Wheat Fats

The girls enjoy planning to come here on the same day (usually Sarah's lawn mowing day) so they can spend time together.

Their little kids are always entertaining.

Spencer is getting bigger all the time and makes us happy whenever he breaks into his huge grin. He's a little tight-lipped in this photo, though.

Eli loves climbing into things.

Brooke and Caroline love eating everything they can find.

Fortunately in this picture, they are eating something healthy. Usually Brooke goes straight for the pantry and finds the marshmallows.

 
The last time the girls were here, they got involved in a project of making Wheat Thins.

Rebecca had wanted to give it a try and so she pulled out the Whisper Mill, ground some wheat, added the other necessary ingredients and started rolling and cutting.

Sarah was convinced Rebecca was making her squares too tiny. Sarah's looked huge, but when she put a real Wheat Thin on top of one of her squares--it was pretty much perfect.

Oh, weren't they so smart and healthy as they were making their own crackers?

Final verdict was...

...the homemade crackers were about twice the thickness they should have been and perhaps not quite as tasty as the original. In fact, Sarah declined taking home her baggie of freshly-baked crackers.

Does that say anything for the quality of their Wheat Fats?

First Day of School

The first day of school is always a fun and exciting and apprehensive time for a child. Believe me--it's no different for an adult child starting his first day of school.

These pictures were actually on the day Ben and his roommates were leaving to head off to Provo to get set up in their apartment. Their other roommate, Austin Nichols from Colorado, was meeting them there.

They were all a little nervous about the whole experience. Ben managed to eat most of his breakfast that morning.

The guys--Zac Hill from Vegas, Benjamin Pingel from Ohio, and "the blond Benjamin" as Zac's father called him--consented to take a photo, but refused to put on their backpacks for me.

I always loved taking a picture of all the kids with their backpacks on each year on their first day of school.

After loading up both cars, there was still room for more stuff. It's a lot different sending a son off to college than sending a daughter off. The girls need two cars for one girl. These three boys got all their stuff in two cars and had room to spare.

They got all settled into their apartment without a problem. They made it to church on Sunday and started checking out the available girls. Resumes have been printed, job applications have been filled out and a couple of companies seem interested.

Here's hoping the first day of school today at BYU was a good one for Ben and all his roommates!

San Fran Again

It hadn't been too long since we spent time in San Francisco, but when a son calls and asks for help, we just had to go.

These were some unique palm trees we saw when we stopped at In-N-Out on our way there. (Just a bit of trivial information--we stopped at a different In-N-Out on the way home.)

We helped Abe make a Costco run. It saved him having to pay for a zip car and it sure helped to have extra people to haul the stuff into their apartment building, load it into the elevator, unload it outside the elevator and then carry all the goods down the hall and into their apartment--all the while trying not to get a ticket for having the car in a no parking zone during the process.

Yes, that was a big help for Abe and Klarissa. She got out of the whole Costco experience because she was attending two baby showers during the shopping excursion.

Abe always enjoys having someone around to help him have some fun. We were willing to help him have a good time that afternoon and evening. First on the agenda was going to see the movie "Buck" which is the story of the man who inspired the movie "Horse Whisperer".

We had to laugh when we saw the name of the restaurant Abe and Klarissa took us to for dinner--Buckhorn Grill.

Abe and Klarissa just knew Glen would love the sirloin tri-tip meal. Looks like Abe is enjoying taking a big bite out of Klarissa's tri-tip sandwich.

We continued on with the Buck theme when we learned that the mean gorilla in "Planet of the Apes" was named...what else but Buck!!!

And the picture hanging by the elevator in our hotel reminded us of Buck.

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Doesn't Glen look nice in his suit and...sandals??!!??

Let me explain!! He got his other big toenail yanked out and he's been in agony ever since. That poor toe is taking forever to heal. He likes to air it out as much as possible and so he was airing it out on our drive to church.

Rest assured that Glen did not bare that big, nasty toe in public--well at least not in public at church with his suit on. He didn't seem to have any trouble displaying it to the general public the rest of the places we went.

Yes--this was the place where Abe needed Glen's help. At church. He needed Glen's help to clean up the sacrament table after church. He needed Glen's help to get his wife to church because he was already there. He also needed Glen's help to pick him back up after church since he had to stay after for a while. But most of all, he needed (or perhaps the word should be wanted) Glen's help in ordaining him a high priest.

Abe got sustained that day to be second counselor in the bishopric. He got busy reading the handbook to try and figure out what he's supposed to be doing.

It is always a pleasure to go to our children's homes and that was the feeling we had as we were able to spend the rest of the Sabbath day at their apartment.

Klarissa cooked us up a very delicious dinner.

Glen loves having a popcorn snack every Sunday and this day was no exception. He went a little overboard on the cheese popcorn that he had bought at Costco the day before. We kept reminding him to not mess up the Rummikub tiles with those cheese-covered fingers.

We were certainly glad we had been able to get away on short notice to go there and Glen was very happy to not only help Abe with shopping and with having fun, but also to help with the ordination.

My only regret is that I did not get a picture of Abe in his suit. He looked very handsome!

Painting Project

Our perfect post-mission project for two of our three boys has been to paint the trim on the house. It has been a while since Abe painted and the project needed to be done again. Ben was happy to oblige.

Sarah wanted in on the project as well.

And look who else wanted to be part of the project.

Eli didn't get the chance to use a paintbrush, but he quickly discovered how to unroll the painter's tape.

We are happy the kids were so happy to paint.