Row Ride Run

Our Stake Young Men sponsor two campouts a year expressly and exclusively for the Varsity Scouts (teacher quorum - 14- 15 year old). They serve several purposes: provide a spiritual teaching moment with a member of the stake presidency, model how to run a teacher's age outing, challenge the boys and have fun.

This activity met all the objectives. Friday night President Duffield spoke about Fighting and conquering our Goliaths - sharing a great story about confronting a downy red-pecker, and seeing and acknowledging the Lord's hand.

It was fresh but not cold as the boys kayaked 2 miles on the Fox, biked 10 mile through the forest reserve and then brought it home with a 3 mile run. there were skeptics but we had a good turnout and people were pleased.A challenging day but one which the boys enjoyed and rose to the challenge.

Je Me Souviens

So for our birthday, christmas, anniversary and miscellaneous presents Brigham gifted us with a airplane trip to Montreal- the land of the Mission - Quebec Canada. Rindy and I haven't taken a trip with just the two of us since forever. Thanks to Brigham, and Mackey juggling some things here alone, and Blair & Julie coming down to help Mackey with others - we were excited to go. Our goal wasn't per-se to do any particular thing but to spend time together and see a few things I had never seen before, and for Rindy all of Quebec was a first.

traveling partner

We started with Sharon Vermont and visiting Joseph Smith's birth place. Its in the middle of nowhere; but a lovely nowhere. its a peaceful, reverential place. One of the highlights was a new church video about the family that is part of their presentation. As the world debates the nature and definition of families - the Lord is constant and this video teaches the simple doctrine.

it was a beautiful day for a road trip

Thanks to the Internet we drove through Montpelier and search for the top restaurants. As rindy drove I read aloud the reviews and we voted. SALT.  It is a tiny 16-seater with locally sourced ingredients and a menu that changes regularly. Dad would have loved the short ribs and we loved everything we ate. A delightful and tasty choice. Equally in the middle of nowhere. But if you find yourself there - we recommend it and give it a 5 star rating.

Back to Montreal. In candor we drove many a mile, but our goal was to spend time together talking and once you get your 'Road Warrior" mindset. Its as easy to talk in a car as any where.

Montreal - did it look the same? Its funny how much I remembered and how much I forgot. The french slide back easily, my conjugation reeked, but the core was there. Remembering streets and roads, and areas just didn't happen for me. I remembered the teaching highlights of the mission.

We stayed in a downtown Marriott on the 34th floor and had a panoramic view of the City. It provided a quick orientation of where what was. Saturday morning we arose early and went walking the old city of Montreal. There is no better fashion, at least in our view, to quickly get a feel for a city than to walk it. WE came across the shooting of a movie set in the 19th century and they had quite a few buggies going back and forth; went to the cathedral and out to the harbor and though the town.

Afterward we drove over to the Temple and enjoyed  a session together;  Clearly, there was no temple there back in 73.It is the same make and model as the St Paul, only done right, with added space for coats, waiting, eating - go figure - glad to see them apply the acquired wisdom. I visited with a few people that I knew and enjoyed reconnecting.

We followed the temple with a drive up to Mont Tremblant. (check the link out their photos are better than mine)I never knew Quebec and such hilly (small mountainous) terrain. It was beautiful. The city itself was about 2 - 2 1/2 hours north of Montreal. We stayed in a small  village reminiscent to a vail or a park city but quainter and more european.

Might as well fess up here and now. We thoroughly enjoyed Quebec and would go back. It has multiple enjoyable venues and  has the benefit of being foreign all the while being very close. The shops were as they should be a once again we were more than pleased with the food. We were guided right and simply enjoyed .

the next leg of the journey was to another place I had never been - Quebec City. Lots of one-way roads made navigation a bit tricky but we figured it out. We stayed in the heart of the town and walked the evening in a light mist while finding an outdoor skating rink which in turn led to us discovering another great restaurant _ we did remarkably well in the food department this trip. The morning was spent wondering the old city, over looking the St Laurence, cathedrals and forts. It was great.

The trip reminded us once again that we are first and foremost friends who enjoy each other's company, we are complementary travel companions, and still in love. 

Mysteries of vernacular

Words have always had a fascination to me. I think the origin lies in my father having a large OED sitting in the kitchen adjacent the table; and so as we conversed at meal time he would and could drop a Bon mot whose meaning escaped me at which point he would refuse to define it but would insist that I dive into the dictionary and extract the true and contextual meaning from its depths.

My most remembered experience of this came on the morning of my taking the ACT. I was preparing eggs on the stove top and father corrected my use of tines in the process insisting that they be parallel to the bottom of the pan for optimal results. I foolishly asked what a tine was, I say foolishly for by this time his habit of sending me to the dictionary was well entrenched, and he sent me to the dictionary once again insisting that to do so would allow me to master and own the word - I did. Imagine my surprise when a few hours later, literally the first word in the vocabulary section of the ACT was to define tine. I knew that I would own that section of the test.

The interest in words continued in college where my senior year lunch group, would sit around the table and play stump the chump. We'd compete with each other to know a word that no one in the group could define. If you won the others bought your lunch. I won many a Monday lunch that way.
It was a great game. This game led to many another game of Boggle, Scrabble, Quiddler, and Words with Friends.

I enjoy reading about words, their etymology, usage or a well turned expressio. The Atlantic, long a source of engaging word articles recently review The Mysteries of vernacular. "Using paper cutouts and stop-motion animation, the delightful and informative Mysteries of Vernacular series brings the pages of antique books to life to tell the stories of everyday words." The article (click) is well worth the read.; but if you don't have time at least watch this video clip:

Ur

No not the stutter ur . . .
The place Ur.
Twice in recent reading I've come across authors using UR as an adjective for a ' defining moment. I realize ur was that experience for abraham, i just never thought of it as a mataphor. But it is a great one, and illustrative of the power of rich language.

Ur was the home of Abraham, The land of his father's - his origin. His defining moments.
4 Therefore I left the land of ^aUr, of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; 

As to ur - when you check the dictionary you find

An example of ur used as a prefix is ur-civilization, the beginning of a civilization.

An example of ur used as a prefix is in the word urlanguage, meaning the original language

defining moment

 

noun

a point at which the essential nature or character of a person,group, etc., is revealed or identified.

So this leads to the question - what was/are your UR moments- what defines you?

Enough about me.  What about you?  Defining moments can apply to anything …go on a mission,  a huge career change.  The decision to get married.  To have kids.   To mend a fence.  To go back to school.  To move to Illinois.  I’d love to hear about your defining moment.  Don’t leave me hanging.

Best tv for the weekend

 

Spirit Airlines

So there is good reason Spirit Airlines can sell the airfare so low priced
Their planes are so cheap.

Yes, it was dirty
Yes, it was packed full
Yes, my knees went two inches into the seat in front of me - if not for sitting on the aisle i can never could have survived the flight. As it was more than an hour would've killed me. But yeah, the price was great.

Sing, Sing, Sing

A song that's sung
tells more than a story
a song that's sung
is sung from the heart

Mom still loves to sing
I wish I could have captured a more exciting ditty
or perhaps a more meaningful song
but this is what popped up and what I was able to record

its great to hear mom sing
crank up your volume!

 

Visiting Minnesota

The air fare was wayyyy cheap
Rindy was wayyy on top of it
and I wasa able to run up to Minnesota quickly for a weekend visit to Mom.

She was as she is - a delight to visit - a bit slow out of the blocks, a bit limited in her mobility, warms up during the day, then funny and engaged as the day goes by. We were able to out a couple of times to dinner, to take  a stroll



















and to visit Dad's cemetery plot.

I enjoyed extensive visit with Sally and Dale and Mari-Lynn.

usually, I am able to sneak in one non-family, yet essential visit, and this time I was able to visit the Henstroms

and go for a walk in French Park

literally hundreds if not thousands of coots

All in all a delightful visit to Minnesota.

You Can Dance If You Want To

Little girls were born to dance...
And Eden is  a little girl:

Visiting Watertown

Church in the morning and then a quick drive up north for dinner and a birthday.  Doesn't get much better than a wisconsin party.
Its greal living close enough that we can run up and join an activity without much hazzle. A late posting of pictures from the most recent three-year old party.

A Feast befitting a 3-yr old

Eden the dancer

Eden and June

June

Two Cuties