State of Integrity
Those of you who are familiar with the Wii, will likely know about the polling site that’s quite popular around here.
The idea is that each member of the household will be asked the same random question, with the choice of two different answers. You decide which one is closest to how you’d answer. Then, you are asked how you think the rest of the country will respond. Are most people going to agree with you or disagree with you? A few days later, you can check back and see the results–and if you predicted others answer correctly or not.
So the other day, the question was, “If you found $20 while standing in line, would you ask if it belonged to someone?”
The answers to choose from were: “Yes, but softly,” or “Finders keepers.”
Another feature of the guessing game is that you can click to find out how the rest of the country voted on the original question.
Moral of the story is:
If you’re going to drop your wallet, at any given time…
be sure to do it in Utah.
:} :} :} :} :} :} :}
The Pumpkinless Pie
My cute little daddy–in the middle, with the beard–had worked in a bakeshop of one kind or another, ever since he was about 8 years old. So, when he went into the Navy, it was only natural that he became a cook. To hear him talk, he must have loved it. One story that he told us when we were little, was of being on a battleship, somewhere out in the middle of the South Pacific on Thanksgiving Day.
He said the food was always as good as they could possibly make it, considering what they had to work with. But today, the guys were hoping for something more–anything that would make them feel just a little closer to those they loved back home.
Canned turkey was expected, along with some sort of dried bread stuffing and soggy vegetables, but what they all were missing the most, they said, was pumpkin pie. Of course there was no pumpkin–fresh or canned out in the middle of the ocean–during a war. But that wasn’t good enough for my smarty-pants dad.
He thought about it and thought about it and realized that cooked pumpkin, in many ways, is quite similar to…
carrots. Yesiree. Carrots.
So, while no one was looking, he cooked them up and added all the right spices, milk, and sugar. He said, that he found that if you treat a carrot like a pumpkin, it will act just like one. So when the “pumpkin” pie was served that day–it was perfect. Everyone thought it was a miracle or that pumpkins had just dropped out of the sky or something. They never knew. But they didn’t think too hard about it because they were way too busy being grateful for all their blessings…
and their amazing Superman cook–my cute little daddy….
who saved Thanksgiving Day.
And that’s the way he told it…
except for the Superman bit…that was all mine.
heh, heh.
Happy Veterans Day!
Some Scary Stuff
You see all kinds of ridiculous stuff when you’re on the highway for days at a time. Some of it interesting…
and some of it downright spooky. See for yourself…
Not a big fan of tunnels that go through mountains…or under rivers…or at all actually. I’m perfectly happy to go around the darn things. So add to the general creepiness a Prestone jug yellow hue and you’ve got a real eerie driving tube. Get out–get out–get out.
Now this could be an attempt to pass going very, very badly…but don’t be afraid. It not. This is actually a Semi towing another Semi…backwards. Just a tad startling to look up from a good book and see a this staring you in the face.
Seriously?! Would you build your brand new hotel at the base of not one, but TWO huge precariously teetering boulders? What were they thinking!
I like pancakes, but not enough to want to be one. wow.
You can’t really tell from here–but this is crawling tube at a roadside McDonald’s is reeeally high…like a million feet up. Well, to Grammie anyway. I’m pretty sure this is the farthest that little Lilly has every been from home…alone.
My new favorite book series and best road trip pal. We were slow to get started with them–but everyone but the babies is neck deep in the series now. Very, very scary and thrilling at the same time. It’s the first book I’ve ever read that actually makes me jump.
Here’s the best one of all. So your driving along…minding your own business…when you just happen to look over at the vehicle to your right. Yeeeah. I’m sorry–is that a freaking missile right next to us?! Like the kind they blow up small countries with?
I’m patriotic and all that, but come on. They just drive these suckers down the street?! Not sure whether to speed way up or slow way down or make a sharp left and bolt to Alaska. We took off like…well, like a minivan being chased by a missile, that’s what. We’d have had a great story for the policeman giving us a ticket.
“Well you see officer…there was this missile…”
Sheesh.
Just for that…
we’re coming home!
:]
Faces on the Mountain
Road Trip Day 4
Seems like all the days have started or ended exactly like this. Can’t you just hear the Beatles singing, “The Long and Winding Road?”
Well I can…and it’s beautiful.
We did get a cute little guidance truck to tell us how to maneuver the road construction. They must not have known that we’re from UTAH MAN! The road construction capitol of the universe–and we are detour savvy.
It was a nice gesture though.
Then, all of a sudden these hills started popping up, from out of nowhere. We were entering South Dakota!
Did you know that South Dakota has real, live buffalo hidden away in their hills? I had no clue! Where did I get the idea that they were extinct? Oh no—they have been simply kicking back in SD all these years!
I must be out of the endangered species loop. Can I just tell you–these dudes are ENORMOUS!
Suddenly, the hills turned into bigger hills…small mountains even.
Which was a good thing because where we’re going needs to be a big, BIG mountain.
And it did not disappoint. In fact, Mt.Rushmore was positively breathtaking. I wish I could show you up close how cool this place is. President Roosevelt even looks like he has glasses on. It was amazing.
We had to take the token “stand HERE and snap your picture” shot–you know–for posterity. See all that rubble at the base of the Presidents? There’s a really great film you can watch in the museum that told us that the rubble is from all the dynamite they used to carve this out of the rock.
In fact, they said that 90% of the actual carving was done with dynamite. How does that work? The rest of course, was done and finished and smoothed out with chisels by men hanging down in swing type things. Those guys were soooo brave. Another thing I learned is that the fellow who made it–with 4oo other workers–died before it was finished. They actually had plans for the collars and lapels of Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln–not just Mr. Washington.
The history was positively fascinating.
The ice cream was glorious.
The company was wonderful.
We’ll remember this place–the “Shrine of Democracy” at Mt. Rushmore, for the rest of our lives.
Taking It Slow
Road Trip Day 3
No huge plans for today. Just kinda hangin’ out…
taking it easy…
entertaining the short folks.
However–you can only be locked up in a hotel room with 3 toddlers for so long before you need to find a big, huge park for them to run in.
So we did.
One with tons of very friendly squirrels…
who liked the peanuts we tossed…a lot.
I don’t think I’ve actually seen a squirrel up close before. Chipmunk–yes. Prairie dog–yes. Squirrel–not so much. I’m sure we have squirrels in Utah–but they must be invisible, because I’ve never seen one.
It even had a fountain for toe dipping—but it wasn’t enough to just get our feet wet. So we went back…
changed our duds…
and jumped in the pool!
Some of us were very brave.
Some of us were very chilly.
Some of us were too dang cute.
And some of us were just too tired.
Warm. Wet. Healthy. Happy.
Heaven indeed.
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