Thomas and J (7.30.25)

Dave and I watched Jonny's two youngest boys, Thomas and J, for four nights, from July 30 to August 2, 2025, while Jonny and Jenny took Sam and Henry on a vacation to Costa Rica.  Camille and Mia tended Thomas and J during the day.  We took the boys to dinner at different restaurants each night, and we also stopped by the LDS Church Museum of History, which has a children's room with interactive exhibits.  It was a pleasure to get to know these cute, smart, very active little boys better.

The first restaurant we tried was Chuck-a-Rama, a buffet which we thought would be kid friendly. Thomas and J played together as they ate their fries and fried chicken.  Next time, we put each one on a separate side of the booth!

The soft ice cream machine was irresistible to Thomas and J.  They operated it themselves, usually landing the ice cream in the cone!

Another favorite restaurant was Texas Roadhouse.  The western music was loud and catchy, the chicken tenders and mac'n'cheese were great kid food, and we devoured several rounds of hot rolls and honey butter before our entrees arrived.

One of Thomas' favorite foods is meatballs, so we checked out the meatballs at Spaghetti Factory.  J thought they were pretty good, but Thomas gave thumbs down.  "They were too big," he said.  We will remain on our quest for the perfect meatball!

There was a kids' playroom near Spaghetti Factory.  Thomas enjoyed stacking these blocks and then crashing them down.

One of our duties was getting the boys up, bathed, dressed, and delivered to Camille's house in the mornings.  Froot Loops was the breakfast of choice, although I did convince Thomas to try fresh grapefruit.  "Sour is my flavor," he told me, although he decided he liked the sour part of grapefruit, but not its actual taste!

The Calders, Here and There (7.28.25)

Before our Spendlove family reunion earlier in July, I searched Family Search records and found 40 Calder ancestors who had not had baptisms, as well as many others who needed "sealings" of husbands to wives and children to their parents.  Jenny and Sam accompanied Dave and me to the Portland Temple to do half of those baptisms, and then Dave and I went to the Bountiful Temple on July 28 to do sealings.  It is very satisfying to provide those ordinances for my father's family.

 

On July 29, 2025, I gathered with my Calder female cousins for lunch.  There are just five of us left.  We talked for two hours about our families, our parents' Calder families, and life in general.  We are good friends.  After viewing this photo, I recommitted to my diet!

My cousins and I are all granddaughters of this lovely lady, Nellie Calder. 

Cuisine of Casablanca (7.27.25)

When people ask why I plan fancy Sunday dinners, I say, "It's to lure the grandchildren to my house."  When Henry asks each week, "What's the theme today?", it confirms the value of focusing my menus on different foreign dishes.  On July 27, 2025, we celebrated the cooking of Morocco.  Mike's children, Calder and Audrey, were my only small guests, although Dave and I were also joined by Mike and Heidi, my brother Scott, and Dave's and my sister-in-law, Shauna.

The entree was a Moroccan chicken casserole which included green olives and was flavored with lemon juice, fennel seed, and other exotic spices.  We also ate lentil soup, roasted eggplant and peppers, basmati rice pilaf, and Scott's delicious contribution--three bowls of fresh fruit.  For dessert, we had homemade baklava and peach ice cream.

 

I keep a collection of "stuffies" for the grandchildren.  I bought this cockroach-looking critter in New Zealand.  It is an endangered species, but I felt little concern for it. Calder brought it to the table.

"Can I eat it?" Scott wondered.

I feigned terror when Calder touched me with it!

Heidi, calm in any circumstances, continued with her needlework!

The 24th (7.24.25)

The 24th of July is a big holiday, in Utah, stretching into the next weekend.  It marks the first Mormon pioneers arriving in the Salt Lake Valley in 1947.  The Spendloves celebrated the July 24, 2025 weekend with our own fireworks display, hosted by Mike on July 25.  Dave and I also attended performances of "MacBeth" and "The Importance of Being Earnest" at the Utah Shakespeare Festival on July 24.

 My great-grandmother, Mary Bennion, arrived in the Salt Lake Valley during the fall of 1947, as a two-year-old.  She was one of the last of the original "47ers" to die, in 1927, and was an honored guest at July 24th celebrations throughout her life.  

Mike assembled a large box of fireworks to set off, as an adoring crowd of his children, nieces and nephews, and other family members watched.

Mike shot off eight fireworks that zoomed into the air and then emitted a parachute that fell to earth.  That was enough for each of Mike's and Jonny's children to retrieve one of those parachutes.

The kids crowded round to watch the excitement.

Camille and Sophie stopped by to watch the spectacle.

The finale was a $60 Bruno firework that lit up the sky with big bursts of different colors.  The kids chanted, "Bruno! Bruno! Bruno!" as Mike prepared to set it off. 

One of Dave's and my summer traditions is to watch plays at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City.

We watched the matinee of Oscar Wilde's witty "The Importance of Being Earnest."  It was written as a satire of upper crust British society in the late 1800s, but its observations of the absurdities of social conventions were equally funny and apropos today.

There was not much that was light and funny about MacBeth, but it made us think deeply about temptation, sin, and their consequences.  We noticed LDS Apostle Dale Renlund sitting near us, and we wondered if his observations might appear in a Conference talk!

Good trips include good food.  We ordered the seafood special at Chef Alfredo's Ristorante Italiano in Cedar City.  Each platter included a lobster tail and sole filet, as well as scallops and shrimp, served in tomato cream sauce over linguine.  It was delicious, but immense!

I was hungry again by the next morning, when we stopped at The Creamery in Beaver on the way home.  That's coconut almond on the bottom and raspberry chocolate chunk on the top!  Definitely holiday fare.

And the Ironing, Too (7.19.25)

I am so practical.  Dave suggested we spend a night at our cabin on July 19, 2025.  I agreed, but insisted on carting along my steam iron, spray bottle, and huge bin of ironing.  I finished the whole bin.  Dave went to bed early, enjoying the cool mountain air, after hot Salt Lake. I ironed far into the night.  

The sign by the road identifies our cabin as "The Spend Love Nest" (Dave's parents' sign, not ours, but now we kind of like its funkiness).  Reading and ironing don't fit the common perception of a "Love Nest," but Dave and I spent a very pleasant evening.

The next morning, we rode the four-wheelers around Pine Mountain.  We rode high up on the ridge, where there is a view far down the Weber River valley.  We zipped past new, million dollar cabins and also the elegant cabin that was reduced to just $350,000 during the last recession.  It was tempting, at the time!  

Dave recently gave me a list of everything I should do at each of our houses if he dies before I do.  Servicing the four-wheelers and wheedling them into life may be one of the harder tasks on that list.

Someday, I may learn to just sit and enjoy the views at the cabin, rather than bringing the ironing.  That may not happen anytime soon!

A new ritual, during our cabin visits, is a meal at the Oakley diner.  The restaurant is remodeled, there's a new chef, and the food is good.  The diner even sponsors special events, such as Vietnamese pho on Wednesdays and prime rib on Sundays!

The Road Home (7.12 and 13.25)

Dave and I were determined to squeeze every last bit of joy out of our trip to Oregon.  On July 12, 2025, we meandered south along the coast to the town of Florence.  We then cut east to Eugene and Bend, Oregon.  We also stopped at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, as we passed through to Idaho and home to Salt Lake City.

Our first stop was Depoe Bay, where we paused at the small but fascinating Whale, Sea Life, and Shark Museum.

The owner was giving a tour as we arrived, and she was a fascinating woman.  She did her Ph.D thesis on why some whales linger in Depoe Bay, during their summer migration from Baja California, rather than traveling all the way to Alaska.  She examined whale poop and found that it matched a species of fish found primarily in Depoe Bay.  The owner now owns a whale watching business and sends data to the university research center in Newport where she used to study.  "They go out on boats once or twice a month, but we go out, tracking whales, every day," she said.

The museum had many interesting exhibits, including a display showing the types of creatures found at low tide.

We watched the whale boats depart from Depoe Bay, and we contemplated Depoe Bay's huge statue of a whale, lounging by the roadside.  Dave and I have been on lots of whale watching tours, but I would have enjoyed a tour with that very knowledgeable museum owner/entrepreneur.

We stopped at several Saturday farmers' markets, as we made our way down the coast.  Farmers' markets are always a mishmash of artistic finds, "characters," and funky stuff.

In Newport, we were irresistibly drawn to the crab shack we visited earlier in the week with the family.  We ordered one more "Captain's platter" with its freshly caught white fish, shrimp, scallops, and oysters.

We spent the night in Florence, a port on the Oregon coast which was hosting an artists' gallery stroll the night we visited.  

Bend, Oregon, hosts the last Blockbuster in the nation.  We remember well the days, 20 years ago, when the routine for each weekend was to stop by the local Blockbuster to rent movies.

"We've got to stop.  We'll never go this way again," I begged David, as we veered off the main route back to Utah to see the John Day Fossil Beds.

I know a lot about dinosaurs, but less about the prehistoric mammals that succeeded them.  The John Day Fossil Beds house the remains of huge pigs and bears and lions, disturbingly different, yet similar to today's big mammals.

We spent our last night in Boise, eating huge hunks of corned beef, accompanied by "colcannon," the Irish mashed potato and cabbage dish.  I love Irish pubs, even in such unlikely places as Boise!