Westmoreland Asays

My mother kindly flew to Oregon from Salt Lake City to stay with us for the week. It's been nearly two years since she and pa fled Western Eden for the hills and desert of Zion, although it doesn't seem that that much time has passed. So Meg and I took advantage and took a short roadtrip to Southern Oregon. Wednesday We left my mom with the boys in the morning; they knew and understood that we were leaving for a few days, but they didn't seem to mind. Our destination for the day was Ashland, with stops in Grants Pass for lunch (and where Meg discovered that she had left her wallet--and thus driver's license and temple recommend--at home) and Medford to kill time until we could check in at our hotel. Big flakes of snow were falling in the mountain passes, but fortunately they didn't interfere with our driving. We stayed in a room on the seventh floor at the historic Ashland Springs Hotel in the heart of Ashland. It's by far the tallest building in the city, and ...

Lately Edward has been declaring that he is going to college (although he is not sharing his list of potential schools). He puts on a little dudes backpack (which Aaron occasionally brings home from pre-school) and walks around speaking of his intentions. I think this act stems from an episode of Blue's Clues we own. We've previously caught him studying books on how to build wealth through real estate, but I guess his plans haven't panned out with the recent market slump. Kudos to you Edward for creating a back-up plan. In other random news, Aaron has developed a deep interest in the original Legend of Zelda game for the NES. He often calls me at the office to ask questions about how to find stuff and beat enemies, although his questions have died off since I bookmarked some sites on the Internet that provide screen-by-screen maps. He still calls but his conversations have changed to him spouting off everything he's learned, then he says good-bye and hangs up--without...

As I pulled into the garage on the evening of Valentine's day, I saw a giant grill sitting in the garage--my early birthday present from Meg and her fam. I guess she gave up on my countless failures at using my charcoal grill. We put the boys to bed early (they were asleep by 7:15 p.m.) and watched The Princess Bride from the comfort of our living room couches. On Friday the 15th Meg was hosting a tri-ward adult dance for the three wards that meet at our building. The boys were still somewhat ill for a babysitter, so I had to stay home and take care of them. As you might guess, I'm not a fan of dancing (at least in front of other people in a formal setting--for the record, we were at Northern Lights Theatre Pub a few weeks ago with some friends, and at the end of the film, The Real Life of Dan, the stars were dancing at their wedding; Meg wished out loud how much she wanted to dance right now, so I pulled her up and started dancing in the aisle--much to her embarrassment); but ...

As I was walking to the vanpool pickup stop yesterday afternoon, I looked from a distance at the bike parking area underneath the building to see if my bike was still there. I keep a bike at the office for the occasional errand I run at lunch time (doctor's appointments, shopping for gifts for the family). I had just ridden it last week at lunch to pick up flowers and Moonstruck chocolates for Meg, so I remember where I had parked it last. But I didn't see it. The van had just arrived, so I couldn't stop and investigate further. So this morning when I arrived at the office, I took a closer look at the crime scene. Sure enough, my bike--and my lock--were gone. I thought this might happen someday, given the open and unsecured setting of the bike storage area. I'm almost glad that somebody stole it, because it is now their problem. It was truly a made-in-China-Department-store-heavy-piece-of-junk; the brake cables were giving out, and the gears had a tendency to slip, maki...

We spent most of Saturday in Oregon's Emerald City. We met Meg's sister Melissa (and her five kids) and Jared/Charlotte (and their two boys) at the Science Factory, across the street from Autzen Stadium . I think the boys had a good time, although they approached us first about leaving (instead of us dragging them out kicking and screaming). We then drove to Jared's house in outer-Springfield to wait until the game started. Meg's brother Jared had tickets to the Oregon/USC men's basketball game at night, and he invited me to attend with him for the last time (he is taking a new job, so no more free tickets to Ducks football/basketball games). The Ducks played poorly throughout much of the game. A lot of people began leaving with about three minutes left and the Ducks trailing by a dozen, and it looked hopeless when they were down by 10 with less than 90 seconds left. But they finally hit some 3's, earned some foul shots, and USC missed free throws to let them ba...

We attended a baptismal service for the child of a friend tonight. I've taken Aaron to a baptism before, but this was Edward's first experience. When the curtain to the baptismal font was opened and the children were invited to witness the baptism up-close, Edward walked up with the rest of the kids. But he didn't just sit down behind the other kids; he maneuvered to the front and leaned over the foot-tall plastic barrier, getting as close a look as possible. I was standing nearby and encouraged him repeatedly to sit down. But he kept firing back at me, "Dad, go swimming? Dad, go swimming?" I honestly thought he was going to fall head-over-heels into the font, breaking our family-held tradition of not swimming on the sabbath . But he eventually planted his rear on the floor and escaped the service without incident.

Our church ball season kicked off last week, and we drilled the Salem 4th Ward's team; one of their team members, Cary Takara , actually spent about four months with me in the Okayama Mission Home (they were his last, while I was somewhere in the middle) (his oldest son is also in Aaron's pre-school class at Sprague, but they will both attend South). He wasn't my assigned companion, but in our Mission Home we switched companions all the time, so we worked together often. I'll never forget the time he and I (and two others) drove north to Tottori to help the Elders there move into their new house (the previous companions had burned their apartment to the ground). I was driving our Toyota van through some of the mountains between Tottori and Okayama, when I accidentally strayed from the main road. I ended up on--I exaggerate not--a road through some rice paddies that wasn't much wider than our van. Everyone was sleeping in the back, but Takara woke up at this point a...