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.

Birthday Weekend

On Friday, 27 March, the binkers were out of school and gathered at our house to help me celebrate my birthday. We lunched at La Casita. The moms wanted Indian food and the binkers wanted to go to La Casita; mine was the tie-breaking vote. After lunch we went to the BYU MOA to see Walter Wick's exhibit. Katy Kathryn was our docent and we had a great time.

On Sunday (since it was a 5th Sunday) the family gathered for dinner here. We ate pasta, salad, and bread. For dessert I made a bienestich kuchen and we celebrated my birthday in style.

Lunch at La Casita

Why yes, it is a #39 with verde sauce

Everyone looks pretty pleased

Katy pointing out the secrets of Walter Wick

The gang at the BYU MOA

Blowing out a symbolic number of candles

That's it for now.

OXO

D.

The Wais Made Dinner

Meagan's parents, Bob Wai and Lenore Kuhaupio, were in town for the BYU Luau where Mia and Robby performed. They were kind enough to invite us for supper on Thursday (26 March). It is always nice to see them and the food was delicious, of course.

Thursday was a chilly but beautiful spring evening

Phillip is the grillmeister

Bob making "Banarama" for dessert

Meg and Grammy

Garlic steak, rice, and salad: delicious!

What a great way to start the weekend.

OXO

D.

Happy Birthday to Maryleborn

My, doesn't time fly! It has just been a couple of days since you were a small lass and I was significantly younger.


I hope your birthday is special -- I am confident that Gavin will do his usual spectacular job. We love you and miss you and are looking forward to seeing you and your family in person very soon. Happy birthday Maren dear.

OXO

Dad

Oh, No!

As if I couldn't waste hours looking at satellite images on Google maps, now they have street view in London, and as you can see the images are nearly perfect. It almost makes me weep.

27 and 29 Palace Court

St. Dunstan's in-the-East

Here is a quick link, or you can just go to Google Maps and zoom down into London and drag the little street-view guy into the street you want to see.

I hope you will waste less time than I do looking at London -- or maybe you should waste a little time.

OXO

D.