Baton Rouge Weeks 27-28

Hi all,

I should never skip a week, even if I am on vacation. We left Baton Rouge on December 22 and arrived back here on Jan 1, 2009, a new year.

We arrived in Las Vegas in the evening of the 22^nd. I fought a little bit of a head cold for a lot of the time I was on vacation. I am feeling better now. It was mainly a bother during the night when I was trying to sleep. Which helped a lot, because none of my relatives or children really believe in going to bed early.

On Tuesday we checked out of the hotel and went to our friends’ house for lunch. Teresa, worked with Dana in Jordan District, and her husband, Paul have retired to Las Vegas. They have a nice house and Teresa fixed us a nice lunch. We chatted for a couple of hours and then planned to meet Kent for a ride to St. George. He was in town to pick up his in-laws. They were supposed to arrive at 4:00, but weather delayed flights all over the place so they didn’t get in until almost 9:00 pm. We rolled in to St. George at about 11:30. We slept in and had a nice time talking with Mom and Dad, Dawn and Greg, and Mica and Michael. We talked, we played aggravation and greed; basically, we relaxed on Christmas Eve. We did eat red beans and rice.

On Christmas day we got up, ate breakfast and tried to beat the snow up to Salt Lake. The weather was remarkable good. We only had a little bit of fog before the Kolob Canyon turn off. After that, it was smooth sailing. It was a good thing. I think they had snow in Salt Lake most of the day and at around 10:00 it snowed heavily for most of the night. Cold weather was everywhere. It makes you wonder why people with options choose to live there. On Christmas evening Bill and Mary held their annual dinner (usually it is on Christmas Eve) at Suzie and Byron’s house. They held it for us. They shouldn’t have, but it was great to see everyone.

We did stop in Orem to pick up Mitch; he was only in Utah for a bit. He had to leave the day after Christmas to help with a soccer clinic. We talked with on the road, played some games at Terry’s (Terry and Kim put is up in Salt Lake) before the dinner, and in an act of extreme kindness got up early in the morning, drove over ice packed roads to take Mitch to the airport for early flight. We wish him well in his school pursuits and in his new coaching situation.

We also made it over to Curt and Cindy’s place. They recently bought a new home and we were excited to see the place and hear about all of their plans.

We had a great time at dinner with all of our kids at Sophia’s house (Friday night I think). We played aggravation. We watched deacon play with the slide and the new work bench. It was all very interesting. Deacon only fussed when he knew we were all playing while he went to bed.

On Saturday we meet Abbey and Isaac and Lesley for lunch at La Frontera (what a great lunch place). Isaac and Lesley went to Roy for the rest of Saturday. We hung out with Abbey for the rest of the day which was really nice. It was great to talk with her. She is doing so well in Boston. We were also able to catch a movie. We saw Marley and Me. I actually thought it was very good. Even though Curtis hates every Owen Wilson movie.

Sunday was a great landmark day. We help Isaac and Lesley bless baby Wil. It was great even though Isaac and Lesley were the last ones to show up. They may be late to almost everything and forget to bring the diaper bag to a lot of events, but they seem to remember to bring the baby. We are really proud of their family. Wil has grown tremendously and is a very happy baby. We loved spending time with Wil. Soon he and Deacon will be traveling to visit us in Baton Rouge.

After the church meetings we went to see Dana’s Aunt and Uncle, Kent and Judith, in Sugar House. We had a nice discussion with them and it was great to get a chance to catch up on the coming and goings of their family.

Lisa had everyone over for dinner Sunday evening. It was nice for her to have us over for dinner. We played trivial pursuit. Too many people—Too many opinions and a ton of noise. I think we all have too much to say to each other to also think hard about questions.

We drove by our property and also made arrangements to talk with our property management people in Salt Lake. It looks like they are doing a good job we should be able to write a lot of the trip off of our taxes.

Finally, Monday afternoon we were able to stop in and see Jack and Julie. Again, it was great to catch up on all of their family. Monday night we had a pizza diner with Terry’s crew and played “golf”, another new game that we learned.

Tuesday, we had a birthday breakfast for Abbey and Sophia. Of course, Sophia did most of the cooking. Lisa added some great potatoes and I brought the best part of all—some store bought Orange Juice. Seriously, it was a great breakfast and we got to watch Deacon go down the slide, do his dance, dance, dance routine, and play with his tools from the work bench. It was a lot of fun. We loved being there with Abbey and Sophia for their birthday celebration. Unfortunately, we had to flee Salt Lake back to St. George. We had a easy drive back to Saint George. We left a little bit early so that we wouldn’t have to fight snow or bad weather.

The next morning we washed the car, looked for printer/scanner/faxer/stapler/babysitter/ the works, and we managed to find a cable so that Mom and Dad can use their video/DVD player again. I think I am going to order the HP printer online for a big discount tonight. We also watched LSU beat down Georgia Tech. I was surprised, but happy. I sure wish UGA could have managed to beat them for their last game. We played aggravation and unfortunately the girls in the house dominated the games. Not, a good way to end the year for the boys. I am blaming Michael; he is new to the combination.

New Years Day we were up and on our way to Las Vegas for the flight back to New Orleans. We got into the Big Easy at about 4:30. Our friends picked us up and we headed to Baton Rouge. We were trying to get to Baton Rouge before Bill and Mary’s flight arrived. We went out for dinner on the way home. We slept in and then moved on to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. Go Utes. It was a great time. The first quarter was tremendous—the Utes put up 21 unanswered points and then fought on to win. We had some friends who happened to be in church last Sunday with members of the U of U football team. Here is what happened in sacrament meeting.

Here is the link to the story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune from last Monday.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/12/for_some_university_of_utah_fo.html

The last two paragraphs are the funniest part, and it was even funnier in person.

We had a great time with Bill and Mary and got them safely on their way after church today.

We love you all. Take care of each other. Work hard and stay close to the gospel.

I am going to try so hard not to miss another week. It is too hard to try and catch up.

Love Dad and Dana