We spent six nights in Utah visiting family and friends, driving up on Friday, June 27, and returning on Thursday, July 3. We spent the night of the 27th in Pleasant Grove with my brother Robin and his wife Karolyn, and then we drove up to Salt Lake City early the next day to pick Kiley up at EFY at the University of Utah. In order to conserve gasoline, we spent that day in town visiting Dorine's Aunt Frances (who lives in Dorine's dad's old family home off 7th East one block south of Liberty Park), her Uncle Bob (who lives in Holladay, near 39th South and 23rd East, with his wife Marilu), and her Aunt Afton (who lives in a retirement complex at 1st South and 1st East). Afton took us to see a concert in the atrium at her complex by a male vocal trio named "Sun Shade 'n' Rain," whom I remember seeing perform at BYU when I was a freshman in 1977 -- it's amazing they're still performing after all these years, although they still sound good.That evening we drove out to Grantsville, where we stayed the next four nights with Dorine's brother Brian and his wife Dona and their kids, and we attended church with them on Sunday. On Monday we stayed in the general vicinity, taking one trip into Tooele so that the older kids could see a movie. Dorine and I shopped for a couple of hours there, trying unsuccessfully to refill my prescription for Ambien CR at the Wal-Mart (which doomed me to a couple of bad nights until I could get back here to Albuquerque). We planned to drive up into one of the canyons southwest of Grantsville for what has become our traditional family home evening picnic, but first I hurried over to the Grantsville HS stadium, intending to run a couple of miles on the track there. (It was hot as the infernal regions, however, and all I could manage was one-and-a-half miles.) The picnic was enjoyable, as usual, and the kids had fun playing in the stream.
The next day, Tuesday, Dorine, Kiley, and I drove up to Bountiful to pick up Ali Limburg, whom Dorine used to baby-sit when her parents, Doug and Amy, lived in our ward in Albuquerque. The four of us then spent the day at Lagoon, the large amusement park in Farmington. I probably had as much fun at Lagoon as I've ever had in six or eight trips there, as it wasn't too hot and I managed to steer clear of the most nausea-producing rides. Kiley and I rode the "Rocket" (which shoots the riders up in the air on a system of rails and then drops them back down) five times in a row, and we stood in line twice to ride the newest attraction, "Wicked," which is somewhat reminiscent of the "Excellerator" at Knott's Berry Farm in that it accelerates quickly and goes straight up and down over an arch (see photo above), although the seating configuration is different. That night we drove back to the Limburgs' house in Bountiful and had dinner with them -- steak, with Neilsen's frozen custard for dessert! -- later playing a card game with them that Ali called "Mormon Bridge" (which essentially is the same game we know as "Diminishing Rook"). Doug and Amy are traveling up a storm, just having returned from Hawaii and planning to fly down to Peru to see Machu Picchu in September.
We spent Wednesday morning playing with Brian and Dona's kids -- Miles is the undisputed "Carrom" champion, and Kiley and the girls made a video for the old Allan Sherman comedy number "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" -- before we returned back to Pleasant Grove. (The second photo above shows Kiley, in back, with her cousins [L-R] Rhea, Miles, Ellen, Linsey, and Olivia.) We stopped off at Brian's place of employment in SLC, Dynapac, to see him for a while before heading south on I-15, and then we stopped off at my brothers' (Jeff, Roger, and Robin) place of employment, DME Health Services in Pleasant Grove, to see them before going shopping in Orem. We spent that evening visiting with Robin, Karolyn, and Roger, also playing with my niece Meredith's twin boys Zander and Aidan, and then we drove home the following day (yesterday).
