sweet stories

On Sunday, I drove up to my uncle and aunt's house in Pleasant View to have dinner with the random fragments of my extended family that happen to live in Utah. It was a great night of good food, cute first-cousins-once-removed, good music, and a rousing game of Pictionary. While the rest of the family was playing, I asked my Grandpa about meeting my Grandma and this is a short version of their story:

Clive helped drive up a group of singing mothers so they could sing in general conference. Another man helping drive this group of singing ladies happened to be Bea's uncle. Upon arrival in Salt Lake, Bea's uncle took Clive into the bank that Bea worked at and introduced them. Clive then took Bea out every night that week that he was in town. He says that he loved Bea from the first moment he saw her. At the end of that week, they had their first kiss in the rumble seat of the car. Clive then drove back to Arizona and the correspondence began. Letters continued throughout Clive's mission to the mid-west and then throughout his posts with the airline in South America. Clive then decided that he was in love with Bea and he wanted to marry her. They are now 87 years old and still in love.

My grandmother said that if you added up all their real dates after that first week they would add up to little over one week. I thought the story was cute and too much goes unrecorded. The risk of letting this story disappear has compelled me to write this short version of it here and a longer one elsewhere. Besides, it's such a sweet story.

Memorial Weekend

All I have to say is that memorial weekend is going to rock! I'm so excited! Spending money that I really don't have right now is not that exciting, but I think it will be worth it. :)

Springtime Hike

Today, on a whim, I decided to go hike the Y. The reasons were: 1) I haven’t really worked out in about 3 months since I have been sick and I needed exercise, 2) It was a beautiful day and I needed to work on my tan anyway, 3) because I do random stuff like that. So, I take my camera backpack, a bottle of water that I then forgot in the car, and a notebook. I got about 1/8th of the way up the mountain when I got bored. To me it’s not hiking unless you have to use your hands. What do you think I did at this point? Yeah, I turned around went back down and took a different “trail” that went up the rocky ridge directly south of the Y ridge. I ended up going up the canyon a bit and then up onto the second from highest outcropping of rock. The “trail”, or what I thought was a trail, disappeared about halfway up, but I was enjoying the hike too much to stop. I ended clambering up a steep slope and scratching the hell out of my legs and arms in the process (um, Capri pants and a tank top aren’t ideal hiking clothes). I saw a bright assortment of ants, spiders, and other creepy crawlers. After scrambling over rocks for awhile, I found a nice flat rock to lay on and catch some rays. It was nice to detach from the world below and get some alone time. On my way back down the mountain I saw two deer and managed to get some pictures. I also saw a hawk, but I was sliding down the face of the mountain at the time so I didn’t get any pictures. All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend a spring afternoon. Next time, though, I’ll bring water and maybe eat something before I go hiking so I don’t feel like passing out by the time I get back. This is the way I wanted to spend my spring: seeking adventure.