WANNA BUY A DUCK?

Everyone knows (and hates) my favorite joke. Do you know how to sell a duck to a deaf man? The answer of course is to yell "DO YOU WANNA BUY A DUCK?" as loud as you can, preferably while seated in a nice quiet restaurant having dinner with your spouse's employer discussing his or her new promotion.

Well, we may have need to actually use that phrase a bunch. When we came home from Colorado, we were surprised to find a new friend in the garage. She likes to sit on top of gardening machinery surveying the territory.

I got her to dance a little jig on the trampoline for me. It was really a lot of fun to watch, but -

She does have a nasty habit of squawking at 5:55 AM just outside our window. We have no idea where she came from. She hopped the fence to visit the other Phillips family, but came right back when the big dog came out. She is visiting next door again. Hopefully she makes a couple of new friends.

Taking a walk on the wild side

We are back from an amazing walk on the wild side - the wildflower side of the Continental Divide. Janene got this super deal for us to stay at the Sheraton Hotel in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. We left Friday after work and drove as far as Vernal, where we slept out in the desert and then continued to Dinosaur National Monument for a short hike to see dinosaur bones in the Morrison, and then it was off to Steamboat. Our first day there, we went on a hike to a place called Fish Creek Falls and then continued another 2-1/2 miles to an upper falls. It rained on us, but it was a gorgeous canyon ( not meant to be a pun).

We took off to Rabbit Ears Pass where we found these wildflowers alongside the road. As we did this small loop drive we also got to see an old coal mining town, Oak Creek, and even spent about an hour with one of the locals, a man whose family emigrated from Croatia. He was trying hard to preserve the history of the town and it's immigrant families. He seemed drawn to the work and didn't know why.

On our last full day in Steamboat, we took another hike crossing the Continental Divide that traversed a lot of high meadows in the shadow of Rabbit Ears Peak. The rule seemed to be "primary colors only". We thought the flowers on the road were incredible, but the meadows were full as far as the eye could see of huge patches of wildflowers. We got to see healthy lupine, indian paintbrush, columbine, sweet pea, asters, and many, many more. We hiked to two different lakes one of which was our grandson's favorite - Elmo Lake. We could have walked for a week with a new burst of color over every ridge.

A Day at the Beach

Redondo Beach - Los Angeles County, California
Laura could not stay out of the water, the whole day we were at the beach. She played in the water jumping through the oncoming waves, screaming every time one came onshore.

She even kept playing when the lady who was next to her got swept out by the current and had to be rescued, Baywatch style. I had suggested that we play right in front of the lifeguard, thinking it was safer there. Turns out the lifeguard station was placed there because of the riptide. So much for a landlubber's thinking about oceanic things.

Michael is planning on being a talking head on CNN. He decided to practice at the beach. He didn't seem the least bit worried that he would not be able to get out of the hole he dug for himself. He looks like what I imagine Stephen must have looked when he was that age.

Sam was not to be outdone when it came to playing in the sand. Brooke showed him how to find horseshoe crabs and he caught a whole bucket of them. Overall, it was a lot cooler at the beach than it had been at Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm - plus we didn't have to wait in any lines for this. Believe it or not, Stephen, Laura and I waited about 2-1/2 hours for a 20 second ride at Knott"s called the Perilous Plunge. The Ghostrider was quite the trip as well, Stephen and Laura even getting to ride it twice. Other than the long, long ride in a car with a couple of kids, it was a fun trip for all of us.

A Letter from Sarah Thompson

Today we got a letter from our old friend Sarah Thompson. She used to live several doors down from us, and she was close to a few of our kids including Dave. Here is what she wrote. I wanted to share it with the whole family.

Dear Robin and Janene,
The month of July will never pass without me remembering Dave. I will never forget him or the childhood memories I have of him. July is the perfect birthday month for Dave... a month to celebrate, watch fireworks, catch bugs, dig in the mud, run through the sprinklers, ride bikes and mostly to enjoy life... that's how I will always remember Dave. Every memory that I have of Dave involves fun and adventure. I also remember laughing a lot.

I have 3 little kids now and I always find myself relating childhood memories to them. They love to listen to stories about my childhood, especially when the memory involves an adventure with Dave. They love to hear about how Dave dared me to eat a mud pie and when I wouldn't do it, he showed me how it was done. They love the memory of the swimming pool full of tadpoles that Dave caught and then he was nice enough to send me home with a Dixie cup full of them! My favorite is the morning that Heather and I were walking to school down the "truck road" and here came Dave... running as fast as he could ( I remember he had a piece of toast in one hand and his backpack on his back) he stumbled over a rock and somersaulted down the dirt road, he never missed a beat landing right on his feet... he just kept running. When he passed Heather and I he said "I'll race you". I remember Heather and I laughing and saying we would see him at school. The best thing about Dave was the never-ending grin on his face. When I picture Dave I always see that smile. My childhood is filled with memories of Dave. I will never forget him.

Love,

Sarah Thompson Pattison

When I read this to Janene,(well OK, when I tried to read it to Janene) there was a little catch in her voice as she said " What a treasure!" It is a treasure to have these memories recorded from so many people. Sarah's letter reminded us of how many people have not written anything about Dave. Every one that we have is a priceless jewel. Each one reminds us of fun times, and some, like this one, tell of a memory that we never had.

The Hum is Gone - The Light is back!

Walk into our kitchen and what do you hear? The answer to that question used to be that you thought Janene had left the wheat grinder running - with pea gravel inside. The sound was the hum of the ballasts in the old fluorescent lights going on the fritz. It used to be that if I was upstairs in the other part of the house taking a shower, I could tell when Janene turned on the lights in the kitchen. Thanks to our good friend Larry Gerber, now you hear crickets outside on the patio, but nothing in the kitchen.

Larry replaced twelve 40W light fixtures (480 watts total) with six 28W bulbs (168 watts total). We are now using about one third of the energy we used before the repair and we have have more light (maybe 1-1/2 times as much light). Not to mention much less heat - and noise. This is going to take some getting used to. Larry's company sells these kinds of drop-in replacement lights and I cannot for the life of me figure out why this is taking so long to catch on. People should be calling him all day long and ordering this stuff, but they haven't been. I am sure sold, so consider this a shameless plug for Larry's company.

How about a winter sunset?

Sunsets in the winter can be just as good as the summer ones.

Why we bought our lot.

Ok Brother & Sister Rogers - I see your sunset and raise you one. Our friends, the Rogers must have been on their deck taking pictures at exactly the same time that we were on our front porch taking ours. Over the years, we have seen some miraculous sunsets. You can't do much better than this.

Family Night with Laura

For Family Night this week, we got to have Laura over for a sleepover. We started the night with little yardwork, then a lesson taught by Laura. It was much better than anything Janene or I could have put together. Then it was off to Rudy's Flats. We went up the North Canyon Trail where we saw this big lupine right along the trail. I want that in my backyard.

We stopped along the trail to make grass whistles. Janene is really good at this. Laura and me - not so good. The trail winds around in the undergrowth and everything is a brilliant green from the recent rains. The creek we crossed is the same one that is a few houses south of our house. Up here it has a crystal clear gravelled bottom. If we had brought Nathan, he would have been in it in a second. As it was, it was hard for us to resist.

There were all sorts of plants along the trail. Everything from mallow ninebark to poison ivy. We saw quite a few in bloom including some wild roses and wild peas.

Just before you get to Rudy's Flat, the trail cuts across the ridge and you have a great view of the Great Salt Lake and the Bountiful Temple to the north. One you get to Rudy's, there are quite a few old growth spruce trees and some alpine fir creating some great camping spots, but camping was not to be for tonight. We headed back down the trail for ice cream waiting back at home and the end of a wonderful evening with our favorite German speaking granddaughter.

Father's Day at our house

We were blessed again to have the whole family over for Father's Day. Everyone came including my Mom & Dad & Tammy. OK- not everyone because Chelane made a phone appearance from Colorado. Doug and his son Jeremy were fascinated by my new birthday present. My GRANNY RACER set works like a slot car racing set .

The only difference is that the "cars" are old grannies in their wheelchairs running a figure eight. Jeremy was pretty good at it, even though Doug accused him of cheating a few times. It was always hard for Doug to lose.

Michael even took a break from chasing lizards and snakes (Cy got bit by our snake - fun, huh?) to get in on the fun.

We found out that you have to be very careful with Doug's kids around. Doug could be heard to say "Doh! - I can't take you kids anywhere!" in his best Homer Simpson voice. What actually happened is that Lily spilled a cup of water. It isn't what it looks like.

Mary brought over her artwork she did for a marketing class. It's a great portrait of Brandon ( in an abstract sort of way). Is she good or what? All in all, it was a fun day for the old man and a great day to honor all the dads inour family.

Memoirs of a birthday slave.

So, yesterday was Janene's birthday. Now she is back to being a year older than me. We started out by going to Salt Lake for a temple sealing of someone in our ward. As soon as that was over, my servitude began. "Oh, can't you come with me to the gardens on top of the Conference Center?". "Why yes, anything for you, snookums. After all, this is your special day. I am going to devote my whole day to doing whatever you want."

Well, this is what I expected. The typical, impossibly well manicured grounds like on Temple Square.

And, I had seen this view from Main Street. Of course, it looks a little different from the top down. This was starting to get fun.

But, I wasn't prepared for this! Bristlecone pines and a prairie? In the middle of the city?

Where did the city go? The place was filled with wildflowers and native grasses. Not a building in sight. It almost looked like the high plains of Wyoming. Pretty cool now, huh? Well that got us all excited about making our yard look good. So, it was off to Bountiful where Janene picked out tons of new plants at Pinae where they are closing out their plants. We picked out tons of perennials that are native to Utah and (this is where the slave part comes in) planted them on our back hill. You cannot plant new things without first removing the old weeds. AND ROOTS!
Man, do we have roots! and weeds!

One funny part, while I was pulling out weeds and volunteer apricot trees, I pulled really hard on one and when it came out, I went flying down the hill... and over the wall to the lawn below, all to the accompaniment of screaming from Janene. I landed on my head, so I'm OK. (actually landed on my back) Nothing was broken, just lost my sunglasses.

We also worked in the garden some more. I ended up doing whatever Janene wanted for her birthday. For two full days. Boy, it might have been easier, if I had just bought her a diamond tennis bracelet. Of course, I wouldn't have been able to spend two whole days with my best friend. Happy Birthday, Janene.

A New Baby Boy

With our new home and new car, we were ready for our new baby boy to be born. We had been taking the new Lamaze classes to prepare for childbirth. Janene had mastered all the breathing exercises and we had practiced the efflourage (I liked that part), but when the day came to run to the hospital, I'm not sure we were really ready for this. Our doctor was the same doctor who had delivered Janene and he wasn't fully on board with the idea that the husbands should be an active part of the childbirth process. Nevertheless, we insisted that I be there for the whole thing. When it came time for the delivery, something went wrong and Shon's little baby heart stopped beating. The doctor came in and in a whirlwind of action, I was relegated to the corner of the room and told to stay there as they wheeled Janene out to the operating room. The last thing I had heard was "ceaserian". I was scared to death. My father had told me a few years before how much joy he had felt when I was born and how much it meant to him, but I don't think I really had understood what he meant until this moment. Right then, I saw all the anticipated joy disappear into the fog of fear and despair as I realized we might not be able to have this baby.

I was pacing in the hall when my father appeared in the doorway. I was never so glad to see my Dad. I needed him then and he was there with Mom, even though I think we hadn't asked them to be there. After what seemed like hours, a nurse came out to let me know Janene and baby were doing well and in a few minutes, Shon would be born normally. Our self centered life was about to change.

Janene and I were both firstborn children, so Shon was the first grandchild for Janene's family and the second in mine. Everyone wanted to see him and help us raise him. He was the cutest little thing with long curly blond hair and a smile that only quit when he was asleep or colicky. We read Janene's journal recently and were amazed at how often we had Shon at Janene's mom's house, or my parents and grandparents' homes. All of our siblings wanted to play with the new baby.

We even spent a lot of time with my littlest sister, Julia, who wanted to play with Shon more than I had ever remembered. We took Shon everywhere with us. When he was two weeks old, we took him to Lake Powell on a houseboat. We took him backpacking with us along with all his diapers. (cloth, of course). I learned to change diapers, a task that most men of the day wouldn't have any part of.

Shon brought more joy into our lives than we ever could have imagined. Here was this special little boy who we loved as much as we loved each other. I remember my Grandmother Morton saying that she loved all of her children and granchildren as much as she loved the first and I couldn't understand how that could be true, but with the birth of Shon, I felt like the Grinch whose heart had grown so many sizes in one day. I also realized that children are God's way of teaching us to be more Christlike as we sacrifice, and share our love for them. I can never look at Shon without remembering the joy that first came into our lives when we brought this little bundle into our home.

New Car, New Home and New Baby!

Wow! Did we fall for this ad hook line and sinker. I saw this ad in Time magazine and fell in love with this car. This was the first year that it had a V-6 and it was made in Cologne, Germany. It got incredible gas mileage (when compared with a 428 cu. in. V-8) and I convinced Janene that we we should trade in our '67 Mustang on our first new car. She didn't need a lot of convincing - she thought it was cute, and she always has liked fast cars. We went to Bountiful Motors and got the best deal we could, then we drove to Ogden and told a different dealer what the deal was. We went back and forth a few times and finally ended up with one that was a light metallic blue from the Ogden dealer. I went to Ogden a month later to pick up the plates and noticed our Mustang in the shop all torn apart. I asked the shop manager what was happening with that car and was told that some guy traded it in and then a week later the engine blew up while it was out on a test drive. I figured someone probably blew a shift and wrapped it up pretty high. At least that is what I told myself to justify trading it in.

Janene loved to drive it, but we were worried about getting it scratched and dented. I told Janene to park it at the end of the parking lot where there were no cars around to ding the doors. She did that one day at Grand Central, and then a shopping cart got loose and rolled all the way down the hill and plowed into the side of the car. It did a whole bunch of damage and we had to get it fixed. Janene had mentioned that people couldn't see her in the blue car, so.... we painted it "Competition Orange" (really a Camaro Rallye Red)! It seemed like the logical thing to do at the time. I was backing it out of Maaco's parking lot after picking it up and sideswiped a fire hydrant in the parking lot. Do over! Then we had them repaint it again because the paint had an orange peel texture the second time around. It was a fun zippy car to drive, even though the car payment was more than our house payment. I even got myself a little Tam-0-Shanter hat so I would look like a sexy European driving it. Janene required no such accoutrement. Soon we would have a new baby boy Shon to go with the car and we kept this car until Heather was born and we ran out of room. This was an exciting time in our lives with lots of new experiences.

Phillips Family Reunion

We celebrated our regular Phillips Family Reunion again this week. This time we had it on my birthday and for some reason I didn't get my invitation until a few minutes before I had to be there. Mom called me early on Sunday and said she wanted me to help her give Dad a limousine ride to our favorite reunion site at the LDS Hilton. Dad had a little trouble getting out of the house (seems he wanted to stay in bed and sleep in a little), but once we got him out the door, then it was smooth sailing from there. All our favorite people were there to welcome us back including our favorite concierge, Imogene. While we were there, we had a little workshop on family medical history and got to reminisce about old times. The staff was so nice and thoughtful, even giving us the same room (846 West) we had when we visited our old friend Sue Doe Monas. This time we got to see New Monia and Dee Hydration. It was only a few months ago that Mom went to visit them during our last reunion. We played all the same games, Pin the IV in the Veins, Put the Yellow Stuff in the Bottle, and my personal favorite, Peek-a-Boo Bare Behind. Mom even got to have a sleepover with Dad after all us kids went home. Too bad that it looks like this will be one of our shorter reunions. Dad says he wants to go home tomorrow. I guess that's OK, we are all worn out from the fun and games. It's time to get back to our normal lives.

Thoughts on June 5th

I woke up this morning at 4:00 AM listening to the sounds of the birds on our hill. My thoughts were taken back to mornings spent with David in the mountains where we would spend the early hours listening to the birds sing and talking about things in our life. Sometimes we would talk about the great adventures we were going to enjoy. Often David wanted to talk about why other people seemed so uncommitted to a belief in God when he and I could see evidence of His influence all around us. David was especially concerned for his friends, some of whom were struggling with hard problems in their lives.

We would talk about fun times we had enjoyed, about the fish we had caught and the stories we could tell when we got home. During the few years before Dave died, I was lucky enough to be somewhat unemployed - some would say "between jobs". It was the perfect time to go backpacking with my little buddy. And so it was that I got to spend a lot of my morning hours in the tent with Dave - listening to the songs of the birds.

Whenever this time of year comes around, I remember the music of the birds as we lay in bed in the morning. My thoughts always go back to those times spent with Dave. Most of the time, these aren't particularly sad times, but are instead a time for me to remember the joy we felt then. I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that the joy we felt then is part of the pain that we feel now. Somehow they are intertwined and become one. In a way, the pain we feel now and always will, validates (probably not the right word) the love we have together.

I have found that when I think of myself, I can become absorbed in the feelings that come as I realize how long it will be until I will see my little buddy again. This way lies madness; but if instead, I think about Dave, I can't help but smile and feel joy. Everything he did was to the max, from dragging home a Christmas tree someone else threw out and making it his own ,to kissing the big fish he caught, to teasing his sisters. His life was an example for me to watch, follow and enjoy. On this day so many years later we have been reminded of the love others have for us as they have remembered the hard day that came so many years ago. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We all look forward to that day when we can be reunited.