Happy Birthday Angie!

Happy Birthday Angie!

Hope you had a good one. 

First Alana flew over so she could spend your birthday with you.

   

In a couple days all my girls will be together again.

I'm getting excited.

  

I wanted to get this posted earlier but Sunday can be a busy day for me.  I wanted to do some other things as well but just no time.

Angie had a wonderful post about Grandpa Anderson.   We sure miss him.   You can read it by clicking here.

Here's some pictures that I thought you all might like.  No reading glasses or newspaper but it should bring back some memories of Grandpa Rex in his chair against the wall.

These pictures were taken in 2003

My best trip to Costco ever!

    

I've been meaning to do a part 2 update on my trip to Utah but Wilma already did a great job.   Check it out at her site.

There is one other story I have to tell.  Its about a very memorable trip to Costco.

But first I have to set the stage.   First we go back to the Summer of 2003.   We took a family vacation to Utah.  We went to Park City and Moab.

We stayed at the Marriot Mountainside.  This is a picture in the winter.  Its right by the ski hill.  But in the summer this place was dirt cheap.  We had a 3 room suite that slept 8.

I cooked breakfast one morning.

   

We did several hikes in Moab.

   

This picture needs some explanation.   I was setting the time on the camera and was going to run up to join the family.   But the incline was a bit too steep and when I tried to run up I didn't make it and my momentum threw me back down by the camera.   I ended up face planted in the sand - only a few feet from a small cliff.   It was a very precarious situation.   You can see the concern on the faces of each of my loving family members.

  

We found a deal in Moab on a 3 bedroom condo.  In the closet were some games and puzzles.  As a family we like to do puzzles during the Christmas holidays and other family occasions.   In the evenings we worked on one of these puzzles.

   

It was a puzzle of the old city of Nauvoo.  I really liked the artist's style.   His name was Eric Dowdle.

      

Now fast forward to November 11, 2008

     

I was in Salt Lake City but drove down to Provo to get Alana to bring her back to visit at Wilma and Daves.

I left early in the morning and went to the Provo Temple.

    

After I picked up Alana we stopped at Costco in Orem to grab some lunch.  We decided to look around. There was an artist there who was doing a book signing.  It turned out to be none other than Eric Dowdle.   Since I liked his work  I went up to talk to him.  We chatted for quite a while.   He has quite the sense of humor and Alana figures that he is the funniest person she has ever met. 

    

We ended up buying some puzzles to do if we have free time in Hawaii during the evenings.  He even signed them for us.  

    

Here I am with Eric.   You can find out more about Eric and check out his work at his site .

    

He said these puzzles should take about an hour and a half.  We did one in about 35 minutes but as you can see we had lots of help.   Both Chay and Blade miraculously found the last 2 pieces that seemed to be missing.   I think they found them in their hands.

   

At Costco I also got some shorts for my trip at a very discounted price.  

    

Best trip to Costco ever.

Oh Deer

Background to set the stage - Grandma and grandpa have been planning to go to Utah for months.   I think the original plan for for them to be there for Conference (first weekend in October).   But they had a little accident in there car in September.  Someone ran into them when they were stopped a red light in Lethbridge.  It took six weeks for them to get their car fixed.   They got it back a week ago Tuesday  and it looked great.  We left for SLC Thursday last week.
         

We started driving home on Thursday this week.   On the road between Butte and Helena we encountered blowing snow with whiteout conditions.   We followed a semi going about 30 - 35 miles an hour.   Then the snow stopped but we had snow covered roads but the sanding trucks had been through so it wasn't that bad.   On one pass however, there was shear ice.  No sanding trucks had been there yet.   It was on the downhill for us.   It was probably one of the worst roads I've driven on - ice on a hill.  But the driver in the truck in front of me was smart (or he just did what the truck in front of him did).   He drove so the tires on one side of the vehicle were on the rumble strip (the ones that wake you up if you drive over them).   I did the same and it gave us enough traction to keep us from sliding all over.    In the inside lane there were vehicles that weren't so lucky.  They had stopped because they were sliding into the guardrail on the left side.   The folks in Hawaii may not remember this but sometimes the road is so slippery that when you try to drive you slide downhill even if its sideways.   That is what was happening to them.   On the uphill side of the road even the sanding truck was not moving and there was as about a mile of vehicles just sitting there because they couldn't make it up the hill.  But we safely made it to Helena.
     

All of that just to set the stage - and to let you know that we did have some scary driving.
    

Yesterday the weather was clear and warmer.   No snow or rain.   Excellent driving conditions.  We came through the border as it was getting dark.    I was driving by Warner and a deer jumped out in front on me from the median.   I slammed on the brakes and swerved to the left to miss it.   I thought we were going to miss it but it just caught the outside corner of the car.   So 10 days after they get it back from the body shop this happens.

We called 911 and it took about an hour for the RCMP to arrive.   He said it was because they got another 911 call about the same time we called from some else who hit a deer about 2 or 3 miles from where we were.   The RCMP responded to that call first.  Plus we didn't know where we were.   We were further down the road than we thought so he had to drive further down the highway to find us.   Ironically grandpa was looking at getting a GPS when we stopped at Costco in Helena but concluded he didn't need one because he would only be going place he knew how to get to.   As we waited for the RCMP to show up we realized that the GPS would have told us exactly where we were.


Another irony is that I accompanied them on the trip so they wouldn't have to drive.  (See Wilma's blog  - scroll down to see a picture of "Mom and Dad with their faithful and loving chauffeur.")  Family members worried about them driving that far by themselves.   Family members will now have to make sure someone accompanies me when I go places so they won't have to worry about me driving.
    
The good news was that while it looks bad, it appears to be only body damage and the car was drivable. The signal lights didn't work but the RCMP officer told us just to just give lots of notice before turning.  (Hmmm.  How do you do that at night if you don't have signal lights?)   He was actually a funny guy and could have done the report in half the time but he liked to chat.   He asked all about the Prius.  He told me that he took one for a test drive and thought he was on a space shuttle.   He also showed me the new on board camera in the police car that they have to record everything except it doesn't work because they haven't turned it on yet - they won't let them until they are trained.   That all came up because the moved the dome light to install the camera but the camera is in the way so that where he has to write is in a shadow.   This could also explain why it took him so long to get to us.  He visited with the other folks too -  I know that because he told me all about that accident.
    
We made it back to PB okay.
  
Trivia:  Did you know know that there are only 2 places you need a signal light between Warner and Picture Butte?

My first on the road blog update

 

So I'm sitting in the car at JC Penny's in Helena, Montana and I'm doing my first "On the road blog update"

    

Grandpa and I are waiting in the car for grandma.  She went into JC Penny's to check out a few things.  I pulled out the computer and lo and behold - there is wireless internet access.  

I used Photobooth and the laptop to take this picture of us in the car.

  

Just to prove we are at JC Penny's

    

and we are in the parking lot

    

I love Google.  They now have video chat.  It came out this week.   I tried it while waiting and Alana was online.  I can do the Jetson video phone thing while sitting in a car in a parking lot.

I love technology - when it works.