Fun with the Flindts (8.27.26)

Lisa's daughter, Alyssa, is back from her LDS mission to Spain, and is continuing college at BYU this fall.  Lisa drove Alyssa from Seattle to Salt Lake on August 27, 2026, and got her settled in an apartment at BYU.  Lisa brought with her three pints of precious homemade blackberry jam--two for Dave and me and one for Alyssa.  Alyssa forgot her pint when she left for BYU, and it was all Dave and I could do to keep from eating Alyssa's jam, as well as ours, until Alyssa visited us and reclaimed it.  Lisa's jam was that good!

Lisa and Alyssa spent much of their weekend visiting Lisa's son, Michael, and his adorable children, Lily and Soren, at their home north of Salt Lake City.  Lisa made a "dirt cake" with Lily.  It was a chocolate cake covered with crushed Oreo cookies that looked like dirt.  Lily then placed gummy worms on top!  Lily calls Lisa her "craft grandma."  I am flattered that Lily treats me as just one more of her many grandmas.

Lily likes to help cook anything and everything.  As I dash about my kitchen, getting Sunday dinners ready, the hardest question for me to answer, from my little granddaughters and greats, is "Grandma, what can I do?"  Five-year-olds can do lots of good things, but advancing the mad rush of getting dinner for 15 people on the table is not always one of them!

Soren is two and very cuddly.

Lilly already has homework, in kindergarten, and Michael helps her with it.

Lisa's daughter, Kirsten, joined Lisa and me for a morning walk.  We chose the cemetery, with its challenging hills and interesting tombstones.  We found the tombstone for Russell Nelson, the beloved president of the LDS Church who recently died.

We enjoyed visiting the ethnic sections of the cemetery, where Chinese, Japanese, and Jewish Utahns were buried.

Spend Lovenest (8.22.26)

While Dave's parents still owned the cabin in the Pine Mountain development which we ultimately bought and inherited from them, they posted a sign above the gate to the cabin which read, "Spend Lovenest."  I used to think that sign was tacky in the extreme.  Now I think the sign aptly reflects our love affair with that funky, beloved little place.   On August 22, 2026, Dave and I spent an evening and morning at the cabin.  Dave now visits the cabin by himself almost every week, to enjoy the beauty of the drive up the canyon and the peace of reading and preparing Church lessons inside.
 

After fifty-five years of wear, the back porch of the cabin is rotting and fraying.  Dave inspected the damage and checked into replacing the porch.

The railing on the front porch was peeling, and Dave  spent an hour or two repainting it.

As Dave worked around the outside of the cabin, I took photos of touching momentos inside.  Dave's brother, Michael, died as a 16-year-old in a motorbike accident.  His life is memorialized on a plaque in the cabin.  Just months before Michael died, Dave spent a summer at the cabin with Michael and Dave's dad, building a wood fence around the property.  Dave remembers telling Michael he loved him, and Michael quickly shrugging off the intimacy, as any self-respecting teenage male would.

Dave and I have added some rustic touches to the cabin, such as this poster of John Wayne, with a saying we believe in: "Courage is being scared to death--but saddling up anyway."  The two of us have had many experiences, both at work and in family relationships, where we doubted our abilities, but "saddled up" and plowed through, anyway.  I think of myself as a new lawyer, just out of law school, suddenly handling hundreds of low value credit card collection cases for my firm's major banking client.  I felt sick to my stomach as I trudged to court hearings, terrified of being exposed as incompetent, but I went anyway.  I think of myself as a new mother, peeking at Lisa staring back at me solemnly from  her crib, and wondering how I could possibly take care of her for a full twenty years, before she left home. (And I have since learned that mothers take care of their children, in some ways, for as long as the mother lives. I have been mothering Lisa now for 54 years!)

Dave and I took a walk together, in the crisp mountain air.  As I gasped for breath, walking uphill in the mountains, I vowed to start an aggressive exercise program as soon as I got home to Salt Lake.  And I did.

I love flowers, whether I grow them myself, buy them from Costco or Smiths, or find them growing wild.  As Dave and I walked, I distracted myself from my aching lungs by looking for wildflowers.

Soon enough, it was time to return from our "lovenest" to the real world in Salt Lake City.  We eased our way through that transition by a stop at the bakery in the basement of the Oakley diner.  We wished we owned one of the fancy UTVs parked by the bakery, to tool around Pine Mountain trails in.

We bought pastries to eat on the way home, such as this bit of peach crisp, covered with almonds.

Gado-gado, Anyone? (8.16.26)

I would cook many family dinners, just for this one picture!  Five of our grandchildren laced themselves together on our living room couch.  Top to bottom, and oldest to youngest, they are Sam, Henry, Thomas, J, and Calder, all surnamed "Spendlove."

Michael K has beautiful children, Lily and Soren.  Lily has a vast collection of princess dresses that she wears to dinner.

Jenny is generous in coming to dinner with her boys, even when Jonny is out of town.  Hopefully, as her boys descend to our basement to watch videos, it gives her a respite from her onerous boy-raising.

I was surprised and pleased to hear how much Jonny enjoyed his Indonesian meal.  That table is full of some of my very favorite people!



 

A Three-fer (8.12.26)

Dave loves driving trips.  I convinced him that a swing through Colorado would fulfill that longing perfectly.  By chance, we would be visiting three Colorado temples, in Grand Junction, Denver, and Ft. Collins. We began our four day trek on August 12, 2026.

Grand Junction is in the desert, with striking red stone formations in the nearby Colorado National Monument.  The design of the temple reflected those desert motifs in the grasses leading to the entrance and in the flowers in the art glass, woodwork, and fabrics--red cactus flowers and Indian paintbrush.

Next stop was the Denver temple.  It was dedicated in 1986, when the Church was still installing Angel Moroni statues on temple spires.

Dave said we'd have time for just one or two sightseeing stops on our quick road trip.  I chose the Denver Museum of Art and the Denver Botanical Garden, two highlights of a trip to Denver many years ago.

The art museum seemed twice as big as I remembered it.  It is a very good regional museum, with a fine collection of art from indigenous and Spanish Colonial America.  I spent my allotted 1 1/2 hours entirely in that collection.

I love prehistoric artifacts, including the sometimes politically incorrect ones that remind me of my mother's collection of Subsaharan African wood statues, with private parts unashamedly portrayed.

I am also interested in the art that arises from the collision of native religions and Christianity, such as this cross decorated with both Christian and pre-Christian motifs.

The coming of the Catholic Church was not without controversy.

After the thought-provoking artifacts of the museum, it was refreshing to just bask in the lush beauty of the botanical garden.  

The water in the lily pond was so clear and smooth that it picked up reflections of nearby buildings, as well as the clouds above!

The Ft. Collins temple was particularly beautiful.  It is unpredictable, which temples are larger and more elegant, even in smaller towns.  I remember patrons in the Spokane, Washington, temple sighing (very quietly) that the Moses Lake temple, in a nearby tiny town, was larger and more richly decorated than theirs, in one of Washington's largest cities.  No matter.  Each temple is unique, beautiful, and beloved.

Ft. Collins is a college town, with the bikes, pizza parlors, and bars that are typical of college towns.  We ate supper at The Colorado Room, a funky restaurant with great salads, "sliders," and big chocolate chip cookies.

I took a quick look at the local Museum of Discovery, while Dave read a book in the car.  

Northwestern Colorado was home to herds of buffalo in the 1700s and 1800s.  It was on the shores of America's "inland sea" during the prehistoric ages, and the bones of ancient land mammals are still occasionally being found--giant slots, pigs, bears, and mammoths.  Colorado stores sell mammoth tusk jewelry.

Much of the museum had interactive music displays.  I am always impressed when towns punch above their weight in creating cultural resources.

We took side roads home, rather than the freeway.  The clouds were often as interesting as the land!

Barbecue at Mike's (8.11.26)

Our family has very good cooks.  One of the best is Mike.  When he invites the family for barbecue, we come running!  

To celebrate the event, Mike blew up his bouncy house for the little kids to slip and slide on while we waited for the brisket to be cooked to perfection.  Mike's son, Calder, was delighted to hear that his cousins, Thomas and J, would arrive soon!

Thomas is a fun-loving guy.  He's also a leader, his teacher tells Jonny and Jenny.

Ever since Audrey and Thomas were little, I have said that they represent "yin" and "yang".  Thomas is rugged and boyish, and Audrey is a pretty lady, even at six years old!

Finally!  The chef motioned that the brisket was just right and the mac-n-cheese was, too.  To make the meal perfect, we had Jonny's salad with homemade croutons, Camille's homemade ice cream, and mint lemonade just the way Grandma Rose used to make it!

Mike, as chef, was center stage, but Audrey backed him up, I'm sure!

And J said it was good.