A Life Like Mary's

This past Monday, my dear grandmother (my Maw Maw) passed from this life and went to be with her Father in Heaven once again. I thought that I was prepared for her to pass. I knew that she hadn't been herself for a long while and that her health had been deteriorating quickly. I told myself to be prepared but nothing prepares you to say goodbye to someone who has meant so much to you.

Maw Maw was everything that I want to be in my life- a loving mother and grandmother, a tireless hostess, and just a completely selfless human being. Her life was centered around her family and making sure that those around her were comfortable and happy. It was difficult to be anything but happy around Maw Maw. She was one of the funniest women I've ever known (whether she meant to be or not) and we spent a good part of our time together as family laughing about funny things she would say. She always really enjoyed the attention.

Maw Maw was also a fabulous cook and I called her often to ask for recipes and cooking tips. About 5 years ago she sent me all of her most used recipes in their original forms- 40 yr old newspaper clippings, splattered note cards and yellowed pages right out of old cookbooks. These are the most treasured items I received from her. She told me that she knew I would use them and it means so much to me to know that I'm able to carry on her legacy by cooking all the things that she so lovingly prepared herself.

She was something special.

I love you, Maw Maw! You will be missed.

Living Traditions '09

It's that time of year again! Today we went to the Living Traditions festival in downtown Salt Lake. It's a festival that showcases dozens of cultures- the food, the crafts, the performing arts. We love it and have gone every year for the past five years. There is just something about it that marks the permanence of warm weather. No more snow. No more back and forth weather. Just sunshine and warm weather for the next few months. Gotta love that.

Anyway, this year was great as always. As soon as we got there we made a beeline for the food stands. We bought the boys some fried spring rolls from the Thai stand to hold them over while we looked around. When it was all said and done we hit the Thai stand, the Tahitian stand, the Vietnamese stand, the Swiss stand, the Bolivian stand, the Pakistani stand and the Hawaiian stand. We took our food and sat under a tree by the south stage to watch the Hawaiian dancing. Great performance although the drunk guy that hung out in front of the stage facing the crowd and dancing was a bit distracting. Was pretty funny, though.

After that we went over to the kids area and found that they were doing a demonstration of Brazilian Copeira, which is like a type of dance that incorporates gymnastics and some fighting moves. It's really cool. The kids were all invited to learn a couple moves. Here's Coleman trying out what he learned.



I don't have pictures of Cooper but he loved it even more than Coleman! We are even thinking about finding lessons for him.

After the festival, we went to Lollicup and had some bubble smoothies and then to the Asian store before heading home. Great day and lots of fun family togetherness!