Each year after school is out Jon, Nathan, and Sam visit Utah for a week. This year is no exception. They are coming a little later this year since Jon has some work obligations. We are hoping it will not be hot.
It is so exciting to see them emerge through the secure area of the airport. We and they are all smiles.
An important area is food for growing boys. I start out with their Beeba favorite macaroni and cheese. I also make pancakes with Ryan’s recipe so they will be sure to like them. I appreciate their loyalty to their mom when they say mine are good but are lacking the magic touch of their mom’s. I feel, though, that during their visit I am out of sync with what they want to eat. They are craving a lot more sweets than I am used to having around. I try making hamburgers and tater tots, sausages, spaghetti but nothing seems very palatable to them. When we go out to eat they really are not interested in eating what they have ordered. Maybe they are homesick. We also have a disastrous dinner at the club where the chef would not say that there were dishes without the chance of contamination of peanuts even though there were none on the menu. Nathan is so upset.
Since I am having a lot of trouble with me knee, Jonathan takes Nathan and Sam to the big pool a couple of days. The kids also really enjoy playing video games in their room. We watch the movie Clue altogether before breaking out the board game for several spirited games. Jonathan wins two games and Sam wins two. We also play the matching card game, Set, and a few rounds of Scattergories plus Blokus.
Our outing this year is a trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We plan on a few short hikes, mostly around 1/2 mile round trip. I am unable to hike because of my knee but John and Jonathan are gung-ho. Nathan and Sam are less enthusiastic. They feel it is too hot and they are tired after the first foray out to look at the Grand Canyon. So John and Jonathan go ahead and do another short hike while Nathan and Sam and I look for soda and something else to do. After lunch we drive to another area where the boys and John and Jonathan take a hike to a window in the rock and a 360 degree look out. We stay the night in Kanab, have dinner at a great Mexican restaurant and decide by vote that instead of going on to Bryce the next day we will return home.
The next two pictures are taken in front of the North Rim Grand Canyon Lodge. I think the boys look especially great!
Other things we do during the week is the terrible experience at the Club for dinner. Also a trip to Tuacahn to see a performance of Matilda. Unfortunately the musical play is not as good as the ones we have seen in years past. We also have a celebration of Father’s Day. Nathan and Sam make cards for Daddy and Zayde while they are out playing tennis. We surprise them with their cards later on.
I think this trip is less successful than the ones we have had in the past. I feel very bad about that. If Jon, Nathan, and Sam want to come back next year, we need to rethink what we are doing. Maybe having a meeting ahead of time to find out what they would like to do would be a good idea. They are getting older and their ideas of how they would like to spend this vacation are changing.