The Rest of our Trip

Now to finish telling about our trip to Phoenix and our visit with Richard, Téa and children. On Saturday I played Mouse Trap with the children. Since there were only four game pieces to move, Duncan used one of his little Star Wars characters. When Cheanna saw that she, had to use one too, so we actually had one left over. It is like shoots and ladders in that there are some squares that can make you start over and start over and start over. They both can last forever! We all played shoots and ladders the day before. In the Mouse Trap game you build a mouse trap as you move along the board. It is an ingenious game. The “funnest” part was building the trap. It has stop signs, a rubber band, a bath tub, a diver, two steel balls and a chrank…. It would be really neat if it worked after it was assembled. As you move around the board you eventually get to the cheese wheel. There you have to keep going around and around until you are caught. The last one caught wins the game. In this cheese wheel there is a square that says, “turn the crank”. That is the only time that the crank can be turned. Emma was really upset when she had to move to a “safe” spot. It took me a little bit to realize that she wanted to be the first one caught. We finally all got under the trap and turned the wheel (like I said, it could go on forever and lunch was ready) and turned the crank. It didn’t work. The shoe couldn’t kick hard enough to do what it was supposed to do and the ramps weren’t lined up right so we helped it along. It was fun while it lasted. I enjoyed playing the games with the children. Duncan at first didn’t want to play Friday with the shoots and ladders game but I’d like to think that he wanted to play because I was playing. If it were just his sisters, I don’t think he would have succumbed. It was really more fun when all of us were playing. That night Richard and Téa took us to an ice cream parlor where every day they make all of their ice cream (31 flavors, I think,…many of them anyway) and treated us to a dish ice cream of our choice. I had the mint (green mint) with a Heath bar chopped up in it. I only had a child’s portion and it was plenty for me. Karl also had the child’s portion of Pecan Praline. Each of us had a different one. Then we left to go see the temple lights in Mesa. As I said before, we had to use two vans. It’s a good thing Richard and Téa had their cell phones. As we were merrily traveling along, Richard called and said that Ephraim was really upset and he couldn’t get him to stop crying. He’d drunk his milk in his sippy cup and would pull over and see if he could get him settled down. So we pulled off the freeway and started circling down town waiting for the verdict. Richard called back after about five minutes or so and said that Ephraim just wouldn’t settle down. So we bagged our trip and headed home. We were glad we hadn’t gotten any further than we did. They gave Ephraim some children’s Tylenol and some symethicone drops in case he has gas bothering him. His cry was like he was in pain. He soon went to sleep beside Richard on the couch. Shortly after we arrived home, their friends the Roberts called and said they had found some Christmas lights that Téa wanted to get for the outside trees. They had been at Sears and they were on special, buy one get one free so they got some for them. They said to come on over. So we visited with them for and hour and a half or two. They are Kurt, Adriene, David who is 9, Samantha, who is 6 and Alison who is 4. They and Richard and Téa’s children are best friends. After they left, Richard and Téa got their Christmas stuff out and started to set it up. Many of their lights didn’t work and after messing around with them for quite a while Richard just left and went to Wal-Mart to get some more lights. The tree remained bare all thro’ Sunday. But that’s OK. Sunday was plenty busy as it was. Their meetings don’t start until 1:30 which is even later than ours! I had time to get my shower and get all ready and curl my hair and Cheanna’s hair, and Emma’s hair and Elena’s hair. They all looked so pretty with their hair all curled. They seemed to feel pretty too. Cheanna especially seemed to feel beautiful. She acted like she felt beautiful. We enjoyed church with them. Sacrament meeting was a couple who apparently hasn’t lived in the ward that long spoke to us. Sunday School and Relief Society were also interesting. I didn’t realize that Daniel was the only book in the Old Testament that wasn’t written in Hebrew until Brother Stucki told us. I couldn’t help but wonder if he had relatives up here. Stucki is a very local name. The sister who gave the lesson in RS was also very good. She had been on a mission and had such a sweet spirit about her. We went home had delicious leftovers from Thanksgiving for dinner. Then we went to Mesa to see the Christmas lights. Ephraim was OK that night. The Temple grounds were just beautiful all lit up with many different colored lights. Even lights in the palm trees. They had the Nativity scene and the scene with the shepherds and the sheep a quarter of a block away or so. In another part of the grounds they had Isaiah, the prophet and had a recording telling of his prophecies of the Saviors birth. A little ways further they had a figure of Mary on a donkey and Joseph leading her as they traveled to Bethlehem. Almost all of the trees were lit with lights, the trunks as well as the branches. I hadn’t seen trees decorated that way before. We also visited the Visitors Center and went thro’ the room that had Nativity scenes from all over the world. There was some very beautiful ones. We went to the presentation where two sister missionaries spoke of our Savior, Jesus Christ and His mission on earth and His love for each of us. One sister, Sister Millburn, said she was from Centerville, UT. I wondered if she knew Sharon & Ralph Cutler, my cousin and her husband, and their children. When I asked her she got so excited. “They’re in my ward!” she said. She told us that she knew all of them. The other sister, Sister Hayes was from Kuna, ID over by Boise. It was neat speaking with each of them afterwards. We then went to a film of the Savior’s birth. The people in the film were speaking Hebrew. As we went in a sister sitting on the same row as Cheanna, Ephraim and I were asked what part of Idaho we were from. When I told her, she said her parents lived in Rigby. These are indications that it really is a small world after all. I’m so thankful that Richard and Téa took us there. It was a wonderful experience.

On Monday we knew that Roberts were coming over that night for supper and to play games. So we pitched in and helped clean up. Richard and Karl worked outside and cleaned up the patio and cleaned out the black widow spiders so Ephraim could play out there again. I helped by helping to pick up the family room and washing the French door windows and putting the sticky plastic of the Nativity scene on it. Cheanna helped me too. It was fun working together. I had to admire Téa the way she has her children organized in helping her clean. It was her job to supervise and advise as Cheanna, Emma and Elena did the vacuuming. And supervising Duncan in cleaning up his bedroom. It was a full time job just doing the supervison. She has one upright vacuum and two small canister vacuums. Cheanna used the upright and Emma and Elena used the two small ones to go around the edges, the walls and couches etc. It was very effective that way. Téa worked on the living room while Cheanna and I did the French door and Nativity scene there. Earlier in the day Téa helped the children put together a cardboard version of the Nativity scene while Richard put their large Nativity set on top of the piano. It is a perfect place for it and looks perfect there. They even have a star for it. I told them they’d have to move the piano bench somewhere else so Ephraim wasn’t tempted to climb up on the piano. I think he would attempt to climb anything anywhere. And he’s fearless. Then we got the food ready. That took a while too. The Roberts got there between 7:00 and 7:30 PM. We ate then played The Great Dalmuti (the six adults) while the children had fun playing together. It was a lot of fun. We all enjoyed it. It was 11:00 by the time the Roberts left. After which I pulled out the Reader’s Digest Christmas Book that Richard requested that we bring. We spent about 30 minutes or so singing songs from there. Duncan, Cheanna, Karl and Richard sang while I played. I was able to sit there that long. The longest yet for many years. We all enjoyed it. We found Bonatali that Richard remembered from his childhood. We did it two or three times. It was a song that we had on a tape by Nat King Cole. After we were thro’ there Richard said that if we weren’t too tired that he wanted to show us their Karioke game that Téa’s mother had given them when they updated theirs. We enjoyed listening to each of the children sing and Richard sang a couple of songs too. He really does have a very nice voice. I think each of the children will be singers too. It was after 1:00 before we headed for bed that last night. I woke up at 5:10 the next morning and lay in until 7:00 or so When I got up and got my shower and we finished packing. I had time to fix my protein drink and drink it before we left. The Super shuttle was to pick us up at 10:25. He was right on time. We were able to tell Richard good bye before he left for work. Téa was also up and Duncan and Ephraim. Elena woke up shortly before we left. Duncan said, “I want to spend time with you and do something with you before you leave but I don’t know what to do.” I told him I didn’t either. So I asked him about his Cub Scouts. He told me about the boat regalia that they had. I found it very interesting. My boys didn’t do that particular thing. It was fun talking to him. He is working on his Bear now and seems to be doing quite well in Cub Scouts. He said he had just received his Wolf with the arrow points and beads last month. It sounded like he had quite a few arrow points. We had told Emma and Cheanna goodbye before we went to bed the night before. It took only 30 minutes to get to the airport that day. We checked our luggage at the curb which went very smoothly. Our plane was to be 15 minutes late. It actually was closer to 1:00 when we finally took off. We still got to SLC about 2:10. We were supposed to land at 2:04 so we still had plenty of time to catch our 3:00 Salt Lake Express Shuttle to IF. While we were waiting for our plane, we had overheard a woman from Pocatello talking on her cell phone and learned that Pockey had gotten 4” of snow the night before. I didn’t look forward to the cold. While waiting for the shuttle, I met a young woman who had been on the same plane and was riding the shuttle to Rexburg. I visited with quite a few young people both going and coming who went to BYU-Idaho. I enjoyed visiting with them. We arrived in IF at 7:00. I had called Michele and told her that we were late getting in as we were leaving Pocatello because I didn’t want Brian to have to sit there and wait. (A young woman across the isle from me graciously let me use her cell phone. It turned out she was also on the same plane and going up to BYU-I.) He was there by 7:15. I waited inside the Fairfield Inn…the wind was sooo cold. I just had my blue jacket which is good for 40 degrees but with the wind chill I’m sure it was in the teens. It has been hard this past week to even go outside but I’ve put on my cuddleduds (long underwear) and my winter coat and have gone. It was good to be home.

I’m thankful to Richard and Téa for putting us up (and putting up with us) for a week and for the good time they showed us. I so enjoyed being with them and the children. I’m thankful that my health is so improved that I can and could do the things that I did. nd going up to BYU-I.) He was there by 7:15. I waited inside the Fairfield Inn…the wind was sooo cold. I just had my blue jacket which is good for 40 degrees but with the wind chill I’m sure it was in the teens. It has been hard this past week to even go outside but I’ve put on my cudleduds (long underwear) and my winter coat and have gone. It was good to be home.