It all started about a month ago when Forrest told us he would be in town for the St. George IronMan thingy where they run and swim and bicycle in torturous succession and somehow don't end up in the hospital. It also happened to be over the same weekend that Dennis retired and turned 65 and seriously, he's on Social Security. That makes no sense. My PARENTS are on Social Security. Then Angie decided to come too and we thought, hey, let's not tell Dennis that Angie is coming, and surprise him! It would be just like on my 60th birthday when I answered the door and there stood Amy with Jack, Macy and Carly and I about died. So then Andrew and Andrea put their heads together and decided Andrew should fly out too (what a stunning phone call that was!) and so then we had to call Amy and fill her in on what was brewing and see if she if she could arrange everything and come too, and wait, better call Tony and Cindy and make sure they're in town.... Whew, they were, yippee! But THEN Angie got called as RS President and made the hard decision that she needed to stay home and take care of the cascade of events that were pouring down on her, with finals and kids and their ward being split and her calling. We MISSED having her here, but we know she and Andrea and Dave were here in spirit and oh thank you thank you thank you all eight of you rock stars for making this happen! I haven't been this excited about something for years. It was sooooooooo fun to have something to look forward to, and that it was a complete surprise to dad. Detective Shmetective - Officer Sweat didn't suspect a thing.
So to backtrack a bit, the day Dennis retired (Friday, May 2nd) I was in Provo enjoying the annual BYU Women's Conference, sitting in the Marriott Center listening to the speaker. I got a text from dad about 9:30 that morning. My FIRST text from dad and, knowing dad, it might be my last. It said: "I'm done!" That was it. Gotta love it.
Here is the view from Women's Conference. We sat on the "dark" side in the soft seats. It's fun because we see the back of the presenters heads and read the teleprompter.
The campus was bursting with springtime beauty .We saw a mother duck and her 12 little ducklings....
Go back into the water, ye little adventurous ones!
These pink trees are my favorite. Every year I want to find out what kind they are and plant some. Oh, wait, they would die in my South Jordan clay.........
Not to be confused with the backs of the speakers at the Marriott Center, these are the backs of
the ladies I went to women's conference with: Kathy Shaw, Caren Thomas
and Debbie Solberg. Their fronts are beautiful too
Yes, that's Dr. Sweat. We were on his stomping grounds! And that's Janelee Despain standing beside him. How fun
is THAT? She reminded me so much of Merrily. Tony showed us his office
and some paintings he's working on of Joseph Smith and the translation
of the Book of Mormon. We even got to go to lunch with him. Plus as we were walking through the Joseph Smith building, we stopped to get on the elevator, and there was the
photo below hanging in the main hall spotlighting him.I can't
believe how much thinner his face is now that he's gotten all skinny on
us! Handsome either way.
One of my favorite traditions at BYU women's conference is after we hike back to the Marriott Center from lower campus and are all exhausted, we take a break and lie right down on the grass and feel the sun on our faces and smell the roasted almonds in the air. This year the weather was gorgeous. Some years it's rainy and wet.
That evening we participated in the service project.This year was my favorite one ever. This lady next to Kathy needs major electrolysis.
We filled pouches with dry soup mix and sealed them up and put them in boxes. My job was to put 48 pouches in each box and then tape it shut. Dang postal tape dispensers foil me every time! I think we processed at least 500 pouches. They had fun disco music blaring too and we would all cheer each time we filled a box. Do you like Kathy Shaw's happy pants? Kinda like Dave's party shirt.
There is a concert on Thursday night which is a highlight for me. Jenny Oaks Baker. Oh my. I could listen to her for hours, and watch her even longer. She is a feisty fairy princess. When the boy band plays each year, hundreds of Mormon women sway with their phones. It's kinda silly.
We stay at the Bates Motel, er, I mean the Provo Super 8 every year. Luckily the ladies I get to hang out with are so fabulous that it really doesn't matter, and we can walk to campus, but I swear this place must stay in business because of BYU Women's conference. They just don't make 'em like they used to! Thank heaven.
"I like the painting above my bed!" "Actually I like the other one too!"
Everyone was so nice and left a little early Friday to get me back home in time to hop back in the car and zip out to the airport and pick up Amy. I was as excited as a little kid before Christmas! When I left, Dennis was working on the sprinklers in the front yard, so when we came back home Amy crouched down in the passenger seat just in case Dennis was outside. High drama!! I pulled into the garage and left the door up, and walked into the house and chatted with Dennis. Then after a couple of minutes Amy got out of the car and walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. "Honey, would you answer that?" I love these photos!
Tony and Cindy helped pull off the surprise and volunteered to pick up Andrew that night. Andrew's plane was an hour late, and when 10:00 rolled around dad was yawning a LOT and I kept saying, "Tony and Cindy wanted to drop by and tell you congratulations, they should be here any minute. Gosh, I don't know what's taking them so long...maybe they had to stop and get gas...." But pretty soon, they walked through the front door, but Andrew stayed behind and out of sight. I didn't catch the "moment" when Andrew came into view and surprised him, but this was right after, when Dennis said, 'Is Angie in the closet?" (I wish!).
We had such a great time! Saturday they all went golfing (see Amy's blog for photos) and I stayed at Tony and Cindy's and had my own version of fun, giving four piano lessons to the best students I've ever had the pleasure of teaching. Lauren, Reagan, Jane (Jane is just taking off and is getting so good) and Eli. Vivi knows where middle C is too. Then Cindy made everyone a fabulous lunch and we sat around their round table and visited forever. I didn't have my camera with me, but we had a ball!
Sunday we had Dennis's party and gave him his book with everyone's sentiments and memories written in it. He loves it! Here are some photos of that get-together, beginning with Vivi and Cal walking on the stone path in the back yard and Reagan lying in the hammock.Can't wait for EVERYONE to be here walking on stones and lying in the hammock. Well, not everyone in the hammock at once. I remember Dennis breaking mom and dad's hammock a long time ago in La Grande. Sorry!
If you look closely at this picture below you can see Forrest FaceTiming with Angie and the kids in Minnesota. That was super cool!
So, that's about it for now. I just get so excited now waiting for this summer!!! Love you all to smithereens.
Mom
