Friday, January 31, 2014

TACO TUESDAY AT SUZ'S

Dear Family,

Mom works in the Temple Tuesday evenings and I have been home alone.  Suz has invited me over each Tuesday for "Tuesday Taco Night". Their family lived in Mexico City for a few years and they are totally Mexicanized as far as the food goes.  The kids drink what I call the "Burn your guts out" sauce like it was koolaid.

Suz makes Taco soup or beans and tortillas or other great mexican staples.  This time Mom came with and Suz made these great Tacos.

Here is the gang: Juju, Zandy, Scott and little Queen Elisabeth (she rules the home), Suz, timmy, Tilly and Oma. This is always great fun.  They read the scriptures after dinner and then it is on to the WE? games.

There was this incident that made the national news from an elementary school in Salt Lake.  They had a "Nazi Lunch Lady" who took away the meals from kids who were a dollar or so delinquent in paying their meal cards and threw the lunches in the garbage.  They called some of the Moms but not all of  them with delinquent dollar owed.  This was shameful and it made national news.  I saw it on Fox  Cable ChanneNews where they did an entire segment on it.

I was telling Suz about this and she said, "Hey wait, that was my kids Elementary school!", the Uintah elementary school where her kids went.  Timmy was one of the little kids who had his meal thrown into the garbage and he was given a little tangerine and a glass of water for lunch. Suz was $2.00 in arrears. Everyone was mortified and embarrassed by the situation.  Zandy said even the Mayor showed up and apologized.  There had been previous complaints about the "Lunch Lady".

The next big thing is the Valentine Family Night Sunday evening.  Mom's yearly get together and all are coming up, even the students at the "Y"

Bis Dann, Love, Mom and Dad

TRIP TO FLORIDA TO SEE CHRISTINA AND SCOTT AND ALL THE KIDS




Dear Family,

The Temple is closed for a month so we had time for a little vacation from all the cold here in Utah.  Mom was anxious to get down to Florida to see Christina (Bina), Scott the two girls and the new little guy, Jacob.

Scott had finished dental school at Loma Linda, went into dental practice for two years and decided to go back into training to become an oral surgeon.  He was accepted into the program at Gainesville, FL, where he will have a four year residency.  He is in his first year.

We forgot the distances in Florida.  Mom sort of remembered deriving short distances when we went there on vacation during the Michigan years. She arranged for a van rental in Gainesville and had Bina pick us up at the airport in Orlando (100 miles away).  Bina came with cute little Alison, Ashley and little Jacob who was the best baby in a car.

We drove back and made a plan.  Bina was up to driving so we decided to get tickets to Bush Gardens and go there as much as we could.  This was 100 miles away but the roads are great, straight and wide so it is not as bad as 100 miles through the Rocky Mountains. I really like Bush Gardens as there are all the animals, flowers and trees, lots of great rides on excellent roller coasters and a whole section devoted to little children.

The next day, we drove down there, got our tickets and had a ball.  It was cold, in the 40's, so the park was not congested.

Here is Bina with Alison and Ashley in the front on this little elephant statue.  Alison, (Alley) was an exact clone of her mother in appearance and speech.  She is one of those very bright grandchildren.  She reminded me so much of Bina, that when I played with her, I had flashbacks to 25 years ago when Bina was her age.  I called Alison, "Little Bean".

Saturday, Scott was off and so we all went down to Bush Gardens again.
Here is the family next to the LandRover by the lion exhibit.  We watched the smaller kids as Bina and Scott and sometimes Alley went on the roller coaster rides.

Here are Scott, Bina and little Bean on the "Log Ride".  There were shows as well and the ice show was great with excellent skaters and birds flying around.

It was fun to watch the little kids.  Jacob was the best little guy who stayed  in his car seat the whole time and just laughed and smiled.

Here is Mom during one of those little baby sitting times as Scott, Little Bean and Bean went on the rides.  That electric cart was the only ride that Mom and I went on and it is loaded down like one of our four wheel drive trucks.  Little Jacob was just a good little guy and very patient.

We ate sea food the entire time we were down there except on Sunday.  One thing I learned was not to go to anything that has "Crab Shack" in its name.  We looked for blue crabs but the weather was so cold, there were no crabs anywhere.

Here is an Oyster Bar that Mom and I found down in Ocala.  I was so tempted to eat the oysters raw on the half shell and they had good ones there.  I must be sensitized to the raw ones, maybe from eating 70 at one time with John on a previous trip. Here we had deep fried oysters and they were good and did not produce illness.  Here is Mom going to check it out.

We took the gang to a couple of good restaurants in Gainesville and Tampa.  This was at the Colonnade on the "Gasperilo Night".  They celebrate some phony pirate and the whole place goes nuts like a Mardi Gras.  Ate these great soft shell crabs while the others had Grouper as they set off a dazzling display of fireworks in Tampa Bay. We thought we should eat the Florida sea food while there.  Introduced Scott to "Hush Puppies and Gator Tail and Cheesy grits. (That is what Mitt Romney called them during the election),

We went back to Bush Gardens three times more.
We took the train ride but the train had to stop as these huge White Rhinos were crossing the tracks.

The tiger took an interest in me and it was nose to nose through thick glass pane.  Maybe he could sense that I was admiring the animal and wondering at the same time where I would put the shot.  Maybe I need some hunting detox.

We visited Bina's ward in Gainesville.  It had three sets of missionaries and there were many recent converts as well.  Definitely back in the mission field. Little Bean, 6, gave a great talkl in Primary and read the talk she repaired.  The Primary Pres. was going to help her but Little Bean said authoritatively that she could read!

So we say thanks to Bina for all the driving and to Scott who was able to come with us twice.  We thank Bina and Scott for their great hospitality and it was such a good time.

Love to All,  Mom and Dad







Monday, January 6, 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014


Dear Family,

We had a riotous holiday week!  Rebecca, Paul and all their kids were staying with us.  They were there when we opened presents.

Here is Mom when she opened her present; a new iPhone 5 series.  She has been having fun with this and one great feature is that she has the scriptures on her phone  The grandkids have been showing here all the tricks of the phone.

I got a Belgian waffle maker and made a lot of waffles for breakfast during the week.  There was something always going on!

Mary, Mark, David, Kate and Gunner der Jaeger, (highly trained German Short Hair pointer) came and stayed with us as well so we had Becca and six kids and Mary and her family.  It was great!


Mary, Mark, Paul Scott and John did a lot of skiing at Brighton and Alta with the kids.  They are all pretty good skiers and the garage was filled with ski equipment.

Here is Mark with (l-r) Tilly, Juju, Abbie, Zandy,
David, Andrew, and Anthony.  John had Grant and Garret up there as well.  They even went up on New Year's Eve for a torch light skiing and most of the kids held torches.

There were of course several trips to Cablas to make use of an"Employee's Discount" I get at the end of the year.  There were almost daily trips and we looked for the sales.  Here is one gang, Grant, Spence with his camp bib overalls,  GarretTommy, Opa and Heidi.

New Years Eve came and we had a large group over again.  Suz, Mary and Becca essentially planned and did the main preparation.  There was great feed and all had a great time.  Johnny and Jenna were there and of course Mary and her family.

We all sat around and mentioned New Year Resolution, had a little lesson, and a had a Family Prayer.  The the celebration went on even later,


The guys stayed up late and watched an action movie.  It was wall to wall celebration.  The kids are all back to school, Mary and Mark drove back to Michigan, Becca to St. George and it is dead quite in the house.

We look forward to the New Year and we are grateful for the blessings we receives as a family.

Love, Dad and Mom