Sunday, August 10, 2008

A little update on the lives of your parents

Since the temple was closed the past two weekends we decided to take a couple of road trips. The end of July we started up to Snowflake to the temple there, but only got as far as the Sahuaro Lake turnoff and the car over heated, so we turned back. Not wanting to go home since we told Grandma we would be gone, we decided to go to an afternoon movie – Dark Knight – then went to dinner in downtown Phx at the Hard Rock CafĂ©, then spent the night at grandma’s condo. The next day we lazed around until time for church and talked of all the things that need fixing in the condo to make it rentable. Yipes – I need a month off.

Well, your dad felt cheated, so he planned another trip. This time we rented a car on Friday. I left work early and we drove over to Vic and Eleanor’s with Grandma. We left the dogs at home cause Eleanor said they just got new carpet and didn’t want dogs ruining it. We got around 10 pm, but stayed up till midnight talking. Well, part of the reason for going was to go to the Newport Temple, but they told us that it was also closed for maintenance. Sat am, Bill and Tara and their girls came over prior to taking off on their vacation. It was fun to see them and the beautiful little girls. They have kept in touch with some of you via the blogs and were so impressed with all the pictures, etc. Bill has a nice big truck and boat and they took it up near Fresno to an LDS campground. Semi camping, but all meals were to be provided and that is what sold Tara! After they left, Vic and Eleanor took us over to the temple just to walk around the grounds. It is beautiful. Your dad said they probably spent about $1M just on the landscape. Then we went to Fashion Island and had lunch and hashed over some family matters (grandma opted not to go with us for what ever reason). Fashion Island, if you haven’t been there is a huge mall that overlooks the ocean in Newport. I guess the closest thing here would be Biltmore – but so much bigger, more beautiful – a carousel to ride on, etc. It was quite crowded and we didn’t see one junky car in the parking lot – mostly Benz and BMW’s, with a few Audi’s and Lexus’. After that Vic had us drive down the coast highway and we found a parking spot and walked down to the beach to put our toes in the water. The weather was perfect and even the water was nice. There were a couple of wedding parties around which made it fun. We then went back to Vic’s and barbecued and your dad and Vic went for a swim.

Sunday we went to their church staying for all meetings. Your dad even bore his testimony cause he felt so inspired. It was fun to actually walk to and from church (though Vic, Eleanor and G-ma drove).Then we packed our bags started home. We got about a mile heading toward Riverside, then decided we needed to let grandma see the ocean since she hadn’t gone with us the day before, so we turned around and headed down the coast toward San Diego. We actually spent some time there going to Mission Bay and then downtown to the wharf to see the ships. By the time we headed on home it was late and we didn’t get home till nearly 2 am. I can’t do that anymore. I was pretty much mush for work the next day. But at least we made it safely. Your dad and grandma got to sleep in, but I had to take the car back, have them bring me home and then head on in to work. The car we rented was a Nissan Murano, I think. Kind of a mini SUV, but it was really fun to drive and had push button starting and stopping. When we parked once to go down to the wharf, your dad forgot to push it off, so it ran for about 20 minutes with no one there. Yipes! Well, Grandma was right there, so I guess it was OK. Anyway, it was fun to get away if just for a couple of days.

This week I have been quite busy at work, so if my messages are short it is cause I don’t have much time for answering. I did get a couple of boxes unloaded from the office the other night and have tried to clean out Josh’s room with all Trevor’s stuff (put in storage). Natalie and Justin took off this morning for NYC, so we have a kennel going around here with 3 dogs! Hope I make it through.

Well, I tried to find the pictures we took on our trip, but they weren’t on dad’s camera, so I hope he didn’t lose them. Hope all is well with everyone wherever you are in this big wide world of ours. Just know that you are all in our thoughts and prayer daily, and we love each of you very much! Love, Mom/Marilyn

No comments: