left the hotel late morning and walked over to the Trax station. Because of the marathon, we had to walk a bit farther as the station we were going to get the train at was closed. So we rode the train up around town and went a few places. The girls loved it. They were crawling all over the place, scaring not only us but the rest of the people there.

We went to the Beehive House, the Joseph Smith Memorial building, the Gateway center, etc. We were able to go up to the 10th floor and have dinner at the Garden Room. It was a great view of the city and of the Salt Lake temple. The girls (including Julie) were a bit too tired to really enjoy it, but we had our meal and went on our way.

Over near the Gateway center, we went to the Clark planetarium. We made the mistake of telling Abigail that they had some Dinosaur 3D movie showing on the IMAX inside the planetarium. We all got our 3D glasses and went into the auditorium. Gwenyth was completely blitzed, so she crashed out right when the lights went out, which is a good thing. 2 minutes into the show, after watching a dinosaur nearly jump through her, Lucy decided she had had enough and lost the glasses. She spent the rest of the movie curled up with Julie. The move was really great. Abigail loves dinosaurs.

After the movie, we went and walked around the mall. It’s a bit like Desert Ridge in Scottsdale, but a little bigger. The girls found a water fountain and figured that it was warm enough to get wet. They learned pretty quickly that it wasn’t like running through in Scottsdale. It was about 60 degrees. We walked around a little more when Julie found her mecca: a 2 story forever 21. Of course it was also the grand opening, so she had to go in and check it out. I took the girls over to Barnes and Noble and a few other places to pass the time while Julie prayed to Mecca. It was fun.

Saturday night we found a great Thai restaurant up on South Temple called Sawadee. It’s such a beautiful area up there and toward the University. The homes are beautiful and the city is very clean. I don’t think I’d ever convince Julie to move up there, though. After dinner we all came home and put the little ones to bed. Then Julie took Abigail and Grace down to the pool. The chlorine was pretty intense, as it was still stinking up the room later that night, even after the swim suits had been rinsed out.

This morning we did the fancy breakfast again, and then out to Temple Square to go to the visitor’s center. We ran into Aaron Davies’ mom in the cross walk from the conference center to temple square. Julie and I were looking down, around, and all over, so we would have missed her. She quickly recited all the girls’ names, asked how we were doing, and was on her way. She was with one of her college roommates. After the tourist stuff, we drove around the city a bit more, through the Avenues and on to Surgarhouse. We thought we were probably in the Steele’s old stomping grounds. Julie commented that she could see why it was so hard for her to leave.

All in all, it was a good time. We took quite a few pictures, which are at the same place as always.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

We hit a balmy 65 degrees last Saturday, which apparently marked the official start to the sunning season here in Utah. Some neighbors across the street bought one of those new-fangled blow-up things that you can hook a hose up to and you’ve got a regular water park in the front yard. The girls were upstairs looking out the window, when they started jumping up and down screaming due to Water World being across the street. So they got on their fancy new swimsuits and went out “swimming.” I think that the water was literally just above freezing. You can see the snow in the background of one of the pictures.

Today was even warmer. We were up over 70 degrees. But we’ve got another storm coming in tonight that will cool us off by about 20 – 25 degrees. So it should be fun.

The girls have spring break starting tomorrow, so we’re probably going to go do something fun this weekend. We’re thinking about going to the zoo or something. There will be lots of pictures, no doubt, so stay tuned.

My apologies for the lack of posts and depth of content lately. We’re halfway into season 2 on 24, which is taking up way too much of our time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

Happy Easter everyone. We had a good day today. Julie got some fancy dresses on the side of the road from some crack dress pusher a few weeks ago. You know the drill, she just *couldn’t* resist. Well they turned out pretty cute. Hopefully they’ll wear them more than once.

After a fun day of watching 8 2/3 year-olds at church, we came home to get ready for some dinner. We had invited her parents over for easter dinner. Our original idea didn’t work. So we started scrambling for a plan B. We found some salmon in the freezer. I pulled the van far enough out of the garage so that I could wheel the old barbecue out. I fired the thing up, it got a little warm, and promptly ran out of fuel. So I ran upstairs and did some quick research on the fastest way to cook some salmon. I put it in a glass pan and threw it in the oven. Julie found some shrimp in the freezer that we put in as well. All in all, it turned out to be a great meal. We had salmon, shrimp, crescent rolls, funeral potatoes, and jello.

After the meal, we headed over to Dave and Marilyn’s house and, as we often do, overstayed our welcome. I was able to hide some eggs in the basement and the girls went crazy looking for them. Abby got at least half of them — she counted.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

Well, enjoy the pictures. And I’ll leave you with this profound quote from William Jennings Bryan:

A few weeks before, someone had planted a little watermelon seed in the ground. Under the influence of sunshine and showers that little watermelon seed had taken off its coat and gone to work; it had gathered from somewhere two hundred thousand times its own weight and forced that enormous weight through a tiny stem and built a watermelon. On the outside it had put a covering of green, within that a rind of white, and within that a core of red, and then scattered through the red little seeds, each capable of doing the same work over again.

Where did that little watermelon seed get its tremendous strength? Where did it find its flavouring extract and its colouring matter? How did it build a watermelon?

Until you can explain a watermelon, do not be too sure that you can set limits to the power of the Almighty or tell just how He would do it. The most learned man in the world cannot explain a watermelon, but the most ignorant man can eat a watermelon and enjoy it.

God has given us the things that we need and He has given us the knowledge necessary to use those things, and the truth that He has revealed to us is infinitely more important for our welfare than it would be to understand the mysteries that He has seen fit to conceal from us.