And to the Present

Last week, I had the opportunity to spend the whole week with my daughter and granddaughters who live not too far from here. What a privilege to be able to see your own posterity in action and enjoy children the way we all should. It is unfortunate we don’t often derive the same pleasure from our own children as they are growing up as we do when they are our grandchildren. As grandparents, we get to step back, laugh, play, hug and enjoy these tiny beings probably much more than we enjoyed their parents. The joys of being a grandmother.

Ellie is 2 years and Emma 3 months and both have already very distinct personalities. Emma loves to be held and is easily entertained by what is going on around her. While Ellie, makes her own entertainment. There’s no sitting down and watching, except an occasional Dora or Mickey cartoon. Emma has three stages in her life right now, sleep, eat, awake and the cycle starts again. Ellie, on the other hand, is always busy doing something and eating and sleeping are not high on her list of “activities” although she does go to bed around 8pm and takes a 2-hour nap every day. But while she is awake, there are discoveries to be made. And, Ellie’s favorite words are, “Ellie do it!” She likes us to help get things started, like zipping zippers, putting food on her plate, opening doors, but once we get her started, she helps herself.

I think my favorite time this week was when Ellie and I took our walks. The first morning, the walk was not long but it was cold. We were looking for flowers but obviously in the winter, they are few and far between. Except for one, nearly-dead plant, we only saw some plastic flowers several people had planted in their yards to give them some color, I am sure.
The second walk was way more interesting because the sky was blue and sun was shining. We walked for nearly an hour and I without my camera! The day before I had had Ellie stand quietly so she could hear the birds. I am not much of a birder, but I do know a robin when I see one and there were lots of them. I quieted Ellie with my finger to my mouth, so now Ellie knew how to quiet me, so we could listen to the birdies.

We also came across a boulder that was shaped so that there was a seat and back just big enough for Ellie. She loved sitting there. After that, she had to try every large rock she found. I warned her the pointed rocks were not suitable for sitting, but she found many that were just her size.

We also first heard then saw a waterfall. Someone had a huge tower of basalt in their yard which they had turned into a waterfall complete with pond and goldfish. What a wonderful sound to hear on a brisk, sunny day. Near here, we met Snickers, a little white dog that looked like a mop who was working furiously to get to us to say hello. Ellie was apprehensive which surprised me as she lives with two goldens and loves to visit our two aussies. We also looked at pine cones, which Ellie did not seem to care for, and looked at all the cracks in the sidewalks.

We walked for about an hour and it was only the last 5 minutes as we were heading home that she wanted to be carried so like a good Gramma, she got a piggy back ride.

The day we went to story time was so much fun for Emma. While Ellie and Mommy participated in story time at the library, Gramma got to hold Emma who was mesmerized by all the kids and movement that was going on in the room. She was not interested in sleeping or eating; she just spent the whole time in my lap watching the action. She is certainly a curious little girl.

The most fun, though, was watching and listening to Ellie as she expressed herself. While she is not yet speaking in full sentences, the one sentence she knows perfectly is “I like birthday parties.” Apparently, Dora had a birthday party in one of her cartoons and Ellie was hooked. She kept repeating that sentence over and over sometimes dancing in a circle as she repeated it. Once, while I was changing her diaper, she threw her head back and shouted, “I LIKE BIRTHDAY PARTIES!” Too bad her birthday isn’t until the end of November.

Going to the park was the culmination of our week; it also made it easier for Gramma to leave as Ellie was way to interested in playing than worrying about Gramma having to go home to Grampa. Hope she wasn’t too disappointed when she realized I had left. I miss her so…

from High Tech to Low Tech

Wow! did not realize it had been so long since I posted. I want to get back to my ancestors’ history but I need to share with my friends and family all the cool things I did in Salt Lake City.

I was soooo lucky that Michelle and Ellie (14mos) wanted to come with me so that made the trek so much more fun.

We arrived on a Wednesday; Carolyn picked us up at the airport but not before she locked her keys in the house. Michelle and I were content to sit and wait (what choice did we have?) which also gave Ellie a chance to nap.

While sitting there, we saw the Sleights. Alane was on her way to Alicia’s for the baby blessing and Don was going to follow on Friday. So funny in this huge world actually running into people we know.

Carolyn is amazing. She managed to get Michelle’s two huge suitcases and my med-large suitcase in the trunk and 2 carseats, a stroller, two babies and 3 adults in the car. Great job, Carolyn. (Should’a taken a picture of that!)

After running errands, etc, Michelle drove me to the Plaza Hotel where I was going to stay for the 3-day RootsTech Conference. The conference was great! As usual, I learned a lot. Saw lots of people that I knew from previous conferences and met a lot of knew people. Innovations at the conference were the play ‘n relax areas; the central “camping” spot for the bloggers, the hands-on workshops, the fact that the conference was for both techies and non-techie types. There was also a wider age range in the attendees than I have seen in the past.

My favorite quote of the conference was by Curt Witcher: “If you do what you have always done, you’ll get what you have always gotten.” Interestingly enough, I can apply that to many facets of my life. Just the week before, my dog agility trainer told me the same thing when I could not get Skye to jump over a different jump; I kept giving him the same signal so he kept jumping over the same jump, duh!

There was some frustration with class offerings and logistics at RootsTech but that is to be expected when something so huge (3000 people) and so quickly brought together (7 months) has its debut. The keynote speakers were very good and not necessarily genealogists. Curt Witcher, however, is still one of my favorites and I had the privilege of hearing his keynote address AND attending the luncheon where he again spoke, this time specifically about societies. I came back with tons of ideas and have been overwhelming our TCGS president with them.

The rest of the week was spent with family. It was fun. We all enjoyed watching the 3 kids play together: Dallin, 8; Gracie, 4, and Ellie, 14mos. In spite of the cramped quarters, only one bathroom, and car jockying, it was a pretty smoothe and fun week. Michelle had fun cooking for Kris and Carolyn, Kris made us the MOST scrumptious pizza I have ever eaten (and probably filled with a gazillion calories—but so yummy). We saw Dallin and Gracie do their gymnastics (with 3 kids, 3 hours right at dinner time, the logistics getting there and back were interesting.)

We went to the ballet, the Carl Bloch Art Exhibit at BYU with Midge, Cheryl and Kaia, the temple, the Family History Library, the Lion House Pantry; shopping, walking, eating Graeter’s Ice Cream, crazy week…

We had warm days, sunshine, wind blowing so hard it nearly blew Gracie over; snow (so glad I wasn’t driving) and cold.

After 9 days away, though, we were ready to come home. Kris got us to the airport in plenty of time to relax. We let Ellie play in the kiddie play area for 30 min before we headed to our gate. On arrival, Bernie and Marshall were waiting for us with flowers (thanks to Marshall) and the ride home (2.5 hrs) was quiet and relaxing (Bernie does all the driving; I am so lucky).

View Full Album

The Now: Going to Salt Lake City

The new RootsTech Conference takes place this week in Salt Lake City. I decided to go but when I told Michelle, she wanted to go too. Not to the conference of course, but to visit her brother, Kris, and his family.

So Wednesday morning, we are flying from Spokane to Salt Lake City, Michelle, Ellie and me, Gramma.

I am excited about RootsTech and the opportunity to learn about 21st century technology and genealogy. Plus, some of my favorite presenters/genealogists will be there: Thomas MacEntee, Curt Witcher – as well as several friends. I also was lucky enough to find someone who needed a roommate for the conference, so will be staying with Terri during the conference. Old friends, new friends, family, this should be a great week.

When Michelle found that the Sleeping Beauty Ballet was being performed, she bought tickets for Carolyn, me and her to go. We hope to go to the Salt Lake Temple on Monday morning, then visit the Family History Library to gain some insight into Swedish Research. This will be a busy Monday.

Tuesday we will have lunch with Midge Patrick then attend the Carl Bloch art exhibit at BYU’s Art Museum.

Michelle also found out that Smith’s sells Graeter’s Ice Cream and plans to buy a half gallon every day we are in Salt Lake—guess she likes ice cream!