Tuesday, July 15, 2008

summer Vacation 08 2nd attempt

When we arrived in SLC July 3 in the evening, we rented our car (Aubrie's choice) and headed to Pleasant Grove, where Amber had invited us to stay. Much to our exceeding delight, Jeff grilled some juicy steaks and we ate cherries, Amber's strawberry pie, and loved seeing them and their beautiful children again.

Early the next morning, the 4th of July, I was up and headed to Fruit Heights to see my Papa and meet his new wife, Emma Lou for the first time. She was everything Keith and Keri, Amber, and Austin had told me she was: kind, happy, accepting, full of life, and loves my dad. What a blessing she is to our family! Then I greeted my sisters, Lyn, Mim, and then Ellen with all the love I have for them. We all got busy helping prepare the food and the church for the Open House. How fun it was to see Mark and Debbie. Do you know how lucky I feel to be the middle Child?

People began to arrive at 1:00 and I started looking for my own kids I haven't seen for so long... Keith and Keri came and it was so good to hold them close! They looked great! Amber, Jeff, Elaina and Carter brought my bald husband to see all the aunts, uncles and cousins and friends too. Of course, they were anxious about Keith and asked about how the chemo treatments were going. We were glad to give a positive report.

Without going into a lot of detail, the food was good, the crowd was delightful and I think Dad and Emma Lou had a fun time sharing their happiness. Even 90 yr-old Uncle Ray Barton came. We cleaned up the church and headed bacvk to Papa's for his birthday party. A more harmonious rendition of Happy Birthday could never be found, I do believe. We kids donated money to his next favorite project: a paint job for the old Rambler and then we all ate coconut cake.

No comments: