The Perfect Weekend

There are lots of ways to describe weekends and perfect is a term that is used frequently. In fact, perfect is an overworked term. For example there is the "perfect game", the "perfect storm", the "perfect tense", and so forth. The term perfect is defined as, "having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be." That's how I would describe this past weekend

We had all of our children with us in Boise, ID for our youngest son's wedding. It is always an event when we all get together and we all enjoy one another. What made Friday and Saturday special was that our family grew by a whole new family, not just a new daughter-in-law. We made new friends, strengthened family, and on Sunday as everyone was leaving we all felt great. Of course we were all so proud of Mike and Allison and the decisions they made. The daughters have already accepted her as a family member. The Newlyweds even showed up for an informal getting-away dinner on Saturday evening. I would never have done that as a newlywed, but they did, signaling to us just how important family is to them.

Youngest daughter and I drove to Utah for Sunday evening and early Monday morning (still the weekend) we took off for Las Vegas and hadn't gotten too far down the road when the first text message came in. Daughter 3 was in the hospital for the birth of a little girl (Hattie). By 2 pm MDT she had accomplished that miracle and as I talked to her later and asked how Hattie was doing, her response was "Perfect!" And so, you see it was a perfect weekend.

PS - I would be delighted to share a photo of Hattie, but the one's I have are just not cute enough.

Newbies

If there is anything constant in our family it is change. We figured since we, or I had to be in Salt Lake City, we could just drive on up to Boise and check things out. There is a good reason. Daughter 3 is due any day now with her 5th child - Hattie. And Mike gets married on Friday, October 23.

On Saturday, that's today, his fiance Allison (photo below) is going to the Boise LDS Temple to receive her endowments. If you aren't LDS I will only say this is a very sacred ceremony and prepares them for their marriage the following week, which unlike most we see, includes being sealed for time and eternity. We wanted to be present for today's experience and support her and Mike.

Over the past 15 months JoAnn and I feel like we have been on the road almost constantly on family business. It's not really business, but it is support. It includes 3 new babies, a funeral, 1 marriage, a family reunion in Colorado, Christmas in Des Moines, 2 college graduations (note some of these activities are still in the near future), baby blessings, Aaronic Priesthood ordinations, visits to my Dad and Sisters, and visits by families to Las Vegas. There is one common thread in all of this - family. Our move to Las Vegas was truly a blessing. We are now able to share more of our time with all of our children and grandchildren. That is exciting for us. We enjoy these times and experiences. I feel like I know the roads to Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, and California and the sky-ways to Iowa. They have become common to us.

When we lived in Indiana it was so much more challenging to make these visits. We felt like we missed a lot. Not now and while I know we will slow this pace down, it has been fun.

Yesterday…

JoAnn and I were in Spanish Fork yesterday on the anniversary of Calvin's death. (note: I started this on the 16th, but since we were in Boise at the time I had to put it aside for family matters.) I had meetings in Salt Lake City and came back mid-afternoon to find everyone gone. They were off looking for a miniature tree for Calvin's gravesite. The sexton apparently approves trees up to 6 feet mature height.

Around 6:00 pm or so we all went over the the cemetery to plant the tree. We found a couple of other families there and by the time we left at 8 pm there were six families visiting Calvin. Plus there was evidence of a number of other people who had been present at some time during the day. I am still amazed a the outpouring of caring and remembering for Calvin. These six families all showed up spontaneously, just to spend some time with Calvin and remembering him.

On Facebook a young man from Calvin's middle school posted the tribute he was going to read the following morning as an announcement. There were a number of responses to the post and it was touching.

Below are a couple of additional photos I shot. Donna took her camera so hopefully she will post some photos on her blog.

Cole is making sure the hole is the correct size and depth. He wanted to be involved in the whole process.

Memories...

All of our memories should be good, especially of Calvin. He was sweet, adorable, kind, considerate, a bit spoiled, conniving, sneaky, and a big tease. Hey, for a boy, those are all good memories. He never failed to get a smile from someone, to charm them, to share something with them, to show that he cared. All good traits in a boy. He also loved everyone. I'm not at a loss for words, but so much has been said by others.

I think my favorite photo of Calvin is with Grandma. I love this photo. It sits in our living room. In the photo, as Sally said in her blog, he was measuring up to see how far he had to go to be taller. It is not far. There are a couple of things to note in this photo. The cross between the smile/smirk - a classic Calvin. The arm around Grandma which she obviously loved. The zest for life you can see in his whole face. He did love life and people.

A memory. Shortly after we moved to Las Vegas we were up to Utah for the weekend and as we sat in Fast and Testimony meeting on Sunday morning Calvin leaned over and said, "Grandpa, would you bear your testimony." How could I say no. I got up, walked to the podium and acknowledged Calvin had asked me to share my testimony. I did, but I did it for Calvin and his brothers. It was a special moment I won't soon forget.

Traveling to Boise

Calvin was maybe 3.5 when Donna suggested we take him to Idaho with us. We were traveling from Indiana with Krissie, who was 14, and thought it would be a great idea. We picked Calvin up in Utah and headed out. Krissie was really excited about taking Calvin with us. After we left Spanish Fork and headed up to Boise the two of them in the back seat were in a constant chat. Even then Calvin could dominate a discussion.

This was real treat. Suzanne had only been married for 2 years of less and had no children, so Calvin was king of the roost! The first night we were in Boise we went out for Mexican. Calvin was at the end of the table in a booster seat and the rest of us were all busy talking. The waitress comes up with our obligatory basket of chips, Calvin takes one look, and at the top of his lungs, "Whoa - CHIPS!" We all laughed so hard. He was so excited about food - always pretty much - but that excitement was new to us.

When a couple of daughters and mom, of a couple of daughters without mom, get together shopping is on the menu. A couple of days later we were out shopping for school clothes for Krissie at Target. After selecting a few items, Mom and Krissie headed to the changing area. I picked Calvin up, tossed him over my shoulder and he was a little high - his waist was at my shoulder - and as we walked out of the teens section with us going one way and JoAnn & Krissie another I hear, again at the top of his lungs, "Krissie's getting naked!" I'm red and he is laughing and I'm wondering what Donna is teaching my grandson. Not that I didn't think it wasn't cute, because it was.

Calvin Published

First off, anyone who has seen Calvin write would say, "Calvin published?" Actually, he wasn'ta bad writer - got that from his Mom. And yes he is published, but not in the sense one normally thinks of. In the last edition of my textbook I asked daughter 2 to take some photos at a water playground close to their home. I knew Calvin, his brother, and 2 cousins would all be there and I was pretty sure she could get a good photo. Two of the photos appear below. I used them in a textbook on introduction to recreation and leisure for university programs and also on a poster at a previous institution advertising degrees in recreation and park management. I am particularly fond of the photos because the capture the playfulness of our grandchildren and depict how much they did and do enjoy each other.

Calvin points to what is clearly the object of everyone's attention - where the water is coming up NEXT!

Sure enoug, that was the spot - plus a couple others they didn't anticipate.

Memories

We have been asked to share memories of our oldest grandson, Calvin. I call this the "Many faces of Calvin." I created a collage of photos from our 1999 Christmas reunion and all of the photos, less a couple where he is a baby and were in Alabama for spring break. Each photo represents a zest for life and for fun. An opportunity to enjoy, look for the best, and most importantly to love.

Taking family or individual photos involving Calvin always was an adventure. You never knew what you were going to get.

I will have more to say in later posts, but I wanted to put this up today. I've also put the original photos on flickr or will as soon as it comes back up. Click on the collage to see the full size.

A Las Vegas Fall

The Old Man of the Forest and this Old Man Winks at You!

I have to admit that we don't get much in the way of fall in Las Vegas. I was only mildly joking when I said, "Fall arrives when we have 5 days in a row under 100 degrees." That was just 2 weeks ago. Then over the weekend we dropped from the 90s to the 70s. We are still trying to figure out what happened to the 80s.

You know it's not officially fall without a scarecrow

Yet, if you want fall, the best place to find it, without having to drive to Mt. Charleston, or Arizona or Utah or California is to go to down to the strip at the Belaggio (isn't that where everyone goes?). Every season of the year they outdo themselves and this year is no exception. You can see most of my photos on flickr, but I've shared here some of my photos I took with my iPhone.

As we were progressing through our walk we hit a tour, or rather they ran over us. We walked around outside the exhibit to get away from them and just as we were about to come in from the other side here comes this man with a green light-saber held high over his head and being followed by a mob. He was the tour guide, but maybe more appropriately called the light-saber pied piper. It was funny. Instead of "were walking, were walking" it was "keep up with the light, we have more to see."

A leaf waterfall (actually 4 leaves) was one of the highlights of our fall walk.

It was a great Fall walk for JoAnn and I and we finished it off with ice cream from the world famous ice cream bar - and boy was it good!

The brass trees had water falling continually from them. Certainly a reminder of those midwestern fall rains.