Thwarting the Blogger Devils!

I am trying to post some more pix from our trip to Davis.

Here goes!

"Happy Trails to You, Until We Meet Again . . ."

Dad and I enjoyed our visit to Davis and the Fillmores this past weekend. There was not an excessive amount of traffic - maybe no one wanted to spend so much on gasoline. My friend Rene, who works at the Krikorian Theater, says they all went to the show instead! (We went to the show too - I got initiated into the world of X Men - kind of fun - like reading a comic book!)

We took the piano that has been residing at Harry and Dawn's up to Phoebe. Turns out David can tickle those ivories too. On a musical note, Henry was thrilled with his guitar that he got for his birthday - another reason why we went up.

And the Fillmores have a canine lodger these days - Daisy is a lovely Cocker Spaniel. All these nice dogs I am getting to know may change my long-held opinions about dogs!

Of course, Henry and Calvin loved riding in the truck. It's comforting to know that you can still thrill kids with small pleasures!

For about the last two hours I have tried several times to post pictures - I will try again tomorrow - just try to imagine Henry in rapture over his guitar!

Merry Christmas!

And Happy Memorial Day, too.

So, last year, as usual, I didn't really think about Christmas until fall came around, and then it was too late to say I had long since changed my mind about the merits of drawing names, or rotating each year or whatever.

Since this has been a subject of discussion in the past, and there's a possibility that no one has bought their gifts yet, I thought I'd bring it up again. Adults could exchange among adults (minus Mom and Dad) and grandkids among grandkids, perhaps--or siblings among siblings, with spouse/kids included with the sibling. Price limit, no price limit, whatever works best.

Anyone still into that?

It is fun to have lots of presents to open. But it's also pretty much just fun to open any present at all. And fun to have the freedom and cash to focus on getting a fabulous present for one person or family + Barb/Harry instead of dreaming up the perfect gifts for . . . 21 people.

Maybe anyone who's into it could participate, and anyone who's not could just get gifts for everyone and everyone could get gifts for them.

If the majority says no thanks, I'm cool with that too. Just a resurrected suggestion from years past.

And if anyone has already bought all their Christmas presents, more power to ya, my friend.

Almost

  

We almost went on a hike on Saturday. We started down the trail for a bit, but the weeds were way too high for Esme' (over her head) and they were ITCHY. We kept thinking the trail would widen a bit, but it kept geting narrower. SO we turned around and went to the park and played. Poor Bruce. I'm sure he was appalled at our general wimpiness. Girls.

Die Himmel ueber Berlin

Again, the pictures are all out of order, but I don't feel like fixing them. Also, I'm wearing the same thing in every picture. I'm dirty. Also, there are a lot of pictures where it looks like I took the picture myself, because I probably did since I might have been alone at the time.

Woo!

Ich bin begeistert!

Superman monument at Club Hostel. What the crap. Blood coming from his head? I don't understand.

I don't understand this.

But the deadly hand of communism I DO understand.

My face is rotten because it took forever to walk to this monument and then it was just not that exciting.

Brandenburger Tor... what you CAN'T see is the gigantic soccer ball in the middle of Pariser Platz.

Bratwurst! Only one Euro! Yum!

IKEA showroom, aka our bedroom in the hostel.

Berlin statue and Gedaechtniskirche in the background.

We were ready to go home by this point.

The likeness in the tour book is UNCANNY!

Potsdamer Platz.

Holocaust memorial

Film museum

Sachsenhausen

The cute Ampelmann

Berliner Mauer

When we had to make our beds into Pangaea when Kate came and slept on my bed and my feet didn't fit under the covers.

Happier times.

Me and Kate (!!!) in front of the Bauhaus-archiv.

Happy Anniversary!!

In honor of anniversary number 6 for Harry and Dawn, here are some shots from the California reception.

#6

Happy Anniversary to Harry and Dawn.

American Gothic - Harry and Barb Style

I have a number of photos of Dad and me that I call "American Gothic." Something about standing with your spouse in a "pose" and feeling like you ought to "take the pose." They are from the 70's, the early 90's and the late 90's.

Just so you can all "LOL" as they say in computerspeak.

Birthday #5

Have a nice one, Henry! Party it up.

"I;'ll bet you didn't know your mom was such an adventurous type??

I keep finding memorable old photos. Memorable to us anyway. Two are of me, June of 1968, when Dad and I drove from SLC to San Francisco and on to LA for Joan and Fred's wedding. We crossed the Bonneville Salt Flats - and slept on them one night! There is also a photo of Dad by our trusty Fiat. The one we bought for $150 before we got married. And the one into which we could put everything we owned - except for our rocking chair.

We were poor students, so we slept by the side of the road every night - rolled out our sleeping bags and crawled in. I'm pretty amazed now when I think about it. One time a policeman said something to us - so the next night we tried sleeping in the car - that was miserable. I think that was in Sacramento. In Tahoe we slept in a vacant lot. Somewhere along the way we slept in an orchard. That was where the policeman said something to us - it was morning fortunately, and we were already up.

You can see me rising and shining - and I do look pretty much like a sleepyhead When we got to Oakland, we went to the temple. Before we went in, we went into the adjoining stake center and used the showers in the baptismal area. Harry stood outside while I showered, and I stood outside while he showered. And no one came by. And the building was as open as could be.

In Monterey, we were going to go see an old companion of your dad's - that's a whole other post - and we had splurged in that town and gotten a motel so I could wash my hair. I had rollers in my hair - and didn't have a hair dryer available. So your dad insisted that we drive around until my hair dried because he didn't want anyone to see me in rollers! (You can tell he grew up with two women who had naturally curly hair and never used rollers!)

The more I think about it, the more amazed I am that nothing bad ever happened to us on our crazy adventures. It was, of course, a different time and place. A happy one. A tense one. A troubled one (the nation, not us!) A simpler one. A younger one. But a good one.

Where do the years go?

I was looking for a picture I ended up posting on my own blog of me and Roseann on our shared birthday many years ago, and I found this one. This was the year before the one in the picture with Roseann when we turned 23 on the 23rd. And yes, Alice and I are wearing matching jumpers! (She made them of course!)

The occasion was a surprise party that truly surprised me - it was the middle of finals at BYU - they got out later then. Guess everyone wanted a break for cake! (Alice probably made the cake too!)

Anyway, thought you might enjoy seeing that you too can get older - and older - and older!

But as Dad used to always say, "Beats the alternative!!"

yeah, time difference!

Since it's the 23rd over here...

Happy Birthday Mom! You are greater than great.

dunt dunt dunt dunt

 

Okay, that's supposed to be the theme to Jaws.

But those aren't sharks, they're dolphins. We saw FOUR of them at the beach today. They were glorious. Truly glorious. They are so happy playing and splashing. We watched them for about 30 minutes and they came pretty close to shore. It was really cool.
 

Let the celebration begin . . .

Susanne and Grandma handed be a b-day card last week, Yvonne J. gave me a b-day gift at church, and Bonny and Bruce feted me with dinner, homemade ice cream and a lovely skirt and blouse to get the festivities started!

Growing old has got its perks!

Harry had to work, Dawn was at the Gov's, Eve went with us - here are some pix of the happy occasion.

photo gallery

These pictures got all out of order. I don't feel like fixing them. But here goes!

Kew in "lilac-time"... for Eliza's benefit. And anyone who knows what it's from, because I sure don't.

The neighborhood in Kew is reeeeally nice! The houses are incredible. I guess this isn't a good representation, but oh well.

A taste of home!

Hannah-san and Sara-san.

Tiptoe through the tulips! (Daisies!)

Me wasting everyone at Red Rover in Hyde Park. This is mostly to show you how pretty and green it is here, even in the city.

Really good cheesecake.

The temple under construction. The grounds were gorgeous, though!

A funny ad in Time Out... a happy couple holding a 9mm pistol. The pictures in the rest of the handout were even funnier, like a guy holding a watering can and an AK-47, and a pretty girl holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. I felt like I was in Texas.

Me and Marcilyn on the Thames. This is mostly to show you the pretty blue lights, and my expertise with the timer on Ara's camera.