Sunday Night Fever

Emily and Jayson hosted a lovely family dinner at their home. When the after-dinner chat was finished and the kids had come in from playing, Emily put on a very compelling ditty called something like "Sucking Too Hard on yer Lollipop," by someone called Mika or something like that. I mean, really, do you expect me to be able to remember all that stuff? So, anyway, we were expecting to see Lizzy perform, but the whole room ended up reeling and rocking with the joyful girations of many small and not so small people. Now that's the way to finish the Sabbath with joy and rejoicing!

Dad, Dickie, David, whatever

P.S. That's Meagan's sister, Mia in the back. She is here visiting for a few weeks.

The Full Taylor

Our friend and former neighbor, Marcie Jones, contemplating a remodel of her house in our neighborhood (actually across the street from Phil and Meagan's house), discussed possibilities for the remodel with Emily. She was conflicted about whether to really tear into it, dig a basement and do a thorough remodel, or just push out the back. She said, "I don't know if we should just add on the back or do a 'Full Taylor'," referring to our major project as well as Tom and Katy's demolition and rebuild.




So, for Father's Day Emily and Jayson made me a DVD of the "Full Taylor." It is spectacular, with a start-to-finish montage of the demolition and construction of our house as well as a very impressive before-and-after sequence of the interior and exterior views. I was most pleased and grateful!





Thanks to Emily for creating and adding the YouTube video; that was a great boon to a technologically-challenged fogey!

OXO

Dad, David, Dickie, Whatever

Happy Fathers Day -- Early

So, on Saturday I went to Costco with Uncle Stephen. As we entered there was an enormous display of digital cameras. Mom and I had looked at cameras a few weeks ago thinking that we might want something more compact than our old, but extremely reliable and beloved, Olympus 4.0 megapixel digital to take to England with us. We were overwhelmed by the selection and walked away empty-handed.



As Uncle and I stepped up to the display, he grabbed a camera and said, "This is the camera you want." It was a Panasonic Lumix with 10x optical zoom (magnifies 10 times), 7.25 megapixels, and a huge LCD screen that every person older than 40 not only wants, but needs. It has a lens made by Leica, the famous German camera makers. The rest is made in China, of course, but za lens, ohhh zat lens, it is CHERMAN!

I was put off for a short moment by the name Lumix, which if said with a good flat American schwa (the "uh" sound all nonstressed American vowels assume), sounds like lumox -- you know, as in, "You big stupid lumox."

Well the Lumix is now mine: an early Fathers Day gift from Kris. I spent several hours digesting the instructions and now have a fairly good basic knowlege of how to work the little sucker. One of the best parts is that the charger will handle between 110V and 240V, so all I will need in England is an adapter for the plug -- wahoo!

Uncle Stephen was so envious that Ann took him back to Costco and bought him and early Fathers Day present as well. We must have our Lumoxes (lumoxen?) engraved so we can tell them apart, n'est ce pas?

Watch for new photos at a blog site near you.

OXO

David, Dad, Dickie, whatever.

A Quick Trip to Arizona and Texas

Kris and I returned yesterday from a fun trip to Arizona to visit with Grandmother Boynton and the family in Mesa as well as Maren and Gavin and family in Phoenix. It was a very enjoyable trip even though it was a little late in the season to catch the really nice weather. We also went to Houston for Hilary Gibbs Brown's wedding.

We went first to see Maren and Gavin for a couple of days. They had just moved into their house and Kris and I were able to stay in their temporary housing just a couple of blocks away. It was VERY nice -- like a really nice hotel. We had a fun day at the Tempe IKEA where the Youngs bought all kinds of wonderful things for their new home: a fantastic entertainment center/bookcase, a desk for their office, a dresser and chest of drawers for their bedroom, and several plants and accessories. It really was an all-day event.

We moved from Peoria to Mesa and spent a few days with Grandmother. We were able to spend some time with Chip and Sandy and saw Mark and Nancy as well. I helped Chip with some color selections for his media production facility which is undergoing some refurbishment.


We went to see Pirates III with Chip and Sandy and Grandmother. We all enjoyed it. Toward the middle of the week we took Grandmother to see the Young's new place and she an Kris helped them hem and hang their new IKEA draperies. We also had dinner at the Texas Road House and felt as if we were in Taylorsville.


The next day we moved back to Peoria to help with the unpacking and on Friday Gavin drove us to the airport for our flight to Houston. It is insane that a two and one-half hour flight requires a whole day. We left at 8:00 AM and arrived at Gibbs' at 5:00 PM.

In Houston we rented a car and drove from Hobby Airport on the south end of town to Kingwood on the north end. That evening there was a Texas-style party for family and close friends at the Carroll's house. The food and company were great. it was fun to get to know all the people we have heard so much about from Deb over the years. The Carrolls were kind enough to let us stay in their house while we were there. The wedding was on Saturday in the Houston Temple. It was nice but the morning was hot and muggy and made the photos uncomfortable. The afternoon reception was nice: the contry-club setting, the food, and the company were great. That evening we swam and visited at the Gibbs.




Several weeks ago, Deb called and asked me if I would cook Sunday dinner for the families. Of course 26 isn't that many more than we cook for on Sundays here, so we were in good shape. I cooked roast, potatoes, gravy, and asparagus -- sound familiar? I guess people don't get many potatoes and gravy any more because everyone went crazy for them; a huge pot full disappeared almost instantly. On Sunday most of the guests flew out. It was fun to see Mike and Linda Gibbs and kids. Graham is working in Disneyworld and looks like a Mormon missionary. He is doing very well and looks great. On Monday we all took Grandma Gibbs to the airport and then continued on downtown to see Waitress. It was good but left me rather hungry for pie! We went to dinner at a place called Houston's. It was very posh -- sleek dark wood, modern. They have excellent burgers that were evidently a great favorite of Johnny Gibbs. The key lime pie was killer, too!

Tuesday morning we had breakfast at the Madelaine in Kingwood with Deb and family and then we and Rob headed to our various airports for flights home. Gavin picked us up and we returned to Peoria for another day to help a bit more in the settling process. There was a successful trip to Pier One for a great chair, some night stands, and a cool lamp. There may be new mirror in the offing as well. When we left yesterday things were looking very good. They have created a very nice home. Maren has taken an oath that she will blog all about her adventures and show all kinds of great pictures. So keep checking her blog.



The trip home was great. I always forget how fantastically beautiful Utah is, but yestersday looked spectacular. We made the trip in nine hours including a huge slowdown in Phoenix because of an accident. Peoria is an hour closer than Mesa. So we are back now and ready for Summer Term and MTC Mailroom stuff.

Fun New Stuff

We have just finished a couple of small projects in our kitchen/dining room. We have replaced the Coke-bottle-green glass tiles of our backsplash with white clear glass tiles. They have a more blue-gray cast to them and work much better with the counter tops. We also have had three pendant lights installed over the dining table. They are the same fixtures that hang over the island. The dining table always seemed too dark, and dinner now sparkles under the small halogen floods. In the pictures you can see Johnny installing the luminaires and the new glass tile.



You can see the finished lighting scheme in use. Colton created a wonderful meal of stirfry and rice, salad, and edamame.

You can also see in the final photo that Will is visiting from North Carolina.

We are off to Phoenix to visit the Youngs and G'mother Boynton. We will also fly from there to Houston for Hilary Gibbs' wedding. I don't know if I will be clever enough to blog from their computers. If not I'll share the trip when we return in a couple of weeks.

OXO to you all.

We're Back

So, when Google offered an updated and improved version of Blogger, I accepted but had to open a gmail account. I had to choose a new ID and password but promtly forgot them. Consequently, I have been unable to add new posts or comment on anyone else's blog. With Emily's help we created a new blog tonight and added all the old posts in almost the exact same form in which the were originally posted. That Emily is a whiz! Merci bien, Eileen!

There has been a lot of water under the bridge since the last post, so I will just jump in fresh.



We are in the midst of finishing a few last projects on the house. We finally had a fence installed in the back yard. When we bought the house we were aware that the neighbor's fence was falling down and that their house was not the best looking thing in the neighborhood. So we had a 3 foot block wall installed at the back of the property and created a raised bed against the wall. There was method in our madness because Provo City only allows a 6 foot fence, which would have done nothing to hide the neighbor's house. But we intended to install the fence in the raised bed which would give us an additional 2 feet. Well, as it turns out, the fence guys said they could build the fence on TOP of the wall, which gives us an additional 3 feet. The finished fence is 9 feet tall! Wahoo. It is TREX, which is made from recycled milk bottles and wood byproducts and it never needs to be stained or painted. We are pleased with the color that makes such a nice foil for plants and flowers.

We are also replacing the tile in the kitchen. We were never happy with the color and the installation was wonkey. I will post photos when it is completed. We have also installed pendant lights over the dining table. I will post photos of those later too.



Another happy thing in our lives was the Mothers Day call from Hermana Katy in Warden WA. She is doing so well and has settled in beautifully. Those who have read her letters/journals will know that homesickness was a problem in the beginning. I asked her if she was still homesick, and she replied that of course she was, but it isn't that sick kind of thing where you might chop of part of your foot so they would send you home. She just misses the family and knows it will be nice to be reunited in a few months. The photo is courtesy of Katy and shows her with a chicken foot that was hidden in her bag by the fun-loving elders.

New Babies!

We have some new babies in the family. Really, one new baby and a two-month-old. Maren and Gavin had Harrison David Young on the 11th of January, and Anna and Rob had Clara Ivy Hastings on the 14th of March. Fun times!