Careful What You Say!

Monday, May 7, 2012

When Mom was creating the last post, it reminded her of her earliest Easter memory & I wanted her to tell the story. This picture above could possibly be from the same Easter day she remembers. She remembers wearing this or a similar outfit & everyone being dressed up. (The picture above is at Memorial Park in El Paso, not far from where they lived. From left to right: Mary, Bud, Nona, Wam & Irby standing in front of Irby's car with a "rumble seat". John is taking the picture. This is probably 1927, as Bud was about 1 year old & Mary was 3.)

"On Easter morning, we got up & got dressed to go to Sunday School. But before we went to Sunday School, we went out in the desert, not far from our home, where the mesquite bushes were just getting their foliage. Everything was clean & fresh like it had rained during the night. The sand was damp. My Daddy parked the car & he said, "Just a minute, I have to go check." He got out of the car, the rest of us stayed. When he returned, he helped me out of the car & there on the ground was a line drawn in the fresh sand. Daddy said, "I bet if you follow that you will see where the Easter Bunny has been." So I got my Easter basket & took Daddy's hand & we went off down through the sandy wash, following the line. Sure enough, every once in a while, it led to where an Easter egg had been dropped! It was really exciting."

This is Momma holding Bud & me standing at her side, somewhere around El Paso. (Early 1927)

This is on our trip to Burbank, to visit Aunt Josie (Ruebush) Glenn & her family. Bud is the baby, then there is my cousin Tom Glenn & me in front of their home.

This is a sad, but true story of why you should not give little children live chicks. They sat us down for a picture, gave us each a cute little day-old yellow chick to pose with & snapped the shot. Bud's chick did not make it. This is also in front of Aunt Josie & Uncle Ernest's home.

This is me & my Daddy on the porch of the Erie (now Murchison) Street house where we lived when Bud was born. All these pictures were taken around the time of the Easter Egg hunt. Hope you all have fun Easter memories, too! Love, Mom/Grandma Mary

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Easter weekend was loaded with activities. We had just celebrated Katie & Kalani's wedding & the Van Tassells were still in town. So we went Geo-cache-ing, rolled Easter eggs in SugarHouse Park (more correctly known as "Feeding the Seagulls" and had Easter Dinner at Gene & Tammy Van Tassell's home.

The day started by feeding the birds bread at SugarHouse Park pond. It drew them in like a magnet & reminded me of Hitchcock's film "the Birds". Those mean seagulls were scary!

Watch out for the birds when you run out of bread!

The Geo-cache is calling & we are all ready to go with Barbie holding the clues & the GPSs all warmed up. We are in search of mysterious treasures hidden somewhere in this busy park. Excitement is high.

During the search, some of us were distracted.

Especially Nate. He would get his eye on one bird and go after it!

Triumph! Michael & Colby find the cache in the culvert (a long stick was required).

Contents being reviewed & exchanges made!

Nate & Ben exploring the creek

Next was the Egg Roll down the Sledding Hill. This silly Easter activity was introduced to our family by Patrick & Tyler. It is a very important Easter tradition, now. The basic technique is that you roll one egg (one egg only) at a time down the sledding hill at SugarHouse Park.

Be careful that the bird does not grab it out of your hand before you can start the rolling process--sometime you have to just quickly "huck" it. They are aggressive!

Then sit back & watch! Every seagull in the valley will show up. And this is not the bird's "first rodeo"! They have a well oiled system, are well organized, and know exactly what they are doing. Every once in a while, the flock would fly into the air & look for better eats, then, like a big disk in the sky, they return to our hill.

I do recommend a review of the movie before you attempt this, so that you are prepared for organized aggression by what you might think are cute little birds.

This is Betsy protecting her adventuresome little boy who just a few moments ago had an egg in his hand.

The kids all enjoyed my walker/chair. Here is Colby at the end of his ride down the sledding hill--no injuries to Colby or the chair.

Here is the next Geo-cache discovery! It was under the cap of the fencepost. These guys are good!

That afternoon, we went over to Gene & Tammy's for Easter dinner. They have a beautiful home with a huge back porch where we sat & ate while we looked out over the valley. Wonderful & delicious!