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.

Happy Boorsday Katy Kathryn

Dear Katy Kathryn:

I want you to know how much I love you and appreciate the joy you have brought into our lives. Your sense of humor has kept us laughing through the years and keeping up with you has kept us young. It has been a delight traveling with you in our "old age," and what fun it has been scrapbooking and doing other projects with you. I hope this will be a genuinely happy day for you and that the coming year will be filled with exciting adventures, many splendid diversions, and abundant success.


Happy birthday, Katy Kathryn!

OXO

Dad

A Couple of Happy Things

The first happy thing is that Hank and Colette are in town. Colette and Amy hosted a nice dinner on Monday for all of H&C's progeny who are in the area. They invited the uncles along, killing two birds with one stone, or some such thing. It was a fun evening and, of course, the food was nice.

The lovely hostesses

Tommy, Jeff, and Amy

Colette is reaching out

Some of us are paying attention to the photographer,
others not so much

The second happy thing is that our back-patio construction is underway. Some of you may be aware that we thought we might not see our builder again. He started the project some time ago and we gave him a deposit so he could buy materials. At that point, however, he disappeared. We tried calling and emailing him, to no avail. He is a nice guy so we hoped he would just show up some morning and start working, but when it went for a couple of months with absolutely no response, we thought it was all over. Well it turns out that he went traveling to Florida and Saint George and who-knows where all else. The happy end to the story is that he is now back on the job and we may soon have a lovely new patio.

Removing the gravel

The work in progress

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Conference Week

Several weeks ago, on the morning of stake conference when we had breakfast at Tom and Katy's, we decided it would be fun to get together once a week to take turns cooking and share a meal. So far Tom, Katy Kathleen, Zoe, Uncle, Millie, Holden, Kris, Katy Kathryn, and I have eaten together every Monday. Last week, Uncle Stephen and Millie cooked.

Some of you may know that Tom broke his femur in a mountain bike accident and had surgery to insert a titanium rod in his hip. He is recovering nicely and hobbled over to Uncle's for dinner.

Millie and Holden finishing dinner

Zoe (with Tom's crutches), Katy, and Tom

Carbonara -- delicious!

Conference Saturday, Phillip, Rob, Colton and I went to Priesthood Meeting at the Locust Lane chapel. The girls all met at our house for chili and chips; the men ate after the session.

Madeline and Lucy studying the Iliad

Meg, Tucker, Max, Anders, and Ollie
getting in their jams to go home

Katy and Anna taking care of music issues

Grammy and Clara sharing a hug

George and Greg, in town for conference,
popped in before the Sunday morning session

That's it for now.

OXO

D.