Larsen's Journey: Utah by way of Texas

This year for my birthday trip I decided that I wanted to visit Kyle and Cheryl Winkel, Analee, Jacob and Sam in Plano, TX. Then I said, “Well, while we are out, we should stop by Kyle and Tiffany’s in Murray, Utah.” After all it is almost on the way. Actually it is farther from Plano to Murray than from Brooklyn Center to Murray by almost 200 miles. But the path of the trip changed several times.

We spent the first night in Forsyth, MO, just outside Branson (no time for shows) at Gary and Lisa’s house. Funny thing was that Misty and Shelly left the cities a little after us and got there about 20 minutes after we did. We all spent the night. Thanks Gary and Lisa for putting up with us for a night.

If you ever get in trouble and are arrested in Branson, Gary will be your best friend.

The next leg of the trip was to Plano, TX. We all went out for Pizza after some catching up and then went to the movie “Night at the Museum 2”. Great movie (and it beat Terminator in box office sales). Sunday after church we all played Harry Potter Clue. I was the first to guess: who done it, in what room and with what weapon. If I was wrong, I would be out. I was never any good at games so it was no big deal. Well I got two of the three correct, but, and this is the big but, there was two rooms and one person in the clue envelope, so nobody won.

Monday was play in the pool day. Cheryl cannonballed into the pool at first but only spent two minutes in the water, because “It’s too cold”. She says she will wait for warmer water, maybe in a month or two. Sam built a raft and we had a water battle with balls and water balloons. Sam assisted his dad in building a raft for the day in the pool. You can see that there was not a lot of buoyancy at first. But...

Jacob is ready to let one rip with the water slingshot.

We added some water noodles as out-riggers which stabilized it and added buoyancy. You can see that it is now floating high in the water.

Is Sam getting advice from Analee or getting more ammunition?

I am the winner!

Sam, you are in my space. Back up.

Buddy was always around, chewing on pant legs, arms, hair and anything else that got close to his mouth.

We had a great time with them and this is proof that they survived us. Thank you for your hospitality.

Judy and I bid our good byes to the Winkels at 3:00PM and hit the road again and made it to the Oklahoma/Kansas boarder where we spent the night. The next morning we headed for Denver to visit Bill and Bunny Yetter, old time Brooklyn Center friends. We had six hours of driving rain in Kansas and by the time we got to Denver, I was beat. Rain hypnotizes you. We visited and then went to a “Back to the 60” place for burgers and malts. We spent the night in Denver and then left at 4:00AM, west through the mountains to Utah. We stopped in a small town for breakfast and there was still snow around and 36 degrees. But I was still in my shorts, short sleeves and sandals (I’m from Minnesota and I can take the cold).

I observed a “No U-Turn” sign in that town that was installed upside down. There were lots of beautiful sights until we hit the Utah border. Then it turned desolate with no gas stops for over 100 miles. Ten miles into Utah the westbound lanes of I70 were shut down. We were about seven cars back and it looked like there was an accident. There was a one car roll over and as the medi-vac helicopter was landing, the highway was closed down. That put us back 30 minutes. The closest hospital was in Grand Junction, Colorado.

We spent three wonderful days with Kyle, Tiffany, Ellie and Eric. What a wonderful family. We slept in the kid’s room on our air mattress. When we got there, it only took Ellie about a minute or two until she remembered us. It didn’t take much longer and Eric warmed up to us. What beautiful and smart kids. Eric already knows his alphabet and Ellie has a great memory. Soon after we arrived she told us that we would have “three sleeps” at their house. Then the next day is was “two sleeps left” and on Friday she told us we had “one sleep” left. The kids were not supposed to get up before 7:00AM and Ellie has a clock so she knows what time it is. Each morning, she woke up and climbed into bed with us. She scooted right next to me, in contact with me and whispered many times, “I love you Grampa”. That was enough to melt any heart. Ellie is not a quiet sleeper. She is a kicker and hitter. So obviously there was no more sleep for me. But waiting until 7:00 was hard so we read books by flashlight – thanks Gramma for bringing it. Saturday morning she said she was hungry and would not stay in the room past 5:30. Judy was already downstairs working on her laptop. She made eggs for the two of them. Then when Mom and Dad came down she needed cereal. We went to the park and played with the kids. We read many books and made chalk murals on the patio and fence, and eat many meals together. And on Saturday we went to Carl’s Jr (a.k.a. Hardee’s) for a Western Bacon Cheeseburger and chilly cheesy fries for my birthday. Then at home we had the chocolate pie from Costco. Mmmm-mmmm Good. Then we needed to leave at noon in order to make it to Cheyenne to spend the night before a 12.5-13 hour drive to Brooklyn Center. We packed up the car and Ellie realized what was happening. She was crying uncontrollably begging us to stay another day and not go. We told her that we would visit again. The drive home was uneventful. It was some of the best ten days ever.

Here we see Erik opening some of his birthday presents that we brought with us. He opened the first one just fine.

But this one he didn't was to touch because it was a Shake-N-Go car that roared to life when we handed it to him. He wanted no part of that noisy thing. So Ellie had to assist in the remainder of the presents.

The hit present was the "Noisy" electronic helicopter.

Hey, I'm not ready for any pictures.

Now I am.

The funny thing was the plate of cooked carrots. He actually got angry when anyone tried to dish some up for dinner. He ate them by the handfuls right from the plate.

I am a happy boy today.

On Thursday we visited the SLC museum and spent some time in the hands-on kids area.

That morning before we got up, Ellie wanted us to do the Nativity and we all has assigned parts. And then we saw this.

He looks like a character from a super hero comic book.

Then it was a morning at the park. Eric was not sure about this slide.

Not for Ellie.

She did the straight one and the curvy one.

Inside the Yellow Tube relaxing.

A lot of time was spent on the swings. Erik loved it and he insisted on the "big boy" swing.

Ellie had a great time also and the two traded swings a couple of times.

Either Ellie was assisting on some height for Erik or Erik was trying to kick her.

I love to go high!

Even Gramma got in on the action. Let's see. Who is going higher?

Saturday was Grampa's birthday, but we won't say which one. We had a very delicious chocolate pie from Costco. Notice the nifty birthday hat that the honored guest gets to wear that Erik is modeling.

My assistants are trying to load the pie with as many candles as they could find. Luckily there weren't too many found.

The group portrait just before heading home(out of order). When we were packing up the car, Ellie realized we were leaving and was begging us not to go and to stay another day. She was almost inconsolable. Tears were flowing. But we needed to be back so we could go to work on Monday.