Golden Turkey VIII

The time is approaching for the 8th annual Golden Turkey tournament. The format may be a little difficult this year. Any suggestions? I'm looking for cheap flights with my Southwest 'ding' alerts but so far I am being shut out. I'm not sure what else we could do except cut the tournament into a couple of mini-tourneys and just hope it doesn't end up being Heffer and myself. If it was we could meet in Lubbock, TX and find a table in a dorm room at Texas Tech and play for the championship. That is unless Bobby Knight showed up and turned the table over.

Lazy Summer

Even though none of y'all (tribute to the Texan Hunts) have decided to post I figure I should at least post some pictures for grandma. So far it has been a lazy summer for us. We spent the first week in L.A. for Melissa's wedding. We went to a Dodger game and sat in the free food section. I discovered that putting salsa and jalapenos on a Dodgerdog made them much tastier. In fact, I had to go back for seconds and thirds along with downing an order of nachos with jalapenos, a bag of peanuts, a bag of popcorn and probably 4 beverages. Steph and I also went to a musical called "Wicked" which is a spin off of the Wizard of Oz. Steph seems to think it is the greatest thing since sliced bread so I thought it should be good. I wasn't disappointed, but I don't think I was excited as her.

The weekend after returning the boys and I went on the fathers and sons campout in southern New Mexico. We had a great time. This ward is notorious for packing up first thing in the morning which to us defeats the purpose of camping so we took a wiffle ball set and got some of the fathers and sons to play. It kept them there for a couple hours, but that wasn't long enough for us. Actually, Steph had mandated that we not be back before 5:00 so we had to kill 3 hours by ourselves. Luckily, the young men's president and his two boys stayed too so the boys hit each other with sticks, climbed mountains and jumped in fire pits for a couple hours.

We are anticipating our trip to the Gorge so we have called off other trips until then. Now we are just trying to make it through the summer. Steph takes the boys to free lunch at the park (thank you Bill Richardson for your socialist programs) and to free movies a couple times a week. Steph has also mandated a 30 minute a day reading rule (as pictured) before the boys can play video games. At night it's so nice outside that after dinner we all go out and Steph waters the garden while the boys play baseball. I have to hop the wall in our backyard at least 6 times a night to retrieve balls. It will be worth it when the boys can make A-Rod type money.

That's our lazy summer so far. I guess it's not too lazy since we already have a quick trip to Arizona followed by a trip to Salt Lake planned. After that I have fiscal year end to deal with while Port will be preparing for 1st grade. We still have trips to Bandelier, White Sands, Gila, and Carlsbad that we need to complete in the fall before we leave the Land of Enchantment for good.

Volcanoes in Albuquerque?

Volcanoes in Albuquerque? Rubbish one would say. Well, whoever 'one' is would be absolutely incorrect. The Hunt family decided to get a first hand look at the volcanic formations that shaped the west side of the Duke City last Saturday.

On the far western side of the Petroglyph National Monument there are three dormant volcanoes. In fact, it was the rocks formed by the dried hot liquid mag-ma (use Dr. Evil's voice when you say that in your mind) that the ancient pueblos and Spaniards used to write their petroglyphs on that we hiked through a couple months ago. We hiked to the top of each of these volcanoes, which was no small feat I would say. Especially, considered the hurricanish winds and the fact that each of us had to take turns carrying Dieter up each hill.

From the top of the volcanoes you can see the beautiful Rio Grande valley, which is actually quite beautiful from this side (if you can see through the dust-storms). You can see the dry, brown desert with a bright green strip where the river cuts through. Downtown ABQ on the south side with the picturesque Sandia mountains to the northeast. It was a very windy trek but well worth the fight. The boys, especially Porter, were troopers and made the 3+ mile hike without many complaints.

We are really finding out that New Mexico really has a lot to it. Like a typical Utah Jazz comeback, though, it may be too little too late.

I am trying to figure this whole "blog" thing out! I think I signed in with Dad's info. Who knows?! Just want to tell you all how much I love and appreciate every one of you. I have truly been blessed to have such great kids (all nine of you) and grandkids (all 13 of you). I have loved being able to be a part of Abby's first few weeks so far. How I missed the feel of tiny little ones in my arms! Now I get to go to Houston and be a Grandma/Mom for a few days. Who could ask for more? I just finished typing a history of my ancestor, Eliza Ann Haven Westover, who knew the Prophet Joseph Smith in Nauvoo. I found out Brigham Young was one of the missionaries who "tracted her out"! If anyone wants a copy of the history, let me know.
I also just finished weeding and planting the flower bed that Steph created out in front of our yard. She did such a great job and I want to keep it up. However, everyone knows how good I am at planting, but watering and weeding --I need help carrying through!
Love you all. Hope you girls have a great Mother's day. I am so glad my grandkids have such great mothers.

Tax Day

Happy tax day to Mike and especially Laura. Has to be good to get your husband back, right? Also, just wanted to thank Matt and Dad for paying so much in income taxes that I get my refundable credits. Withholdings of $100 and a refund of $2800. Viva George W. Bush. Now I wish I hadn't have voted for Nader.

Grandma & Grandpa in New Mexico

Grandma and Grandpa visited the Land of Enchantment last weekend. I am finally uploading the pictures to our computer. The first couple of days were spent watching conference and with me giving Bruce a high altitude ping pong lesson.

On Monday we decided to see some old pueblo indian and Spanish mission ruins in central New Mexico. The first were the Quarai ruins. The pueblo indians lived here from about 1400-1600 when a Spanish mission was then created to convert and save the indians. It took about 100 years for the Spaniards to use up all the resources and the indians either died of famine or war with the Apaches or left the area. The boys had a great time climbing all over the rocks and running through the mazes of ruins. We had a picnic at Quarai and got back in the van and headed to Abo. Abo is about 20 miles west of Quarai. Abo was the center of the Spanish missions in New Mexico in the 1600's. We walked through all the ruins again with grandpa trailing

along following the walking tour to a 't'. That night we decided to walk along the mighty Rio Grande. The boys (including the two older boys) couldn't resist throwing sticks into the river in hopes that they would meet the Gulf of Mexico and be found later by their cousins in Houston.

On Tuesday we woke up and travelled to Petroglyph National Monument so Grandpa and Grandma could see ancient graffiti. They had already seen it's modern form throughout the beautiful city of Albuquerque. All of the boys had a great timing climbing as high as they could and seeing petroglyphs that Stephanie and Grandma will never get to see. I would post on here what we saw but that would ruin the explorers secrets.

Finally, Bruce had to try a real green chile cheeseburger. One that wasn't cooked at a fair and wouldn't make 67% of its consumers violently ill the next day. We stopped at New Mexico's original Blake's Lotaburger for Lotaburgers with cheese and green chile's. Rumor has it later that evening there were screams in the Hunt bathrooms of "Fire in the Hole!" all through the night.

It was a real New Mexican experience for everyone. Thanks for coming down and having a good time with us lonely New Mexicans.

Hunt Family Champ

Just wanted to make you all aware that the Hunt Family Champ paddle has been located and is currently resting in its rightful place in the Land of Enchantment. I was able to defeat the old man 18-7 in games over last weekend while ma and pa visited Green Chile land. Is the old man wearing down? Was it the altitude? Was it the performance enhancing substance (mid-game Mountain Dews)? Was it the lessons learned from local Tongans? Was it the clausterphobic garage venue? Was it the home court advantage? Whatever it was, I will be going into Golden Turkey IX with a renewed sense of vigor and determination. I hear some knees in Houston knocking.