Hum along if you like

Last evening, the husband and I picked up our daughter's children for a little while to get them out of the way while they moved from one apartment to another. To save the hassle of moving carseats from her car to ours, we drove my daughter's car.

I'm not sure if the CD player was on, but I soon heard my grandson humming a familiar tune. As I listened more closely, I realized he was humming "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". Pretty soon, his younger sister chimes in with her version of the same song.

There was a case to the MoTab latest CD "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" in the car. I guess those little ones had heard it enough to know the tune. I was impressed.

Ten Years Ago

Yesterday, for some reason, I thought back to where I was with my family 10 years ago. All six of us had traveled to Scotland. We were on our ninth day of a twelve day trip that took us to the west coast of Scotland out of Glasgow, through the Highlands, up north and then back down the east coast to Edinburgh.

I decided to get out the journal that I kept on the trip. Here's an excerpt from the entry for June 23, 1999. It was a Wednesday.

Full Scottish breakfast again. It's getting a little redundant. After a supermarket stop for lunch stuff and petrol, we headed south. Made a stop at the TIC for information. Stopped at castle #6, Cawdor, outside Nairn. This was on the smaller scale, but one that looked very much like a family lived there. It's occupied from October to April. Continued south through very rural country side. We were on a single track much of the way. Kent is driving like he's in a Porsche on the Autobahn. The kids are complaining of nausea and the winding roads, combined with speed.

And another excerpt from the same day.

Because of Kinross' convenient location, we decided to base out of here for St. Andrews - 45 minutes away. We'll stay two nights. The kids seemed glad to spend two consecutive nights in the same bed. The girls said they were gettting a little travel weary and wanted their own beds at home. I think Kelly has forgotten hers is a mattresss on the floor. But all of this is part of the experience of international travel. We only have four more nights of homes away from home. It's really gone by fast. I really have grown to love Scotland. It's a magnificent, beautiful country. It's been fun to travel with the kids and quite an experience.

It was a great trip. Since the family has grown considerably in the past ten years, it's unlikely that we will able to do something like this again. Maybe Kent and I will get back to Scotland. But I doubt if we would be able to bring all the kids, in-law kids and grandkids.

I'm a winner!

I don't go out to the local BMW motorcycle dealer very often. But the last two times that I was there it was for a couple of special events with drawings for prizes involved.

A few months ago, I won a T-shirt. Today, I won a very nice helmet bag.

I never win anything. Maybe it's just good karma with me and the BMW dealership..

In his dream

Upon being offered a pink juice box, my three year old grandson son stated that he wanted a blue juice box. He was told that there weren't any blue juice boxes, just pink. Then he said he wanted a blue juice box like his eyes. Again he was told that there were only pink juice boxes. Finally, he said "In my dream, I had a blue juice box."

Grandma deserves a medal

I went river rafting last Saturday with young adults from our ward. There were about 90 of us. We basically took over 10 miles of the Colorado River outside Moab, Utah. Between raft to raft water fights and charging over the rapids, many were doing back flips off the rafts into the water. I wasn't about to be outdone by these youngsters, so I executed an awesome back flip myself. I have to admit that it wasn't planned, but totally unexpected.



Here's the story. There are no pictures, so you will just have to believe. I do have 10 witnesses to back me up though.

Our raft had just passed through the last and biggest rapid of the trip. It was somewhat terrifying to see six to eight foot waves (maybe bigger - they were huge) that you had to plow through. I was sure I would end up in the water. But we made it through and everyone stayed on board. Whew...it was an easy, tranquil float to the pull out site. Or so I thought.

With only a warning shout of "Rock" from the river guide, I had little time to prepare for what came next. The raft hit the rock and I went flying into the Colorado River, along with three other people, including the river guide.

I think I deserve at least a gold medal for my back flip execution. Not bad for this grandma.