Labor Day Weekend

Stefanie and I went to see Brian and Adrienne over Labor day weekend. We drove Martha's van so we could take Adrienne a crib and kitchen table and chairs. Feeling rather desperate to find a bathroom, we pulled off in Idaho Falls and spent a half hour looking for one and then another 15 minutes trying to find our way back to the freeway. We did enjoy driving past the Idaho Falls Temple though! Then we got on going towards home and not to Adrienne's, but finally got turned around. (Of course, we realized immediately that we were going the wrong way, but there was no where to turn around for miles.) Anyway, all's well that ends well and we finally got there. Adrienne met us in Driggs so we could follow her out to the lodge. We never would have found it in the dark.
Their house is like a rustic cabin mixed with wild artsy colors inside - the perfect metaphor for Brian (rustic cabin) and Adrienne (artsy). The walls are all different colors. She has tiled the entry ways(herself)and bathrooms with slate, which is dark and contains splashes of blood red, yellow wheat, olive green, teal blue, khaki gray . . . and these are all the colors of her walls. A big wall in the kitchen is a gorgeous rusty red, while the living room is green, and the eating area in the kitchen is teal blue - - and these rooms are all joined and visible from the others. She has done a fabulous job! They had no living room furniture yet, but it has probably been delivered by now. It's about the size of our house.
From May to mid-October, Brian is gone from 7:30 A.M. until about 10:P.M. when he comes home and crashes. Who wouldn't after spending an entire day rowing upstream?! He is mostly home from October to May, except sometimes clients want to go fishing in other places and then Brian plans the trip and takes them there.
Brian and Adrienne live across the street (dirt road) from his dad and next door to his brother and sister-in-law and their three kids. Most of the other houses on the road are summer homes that are rarely inhabited. Next door to Brian's dad, Jon Huntsman has a cabin. We arrived at night so only saw the inside of Adrienne's house (that I want to call a cabin, but it really is more of a house. It's just so cool in it's cabin-like setting). The next morning we could see that they were in the middle of a valley of golden fields of grain interrupted by an occasional field of potatoes or alfalfa. Here and there you see rows of willows that rim the rivers running through the valley. The whole valley is surrounded by mountains, but on the east, behind their mountains, you can see the Grand Tetons towering over the tops of the local peaks. They are most impressive, these huge, rugged peaks of the Rocky Mountains (most aptly named). I took a walk Monday morning and could hear nothing but nature sounds, no horns or traffic or engines running, just a cacophony of birds twittering, geese honking, and an occasional bellowing bovine. It is a place filled with peace. One can also understand how a person could get lonely there! In the winter the temperature gets to 30 and 40 degrees below zero. Sometimes they are snowed in for a couple of days. This makes me think of Grandma Hatch on the Canadian prairie.
They have an English Setter named Sadie (I think). What a life she lives! She sleeps in the garage. In the morning they raise the door and she's off to find her friends, a couple of long haired black labs who live in the barn and belong to Brian's brothers. Monday they all came home reeking of something awful and dripping wet from their romp in the river. Burrs were stuck here and there. What a happy trio!
When we were ready to go home, Adrienne took us over to the lodge where we made some terrific sandwiches (the guests make their own lunches in the morning to take out on the river so they had all sorts of things - sliced turkey breast, tuna salad, egg salad, bacon, sliced tomatoes, lettuce, onions, bags of chips, homemade cookies, rice crispy treats, trail mix, vegetables and dip - - left over from the night before was a rich chunk of cheese cake and a tall glass of fruit. We split the cheese cake, poured the fruit over it, and devoured it. Adrienne goes over to the lodge every day and scrounges up some delicious soup or salad . . . and tries to stay away from the fabulous desserts!
We went to their ward Sunday and it was a great ward! The past stake president taught a great Sunday school lesson.
Monday we went over to the house they had moved from (the retired couple who lived there went on a mission to Leeds, England and lent their home to Brian and Adrienne). We cleaned for a few hours - Stefanie doing two bathrooms and while I did the kitchen. We stopped in Brigham City on the way home and bought peaches and pears. They were scrumptious and are now stored up for the winter!
We are hosting a light supper for the General Relief Society Meeting Saturday. We'll serve Grilled Chicken Salad in Pita pockets with humus, cucumbers, grapes, and cookies. Our stake center is being remodeled so we are using a loaner. It will be interesting to see how many come to a new building . . . we may be having openhouse Sunday night with the leftovers!