"Oh, Mr. Mouse went a courtin' one day, uhuh, uhuh...
He took Miss Mouse upon his knee, M-hm, M-hm,
He took Miss Mouse upon his knee
Said "Miss Mouse, will you marry me?" M-hm, M-hm.
She had to ask her Uncle Rat,.. Uhuh uhuh..
The Uncle Rat gave his consent, that they should marry and live content, uhuhuh..
"Oh where will the breakfast be, uhuhuh...
"Way down yonder in the hollow tree." M-hm, M-hm.
The first to come was a little yellow snake, who wrapped himself round the wedding cake.
And, what will the wedding breakfast be, uhuh...
A piece of toast and a cup of tea...
...
This was an incredibly memorable week.... laughs, cries, and so many memories were made and remembered. My nephew got married, and on the morning of the event, on our family facebook page, my brother, Eldon... started with the above mentioned song.... This is a song that my father has sung to all the kids AND all the grandkids... a million times over. Stirred such beautiful memories. I am sure dad was watching, and listening to all his crazy kids singing the Mr. Mouse song... tears of joy... I couldn't remember all the verses, but this will give you an idea... I know there is a verse with a Little Brown Brear in it, but can't fully remember it. (The other song he used to sing to the kids was "Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross.." Such amazing memories.
Well, on to the current events, and we'll leave the clouds of memories in the background.
The eventful week started with a dinner with my youngest brother Duane and his family at Hu Hot on Thursday, and then a picnic at the Sandhill Road park on Sunday...I was a little worried it was going to be too cold, but it proved to be sunny and not just warm, but HOT! We were joined by Anita (my sister in law whom we all call The Gem) and her sister and family... Such a fun time. Anita is showing off her millinery skills here... anything to keep the sun from melting us into puddles.
Tuesday, I learned there was a Wigg family tradition and us Sprickerhoff's were invited. Apparently, the night before someone gets married, the whole family gets together and has a dinner, sans the fiance. We had dinner for about 35 people at Brick Oven in Provo, which is one of my nephew Aiden's favourite haunts. It was so amazingly relaxed and the conversation flowed freely. Both families interacted amazingly well. My four brothers and their spouses all came and it was a wonderful reunion. Now I'm still fighting with US Immigration and Naturalization over my green card, so I still can't go visit them in Canada... But, for the meantime, they come and visit me!
Here's Duane, making all the introductions... I am sure glad he can remember all the names, because, I am sure I would be stumped! You can see Brianne and her little tribe to the right, Coy to the left... Coy always likes to sit beside Nana, which always warms my heart.
When ever one of my brothers comes into the US, they bring treats for us - and this is one of Jim's favourites. He loves his Shreddies! This year, he received a total of 8 boxes from two of my brothers, and he was in heaven. Usually he starts to ration the cereal when it gets down to about half a box, but this time, he'll be set for at least a couple of months. The morning of the wedding, this was his breakfast before we headed off to Bountiful... made me giggle... I saw him pouring the cereal and said, "You're eating Shreddies... don't we need to hurry?" He just looked at me... Giggle.
My brother Duane brought me a new Tim Horton's cup...It's beautiful, so beautiful I'm a little uncomfortable using it....
This is what my old Tim Horton cup looks like... I think it's been about 10+ years that I've been using it. I had a 2nd cup and it totally fell apart... Now, I've got a pretty, new cup... I just need to ease into using it...
Bart and Jackie were wondering what they could bring me, and they came up with this amazing idea... This is a piece of sheetrock from our old family home in Brampton. The house is demolished now, but this is my dad's handwriting that was hidden behind the California redwood walls in the living room... I don't know exactly what he was making this list for, but it's got something to do with the bedrooms, the closet, the front room and the hallway... Jim had a collage put together for me a couple of Christmases ago that had pictures of the house and the family, and I put those pictures together with a piece of the aluminum siding from the house - that's in our bedroom at the cabin... this piece is going to be shadow-boxed because it's a little frail, and put near that collage... I love this piece...
Wednesday morning was temple wedding day in Bountiful... I am really not a morning person, so by the time we got to Bountiful, we were both kinda sleepy.... Here's Jim checking out his eyelids for holes - apparently he didn't find any - at least he didn't mention having a problem...
Wednesday evening.... - reception night! And, here's the five of us together... So nice to have family.. I was saying that I was at the point where I really needed a dose of "brothers"... was a beautiful evening on so many levels...
And, here's all of us - with spouses... Such a great time... I wish we all lived closer. Bart and Jackie came in from Ontario, as did Eldon and Carole and Duane and Anita. Barron and Alicia made it from Arizona... and or course, Jim and I are Utah locals...
Cheri, Jim and Carole
It was so nice that Eldon and Carole's daughter Chevy and her beau, Michelangelo came and it was nice getting to know "the beau". Such a nice guy and Chevy is happy, happy, happy... Actually, his name is Gabriel, but for the life of me, I can't remember his name... The first time I said something about Chevy, the name Michelangelo came out, and it stuck. Thank goodness he answers to it!
Eldon and Barron and Alicia... Barron was quite the dancer - I didn't realize he really likes to dance... The rest of us are "kitchen dancers"... But, Barron got out on the dance floor and made his presence known.
Baron and Alicia's daughter Theresa and Josh made an appearance - and it was delightful. They are such a cute couple.. Theresa always makes me smile, and it is so wonderful to see her happy. Josh does something amazing to her heart.
Britton and Tassia.... Britton is Duane and Anita's oldest son, and he is with Tassia. Again, it was so nice to visit with them. Their third son Brayden is off on an LDS mission and couldn't attend.
Thursday morning... such a rush to get breakfast over with and the respective parties to the airport. We had a breakfast planned at the Brunch House in Provo for all who could make it... It's such a nice cozy place for breakfast and the food is amazing. It seems like every time we get together, there's food! What's with that???
This is my favourite.. Avocado toast.. Jim loves the Eggs Benedict.
Here's the actual restaurant... It's a relatively new place, close to our house, and sooo good.
After all the whirlwind of the wedding activities, Friday morning, Jim and I packed up for our first trip this year to... the cabin! It really was fun. It seems like it's been years since we were there, but the snow finally melted to the point we could get the truck up the mountain... it was cold, but drivable. Jim was feeling particularly Canadian wearing his lumberjack Buffalo check shirt.. I love it.
And, of course, the back of the truck was laden with all the stuff that has been collected in our front room over the winter. It's kind of nice to see the floor again, and have some space...
So we get to the cabin, and what does Jim do?? Has a bowl of Shreddies.. Giggle. He looks almost guilty! It's freezing cold to the point you have to wear a jacket and gloves, but Jim eats Shreddies.... Giggle.
But, the cabin was safe and sound over the winter... at least relatively so.
The deck stood up to the enormous snow load we had and is still looking good. Other's in our neighborhood didn't fare so well. Duck Creek, which is just up the road a bit had many cabins/garages/decks that collapsed under the weight of the snow. So, we were lucky.
We used two different kinds of wood sealer on the deck, and you can really see the difference. Jim says we are going to recoat the deck - one sealer works better than the other... At least, now we know what we want to use going forward.
The Tyvek on the upper part of the prow seems to have stayed in place. The plastic sheeting on the covered deck, on other side of the cabin was torn to pieces, but this stayed put long enough so that the wood was not damaged by the snow.
I was really worried that we would have little visitors living in the cabin over the winter, so I set live traps in the fall.... With all the stupid chipmunks that we kept seeing inside last year I was sure there was going to be a family.. But, there was only one little stray... There was lots of treats inside the trap for him, but he didn't survive...
On Saturday, Bart and Jackie came to visit us... The cabin was cold, but they braved it and we had an amazing visit. They didn't go home immediately after the wedding - instead, touring the Utah state parks... They went to Zion's the day before, and Bryce for Saturday and Sunday... We love Bryce Canyon - it is absolutely breathtaking.
Here's my brother Bart...
Saturday night, we had a dinner, in the cold cabin and Jackie took this picture... Remember, food is love. Barbequed steak, potatoes, shrimp saute'd in garlic and corn on the cob with bacon. Yum. . .
Bart and Jackie and their son, TJ and his family came to visit us about 5 years ago and I pulled up the pictures from that visit... I think we've progressed just a little bit since that time.
But, again back then, we had to have dinner! We set up lunch in what is now the garage. If you look at the picture above, it's to the left... There's garage doors there now..
and, a fun time was had by all, back then also...
During the weekend, Ben and Jim finished the wood burning stove's interior chimney. Now all they have to do is put the outside chimney up!
Here's Jim cutting the final piece of stove pipe.
Fitting it all up to the roof.
And painted black.
Because of the high snow load over the winter, we are experiencing flooding this spring. I was a little concerned driving through Hatch, Utah because we were said to be under a flood warning. But, the Sever River was high, but the roads were clear. This picture is a cow pasture that is right close to the turnoff. Everything was flooded... and go figure, the cows weren't out grazing....
And, talk about windy... I swear, I think the wind never stops up on the mountain.. But, it was such a beautiful amazing weekend...
There was only one drawback during our time.... The whole cabin was winterized, and the water was turned off. When Jim turned the water back on, the next morning we had a pipe that leaked, and was spraying water all over the basement bathroom... totally flooded out the bathroom and into the little kitchen beside it. I gathered up all the rugs and mats and had to wash them 6 times to get all the muddy dirt out... sigh...
So, we survived the week, and my motto stands true....
Family is Everything and Food is Love.
..hoping you have lots of both.
Love, Jim and Cheri
