37 Years ... and we still love each other!

Today marks 37 years together as husband and wife - and as Janene was quick to point out, that means we have been in love for over 40 years. Janene wrote me a little note today to tell me how much we have been through and yet how happy we are. Of course, me being the klutz of the relationship, I didn't have anything written for her. So I'll put it on the blog for everyone to see. Janene has always been my best friend, the one I can talk to, the one I can share my fears, my sorrows and my joys. We have not always had what you would call a perfect marriage, although we are pretty close to that now. Through all the years we were raising 6+ kids, our relationship has been a lot of work, most of it on Janene's back, as she changed diapers, washed clothes, drove car pools, and put up with a missing husband. We have had lots of good times though, as we have been able to raise a beautiful family with children who know how and choose to do good and righteous things. Through it all we have had some great adventures, travelled all over the world and learned to love our own backyard. We have tried to help our family see the beauty God created in this world, and Janene has taught them that they can create beauty of their own by her example. I have had the benefit of a very understanding wife, one who lets me be who I need to be, but who lets me know when I'm out of line too. When I see her come into a room, I still get that same giddy feeling I did when I first saw her get on the summer science class bus in 1967. I picked the prettiest girl in school and that hasn't changed in forty years. I've learned in that time that there's a lot more important things than looks, and I hit the jackpot when I chose Janene and got the best woman on earth. I'll love you always, Janene.

This is our Doug - as a kid!

This is a short video clip of Doug when he was young and carefree. Dan, Shon and Doug were playing on the hill in what is now Brandon Phillips' yard next door. I'm trying out my video editing skills as a test and I thought this was pretty funny. Doug is a grandpa now and driving truck for MBCI. He's on the road a lot, but he's still a lot of fun. The other day, I was at a truck stop and headed into the rest room. I stepped up to the urinal next to another guy, did what I came in for, minding my own business, when the guy next to me reached over and smacked me. I was shocked (shocked, I tell you!) I couldn't believe what was happening. I looked up to find none other than my own boy, Doug! We laughed for quite a while. He was filling up his truck with diesel. Half full, it cost $560!! What a fun guy! He has always been a barrel of laughs.

Gramp's Adventure with Cy

Grandpa got to spend an evening with Cy while his parents worked in Park City. We started by watching Nemo (a show Grandpa had never seen before last night). Then first thing this morning, we had a nice breakfast of oatmeal with brown sugar and homemade applesauce, and headed out to the garden to dig a big hole. This is a boy's dream come true and we both enjoyed it until Gramps got tired. Then it was off to work with Cy in tow at a job up by Hill Air Force Base. When Cy saw the airplanes at the Aerospace Museum, he decided we should go see the airplanes. Why not? We were on an adventure, weren't we?

This plane had the name of Brigadier General Jake Garn on the cockpit and dwarfed poor little Cy. He wasn't even as big as the wheels. After that it was off to work again, but we were soon stopped again by one of Roy's finest complete with flashing lights and siren. He was sure sure that I was kidnapping Cy from his Mom and Dad. It was actually just to check that my Jeep had insurance. Cy didn't think anything of it. It was just another experience in an adventurous day for him.

No self respecting Grandpa would be worth his salt if he didn't take his grandchild to Mickey D's. We actually went there in the guise of taking a potty break, but we got a burger and a drink and played in the playland while we were there. Then it was time to head for home.

Cy sang a few songs and told me some outrageous stories as we drove back to Bountiful. I told him we were going to stop at our warehouse on the way and he expressed surprise. He didn't know what a warehouse was, but he was sure it had something to do with werewolves. It wasn't as much fun when I told him what it really was.

Gramp's Adventure with Cy Continues

The day continued with a little walk along the railroad tracks. When we crossed the tracks, Cy said, "There is the railroad tracks. I never walked on the railroad tracks." So, since this was an adventure day, we stopped the car and went for a little walk along the tracks. At first Cy was scared to get on the tracks, but eventually it took a required potty break to get him off.

Of course, we had do do something a little mischievious, so we stuck a nickel on the tracks in the hope that we could go back later and see a squished nickel. Who knows. On the way home, we stopped at a home that Bill Fuller is building for his daughter Nikki near our house. With Cy misbehaving a little, Bill warned Cy that he was going to poke his eyes out and kick his butt. Cy could tell he was teasing, so he teased back. Finally Bill told Cy " If you don't start being nice to me, I'm going to tell Heather on you - and then she'll stop feeding you and you will just shrivel up." Cy looked a little worried for a second and then lept into Bill's arms and gave him a big bear hug. We finished the day as we started, digging a big hole in the garden. It was a dream day for Grandpa.

Goblin Ghouls Come to Haunt Grandma's

It was a frightening sight at Grandma's house as all the little goblins came to visit. We has Elsie (aka Little Red Riding Hood) The HULK - man was he ever green! and Andrew as a cute dalmation puppy.

We had Nathan as a Dracula character - He was pretty out of character, and then Sam was totally in character as a Police Mouse Princess. You had to be there. Pictures could not do him justice. Laura looked like she was trying to be a hip teenager. She is eight going on seventeen.

Then there was Parrot Boy and his sister the LadyBug - complete with antennae. Mikey looked just like a parrot until he raised his head - then you could tell that he was a really cute little boy inside there. Shon, Mel, Isabel, Max and Jake were here the day before. They weren't scary - they were just plain fun.

But probably the most fun of all was getting to hold little Ben for the evening while his brothers and sister went out trick or treating. He was in a little pumpkin outfit that suited the little punkin' just fine. He had just had his shots, so he wasn't laughing like he has been known to do, but I've never held a more cuddly pumpkin.

Utah - A mountain desert

On our way back home from Florida, I sat next to a contractor from Syracuse, New York, who was headed to Park City for a conference at the Stein Erickson Lodge. As we talked, I realized that he had no clue what Utah was like. He had no concept of a place where lawns had to be watered to grow, where it only rained 14 inches a year, and yet the mountains get 600 inches of snow a year. He couldn't imagine a place where mountains rose 8000 feet above the valley floor that was already almost a mile high. As we got closer to Utah, he could see the mountains and the lack of growth. He marvelled that there were no deciduous forests, and yet he could not imagine a place where the mountains held snow capped peaks with quaking aspen, alpine fir, and blue spruce. Today I was able to go bid a job at Brighton Ski Resort, taking only a couple of hours out of my work day, and was transported to a totally different environment than the valley floor. Being away from Salt Lake for a while let me appreciate what a wonderful place this is where we live. I just thought I would share a small piece of the beauty I saw this afternoon.

Books and Music and Pots - Oh My!

Here are samples of the items we have decided to get out of our house to reduce the clutter. They include lots of books including the Science Library -(lots of experiments), the Time-Life set of American Wilderness Books (about 20 volumes)and lots and lots of Reader's Digest Condensed Books (about 30 volumes)

Janene has added lots of her pottery and tons of sheet music.

Come One - Come All- First come first served. They will be here for a week and then they are out of here. We could even be tempted to let some of our other books go as well. Just let us know what you want.

Chelane Commissions Her First Work of Art

During our recent trip to Mata Ortiz, Mexico, we went to the home of Juan Quezada to look at some of his pots (we could only afford to look) and see some of his family's works. We met Juan's son, Alvaro at the gallery in their home and Janene and I bought one of his pots. (More about the pot and the trip later) In talking with Alvaro, he asked if we wanted to see him paint one of his pots since he was painting one to be exhibited in Tuscon. Of course, we jumped at the chance to watch a master potter work in his studio.

We followed Alvaro out into the dirt streets of Mata Ortiz, past a few yards with chickens, dogs and goats to his home on Iturbide Steet. Once there, we found that his studio was his immaculately furnished living room! One thing you will note in Mata Ortiz is the homes may not be much to look at on the outside, with dirt yards, adobe walls and mud roofs, but inside they could be any home in the United States. We watched as he painted this pot. He never even seemed a bit bothered by seven of us looking over his shoulder, asking questions and firing flashes.

He works totally freehand, not knowing what the pot will look like beforehand. He says that he starts to draw some basic lines and then lets the pot tell him what to paint. He usually will repeat that pattern three times. The brush he uses has the hair of a small child, usually someone in his family. The paints are made with local minerals, ground up and mixed with water and fine clay. The pot was made of a specially prepared clay dug from the hills outside town and is astunning dark chocolate brown color. Juan has shared with the entire town his methods for making the pots and his love of quality, but he has kept a few thing like the pigments a secret.

When we went back to Juan's home a day later to look at pots again, Juan's wife Guillermina, came out and said we must stay for a while longer. The family had something to show us. In a few minutes Alvaro came out of the kitchen with the beautiful pot that he had been painting. They had just taken out of the firing and it was still very warm to the touch. When we asked how much it would bring after the exhibition, we inquired if he would be willing to sell it now before it was shown. He hesitated a moment and then said "Yes". The words were no sooner out of his mouth when Chelane piped up and said "I'll buy it!" We had Juan come out to have his picture taken with Chelane and his son and their newest family pot. We all marvelled that Chelane ended up with the very pot she watched the artist make. Chelane brought home 13 pots of her own this time down and every one of them is a treasure.

A little bit o' frost on the punkin.

Today we awakened to 10 inches of freshly fallen snow. Needless to say, our trees didn't like this new feature, especially our fruit trees, but it sure made it easy to pick our apples. Just bend over, no need for a ladder, almost like picking tomatoes. Janene picked all the tomatoes yesterday right before it started snowing. She brought down eight buckets of vegetables while I was beginning the honey extraction ( yes, we have harvested the honey and right now it is all over our house, dripping from various buckets into strainers) We had to knock the snow off the pine tree this morning to get the branch high enough that we could get out of the driveway to go to church. Luckily, it looks like we didn't have any major branches break.

Ben's Baby Blessing

Benjamin Theodore Landon was given a blessing today by his father and attended by quite a few of his family. He was the star of the show in his little one piece tuxedo. Through it all, he was calm and collected. He never even looked the slightest bit nervous, in fact, he slept right through the blessing. It's a good thing that Heavenly Father pays attention to priesthood blessings because I don't think Ben even heard one word

Afterwards, at Angie's house, he was passed around to everyone who wanted to hold him and he even learned to smile a little. Here he is with his great grandmother, Darlene ( who will probably shoot me for putting a picture of her with her eyes closed on the blog ).

Nathan was there to see his little brother blessed. He has been attending a very good( and expensive ) school. The Carmen Pingree School has been wonderful for Nathan and he has learned a lot. Today, he wanted to chatter and engage me in conversation, even though I couldn't understand a word he said. He wanted to look at me and wanted to take me by the hand and show me around. He even posed for me when I asked him to. The other day, he was playing with his toy phone and Angie heard him say "Grandma", so she immediately called Grandma Janene and let him talk to her.

Little Lily had lots of fun playing with her cousins, but by the time I got around to see her, she was sound asleep on her mother's lap. Andrew put her in a little doll stroller and drove her around the house. She had great fun until Andrew almost dumped her on her head. Andrew enjoyed the time as well. When we got to Angie's house, everything was immaculate, everything in it's place. By the time all of Ben's cousins got through, the house looked like a tornado had gone through. Cy, Sam and Mikey were running around saying " I'm a tornado". We all had lots of fun. We are really blessed to have all our grandchildren living so close.

Yuri is Married!

About 25 years ago, a young Japanese mother named Kimie (Kim-ee-ay) brought her three children with her to the United States as part of a friendship ambassador exchange program that was sponsored by President Carter called the Friendship Force. Kimie and her daughter Yuri, and two sons Junichi and Kenichi stayed with our family for two weeks. We have written to each other often and stayed in touch. We have marvelled at the emphasis the Japanese put on education and how important it has been for their family. All of the children studied in special schools for what has seemed like an eternity compared to our educational system. Kimie's last letter was all about the marriage of her daughter Yuri to Ryosuke. Here is a picture of Ryosuke's father and mother on the left and Masayuki and Kimie on the right as they join with the bride and groom to smash the lid on a wooden barrel with special wooden hammers. Why they do this is not clear to me, but it is all part of what appears to be a very formal celebration of the marriage of these two. It must have taken hours for Yuri to get her hair put up and get dressed in her fancy white kimono. We all (well maybe some of us) remember the fun we had with them when they were here. The kids were cute and adorable then - they are successful and prominent people in their communities now. Kimie doesn't look any any older than she was 25 years ago. We wish Yuri and Ryosuki will enjoy their new marriage together and wish their families well. Our lives have been blessed as we have been able to share our experiences with each other.

Thanksgiving in October

The other night we had a visit from Lisseth, Glen, Brandon and Mary. They brought us a bunch of yummy food that we added to our normal vegetables from our garden dinner. She cooked up a pot roast, made gravy, had garlic potatoes and then other veggies she cooked with the pot roast. She made a delicious vegetable medley thing that used almost pickled veggies... I don't know how to describe it, but she will post a comment to say what it really is. Then, to add to it, her neighbor brought over a bunch of tempura with teriyaki dip that we devoured because Lisseth brought it to us. (it wasn't our fault - we couldn't resist). Finally, Janene made an apple crumb pie (is that called apple pan dowdy?) with roadkill apples. Oh!... maybe those are really called windfall apples. WITH ICE CREAM! Holy Succotash, Batman! Was this a feast or what? When it was time to go we all just rolled our fat little bellies over to the door and down the hill. It was almost like the old pig parties we used to have with our friends in Morton Meadows. And, yes those are brussell sprouts from our garden.

Evening in Little Cottonwood Canyon

Tonight Janene and I decided to do something spur of the moment, the way we used to do when we were younger. As soon as I got home from work, we jumped in the car and headed up to Little Cottonwood Canyon. Of course, we grabbed the camera and tripod as we were going out the door. Years ago, it was not unusual for the Phillips Family to head up the canyon to get ice cream cones at the Timp Freeze in Midway, or to catch dinner at the Spring Chicken Inn near Wanship. It was totally wasteful and not eco-friendly, and in many respects it wasn't very smart ( the food at Chick's Cafe in Heber is not what you would call "world-class"), but it was a chance to get Mom out of the kitchen and allowed time for every child to get some other child upset about something. Tonight it was our plan to listen to the debate, take some pictures and have dinner at the Snowbird Lodge.

We took beautiful pictures as the sun set in the canyon and the sky lit up with some pastel pinks. The Lodge Bistro was closed (I must remember that in the off season it is only open on the weekends). Much of the color had already faded from the autumn leaves, but the evening sun made up for some of that. It was worth the trip, if only for our frazzled nerves, and to sooth the frustrations we were experiencing as we listened to the debate/posturing. Why is it that none of those people in the town hall setting asked the question on everybody's mind? You know - the one that says "How did it come to this? - That we only have you two clowns to pick from. Now what are you going to do about that problem for America?"

Ahhh! The beauty of nature, the smell of the oak and maple leaves, tinctured with the occasional pungent aroma of pine and spruce. That , added to the cool breeze and evening light, and a person could almost forget about the plunging value of your 401(k) and the pile of bills our kids will have to pay off. It was well worth the $25 in gas it took to get there. Arghhh!

Heather and her stuffed family

Heather believes that this picture was destroyed. The original showed Heather in her birthday suit with all of her furry friends. Now through the wonders of technology, she has been clothed and is now suitable for posting to the world. She need not fear. The original photo will be found in our safe deposit box. This precious little girl reminds me of the little girl shown in our previous post, her own daughter.

The Joy of Family

I love this picture of Elsie and some of her friends. Of course, I saw echoes of Elsie's Mom and her stuffed friends when I took this picture. Elsie gathered all her animal pals, dressed them up, and posed them on the couch. Then without any prompting, she sat down with them and ...... smiled. She was content with a mother's day's work and proud of her children. If we hadn't had Heather and Joseph living with us, I would have missed this treasure. We have been blessed to have almost all of our married kids and their little families living with us in our home. Every one of these episodes in our life is a golden memory. This week Chelane moved back home for a while, and we are getting to enjoy her company. Shon and his whole family came to our rescue and helped haul all of her stuff back home. Max, Jake and Isabel helped carry things out to the truck and Mel packed up the kitchen when everyone else was worn out. We even got a little help from Brandon. WE LOVE OUR FAMILY!

NPS Lily Bait!

So.. what do you think? If Brooke and Steve see this, will they be lured into my trap? Will they come to my house to get the goodies and bring Lily with them? Maybe Michael will come over to play too! I know he's a big boy now, but I don't think they will be able to leave him home alone. Hmmm.... Home Alone.... that could be the idea for a new movie.

Garden Bounty - Veggie Delight!

Wowza! Take a look at our dinner tonight. Everything came from our garden - all in season. Starting at the front and proceeding counterclockwise are the stars of this meal. Beet greens, brussell sprouts, summer squash, zucchini, pineapple heirloom tomato, Celebrity tomato, bread, cucumber, grape juice, and .... la piece de resistance.... Casaba melon with a fresh rasberry drape. MMMMNNN! I feel like that dog in the old cartoon that dies and goes to heaven every time he gets his favorite dog biscuit. How in the world does all this different and delicious food grow out of the same dirt and Weber water? It should all taste like dirt and bugs - but other than the beets, nothing does. We are going to enjoy every bit of this until the last of the veggies are gone. With our winter squashes, Hubbards, Butternuts, Buttercups, that should be around Christmas... maybe New Years Day if we are lucky

Joe is a REAL SALT! (Lake Fan)

Joseph and Robin got to go on a hard hat tour of the new Real Salt Lake stadium prior to it's grand opening in October. Layton Construction hosted the tour of the facility that cost $110 million dollars. We got to tour the locker rooms, Dave Checketts' private box, the party rooms and skyboxes. We enjoyed such mundane areas as the AudioVisual room ( Steve would really have liked to see all of the racks and racks of A/V equipment). Did you know that there was 150 miles of Cat 5 cable in this place? The sky boxes have cushioned seats with the Real Salt Lake blazer logo embroidered on them that came from Slovokia. I noticed all the fire protection mistakes, Joseph noticed all the trade coordination mistakes. We had a great lunch with lots of food we shouldn't have eaten, and had a fun time together.