A little older, but not much more mature

I have to confess that this blog is about like my attempts at keeping a journal. I have good intentions, but we all know where they take us. Anyway, I am going to try and do some catching up on some events of the last few months.

My (gasp) 50th High School reunion was held over Labor Day in Billings, MT. I had only attended one other class reunion quite a number of years earlier. This time I took my DH with me so that at least one person would recognize me. I had been in contact with a couple of my high school girl friends and looked forward to being with them again.

Various activities of the reunion were planned for the entire weekend. Friday afternoon my friend, Kara, met us at the hotel and we talked for so long that we didn't have time for dinner before the "Meet and Greet" that night. The event was held in a huge two-room garage. One of the rooms had walls covered with all kinds of signs relating to cars and there were vintage cars lined up on one side of the room. Fortunately the DH was entertained by the decor so I didn't have to worry about him while I reconnected with old (literally) friends.

For me, the most enjoyable event was the ladies luncheon on Saturday afternoon. Just like the pregame pot-lucks and the Spring Teas it was just the girls having a gab fest and eating. They went from table to table and had everyone tell a little about themselves. Some of the gals got carried away and their "little" turned into a lot. Some of us were worried that we might still be at the luncheon when it was time for the evening event.

That evening there was a dinner and a dance with a silent auction. We looked over the auction items but didn't see anything that we couldn't live without. One of the fellows in the class is now a graphic artist and he had made a poster with the Billings Senior High Bronc on it, but my thought was "Where in the world would I put that?" After an evening of eating, visiting and one dance we called it a night. We also decided that while we had enjoyed the reunion we would pass on the Sunday brunch and head to Wyoming to visit Martin's Cove.


I had wanted to go there for several years and I thought this might be my only opportunity. It wasn't crowded and we had a great guide who pointed out that more than 2,962 people walked to Salt Lake City with handcart companies. Of these, 250 died on the trail. Only 30 of these deaths were not of the Willie and Martin companies.

We continued on to Utah and had a quick visit with kids and grandkids before returning home.

Anniversaries

Saturday was our 47th Wedding Anniversary. It started me thinking about our wedding day ever so long ago and how different the two days were.

I think that everyone (all 4 of you) who reads this blog knows that the DH and I are Mormons. We were married in the Idaho Falls temple because that was the temple where people from Burley were supposed to go. My parents came from Bogota, Colombia a few days before the wedding and we were staying in Malad, ID where both of them grew up. We drove to Idaho Falls the evening before the wedding and stayed there in a motel that night. I was so nervous and excited that I hardly slept at all. The DH had driven from Burley with his parents the night before too.

At that time you didn't reserve a time for your wedding. It was first come, first served and we (two engaged kids and their parents) were on the temple steps waiting in line at 5:30 a.m. for the doors to open. We were third in line, so were couple number three in the first session that day. There were 36 brides that day with twelve each in three different sessions. Also, very few had gone through the temple before unless they had been on a mission, so we went through the temple and then were sealed.


Here we are on the temple steps just after our marriage. I am holding the marriage certificate which was entrusted to me.

Our Wedding Luncheon was held at Ada's Cafe in Idaho Falls. The DH's parents ate there every time they were in Idaho Falls and they loved Chinese food. BUT, before the luncheon I had the DH take me to Penney's to buy a pair of nylons. I had gotten a run in mine and that would never do. He claims that I started spending his money the minute after we were married.

By about 4:00 in the afternoon our parents and relatives had left Idaho Falls and we were two young married people all on our own.

Contrast that to Saturday, 47 years later. We slept in until 8:30, just because we could, and then puttered around the house. We had lunch at Qdoba's and then went to Ethan's first soccer game. Then we tried out our wedding gift to each other, a Garmin Nuvi GPS. We programmed in Celebration Park in Melba and off we went. Actually it took about an hour and a half to get the name and location of the park. I ended up calling a friend who is from Melba to get the information after getting frustrated with the internet search. We arrived at the park without a hitch and looked around there for an hour or so before heading back to Meridian.

Jason had given us two tickets to the fair, so we spent the evening there listening to entertainment, viewing fair entries and having our fix of fair food - curley fries. It was dark when we left the fair and it seemed almost magical with the lights and music and the rough edges smoothed out in the dark. It was a good day and a comfortable way to celebrate 47 years of marriage.

Hamburger Heaven

I first went to a Five Guys burger joint in Old Town, VA with Ann when she was living on the East Coast. She kept raving about their burgers and she introduced me to them just before she moved west again. I thought the burger was O.K., but didn't appreciate it as much as she did. The place wasn't national at that time.

Fast forward a few years and I began hearing that Five Guys was slowly spreading across the country. I found out that there was at least one in Utah, but Ann, the connoisseur, didn't think its burgers were as good as the ones in VA.

Finally we saw signs that said Five Guys was coming to Boise. Just after it opened (near where we used to live) we decided to give it a try. The place was packed and to our astonishment we saw three different groups of people there who live near us in Meridian. We were all out of our usual area, but the burgers were calling our name.

Juicy meat, toppings just the way you want them, tons of frys and fry sauce made these burgers rate a 10 in our book. They were way better than I remember them being when I was with Ann. Probably just a faulty memory.

Today we introduced Noelle and Patrick to Five Guys and they gave it a thumbs up too. We will be back!

Serious Business Being a Kid

The antics of small children delight me. The past few weeks we have had the opportunity of attending a dance recital, the dress rehearsal of the 4 year old class at Challenger School and a Kindergarten graduation.

The ballet recital consisted of about 80 three to six year old little girls and one brave little boy. The dancers were eager, excited, brave, scared and distracted depending on the child. One little girl left the stage in tears and another group had to reschedule their number when one of its participants had an urgent need to use the restroom. All interruptions were handled with the patience and aplomb that comes from 25 years of dance teaching experience. Our little ballerina was enchanted with the stage decorations, which she had not seen before. She finally studied them enough to concentrate on her dancing. She was having the time of her life and loved the applause, the bouquet, the bracelet and the sucker that she was presented with at the conclusion of the recital.

We were going to be out of town for the formal program at Challenger School so we got permission to attend the dress rehearsal. From now on I only want to go to the dress rehearsal as it was much more entertaining than the actual program and I had a perfect seat where I could see everything. The children sang a song about ice cream and before singing they all introduced themselves and told what their favorite ice cream was. The last little girl announced that her favorite ice cream was "coffee" and the rest of the group sucked in half the air in the room and looked at her like she had committed a major sin. It was hilarious. The girls all wore the 50's skirts they would be wearing for the program over their regular school clothes which made for some interesting outfits.

Kindergarten graduation was very serious compared to our other two activities with small children, which means that it didn't have us laughing quite as much. The class walked into the gym to the accompaniment of "Pomp and Circumstance" with their mortarboards carefully balanced on their heads. The girl's hats were bobby pinned on and the boy's hats were taped to their heads. Everyone knew right where to stand on the risers and all sang at least part of the time. They presented a little musical program with song and dance and they really seemed to enjoy the dancing. I wonder how long that will last with the boys? Following the presenting of the diplomas there was a reception in the Kindergarten room. The graduates were first in line for the goodies after the exhausting experience of being on their best behavior.

Golden Friends

Do you remember the Autograph Albums that made the rounds when we were young? I even had an Autograph Hound. It was a dachshund shaped, stuffed dog that you had your friends write their names on along with a short message.
The other day I was remembering some of the ditties we used to write in those albums. One that came to mind began

Make new friends,
But keep the Old.
One is silver,
And the other gold.

I have many “Gold Friends” who enrich my life, in fact way too many to mention them all. We recently had two couples visit us whose friendship goes back to our college days and they definitely make the gold standard list. We have known the Stewarts and the Wrights since we triple dated in college.

Through the years we have cemented our friendship with family outings, attendance at weddings, funerals, missionary farewells and reports. We even managed some adult only vacations before our children were out of the house and now of course, we travel together yearly. But the one thing that has done the most to bind our friendship is our love of eating. We have shared many meals in many places together. Nora’s Fish Inn at Wilson, WY has seen us a number of times, but most of our meals have been scattered all over the world. One particularly poignant meal was the one we shared at Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the Twin Towers, on Mother’s Day in 2001, just a few months before they were destroyed.

The reason for last month’s visit (if we needed a reason) was that the Wrights are on their way to Moscow, Russia this month for their second mission. We won’t be having a meal with them for quite some time and we needed just a few more memories to tide us over. These golden friendships are part of the blessings of this life.

New Pets

Finally I had an excuse to fulfill one of my dreams and have a Build-a-Bear experience. I had thought about doing this before but wasn't sure how I would explain the appearance of a new pet at our house. Now that we travel several times a year a pet does not fit into our lifestyle. However, a pet that required no feeding, watering, exercising or letting out could have easily adapted to our household. I also could have claimed that I was just adding to the child entertainment value at our house, something that needs upgrading regularly.

But, I acted like a responsible adult and waited until I had two little boys visiting. They were the perfect excuse for an outing to Build-a-Bear. I allowed their parents to accompany us so that there would be someone to take pictures of the big event. It was so exciting! We could hardly decide which animal we wanted to build. E made up his mind as soon as he saw something green, his favorite color. M took a little longer, changing his mind each time he saw a different animal. He finally decided on a dog that he named Spot.

We had to listen to all the sounds these pets could make and finally chose appropriate ones. Lots of love and a wish were put inside with their hearts and then it was time for a bath and brushing. In fact these pets needed several baths and lots of brushing.

Yet another big decision awaited us as we moved on to the clothing and accessories department. We were encouraged to let the pets try on anything they wanted to. After all, Grammy was right there to pick up the rejects and put them away. E immediately went for the madras shorts (they had green in the plaid) and with a little help decided on a polo shirt. His frog had a very preppy look. M started at the top with hats. Several were rejected until he found the perfect chapeau, a red and black hunting hat complete with ear-flaps. The rest of the outfit was much calmer - khaki shorts and a cotton shirt in army green.

An hour later we were on our way with our new pets taking a nap in their little carrying boxes. They had been named, their birth certificates were printed their new owners were pleased and Grammy had finally been to Build-a-Bear.

Shopping, Churches and Weddings

Today we visited some of the neighborhoods of Mexico City. Like most large cities, Mexico City has expanded so that what used to be small independent villages are now just part of the city. San Angel was our first stop and we visited one of the oldest churches in the area. A wedding was just beginning when we looked in. We then strolled around the gardens where a family had gathered for pictures following a baptism.

Since it was Saturday, the city plaza and the surrounding streets had been turned in to a large bazaar. We spent the next hour looking in the stalls. (I sat on the bandstand most of the time while Diane looked around.)

Next on the agenda was a visit to the neighborhood of Coyoacan. Cortez built a house here for his Indian “wife” and son. We had lunch then had free time to visit the bazaar and a large church nearby. We headed for the church where, you guessed it, there was a wedding being held. We sat down and Diane had a brief snooze and I had a chance to rest some very sore legs. The group then walked several blocks to the home and studio of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. It is now a museum containing some of their works, furniture, photos, clothing and art supplies. We had a tour of the museum that took Scott 5 minutes and Diane 30 minutes.

Today is Benito Juarez’ birthday, a national holiday. There were big crowds everywhere, mostly families enjoying a day out together. Now that we are back at our hotel, only a block from the Plaza de Revolucion we can hear lots of noise from demonstrations that are being held.