Thanksgiving: Double the Family, Double the Fun

This past Thanksgiving (still playing catch-up here...) we flew out to Utah to visit both the Temus side and the Merrill side for Thanksgiving. It was an extra special Thanksgiving because shortly afterwards my folks would leave for their 18-month self-reliance mission for our church. They were going to Ghana. For that reason the whole Temus clan got together to celebrate Thanksgiving and give big farewell hugs to Papa and Ama. After my Dad retired in June (on my birthday :) ) my parent's rented the house and drove to Alaska for the summer with their 5th-wheel. After that they drove back down to finish the last section of the Continental Divide. (Congrats Dad!!!) They drove around a bit after that and ended up at Sarah's where we all gathered for Thanksgiving. We flew in late Saturday night and church was at 9am the next morning. Needless to say it was a bit crazy but we got there. I thought Charlie was going to talk Ama's ear off on the walk back to Sarah's place after church.

One of the days before Thanksgiving we went to the aquarium in Sandy. It is a really neat place and the kids all seemed to enjoy it. Charlie liked the divers talk as they were in the shark tank and he loved that he got to see his favorite animal; the Pacific Mimic Octopus. Jane and I both had fun watching the penguins shoot through the water and flop on the rocks, though Jane was ready to go see other things before I was.

 There was a two-story room with a variety of creatures from South America. There were a few frogs that the kids were having fun climbing on and I pulled out my camera to get a few pictures. Jane wasn't going to have it. Ben was willing to smile at least.

 Bedtime stories. Poor Grant was super sad when Liz's kids left and he had no cousins to sleep in his room with him.


We had planned on leaving Molly at home with our neighbors. The closer it got to our departure date the harder it got for me to think about leaving her behind. So we paid extra, bought a soft-sided pet carrier and brought her along.

She and Frankie bonded over their shared love of sun spots.

 Hannah is a fan of them as well. (Let's face it, who doesn't love a good sun spot especially on a chilly day?)


 It wouldn't be Thanksgiving in Utah without the Branch's annual gingerbread village! This year's theme was Wonders of the World.

Jane and Charlie stuck with the classics and decorated houses to add to the "village."

 Ben carefully decorated the Great Pyramid for Christmas.

 Keith and I took on the Grand Canyon. Keith had the idea to add the rock strata, I included a side stream, Sarah made rafts, kayaks, and a drunk intertuber, and Liz recreated Lava Falls in incredible detail. Complete with Devil's Anvil above it, Tequila Beach (complete with celebratory gummy bear) below it, and Sarah's drunk intertuber tipped over right in the middle (see the bottom of the life saver?).

 Paul made the Christ statue that stands over Rio, Brazil. Alex and Zach worked on the leaning tower of Piza, complete with gummy bears attempting it pull it back up straight. Joe and Jessica, with technical assistance from Dad, worked on Mt Everest. As always, it was a whole lot of fun.

Thanksgiving day was the one day that we knew that we would all be there so plans had been made to have Sarah's friend take a few pictures of the whole family.

 Next to where we parked in the canyon there were lots of fun boulders to climb.
 
Some of the pictures were taken in a dry river bed that had lots of fun rocks. Charlie was bummed when we told him we couldn't take them home for his rock collection.

Considering the size of Sarah's kitchen, and the size of the group, Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch (except for lighting the marshmallows on fire, again.).

Liz's super cute turkey veggie tray.

 After Thanksgiving dinner we played games, worked on puzzles, and watched movies. Good relaxing family time. The next morning everyone left to various places except for Mom and Dad. They took the kids on a bike ride around the neighborhood while Keith and I finished loading the car (we had borrowed Grandpa Joe's). When they came back we hugged, waved good-bye and wished them all the best on their next grand adventure.

After leaving Sarah's house we drove to Orem to spend a week with Granny B and Grandpa Joe and to have another Thanksgiving on Saturday! Granny B put Charlie and Jane to work making sure there were no bad cranberries. They took their job very seriously.

 Granny B surprised Charlie with a huge jar of green olives. He was so excited! We hardly made a dent in it though so I bet they still have that jar of olives.

 Grandma Lowe came over and had Thanksgiving dinner with us on Saturday. She played several rounds of canasta with her grand sons and seemed to really enjoy herself. It was really great to have her there. Also pictured here is Sandra. At the time she was Shawn's girlfriend but as of New Year's Eve she has become his fiancee! I really had a great time getting to know her for the short time we were there.

I'm so happy for them!

 Charlie and Jane always have fun rediscovering treasures in the Grandma's toy/book/game closet!

 The kids also opened their Christmas presents from Granny B and Grandpa Joe while we were there. One of them was play-doh food set. They kept everyone full with soups, pasta, salads, and more. It was like a play-doh version of Olive Garden!

I couldn't bear the thought of leaving Utah again without getting up to the mountains. All ideas and plans of hiking up in the canyons wouldn't work out for one reason or another so Monday morning we went up to the foothills just near the mouth of Provo Canyon.  

 Granny B took care of the kids so it was just Grandpa Joe, Keith and me. It felt great to be moving outside even if just for a little while and just above the city. Grandpa Joe looked for birds while Keith and I played around with the new camera we had just purchased on a Black Friday deal. It was rejuvenating.

Sadly all good things come to an end and so Wednesday morning we packed up and headed to the airport. But what a wonderful Thanksgiving trip we had and how great it is to have so much family to be thankful for!

Total Eclipse of the Sun

This past summer we realized a BIG bonus that came with living where we do. On August 21st we were in the path of totality for the solar eclipse. For almost a minute and a half we would experience totality just by stepping outside.

I was SO EXCITED!!!

So I told Deb that she should come join us for the weekend.

And she did.

And she brought her family too. ;)

 I love this guy.

 Can't forget sweet Baby E! Perfectly squishy and those big mouth smiles just melt my heart!

Deb had made "Wild Kratts" power vests that they brought with them. The older boys had endless fun with them and pretending that the little playground was the "Tortuga" (the home base of the Kratt brothers).

They enjoyed them so much that when they returned home Deb made two more and mailed them to Charlie and Jane! A blue vest for Martin and a purple one for Aviva.

 

 Monday was the day we had been waiting for. Eclipse time.

 Eclipse glasses are made to be used looking directly at the sun. So the sun is the only thing you can see when you have them on. Just a deep yellow orb surrounded by black.

The missionaries in our ward joined us for the (most likely) once in a life time event.

 I had also ordered special filter paper to wrap around cameras or binoculars. Checking on the eclipse progress with the binoculars was pretty fun. The tricky part is finding the sun! Think of trying to find an object through binoculars without reference points. Just like the eclipse glasses it is all black. You don't see anything until bam! there is the sun.

 

Over the course of about an hour we would check on the progress. Little by little the eclipse was getting further and further along. As it got close, the air felt cooler and the sky was less bright. The moon was covering more and more of the sun until it suddenly disappeared. We could no longer see the sun with our glasses. They had gone dark.

I pulled mine off and looked up at, what appeared to be, an alien sky. It looked as if some thing had taken a hole punch to the sun leaving a small portal looking out into the blackness of space. I saw Mercury. There was a sunset all around the horizon. I was in complete awe and yet, at the same time I felt a primal fear forming somewhere inside. Excitement, fear, wonder, jubilation all could be used to describe how I felt. Charlie was freaking out, Keith was laughing, and Jane was scared. Then as quick as it had left, the light came back. Glasses went back on and it was over.

A little while after that I watched a TED Talk about total eclipses. The message that the presenter gave was simple: no one can adequately describe it, no picture can adequately capture the experience and a partial eclipse doesn't even compare. You simply owe it to yourself to see a total eclipse in your lifetime.

The next one in the USA will be in 2024. I might have to see another, even if I will have to leave my backyard next time.

Total Solar Eclipse 2017 Merrill family party: The Blacks (Deb, Nate, Manu, D and E), Kathleen and Joe Patrico, Elders Atkin and Seamons, and the Merrills.

Utah Camping

Waaay back in June we took a drive to Utah for a two week vacation, one of which was spent camping in the mountains (Granite Flats to be exact). It was wonderful!!!

We had had Molly for about a month at that point so she came along and proved to be a pretty decent camper, which is good considering the family she has come to. She would get pretty cold in the morning so I would stuff her in my jacket as I got breakfast going until a good sunspot showed up.

I am often jealous of dogs that can lay in sunspots to their hearts content without any pressing responsibilities.

We reserved two sites and for the first part of the week our good friends, the Cleggs, joined us. Their first morning there, Becky pulled out a face painting kit and pretty soon the kids were lined up to get painted. Except for Jane. She didn't want that brush anywhere near her.

It did our hearts good to see a second generation of Clegg-Merrill friendships begin forming.

 Piper, the Clegg's dog, was the first dog that Molly interacted with during her time with us. It was amusing to watch her observe Piper play. It has become pretty obvious that wherever it was she came from, she was the only dog.

I have a new appreciation for my dad's patience and sacrifice as he taught his kids to fish. It is a labor of love. Worth it though. Definitely worth it.

About half way through the week we said good-bye to the Cleggs and hello to the Jaggis!

 

Grant, Charlie, and Jane were playing a game where they would take turns "burying" a treasure while the other two covered their eyes and then they would try to find it. Good in theory but as you can tell from the picture, poorly executed.

 

 Jane loved playing/taking care of Hannah. Hannah loved running into the street and Jane was great at bringing her back to the camp. I took a super cute video of them playing ring-around the rosie. They make sure to fall all the way down, very carefully.

 Charlie really wanted to stay up to see the stars so twice we let him stay up late and twice he fell asleep. Both times we would try to rouse him when the stars came out but he was too tired to be interested at that point. Oh well. We tried.

One night during the trip we were startled awake by the voice of an announcer booming off the mountain sides up and down the canyon. Apparently there was some kind of race (with a very early start time) being held down on the road by the reservoir. The announcer kept on reading off raffle ticket numbers, reminders of race rules, and a seemingly never ending countdown to the start of the race. I was tired, cranky, worried that he would wake up the kids, and cursing the people who would need to have their raffle number announced more than once. But mostly I was furious with the announcer and the race organizers for waking me up. I would drift back off to sleep just to be jerked awake again by the announcer repeating a raffle ticket that someone still hadn't claimed. At one point I dreamed that I stormed over to the stage, grabbed the mic stand and hit the announcer over the head with it. Hard.

Only in the morning (the proper, reasonable morning) did I learn the identity of the announcer. It was the "voice of the Cougars" Greg Wrubell, the man who all BYU sports fans loved. Well not me. To me his name is Mud. (Joking, not joking.)

 There was a lovely reservoir below the campground where we went to play one day.

 Hannah and the "puhppy."

 Jane was REALLY excited to see baby ducks and REALLY disapointed when they swam away from her as she tried to go after them.

 The Jaggis also brought their dog Frankie. Despite the big size difference between her and Molly, Frankie was only about 6 months old at the time. Frankie thought Molly was pretty boring, but thanks to Frankie, Molly was introduced to "fetch."

 Alex took a break from his rock climbing adventures to join us for my birthday celebration! Technically my birthday was before our trip but I wanted to celebrate with family and have Keith cook me a Dutch oven shortcake. :)

Charlie and Jane happily helped Alex find the perfect spot for his hammock; right next to our tent. They think Alex is pretty cool. I agree.


 Beautiful sister and handsome nephew.

 
 Charlie and Grant carried large rocks around. Not sure why...


Swinging in the hammock.

 

 Keith was part way through cooking the cake when he realized that he didn't have tongs for the coals. Not to worry. He made his own and the cake turned out great.

 

 Joe and Bonnie, along with pups Roxie and Sadie, joined us for the evening to celebrate with us.

I think I may make camping with family a part of my birthday celebration traditions. Especially the lack of cellphone reception and internet access.
It was a truly wonderful week.