Graduation Weekend

With lots of family in town there were many things going on apart from graduation. There was good food, visiting, reading, shopping, museum visits, and dinner at Emily's Sunday afternoon. Sadly, the Youngs left on Sunday morning; they were missed at the family dinner. Today (Monday), we took Grandmother to SLC to spend the week with her sisters. We stopped at Chadders for lunch on the way.

Thursday evening at Janet's

Saturday morning shopping with Finn

Finn examining the bubbles at the
Dan Steinhilber exhibit

A quick pause in the rain for a photo

A very sad parting as the Youngs left for Arizona

Princess Heaven at Em's on Sunday

Chocolate-faced princesses

Lunch at Chadder's in American Fork

Grandmother will be in SLC and Kris is off to Texas for a trip to Canton with Debra Sue, so things will be a bit dull here. We will be in touch if anything interesting develops. That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Katy Kathryn Is a College Graduate

On Friday, 24 April 2009, Katy graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts. The family attended the College of Fine Arts Convocation in the de Jong Concert Hall where she was presented an empty envelope signifying the hope of an actual diploma. (It will be sent once every possible effort has been exhausted to extract an unpaid fee or discover some other undotted "i" or uncrossed "t" .) Later that afternoon many gathered at our home to wish her well and share a traditional graduation meal. The weather held and people stayed to visit even as a cold front began to move through, turning the evening chilly. It was a wonderful day marking a great accomplishment. We are proud of you, Katy.

The Y outside our window was
lighted especially for Katy

Wahoo!

Proud parents with the graduate

The family, supportive as always

Graduation salad, bread, strawberries, brownies and cookie bars

Steve, Tom, Aunt Vic, Jade, and Ann

Katy, Jeff, Taylor, Eliza, Hansen, Amy, and Millie

Unrestrained mirth, visiting, and lots of running around

The strawberries were a great hit
and disappeared completely

I'll report the rest of the weekend's activities later. That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Maxwell Plans a Party

Yesterday afternoon, Maxwell decided that it would be fun to have a swimming party. He called Anna and invited the Hastings and the result was a fun pot-luck supper with swimming for the binkers.

Anders paused just long enough for a photo

Finn watching Clara tuck in

A beautiful evening for a cookout

The food begins to disappear

The boys staked a claim on the deck

They were "very fun tonight"

Thanks, Max.

OXO

D.

The Troops Are Gathering

The family is beginning to arrive for Katy's graduation. Maren, Gavin, and the boys arrived on Saturday (18 April) and the joyous reunion with the cousins began.

The Hastings cousins came down for
the arrival of the Youngs

Finn and Harry have had fun playing with Holdie

Lizzie and Meg joined them for lunch yesterday

Tuesday, 21 April, Grandmother flew in from Arizona. We spent the afternoon in SLC touring the Conference Center, which Grandmother had never visited. We ate supper at Greek Souvlaki and had a short tour of SLC before returning to Provo.

Grandmother's arrival in SLC

Conference Center tour

The roof gardens at the Conference Center

The "prairie" portion of the roof gardens

Downtown SLC

Yeeros, souvlaki, dolmathes -- yum!

A quick snapshot of Mount Olympus
captured from the car on I 215

Friday is Katy's convocation and the whole family will gather to celebrate, so watch for a report here soon. That's it for now.

OXO

D.

Egads!

6 inches of snow on April 16!

There's always a bright side

OXO

D.

Easter Weekend 2009

What a fun weekend this was. On Friday evening we got together with our lifelong friends at the Ostergars for supper. Allen cooked a whole turkey on the grill; it was delicious. All the other contributions were equally good and the company was great. We missed you Vern and Jerry.

Also on Friday Graham Gibbs flew in from New York. Alison picked him up at the airport and brought him to Provo and the two of them spent the weekend. Chelsea and Katy were also in the mix but did not "sleep over."

The genial hosts

Vic, Phil, Liz w/ grilled bacon, and Kris

Millers' hands, Nano, Allen, and Rod

Lovely Easter flowers

On Saturday everyone who was in the area gathered to dye eggs and eat Janet's Chinese food. We missed the Youngs, who had a dying party of their own, and the Hastings who were in Southern Utah. (See here and here)

Max, Ollie, Phillip, Lizzie, and Meg ready to begin

There were some great dying techniques

Chelsea, Alison, Graham, and Katy
waited for their turn to dye eggs

Easter Sunday, after church, everyone, including the Wais and Gibbs, met here for Easter dinner: ham, lamb, mint sauce, potatoes, gravy, asparagus, cheesecake, and strawberries. Dinner was followed by a three-part egg hunt, divided according to age, for all our grandkids as well as Uncle's progeny. After the Easter egg hunt we had birthday cake in honor of Katy's natal anniversary, which would be the following day. One of Sunday's highlights was a puppet show performed behind the living-room sofa by Tucker and Anders, explaining how the Easter Bunny got his job. Todd and Courtney eventually joined us after returning from Southern Utah.

New Easter outfits for everyone

The binkers tucking in, more or less

Clara taking some small comfort from Pop Pop -- she
was abandoned by her mother who was hiding eggs

All was fine once the hunt began

Waiting for the two-year-old binkers to finish

The egg hunters, less the tiny guys

Stromboli and his brother

The appreciative audience

Katy is about to blow

Well done!

Monday was Katy's actual birthday and we took her and Carrie to the Bombay House for dinner.

The crown was a gift from the Gibbs and
she wore it several time during the day -- watch
for a special crown post on her blog

So, it was a great weekend. Class is finished at BYU and finals are coming up. Katy will graduate next week and there will be all kinds of family, food, and fun. I will keep you posted. That's all for now.

OXO

D.