Jiichan and Baachan came to visit us, and they were able to be here for a whole ten days! Dane had a lot of fun playing with them and being spoiled by them.
I never get enough pictures when they're here, so I don't have good documentation of all the fun we had. We went shopping, ate out, ate in, played Wii Basketball, played Sudoku, rode bikes. We also had a couple of other adventures that I actually did take good pictures of:
Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival
(Random sidenote: "point" has always been my favorite word to type. Try it. I bet you'll like it, too. point point point.)
I've never been to the Tulip Festival before, though I'd heard really good things. My ignorance was further made manifest when we drove up to Thanksgiving Point, walked up to the information center, presented them with our coupon, and were told that we had to drive another two miles to a different location to get to the gardens. Oops.
Anyway, it was beautiful. We'd had a bad hail storm the day before, so I was afraid the flowers would be all broken and battered, but I should not have doubted the heartiness of nature.
Here, Dane
is pointing to a helicopter. He can really pick them out like a pro.
Dane really wanted to ride a golfcart around. But $25 seemed a little steep for our taste. But that didn't stop us from finding an abandoned one and stealing some pictures. My dad put Dane in a tree, and Dane was excited to be like a monkey. But he is cuter than a monkey. Or at least as cute as one.
Here, he'd found a divot in the middle of a little field, so he plopped himself down in it.
I'd heard of the waterfall at Thanksgiving Point, but I'd never seen it. It was really quite impressive to walk around the corner and suddenly see majestic falls.
Another fun thing we did was ride bikes along the Jordan River trail. We started at Gardner Village, where we got all geared up--
--and headed north about a quarter mile before encountering a no trespassing sign. Here we are mulling over the situation, trying not the inhale the smell of sewage treatment plant:
But since it wasn't really barricaded, we ignored it and continued for about another half mile before coming up on a barbed wire fence. With reckless abandon, we decided to ignore that sign as well. All that was required to get past it was to hoist the bikes over the fence. Well, the nice, new bikes are all lightweight, but since there were four of us (Jiichan, Baachan, Joel, Ami) we also had to take the world's heaviest and most useless bike. As my dad was trying to lift it over the fence, the handlebars (which were super old and bare metal on the ends) swung around and conked my dad around the eye. Not in the eye, mind you, but around it. I failed to get a picture of the fence that blocked our way, but I did manage to get one of the injury:
Ouch. Joel then nicknamed the bike "The Hussy." It is a terrible bike, that Hussy.
After that, I didn't take any pictures, which I regret because it was fun and picturesque to ride along a river all together.
We passed a nice park in Murray that had immediate parking and access to the trail, and we thought we should park there next time. I'm not sure how far we'd gone, maybe a few miles, but we turned back and my mom, Dane, and I played at the park while Dad and Joel went back to Gardner Village to pick up the car and meet us for the picnic.
Dane enjoyed throwing rocks in the pond.
We enjoyed a picnic of sushi and Fudgees.
(Another random sidenote: I think Fudgees are the most delicious Oreo incarnation. Even better than original Oreos. Try them. They don't carry them in every grocery store, but they are delicious.)
Here is how exhausted my mom was afterward:
Note the Sudoku she's holding. Good times.
Dane really misses them. Today, my uncle came over, and when Dane heard his voice, he excitedly said, "Jiichan?!?"
My parents were exceedingly generous and gave us their minivan. They've had it for several years but is in great condition and still looks new. So we're now a two car family! We're very grateful that they were so nice to give it to us. For free, even! Wait, no, that's not exactly true. At the DMV, we were getting it registered in Utah, and the total registration fee was $150.50. My dad--again, amazingly generously--offered to pay the fee, but I did pay the last fifty cents. I had one quarter, one dime, one nickel, and ten pennies. So a sweet new minivan for fifty cents. Thanks so much, Jiichan and Baachan!
Anyway, today, as I pulled into the driveway in our other car, Dane was longingly staring out the window. I asked him what he was looking at, and he said "Jiichan and Baachan's car."
He misses them. We all miss them. Thanks so much for coming out.
5 comments:
Okay, that is just awesome. Your parents are the boss.
Also, thank you for introducing me to Fudgees. They truly are better than regular Oreos. Especially those yellow and blue and green ones they come out with during Easter. Blecccch.
You got a van!!! You got a van!!! And, your parents were here again and we still did not see them??? Sad.
Point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point point.
Another good one is were. All one hand with three fingers. Were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were were.
Yep, point and were are both fun to type. I never thought of that before.
What a fun adventure! So I'm a little confused - you were on a known trail but there were "no trespassing signs" in the middle of it? Odd. But it sounds like you still had a great time! And the pictures from Thanksgiving Point are beautiful!
And finally - wow! A good minivan for $.50? What a gift! :)
I am just now reading this post. How'd it take me so long? And how did my wife get to it nearly three months before me?
Anyway, I just thought your receipt of the van reminded me a lot of the Parable of the Bicycle.
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