TRISSY@#$%&!!!!

It has been noted previously on this blog that Trissy is a digger.  She just won't stop.  And one of her favorite places to dig is under the garage.  There were the beginnings of some under-the-garage caverns when we moved into the house (maybe that is why the house is settling???) and I took some fine wire mesh and blocked up the front yard access to keep racoons or possums from taking up residence.  But, I didn't think much about the backyard access until one time, several years ago, Sarah and Kirsti came to me in tears because Trissy had wormed her way into the hole and they were worried that she might get stuck under there.  That is when I brought the wire mesh out and sealed that hole up - for good, I thought.  Nope.  Persistent old Trissy has managed to pull back the wire and dig under it and re-enter her hidey hole a several times over the years.  So, lately, I had been thinking to put a big pile of rocks in front of the mesh.  So many rocks that her ADHD brain would give up after moving the first couple of rocks and she would move on to barking at a squirrel or something.  And, so, yesterday morning, Steve, Sarah, and I hiked down to the Bear Creek and hauled back several large rocks.  As soon as we returned, I donned my work pants and gloves and closed up the hole.  Fast forward to yesterday afternoon when I decided to clean the refrigerator.  I HATE cleaning the shelves because they are too big for the kitchen sink - it is really an awkward undertaking. In the past, I have tried cleaning them in the bathtub and that was sort-of OK but this time, I got it into my head to clean them on the back deck with the hose and a bucket of suds.  Good thing I did (maybe it was a prompting?) because just as I was climbing up the deck stairs after turning on the hose, I heard a soft whimper and OH MY GOSH, I HAD SEALED TRISSY UP IN THE HOLE UNDER THE GARAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  As  Beckie put it, I "Edgar Allen Poe'd her".  Why didn't she come greet me as I was working that morning?  What if I had not gone out in the yard at all that day?  I am just dumbfounded over that dog. 

Today, I am getting ready to take the computer to the repair shop because I inadvertently downloaded a virus while reading e-mail this morning and I think " I haven't seen Sadie in awhile".  So, I go out on the deck and there she is looking very anxiously out the back gate at something.  It was TRISSY coming back from yet another digging-out-of-the-yard adventure - soaking wet (taking a dip in the Bear Creek or Oakland pond, no doubt).  Sigh.......

PLEASE, someone, take this dog off my hands!

The BEST road trip ever!

I just got back from a terrific road trip with Julina.  After traveling to Indiana and California and Utah already, it would seem ANOTHER road trip so soon after would be anything but terrific.  However, breaking up the driving to Utah into two days both ways really made all the difference.  It allowed us to take more breaks and side-trips.  And, we didn’t arrive at our destination completely exhausted from a 22-hour haul. 

We left on Wednesday, the 27^th and took the I-70 route.  We had learned of an interesting rock formation just south of Oakley, KS and, despite the 115 (?!?!?) degree temperatures, we took the 20-mile detour to check out Monument Rocks. 

As you can see, they are in the middle of nowhere off a gravel road.  No services.  No explanatory signs.  And it was SOOOOO hot and windy so we didn’t linger long.  They were pretty neat, though.

We stayed the night with my niece, Kendra, in the Denver area.  Loved her four children and their two-half-grown kittens.  We left early Thursday morning with the plan to eat breakfast at the first rest-stop we found.  It happened to be at a “welcome center” at Red Rocks (which I learned later is a well-known concert venue in the Denver area).  

As we pulled into the parking lot, look who was going to be performing that night!  

Security personnel prevented us from lingering so, as we munched on our travel breakfast in the car, 

we listened to Alan Jackson tunes Julina had on her i-pod.

I had forgotten how beautiful I-70 is through the Rockies!  We stopped at a rest-stop that actually had a raft-launch/beach on the Colorado River that was running parallel to the interstate.  Here is Julina checking it out.

Nearby was a small mountain stream that fed into the river and it was so inviting, 

I just had to get my feet wet.

The beauty became more stark and barren the farther west we traveled and, by the time we crossed the line into Utah, it was a whole lot of nothing all the way to the connect with I-15.  We chose to take that route – rather than cut up north at Green River through Price – because we wanted to visit Cove Fort, a church historic site from pioneer days.  Brigham Young sent Ira Hinckley (Gordon’s grandfather) to built the outpost for the purpose of hosting  stage coaches and maintaining a telegraph.  

Brigham Young stayed there whenever he traveled to St. George.

This is Julina and me in the center of Cove Fort.  

From  Cove Fort, it was just a few hours from Provo and our destination.  

We drove past one of the many fires plaguing that state.  

Check out the poor visibility due to the smoke.

It was nice to finally arrive at Ryan and Kirsti’s place.  

Here they are in front of their quintessential  Provo married-student apartment.  

Julina and I slept on our own air mattress in their second bedroom and were very comfortable. 

Friday was a trip to Deseret Industries to look for lady-blazers for me to wear on Sundays.  Found four!  We had lunch at Malawi’s – the pizza place where Kirsti works – and devoured delicious GLUTEN-FREE pizzas!  They even had GF dessert pizzas!  We chose berries and cream with fresh strawberries and raspberries.  YUM!  Then, in the afternoon, it was Jamilyn’s wedding in the Oquirrh Mountain temple.

Jamilyn, Brad, and Kason

 Here are Julina, Kirsti, and Ryan. 

The reception was in the backyard of the beautiful home where Jami had an apartment in the basement.  There was somewhat of a breeze but the temperatures were perfect.  It was a lovely event.

Here are Jesse and Jeremy Davies - what handsome men my nephews are!  

Jesse looks like a cop, doesn't he?  (he actually is)

 

The Julis

Kirsti had to work on Saturday and Ryan had chores but the Julis and I drove down to attend the Manti Temple.  

It is a magnificent building crafted by those 1800’s pioneers!  We enjoyed a delicious lunch in the temple cafeteria and then drove back up to Provo – passing by evidence of the Utah fires:  smoke plumes on the east and charred hills on the west.  After supper, we three enjoyed watching Mirror Mirror at the two-dollar theater in Provo and then said farewell to my sister.  She was staying at Jami’s place to care for Kason while Jami and Brad were on their honeymoon. 

Sunday, we attended meetings with Kirsti and Ryan in their mega-meetinghouse which was built specifically for the demands of the hundreds of student-wards at BYU.  It had two full-size chapels and two Relief Society rooms and tons of classrooms on three levels.   Ryan’s church calling is to coordinate the cleaning.  Yikes – that is a huge job.  Kirsti is the chorister and she also plays the piano for Relief Society most of the time.  We were invited to dinner with Ryan’s family and had a delicious meal and a great visit before heading up to stay the night at Dave and Dale’s in Holliday.  The skies of Utah Valley were hazy with fire smoke and it makes the coloring in the Merrill photo a bit sepia, don't you think?

We took an early start Monday morning to begin our drive back east.  That day’s side trip was to Martin’s Cove, about 45 miles north of Rawlins, WY.  This was where the handcart pioneers meet with disastrous winter weather and many lost their lives. 

We really did NOT push this handcart - it was too hot - but we look the part, don't we?

This is a shot of Martin's Cove in the distance with the Sweetwater River in the foreground.

We spent the night at a lovely bed and breakfast in Cheyenne, WY.  Peggy and Harold were our hosts and their home was full of beautiful antiques and Native American artifacts.  The bed was wonderful and the breakfast Tuesday morning was gourmet AND gluten-free, thanks to the efforts of Harold.

Tuesday we traveled across Nebraska and made a stop at yet another church history site – Winter Quarters in Omaha.  We took a short tour of the visitor’s center and the pioneer cemetery and then made the 6:00 temple session.  

Juli and I in front of the visitor's center.

This is a shot of the pioneer cemetery.  The temple is just to the south.

another shot of the Winter Quarter's temple

Omaha is about five hours from Columbia so we still had a bit of a drive to get home.  But, thanks to Juli’s i-pod and LOTS of podcasts, we were able to stave off sleepiness and pull into Columbia at 1:40 am on the 4th of July.  We slept in that day and then poor Julina had to continue another seven hours on to Lafayette.  We didn't even go to fireworks that night - too HOT here - but we watched Return of the King instead.

Whew!  I am done.

  

  

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June 2012

Can it already be June 24^th?  It just seems like yesterday I was attending Art in the Park with Beckie, Max, and Sadie on June 2nd.  

 

 Bringing the doggies really garnered many "oohs" and "how cutes".  Notice Max in the purse I am holding in my left hand?  

But, time sure flies when you spend half the month traveling!  The week after our trip to Indiana, I got a call from my sister telling me that my 91-year-old brother-in-law, Eber Saniger, had passed away after a lengthy downhill spiral in health.  I regret to this day that I did not act quickly enough to buy “reasonably” priced plane tickets to attend my brother-in-law, Bob Bowden’s funeral a couple of years ago so I quickly went to my computer and I actually found some decent tickets that flew me into Ontario, CA (north and east of LA) where I would just have to rent a car and drive two more hours to Mojave where Eber and Judy lived.  I had hoped to fly into Phoenix and drive over to California with sisters Juli and Jerri but, oddly enough, the ticket prices were higher.  And, this way, I had more time at home to shuffle lessons and other commitments into the days I had left in the week.  I left Monday evening, June 4^th as the funeral was on the 5^th.  I am SO glad I made the trip. Here I am with all my siblings.  Jerri, Judy, Jim, Juli.

 

 I saw scads of other relatives – some I hadn’t visited with in over ten years.  And, of all Judy’s many posterity, there were only two grandsons and one great-grandson unable to attend.   

 This is taken at Judy's place.  Eber was quite the "collector" and, as I strolled around the property, I saw many cool antiques.  Antique Roadshow would have a heyday there!

I returned to Kansas City late Wednesday night, the 6^th,  and it was in the wee hours of Thursday that I finally pulled into our driveway.   Later that day, Emily and Noah and Lucy came into town after doing some photo business in Fulton.  They stayed overnight and Friday morning, we all visited Stephen’s Lake Park where there is a beach and a “sprayground”.  LOTS of fun that morning.  

 

 

 

 

Emily and Lucy left for St. Louis that afternoon and Noah stayed to spend a week at grandma and grandpa’s house.  We had lots of plans but it was just three days later, Monday morning, that we got a call from Steve’s sister, Michelle, informing us that his mother, Iola, had died peacefully in her sleep sometime early that morning.  After her stroke a year and a half ago, she just seemed to slowly fade – never regaining her strength to walk, losing her appetite, no energy – and the doctor warned the family that she would not live long.  So, this was not a surprise.  Now it was deciding who and how to go.  We could have just sent Steve out by plane but this was grandma so we ultimately decided to rent a van and drive with Sarah, Beckie, Emily, Julina, Steve, and me.  And so, Wednesday afternoon, on the 13^th, I packed up Noah and drove him back to St. Louis, selected a van at Alamo rentals, picked up Julina (who had driven in from Indiana) and Emily and headed back to Columbia to collect Steve, Sarah, Beckie, and the little dogs, Sadie and Max.  Melanie thankfully was willing to watch all the other animals at our house.  This included Bacon, Steven and Tamara’s dog, because they were on a 10-day trip in Costa Rica!  Elise was with them.  We pulled out of Columbia at 8:30 pm Wednesday night and got to our hotel in American Fork at 4:30 Thursday afternoon.  LONG trip but, thankfully, with everyone helping with driving, it was do-able.  The funeral was Friday morning and we spent the day with tons of Lambson family.  Only three grandchildren could not be there – Steven, Elise, and Jason Killian.  Again, we saw family we had not seen in twenty years.  AND, it was great to spend time with Kirsti and Ryan.   

 

 Sarah, Beckie, Ryan, Kirsti

That evening, we went over to Iola’s now empty house in American Fork (it is up for sale) and picked up some items that Steve had set aside to bring back to Missouri during his visit in March (SOOOO glad he had a chance to see his mother one last time).  Most if the artifacts are family history related but we managed to fit a small cedar chest (filled to the top, of course) in the back of the van as well as a tub of books and journals – oh, and some great gardening tools.  I now have a very fine antique pruner.  Left behind are two remaining tubs of family history that Julina and I will collect this coming week when we drive BACK to Utah for a planned trip to attend Jamilyn’s wedding.  On Saturday, we had lunch at Kirsti’s new place of employment called Malawi’s, a pizza restaurant that actually serves gluten-free options, before getting back in the van for the drive back to Missouri.   

 

here we are just before heading home....

 

We left 1:00 in the afternoon and arrived in Columbia at 10:00 in the morning on Sunday.  Julina, Emily, and Beckie continued on to St. Louis and poor Juli continued the additional five hours to Lafayette.   That is a LOT of driving in a short amount of time.  

Last week, aside from having residual tiredness, has finally been normal.  I joined the stake R.S. presidency in taking dinner to girls camp Monday night where the leaders and youth leaders were preparing for the rest of the girls to come Tuesday.  I taught all my usual cello/piano/violin lessons.  I watched Iron Lady which was quite good.  I attended my water aerobics class Wednesday evening.  Steve and I drove to attend the temple Friday/Saturday.  Emily and family came to Columbia last night after a wedding that Emily photographed (remember that photo business in Fulton a week or so ago?) and now they are gone after attending church with us this morning.  I prepare to leave for Utah on Wednesday.  And then June is gone!

We went to Indiana to visit Julina for Memorial Day weekend – we meaning Steve, me, and Beckie (and Max).  Here is Max on the ride. 

  (Max actually looked at the camera!)

 He is such a good traveler.  All the of Midwest was under a pretty brutal heat wave so we really did not do much but stay indoors all weekend – first there was lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant right on the square in Lafayette that had delicious gluten-free options.   

 Steve, Beckie, and Julina at La Scala

Steve and me on an artistic park bench in downtown Lafayette, IN

County courthouse in Lafayette

Cute kitty outside a shop in downtown Lafayette

Then, it was to the public library while we waited for our movie to start.  What did we see?????  The Avengers! SO GOOD.  Can’t wait to see it again.  Can’t wait to buy it.  I actually re-watched Captain America last night to tide me over.  

On Sunday, we had toyed with the idea of driving to Indianapolis to visit a lovely park that Julina and I explored last fall BUT, due to the heat AND the fact that the Indy 500 was running kept us in Lafayette to just nap, and visit.  

The pond at Julina's apartment complex hosts LOTS of geese.  Notice the half-grown goslings.

We left for home Monday morning and arrived in St. Louis a little after lunch.  We had heard a great deal about the annual Gypsy Caravan that is held every Memorial Day in St. Louis and so, in spite of the temperatures, we went to check it out.  Oh My!  Think of the hugest flea market, antique store & craft fair all rolled into one and you have the Gypsy Caravan.  We walked and walked and looked and looked and still did not see everything.  

  

Emily looking for artifacts to use in her photo shoots

 some of the booths were in a parking garage - so much more pleasant to be out of the sun!

 Steve, Emily, Beckie, and Kyle at the Gypsy Caravan

Before the trip, it was CIS winding down time – the senior dinner on Wednesday the 23^rd,  graduation on Thursday the 24^th, and honoring the outgoing middle and upper school principals on Friday.  After our trip, I really cannot think of what I did last week except spend time at the computer!  First of all, I spent a great deal of time getting all the Prairie String wedding personnel lined up for all the weddings we have this summer.  I am truly grateful for all the gigs but it seems like at least one of the group is not available each weekend.  Sigh.  Secondly, I spent much time looking for a flight to California to attend the funeral of 91-year old brother-in-law, Eber Saniger, who passed away on Tuesday, May 29^th.  I leave tomorrow and return late Wednesday…..my next blog will tell you all about my trip.  Oh, and I did watch a pretty lame movie – Transformers 3.  Pretty impressive special effects but pretty stupid story line.  I love science fiction but I just can’t buy into the whole transformer premise.  But, I got gig bags ready for the wedding on Saturday and I ironed so it was not a total waste of time.