Sweet Sixteen

 Try as they might, Golda and Ruby could not get a good picture of their aging parents on their 16th wedding anniversary.  Ruby smirked when she saw how I attempted to curl my hair.  She wouldn't have been able to contain her mirth had she seen the multiple burn marks on my fingers and the blister on my thumb from the straightening iron.  Man, that thing is hot!  Ruby tried to mitigate the damage by arranging bobby pins in the mass of curls, but Scott decided that just made it worse.  After a brief debate between Ruby and Scott about whether Mom was "just going to keep tucking it behind her ears anyway," we set out for our lunch at The Copper Onion with my cascading locks billowing in the wind.

As we were waiting to be seated, we could overhear a young man in a parka talking on his phone a few feet from us, his forehead beaded with sweat.  He was saying, "She still has RSV and I have to get some formula...My brother was supposed to wire me some money...I don't know anyone in Salt Lake City...My wife and six-month-old baby are going to be sleeping in the motel parking lot unless I can come up with thirty or 45 dollars...I hope she makes it through the night..."

Scott and I looked at each other in horror.  Just as the hostess came to seat us, Scott did what I knew he would do.  I went with the hostess to our table and Scott went with the young man, talked to him and gave him some money.  When he came back, he reported that the man was really nice and said, "Even if that was a scam, he still needed the money more than we do."  I said, "Well, we just bought either baby formula or crack.  If it was a scam, I liked it.  He did a good job."  On some level, we probably hoped it was a scam because, if there was a sick baby in a motel parking lot, shouldn't we be doing more?  We watched out the window in case he came back, but he didn't.  At any rate, Scott concluded, "It's not for us to judge whether he was legit or not."

So true of the man on the phone, and so true in life.  I love that Scott lives that philosophy.  He has a big heart and a forgiving nature, a true Christian at his core.  And I get to be married to him!

To further celebrate our anniversary, we took all the kids to Temple Square.  The kids wanted to hear the story of when we got married, but Scott's version was too short.  "What is there to tell?  We got married in the Salt Lake Temple, kids.  Did it snow?  I think it did.  Someone had an umbrella."

Great story, Scott.  Nobody was impressed, so I told them about the ferret I got for Christmas when I was 12, and how she would hide socks in the couch and wiggle her way out of any cage.  It was far more entertaining than Scott's version of our wedding day and it even had a dramatic ending:  Farrah the ferret's untimely death.

Anyway, we did enjoy a stroll through Temple Square in downright tropical weather.  It was almost 60 degrees, the crowds were light and my secret downtown parking spot was, as always, available.  It was the perfect night.  We even visited the LeConte Stewart exhibit at the Church History Museum.  There were dozens of beautiful works, all of them inspiring, many of familiar local landscapes.  I have fond memories of visiting LeConte's home and once, choosing my own painting from a whole slew of them that he had spread out on the floor.  That painting was love at first sight and I still treasure it.

We ended our anniversary at home with six kids and Panda take-out, and we definitely wouldn't change a thing.

Still trying to get a good shot of Mom.  At least Scott always looks good!  Everyone keep in mind, I AM 30 pounds overweight right now.  I'm delivering a baby in six weeks.  Xanthe asked me today if I'm eighty.  I can't remember.  I don't think so...

 Cutest picture ever.

"Harvey's Pond, Fruit Heights."  Those are our mountains.