| July 4, 1998 | Issue 14 | Orem, Utah |
In this issue:
Casamento
I saw a statistic a couple of months ago that Salt Lake City had accumulated twice the precipitation of Seattle this year. I actually have mushrooms growing in one part of my lawn, and half the corn I planted must have rotted in the ground, too wet and cold to sprout. It seemed like a good time to visit Portland’s pleasant mildness and enjoy the sunshine missing from the desert.
A week after returning from there, while working in my office, Kerry and Melissa Smith came in. Melissa asked how the trip had been, saying she’d heard I’d gone to a wedding while there. Indeed I had. Hers in fact.
There was a large contingency from both families on hand for the wedding, but I’m afraid I missed a lot of the Pratt family introductions while chasing Ethan through Richard and Debra’s house. I was pleased to see some of my own aunts and uncles in town for the wedding, in addition to siblings and parents.
Accomodations
Shannon, Ethan and I stayed with Dad, Evie and Boo-Boo up in Vancouver when we first got there. Ethan had a great time throwing pine cones and exploring the woods. A highlight for me was that Boo-Boo actually liked me.
Boo-Boo is a cockatoo that Dad & Evie have had for years and years. Her normal reaction to me in the past was to hiss and flare her plumage if the thought of moving close to her even started to form in my head. It’s a pretty effective defense mechanism. It leaves you with no doubt that you could require an eye patch if it came right down to it. But she actually walked from the kitchen counter up onto my shoulder, and Dad was as shocked as I was. I was thinking I might just be the shortest route to her perch, so I quickly made my arms a road to there. Later, she even bent over in request to have her head scratched.
Of course, Ethan always finds something to obsess about, and at Dad’s house it was throwing pine cones into a wheelbarrow. He also thought running down a little hill was pretty fun until he ended up with a mouthful of bark dust, but for the most part nothing else in the world existed beyond that wheelbarrow.
We stayed with Mom and Dean for the rest of our trip. Even though there were lots of visitors around, we managed to get Ethan his own room, which is always nice. It’s hard to get him to go back to sleep if he happens to wake at night and sees mama and daddy. Unfortunately, we discovered that the groom didn’t have a place to sleep on the night before his wedding. “Even Ethan has his own room!?” he exclaimed, feeling like a second-class family member.
OK, it wasn’t an unreasonable demand on Kerry’s part, so we agreed to bring Ethan in with us. The only problem was that Ethan was already asleep in his room, and Shannon was already asleep in our room when we figured this out. So Mom and I sneaked into Ethan’s room — or at least sneaked as much as one can when opening a door with a nice haunted house squeak. Somehow Ethan didn’t wake up.
We picked up his portable crib and carried it to the door, but it didn’t fit. There were some video cassette shelves keeping the door from opening all the way, so we had to back up, set the crib down, and move a precarious pile of videos. Finally we got the door open all the way, picked up the crib and headed out. But the crib still didn’t fit. But it was so close, so we just shoved, and it went jerking through, sounding like well, like someone pushing a portable crib through a doorway smaller than the crib. Again, Ethan didn’t flinch.
The next doorway seemed like it was even narrower than the first, but we again jerked and shoved it through. Shannon woke up this time, but Ethan was still oblivious. After Mom left, I closed the door as quietly as I could — not in any mood for an ironic end to this story.
The Ceremony
The wedding ceremony itself took place the next morning in the Portland Temple. There was some controversy about the appropriate attire for the wedding, but it ended up a mix of white and non-white.
President L. Edward Perry performed the ceremony. He gave me my patriarchal blessing many years ago, and probably did the same for most of my siblings. He started off by quoting Bruce R. McConkie expressing the fact that creating eternal families is the most noble cause that two people can undertake. He also talked about the formidable titles taken in marriage of king and queen. He also encouraged Kerry & Melissa to attend the temple once a year with the specific intent to plan their lives together. He also advised them to always remember the things that brought them together in order to keep their marriage strong.
After the ceremony, and all the pictures, we gathered at the church for lunch. We had turned a part of the cultural hall into a garden the night before, and it had more landscaping than my whole yard. We had plenty of time to admire the decorations before lunch, because the newlyweds showed up so late that we finally just ate without them.
Groom & Birthday Girl
June 5, 1998
Shannon and Ethan, along with the Wrathall kids, camped out in the nursery for a lot of the time. After all, there’re toys in there, not to mention a small potty that Ethan thought was neat to sit on.
The reception was later that evening in the same place. Due to some poor planning, it had to compete with an NBA playoff game, but it was still nice. I got to see a lot of people that I vaguely remember. People would say, “Yeah, Eric and I were home teaching companions,” and I would have to say, “Who are you?” I guess I’m pretty horrible about that.
Coincidentally, our neighbors from Utah, the Remers, who we trade babysitting with were also in Portland for a wedding, and they volunteered to baby-sit Ethan during the reception. It seemed strange the way that worked out, but Shannon and I enjoyed being free for a little while.
Ethan’s first visit to the zoo
Also while in Portland, we took the chance to go to the zoo. Ethan had never been to a zoo before, but he’s always really liked animals, so it seemed like a natural thing to do. We went with Phyllis and some of Ethan’s cousins.
Honestly, the zoo could have been completely devoid of animals and Ethan would have enjoyed it almost as much. There were so many places to run around, and interesting things to climb on. He probably spent ten minutes playing with a swinging caf� sign on the sidewalk, pushing his way under the sign and letting it swing back behind him.
I thought he would be impressed with the animals, like the sheer size of the elephants, which he has seen in books and on TV. The elephants were all inside, so when we went into the building, Ethan ran up and said, “Ephant!” then ran right back outside where there were fewer obstacles. Actually, I think he did like the monkeys, and getting to touch some goats was fun.
One interesting thing to me was a sign near the insect zoo: “No smoking. Nicotine is an insecticide.” That reminded me of a billboard I had seen in Aloha, where a man says, “Mind if I smoke?” and a woman responds, “Mind if I die?”
Sometimes as Mormons in Utah, we feel vaguely guilty about this second-hand smoke stuff. It seems like a way to further our religious principles disguised by science. But having worked a summer in an office of smokers, I’m pleased to see people get fed up with it without a religious angle. But I’m straying from the topic a bit here.
It was a really hot day for Portland, and the zoo was packed with people, so we were all exhausted when we finally made it out.
Non-Independence Day
(Written on July 4, 1998)
We went to Orem’s Summerfest last month, which is an annual community event at the big city park. Shannon takes Ethan to that park a lot since it is between my work and our home. We thought Ethan might have fun seeing all the things going on.
There were tents set up with displays, performing groups singing and dancing, rides, and lots of people. Ethan didn’t even notice. He just headed right for his favorite part of the park, the swings.
After swinging for a while, we finally persuaded him to see if there might be something else interesting. He was ready to enter the three-point shooting contest, but we figured we’d let the bigger kids go ahead. Then he saw a ride with little cars that went around in a circle, and he thought that was pretty neat.
In fact, he was ready to pick out his car to ride in, but we didn’t have any tickets yet. So I held him for probably ten minutes while Shannon waited in line for tickets. It seemed more like an hour since Ethan was struggling, wiggling and crying. I almost said to the attendant as the ride was about to start again, “Look, my wife is over in line right there, and I’ll give you my wallet and my car keys as collateral if you’ll just let my son get on now.” But Shannon was so close to the front of the line by that time, I just figured I’d wait until the next ride. Shannon made it over with the tickets and we were all ready to go, when the attendant said, “We’re going to have to shut down for a few minutes. One of the cars is broken.”
I was about ready to have my own tantrum, but we figured we’d try to find something else Ethan might like. There was also a little train ride, so we thought he might settle for that. We waited for the ride to stop, paid our ticket and put Ethan on board. He sat there quietly for a moment while other kids got on, and then panicked. I don’t know if he was realizing that we weren’t going to ride with him, or what, but he was getting out of that train. We timidly asked for our ticket back. He wanted so badly to ride those rides, but couldn’t quite break free of baby-hood.
In desperation, we went to a big inflated trampoline thing, to see if he would finally enjoy something. He loves to jump around on our bed, and even does seat-drops and other little stunts. The sign said he had to be two years old, but oh well. We paid our ticket again, and set him loose. He laughed for about three milliseconds, then was crying again and climbing off. We didn’t even bother asking for that ticket back.
Our next stop was the balloon animal clowns. There wasn’t much of line waiting, so we gave it a shot. Then the clowns announced, “We’re going to have to take a break, because we’re out of balloons.”
Enough. Home was sounding pretty good, so while Shannon went to see if anyone wanted some free ride tickets, Ethan and I headed back toward the swings on the way to the car. He was finally happy — swinging again.
Love,
Copyright � Eric Smith, 1989-1998, All rights reserved.