Fall Break

While Justin, some of his brothers, and the boys took off for the annual fall fishing trip, better known as the "Get Up in the Middle of the Night to Leave by 5 a.m. to Go Freeze in a Tent for Three Days Spectacular", I took Pengbo and B. with me to visit Justin's sister Lauri overnight. Actually, I love camping and fishing. And I hear the daytime temperatures are actually quite nice at Grey's River. However, I don't fancy sleeping in a tent up a canyon when I know I'm going to wake up to frost on the ground and my socks standing upright, frozen. Perhaps I'll go, stay overnight in a motel room, and join the guys for the daytime and early evening stuff ... someday. And it's just worked out to be a "boy" thing. The girls were invited to go, but we all said, "perhaps another time/life/season."

Lauri was so gracious to let us invite ourselves into her home. It was so fun to drive Pengbo through turkey and cattle country and those wider spaces of Sanpete County. There sure weren't many turkeys out. Many farms looked empty. When we arrived we promptly introduced Pengbo to the chickens and horses running around, and Lauri introduced us to the newest family member, Julius, a lop-eared bunny. When he is wearing his harness you can even take him for a walk!

We spent the evening getting the cakes ready for fondant, making homemade fresh tomato soup (WOW! Lauri's twins and B. had a predictable reaction to something maybe a little grown-up for their youthful palates, though. How will they learn to like better food if we never try it out on them?), and making and frosting sugar cookies. You can probably figure out what the kid favorite was. We settled everyone down with a couple of movies: Disney's Blackbeard's Ghost and (once the boys were in bed) Bell, Book, and Candle (Jimmy Stewart, Else Lanchester, Jack Lemmon, Kim Novak).

In the evening, Lauri let us make a group project of decorating the three-tier square wedding cakes. She has a great eye for putting the details together that give her creations pizzazz and class. Getting the cake set up at the reception site (a stake center) ending up being a little more involved than we anticipated. Evidently there are two stake centers in town, with address references that make it easy to confuse them. As we arrived at the first one we noticed a white delivery truck leaving. Lauri double-checked and found out we needed to go to the other building. When we arrived there we found the same white delivery truck pulled up. Evidently the caterer had gotten mixed up too, and had everything 90% set up at the other building when they were notified it was somewhere else. Yikes! So Pengbo, Lauri, Jay, and I spent some time helping get tables and chairs set up, table cloths on, and chair covers thrown over all of the chairs. It only took Lauri and Jay a few minutes to arrange everything with the cake, which we had transported all assembled (I wish you could have seen Lauri drive a stake through the heart of the cake to hold everything in place!).

When we finished we went back to Lauri and Jay's for some lunch and horseback riding. Jay saddled up Polly (who was feeling her oats) and Little Joe, who is a merciless flirt. I love being around horses. Jay took everyone in turn on a short ride down the road and back. When it came to B.'s turn I walked Little Joe while she sat on his back. Pengbo has never been on a horse before, and I don't think she's ever been up close to one either, but she said she really liked riding and was ready to do it again, any time. I got to take my turn too. I love the view from the back of a horse. And I love being in Sanpete County. It's calm. Quiet. Wide-open. And it's gorgeous in the fall, with the sun riding low on the horizon.