FAMILY IS EVERYTHING; FOOD IS LOVE.....

"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

Oh Look, It's snowing again.... wait!!!

I know... it's a small miracle, but it looks like the snow is finally melting!!!  Thank goodness!  I have a livingroom full of building materials that I really would like to clear out!!!  It's been too long!

As you can see, the five foot pile of snow on the deck has melted - although, we have been told that there is still about 1.5 feet of snow on the back deck.  The jacuzzi is showing itself again, thank goodness... But, we are not quite ready to fill it and get in.

We didn't have anything collapse over the winter, even thought there were many cabins in the Duck Creek area, just up the road, that had cabins and decks collapse with the heavy snow fall.  I guess we built a really strong deck!

 

Up until this point, I thought I was going to have to drink to drown my sorrows.. BUT, it seems there is a little light at the end of the snow packed tunnel!!!  

I have a nephew who is getting married the beginning of May and my 2nd brother and his wife are wanting to come visit the cabin and check it out... I have warned them that we have snow and we've been a little wary of the roads...  But, here's hoping.  And, here's my funny...  My brother called to book a motel room in Panguitch for a night, and then decided he wanted two nights.  He asked me to confirm that the motel got the information correct... there was a little language barrier, so I called the next day to make sure they got the booking correct... When I called, I told the booking agent who I was and the immediate response was, "Oh, Mrs. Jim... how are you?"  I swear, I don't think anybody knows my first name... But, I told them what I wanted, and, they started the conversation with, " yes, we have a booking for a Spenkler (insert all 26 letters of the alphabet in here) hoffen? I have heard our last name slaughtered so much in my lifetime, it amuses me at this point.  Spiderhoff is my favourite.  But, I started to laugh when they said, "The first name is... Bairtone".  Oh, ya... that's him... They said they had never heard that name before, and I told them that it must be a Canadian thing because I've heard it all my life...  Giggle. But, I am looking forward to seeing family again.

We were planning on taking a trip to Canada this year, and I applied to have my green card renewed last December.  Well, the post office tried to deliver the card the middle of December, but said we didn't have a mail box - you know, the mail box that we have at the end of our driveway that's been there for the last 17 years... ya, that one... It was supposed to be redelivered to the house the next day, but somewhere between our house and the post office, it got lost.  I have applied three times to have the card remade, but Immigration and Naturalization won't reissue until the old card is returned by the post office...  So, I'm kind of stuck until they figure out what to do... Being that the card is expensive, I am not willing to spent a whole lot of money a 2nd time when it wasn't my fault.

I have continued to purchase rocks for my outside shower grotto... We've probably collected 100 different rocks now - and they are nicely stored in boxes in our carport.  This is one of the rocks I purchased... I love it.

We celebrated our 16th anniversary at the end of April, and Jim always comes up with interesting gifts.  This year, he bought me Canadian silver dollars, one ounce pieces.  I love them...

We have this standing joke between the two of us... Jim knows that I am terrible at directions - it's like that part of my brain just isn't there and I give directions usually by a business location that is close to the place we need to go.  When we were first married, I was trying to explain to Jim where I needed him to go and pick something up.  And, I told him to go up the hill on University Parkway, and turn a left at the Honey Baked Ham store.  I remember, there was this pause in this sentence, and then I heard him say, "The Honey Baked Ham store.....?"  Made perfect sense to me... so, now, whenever I am about to give him directions, he makes a crack about the Honey Baked Ham store...  uhuh... Well Jim called me on our anniversary as he was driving home and mentioned he just went by the Honey Baked Ham store.  Ha, Ha,. . .I came home from work expecting to go out to dinner, and there on the counter was... food from the, you guessed it - The Honey Baked Ham store.  It was perfect!... One, I will never forget...  

We've purchased the last stove pipe sections for the wood burning stove... and, the price of the pieces that we needed have doubled from last fall to this spring.  Jim was expecting to pay about $250.00 for the two parts..... instead it cost $500.00. We know that prices have increased, but this was crazy.  We were planning on putting in the stove pipe for the wood burning stove as one of our first projects this spring.... that, and putting the railings and balusters around the deck....  We are anticipating the grandchildren from Alaska will come and visit this summer, and that 20' plunge around the deck would not be good.  Coy is kind of used to running around the deck, but we feel we need to be safe with a whole herd of grandkids around.

We're just excited in anticipating getting back to work.. and, clearing out my living room/warehouse.

The adventure is coming out of pause zone, and we are continuing..

Love, Jim and Cheri

Man plans, God laughs....

Be Open To Whatever Comes Next!

To start.... Jim and I were at Pioneer Book in downtown Provo this past weekend... I was actually looking for a book on Coco Chanel.. they didn't have it, BUT, Jim found a fascinating book called... Cabin Lessons... It's a story about this retired couple who bought a piece of property by Lake Superior, and decide to build a cabin.... sound familiar?  It's actually really interesting and well written.  There are little quotes all the way through the book that have made us stop and really giggle... We've decided to use some of these quotes in our blog... so, if you see something along those lines, you'll know I'm not quite as witty as I think... I've stolen them... rather, borrowed them... that sounds better.  But we will not plagiarizer, quotations will be identified!

And, the stupid snow is finally starting to melt... I do not believe that the snow storms are ending - we've had our hopes dashed so many times this year, it's crazy, so I'm not going to make that prediction... But, we are starting to see our jacuzzi again, so that's a plus...

As many of you know, our family went to Disneyland in December.  While there, I tried to have all kinds of activities for the family to keep it interesting... One of them was playing FISH with actual gift cards.  Jim used one of his gift cards this weekend, at Home Depot!!!  I highly recommend this game for families - it was a blast!  (Yes, it's kind of expensive, but so worth it.)

In case you are wondering, Jim's shirt says, "I complain, therefore I am".

And, we went to the Rock Show in Spanish Fork on Saturday, and again on Sunday... I'm still collecting rocks for my outside shower grotto and we picked up some really pretty rocks...It was fun explaining to people why we wanted specific rocks, and when they heard, "outside shower" some got a little panicky...  They just need to loosen up a little bit.... 

Here's my collection of newly purchased rocks.... I don't have a clue what names are... for most of them... I did at the show, but, I've slept since then...

One of the rocks I bought because I thought Coy would get a kick out of it... It was advertised as "dinosaur poop"... When I asked the vendor how he knew it was dinosaur poop, he said..."lick it"...  Um.... not happening in my world, but I knew the story would amuse Coy... (I called Coy last night and told him about the rock, asked him if he wanted to lick it to verify it authenticity... he started saying NO before I finished my sentence...  )  Giggle.

This is Zebra stone.  Once it gets sealed it will be very black and white.

Here's a better picture of the Zebra stone.

I know this one is petrified wood!!!

I don't know what this one is, but I loved how it was so unique and different.  Little globules!

So, if you can identify any of these rocks, or want to lick all the stones to figure out which one is dinosaur poop, let me know!  Giggle.  The seller said this one is dinosaur bone... So, we've got dinosaur bones and dinosaur poop!!!

Jim came with me to the show, and just about got eaten by a T-Rex...  Giggle.

I saw this picture online, and absolutely love the look.  We have kind of the same idea we are going to put into the loft bathroom - at least the hardware is the same, but I'm loving the old doors/windows. In the loft, I have raw edged sheets of wood that we are going to hang like these windows.... Really heavy, but so pretty...  But, these windows... I am not sure where I would put them, but I love it.  So elegant.  First of all, I've got to find the windows before I go any further.  (I can just hear Jim groaning about this one....)

And, we're still waiting for the snow to stop....I have family coming to visit at the end of April/beginning of May and I was all excited to show them the cabin... ya - that's not going to happen... sad face... Do you think I can convince Aidan to put off his wedding until maybe July or so?

As always, the adventure continues.... Love, Jim and Cheri

"If all the difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all."  Cabin Lessons

Almost there....

It's still snowing... I have absolutely nothing more to say about that...  sigh.. Last week, the Jacuzzi was totally covered in snow... this week, we can see a little of it... But... it's still freakin snowing...

This next picture below was taken 5 years ago, same day.. in the exact spot that the jacuzzi now resides.  All the garbage from the framing was piled there... After a couple of trailer loads taken to the dumpster, the area was cleared and 4 years later the jacuzzi now has a home...

We've had a couple of storage units that have been filled with building materials for the last several years... we are in the process of emptying them and closing them out and/or moving things around.  This is what we found in the one unit yesterday - a chair made out of desert scrub oak wood...  We re redoing the seat platform and making it more stable instead of macramé.  Jim wants to have a regular seat put on it, and I have already purchased a sheepskin to put on said seat... It's going to live in the great room...  We have the coffee table that some what matches it already in the living room... This thing must weigh 150 lbs. . . .

In digging out the one storage building, we found boxes of this backsplash tile...  I flat don't remember where I was going to put it... Might have been a backsplash in the downstairs kitchen, or maybe in the bathroom... I just don't remember... I really like it, but don't know where it's going to eventually land.

And, we have five boxes of it!!  So, if you have any amazing suggestions, I'm open for creative ideas...!

And, hockey season is coming to an end.  Coy is in tournament games, as is Brea...  The player in the middle of the picture with his stick up in the air is Coy... but, I don't know for sure... Giggle.

And, Brea is also in tournament games.  Her games last weekend were in Homer, Alaska...  She is such a strong little player... So proud of all the kids.

And, here is Brea and Brad, sporting their new hockey sports wear...  I swear, Brea just does not take a bad picture, ever.  Brad just looks like he wants to... snarl...Giggle

I found this copper bell that I thought would look good on our deck... It's not huge, but it really is pretty.  Hope it doesn't turn green.  I am so looking forward to getting back to the cabin...

And I'm still collecting rocks etc for our grotto.... I came across this turtle a couple of weeks ago.  It actually came from a collection that Jim's mum had put together.  Whenever they travelled, she would buy a turtle as a momento of that trip.  I saw this turtle, and thought it would look great with the rocks and the frogs that I already have.

And, we found more oak flooring for the great room... we're getting quite a collection now... in a world where everything is manufactured, our natural oak floors are going to be beautiful.

With that, we are still anticipating getting back to the mountain and working..... gonna be a busy summer - but unlike last year, we are going to take some weekends off... Driving down to the cabin every weekend really took it's toll last year...

...the adventure continues.

Love, Jim and Cheri