Something different

After finishing the last blog post, I asked everyone to do their daily chores. Hyrum commented that we were doing it “post post” because it was after the post. I noticed that if we did it after reading a blog post by our bishop, Kyle Post, it would be “post Post post.”

This entry then is the “post Post post post”.

Big Family Vacation part 2 - Pioneer Day

July 24 is a state holiday in Utah, celebrating the day Brigham Young and company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and he declared, “This is the place.” Each city has a major celebration planned. We joined the Provo festival two blocks away from our AirBNB from 10-2 and then did fireworks in Orem after dinner. Joy visited her cousin Heather while the rest of us did the Provo festival.

The pioneer village and museum (always there) were both open and populated by folks in period clothing showing off skills like leatherworking and blacksmithing. The kids enjoyed a pioneer version of catch played with sticks and hoops. I was impressed by the hair art (pictued) – people would weave the hair of their departed loved ones to remember them by. At the museum, I noticed (on my mother’s behalf) that there wasn’t any bobbin lace, but lots of crochet. Apparently that was the skill the pioneer women took with them to make pretty things. I laughed about the collection of musical organs they had on display. One told the story of how they acquired it and the previous owners were happy that more people would get a chance to play on it. That story was next to a prominent sign: “DO NOT TOUCH OR PLAY.” More than half a dozen century-old organs and I’m not allowed to touch any. So sad!

Nia: I made a dolly out of corn husks! There were very few places to sit at the museum – one spot next to the bathrooms.

Hy: And the sign said you could only sit in the chair to look at the display case next to it. At every pioneer thing I’ve been to they’ve had that ring toss game and I enjoy it because I like sports.

Nia: I’m terrified to do that again because when I launched the hoop aiming at JT, it flew too far and went through the fence and broke! So I am afraid of doing that again in case I break the toy and ruin it for everyone else. I liked milking the bear.

<We all stare at her. She reminds us.>

One of the toys was a toy, wooden bear that had two ropes through each paw. By pulling on the ropes really fast, alternating back and forth, the bear would “climb” the ropes to the top. This was there to teach the children how to milk a cow.

Nia: So it was milking the bear! You milk the bear up the wall.

Hy: If I tried to milk a bear, I would sure milk it up a wall.

 

They had many games. Despite Hyrum’s great strength, the heavier person won each stick pulling contest.

Nia: Dad pulled Hyrum to the side to win, but I actually went up, so I lost with style!

We did a root beer chug as a family plus one guy we didn’t know. He won. I came a close second and the kids came close to exploding before they finished. That guy incidentally won the citywide root beer chug at noon.

Hy: So you feel less bad?

Yes. Only the winners of the “family” chug got to participate in the full contest. It reassures me that I could have placed better in the rootbeer chug than I did the pie eating contest. I mentioned to some of the other guys in the pie eating contest that if you looked to your side and see someone Way ahead of you, the winning strategy is to slow way down and just enjoy your slice of pie. Turns out the guy next to me was the clear winner, so I slowed down pretty early on and enjoyed it slowly, shared some with the kids. One remarked that they could see when I gave up. There were also food trucks so we could have something resembling real food too.

Hy: JT and I raced ducks. They have two paths of water and we both get a small rubber duckie and a straw that we turn so that when we blow down, the air shoots out forwards. We raced to see who could get our duck to the end fastest. Most of the booths gave prizes for participation. My real success in the festival was in the ring toss. It was very difficult because the bottles in the center were close together, and I got on in the back. They only gave prizes to actual winners at that one, so that felt like my real prizes.

A bunch of crafts were on display. I took pictures of this crochet dragon. We assembled a bucket, which is a lot like a 3D puzzle where you have to put the puzzle pieces in a particular order. Nia and I added to the crochet chain everyone did. There were wood carvers. Joy got a couple miniature pencil sharpeners (a grandfather clock and a grain mill).

Nia: I bought a tiny crochet octopus! There were some really cool earrings!

Joy: It was really cool to be at the pioneer park on Pioneer Day. Since we don’t usually get to be in Utah for the holiday.

The Orem fireworks were Very well attended. We couldn’t find a place to park, so paused our car in the middle of the parking lot and everyone but me got out to watch. An older couple had set out lawn chairs behind their parked car, so we were with them, knowing we weren’t blocking them from getting out. I tried playing some music to go along with the fireworks, but the kids kept asking me to turn it off. ☹  It was a very nice display.

We set off sparklers, poppers, and some flower-works at home afterwards and had a late sleep.

JT: It was really sad when the last flowerwork was a dud.

Nia: It was!

Joy: The fireworks were really neat. We haven’t seen a display like that in a long time.

Nia: The 24^th of July is like a million times better than Stephenville’s celebration of the 4^th!

Hy: I noticed the Y on the mountain was lit up.

The world needs Spiderman

Aunt May: I believe there's a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams.

More than ten years ago, Joy was out for the evening, probably a Relief Society activity. I decided to catch up on my movie watching and rented Spider-man 2 with Toby Maguire. I cleaned and fixed our fan while I watched.

I had been in a hard place that week. I forget what was going on. It was just one of those times when it was hard being the Dad. 2-3 small kids, trying to get tenure, not feeling like I was good enough or capable or up to the job. I don't recall what year this was so I'm not sure what my church calling was, but chances are pretty good I was feeling overwhelmed about that too.

And I watched Peter Parker struggle. Everything that could possibly go wrong for him does. One by one he loses everything he cares about, all so he can keep on being Spidey. Eventually the stress gets to him (spoiler alert for an old movie) and he lets go. Throws his suit in the garbage. Done.

But he still doesn't get what he wants. Everything still goes wrong, and the world gets worse because there's no Spiderman there. Finally he has a talk with Aunt May, who tells him that the world needs Spiderman, and she says the quote up above. And he accepts who and what he has to be, because that's who he is and who, deep down, he really wants to be.

It thrilled me.

It gave me strength and courage to keep going when it was hard, and to look forward with hope. 

I bought the movie. It's sat in our collection ever since; hasn't been watched. Until now.

So Hyrum tells me he knows the Disney collection because that's most of what we watch around here, but he doesn't know the superheroes. We talk about which of the many, many movies he might want to watch and we settle on Spider-man 2 with Toby Maguire. Today's the first day of school for JT, so he's not home. Nia is out with Joy and I just finished posting one of my classes, so let's take some time to watch some more Spidey.

Hyrum Maguire?

We paused so I could get back to work just after Aunt May's speech, just before Doc Ock comes back to get him. And I look at my boy. My talented, smart, capable, honest, forgiving, noble boy. My amazing son.

And he's leaving in 10 days for college. It's a wonderful adventure. And I know, I know he will continue being and becoming someone amazing, someone who will be a hero in the lives of people. And I said to him,

"Hyrum, it's hard to be a person of great responsibility. Everyone has expectations of you. I want you to know that I know you will do great. And no matter what you choose, I will always love you."We hugged. I cry (a lot). 

Golly, I'm going to miss him!

I know that there will be days and nights for him when it gets really hard because he's going to do so much, and some days too much, and he's not going to feel up to all of it. It happens to most of us at some point. And I just pray, that on some night when when he feels that weight on him, God will send him something to remind him that there is a hero inside him, something to help keep him honest, give him strength, make him noble, and finally allow him to keep on going forward with pride, even when it feels like the cost may be high.

Who knows? Maybe he'll even find this. Excelsior!

Throwback Thursday - early 2025

Jan 19 - Three Watson boys getting ready for church

Feb 8 - Joy and I go on a golfing date in Weatherford,
followed by Chinese The mini golf there is very beautilful. You can almost pretend you are in California with palm trees and a very lovely waterfal.

Feb 23 - Hyrum let BYU know that he was accepting them just as they accepted him. Nia made him a cake to celebrate the Y in hYrum.

Feb 26 - Nia was feeling down about her hair, if I remember, so I took this picture to show her how pretty she looked.

Mar 6 - Our church building got a LOT of new chairs. JT, the missionaries, and a couple friends and I broke open all the boxes, got rid of the old chairs, set up the new ones, and cleaned up (Joy was there at the start). It actually took less time than I thought it would. The bishop told everyone to pick up some of the older chairs if we could use them, so we came home with half a dozen.

Mar 20 - Hyrum got some suitcases in very large boxes.
Nia decided to turn one into a robot costume.

Mar 23 - Elder Masaki (center back) ate dinner at our house on his first day in Stephenville. We were also the last family he ate with on his way out. We all liked him and he was emotional as he told us how special our family was. This was a goodbye pic of him. Elder Masaki really loved his large family and it was an honor to be included in his love for them. He couseled my boys as if they were siblings and we still miss him and think of him. Derrin says, "He was Awesome and was really good at pickleball!"

Big Family Vacation to Utah 2025, part 1

 Fri, July 18 – Left around noon, arrived in Colorado AirBNB. Lovely home, well-appointed, lots of space, but they plugged in air freshners Joy was allergic to. Four bunk beds to sleep in, one large enough for Joy and me. They provided breakfast foods and water bottles in the fridge, which was special and welcome. I cooked things up at night to be reheated the next morning so we could leave first thing. The kids were particularly impressed by their outdated technologies: a record player, a Playstation 2, and an 8-track!

Nia: “It stank, and we found four different scent dispensers in the house. We removed them but we’re sure there were more because it still smelled in the morning.”

JT: “It was really nice. I liked being on the top bunk for once. It had stairs”

Nia: “I couldn’t sleep because it kept creaking. But I liked the pretzel.”

 

Sat July 19 – We drove through CO and WY to reach Logan via Bear Lake. It was a small AirBNB: two rooms with large beds and one child on the couch. There was barely enough room with our luggage for us to walk around. The tree dropped a LOT of pollen on us. On the other hand, when I mentioned to the owner that we needed something, it was on our doorstep the next morning complete with four breakfasts from McD’s.

We stopped at the USU Creamery for ice cream. Nia stayed in the bathroom until her stomach calmed down.

Hyrum: “The ice cream was really good.”

Nia: “The leaves were sticky, so we kept tracking them into the house, and the couch was dusty so you had to go to the store to get a sheet. But they had funny signs decorating the house: ‘Welcome-ish, depending on who you are and how long you plan on staying.’ I was badly homesick for the first week.”

 

Sun July 20 – We attended church with Joy’s sister, Fran, then joined her and her family for the rest of the day. Casey made some wonderful French beef and we brought a pork roast for dinner. We got to meet Christopher and Anna’s baby, Cal. The kids admired Christopher’s sword collection. Joy wheedled Casey into playing Uno with us.

Nia: “He had throwing stars too! Plus a punching bag”

JT: He’s an actual ninja!

Hyrum: I really enjoyed spending time with Christopher. We played on the Switch and talked and played board games.

Nia: We played Boomerang Fu and Christopher got a caffeinated hot sauce powerup chasing a bunch of chocolate milks around!

We gave my brother the Trogdor board game for his birthday.

 

Mon 21 – We visited Joy’s youngest brother, Dustin, and his family.

Nia's birthday - #14

Nia turned 14. Her birthday was less than a month ago, so there is some chance we actually have a memory of some things! One of the nice things about giving Nia presents is that she gives BIG reactions of joy and surprise about every one. It's very fun.

Nia asked for a treasure hunt. We hid half her presents to find the day before and half to find the day after. We had couplet clues for most of them.

Nia: This is one of my plainest cakes in years.

She normally decorates her own cakes, but this year she just let Mom frost it and call it good. Mom made three different cakes in cupcake form for her to testtaste. Many of those were given as gifts to people at church.

Easily her favorite gift at the moment was a package of pen-swords. Swords of all varieties, hammers, maces. Very fun.

Nia: It's COOL!

The standing joke has been: "Which is mightier: the pen or the sword? You don't need to pick!"

She got a set of miniature Harry Potter cross stitch projects and made the Hogwarts emblem straight off. For those folks who seem to want to examine the back of a cross-stitch project more than the front, here are both. She did a great job! This was her second cross-stitch project ever.

Nia: Grandma gave me new shoes. I enjoyed them.

She's had one of three friends over for afternoon tea so far. More celebrations to come.

JT's Birthday - #11

John-Thomas turned 11 years old in April. You can tell from the pictures, he is still in his "gorfy" picture phase.

Joy: We did an extra-long tennis time with his friend B____.

JT: It was really great. I liked the feeling of almost one year until I'm a deacon!

Nia: It happened. There was chaos. It was fun.

We had pies instead of cake for his birthday. That was enjoyable!

These pictures are technically part of our Easter celebration, but JT loved playing dreidel (out of season). He won! My new name is Joshua, the son of Nun because I kept rolling Nun.

Hyrum's Birthday - #17

Hyrum turned 17 this year.  These next few posts are mostly about saving some pictures.

We went to Pastafina in Weatherford. We wanted to do bowling, but the bowling arcade was packed for the next 2-3 hours and it was raining. We found another bowling place in Granbury to go instead.

He had friends over, as usual. Three cheers for Austin, who has come to each celebration for years.

Hy: We played soccer and ping pong.

Our ping pong table from last year died the death about a month ago. The remaining pieces were sitting against the wall, waiting for me to repair them or give them last rites. I tried. I did. Nothing helped. Then my parents sent us a portable ping-pong table and we were much more at peace saying goodbye to the old one. The new one is small, but has been loved.

A lot of Hyrum's birthday was preparing him for winter at BYU: suitcases, gloves, coats....

Happy Birthday, Mr. Tennis.

I'm glad you won...

When my father was a lad, he played games with his mother, like Scrabble. (John-Thomas says, "They had Scrabble back then?") She won. She won a lot. She taught my little father to say, "I'm glad you won. I'm sorry I lost. Maybe I'll do better next time."

Eventually, he "got gud" and he won. He won a lot. He taught his mother to say, "I'm glad you won. I'm sorry I lost. Maybe I'll do better next time." And then she made him clean up the game because he won.

In our modern day, Hyrum wins a lot of games. And I try to allow him the privilege of putting the game away. I explained to the children today why I do that and retaught them the mantra: "I'm glad you won. I'm sorry I lost. Maybe I'll do better next time."

JT - who is a good sport about coming in last many times - says, "I'm glad I won. I'm sorry you scored any points at all. Maybe you'll get negative next time." And he smiles and giggles.

Happy 4th of July!

We enjoyed watching 1776 as we do each year. Nia made a turkey, and it was one of the best we've had. We had the missionaries over as well who encouraged us to consider all we are grateful for, including our country. I enjoyed much less physical pain than I have had in a week.

To end the evening, we left dear America and went to medieval England for A Man For All Seasons. It tells the story of Thomas More, who is portrayed as one of the last honest men in a corrupt, power-hungry government. He refused to sign a loyalty oath, admitting the Pope had no authority to let King Henry VIII marry his brother's widow and therefore he was free to marry Anne Bolyn. He did not speak against the king either, so it took years in prison before someone came forward with false testimony to support his execution. There are any number of outstanding quotes from that film, courtesy of imdb:

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Thomas: Some men think the earth is round, others think it flat. It is a matter capable of question. But if it is flat, will the King's command make it round? And if it is round, will the King's command flatten it?

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• William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
• Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
• William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
• Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

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• The Duke of Norfolk: Oh confound all this. I'm not a scholar, I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not but ***, Thomas, look at these names! Why can't you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!
• Sir Thomas More: And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?

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Sir Thomas: I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.

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And let's end this post with a quote or two from John Adams, celebrating both men's commitment and integrity:

John: There are only two creatures of value on the face of the earth: those with the commitment, and those who require the commitment of others.

John: Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Courtesy of ChatGPT

Fossil Rim

Most summers we like to get season tickets for somewhere interesting and really enjoy it. One year (21-22) we did Fossil Rim, the safari park near Glen Rose, TX. We visited often and enjoyed each trip, but one thing we never seemed to manage was to get there first thing in the morning. This year, someone - I think it was the alumni association - paid for all faculty and staff at Tarleton to get free access for a couple weeks. So shortly before graduations, we drove down and really enjoyed seeing much more active animals than we would find in the mid- or late-afternoon in the Texas heat. (Go figure!)

One of our best encounters was the first and also the last. An ostrich came over, feeling very aggressive, to demand our food pellets. It attacked Joy through the window and tried to eat the toy giraffe hanging there by its neck. Joy tried to protect herself ... using the bag of food pellets! She quickly realized how counterproductive that was and closed the window. When we left the park again, the ostrich came to dance for us and snuggle with the van. 

Joy: I think the ostrich was trying to open the window so it could get to me.

Joy: Everyone that wanted to had personal encounters with the giraffe.

D: Often there is a long line of cars for the giraffes. They are quite adept at welcoming themselves inside in a gentle, non-threatening way (unlike the ostrich!) It was nice to have this one to ourselves for a while.

Turns out, 2021-22 when we had season passes was the last time we went to Fossil Rim. Joy took the kids to Fossil Rim a number of times while I had to work. Given that I wasn't blogging that year, here are some pictures from a couple of those trips too, below the fold:

Goals 2025

I tried something new with my goal-making this year. My New Year's Resolutions were a series of things I wanted to do more of, but without promising myself I'd do them literally everyday from now on. I posted five 3x5 cards on a wall and any day I accomplished one of the goals, I put a tick mark. Each goal had 14 days on it and once I got to 5 ticks on each day, that meant I accomplished the goal 70 times. 

We're very nearly half-way through the year (June 30 is 180 days). I've got 3 goals done (finished one today) and I'm shooting for a fourth by June 30. I've added some more goals in between, and each time I finish a goal I replace it with another. I also reward myself for every 7 days I complete a certain goal.

Most days I get to put 2-4 tick marks up. Once the kids are in bed, if Joy is otherwise occupied, the board of goals is one of the first places I go to figure out what I want to do next. And because I start fresh every day, there's no guilt at having "broken resolutions". I don't have an end date by which I have to have completed any of the goals. This is just something I want to work on and incorporate into my life more.

So all in all, I think it's been a good system. I've learned some unexpected things about how to manage myself in the process too.

My daughter, the singer

 In late April, our stake put on a special musical performance honoring the prophet Joseph Smith and his mission to testify of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. The script was written by our stake music coordinator. Hyrum and Nia got involved initially, but when Hy learned his regional UIL exam would be the same day as one of the performances, he dropped out. Nia and one of us parents drove out twice a week for rehearsals.

The youth danced and sang and formed an orchestra and did the narration. It was really a very impressive event!

The family attended both performances. These videos come from the second night with two of Nia's favorite songs: Israel, Israel, God is Calling (as an upbeat fiddle song) and My Kindness Shall Not Depart From Thee by Rob Gardner.

My daughter, the dancer

Nia, formerly known as "Princess" on this blog, has finished two years of dance at junior high. Here she is performing with her class.

She is just right of center at the start of each.

Nia: We were sad at the end of the year when we found out our teacher was leaving. I may not be doing dance anymore, but still. She was nice. She cared about how well we did in class and helped us improve. I'm a lot closer to being able to do the splits now, even if I never quite made it.

A successful operation

Last week, John-Thomas went in for a hernia operation at Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth! I am very pleased to report it was a resounding success.

The doctors figured there was only a hernia. The ultrasound claimed there was cancer also. The hospital gave us urgent attention and from the discovery at his annual physical to the operation, less than 6 weeks had passed. The outstanding news is that the operation demonstrated there was absolutely no cancer to worry about at all.

When my parents came out, Dad gave JT a priesthood blessing. I gave him another the night before. Both of us promised him that there would be no longterm damage, that the doctors would know what to do for him, and that he would recover quickly. We are thrilled that these promises came true. My confession is that it took real faith on my part to make those promises - the doc had me convinced there was something that needed urgent removal, that JT would be there overnight, and that there was real risk of longterm damage. I cannot express my gratitude sufficiently to a merciful Heaven that this was not the case this time.

John-Thomas has been recovering very well. He stood in church and sang to the fathers with the rest of the children. He has been up and walking around all day today with very few complaints. To top it all off, he has been keeping up with his home schooling English lessons.

Joy: We have had so many people thoughtfully inquiring after his health. We have appreciated that.

20th Anniversary

Patrons of the Arts,
June 2023

DW: We are celebrating our 20th anniversary this year. Rather than having a larger trip, we decided to devote special time every day for a bit over a week, making 7-10 dates together.

Joy: We went for time together and for variety. Our goal was at least a couple hours together every day.

DW: We officially started with Pride and Prejudice at the Granbury Opera House. We were pleased to see that they still have their list of supporters from 2023 up, which includes us! 

Joy: We had some nice conversations with the people we sat near. When we first sat down, they had some windows on stage at really odd angles and we were thinking that was strange. The windows came down either at the front or back of the stage depending on if the characters were inside or out. It was really a good impetus for us to watch some more of the movie (Firth and Ehle). The love story seemed a lot more abrupt in the play!

DW: It got me thinking about the real challenge of taking a novel as complex and character-rich as P&P and turning it into something for 90-120 minutes. Some characters are just going to end up on the cutting room floor. And in this case, the growing love story between the two main characters was one of the casualties. Intermission ended, Elizabeth walked on stage, and said, "Well, that was a lovely six weeks in Derbyshire!" and you now knew we had skipped Lady Catherine and every conversation that would redeem Darcy in her eyes. But it's easier on the set designer! The letter shows up, telling us Kitty has run off, and Darcy happens to call on her whole family to learn the disaster. Lady Catherin did still show up at the very end.

Joy: I thought she did a good job. I liked how they did a flashback to the ball at Merytown, talking about what happened while other characters danced and Darcy insulted. I think they didn't have near enough of an idiot for the dad, which I don't see as an improvement. He's really supposed to be a comedian in the show.

DW: I was impressed to see Mary played for laughs.

Joy: Mary was done well.

DW: And Mr. Collins was more of a fop, less cringe, with his over-exaggerated bow. Mrs. Bennett was in too much self-command.

Joy: No kidding!

DW: And afterwards we got on the free trolley for a short ride around the square in the dark. The trolly ride reminded Joy of the Cinderella carriage ride we took after the family dinner on our wedding day.

DW: Over the 20 years, we have had to replace Joy's wedding ring a few times. She likes opals, but opals aren't really good at staying put in their ring setting. The first time we had to replace it, I hid her new ring in an unopened jar of Nutella. We opened it for New Year's and Joy was very pleasantly surprised to have a new ring.