Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig.

Gloria and Roger with the Mills children (L-R) Alicia (8 yrs), Isaac (3 yrs), Leah (1 yr), and Canyon (5 yrs)

Today is Wednesday, April 11, 2007, and it's time to post a new blog to inform all the family of our recent trip to Logan to share in Leah Kate Mills' first birthday, Tyler Mills' thirty-second birthday, and to celebrate Easter Sunday. Gloria was finished for the week and was able to come home at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 4. We finished packing and left the house at 12:15 p.m. After only a quarter of a mile, we had to turn back and return home to clean up a 32-ounce Gatorade spill just under Roger's feet in the front passenger seat of the van. The cup overturned when Gloria turned onto Cedar Hills Drive and the top popped off and spilled the cup's contents onto the carpeted floorboard. We rushed back home and Gloria was able to soak up most of the red colored beverage with terry cloth towels from the kitchen. It actually cleaned up rather well and we were off and running again within about 15 minutes.
We stopped in American Fork to see Melanie and to pick up a large, a VERY LARGE, fabric covered bean bag. It was appropriately called a "Love Cushion." It was a real hoot watching Gloria, Melanie, and Melanie's mother-in-law, Nelda Merrell, try to fit that cushion into the van via the driver's side sliding door. The van was already pretty well full, as it usually is when we leave home for the weekend or any extended period of time, and trying to fit that thing into the compact space that was left available became a monumental undertaking. In essence, here is what it was like: (1) Melanie and Gloria had quite a hard time simply getting it from inside Andrew's bedroom closet, through to doors and hallway, and finally out to the van. (2) Melanie positioned herself at the opened, passenger-side sliding door, reached over the seats , and grasped onto the cushion and began tugging and pulling. (3) Seeing that Gloria and Melanie could use some help, Nelda came over to lend them some assistance. (4) The bulk of the cushion was on the driver's side where Gloria and Nelda were fervently pushing with all their might to force the cushion inside. (5) Melanie was huffing and puffing on one side while she pulled, and Gloria and Nelda were doing likewise on the other side while trying to push it on through the opening. It looked vaguely reminiscent of two women attempting to push an elephant from its behind into a regular sized door. It would have made a great contribution to the America's Favorite Home Videos program on TV. It was literally a "sight to behold." Eventually they had to remove the folding seat entirely from the van in order to finish tugging and pulling enough to squeeze it in. Even then Melanie was nearly pinned inside and we had to help extricate her from between the cushion and the ceiling of the van. It was an experience that one could say, "A picture would have been worth a thousand words."
After the wrestle with the cushion, we bid adieu to Melanie and the children (Andrew and Erin had gotten home from school by then) and we headed on North to Logan. James had called Melanie earlier in the day and told her that Stepanie and their children had driven to Prescott earlier that day to spend Easter with Stephanie's folks. James informed her that he planned on joining us in Logan but probably not until Sunday morning.
We thought the weather was going to be nice and warm, but it turned out somewhat nice with an abundant amount of wind, which made it not so warm. Tyler took Thursday through Sunday off in order to spend the weekend with us. We went to the movie, "Night at the Museum," on Friday afternoon. Tyler and Mary were able to go to the Temple on Saturday morning. Then later on they took the children to an historic farm where they could see young animals like calves, lambs, piglets, etc.
At around 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, John, Sarah, and Audrie came to help us celebrate Leah's first birthday. Gloria and Mary had taken the children with them to the store to get some things to decorate Leah's birthday cake. While they were gone I boiled some eggs so the children and I could decorate and paint them. Later we let the children go out and take turns hiding them in the yard and then going to find them. They had lots of fun and ended up eating a lot of hard-boiled eggs. At around 4:30 p.m. Tyler entertained a few of the members of his Sunday School class, the 16-17 year olds, with a barbeque. There wasn't a great turn out, but those who came seemed to have a good time and they agreed to try it again sometime and try to get more to attend. Some members of the class were out of town for the holiday and some just simply forgot about it. Anyway, we all were able to share in the victuals and enjoyed visiting. Later on, Tyler started to assemble a trampoline set that was purchased for the children for an Easter gift to the family. He worked on it until around 11:30 p.m. before quitting for the day.
James, John, Sarah, and Audrie came on Sunday morning and we all went to church. After the block meeting we came home and enjoyed a good chicken dinner together. We would have had a pork roast as well, but Gloria or Tyler forgot to turn on the crock put before we left for church. So, we simply started it after church and it was ready to eat that evening. John's family left around 5:00 p.m. but James stuck around until around midnight talking and visiting.
We were all up at around 8:00 a.m. on Monday. Gloria and I got our things packed up and let for home around noon. We stopped in American Fork to pick up our car seat and then left about an hour later. We stopped in Provo at a Home Depot store to price a storage shep for the back yard and to pick up some vegetable seeds and a power stapler that I've been needing for one of my projects. We then stopped at the Springville Wal Mart Superstore and got some fabric Gloria needed and ate at the local Dairy Queen. We were both disgusted with the meal, the building, and the workers. We haven't had much luck with our association with Dairy Queen, many of you will remember our experience in Kaysville. This wasn't quite the same, but it was still bad.
Well, that's about it. We spent yesterday getting back into our routine again. So, until something else exciting happens to us, we'll say, "So long for now!"
With lots of love. Roger and Gloria