Greetings from Ogden, Utah this lovely Sunday morning. We are at Sarah's but will be transferring to Grantsville this evening to stay with Steve's sister, Michelle. It has been a great trip so far...but, I should probably back up and start at the beginning of the week:
Monday morning, still in Saint Louis, was working in the yard and planting the items I picked up from Gateway Greening that rainy Saturday. The afternoon was Southerland music lesson day since I was at the Honda dealership most of Friday. Tuesday afternoon was our departure time but we had Larkin over for preschool in the morning. Aside from playing with all my stuffed lambs, she helped me water all the plants I had just put into the ground the day before.
Emily helped me drop our Honda back at the dealership where it will stay until it is fixed and until we return home. Linus was a bit of a concern all day because he had been having diarrhea since Saturday and we thought that the can of special food I bought at PetSmart that day would take care of the problem. Sunday and Monday he seemed fine but Monday night, he was up four times to go outside and we knew we better not leave without trying to solve his digestive problems. So, we had to fit a trip to the vet into an already rather tight schedule. He got some anti-diarrhea pills, a probiotic to sprinkle on his food, and some even more special food to eat. And, then it was time for Beckie to drive us to the airport. She is taking care of the dogs - sleeping with them at our place but bringing them to her place during the day. Here they are chilling out with her - Sally decided that dirty laundry and power cords were the most comfortable spot. Linus definitely made the better sleeping location choice, I think.
Beckie reports that Linus is back to normal pooping as of Thursday. Hooray!
Our flight to Salt Lake City left at 6:30 and we followed the sunset, landing just as the sun went down over the Great Salt Lake. It was pretty cool. Steve slept most of the way and I watched movies. I finished "The Personal History of David Copperfield" which I had started on my flight home from Arizona back in February. When I logged on to Southwest's inflight WiFi and tapped that movie, it started where I had left off! Creepy. The movie turned out to be pretty good - kind of a qwirky adaptation but the basic story line was true to the book. I tried to watch the new Dr. Doolittle movie with Robert Downey Jr. but it was awful so I started to watch "On The Basis of Sex" and, so far, it is pretty good. I will finish it on my return flight. Sarah picked us up from the airport and we stayed overnight with her. She took us to pick up our rental car Wednesday morning (it is cheaper to rent cars away from airports) and we drove down to Spanish Fork to see our new little grandson and to spend a couple of days. Little Ivan Sebastian is just adorable - very good looking - and, so far, an easy baby.
Kirsti and Ryan have a lovely home and yard and I was privileged to help Kirsti do some yardwork while I was there which is actually a fun activity for me. I cut out some dead rosemary (and smelled delicious the rest of the day) and dug out grass and cut dead branches from her row of blackberries. I put in a thyme plant and cut back dead growth from her sage plants in front. Alice was her delightful self and hopefully, by the time we leave, she will let me give her a hug. At least she will blow kisses with me. I must make a better effort to FaceTime with her more often and mail her letters so I am not such a stranger whenever she sees me. Aside from cuddling a newborn, and going to a store a couple of times (because we forgot everything the first time!), we watched two movies after Alice went to bed: Greyhound - an Apple original movie starring Tom Hanks as the captain of a Naval destroyer escorting supply ships across the Atlantic during World War II, and The Big Year (neither Kirsti nor Ryan had seen it).
We left the Merrills Friday morning for Ogden again, stopping at a Deseret Industries along the way to purchase additional shirts for warm weather as we didn't pack enough and temperatures were in the 80's. Steve and I both found two tops each plus I bought a new "summer" purse and we picked up an additional duffle bag to take back all the stuff we are accumulating while we are here (hooray for two free checked bags apiece, Southwest Airlines). Sarah, Steve and I drove to see the Spiral Jetty Friday evening and it was really worth the very long drive (the last fifteen miles being on a washboard gravel road) through completely unpopulated country. I couldn't believe how remote this place was. We saw no other cars or houses once we turned off the main highway and so very glad we had a reliable vehicle because if we had broken down, we would have been stranded. But, it was worth it! The Spiral Jetty, created in 1970, was the last artistic endeavor of a man who died young. Sometimes it is not visible when the lake is high but we had no problem seeing it on Friday. Had we brought bug spray (the brine flies were fierce) and had we arrived a bit earlier, it would have been great to hike up a small hill to get a better view of the spiral and to walk out to the lake edge beyond the jetty. Sarah and Steve DID walk out to the center of the spiral and I got a rather grainy photo of them. I was going to join them but realized I had left my purse in the unlocked car and there were about four other cars parked with us (although the occupants were on the hill or out at the shoreline). Being there at sunset was pretty magical, I must say.
Saturday morning, we arose early because Sarah wanted to show us the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge just a little north of Ogden and the best time to see birds is early morning or evening.
They have a twelve-mile auto tour that we took and we saw SO many birds. The mosquitoes were very thick (and the thousands of swallows were in heaven) so we didn't even open our windows.
This is a yellow headed black bird - there were hundreds of them
Here is a flock of pelicans. The entire outing was really fun.
The rest of the day was pretty laid back - we helped Sarah put in her raised bed vegetable garden
We had delicious Chinese food (that had a marvelous gluten-free menu) and we went to The Cupcake Shoppe to pick up dessert and ran into a former Arizona Phoenix Mission missionary, Ethan Jimenez, who was the counter clerk! Small world. (Steve and I are modeling our new D.I. shirts)
We watched Florence Foster Jenkins last night with Sarah. Coming up this week: a family gathering with Steve's brothers and sisters this afternoon, spending some days with his sisters Michelle and Maureen as well as more days with the Merrills. Steven flies in next Saturday to be at Ivan's blessing on Mother's Day. It promises to be an awesome week....
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