Tag: family

7611: Slides

I’ve been going through the slides at 7611 and scanning ones with people. Most of the slides were from my grandfather’s photographic efforts. He did love a landscape. And he usually captured people from far, far away. Pictures of indoor parties center the people a good 20 feet away giving a clear view of the full table, people’s backs, and off in the background, people’s faces. “Walk closer, grandpa!” I mutter to myself as I’m sorting.

The love of landscape and very far away people is expertly captured in this picture from New Hampshire in the 70s. Who are those people? I will have to zoom in to find out. But look at that tree in full fall color!

Christmas Celebration 2024

It’s been a tough year with many traditions shifting. We gathered for a Christmas meal. The mission: bring your favorite frozen food item.

We had a good (though salty) meal and Linda smartly interpreted the mission to include Salt and Straw ice cream, which we had for dessert.

After that, Matt and I went home and paid $19.89 to watch the Eras Tour (with bonus songs).

It was a nice, if muted, holiday.

Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the Broadway Rose Theater

I attended a matinee performance with my mother and aunt.

This featured the music of Fats Waller and I especially appreciated Antonia Darlene, Troy A. Jackson, and Jai Shane’s singing.

I didn’t, however, love the song “Fat and Greasy.” It was also the song in the play where they encouraged the audience to sing along. There were a lot of fat people in the audience. I wonder how it sat with them?

Mom’s Birthday Flocking

For mom’s second birthday during Covid, we got her a flocking. The night before, Think Pink Flamingo Flocking set up these friends to surprise her.

We were hoping she wouldn’t hear them and she didn’t. I also learned that my mom doesn’t put up the shades in her front room at the crack of dawn. Her excited phone call came much later than I would have thought.

This was a very fun gift and that was before I saw that the flamingos were wearing hats and stuff. Those additions made it much more fun.

I also made her one two-layer cake that I cut into four pieces and frosted so she could freeze three of them and defrost as needed. When you aren’t having a big gathering, a whole cake is kind of a lot.

And here are the frosted cakes! Even though I made five cups of frosting, you will note that the frosting diminishes as the cakes go along. I forgot that more sides means more frosting.

They are all plated on 8×8 dishes because we had no cardboard I could cover with aluminum foil.

It was a fun birthday celebration.

Brigham City to Boise to Spokane to Portland

At some point across the border in Idaho there was a huge traffic accident that added 40 minutes to our itinerary. It didn’t look like there were any fatalities, thank goodness.

I continued to enjoy the landscape from the farmland to the sagebrush outside of Boise.

At the Boise Airport, I enjoyed this sign. The person sitting next to me on my Boise to Spokane flight had to be talked to by the flight attendant. She told him he was at the point where she needed to start filling out paperwork and if he could keep his mask on from that point on she wouldn’t have to inconvenience them both. He complied after that.

The Boise airport seemed smaller than I remembered. But it wasn’t as small as the Spokane Airport, where I had a middling French Dip sandwich and a huge glass of wine. Eventually my flight to Portland boarded and I landed in my fourth state of the day.

On the Road: Northern Arizona

While more than one person commented that the Tucson-to-Boise drive would be an incredibly boring couple of days, I loved it. We did not take the Nevada route, but instead took the Arizona, Utah, Idaho route, and it was gorgeous the entire way.

Here are some beautiful rocks in Arizona

We also got a short but big rainstorm.