"Grandpa's Big House"

"I want to go back to Grandpa's BIG house."  ~Nigel Canfield, 04/25/14

For Kevin and Karoline's wedding Grandpa (Arden) Ashton rented out an extremely nice waterfront house on the shores of Lake Washington. The entire family with the exception of Amy and Mark's family was able to stay in one place. I imagine that there are not many in the Ashton clan who would disagree with Nigel's desire. 

Open, close, open, close....

Andrew, for one, loved the house. It catered to his every need and want. He had a plentitude of willing cousins to run around with - he even woke up at 3am looking for the party(!). He loved the stairs to go up and down. (Our little one in the space of the weekend went from being able to kind of walk upright on stairs to being pro.) There were fun chairs and swings in the balconies. Doors to go in and out. Basically, Andrew had so much fun that when he woke up in middle of the night he made us go downstairs to make sure nothing was going on.

Up, down, up, down.....

The house appealed to me also. The house was on the lakefront of Lake Washington. I have a slight fascination with water. The lap of waves, the slight wind, the rippling water, and the tree blossoms. I basked in the comforting sounds and sights every morning. 

Family picture in front of the lake

This is what I woke up to every morning!

Andrew with Aunt Dejah

 I've found that looking out on the lake promoted philosophical thoughts. Several members of the family appear to have the same feeling.

Lots to think about the day before his wedding - (Judging from his demeanor, "I'd like to see Karoline. Maybe we should get married...tomorrow!)

Nigel in one of his "thoughtful" moments

Teaching the love of water young

We don't always let Andrew drink Fresca,

especially when it's a communal Fresca!!!!!!!!

Ian took steps to make sure his was not communal.

Waiting for everyone to arrive

 It was fairly cool in the morning. So some people warmed up by drinking herbal teas. If we weren't LDS I think these would be great "coffee" advertisement pictures.

There's nothing like a vacation for some fun reading.

Or sitting around catching up with each other.

The cousins put on a short play. There were damsels in distress, pirates, sword fights, and tragedies.

Elliot rescues Miriam

Miriam didn't need rescuing as she slays her captor

 Then there was the usual rough housing.

This chasing was followed by wrestling

Ed, always a favorite uncle to play with, gives an airplane ride

To sum up, the house was amazing. We loved it. Thank you Grandpa!

Shhhhhh!

Shhhhhh! 
In the movies there is always someone in the library shushing the protagonists. In the movies the library is supposed to be a quiet place of medication and thought. I love libraries; however few libraries that I have ever frequented have had this aura of elevated thought.

That is...until we visited the New York City Libary. The architecture, the decorations, even the room arrangements just said, "This...is a place of learning." I felt that I was absorbing knowledge by merely being present in the building.

New York City Cruise

So Michael, what would you suggest doing in NYC? The Ellis Island Ferry!
So Elizabeth, what would you suggest doing in NYC? Don't do the Ellis Island Ferry!

As feedback from the immediate family seemed to be contradicting Wendy and I requested the assistance of a tourist agency in New Jersey. The name? Ian and Alice Touring Inc.  This agency has amazingly personal service. They will pick you up at the train station, they will provide a "rental" care for your use during the stay, they will provide a place to sleep, and most importantly tourism advice.

Their advice? Do the sightseeing cruise.
So we did.

New WTC

For Liberty

It was cloudy and rainy day...(slight pause while I consider writing a mystery novel with that beginning).  Fortunately the cruise ship had a covered and heated compartment area from which you could watch the views without getting wet or cold. Wendy and Andrew stuck there. Ben, being made of sterner (or masochistic) stuff stayed out in the rain and cold...while wearing shorts.  Very invigorating.  There was a nice side effect though; Ben had complete reign of the observation deck for almost the entirety of the ride.  No need to fight for a place at the side of the boat to take the two hundred or so pictures of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty that are clearly needed for archival purposes.

It was a little bit cold

Bear Lake Trip

I can't remember where we discovered the notion but from early on in Wendy's pregnancy we decided that sometime during the later end of the pregnancy we were going to take a "babymoon." Basically the idea is you are taking a last vacation before your first baby comes.

At various times we had grand plans to go to California, Washington D.C., southern Utah, New Mexico, or even just Crystal Hot Springs. Something always came up to prevent us from actually planning out the trip. Eventually it came down to the fact that we basically we're running out of time before Wendy became a little bit too pregnant to go places. Out of desperation more than planning we ended up going on a short day trip to Bear Lake. We enjoyed ourselves.

The lake itself was super high; about as high as I can ever remember seeing it. So high in fact that a bunch of trees were buried fairly deeply into the water. Little to no shoreline was present.

Drowning Trees

It did make taking pictures of each other with the shoreline behind us relatively easy. We didn't have to go too far from the road. Unlike in years past when you had to hike five minutes to the water.

The short shoreline also made the time honored tradition of skipping or throwing rocks easier. I taught Wendy the theory behind rock skipping. I think she even succeeded once or twice.

Wendy skipping rocks

Ben skipping rocks

The summer I was fifteen years old I worked at the Bear Lake Aquatics camp on the eastern shore. I decided to show Wendy the place. The high shoreline significantly changed the geography of the scout camp. When I was there I taught the nature merit badge. Even though it's a required merit badge it is not a glamorous one such as the waterfront, archery, or shooting merit badges. As such my teaching area was basically the area that was in middle of nowhere. Fast forward a "couple" of years and suddenly my middle of nowhere nature merit badge site is only a couple dozen yards away from the shoreline and part of the waterfront.

Nature merit badge teaching site

The scout tent frame that I shared with another staff member for a summer

Even though it was early May we packed out swimsuits. As it turned out his was slightly ambitious. It appears that Bear Lake is rather chilly that early in the year. Not that great for swimming activities. Wendy didn't even try to get into the water. I, being the tough man that I am, made it to wading before giving up. I tell myself that it was really cold and not that I'm turning into a wimp in my old age.

This is as far as I made it into the water

While I was attempting to wade in the lake Wendy took advantage of the opportunity to reconnect with her family members. We wouldn't want them to lose track of her on our long vacation now would we?

Wendy at Bear Lake and on the phone

No trip to Bear Lake is complete without a trip to the local burger joints for a hamburger, fries, and a Bear Lake raspberry shake. This early in the year we weren't sure if any of the places would be open or not. Fortunately when we arrived at the location we found that not only was it open it was fairly busy.  I expressed my surprise at the amount of people to the kid taking orders. His response, "Yea, this is more than we expected. This is our first day open." Guess we timed our trip fairly close. One day earlier and no raspberry shakes and that would be tragic.

Outside the burger joint

Yea for burgers

Wendy eating

Manti Camping Trip

I have fond memories of camping: the dirt, the freezing cold, and the rain. I think the main reason that my dad has given up camping is that whenever he goes camping it rains. Fortunately, I was young for all the rainy camping trips so they weren't as bad for me as they were for him.  Which is good because we received a bunch of camping gear as wedding presents.

Wendy had a business trip planned to Manti so we decided to make it a camping trip also. Just to test out our items.  It will not surprise you to find out that as we drove down to Manti the sky grew progressively darker and darker. As we entered the town rain was pouring down. At which point I suddenly remembered that maybe camping out in the rain wasn't such a great idea after all. I wimped out and suggested that we spend the first night in a motel. Wendy's sigh of relief could probably have been heard 100 miles away. So the first night of our fun camping trip was spent...yep...hiding from the rain in a motel.

The next day cleared up so our tent was able to make it out of the car.

Notice the blue sky in the background

At one point during the day I kept hearing people talking in the area behind our campground. It was a little surprising to me because as far as I could tell there was just trees back there. Eventually my curiosity overcame my desire not to hike up a steep cliff. Upon clearing the top of the hill I was shocked to find...fisherpeople. A fair amount of them. It appears that camping near to water is so ingrained into me that I camp near a lake without even realizing I camped near a lake. Not one to pass up playing near water Wendy and I spent a fair amount of time sitting by the lake.

Reading by the lake

Reading by the lake

Eventually it got cold enough that we retreated back to our campsite to build a nice warm fire. There was just one small problem.  After about 10 minutes of trying Eagle Scout Benjamin completely failed at starting a fire. Yes, I'm a failure as both a scout and a man. Eventually Wendy took pity on me and showed me how it's done. A couple of minutes later a nice, merry, and thoroughly spiteful fire was blazing happily away.

Ben enjoying Wendy's fire

 Not completely content with showing up her man with her fire-building skills Wendy proceeded to take me on a survival hike through the jungle. Here she is hunting the mysterious jungle denizen known as the snape.

Hiking the jungle

Eventually we had to return to the campground and sleep. I woke up bright and early to show Wendy that I may be a wimp and not camp in the rain and I may not know how to start a fire but dang it I can cook breakfast...in a frying pan...with a gas stove.

Cooking Breakfast

After my rough camping trip Wendy was kind enough to let me go to a sports grill in order to watch what could be the final game in the BYU and Utah football rivalry. I convinced Wendy to go to the place at least 45 minutes before the game; just to make sure that we would have someplace to sit and watch. I forgot one thing. It was Manti. At kickoff there was a rip roaring party well attended by Wendy, myself, and the two employees. Worse; it wasn't even a good game and the team I cheered for got destroyed.

BYU football in a crowded sports grill

 At least we decided to end the trip on a good note. Wendy was able to go to her traditional museum and I was able to check off another temple in Utah that I've gone to.

Big Mastadon

Small Temple