Pipes of Pam: Rick and Jodie's Family - Down South and . . . . . . . . . Up North

Monday, April 29, 2013

Rick and Jodie's Family - Down South and . . . . . . . . . Up North

For Rick and Jodie's kids' Spring Break, the whole family came to St. George to spend a few days with us and have fun in the sun.

They swam, bicycled, hiked, golfed, shopped and ate.

We LOVE them to come!

Jodie fixed us "personalized" omelets one morning - Roger's favorite!

Blake says, "Bring on the food!"

We ate lots of yummy meals together - shrimp and asparagus lemon linguini, taco salad, grilled salmon, crockpot lasagna and Jodie made breakfast and lunches including homemade muffins and we had a must for every Jodie visit, Grandma Tobler's potato salad!

We didn't take many pics, but let this one suffice to say that they hand a lot of hang out time and fun in the St. George sun - a great break from the cold spring up north!

So now skip to four days later, to North Salt Lake at Rick and Jodie's home.

Rick and Jod went on Jodie's Fantasy Trip to see the tulips in the spring in Keukenhof, in Holland. She LOVES flowers and she, Rick and the kids do all of their own yard work, and it rivals Temple Square in beauty!

Roger and I drove north to tend their kids while they were gone.

Here is part of the schedule for their five kids:

Thursday, April 11

Wake up kids at 6:45 for scripture study. Eat and get ready for school. Kids pick out clothes and lay out the night before.
A. leaves for school around 7:45 and gets home at 3:15ish. I have arranged for someone to drive her every day.
The kids need lunches for school. The 2 little girls need help making a lunch.
K. leaves at 8:15 and gets home around 3:45.
S. leaves at 7:40 and gets home around 5.
The kids need to practice piano every day either before or after school.
A. needs help correcting her math each day after school.
A. has tennis and someone will come get her at 5:20ish.
S. has tennis lessons at 6:30. Someone will pick her up.

And so it went each day of the week with piano and tennis lessons, choir practice, Spanish Fair, early morning birthday kidnappings, etc.

Sunday's schedule gave us a chuckle:

Katie will sit on the stand as she is going into Young Women and needs to be there early.
Roger needs to sit in for the bishop (Rick is the bishop).
Pam is teaching Relief Society! Good luck! Church starts at 1:00 but Roger needs to be there at 6:30 a.m. for Stake training.

I cut off the last day, Friday, for the babysitter
who came to be there until Rick and Jod got home on Saturday.
Whew! It was a crazy schedule, but the kids were GREAT!

Mr. Blake is an absolute whiz on the "fry pad," and he couldn't wait until he earned time on it every day. He navigated from song to song and learning game to learning game, but I must mention that he gets seriously stuck on, "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. . . "!

I love the comfy little position he gets in for his serious work on the "fry pad"!

He also loves books . .

. . . and his mom's iPhone, which she had left home.

Blake also dances up a storm with the other kids and we got great video of it, plus of him ready, set, going into Grandpa's arms, over and over, which I forget how to post it on my blog.

During the week, I cooked my brains out, including baked halibut, cheesy chicken spaghetti, Oriental chicken salad, cheesy pesto bread and crunchy chicken bites, Southern pulled pork sandwiches, Norwegian pickled cucumbers and biscuit beef tostadas. On the last night, we had a left-over smorgasbord and I told them we were going on a culinary trip around the world - Scandinavia, China, Italy, the Deep South, USA and Mexico!

Her family celebrated Katie's birthday the night before they left, but on her actual birthday, her best friends came and got her for breakfast before school before 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning, her Young Women leaders and class came to get her early- for another breakfast!