Grieg

I am glad that both Ailsa and Jensen took piano lessons and have stuck with it. It is very nice to hear them play and I think they enjoy it a lot as well. Lately, Ailsa has been learning some of Edvard Grieg's pieces. Sunday she was running through Anitra's Dance from Peer Gynt. She hasn't spent much time with it. I was watching her and she got to a point where she was struggling and muttered soflty under her breath, "Well, now he's just showing off."

Mrs. Alex Knaphus (the other Britty)

Brittany Wilhelm was married last Tuesday. It was a very nice occasion. We were afraid we might encounter rain at the outdoor venue (Log Haven in Mill Creek). But, it was a wonderful day. The bride was beautiful and the flower girl (Laney) was stellar. At one point while taking family pictures Brittany claimed she was being stung on her bum by a bee under her dress. We surmised that it could be a bobby pin or something. She was quite insistent, lifted up the ample train and canopy, made her way north and eventually released a hornet that was trapped under her dress. The reception was at a private residence in the East Mill Creek area of Salt Lake. This home has a spectacular back yard with the creek running through it, a bridge over the creek.

Really Cute Picture I found over at Bless' House

Three of the cutest kids and a really sweet dog.

Brave New Laney

As you can see from the video below, Laney has grown somewhat more plucky as of late. Lenore has gotten her much more used to the idea of swimming over at Aunt Les' pool. Now she just needs to stop freaking out whenever a wave splashes in her face. I spent A LOT of time carrying her around in the very shallow part of the waves. When we first arrived at San Clemente they were just finishing with some biggish waves. Perhaps for this reason the bottom was a little messed up. There was a "ditch" about 20 feet out that went down at least a foot. But, when you are only three and a half feet tall, one foot makes a big difference. Plus, a lot of the kids don't like it because it gives the impression that the bottom could fall out at any minute.

Laney on the Booogie Board

CompLaney

Ever since our return trip from the River in July when Laney was ill, she has been VERY compLaney every time we have had to drive any distance at all in the car. This happened again when we drove to the Taylor's Cabin a couple of weeks ago and she was very difficult on the way down to San Clemente. When we returned home Laney became ill again in Barstow just as we pulled into a filling station. We were well equipped with a plastic bag, so no permanent mess in the car.
We decided we needed to try motion sickness medicine. She hasn't seemed to need this before. Maybe she's grown into a phase. We got her some generic Dramamine and Lenore gave her 1 pill. The dosage said to use one-half to one. Laney fell asleep and only awakened shortly before we arrived in Saint George. As Ailsa and Jensen will attest, we had the most pleasant drive while she was asleep. We will keep some on hand in the car from now on.
Funny thing though, When we drove down to Provo recently to pick up Ailsa at Steve Trumbo's house, we didn't give her any medicine and she didn't complain much.

Quick! Call the Rental Company we Left Mom at San Clemente!

In the evenings after dinner it is very common for me to slink back over to our own apartment and change channels on the TV. Lenore usually stays visiting with her family. Friday night we were staring to get ready to vacate in the morning. Lenore left with a load of laundry to put in the washing machine in the garage. She didn't come back right away so I assumed she had gone over to the other apartment. About an hour later she came back and asked, "didn't you wonder where I was?" The garage door opener switch is a little old and difficult to manage. There is a key switch (with obviously tricky connections) for opening and closing on the outside and a button that evidentally only closes on the inside. She went inside and when she was at the back of the garage the door closed on its own (because of the tricky switch with the key still in it. She was stuck inside for a long time. The button wouldn't work, she pounded on the door and yelled. But, nobody heard her. Eventually she was able to figure out how to release the heavy door and lift it up high enough to sheepishly crawl out.:(

Aging

Speaking of aging, one day at San Clemente I went down to watch the girls in the water and I lay down on the sand at the high tide line. After awhile I closed my eyes and starting dozing off. Suddenly, a ball hit me right on the chest. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see a youngish 10-12 year old boy with a very sheepish look on his face. He chased down the errant ball and went back to his playing. His friend asked him what happened and I heard him reply, "the ball hit that old man over there." :(

Old Good Friends

Since we had missed the first Sunday at San Clemente, we didn't give any input where and when to go to Church. Last year we went to the newly built fancy Chapel, partly because that's where the ward we always met with has their meetings now. The Sunday we weren't ther Darrell and Fielding instead went to the old chapel that they have gone to for years. That was fine with us for the second Sunday too. The ward we attended was the Capistrano second Ward. That is Debbie (Sedgwick) Stapley's ward. It was interesting to see her and her family. She looked good, maybe taller or thinner than I remember.

Sunday night we went to dinner at Stuart Campbell's house. Toni Trumbo also came and brought two of her daughters. It was a very lovely dinner and we talked a lot. Could have talked hours longer.

Toni came down to San Clemente early Monday morning and we rode the tandem together. She did pretty well. We almost broke my solo record getting down to the turn around point. We took it easier coming back.

I gave Stuart a copy of the photo of our Scout Troop at Lost Valley. He passed it on to Chris Money and Chris emailed me wanting to get together. He came down to San Clemente early Friday morning 18 August and we went Surfing together for about an hour or so. Toni had brought a 10 foot surfboard for us to use and I liked it alot. I did okay, was finally able to mostly paddle around without wimping out too much, caught a couple of waves. But, also biffed it a lot.

Chris then took the family out to breakfast (sans Laney) at Pedros. I have heard of this place for several years. But, I have not ever gone. Sadly, we have gone to very few local places while at the beach. We enjoyed Pedros immensely and had a fun time chatting with Chris.

Doug and Stacey Tate and kids Spencer and Mikayla also came down and spent the most part of a day with us. Joan informed me that I was supposed to entertain the Tates in the afternoon. I'm afraid I didn't do much entertaining.

Snakes on a Bike

I did a lot of riding in San Clemente. Maybe not any more miles than ever. But, I only rode 8 days. So, a higher average mileage. I found near the end of the first week that I was not recovering overnight and eventually had no more place to go to "dig deeper." After about 170 miles in three days the last week this became even more pronounced and Jensen and I limped home the last 13 miles barely turning the pedals over.

On 10 August Jensen and I did almost 40 miles on the tandem. We (really only I) saw a snake on the bike path just barely onto the Marine Base. This was no wimpy garter snake. But, a hefty awe/fear inspiring Adder or recently sated someother kind of snake. It was about 3 feet long and quite plump. That's why I thought something like Adder. I wasn't eager to spend too much time in its presence. It surprised me and by the time I was completely aware what it was, there wasn't anything I could do to avoid it other than ride closer to the bushes. As it was, we had to pass within about 4 feet of it.

Later, on the 16th I think, I saw this same snake again. This time after I passed him I turned back and looped around a couple of times to get a closer (but safe) look. It definitely was a Diamondback. As I got closer to him he started making his way into the bushes.

One idea I have about the recovery problem, since I noticed this more this year than in the past, and of course it's not that I'm getting older: One reason my speed has been better this year (I think) is I have concentrated a lot on using the whole leg and the whole pedal motion. This is easier to do when I use higher gears and pedal more slowly. The upshot is I go faster and my heart rate doesn't go so high. But, I think when you've exhausted those reserves, there's nothing left.