Tuesday -
The children spent lots of time helping Grandfather in the garden. He'd already taught them each how to harvest the asparagus - something we did daily while we were there.
First Rebecca helped Grandfather tie up the tomatoes that Daddy had helped him plant the weekend before. Grandfather was very impressed with how quickly Rebecca learned how to do this and said he'd never been able to do it so quickly before. By the time we left he said it was time to tie them a second time, and he wished Rebecca could have helped him again.
Then the kids helped Grandfather deadhead the daffodils. They each ran inside and got their little safety scissors so they could better cut the flowers stems.
Grandfather is growing celery for the first time in Nevada this season and wanted to try blanching a portion of a row so it would be white, instead of green. His method - in his words - was crude, but hopefully effective. He and Sam cut widths of coorugated cardboard and then created little tents - basically just digging a shallow trench on either side of the row, inserted a length of corrugated about 8" wide in the trench to shade the celery from the sun. I'm very curious to see how this experiment works.
Oh the cute thing about the cutting of the corrugated ... as you can see from the pictures, Sam had his scissors and Grandfather had his - they would start at opposite ends and play "bumper cars" as Sam called it. It was an extremely effective way to have Sam help and still get the job done quickly.
Tuesday night our friends the RJ and Rachel came up from Las Vegas to visit and brought their four beautiful children. Our kids were so excited to see them, after eating a fast dinner of BBQ chicken and veggies from the garden, they ran for a solid hour all over the garden paths. RJ got pictures of the entire crew, and promised to send me a copy of the file ... with eight little kids, there was no way they'd all wait for me to dig my camera out of the car!
Sunday - Church with Grandmother and Grandfather. The kids thought it was super cool that all we had to do was walk through the garden, along a short (20 foot) path and we were at church! The girls really enjoyed their Primary classes, and were very excited to know we'd still be around Thursday for a Primary activity!
Monday - St. George for a Costco run, Grandmother had a doctors appointment and Grandfather wanted to stop in at a small kitchen store to purchase a medium size frying pan.
We got fruit, bread and some meats at Costco. Grandfather did an amazing job of getting everything that HAD to be kept cold into the large ice box he takes with him to Costco. The ice box takes up 1/2 the trunk, but still takes some skillful packing to get everything to fit.
Grandfather wanted to get a medium size frying pan for using when company is in town. There is a small kitchen store where he purchases honey and whole oats. Grandmother, Grandfather and I went in to purchase a frying pan ... we found the perfect one, it was the right size, had a glass lid, and was fairly deep - good for stir frying, frying eggs, or searing meats. Then I looked at the price tag ... care to guess how much it cost?
$105. That's right, $105. That must be some frying pan to cost $105.
The sales clerk came over to ask if I needed any help, so I asked: "Do you have any frying pans this size that cost less than $105?"
The look on her face, should have made me turn on my heels right then and there and walk out. SHE was obviously offended I had asked such a question. It was as if I had asked in a snotty, condescending tone, "Don't you have anything better than this?"
She half showed us one or two other frying pans, one for $80, the other $95. After this sad attempt at customer service, I asked Grandfather if he wanted to spend $105 on a frying pan, because I was pretty certain I could find a similar style frying pan at another kitchen store (or even Target for that matter) for less than $105. We left the frying pan for another customer to purchase, got a bag of whole oats and left.
Rebecca didn't pack her PJs and when she didn't get exactly the reaction she wanted from me, she made sure to have a private conversation Sunday with both Great Grandfather and Grandma Mutti to make sure we could make a stop Monday to purchase new PJs for her. So after lunch at Chuck-a-Rama (It's tradition, when ever we have lunch with my grandparents in Utah, we typically have it at this buffet style restaurant.) we made a stop at Target for PJs and a $30 frying pan.
The other stop we made in St. George was at the LDS distribution center. In the last 4 years or so, I've managed to loose three sets of scriptures. And I figured since I was in Utah of all places surely I could find a set of scriptures. I found a set at a Desseret Book and opted to have my name stamped on the front cover ... 45 minutes later, I was on my way.
As a treat for the kids being SO patient for me while I waited, and waited, and waited for my scriptures, we stopped at McDonald's for ice cream cones to eat on our drive home.
