A Week with Aedin and Winrey

2/14/08 to 2/20/08

We tended Aedin and Winrey for a week while their parents (Alex and Lannette) celebrated their 5th Anniversary at Disneyland and other fun California places.

Aedin is 3 1/2 and Winrey just turned 1 yr-0ld. They were both very good and we had fun. Here is a list of what we did:

Winrey loved playing with all the toys, especially the Fire Truck. She learned to push it around and walk behind it, and also learned to ride it.

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• Aedin liked watching Glen play on the computer, Aedin also loved playing the computer game, Frogger. But I only let him play that first day, because that’s all he wanted to do! And I wanted to do other things with him. We also watched one movie together each afternoon as a rest time for him.
• Petting Zoo
  This is part of a pet store, but it has a wonderful little petting zoo. We saw: all kinds of fish, puppies, birds, rabbits, pot bellied pigs, chickens, goats and many baby goats, sheep, donkeys, ponies, ostrich, emu, llamas, and a monkey.
• On Saturday while Greg stayed with Winrey, I took Aedin to an indoor playground at the mall. It was very busy, lots of kids, and Aedin loved it. His favorite was the slide.
• Aedin painted a picture with poster paint and big brushes.
• We read a book about airplanes, and Aedin learned to fly a paper airplane.
• He made a necklace with foam beads.
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• We played Candyland and Shutes and Ladders. (He loved that one!)
  
• We read lots of stories including Daniel in the Lion's Den. Aedin was impressed by that one!
  
• We played in a blanket house.
• At the church on Tuesday, in the cultural hall, we played soccer with a beach ball while Winrey played with a big truck. She could hold onto a part of the truck at the back and walk all around.
• We also played with the toys in the nursery room. They both thought that was great!

We didn’t take them to church on Sunday because Winrey had a runny nose and cough, and Greg and I also had several meeting we had to go to for Ward Conferences. So we just took turns staying with them at home.

I wish I could have taken pictures of all the things we did, but I was concentrating on the activities and forgot to take pictures.

Aedin also liked our "Christmas Tree." It IS really pretty with the snow on it.

It was fun, and I love them both so much, but I’ll have to admit, I was glad that Lannette wanted them back after a week. Little kids are a lot of work! But I will be excited to watch them again when Alex and Lannette want to go on
another trip.

White-out Drive to Salt Lake

On Wednesday, Feb 14th, Greg and I drove down to Utah to pick up Aedin and Winrey. We took them back to Idaho while Alex and Lannette celebrated their 5th Anniversary with a trip to California.

The plan was to meet Lannette and the kids in Layton, Utah at 5:00 PM, and take the grandkids back with us to Idaho, while Lannette went back to Salt Lake to pick up Alex from work, then drive to the airport to catch their plane at 9:00 PM.

It had been a beautiful clear morning, and the snow from the last storm had just about melted away, so we expected a nice trip. But late in the morning it had begun to snow, and by the time we left, it was snowing steadily and everything had turned white again. We decided we better leave a little early, so at about 2:30, Greg and I got on the freeway for the drive to Utah.

The snow was blowing all around, so by the time we went through the gap to Marsh Valley, it was almost whiteout conditions. It was strange to drive throught Marsh Valley and not see the mountains at all. We were glad for the big truck ahead of us, because the lights all over it were a helpful guide to where the road was going ahead. We were fighting the wind and snow was blowing all around us, and the roads were slick and icy. Greg had to drive quite slowly.

We saw several cars that had spun off the road. We also saw a big car-carrier truck with a load of new cars that had gone off the road, and another car that was on its side. There was also an accident off to the the right with a lot of emergency vehicles around it.

Finally, as Brigham City, the traffic on the freeway was backed up and hardly moving. We got off the freeway to try to get around the blockage. We realized that we were not going to be able to meet Lannette on time. We called Alex to let him know so he would leave the kids with his sister of a friend until we got there. I was worried that if Lannette tried to wait for us that they would miss their plane.

Alex told us that the freeway was closed from Brigham City to Willard Bay, that was why it was so backed up. Alex arranged for Lannette to take the kids to some neighbors who lived in the ward until we could get there. Since there was no longer any rush, wo we decided to get some dinner. We ate at Maddoxs, a really good restaurant in Brigham City. As we were leaving we heard that the freeway had also been closed going back to Idaho from Brigham City to Malad.















So we drove along the fruit way, along the mountain until we got past Willard Bay. We got back on the freeway, and slowly made our way to Stansbury Park. We continued to see cars off the road. We were nearly there and Alex called again. They were ready to board their plane. We assured them we were almost there and said goodbye. I was glad to be able to talk to them before they left so they wouldn't worry. We located the kids, thanked the neighbors, and took
the kids to Alex's house. We were very grateful for our 4-wheel drive vehicle!

So we slept at Alex and Lannette's house that night. Following the rules of safe winter driving, we had packed just a few essentials, just in case, which we were glad for.

The next morning was sunny and nice. There were deep drifts around the car, and some interesting sculpted drifts out the back door. We fed the kids some breakfast, packed everything up again, and drove back to Idaho. The kids were good, Winrey slept most of the way. The sky was blue, the roads were dry, and we were back home in a few hours.

Busy Week 2/10/08

I had a busy week this week because one of Greg's staff was sick, so I filled in for several days. I worked 10 hours one day. On Thursday, the snow was coming down so hard, and the wind was so strong, that several roads were closed. Four of our patients had to cancel their appointments because they couldn't get to us.

Saturday was especially busy. At 9 AM was a Worldwide Leadership Conference broadcast at the church. It was really good, and we enjoyed it.

Then at !2:00 Greg and I went to work so he could see two patients. We were there until about 3:00pm.

Then at 6 PM we went to a reunion of the old Stake Presidency. We met at the new home of one of the couples. Wow, what a nice house! They have a large family and needed a house where they could all get together with all the grandkids etc. The basement is a complete house in itself with it's own kitchen. We had a great dinner, then each took turns talking about what we had been doing for the last couple of years. Four of the couples there had been on missions since we saw them and it was interesting to hear about their experiences. One couple worked in the West Indies, one in Salt Lake City at the Family History Center, another in an exotic country I can't remember right now, and one in Pocatello at the mission office.

Today, Sunday, we had two ward conferences to attend. We heard some great messages.

The temperature is up and the snow is melting. I hope it melts all the ice away before it snows again. I had to go the long way around to church this morning because I couldn't get up the hill! It gets kind of messy when it starts to melt.

Snowy Sunday 2/3/08

We have had a white January, and this morning we woke up to more snow, about 5 inches more.
Glen and I enjoyed shoveling it. It is fun when you don't have to do it very often, and this was the first time this year we really needed to shovel. Okay, maybe Glen did most of the hard work, I just brushed the snow off the cars and did the edges. If you look closely at the pictures you can see that it is still snowing a little.

Earlier in the morning I had noticed that the last three bananas were getting too ripe, so by the time we finished shoveling the driveway, we had some nice hot banana bread to take out of the oven. (There are some advantages to having church start at 1PM!)

I had kind of an emotional week this week with the passing of Pres. Hinckley. Did you get a chance to watch the funeral on TV, or listen to it? It was really nice. Two of his daughters spoke. I was glad that at the grave site, after the dedication of the grave, they had everyone leave, including the media, to give the family some privacy.

In Relief Society today, the bishop came in and said we were not loving each other enough. He has had women complain in his office that no one talks to them and they don't know anyone. We had a good discussion that took up most of the time. I think we really are trying, but it was good to hear the discussion and realize how many of us are a little shy, and lacking in confidence, even when we really do want to reach out to one another.

We also talked about how some people have complained that our Sacrament meeting is noisy. Well, we have over 50 children who are less than three years old in the ward, and 21 women are pregnant! So what do you expect! The mom's in our ward are very good about taking children out who are crying, but even so, with so many babies and toddlers there is a "quiet roar." Several women spoke up, including me, to reassure the young mothers that we were very understanding about the challenges of keeping small children quiet, and told them not to feel embarrassed. That we were sympathetic and just glad it was them and not us! That got a laugh!

I babysat for a young couple yesterday. They wanted to go to Lava Hot Springs for a few hours to celebrate their 4th anniversary. They have no family near and the mom was not comfortable leaving her baby with a teenager, so she called me. So I watched their three year-old girl and 8 month old girl. They were very good and not a problem at all. The parents actually came back kind of early so I only had the kids for two hours. The mom told me this morning that the little girl said she wanted to come back to my house to play. So I guess she had fun.

Hope you had a good weekend. I love you all so much and think of you a lot.