Fun in Greenlee

What did we do yesterday?

Cairn: We went on a hike.  On the hike we found some fossils and geodes.  We played in a lake.  We hiked and we had a picnic.  It was hard hiking and it wasn't easy.

Cerise:  We saw nature things.  And we took a picture with me and Gauge.  We saw pine cones.

Where did we go to do this?
Cerise: On a hike in the forest.  And we had a picnic.
Cairn: On the mountains.  Not Mt Graham.  We went on Daddy's mountains.

What is a fossil?
Cerise: When stuff are stuck in the mud it turns into rock and we see the pattern.  All of the lines.  And I'm thankful that Mommy letted me keep one of the fossils.
Cairn:  A fossil is a rock.  Well, no it's not a rock.  It's something that got stuck in the mud a long long time ago like when there was dinosaurs.  It could be a footprint, a seashell or a leaf.  And it forms into rock. And that's a fossil.

Were the fossils hard to find?
Cerise: Yes.  And I'm sad that I didn't find one but I'm really happy that Mommy letted me keep one of her fossils.  On the hike we haved to walk and pack up to go.  We had to look hard for them.  We also found pretty rocks and scat and it looked like rabbit poop.  And  Cairn made a bracelet out of a plant or some kind of grass.
Cairn: Yes.  The fossils were hard to find.  Very hard to find.  And we had to look very hard on the ground.  Daddy even found a geode and Mommy.  And it was their first geode that they ever found.  They were not looking for geodes but they found some.  And when we were walking back to our car I found the fossil back up one picture (immediately above).  I didn't know that I would find it but I found it because I was looking hard.

What else did we do?
Cerise: I am happy that we went to the river and played.  And that we found the geodes.  And we hiked and we didn't stay home.
Cairn:  We swam in the lake.  And I even found a big big crawdad.  I think it was dead.  It looked like an oval and some pinching thingies like the scorpion hands except there was one on each side.  And I even found a log that had a hole in it all the way through and the water was going through it.  And I looked inside and there was a black bug that looked like a black centipede.

What was your favorite part of the day?
Cerise: That we took a picture in our towels while we were shivering.  And that we played in the river lots and lots.
Cairn: My favorite part was finding the animals.  And having swim lessons with Daddy.  I even swimmed a little bit! (And put an exclamation mark at the end so it sounds exciting)  There was a rope on the tree.  Daddy tried holding onto the rope and diving in! (and put another exclamation mark at the end).  And that was silly.

Notes by Carrie:
We had been given a tip forever ago to look for fossils behind mile post 181 on highway 191.  We were told there were a bunch right off the side of the road.  We couldn't find a good place to stop after we saw the mile post... at least not a good place for three small children to scramble around.  But a mile further was a parking area with a bathroom and hiking trails.

So we followed a trail that seemed to go in the right direction.  Ok.  That's a lie.  We let the children lead us straight up a hill that was cleared out a bit but very obviously NOT a trail.  We fortuitously found a trail at the top of the incline.  And followed it in the direction of mile post 181.  And we kept our eyes peeled for fossils.

As the girls said, it wasn't easy... for them.  But we ended out coming home with a nice little haul of  fossilized shells and shell prints.

The plan was to stop at the upward side of the Gila River on our way home, but on a whim we explored Clifton until we found a good place to play in the San Francisco River.  Admittedly this exploration began with Grant saying "I think I've figured out where some of the locals go to get in the river."  Later on I realized he probably came across this knowledge from some juvenile cases he's handled...

Grant's admittedly favorite part of the trip was stopping at an overlook to look into the Freeport-McMoran mine.  Not because of the mine itself though.  As we were driving the kids started to get antsy and he wanted to talk it up a bit to distract them.  So he described it...  a place where they dig down into the mountain and dig in the dirt.  At this point Gauge laughed with excitement.  And they use big digger trucks and dump trucks.  Gauge's laughter grows.  And they also use choo-choo trains.  By this time Gauge was so excited and everyone laughing with his precious glee that we couldn't continue the discription.

The Wedding

The Sealing

  Part of the trip to Utah was going up to see the wedding of Skoticus, a friend from high school. We got to go early to the Sealing, which was great. The Provo Temple, and that area of Provo, are both gorgeous, and it was kind of nostalgic for Carrie and I to be there anyway, since we are both RMs and had last been to the Provo Temple as Missionaries-in-Training.

  Inside the temple, I was surprised to find that I remembered most of Scott’s family, even though the only people I’d ever had a meaningful interaction with was his father and younger brother, Andrew. Scott’s longtime roommate and best man, Logan, remembered me as well, and I was recognized by a couple of Skoticus’ other friends. I got to rib Scott about smirking when the sealer mentioned “multipl[ing] and replenish[ing] the earth”.

The sealer also had some really good advice. He said that even though wondering from time to time if you had married the right person was natural, that letting yourself dwell on those feelings could never be conducive to a good marriage or to your personal happiness, and that it was better to dismiss those thoughts as soon as they arose.

  In short, the sealing was beautiful, and I’m glad we went.

No, I did not take this picture. But it looked kind of like this at the time, except that it was raining.

A Three-Hour Gap

  We also had a few other little hitches with the 3 or so hour gap:

1. We were staying with my parents, who lived a good 2 1/2 hours from the Provo Temple, and we didn’t know anyone else in the area who would be home on a Friday in the middle of the day.

2. We discovered, during the gap, that Google Maps is not designed to handle the Utah grid system (thought this was frustrating, in hindsight it actually turned out to be a good thing: it took us nearly an hour and a couple of phone calls to find where the reception would be).

3. It was cold and rainy the day of the wedding, so walking the grounds around the Provo Temple or BYU, as we would have liked to do, was pretty much out.

  That being the case, Carrie had the good idea to call up the missionary couple who were at the Institute when Carrie and I were dating. After finding out our number for them didn’t work anymore, we had about three phone calls before we located Sister Iverson. Carrie also found out that Bro. Iverson had passed away that summer, so part of the gap was consolatory ice cream.

  As it turned out, Sister Iverson lived an hour and a half away; but it was on the way home so we got to visit her on the way back.

In short, waiting for the reception was kind of a bummer.

The Reception; or How (not) to Survive a Wedding

There are, in general, three generally accepted ways to survive a wedding reception:

1. In and Out: Come to the reception, say a brief hello to the bride and groom, load up on snacks, and get out.

2. Bring your own entertainment:  Convince someone you’d rather spend time with than the bride and groom’s extended family to come with you, and have a private party at someone else’s venue. Use slow parts in the conversation to do all the niceties, such as greeting the bride and groom, and talking to anyone else of importance to the wedding party you are acquainted with. Try not to let you and your entertainment’s antics get out of hand.

3. Workhorse: Be so intimately involved with the event that the entire length of the reception you are caught up in an unrelenting torrent of official greeting, posing for photos, last-minute decorating, table setting and clearing, etc, so that by the time it’s all over you wonder where the time went.

Being the bride or groom of course, is somewhat of a mix between #2 and #3.

  Not having seen Skoticus (far right) face-to face in something like 4 years, I was a little bit eager to catch up with the guy a little bit. This of course, leads to awkwardness and is not a good wedding survival plan.

We did at the very least, get pictures with the happy couple.

  We also had to stay for the whole thing because my older brother and his wife were coming, who I hadn’t seen in over a year, and my parents were coming with the children. They each characteristically arrived a half-hour late.

There were lots of fun things to do around the wedding reception:

1. There were 16 squirrels hidden around the house (no, not real squirrels, although I bet Scott would have thought that would have been more fun)

2. Part of the wedding photo book was to go up to the loft and make funny pictures with all kinds of props.

3. Cucumber Lemonade and Mint Lemonade. I was a fan.

However, we had arrived an hour and a half before the actual reception, early even for the ring ceremony. By this time, Scott’s old roommate, who I would have liked to hang out with, had previous engagements, as did most of his other friends; maybe they knew something we didn’t. I am claustrophobic when it comes to big formal social gatherings, and the fact that the reception was at a house made it an unusually small space for the number of people attending. So Carrie and I had about an hour of trying to find a quiet place to hang out and being asked how we were related after we had exhausted the party entertainment.

  I did get to talk a little bit with Scott’s younger brother Andrew; he has become quite talented in the 10 or so years I haven’t seen him. We was doing all the gourmet food himself, was finishing up a biology degree and wanted to go to law school to be a patent attorney. Talking with him was actually more amusing though, because personality-wise, he reminded me of no one so much as the wedding planner from Father of the Bride. Heh.

  So… yeah. We didn’t really do well on any of the wedding survival plans. It was still a lot of fun, but we were definately there for more of it than we needed to be.

Utah…culture?

As beautiful as Utah is, I can’t live there for a very simple reason: I don’t like Mormons.  Or more accurately, I don’t like the culture that springs up when there are a lot of them crammed into a small place.  Individually they’re ok, like crickets or one man with a flaming torch and pitch fork, but together… strange things happen and the individuals become… dangerous.
I know that many in Utah will read the following and say “That’s just Salt Lake,” but please understand that to an outsider it’s all Salt Lake or has the huge potential of becoming it.

Driving back and forth we saw a lot of interesting billboards that seemed to show how Mormons can affect local culture.  I didn’t snap any photos of them and tried to find some online that are at least close enough, so here they are:

Cute… but evil twists on good ideals.

I included this last one because it’s part of a campaign to fight the most… wrong bill boards we saw ( a hot model next to the inscription ‘Make your inner beauty jealous.’ for laser treatments, A tattooed lady with a paper bag over her head ‘Pretend like it never happened’ for tattoo removal).  A few years ago there was a study that found Salt Lake to be the most vain in the US determined by the number of plastic surgeries and surgeons per population.

Any ways, back to me (because this is all about me and my reasons to not live there, remember?).  A logical person might respond to my decision to stay away with arguments of it being in only some areas, or there being a lot of good people there, or it shouldn’t be a problem for me.  And I can agree with the first two… but that third one is the sticker.

I, like many others I know, have the bad habit of comparing my perceived weaknesses with others’ strengths, and judging (tsk tsk on me) others by the standards I think they should measure up to.  Away from the masses of Mormons I’m able to give a lot of credit to a lot of people and the judging is easier for me to keep in check.  Away from the masses I compare myself less.  Don’t read that there aren’t perfect people for me to feel little next to!  I get to know the people that seem so perfect and instead of becoming unreachable the are my friends and examples.

New home = New toys

This post will be mostly pictures because nothing else can convey the simple fun we had…

The Stratton’s new house is on 3/4 of an acre, and much of that is lawn. (After living in the desert that much green almost hurt my eyes.)  Well, they moved there with out a lawn mower since one swipe with a weed wacker properly trimmed all of the grass they had down here in Tucson.  That meant that Dad (aka George, aka Grandpa) got to get himself a new toy.  He hadn’t used it before we arrived and was gracious and coercive enough to let every one have a turn…

 

 

Cairn’s suspicions were confirmed: She really is a princess! And she really can get everyone to take her for a ride on her own magical coach!

 

When George (Grant’s older brother… not dad) heard (via text as he was still en route) that I got on and just kept mowing he sent back a mandate that I was to be pushed into the creek behind the house to ensure he got a turn too!

The Long Haul

We just got back from a short trip to Utah… Ok, so the stay was short – the trip was loooong.  At any rate the whole of the trip would make a horribly loooong post so I’ve decided to split it up a bit.  And those bits will come at you randomly in the up-coming days/ weeks/ months.
Grant’s high school buddy Scotikus got married and the Strattons moved to their new house in Nibley, Utah… Where is that, you may be asking yourself… and here’s your answer: No where.  Do you see that pushpin? Yeah… That’s them.  You may be saying it’s just a suburb of Logan about now, but you’d be wrong.  Maybe after the next two housing booms it’ll be a suburb, but until then it’s pretty rural.

Anyway, the trip (according to Google) is about 15 1/2 hours from our place, and that’s if you take the shortest route between two points. If you want to stay all interstate, its more like 17 1/2.
We thought that we would probably do anything to shorten a long car trip with the girls, so we woke up at 2:30am, packed the car and the girls, and were off by 3. (Yuck!)  That meant that as soon as the girls were over their initial jittery excitement they slept… a lot!
But don’t worry I’m not going to bore you with every detail of the trip there or back.  I’ll just give you the hi-lights of our conversations.

Apple Juice Explosion:

Oh, around 4am on the way up Cairn decided she wanted breakfast… specifically her apple juice.  I help open it and I hear her sipping it happily afterwards. What I didn’t hear was her putting it in her lunch bag with no lid and the lunch bag spilling…  A few hours later I reach back to get something and my hand was wet!
Well, I start frantically soaking up the juice with the baby carrier that I threw in the car as a last minute, just in case item.  I find the juice has covered the whole of the seat between the girls.  By the time I’m finished with that little no man’s land my lap and seat are sticky and wet… And I think I’m done when I reach behind me for a jacket.  Knowing that we’re going into cold, snowing weather this is what angered me (yes, I was laughing until this point).  And this is when I couldn’t refrain from scolding Cairn:
Me: You should have put the lid on your juice!  Now you spilled on the jackets!!!
Cairn: You shouldn’t put jackets where I spill on them.
Grant and I burst into laughter and Cairn bawled because we were laughing at her…

Shooting Stars:

Through out the whole trip (even in broad daylight) Cairn would randomly look out her window and declare she saw a shooting star.  I would (even in broad daylight) prompt her to make a wish then ask what she wished for (I don’t believe the bit about not telling wishes… that’s only for when you already don’t want it to come true!).  Well her first wish was the most memorable:
Cairn: I wish the giraffes stay out of the road.
And fabulously, at the end of our long haul, we saw a jeep painted like a giraffe… parked safely off the road!

City Names:

We couldn’t help but make fun of some of the city names we passed by.  Here are the two longest lasting chuckles in our cabin fever haze:
Farr West: It was settled by pirates! ‘fARRR West’ be where we heading!
Ogden: (Imagine a large, brutish, rather dense monster) ‘What you do here? This Og den! You no Og! Me Og!  Get out Og den!’

Ward Campouts

Two years ago we had a ward camp out up on Mt Lemmon at the church's Camp Zion.  It was raining but we had an awesome turn out.

Last night we had another ward camp out.  It rained even more than last time... but more rain didn't bring more people for some reason.  Those who did come were lots of fun to make up for it though!

We had three families sharing our fire pit... and all of the kids that went with these families swapping stump and chair seats around the growing fire... until it started to sprinkle.  So Wendy Brimhall brought a lot (mostly her bunch and any that would follow) up to the lodge.  Then Grant followed with ours, leaving me to cook.  Then the rain decided to come hard enough to make cooking... not feasible. 

Luckily there was a fire place in the cavernous lodge to roast our marshmallows!  I love roasted mallows.

On another note I get to teach preschool again this coming week and I'm soo excited! We'll be doing science/ discovery activities with balloons.  I have so many fun things in mind that I just know we won't get to it all! I think I'll be satisfied if we at least have a b-word wrecking ball experiment comparing the effectiveness of balloons, balls and books as wrecking balls... and inflate the balloons with baking soda and vinegar... and imitate balloons inflating and deflating... and... I won't get to everything else, but that will have to be ok!

Wendy sent me pictures that she took!  That glorious lady always has her camera ready!  These are in not in order but I don't feel like messing with that right now...

Trevlyn and Landon Brimhall, Cairn

Landon, Trevlyn, Callie, Cairn, Carrie, Cerise... overly anxious to see the fire!

Texas... and more

How do babies turn off so suddenly?!  She was playing and eating and then -- WHAM! -- She was asleep!

These are the bean bag toss made for Cairn and Rebekah's party.  They were done all in one night... I love construction paper! One of the cups I used to trace holes now has a permanent purple rim.  And do you notice the monkey is missing fingers on his top hand?  Cerise woke up the morning after I made them and babbled to the monkey for a while then grabbed what she could of the hand and started to walk away... I think she was trying to bring her new friend to play.

Cairn playing with her birthday booty.

With Grant gone during the week with the car for his internship in Florence (a small city between Tucson and Phoenix that still exists because of the prisons there) and us stuck at home with only a swamp cooler I decided to ditch Tucson for as much monsoon season as I could.  The girls and I flew out to visit my family in San Antonio for three weeks. Before we left for Texas this was Cerise's typical napping place... on the cool tile with two fans blowing on her

 We had a lot of fun playing in grass and inflatable pools, sleeping in air conditioned rooms...  Cairn still proclaims she loves Gigi's house and wants to go back to paint her nails more, or that she should invite her cousins to come play with us whenever we go do something (like the library, zoo or park).  Needless to say, we all got spoiled with family, outings and gifts.

 The three three year olds playing at Joe and Melissa's.  Aiden is the green shirt, James is the gray and Cairn is, of course, in pink.

 The one year old cousins Elizabeth and Cerise tagged along as much as they could.

One day we went to the Witte Museum with Gigi, James and Aiden.  The museum has a kiddie science discovery area that we spent most of the time playing in.  

And of course we went to visit Papa and Grandma Lynn too!  In these visits Lynn finally got to teach me how to knit!  And sent me home with a full set of needles and lots of yarn to get me started.... I started what was meant to be a baby blanket (there's always someone pregnant in our ward)  and just yesterday -- after two weeks of picking away at it -- decided I was so dissatisfied with how it was turning out that I undid it all and started over.

Cairn is modeling in the princess get-up here that Grandma Lynn gave her...

And below is "sewing" just like Mommy while watching a movie.

Grandma Klien's Funeral

So I (Grant) have officially run out of living grandparents.

Grandma (mother's side) had been struggling with cancer for the third time, and we knew months ago that this time there was little the doctors could do. Thus, we went out to visit her with the girls in May (see previous blogs for further reference).

She died early on Saturday, June 25, peacefully as I am told. Though I am saddened by her passing, several points give it a silver lining:

1. Her suffering from her illness is over.
2. I am certain she is quite happy on the other side of the veil, having been reunited with her family who have gone on before her.
3. She was 96, and had lived a very full life. She had lived to see both great-grandchildren and even a great-great grandchild.
4. The funeral brought together parts of the family (including us) who seldom get the chance to see one another, in our case for the second time in under 3 months, which is something that would please her. This included my getting to see my elder brother and his wife, whom we have not seen since they moved to Utah approximately 2 years ago.
5. In the personal case of my immediate family, the timing meant that my girls and I got to spend six consecutive days together, something that was not supposed to happen all summer with me working in Florence.

All of the Grandchildren at the Internment

Me and My Sibs, presented in age order (start at the back left and go clockwise). Names in age order are George, Grant (me), Geoff, Cammy, and Glenn. 

The first time the family has been together (spouses included) since George and Steph moved to Utah.

 It also set off a whirlwind of last-minute shuffling. The car did not have a functioning air conditioning at the time, and we were loath to cross the Mojave desert in the middle of summer without one, so we rented a car. I also spent a very short work week, working two days and spending only a single night away.

Because we were renting a car and staying at a hotel on my Dad's dime (on his insistence), we did not stay after the funeral. This meant 3 very long days, spent traveling, at the funeral, interment, and after-family gathering, and travelling again. Our only "break" was sneaking away to Catalina Beach near Dana Point with my parents and siblings, which was (sort of) on our way home for 2 or 3 hours.

But despite the fact that the funeral was hard to sit through, I like funerals in general. Funerals give you a chance to learn things about a friend or loved one that you would probably never learn otherwise. As a grandchild, it was particularly interesting for me to hear the perspective of her younger brother, her home teacher, and bishop.

 You see, last year, I attended an uncle's funeral who was a businessman and general authority. Each speaker who spoke about him, although they spoke of similar character traits, had a slightly different perspective on my uncle. Not so for my Grandmother. Friends, siblings, leaders, or children, everyone was treated exactly alike, and everyone knew her the same way.

 Common themes were that she was interested in the people around her, and never hesitated to tell people her full and honest opinion about them, and her understated sense of humor, which was accompanied by unrestrained laughter. It reminded me that I often thought grandma often laughed longer and louder at jokes than they were funny, but perhaps she got part of it that I didn't. It also reminded me of the year or so she lived with us, where she never hesitated to tell us what it was about us children that was driving her crazy on any particular day.

I will miss her.

Pictures with Great Grandma Eleanor Klein

 As visiting Grant's Grandma was the whole point of the trip to California, we would be remiss not to post the pictures taken with her.

During our visit she handed me an amish-style handmade cloth doll, explained that a friend had made it for her and said that we were to take her.  Patti asked if she wouldn't rather wait before giving it away.  The response was that these are her youngest great grandchildren and they would still enjoy it.

With that in mind I have allowed the girls to enjoy it.  She is now named Ellie Doll and is a definite favorite.  I'm a little anxious about it getting destroyed... so she's only allowed inside (when I'm looking).  I hope that will be enough.

Patti, Grant, Cairn, Eleanor

Grant, Cerise, Pattie, Cairn, Eleanor

Grant, Patti, Eleanor