A Celebration

On August 9th Spence and I were in Utah to celebrate the 70th birthday of my brother Bill's wife, Marlene Mahaffey. She knew the immediate family that lived nearby would all be their for their monthly Sunday dinner, but Bill planned a few extra surprises. Crystal and Rob came from AZ, Kathryn Hancock (her best friend since 4th grade) came from AZ, Bonnie and Joe came from Idaho and Spence and I showed up from CA.

They labeled 3 doors in Shannons house, and the surprise guests (except for Rob and Crystal) each hid behind a door. As she chose each door, she discovered her surprise guests, and it was wonderful.

Doran and Greg BBQ'd all the kabobs we had put together, and along with Bill's baked beans, Shannon's salad, rice pilaf and all the extra fruit and veggies and good stuff that people brought, we feasted. Of course it was topped off with a birthday cake decorated in pink, to signify the battle to fight Breast Cancer.

We took pictures and laughed and took more pictures until we were all so tired we had to call it a night.

The next afternoon, the 5 Mahaffey kids and the rest of the out-of-town guests joined Bill and Marlene at the Brick Oven in Provo, for a farewell luncheon. Yummy....We had to leave early, because we were expected in St. George by 7 that night.

Marlene looked gorgeous...better than I had seen her in 4 years. It is hard to believe what she is actually going through. Crystal, her AZ daughter, is planning on doing the 60 mile, 3 day Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk in November in her honor. Check out the website and support her if you can.

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/ArizonaEvent2009?px=3098075&pg=personal&fr_id=1290

Libraries, Museums and Cinnamon Rolls

When the Utah Smiths came down to Southern California this summer, we deviated from the usual activities and explored some new and exciting things. We went to two museums and had a cooking class.

Grandpa Spence was showing his Amateur TV stuff at the Reagan Library, so the boys and I decided to take him some lunch. While we were out there we decided to go have a look-see at Air Force One, which I had NOT seen, either. I figured the boys would just want to head straight for the airplane, but as we started passing through the museum, they wanted to stop and look at everything. It was a wonderful opportunity to talk a bit about our government and patriotism and the legacy that Ronald Reagan left us.

Walking through Air Force One was quite an experience. With all the wax figures to show us what actually happened on the plane, we were able to learn a lot. We took a great photo at the entrance, which hopefully I can get a copy of to scan to this blog. Our last visits were to the Berlin Wall outside, and then to Reagans actual tomb. The boys just couldn't quite believe that he was buried right there in that spot.

A couple of days later we spent some quality time in the kitchen, with each of the boys making his own pan of homemade cinnamon rolls. They did all the measuring, pouring and stirring and even a little kneading. Each boy rolled out his own dough, spread it with the sugar/cinnamon mix and butter and rolled and cut them. When they came out of the oven we glazed them with a buttery orange glaze. We were all in heaven, and it smelled SO good.

Right before they left to go home, Lisa and I took all the kids to the La Brea Tar Pits, and that was quite an experience. It is hard to believe something so ancient is right in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. We could see the tar oozing and bubbling, and in the museum we saw all the wonderful skeletons of the Wooley Mammoths, sloths and sabre-toothed cats. It was a real slice of the past.