The Hunt for Wed October

Glorious stroop waffles from The Mighty Baker

With apologies (as in 'sorry, not sorry') to the creative masterminds behind 1990's cinematic opus, "The Hunt for Red October," wherein Sean Connery played a hardened Russian submarine commander with an inexplicable Scottish brogue and an even more inexplicable hair piece, in today's post, I give you "The Hunt for Wed October," wherein I'll briefly catch you up to speed on what went down in the Den in October.

The latter half of the month was spent behind the Zion Curtain indulging in culinary goodness, like stroop waffles from the Mighty Baker, tacos and more tacos than are probably permitted under the regime of Dear Leader Trump, and way too many Vikings from Sodalicious. There was also the matter of this little event:

That's the RM, emerging triumphantly from his 21st October wedding ceremony, with his new bride, the lovely MC. His Rockette-esque high kick reflects his excitement, as well as his innate ability to always keep it classy (a quality he obviously gets from his father, natch). And speaking of keeping it classy, no, he is not flipping the bird there. He's proudly showing off his finger that now sports a wedding ring. This little event is what brought us back to the Zion Curtain and it goes without saying that yeah, it was pretty awesome. It was more than awesome. It was perfect. As we went through the events of the wedding, from the groom's dinner, to the wedding and the two receptions, to the weather which was glorious, on multiple occasions, the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML and I would say to one another, 'Could this be any more perfect?' To say that we were blessed would be a foolish understatement. To be surrounded by family and friends, as we welcomed a new member to our family, was joyous.

Proud to stand with our son and his new bride

Our growing collection of children. Turns out
I really, really like these people.

I can't say enough good things about our new daughter-in-law and her family. She is a product of great parents, who have raised a wonderful young woman. We were able to spend some time in their home, meeting their family and friends at Reception #2 in Twin Falls, ID., and these are people who are loved. It was really good to see how the RM seems to fit in as well with them. That's important because when you marry, you get a new family, whether you like it or not. I scored on the In-Law Lotto when the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML married and I think the RM has done the same. We'll see what MC has to say about her in-laws, meaning me since I'm the "handful"...(that test will come at the end of the year after a week with us for Christmas Vacation). That said, she fits in beautifully with our daughters and our son-in-law and as you can see from the picture above, they look great as a family.

As we had our children together, I was reminded of how fortunate I am. Then with each moment I spent with these two, that feeling of fortunate exploded into the incomparable joy of being a grandpa:

I could bang on for days about the fun we had each and every day. These two, who are the lights of my life as if that weren't obvious, were stuck with us for 13 days straight and as far as I'm concerned, it could have gone on forever. We laughed. We created tons of paper spaceships without a single paper cut. We had In-n-Out. Grandpa may, or may not, have let his four year old grandson drive a car around a gated community. Allegedly. We had two nights of Halloween shenanigans. We just had fun every day.

Suffice to say, Wed October was a very good month for us. It was so good to see old friends, like the RM's buddies from Connecticutistan or the Boys of the Dirty 630. We had dinner with a couple of friends from our early married days at BYU and it was just like yesterday (also thanks to A & B, the greatest stalkers ever, who once again showed up to say hi out of nowhere!). I had a chance to reconnect with a few friends from freshman year, 1984, that I had not seen since, wait for it, 1985. Thirty two years, people, but what a great reunion! There was more than a little laughter there, let me tell you.

At the end of "The Hunt for Red October," Jack Donaghy Ryan says to the inexplicably wigged Captain Ramius, "Welcome to the new world, Captain," and that kind of sums up Wed October for us.  As the RM married, he entered a new world called marriage. With MC, we gained a new daughter-in-law and she joins a new world called having me for a father-in-law, the poor thing. It's a new world for our family and I like it. I really, really like it.

Product Endorsement Time:

We could not have pulled off our groom's dinner without the goodness of two companies. For those of you behind the Zion Curtain, or for those of you who go behind the ZC from time to time, please support these two:

180 Tacos - their catering team is great! Food is fantastic and they do a terrific job!

The Mighty Baker - I can't say enough good about this place. Pete is great to work with and man, they make great stuff.

Also for those of us on the East Coast who are used to paying $150 for eggs, milk, and bread from the local Quick-E-Mart, you will die a thousand deaths at how good their pricing is. I'm still reeling.

So summer ends with a nap

Today, September 4th, we celebrate Labor Day in the United States. Ostensibly, it is the day we honor the American labor movement and their contributions by taking the day off. We celebrate the day by making a whole group of American workers, who are largely underpaid and under appreciated, work so that we can redeem coupons for stuff we probably don't need, like linens, toasters, paint, and yet another HDTV. Is there any better way to thank an American worker than to brave a long line of people at their register, so you can yell at them for not taking that crumpled expired coupon you found under the driver's seat of your car? Because 5% off. Yea, Labor Day sales!

In addition to celebrating America's labor movement, the Labor Day weekend also signals the unofficial end of summer. This summer has sped by as quickly as the Megalomaniac in Chief's approval ratings have sunk. I didn't take a lot of time off this summer and you'd think that would have made it creep by, but it didn't. The summer weather we had here was pleasant, with hardly any weird overly hot days. So it's not like a dreary heat made the days go by slowly. To be sure, we stayed busy, opening the summer season with visits from our children and ending it by visiting them behind the Zion Curtain. It just seems like we blinked and the summer was over.

The last couple of days have brought a relative chill to the night air and we find ourselves looking to what looms ahead on the fall calendar. There is the not insignificant business of an October wedding awaiting us. Fortunately, as the parents of the groom, most of what we had to do for it has come together, thanks to the formidable and slightly terrifying Wedding-Industrial Complex that is Utah County, UT. I could go on for days about that but that's another post for another day, but I'll just say this, these wedding people are wasted in what they're doing now. Send them to North Korea and they'll wear Kim Jung-Un down to nothing in no time with their blindingly white smiles, matching black outfits, and eternal perkiness. He'll give up his nuclear weapons in no time, I'm telling you right now.

So with summer essentially over, I'm not going to indulge in the Labor Day sales shenanigans. I think I'm going to go back to bed. A nap seems like a fitting way to celebrate the day.

Take a nap today, my friends. You won't regret it.

Notes from behind the Zion Curtain

Not a bad view from behind the Curtain

Thanks to a pilot who must have traded his soul to that she hag, Mother Nature, what was going to be a two-hour plus delay was only 30 minutes today, getting me back from the Zion Curtain with time to spare earlier this evening.

It was a great three day trip for me, although the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML gets eight days. I don't want to turn this into a horrible blog version of your Aunt Shirley's three week trip to the Holy Land with her friend from Bingo, Ruth, you know the one who's husband had the thyroid...you get the point. So here are the highlights:

Week Two from the Zion Curtain
Most importantly, it's Monday, which means our weekly update from TMFKATB. This week's letter was great to read. He's settling in well and is very busy. Health-wise, he feels really good and we are so grateful for that. Service opportunities abound and he's getting to work with Spanish speakers. He doesn't like arepas (he's working with several people from Venezuela and Colombia now) which was a blow to me. They are delicious. It was very odd for me to drive by the exit for the city in which he's serving on Saturday morning. When I saw it as I hurtled down the I15, I, of course, started to cry. I knew he was out there, getting ready to go to work. I resisted the urge to veer off the freeway and go find him. He's got better things to do.

The Greek Wedding
The purpose of our trip was to attend the wedding of the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML's cousin. SML grew up close to her cousins and we couldn't miss this event. Our daughters joined us so it was a mini-family reunion. Alison's wedding was in a Greek Orthodox church and it was amazing. Alison was a beautiful bride and it was so fun to see family. The whole shindig was somewhat reminiscient of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" in a lot of ways. If I'm being honest, though, I was saddened to not see a tidal wave of Windex. The homemade Greek pastries at the wedding dinner more than made up for it. Here's some scenes from the event:

Just missing The Boy and The Grandson

The women in my life - how did I get so lucky?

Glad my hair is as gray as my suit

The Grandson
One of the bonuses of having a family wedding in the Zion Curtain is that we get to stay with The Awesomes. This means hanging out with our grandson. It doesn't get much better than that, I have to tell you. He's just turned two and has become incredibly verbal. One of my favorite parts of the trip was to hear him hollering, 'Bampa! Bampa!' Each time I heard it, his wish was my command. Whether it was riding his bike, walking his neighborhood and finding every ant on the sidewalk, swimming, or sneaking fruit snacks, we had a good time. I had to say goodbye to him last night and again, I shed a tear or two, allegedly. As I drove to Salt Lake, I muttered repeatedly to myself, 'I can't keep doing this.' It's tough to be this far away from him. From the Awesomes. From CAL. I'm turning into an old softie in my middle age. I've got to do something about that.

Riding dirty