So we arrived in Hyrum about 10:30 PM ... and after a brief visit, we crashed!
We did various things at Dan and Cheryl's house. We went out to lunch with Cheryl, Kenya, Yzabel and Camden at McDonald's and picked up some Look-See-Do items at the Dollar Store. We had dinner at Cheryl's parents house with some of the Hill family who were visiting for the holidays. (Very yummy chicken pesto sandwiches and fun helping with a from-scratch gingerbread house!) Friday we had dinner at Dan's next door neighbor's house. Joyce attended Hiram Johnson Senior High School in Sacramento at the same time as Ron and I and assumes we are old friends! She lived on Lemon Hill Avenue about 2 blocks from Kathie's home on Nona Way.
Saturday, December 22, we visited the North Logan home with our realtor and discovered several items that have to be completed ASAP in order to show the house better (clean, replace 2 bedroom rugs, remove lowered ceiling in kitchen, etc.) We also discovered more furniture and items in the storeroom than we remembered. We will recover them when we return to sign the contract! (ever hopeful that will be soon...) We did not get to visit the business that Dan was considering buying.
Here is a hawk that landed on Dan and Cheryl's deck after attacking a little Junco near the bird feeder.Saturday afternoon we drove to Bountiful to visit with Katie and Mike's family. We babysat while they left to celebrate their wedding anniversary in nearby Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, Baby Samuel was crying unconsolably when they returned! We all attended Church on Sunday. Ron and I attended their ward genealogy workshop class, where members were learning Legacy, a genealogy software program. The teacher explained some of the features to us, who are always interested in learning new things (genealogically speaking).
Monday was Christmas Eve and we were busily working away, when Katie realized she had not thawed the very frozen organic turkey. So after determining that 4-5 hours was not sufficient to thaw and cook it for dinner, Katie and I ran down to a local health food store and purchased another and some other ingredients. Dinner was served at 6 PM with Clinton also in attendance. After dinner cleanup, and Clinton had left, the children were allowed to open one present: their new Christmas pajamas! Katie and I stayed up to 2 AM setting up the teepee she had sewed and filling stockings!
In the morning, the children were lined up and with cameras running, allowed to check out their stockings, open presents (one at a time) and play in the teepee. Their family was due at the Hansen house in Sandy at 9:30, so they left at 9 AM. Ron and I stayed and held down the fort. We called Clinton to see if he wanted us to come and visit him, but he had skiing plans for the day. Michael's grandfather Dean was doing poorly in the hospital, so they dropped by to see him before returning home. We left their home about 4 PM to travel to Sandy to stay with Erik and Missy. We found Missy home sick, while the rest of their family was over to her father's house. About 7 PM, I started with chills and by 8 PM I was in a warm bed, having taken Vitamin C and Airbourne.The next morning we found out that Isaac had thrown up several times in the night but was feeling better. I was also a bit better, having done Vit C and Airbourne two other times in the night. Patrick said he had been ill with fever and chills but was feeling better. Missy said she was feeling better. Some mysterious virus - or two? A family get-together later that day was a serious debate: but we decided to carry on.
Dan and Cheryl arrived about 1:30 and others drifted in from then until 4:30. (Clinton arrived and promptly laid down in our bedroom; he had chills.) Dan, Cheryl and Missy worked on completing the assembly of the Air Hockey table that Erik and Missy did not complete for Christmas. A large crew put it in place. Dinner was at 5 PM (6 foot sub + salads, chips, etc.) After dinner, we opened presents and then proceeded to work on the Look-See-Dos that Jeni had organized as a gift to the Primary Children's Hospital.
The next morning found Abbey sick with possible Strept throat and Missy not feeling well again. I was tolerable. I drove Abbey to the Dr and she confirmed Stept and Missy's Dr also put her on antibiotics. After lunch, we went to spend a few hours with Jeni. Jeni and I organized some household things while Dad collaborated with Amoz' brother, Joel, about art. Later, Jeni, Aleya, Ron and I delivered the Look-See-Dos to Primary's Hospital. We returned to Erik and Missy's to check up on them. Later we visited with Baltimore friends, Jill and LaMont Hadfield.
In the morning, we loaded up Logan's Jeep, which they had left for us to use, and traveled down to stay with Pat and Kat. We dropped in briefly then went to visit some old Baltimore friends, Michael and Darlene Rhodes. He is a professor at BYU and was a PhD student at JHU when we first arrived in Baltimore. His wife has MS and he spends a good portion of his time taking care of her. He has written several books, papers, etc. He is curently working on completing an unfinished manuscript of Hugh Nibley.
Dinner was Sushi, which Pat and Kat brought home for us to sample. Pretty delicious. Their boys gave us a tour of their video game/TV set up in their newly finished basement! Pretty nifty for 3 boys and their friends. Pat, Ron, Logan and Christian left to go to the Orem Fitness Center to use the gun range for Christian's-turning-twelve activity. Christian decided just to watch - the noise was too deafening for him to participate. But he had a good time, nevertheless. Erik, Mike, Isaac also attended this event.
Patrick has lost 40 lbs in the last 4 months. He looks and feels terrific. He has been mountain biking, snowshoe running up the mountain trails, swimming and running. His goal is to enter a Xterra Triathlon (.93 mile swim, 24 mile bike ride, 6.5 mile run). While the men were off doing their manly-man thing, I was quizzing Katarina about their diet. That will be the topic of another posting.
Saturday, Dec 29th, Pat, Kat, Ron and I went down to Provo to visit with Ron's Aunt Zelda and Uncle Jay at an assisted living center. They are within months of turning 90! Zelda is the most frail; but both have some health issues. It was wonderful visiting with them. They had some pretty funny stories to tell - one about Ron when he was a child!
Meanwhile, in quiet moments, I was still trying to update my computer with iTunes, Picasso and various other things that were lost in my latest "RESTORE" right before we left. Dad bought another portable hard drive so we can each have our own and figured out how to have it automatically save my materials each night at 7 PM. Hopefully that should help with that problem. Computer genius son, Patrick, also is in the process of trying to fix my old computer's hard drive enough to get some of the data off that. Hopefully that will be completed before we leave tomorrow morning!
Our next adventure will start tomorrow in sunny California visiting daughter, Rachael, hubby Steve and their four children!
