Weekend + Monday

Last week Adam got his brakes and some other work done on his car.  Friday when he was driving home from work, all the electrical warnings started flashing on his dashboard and the safety sensors were shut off and cruise control wouldn't work.

We were supposed to leave the next morning.

Early, Adam got up, put on his Subaru shirt for luck, and went to a Subaru dealership.  The guy said he couldn't have a technician look at it until Tuesday, but he climbed under and jostled the wires and everything worked again.

We loaded up and headed to Nevada.  We were about an hour away from home when everything started happening again.

Instead of going to Starr Valley, we went to Elko and went to Les Schwab.  They said it needed to be plugged in and they fixed it.

So we were happy about that and headed to Starr Valley.  When we pulled into our driveway, all the warning lights came back on again!

We unpacked and listened to conference (we listened to conference while we drove too).  

After the Saturday evening session, we went to Marianne's for my mom's birthday party.  Carolina had made this amazing meal (complete with a sugar free dessert since my mom isn't eating sugar).  We enjoyed ourselves and visited and everyone told what they loved about my mom and I cried.  At one point, Edgar went outside and came back.  

Out in the dark and cold and snow, he'd climbed under our car and took a picture and investigated and figured out what was wrong.  (Too bad we hadn't had Edgar from the start!)

The next morning we went to my parents' house before the Sunday morning conference.  Edgar met us there too and he used this special glue my dad had and repaired the plug, which was cracked.

We were on the road and everything has been working fine!

We enjoyed listening to all the sessions of conference we heard.  It is so wonderful to hear from our leaders.  I felt strengthened and encouraged and happy.

We realized there was a Safeway in Lovelock so we decided to stop there and get something for lunch.  We went into the Safeway, which was retro and tiny and had neither a deli nor a bakery so it wasn't much of a lunch option.

I looked on Trip Advisor and saw there was a Pizza Factory with a lunch buffet.  It had pizza and a salad bar.  So that seemed good.

Then we pulled in and it looked like this.  I was not in favor of going in, but you can see that Adam was.

We walked into the liquor store, which had two tables in the corner for the "lunch buffet."  There was a cold pizza under a light and a small salad bar.  Adam said we'd take two lunch buffets and he went to use the bathroom.

So there I was, not wanting to eat there, but not sure where else we were going to eat.  Besides, I had seen on the sign outside that the price had changed and they had covered the old price with a piece of cardboard.  Then the price had changed again and they'd covered the cardboard with a piece of paper.  Maybe we should just eat before they covered the paper with another smaller piece of paper.

I put salad on my flimsy paper plate and sat at one of the tables.  The guy came and told me, "We don't have a soda machine, you can pick something there."  He indicated a gray plastic tub halfway filled with warm soda cans.  

I picked a Coke Zero and humbly asked for some ice.  The guy brought me two cups with ice.  We ended up not using one of them and I only took one drink of my soda.  It tasted bad.  Adam checked the bottom of the can and it had expired in September.

I guess they don't get a lot of customers willing to root through the tub of warm soda....

The guy asked what kind of pizza we wanted and Adam said, "Make whatever is your favorite."

He made us a combo pizza and it wasn't bad.  So all in all, it wasn't a terrible lunch.  It just wasn't a good lunch.

And it was memorable.

Driving over the Sierras was also memorable.  So. Much. Snow.

We drove through miles of snow canyons.  I hope it melts in a measured way!

We finally got to Braeden and Anna's.  It was wonderful to see them and to see the Queen of Everything (QE).  She is walking now and gabbing about everything.  She recognized us and was happy to see us, which is pretty much the best feeling in the world.  How can this grandparent gig just keep getting better? I don't know, but I'm here for it!

We ate dinner with them and visited for awhile and read a little to QE (although she was too busy to sit for long).

Monday morning, Braeden texted that she kept saying Guh, Guh, Guh insistently.  That is her all purpose word for grandparents.  She says it when she sees us and when she sees the Carlsons too.

She took her morning nap and then Adam and I took her out on the town.  Braeden had school stuff and Anna had a test to take for the masters degree she is working on.  

We couldn't have been happier with our role.  We went to a sandwich shop for lunch.  Anna had packed lunch for her, but I gave her little bits of avocado and tomato from my sandwich too and she loved them like the little California baby that she is.

From there we went to Target and bought her some shoes and a ball.  Geri had texted us that she thought QE needed a ball.  Like I told Adam, we are novices at this grandparent gig.  We might as well learn from the experts. 

She loved her ball.  She's not quite interested in rolling it back and forth on the floor, but she loved carrying it around and talking about it.  She wasn't quite sure about the shoes.  She walked like someone had attached cement blocks to her feet.

Adam had a little bit of work to do, so we went back to our hotel.  I found some measuring spoons in the kitchen and they kept her entertained.  I was sitting with her on the little couch in our room and Adam had his back to her, sitting at the desk.  She kept trying to get his attention and he would turn around and she would erupt in a big smile and say, "Guh Guh Guh!"

It was the cutest thing I've ever seen.

We got her home in time for her nap, then went back to our hotel for me to take a nap and for Adam to do more work.  One of us is lazier than the other, is what I'm saying.

We had dinner with them again and then took a walk and had a FaceTime call with Stella from a park.  Pretty much the whole town feels like a park.  It's lovely here.

Earlier we had been driving around and Adam said, "Maybe we should buy one of these these little houses and move here."  I could be a teacher here and Adam could work remotely and QE could come over every day.

It's tempting.

I totally understand people moving to live by their grandchildren.