OUR Thanksgiving...

I've said it before (and I will continue to say it!)-

I would rather have

ALL OF MY CHILDREN

on any day than

half of my children, or stressed-out children on THE DAY!

And it is in that spirit that we always have OUR Thanksgiving on the Sunday before the actual Thursday Thanksgiving.

I am SO BLESSED!!

Our family just keeps growing and growing (look at all of those tall people!! And then there's Grammie! Joan, you really are that short!!)

We were joined by one of our adult grandchildren this year (boy can that make you feel old!)

The only thing that would make this a better day is for us to have our out-of-town children join us.

Here's hoping you and yours have as joyful a time as we did on our Thanksgiving!

Nature is Back in Balance!

I posted a pix to Instagram and Facebook last week when my bed went flat... the responses were quite amusing! So maybe I need to start by way of explanation-

'NATURE IS INDEED OUT OF BALANCE"

It all started in 1974 when I hurt my back loading firewood... wait... maybe that is too far back for this post, but a necessary fact nonetheless!

From there I will fast-forward to 10 years ago (Is that any better? My brother-in-law teases me that when I tell a story I go WAY back!) We'd recently moved to Utah and I was called as the Girls Camp director for our ward. I took my blow-up mattress with me, no sleeping on hard surfaces for this Grammie. Shortly thereafter I ran away back to CA because I missed it so badly! And I slept on my air mattress again for the 3 weeks I was gone.

When I got home I realized that my back didn't hurt as much (see I told you this would be important) so I decided to make myself a poor-man's-sleep-by-number-bed. Gordon and I had been sleeping on two twin bed mattresses pushed together to make a king-sized bed anyway, so it didn't impact his bed.

That first mattress lasted for a bunch of years before I had to replace it. The later models just didn't seem to have the lasting power.

Last fall I had a soap-bubble party out on the back deck locating all of the pin-hole leaks in various mattresses of different sizes and patching them. (Whew... this is getting long!)

ANY-way, about a week ago my air mattress, which had been patched, started leaking again. And since my back has been worse lately (lo, these 40 year later!) I decided it was time to get a REAL mattress!

I decided on a Novaform foam mattress, that is similar to the Tempura-pedic, sold by Costco. They didn't have any in the local warehouse so I ordered it at Costco.com and waited patiently on a Rube Goldberg make-it-do situation of leftover foam pieces, two pillow and a foam topper that used to be on the air mattress. I felt like I was sleeping on a trundle bed!

But Monday finally arrived with the UPS dude delivering a HUGE 72-pound box that contained my shrink-wrapped mattress. It took a few hours to for it to "recover" (Sleep Innovations term for getting un-shrink-wrapped) but...

BEHOLD THE BED! NATURE IS BACK IN BALANCE

And I'm not the only one who is pleased about that fact!

But here is the last bit of fun that came with my new mattress... the gi-norm-ee-ous box transformed by the Grammie-faerie into a Fiona play house!

She was a little unsure whether she wanted to go inside to get her new pony but Camille sent me a couple of photos last night of her thoroughly enjoying her new digs.

Mountain-Goat Grammie

Earlier this week a friend posted a photo of her and her walking buddy, Cooper, on the trail that runs above our houses- the Bonneville Shoreline trail. It looked so glorious that it tempted me right out of the house and up onto the mountain.

I grew up right at the base of the mountains in our little town in the Indian Valley, California. I used to take off and explore all over the mountains. It always refreshes and rejuvenates me to take a hike (which is different than a walk!)

Harley could hardly believe his good luck! I never let him off the leash when we go on walks. But since this was a hike and we were up the mountain I told him he needed to stay where I could see him or he'd have to go back on the leash. (Yes, I talk to him like he's a person... a little person in a hairy-suit!) He understood and was quite obedient to my conditions; well, most of the time.

We hadn't gone far when the view opened up across the valley to Utah Lake with the cerulean sky overhead.

At this point I couldn't tell where the trail went next... silly me, I should have just looked on Google Maps on my iPhone which clearly shows the trail. So I doubled back and headed up the side of the mountain on a mountain goat deer trail.

I wanted to get up to the power lines and survey the fire damage (which is almost imperceptible after the wet September we had). I quickly realized that this mountain goat trail went up and down each of the gullies that one almost doesn't perceive when looking up on the mountain. After one such gully I was seriously doubting the wisdom of where I was (what if I tumbled down the mountain and had to call for a rescue? Now that would be embarrassing!) and decided that I needed to just start down hill until I hit the real trail again.

There is a lovely rock that was just right for resting on. I spied out my house. It was easy since my other neighbor has a wonderful bright red tree in her yard.

I'm always surprised at how a camera diminishes distance. This photo doesn't reflect how far this Grammie had hiked!

I've often thought I'd like to hike to the top of this mountain... but not this day!

We got back home just as the light was turning all golden and lovely.  We'd had a happy outing on this golden, stolen November day!

MY SITTING ROCK.

I know that all too soon we will have snow and it will be months before this kind of hike will be possible.