Lasagna Party and Trenton Farewell

On Sunday, March 22nd, we (Dad and I and Autumn and Airie and Abram) woke up early. We'd stayed up late the night before eating a great dinner at Iggy's and playing a rousing game of Apples to Apples...ask Autumn about kilts sometime! We drove to Trenton, Utah, for Jared Barker's Missionary Farewell. The chapel was packed because 2 missionaries were featured. Jared's 10-minute talk about prayer was great. I'm not sure I've ever heard him say that many words before, but he seemed excited and ready to go. He'll leave for the MTC and then on to Eugene, Oregon, near the end of April. Afterwards there was a nice luncheon/feast and we got to see and talk with all the relatives. Mike is in remission from his cancer, but suffering at the moment from the effects of steroids (bloating) he is taking to relieve a rash/reaction to the treatments. He is weak, but everyone says he is doing much better. We drove back to Farmington and were joined by the Stansbury Barkers for a Lasagna Party to celebrate Dad and Abram's birthdays. By all accounts, it was a delicious success. Thanks to everyone for coming and for gifts and cards and a good time.


Birthday Boy polishing off the Birthday Cheesecake


The main event...looks just like the Kimchi soup...tasted a whole lot better, some of us are sure!


The Sno Cone Machine from A&A...the grandkids protested having to wait until summer!

The Best Birthday Box Ever from Autumn...an alligator with googly eyes and tear out teeth

Ahhhh...a Seniors' National Parks Pass that never expires. Yes, he's old enough.

Great idea Peanut!

Impressed with the candle on the cheesecake...taking a deep breath to blow it out!

Birthday Boy Abram opening his surprises...movie and treats from Baron & Donette.

Airie and Abram (and his sipee cup?)

Donette and Mr. Thomas-the-Train-Man, Colby.

All smiles after garlic toast, fresh grated parmesan and plenty of mozzarella on the lasagna and a great salad with Roquefort. Thanks for your help!

Baron and Paula and the remains of the cherry cheesecake.

Coby chillin'.

Brie painting a penguin picture for the frig.

Jared, Pam & Mike

Jessie and John Nelson & 18-month old daughter Sydni

Travis and Jasmine Wilhelm.

Kelly and Jackie Nelson

Josh

Brothers...Laur and Mike.

Shamrocks and Such

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
(I'm 1/16th Irish.)


It's the day for the wearin' of the green.


Here are some honest-to-goodness shamrocks, 4-leaf clovers, baby ones, that is. I planted the seeds about 12 days ago and they are trying hard, but won't be ready by the 17th. Stay tuned and hopefully I'll post the real McCoy (I think that's Scottish) one of these days.


Here's a little Irish blessing for you.



Here are the greetings I received from Talmage (there IS a little green in there) and Sydney.


Here are 2 greeetings from Brielle...the bottom one has a punched-out heart border.

And don't forgot this Irish Wisdom!

Busy Weekend

On Friday, Dad and I went to Provo for a night that began with a visit to the BYU Museum of Art. We spent about an hour and a half seeing 2 excellent exhibits by Dan Steinhilber and Walter Wick.

Here are several of Dan Steinhilber's pieces of installation art. There were also sculptures using black trash bags, styrofoam packing peanuts blown around by floor fans, flickering fluorescent light tubes, etc. and then videos to see how they were constructed on site.


Dan Steinhilber's "Duck Sauce" from far away.


"Duck Sauce" up closer.

"Duck Sauce" really close...can you se the panda bears on the sauce packets? (click to enlarge)

Steinhilber's Sink and PVC

Steinhilber's Balloon collection

Walter Wick is a fabulous photographer/designer/model creator. He did the "I Spy" books and many others. His photos and models were studied, not browsed.

Scary Night hidden pictures.

Potion Bottle...look carefully at the skull for example, to see many spooky items.

ABCs with interesting associated items.


The Balloon Popper...follow the marble activated by the finger (upper left) until the tinker toy bird pops the balloon. We also saw a 1 minute video of it in action.

Next we went to dinner, Italian, and over to meet the "grandrats." Here's Butters!

Here's Moochie...supposed to be the shy one!

Mummy Airie likes to put on a hoodie--backwards--and insert the boys kinda like a baby bjorn. Afterwards, we enjoyed a great homemade Oregon blueberry pie with BYU Creamery vanilla ice cream, while we critiqued movies. We especially enjoyed Airie and Abram's conflicting opinions of "Sahara"!

On Sunday afternoon, we had a nice surprise visit from Autumn and Leslie returning from their weekend in Idaho. It's colder than it looks, but hey, the snow is almost all gone...until Monday when we got 3 or 4 more inches!

And Sunday night we drove out to Stansbury Park to see the Barker Bunch. Colby was tuckered out for the day, but Brie was full of energy.