Conference weekend

Thousands of people crowding into Salt Lake City. Family visits. Marathon ironing while watching Church on TV. That's been LDS Church General Conference weekend, for as long as I can remember. David, Mike and I spent Friday night at my Eyring reunion, with 200 of my cousins and their children. The party was held at the Monument Park Ward. Both sides of Mom's polygamist family were there, including Mom's last remaining sibling out of 15. Aunt Jen is 93.

My cousin Phil Eyring planned and moderated the event...

and Andrew Kimball introduced our side of the family.

Ollie Beth Mack led us in old family songs like "My Mother, She Was an Aragon Gypsy Jew," as Harden Eyring accompanied on the guitar.

Little Camilla (so designated by Mom to distinguish her from Aunt Camilla) was the greeter.

I brought two tamale pies, just like Aunt Camilla, Aunt Caroline, and Mom used to make. I also decorated a table to look like March, with spring flowers in green vases surrounded by shamrocks. Guests sat at tables decorated for their birth months. My cousins Ed and Bea Kimball (Aunt Camilla's son and daughter-in-law) shared the table, along with Aunt Caroline's daughter Carol and Uncle Joe's daughter Lynette, with an assortment of non-March interlopers. "Your mother was very smart," Bea commented. "Do you have smart children?" Certainly.

We then gathered in the chapel to watch a video of family picutres, all the way back to an old photo of my great-grandfather, Henry Eyring, before he left for America in the early 1850s.

On Saturday, Dave and I drove to the cabin to read, iron, enjoy Friday night's leftover flowers, and watch Conference. The ride to Pine Mountain displayed rural Utah's fall grandeur.

Michael joined us for Sunday dinner barbecue (Thai shrimp), and agreed to remodel our cabin bathroom. We filled two huge shopping carts at the Park City Home Depot with tile, grout, a new toilet and cabinet, a tile saw, etc. etc. We stored it all in the living room for next week's installation.

Just a Taste

Jonny and Jenny visited Salt Lake City from Chicago the week of September 22-27. Jenny's mom turned 50 and they came for her surprise party, as well as to see their friends, Crisman Turner and Erin Prince, get married. Dave and I got just a taste of Jonny's and Jenny's goodness and charm, as we ate dinner together at Lugano (Jonny's favorite restaurant anywhere), and as Jonny and Jenny spent time talking and playing board games with Michael and us.

Jonny relished the fresh, ripe peaches I bought at the Farmer's Market. "I haven't been able to find these in Chicago," he said.

Enjoying the out-of-doors was an important part of our weekend. Michael went mountain biking.

Dave ran five miles.

Jonny and Jenny casually appeared at the Leatham family soccer game, to Jenny's mom's delight and astonishment!

Jonny wanted to make sure Dave and I got our share of his time and affection, so he alloted us three hours on Sunday afternoon to sit in the living room and just talk. It was the longest continuous block of time I remember speaking with Jonny, eyeball to eyeball, other than when I helped him with the marathon writing of his senior thesis! We had time to cover all of our interests, from world politics, to Jonny's and Jenny's career plans, to our respective theories of child raising.

Dave and I also had a taste of Salt Lake culture this weekend. We attended the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company fall program, "Configurations."

We also tried one of Salt Lake's top restaurants, the Metropolitan, during the fall Dine'o'round. We enjoyed a pea green salad with pea shoots and pods, as well as peas. The salmon and mushrooms were baked just right, and the scoops of black sesame seed and coconut ice cream were distinctive and delicious.

Finally, it was time to say goodby, as Jonny flew back to Chicago to start his second year at the University of Chicago Law School. Jenny moved to her parents' house for another day of visiting, before returning to her Chicago nursing job and nurse practitioner classes. Dave and I both wanted our pictures taken next to our hero!

The Fair, the Farmer's Market, and the Flindts

"The kids want to go to the fair," Lisa told me, as we planned my trip to Seattle during the weekend of September 17. What a great idea! We ended up visiting two fairs--the Farmer's Market at Issaquah, near Lisa's home, and the Washington State Fair at Puyallup, near Tacoma. The Farmer's Market at Issaquah was full of delights. The kids posed near the Pigmobile, at the entrance to the Market. We surveyed the ethnic food, from a leg of lamb shaved for Greek gyros...

to a German bakery, where we sliced a cinnamon roll and a fruit tart into pieces and shared.

Lisa and I sampled Ethiopian sambusas--deep-fried dough triangles, stuffed with salmon. I never tasted salmon in land-locked Ethiopia! This was a Northwestern version of traditional Ethiopian food.

The flowers and vegetables at the Issaquah market were brighter and bigger than those at the Salt Lake City farmer's market, although we had to hunt to find a melon as sweet as the Green River melons in Utah.

Spencer and Grant helped with the picture-taking.

Grant, Spencer, and Michael got into the Washington State Fair free by wearing their Scout shirts.

Michael and Spencer already have their Eagle awards and Grant is all done and just waiting for his award ceremony. The big kids and little kids split up at the midway. Michael, Spencer, Grant, and Kirsten headed for the dizzying rides, like this one, that swung them around and around in a high circle.

Bryce and Alyssa came with Lisa and me on the gondola, riding high above the carnival rides, and looking down at the huge ferris wheel.

We stopped for a root beer float...

before joining the big kids to watch the 4-H dog show.

We all had our favorites. Grant liked the black poodle...

and my favorite was the gray schnauzer.

We were all charmed by the spaniel who wandered off the walking track, nearly ran into a pillar, and collapsed on the ground, with his rear end to the audience, as soon as he had been put through his paces!

Spencer and Grant led us to the barbecue pit, where we shared platters of ribs, chicken, and corn.

We also watched a display of horse teams, including both huge Clydesdales and tiny Shetland ponies. They dashed around the arena, turning tight corners.

Lisa and I took Bryce and Alyssa to the petting zoo...

the merry-go-round at Sillyville...

and our favorite, the pigs and piglets at the Pig Palace.

On Sunday, we dressed in our best clothes for church, and then finished my visit with a traditional Sunday dinner. We ate the fresh produce we found at the Farmer's Market--fresh corn, fresh tomatoes, fresh peaches--and we talked about our adventures at the fair. Next time Lisa says, "The kids want to go to the fair," I'm grabbing a plane ticket and heading for Seattle, fast!