Board Retreat

I never thought I'd come so far.  During February 17 and 18, 2023, I attended a retreat in St. George as a member of the nine person Board of Directors for my 90-lawyer firm.  We are part of a world-wide "combination" of 12,000 lawyers known as "Dentons".

Dave and I stayed, for two nights, at the new Marriott hotel in St. George, the Advenire.  Normally, we would have spent the weekend at our own St. George home, but we had already promised that space to our grandson, Bryce, and his BYU friends.  It was a good excuse to savor a bit of luxury.

I enjoyed the interior design of the hotel, which seemed to capture St. George's eclectic style.  In the lobby, each chair and coffee table was different, but, together, they were at once quaint and striking.

We ate avocado toast for breakfast in the stylish Wood Ash Rye restaurant at the Advenire.  That was the last sane, healthy food choice of the weekend...

I then spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning discussing "big picture" issues with the Board at our St. George office--finances, leadership structure, hiring.  I was flattered to have the firm CEO tell me, as I left on Saturday, that he thought I had made a substantial contribution to the Board during my two years of service.  

On Friday night, the Board and their partners gathered at Wood Ash Rye for an excellent dinner.  "Order several plates for your table and share them," the waitress encouraged us.  We had a feast--sliced beef filet, shrimp in miso sauce, buttermilk biscuits, roasted brussels sprouts, panna cotta with berries.  

Superbowl Sunday

The Superbowl is a time for flamboyant frenzy.  The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles on February 12, 2023.  There were pep bands, big-time singers during halftime, and brand new, million dollar ads.  The Spendlove clan gathered at Mike and Heidi's house for supper and the Game.  We had some flamboyant people and places of our own.  One of Heidi's friends gave this tropical pleasure house to Heidi when Audrey was born.  Calder seems overwhelmed by its possibilities--chartreuse and marine blue tray table with buttons to push, levers to pull, and large-beaked birds clutching its sides.
 

Henry modeled one of Mike's shaggy, sheep-skin hats from Uzbekistan.  He looked like a Superbowl cheerleader, but with too many clothes!

Superbowl food is rich and tasty.  Mike and Heidi served street tacos with spiced, cubed beef and salsas.  Mike mixed up a bowl of his signature guacamole, Jonny brought a salad, and I provided the root beer and vanilla ice cream for floats.  

Mike's cousin, Jared Moench, is a good friend who now lives just five or ten minutes away from Mike in Cottonwood Heights.  Jared and Meghan brought two of their four daughters, and a bowl of fruit.

Rebekah and Jared's daughter, Jessica, sampled the spread.

Some of my favorite guests are the little ones.  Lily is a very accomplished eighteen-month-old.  She already understands everything, speaks a few words, and is getting toilet trained.

Jenny has her hands full with four boys, including darling, fourteen-month-old Jay, who dashed around Mike's basement and headed for the stairs.  Jonny was just back from India, this weekend, and left the party early to catch a plane to Las Vegas to visit the annual tech show there.

Mike's theater is its own pleasure palace, filled with love sacs, plush couches, and a screen covering a whole wall.

Finally, time to pack up the little guys and go home.

And to say thank you to our generous host (and his very generous wife!).

Jane Austen's "Emma" and a Tools Class

Saturday, February 11, 2023, was a big day.  Dave and I took Sam and Henry to the play, "Emma".  For Christmas, Jonny and Jenny gave us season tickets to the Parker Theater in Midvale and also bought season tickets for Sam and Henry.  The Parker Theater is the successor to "City Rep," the theater company for which Grandma Rose held season tickets while Michael and Jonny were little.  Jonny has fond memories of attending plays with his grandma, and he wanted his boys to have the same experience.

"A play about marriage, no matter how witty, has a hard time holding the attention of young boys," I reported to Jenny, after our afternoon with Sam and Henry.  Still, we had a great time together, sitting on the front row and eating enormous cookies during the intermission.  The next play is "Pirates of Penzance," and I am sure Sam and Henry will enjoy those swashbuckling, singing pirates!  I was also pleasantly surprised with how good the acting and staging was at the Parker Theater.  It was a very fun afternoon.

After we dropped Sam and Henry off to their parents, Jonny gave us a tour of the latest work on his house.  The old-fashioned facing on the fireplace is being stripped away, new wood floors will be installed, and the whole house will be painted.

I adore gardening, and I can hardly wait to get my hands back into the dirt in March.  In the meantime, I attended Wasatch Community Gardens' February 11 class on cleaning and sharpening garden tools.  I have often felt frustrated with dull, rusty pruners, but I assumed my only options were to buy new ones or find a professional tool sharpening company.

I spent a productive two hours cleaning and oiling my beloved pruners and then sharpening their edges with diamond sharpeners. 

I even tried the Japanese whetstones, one soaked in water and the other in oil.  I went home and ordered a set of oiling and sharpening tools for myself.  I then cleaned and sharpened a bin of garden tools while Dave and I watched the news.

I do enjoy belonging to the Wasatch Community Gardens "gardening community."  Next up are classes on "propagating vegetables" and "secrets of tomatoes."

At Last We Meet--Covid

Dave and I have successfully avoided Covid for three years, since it first became a scare in February 2020.  On February 4, 2023, our luck ran out.  After enduring a sore throat and cough for a few days, Dave took a Covid test.  It was positive, although mine was negative.  "I'll go stir crazy if I shelter here in Salt Lake," Dave lamented.  I agreed to spend the weekend at our home in St. George, if he wore a mask on the drive down.  By the next day, I tested positive, as well.

We never grow tired of the scenery along I-15.  We love the blue Utah skies and the snow-covered mountains.

We also never tire of the red rock desert scenery around St. George.  As I walked around our Coral Canyon subdivision, I took this beautiful photo which looks as if there is not a soul within 100 miles!  Dave had taken four Covid shots and I had taken three.  I wish I had that fourth shot.  While Dave just coughed, I huddled under the covers with chills and aches for a day, and then crept about with the worst sore throat I have ever had for a couple more days.  And then we were OK.  We were very glad we avoided the scourge during 2020, when we were elderly people with no vaccinations!
 

Jonny and Jay

One of the wonderful things about Jonny and Jenny living in SLC is that we see them and their boys more often.  Jonny's responsibility, as a dad, is sometimes to remove one or more of the kiddos from the Leathams' house, where Jonny and Jenny are staying while their home is remodeled.  Lessening the chaos at Jonny's in-laws' home is much appreciated!  On February 3, 2023, Jonny removed Jay to our house for a few hours in the evening.  We were delighted to get to know Jay better!

After a few minutes of Jay examining the leaves of the poinsettias, wiggling off his dad's lap, and heading for the stairs, we decided he needed a better playpen.

Dave, Jonny, and I took Jay to the downstairs family room, closed the door, and laid some blocks, cars, and books on the floor.  Jay foraged happily, while we had a great visit!

Temple Tales

I attended the Bountiful Temple on January 31, 2023, to do temple sealings with a group of our ward members.  The end point of family history research is "taking names to the temple" to perform religious ordinances for ancestors.  Hopefully, they accept those ordinances.
 

I am not good, yet, at original research, but over the last few years, I have learned many things about my heritage.  James Hood Hill was one of my Scots-Irish ancestors who lived in Nauvoo with the early LDS Church members, and then traveled west across the plains.  He lived into his nineties--from the age of stage coaches and ox teams to the age of the airplane.

The LDS genealogy website, Family Search, is a rich source of facts and photos.  The girl on the left is my grandmother, Nellie Hamilton Calder, with her best friend, Helen.  They both married Calder brothers.  My father had Nellie's eyes (and, unfortunately, her bad heart).

Jacob Hamblin was a famous LDS Indian scout.  He traveled throughout southern Utah and Arizona, aiding and negotiating with American Indians during the 1850s, 60s, and 70s.  Luisa, the sister of my Swiss great-grandmother, Mary Bomelli, was one of Jacob Hamblin's wives.

Taste of Ukraine

I love Russian food, but celebrating Russia and its culture will have to wait until after the Ukraine War is won by the brave Ukrainians.  Luckily, we can enjoy similar delicacies at a Ukrainian dinner.  On January 29, 2023, I hosted a Ukrainian meal with borscht, stuffed cabbage rolls, Easter bread, chicken Kiev, and Ukrainian apple cake.  After dinner, the family gathered to study images, on the TV, of maps of the war and the faces of the good guys (Zelensky and his generals, President Biden, Anthony Blinken) and the bad guys (Putin, Prigozhin, Gerasimov).  Our tables were covered with hand-embroidered Ukrainian table runners, shipped from Kyiv. 

Kirsten and Bryce brought friends from BYU, which I always enjoy.

Jenny's parents, the Leathams, joined us, as well.

It is such a treat to have Jonny, Jenny, and their four boys as regular guests, now that they have moved back to SLC.

Michael K, Rebekah, and little Lily are beloved regulars.

The New David

David does not procrastinate.  During January 2023, he learned that he has diabetes and coronary artery disease, in addition to his COPD.  As soon as Dave was assured by his doctor that he could live into his nineties if he kept exercising and made changes in his diet, he began doing his own grocery shopping.  It's all spinach, almond milk, and blueberries now, with a bit of salmon, shrimp, and chicken.
 

I work at home, virtually, and Dave works just three ten-hour days per week.  I enjoy having Dave occasionally join me in our computer room, during the day, to catch up on what's going on in our lives.

Dave has begun his fourth year as bishop of our neighborhood Hilltop Ward.  The job is enormously time-consuming, involving everything from choosing Sacrament Meeting speakers, to attending weekly  events with the ward teenagers, to counseling local members who are sick or grieving.  Sunday is a work day, but it is the Lord's work.

Dave attended an overnight get-together of the teenage boys this month at the Rogers Ranch, owned by ward members.  He took with him the warm jean quilt which Lisa gave us several years ago.

Dave relaxes from his grueling work and Church schedules with long drives.  A favorite trip is to drive through the desert to Dugway, in Utah's West Desert, where he lived as a boy.  Dave remembers chasing lizards in the sagebrush while his dad tested germ warfare at Dugway Proving Ground.

LDS wards are icons throughout Utah, including in remote Dugway.