Death by Chocolate

Six parties per year! It's a big assignment for Dave and Gretta, as head of the ward activities committee. On Friday, October 16, they staged a Halloween party, "Death by Chocolate." Ward members first met in small groups for dinner at members' homes. Dave and Gretta joined Venice Rogers and C.J. Samuelson at Robyn Airmet's house.

After dinner, everyone congregated at the ward for a chocolate buffet--a chocolate fountain with fruit, chocolate cheesecake, mousse, pie, doughnuts, cookies, and four varieties of chocolate ice cream served with hot fudge sauce! The cultural hall was decorated wtih witches, black cats, bats, spider webs, and black and orange helium balloons. The only problem--Dave and Gretta were so busy supervising that they didn't take pictures...

On Saturday morning, Dave and Gretta were back at the ward by 8 a.m. to fulfill their "every member a janitor" obligations.

We then drove to the cabin to watch movies and appreciate the transformation of summer into fall in the beautiful Uintah Mountains.

Dave and Gretta enjoyed the stark beauty of bare aspen trees...

a few golden leaves left clinging...

a gray tree stump...

logs piled for winter...

and the blue mountains in the distance.

Grandma's Boyfriend

Grandma Spendlove is engaged! On October 13, she invited her children and their spouses to come to her 83rd birthday party at McGrath's in Provo to meet her fiance, Darrell Berrett. Darrell is 85. He and his wife knew Grandma and Grandpa Spendlove when both couples lived in BYU student housing right after World War II. He came to Grandpa's funeral and started seeing Grandma a couple of months later. Darrell has visited Grandma in SLC and St. George, and Grandma now has a new diamond ring.

The weekend of October 10, Dave and I also drove to Cedar City to see two of the three plays of the Shakespeare Festival fall season. Our favorite was "Tuesdays with Morrie," which reminded Dave of "Our Town," one of his very favorite plays. It was the touching, bittersweet story of a busy journalist who reunites with his favorite college professor after many years and then visits him each week, as the professor dies of Lou Gehrig's disease. The experience teaches the journalist to slow his life down and appreciate the important things. Dave's new slogan is "I don't want to be hurried," so "Tuesdays with Morrie" touched a chord with him.

The second play we saw was "The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged)". A cast of three men acted out bits of all Shakespeare's plays in two hours flat. It was slapstick, which isn't our favorite genre, but there were many very funny bits, such as a masculine Juliet trying to haul herself up onto her balcony, from the courtyard below, to give her famous romantic speech, and then frenziedly changing her costumes onstage as he/she switched from portraying Hamlet to portraying Hamlet's mother, to portraying Hamlet's wicked uncle.

We had to be in Church by 11 Sunday morning, to advertise our Halloween party, so we drove as far as Fillmore and slept in a motel there. We got the last room at the inn. There had been a motocross meet and the motel clerk was relieved to have a well-behaved couple like us check in. Some of the motocross guests had poured shampoo in the hot tub!

Grandpa Dave and the Ebert Kids

Dave spent a few days with Steve, Camille et al. in Boston, over the October 3, 2009 weekend. He left to attend Jared Christopher's wedding in Provincetown and then returned. Unlike Gretta's typical mad rush of sightseeing, Dave enjoyed the quiet, family activities Camille's family enjoys when they're by themselves. Camille showed Dave, for instance, her scheme for teaching Ezra his letters. She puts an M&M next to each letter on a paper. When he names a letter, he gets to eat the candy next to it!

One of Sophia's and Ezra's favorite places is the Boston Children's Museum. Dave shared a trip there with them.

One of the pleasures of the weekend, for Dave, was getting acquainted with Mia.

Dave went apple-picking with Camille and the children, to their beloved Honey Pot Hill Orchards.

Another product of New England farms is pumpkins.

Steve and Camille fixed the classic Ebert Sunday morning breakfast--crepes spread with nutella and berries, and topped with whipped cream.

The breakfast table was definitely photo-worthy.

It was Conference weekend, so Church authorities spoke over the Eberts' computer all day.

One highlight of the weekend was a walk/bike ride along a lovely New England trail.

There was time to just relax at home, putting together a puzzle, reading a book, cooking, or sucking a thumb.

For supper, Dave fixed his famous hamburgers.

On his last day in Boston, Dave picniced with Camille, Mia, Ezra, and Sophia at the mill by the Wayside Inn.

After lunch, the family went exploring, checking out the birds, ducks, and bright leaves.