The Big Birthday Weekend

So Mom turned 80 and I turned 50 (on the same day) and that means roughly 130 combined people years. Yikes. Er, I mean congratulations to us!

The occasion called for a cake (see above) and another cake (see below).


The top cake is the incomparable Costco cake. The cake you take to work the next day because you and yours ate only 25% of it the night before (because everybody has "just a sliver, dear"). The lower cake is from Nothing Bundt Cakes in Sandy, Utah (apparently they only make bundt cakes). This one was from my estimado esposo. The cake part had chocolate chips in it. The flower part had little stickers that said "50" (yeah, rub it in. The frosting's so good I forgive you).

But the big exciting element of the weekend was my sister Julie and her whole family (sans missionary Russell) visiting from Vancouver WA/Seattle/Fullerton CA. And they all stayed with us and we slept on beds/couches/barcoloungers/air mattresses and had great big Joey-produced breakfasts and dinners.

On Saturday we went to southern Utah and the Julie side of the family took a 3-1/2- hour ride through Bryce Canyon, riding mules and horses with names like "Lucky Strike." We met up for dinner in Tropic, Utah (population ~475; my brother-in-law Dennis' grandmother had the first known bathtub in Tropic).

Emma, Uncle Tom, Me, Aunt Julie, a border collie named Max, Jax, Ben, Julia, Chris

Joe, Emma and I camped in nearby Kodachrome Basin (see following 7 photos; it is such pretty country. And Emma is so ding dang cute.)

(She owns the rock)

On Sunday night we had big beautiful birthday bash at Barbie's. I regret we did not get a group shot of all 25 souls present, but so many of them were scampering youngsters it would have proved difficult. But here are the more sedentary types:

Tom-Julie, Joey-Denny, Dennis-Barbie, Mommy-Daddy

Barbie/Julie/Denny sang "You've got us feelin' sentimental, Shirley" (to the tune of "Sentimental Journey") to Mom. And Barbie/Julie/Angie sang "Oh Denny Bug" (aka "Danny Boy") to me. My favorite verse was:

"Oh Denny Bug
The pipes, the pipes were calling
When Emma nearly pulled you off the bench
You never missed a beat as you were falling
And your poor neck 'twas pulled and she did wrench."

(Referring, of course, to the "organ incident").

It was a fine party.

Speaking of organs. On Monday, we went to the organ recital on Temple Square and heard our favorite organist, Richard Elliott, play, among other things, "Danny Boy." As well as a kickin' arrangement of "Ride of the Valkyries." And Ben kept Emma completely entranced with the coloring app on his I-Phone during the whole recital. We love you, Ben and Jax.


It was a great weekend. 50 ain't bad so far.

Emma's Mommy Turns 50!

It was a big day today. We celebrated Denny's 50th! Emma sang the three birthday songs she knows, and we capped it off with dinner, cake and ice cream. 50 never looked so good. Happy Birthday Sweetie!

A Few Summer Thoughts

The other night I had a deja vu moment. So there I was. Watching Perry Mason and eating watermelon, while the sliding door was open and the wind blowing the curtains around. This was a distinct memory from the house on Tartan back when Perry Mason was just starting into reruns. Fine summer night memories, I must say. Channel 11 now plays Perry every week night at 10:30 PM. It is kinda late for me, so I have to record it and see who the guilty party is at another time.


A couple of reflections on the old show, from an older point of view. Lt. Tragg was quite a snappy dresser, with the hats and all. He also is prone to some funny, wry comments which have stood up through time. I still enjoy the end of the show when Perry puts the pinball into play, and the accusations bounce around the courtroom until the guilty party ends up on "tilt." There are so many episodes that I can't remember who dunnit from one show to the next.


On to other things. Kat and Andy came over for some holiday hijinks and food on the 4th. A fine time was had by all, with Andy sporting a new facial look. As you can see, alot of time was put into this look; there are varied opinions of those close to him. I haven't seen him since, so I don't know if the look has been updated or not.

And here's another one. Some Wednesdays Denny goes in to work evenings, so Emma and I are left to forage for roots and berries. A couple of times we have ended up at Chick-fil-a's "Wednesday Kids Eat Free" night of bedlam and no-holds barred wrastlin'. What an experience. It's like a kid's cage duel without the cage. The last time there, we stood in line for about 45 minutes to get Emma's face painted. Turned out good, but made a mess of her pillow later that night (I guess I should have cleaned it up first, eh?).


Then last night we were invited over to a friend's house for a great bbq and mix-'em-up. A wonderful time was had by all. Denny may post more about it later, but I thought I would put up a photo from the occasion.


All in all, a fine summer in deed. The Giants are in the lead for the NL wild-card, and have a great pitching staff. OK then.

"I Know Everything About Everything"

That's what Emma told me this morning when we were driving around. The other day, when we were also driving around, she looked out the window and said "That's a nimbus cloud." She said she learned about clouds on "Sid the Science Kid" on TV. Today she pointed out more clouds, then claimed to have all knowledge. "I know everything about clouds....and dirt....and tractors....and firemen...and alarms." (And here I thought she didn't know a thing about alarms.)

She's a funny person. Every morning when she wakes up she pretends to be a baby animal. I am mama whatever, she is baby whatever, and we sit and play animal games on the bed for a few minutes. She was baby mouse for a good long time, but she mixes it up now: guinea pig, hedgehog, giraffe, clam. One day she was baby chick and said she had 20 brothers and sisters. "Okay," I said, "what are their names?" I recorded the following names of Emma's chicky siblings:

1. Cute
2. Good
3. Pringles
4. Sprinkles
5. Wally
6. Lamp
7. Windows
8. Picture
9. Chicky Chick
10. Emily
11. Boxhead
12. Nose on your face
13. Nose on your knee
14. Yellow chick
15. Tetopoop
16. Totopoop
17. Eyes Poke
18. Isaac
19. Poop
20. Emma

She's in a poopy talk phase right now, but the more I tell her to not talk poopy talk the more she talks poopy talk, so now I just change the subject.

I saw Lindsay Lohan on the TV recently and muttered something about how cute she was in "The Parent Trap" but that now she's so bad. "Why is she bad?" Emma wanted to know. "Oh, she just does naughty things now." "Like what?? Like...does she yell? And close the door on her mommy and daddy? And talk poopy talk?" Yeah, probably all of those things.

Emma just finished two weeks of kiddy camp at her new preschool. Week 1: "Fun with Fruit." Week 2: "Trains and Planes." Now we have six weeks of unfettered time before school cranks up again.

She took a picture of herself the other day. She could use this as a Facebook photo. Everybody seems to have pictures of half their face these days.

Oh, here's a good one. I generally don't like to post pictures of my arse on the www, but Emma made such perfect little handprints during a baking project the other day. Kinda cute, don't you think? (and black is slimming...)

And here's what we did for FHE tonight: Homemade Play-Doh model of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, since we're going to the open house next week. Angel Moroni I made by printing out a small black and white picture, coloring it with a gold crayon, and taping it to a toothpick. A triumph!