March 2002
Elliot's Eighth
Birthday
On March 12th Elliot turned eight years old. Like
Clark, we had Elliot's family birthday dinner the Sunday before his birthday
with Grandma Pat and Grandpa Wally joining us. Elliot for months had been
requesting artichokes for his dinner and so a fancy dinner ensued with
artichokes as the appetizers and barbequed chicken and ribs for the main course.
For his birthday cake, we celebrated the beginning of spring with angel food
cake topped with fresh strawberries. Sorry there are no pictures as I was
"caught up" in the enjoyment of eating my artichoke heart!
We had Elliot's birthday party at a place called Some Dude's Playground which is a big room full of huge inflatable play equipment. They had a wonderful time expending large amounts of energy and eating pizza, soda and cupcakes. There truly is something to be said for having someone else give the party!
Elliot's Grandma Pat took him to Build-a-Bear (a store in the mall where you get to pick an animal "skin" and help to stuff and dress it) to create his own "soccer" bear. Some other gifts included a "smath" game (similar to scrabble but with numbers) and a neato reato rechargeable airplane. He also received some really nice gifts from his friends, one of which was a big kite.
Elliot's
Baptism
Elliot was baptized on Saturday March 23rd. The whole
family was able to support us and the day was really special. Elliot's Grandpa
Wally and his Aunt Melinda were the speakers and all of his cousins sang a
medley of primary songs for the musical number. We also showed a brief portion
of a video that his Grandma Karen made for her grandchildren a couple of months
before she passed away in 1997. She was bearing her testimony of the gospel, the
scriptures and the prophet and promising her grandchildren that she and Grandpa
Jerry would be "watching" them as they got baptized and went on missions, etc.
It was very touching. We will always be grateful that she made the effort to
make that video.
Elliot looked really nice and did a good job of going completely under the water! His brothers, Phillip and Loren were able to be the witnesses and Tess and Madeleine helped with the music. It was very intimate as we had the day to ourselves. Everyone came over to the house afterwards for salads and rolls. We really appreciate everyone's efforts to be with us on Elliot's special day.
St. Patrick's Day with the
cousins
Michelene's aunt and uncle, Susan and Mark Breinholt
invited the Morgan siblings and their spouses to a St. Patrick's Day Dinner at
their house in Provo. Susan and her girls had prepared seven or eight "green"
courses to serve us in the order we had asked for on our cryptic Irish menu. It
was very fun for us all to be eating different courses – some got their dessert
right up front! They obviously went to a great deal of work ahead of time and
then prepared plates and served us the entire meal. It was so fun and so nice of
them to treat us to such a good time! We visited for a while afterwards so that
we could get caught up on each others lives. Thank you to the Breinholts for fun
St. Patrick's Day memories!
Tooth
Update
This past month offered us a couple of fun(?) dental
experiences. Phillip had his wisdom teeth removed, and while the procedure went
smoothly, he did manage to pass out rather dramatically in the car, causing his
mother a few moments of agitation! After 2½ years (6 months longer than she had
been led to believe...), Tess finally managed to graduate from braces and now is
the proud owner of straight smooth teeth and a retainer!
Laguna
Beach
The last week of March, Alan and I took a few days off
to vacation in Laguna Beach California. When people ask what we did, I say
"nothing." I guess that's only partially true; we slept, we read, we walked on
the beach and we ate. We did also manage to watch a couple of fairly nice
sunsets over the ocean and take a dip in a really nice hot tub. So, we did
nothing and we did everything – everything we had gone on vacation to do.
All we really wanted was some down time and it was fabulous. Travel tip: if you
are going on vacation to "veg", the room is everything – lounging in bed with
the sliding doors onto your balcony open and looking straight out to the ocean
and hearing the surf pounding. Even as I type this I have my CD of California
waves playing as I ease myself back into my desert life...