Need to persist

Kent's reading C. S. Lewis, The Man and His Message which he got for his birthday. Here's a volume of insights by scholars on, indeed, the man and his message. In 1998 the colleges of Religious Education and Continuing Education at BYU held a conference in honor of the 100th birthday of C.S. Lewis in the hope that participants and many others would hold in high esteem his thought processes as a defender of the Christian faith and appreciate better the appeal these have over the world still. Written texts of eleven of the fourteen presentations at the conference make up the book.

Kent always shares out loud with me paragraphs that strike him. Here's one:

Furthermore, since discipleship occurs in a tight mortal time frame, it is all the more a rigorous and ongoing developmental journey. No wonder Lewis stressed our need to persist: "Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live for ever. Perhaps my bad temper or my jealousy are gradually getting worse—so gradually that the increase in seventy years will not be very noticeable. But it might be absolute hell in a million years." (C. S. Lewis, The Man and His Message: An LDS Perspective. p. 10)

Grandma Lulay's Chicken and Dumplings

The cooler weather this time of year sure makes me crave comfort-foods! We're wearing long sleeves now and drinking hot chocolate in the evening. I was looking through my recipe book the other day for something, well, yeah, comforting... and stopped at this chicken and dumplings recipe I got from Erin when we were in Colorado. She made it three years ago near Halloween and, oooh, I loved it! Seeing the recipe ingredients and remembering Erin's warm kitchen with this bubbling on the stove top brought back great memories!

CHICKEN:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3-4 pounds chicken pieces (legs, breasts, thighs)
1 small onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
3 cups plus 1/2 cup water
1 bay leaf
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 teaspoon salt
Black pepper, to taste
5 medium-size carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1/3 cup all-purpose flour

DUMPLINGS:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
2/3 cup milk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1. For the chicken, heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or other large covered saucepan. Add the chicken pieces and brown them on each side for 2 minutes.

2. Stir in the onion and celery. Sauté briefly.

3. Add 3 cups of water, bay leaf, bouillon cubes, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer the chicken, covered, for 30 minutes.

4. Remove the chicken, add the carrots to the pot, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or until the carrots are tender.

5. Meanwhile, remove the chicken meat from the bones.

6. Whisk together the flour and the remaining 1/2 cup of water in a medium bowl until smooth.

7. Add the mixture and the chicken meat to the simmering saucepan. Cover and continue to simmer.

8. To prepare the dumplings, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and fresh parsley in a large bowl.

9. Make a well in the dry mixture and add the milk, egg, and oil. Stir briskly to make a batter.

10. For each dumpling, spoon a rounded tablespoon of batter into the simmering broth. Cover and simmer for another 13 to 15 minutes, without stirring.

11. Ladle into wide soup bowls and serve hot. Makes 5 to 6 servings.

Friday

I'm not getting my vacuuming done and there's a lot of it, including the stairs. I very-much-dislike vacuuming the stairs themselves but don't mind doing the whole downstairs. I AM watching over a pan of chocolate chip cookies in the oven and taking a break here from kitchen duty to think and write. I've been looking up basil pesto recipes (found one with ricotta cheese and toasted almonds I'm gonna try) and putting ingredients together in the bread machine for sandwich bread – we stopped using Grandma Sycamore's delightful white bread to try a honey whole wheat/whole wheat pastry flour/bread-flour recipe (and water from canned garbanzo beans [aquafaba, look it up online...], crazy-good stuff); unloading the dishwasher and putting breakfast dishes in and baking bowls and utensils and, now, pans... putting away flour and sugar bins and salt and baking soda and vanilla, etc; cleaning the counters, yes.

And looking out the window at the house across the street from us, new construction, and the one beside it (walls poured yesterday, goodbye, goodbye view, forever) and the one beside it



framed while we were in Colorado and shingled since, and marveling that that man unloading the shingles hasn't pitched right off the roof! He almost did – drop – but did a hop and skip near the gable to save himself, gee. I've been reviewing recipes for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow as it's Conference Saturday: Ditalini pasta and white beans with garlic-rosemary oil for dinner (ahhh, for when Kent gets home from substituting at the temple) and baked chicken thighs with potatoes and carrots for tomorrow's lunch. I've been helping myself to the last of the raw cookie dough (which I shouldn't at all, not even but Oh. My. is it good!),



and listening to the Men of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir belt out "Brethren We Have Met to Worship," "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy," "Morning Trumpet," and "Fight The Good Fight with All Thy Might."

It's raining now.

I'm not getting my vacuuming done at all and it's on my list of stuff I HAVE to do. Also on that is eat leftover chopped salad for lunch, and it's almost lunchtime... in fact, it's five minutes past; go to Costco; visit dad and mom; make basil pesto (I said I would, it'll be great on pasta for Sunday lunch), text one of the ladies I visit teach to see if she got my first text about us coming next week; blog more posts: two days in September and another this month; drive to Trader Joe's for arugula and micro greens. Maybe I'll do that a different day, though it'd be good if I could get there today.



Marcia handed off this recipe to me a day or so ago after making the cookies and sharing some with Kent and me, saying it's Briana (her daughter-in-law's) favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I had to try it! There's cornstarch in it. I pasted the recipe right from Sally's Baking Addiction website (URL below the recipe).

Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

yield: 16 LARGE COOKIES

Soft-baked and ultra chewy. No mixer required. Use any of your favorite add-ins!

Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/4 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour (Natalie used combination whole wheat pastry and all-purpose flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted (Natalie used room-temperature, softened, not melted to liquid)
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks

Directions:

1. Toss together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In a medium size bowl or bowl of an electric mixer, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg, then the egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula or mixer paddle. The dough will be very soft, yet thick. Fold in the chocolate chips. They may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to have them evenly dispersed among the dough. Cover the dough and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours, or up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory. (Natalie did not chill dough; baked up great.)
3. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 325F degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
5. Roll the dough into balls, about 3 Tablespoons of dough each. The dough will be crumbly, but the warmth of your hands will allow the balls to stay intact. Roll the cookie dough balls to be taller rather than wide, to ensure the cookies will bake up to be thick. Place on cookie sheet. Press a few more chocolate chips/chunks on top of the dough balls for looks, if desired. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes. (Natalie's oven cooked this size cookie-dough 12-13 minutes, 13 usually, before taking cookies out.) The cookies will look very soft and underbaked. (They do.) They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Make ahead tip: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature and continue with step 3. Baked cookies freeze well - up to three months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well - up to three months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw.

Additional Notes:

1. Salted butter can be used instead. Reduce salt in the cookie dough to 1/4 teaspoon.
2. Room temperature egg + egg yolk are preferred for even disbursement. Typically, if a recipe calls for room temperature or melted butter, it's a good idea to use room temperature eggs as well.  To bring eggs to room temperature quickly, simply place the whole eggs into a glass of warm water for 5 minutes. What to do with the extra egg white? Make these or these.

http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/05/13/chewy-chocolate-chunk-cookies/

Can happiness happen NOW?

Sarah and I talked the other day and she taught me things she took note of from the General Women's Conference Saturday night. Her insights are priceless. I think we share a brain! I said Sarah you have to send me these so you can be my guest blogger on my blog. She laughed and declaimed needing attention that way. She WOULDN'T be my "guest" anything. She WOULD send me the notes as she took them so I'm posting them as they've come.
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Elder Uchtdorf is a Master Teacher who knows his audience. His words are a laser beam to the soul.
-------------------------

Ava had to go and live with Aunt Rose for the summer while her mother had an operation. She didn’t know Aunt Rose. She hated it there. She had a cluttered house and a creepy, gray stalker cat who perched on the highest point in the room waiting to attack like a tiger.

Aunt Rose had never married, didn’t have any children. She struggled to get up the stairs and couldn’t bend over to tie her shoes. Yet, she was the happiest person Ava had ever known. Everyone wanted to be around her. Aunt Rose had a painting on her wall of a little pioneer girl skipping along the road. The colors were vibrant blues and greens.

Ava asked her what the painting meant. Aunt Rose said: “My life was one heartbreak after another. I was an absolute monster to be around. Then I discovered faith and hope in the Savior — because of Him everything will be made right. I knew I had a choice. I could drag my feet in the dusty road of defeat or I could be happy. It’s much easier to live in a puddle of pessimism and a mess of melancholy. But why get swallowed up in the past?"

Aunt Rose read to Ava from the Bible: And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes (Revelations 21:4). "Isn’t that the most beautiful thing you have ever heard?" Ava asked “Is all our happiness in eternity? Can some of it happen now?” Rose said, “Yes. I’ve learned that “now” is part of eternity. Forever is composed of “nows."

How to be happy? Fill your life with meaningful things. The heart of the gospel is love. The “shoulds” and “musts” of the gospel all lead to love.
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I like:

Stalker
Vibrant
Struggled
Happiest
Life was one heartbreak after another
Monster
Faith and hope
Drag my feet in the dusty road of defeat
Be happy
Puddle of pessimism and mess of melancholy
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes

Move on

Forgiving someone for something and forgetting it happened are different things. The things two people do to each other they DO remember... we DON'T forget. Though there's a difference between 

• how we carry what's left over from being hurt, and
• how we continue to treat the person who wronged us

Forgiveness, forgiving, implies we are ALL fallible; we make mistakes AS OFTEN AS NOT. How we choose to love each other, regardless, shows to what degree we are forgiving. We can hardly forget hard things, hardly set aside such... but we can choose to not use these against each other.

That's difficult.

We tend to knee-jerk reactions and/or/then longish grudges, meaning we're not great at naturally forgiving, then... forgetting. I said earlier we can hardly forget hard things, set them aside. The ability to MOVE ON has to be practiced. There's virtually a betraying of ourselves practicing letting go of memories and hard feelings if we're apt to hold on. Our natural selves and our best selves battle.

Clinicians say though if we can change our perspective on a thing we can change pretty much anything else as well – how we feel about any situation and how that may continue to affect us and our relationships. Changing our perspective enough times – practicing, doing it over and over – the struggle lessens. Forgiveness is a reaction, and carrying what's hard-to-be-forgotten, or NOT, a choice. We may not think it's true but we're capable of choosing our reaction to the things that happen to us.

Prophets declare “Of you it is required to forgive. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if you forgive not men there trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:14–15). They say “...let us bind up the wounds — oh, the many wounds that have been caused by cutting words, by stubbornly cultivated grievances, by scheming plans to 'get even' with those who may have wronged us. We all have a little of this spirit of revenge in us. Fortunately we all have the power to rise above it if we will 'clothe [ourselves] with the bond of charity, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace'” (D&C 88:125).
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Not long ago I listened at length to a couple who sat across the desk from me. There was bitterness between them. I know that at one time their love was deep and true. But each had developed a habit of speaking of the faults of the other. Unwilling to forgive the kind of mistakes we all make, and unwilling to forget them and live above them with forbearance, they had carped at one another until the love they once knew had been smothered. It had turned to ashes...

Is there a virtue more in need of application in our time than the virtue of forgiving and forgetting? ~President Gordon B. Hinckley, “Of You It Is Required to Forgive.”

Making General Conference a priority

It is not surprising that in the face of tremendous evil and temptation the Lord does not leave us to find our way on our own. In fact, there is more than enough guidance available to each of us if we will listen. You have received the gift of the Holy Ghost to direct and inspire you. You have the scriptures, parents, Church leaders and teachers. You also have the words of the prophets, seers, and revelators who live in our day. There is so much guidance and direction available that you won’t make major mistakes in your life unless you consciously ignore the guidance you receive. ~The Blessings of General Conference, Paul V. Johnson of the First Quorum of the Seventy

"If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you.” —Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"An Ensign to the Nations."

"I promise that if you will listen, you will feel the Spirit well up within you. The Lord will tell you what He wants you to do with your life. In conferences we can receive the word of the Lord meant just for us." —Elder Robert D. Hales

"General Conference: Strengthening Faith and Testimony."

"Decide now to make general conference a priority in your life. Decide to listen carefully and follow the teachings that are given." ~Elder Johnson

Conference listener

General Conference is coming! Not yesterday but last Sunday when we were with the kids in their Sacrament Meeting I took notes from the two speakers who talked about this. Here's exactly what I wrote:

Questions I need answered.

Challenging situations I need help with.

This man wrote down five questions for Conference...

How can I be happy when so many things go wrong?

Questions are answered in Conference. We can take our problems and questions to the Lord... be a Conference "listener."



How can I be saved and STAY saved? Ezekiel: Watchmen on the tower (apostles and general officers).

Ask grandchildren to write down impressions they have during conference... we talk about them together after Conference...

We can be taught at any age. Eyring quote: "Come with our problems, be ready to learn, lift God's children."

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We choose every day who we are by what we do.



Be hearers and doers of Christ's words.
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Communicate to our children and grandchildren the power of the gospel.

General Conference is coming! I'm looking forward to it.

Well known story

The Woman at the Well – Sieger Köder

Like with all of us, the woman of Samaria cannot "hide" from Jesus of Nazareth. She encounters Him at the well and realizes ALL she hopes to keep secret is known of Him. He knows her better than she knows herself. It's so with all of us. Christ offers us "living water," the invitation to come to Him and be refreshed and redeemed. When we experiment on his invitation and truly, steadily, observe ourselves reflected in His kindly invitation we see we are never alone and are transparent to Him who perfectly loves us.

Keep going

The Lord’s way is not hard. Life is hard, not the gospel. “There is an opposition in all things,” everywhere, for everyone. Life is hard for all of us, but life is also simple. We have only two choices. We can either follow the Lord and be endowed with His power and have peace, light, strength, knowledge, confidence, love, and joy, or we can go some other way, any other way, whatever other way, and go it alone—without His support, without His power, without guidance, in darkness, turmoil, doubt, grief, and despair. And I ask, which way is easier?

Life is hard, but life is simple. Get on the path and never, ever give up. You never give up. You just keep on going. You don’t quit, and you will make it.
The Way, Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge of the First Quorum of the Seventy

Quest of a lifetime

8 ¶For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55)

These verses came up in Sunday School class recently where the teacher showed us how loooonnnnggg the ppprrrooocccceeeesssss may be where the Lord "works with us" to prosper us. His word going forth from his mouth shall not return unto Him VOID but shall accomplish what He pleases (with us); it shall prosper the thing (us) whereto He sends it.

If He knows us individually (He does); if He loves us perfectly and unconditionally (He does); if His work and glory is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life (it is), then no matter that His thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways His, the fashioning of us and perfecting of us after the manner of Man He is will/must go forward. And at the pace (for each of us individually) He knows we need. As rain comes down, and snow, and doesn't evaporate but follows a cycle of watering the earth and nourishing plants so they give fruit and bread and do replenish themselves with seed... as that is a loooonnnnggg process, so is the nurture God maintains with us His children.

It does not fail. Thus, for you and me ↓



And longer.

Sitting around

Work will win when wishy-washy wishing wont.  Thomas S. Monson

You know today I kind of sat around a lot. Not a good thing to admit with a quote like this hovering above this post. With good reason: today I have a nasty sciatic nerve flare. I couldn't go to my YW activity last night because of it. I barely made it to dad's with groceries late in the day yesterday. I did that, then came home and before bedtime sat in my chair.

I sat in my chair the whole day today, pampering. Staying off my leg and hip. Saying no to a dozen things: cooking breakfast; going to town with Kent; of course walking early this morning with Marcia, no. Vacuuming the downstairs and stairs themselves, often Thursday's work. It'll wait. No. No to going to Amy's like I was supposed to. No baking cookies or coconut custard pie like I thought... no cleaning the closet under the stairs, no taking a shower, no hovering over the washer and drier or dishwasher with loads.

I read my book.

I watched Kent come and go.

I talked on the phone.

I watched television.

I played games on my iPad and read a conference talk there too.

I read recipes.

I texted.

I sat around a lot.

Long day

Early morning ride around Bountiful Pond....



with Marcia.



And by the way, lunch today with my sisters and sister-in-law, cute Julie! Good, good lunch at Plates and Palettes in Bountiful, oh my. Salad and a veggie panini and good conversation with the girls. (Let's do this again!) After, I hightailed it to Farmington Station to stop into three stores: two to exchange clothes I bought in Parker (which I didn't here, it didn't work out) and one to buy something new (which I did). Then to Smith's for groceries for dad. I chatted with dad by phone on the way there realizing it was later on the clock than I realized... to find he'd be at dinner by the time I could shop and commence to the assisted living center to get groceries in to him. He'd be sitting at the dining room table unable to let me into his room, and me without a key, if I trooped over there in a little while. Oh. Brother.

Still we made arrangements for me to come after dinner. I agreed that'd work since Kent was going home teaching at 6:00 and this would give me time to make dinner and eat with him and see him off. 'T'would get me into dad's with groceries and then to my YW activity by 7:00. All. Good.

I did all that. I did ALL that but the YW activity. By close to 7:00 I was hobbling to the car from dad's room, my sciatic nerve flaring, blooming, blossoming into sit-me-down-right-now pain. Home I drove, the sun as bright in my eyes (as it headed down over the west mountain, down at the end of this long day) as it surely was coming up on my early morning ride around Bountiful Pond.

Trusses

Yup.


-----

Busy, busy day. Walked early with Marcia on Davis Boulevard, a good hour. I've indulged too much this past week – the brisk walk was kind'a tough! Sent a "Happy Birthday" text to Emily (Marcia's daughter). Got Kent a hot breakfast, read scriptures, prayed, kissed him goodbye as he's working in the temple. He's the veil coordinator in a 9-month assignment and while he missed being at the temple last Tuesday (was getting his tooth extracted, in fact), he's happy to be back today. He hates to miss.

After he left I did housework and laundry, recovering from being gone... I had my visiting teachers over at 11:00, then I dressed up and went to the temple to the 12:45 session which was over at 2:45. I saw Kent there (of course; I waited for him!), surprised him and gave him a kiss. He can now say he's kissed a patron in the temple! No lie! I ran errands in town after, then drove home to fix dinner. Sweet potatoes and a tossed salad for Kent for when he got home. I had my sweet potato for lunch... we're both tired tonight.

More of our view is gone

Home.

Drove nine hours and got here after five o'clock. The builders across the street are working late – I guess they rent the crane by the day.

No roof trusses yet for the new home directly across from us. There was just a cement pad there when we left a week ago. We've avoided the constant banging getting the framing up on both houses. Good.

Tomorrow... for trusses, maybe?

Family time and last night here

Today we stepped out for a walk. A walk up a mountain. Actually... a hike. To see the fall colors. We drove an hour from home to this place Mike found on the Internet advertising such: September 20... the start of fall colors.

The path from the parking lot in just a few steps brought us to a creek where instead of passing over on the bridge (where I stood to take this pic) the kids descended to the water to huck rocks.



I crossed over then and grabbed pics...



... and for a while stayed ahead...



... then, behind.



The more intrepid of us clambered atop boulders strewing the way – usually the two little boys, but today even the big kids.



Aww...





So much walking hiking in the sun previously, I admit to getting too sweaty hot... besides, I carried Sarah a long way piggy-back. Then we looped around this hillock and for twenty blessed minutes went in the shade of the mountain range (behind us). The sun even went down on us back there leaving us in twilight and I was so cool I became afraid... then we emerged into sunshine. Actually, relief: We were depending on Mike's knowledge of the loop (his iPhone) to get us back to the car and I'd suspected at one point we'd be spending the night, gulp, hiking out.



See?



But no, we got to the bridge again as we spied the moon and the bridge leads over the creek which is a hop and a skip (if you don't take time to get down to the water again to throw rocks) from the car.



And night came on as we drove the hour home. Our last night here.

High point, low

Saturday.

Kent and I got breakfast and scooted out with Mike and a couple of the kids to soccer fields ten minutes from home to watch Noah's not-game. At his age the youngsters don't compete on Saturday mornings, they practice and scrimmage. Oh this morning the wind is blowing, and is cold. I posted how I thought yesterday morning would be windy and cool, there was that chance, and we might not get to go biking... and that's held off til now. Good day for biking yesterday, bad day today for sitting in the sunshine watching Noah's notsoccer because it's COLD! WINDY! Kent and I had on our jackets, so did poor Sarah, and Noah out on the field ran about with his sweatshirt under his soccer jersey. Fall has blown in this weekend too much like spring does in March.



You can see Noah, foot on the ball, center, clutching his hands together to keep warm when the team gets out on the field. I said to Mike Noah's cold and he called him over and undressed the poor child to get his sweatshirt under his jersey, sending him back out after with a high-five. Heck, the coach has his sweatshirt on, yeah.



We watched drills for half an hour. I've cropped Noah out of the bigger picture(s) of the whole team here queued up for drills kicking goals so you can see him in action... he's THE best ball handler on the team!





Blogger won't let me upload the cool video I took, guess it's too long. Noah sent three power-kicks into the net in a row, then turned and gave us a big thumbs up! Wish you could'a been with us in the windy-wind and coldy-cold sunshine for that! For me videoing Noah running to his dad smiling his face off after those "scores" was a high point of our trip! Eh, for Noah, getting a drink and snack after the "game" was the best.

Later we trooped out again, more of us this time, dragging jackets, lunch, water bottles and chairs – the usual – to watch Landon on his soccer field. At ten, Landon and his team make a true game out of the sport, though it's still jungle-ball. We cheered him like crazy.

Later still, Mike and Erin left Kent and I home to tend the little kids and took Landon and seven friends to a play-place for Landon's birthday party. His birthday is Monday but today's the celebration. This isn't your typical play-place for little kids – Landon's ten after all – it was an American Ninja Warrior soft play obstacle course. (I wanted no part of it, nor Kent, which made us the perfect babysitters at home, right? Though Abbie was home with us and did tend Sarah downstairs, while mom and dad took Noah with them in the end. He wanted, wanted to go and watch.) We read books upstairs til it was time to set up for the part of the birthday party Erin was hosting here: pizza, candy, outdoor night games. I put chips and candy in bowls then Kent and I ran to get ice. We were gonna go on to Little Caeser's to pick up pizzas but Mike and Erin texted they'd pick that up on the way home, they were done early.

From 6:00 to 9:00 Landon's friends played hard at this house; and ate big and made noise and got injured (running around the yard in the dark, all good) and had party-time fun. Landon didn't blow out candles on his cake (I frosted earlier) and eat that and ice cream and get presents until after dark.



By then the BYU/UCLA game was on and we adults were gathering children in and sending them home so we could party ourselves!
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(Close to midnight on this long day, grrr, low point of our trip...)

22BYU Cougars (2-1) 23 9UCLA Bruins (3-0) 24