Fun Filled July in Utah 2011

Grandpa & Grandma Doxey Family Reunion. This summer we did something really fun. Grandpa and Grandma Doxey, Cheryl and Daddy Doug have been gone for a long time now, and since that time we haven't been able to see all of our much loved Doxey cousins and families as often as we would like.  We're all so busy creating our own family memories and reunions and we're all so spread out geographically. So, about a year ago a bunch of the grandkids nominated Uncle Kimball to help plan a reunion this summer, gathering many of us who had not seen each other (in some cases) for 20 years. He and Terry did an AWESOME job. He even made us all a copy of an unfinished book Grandpa Doxey was writing.  It was so good to reconnect with our wonderful Doxey cousins and their families.  We even sang the Aspen Grove Family Camp Birthday Song for good measure! In this pic, from the back row, L to R we have Clark, Grandma, Grandpa, Doug and on the front Cheryl and Kimball.

There Were Games, Boy Were There Games.  Tapping into the competitive nature of siblings is always wise, especially when it comes to seeing how fast you can transfer cotton balls from one bowl to the other, using only your nose--covered with Vaseline. Believe it or not, in this heat, Dave and Dan competing resulted in an legitimate, even tie.

Julia and Cosette. Born 9 hours apart in the same hospital, the THS class of '92 treated these gals well.  Orchestra tours, Park City trips, the "Citos", becoming sisters-in-law ... it all came together swimmingly.

The First Doxey Cousins Photo in 20ish Years. Before we all get too haggardly and old, we thought it would be well to document that with only a few exceptions  (e.g. those who could not be there--a bummer I might add) we really were all together this summer.  Amazingly, even after all those years there wasn't even much "re-entry".






The Girls.  Grandma Doxey would have loved, loved, loved this shot. They were all her favorites...










Anson Call's Bountiful Home. For years we had read about Julia's great grandfather Anson Call's home in Bountiful, so after the Doxey reunion we hunted it down to check it out. It its day (late 1800s, it was a pretty deluxe place, with really nice trim work, brickwork and the like.   Today, it appears to be an abandoned historic building, turned drug house, that the owners either neglect or simply don't know what they should do with it. Despite all the no trespassing signs, I stuck my camera inside one of the broken windows and snapped a few.

Look at the trim work! That is not MDF there, I promise. The baseboards were 10" tall and solid wood, the crown was about 12" crown. all solid, window and door casings exquisite. It reminds me a lot of the still nice and modern/well kept Chicago homes on Chicago's North Shore.

It's really thrashed on the inside.  Sad. I would love to restore that house, it looks like it has had some wild druggie parties in it--holes in the wall all over the place, water damage, graffiti, needles, joint butts, etc.  It's all there.




The crazy thing is that there is so much history there.  If you read all about it in the Anson Call journals, people of all walks of life were coming to this home, for a gazillion reasons.  There was even a special passage way out back.  Very interesting.

Katie, Lindsay, Cher. We ate lots of scrumptious food at Cheri & Brys for the 4th of July.  All the good stuff was there in spades.  Very fun.

Fight on You Thunderbirds Wherever You May Be. We've only been to one THS football game since graduation, but anytime we have a spare moment, we like to show the kids the facilities.  Things are a bit more deluxe than they were when we were in school there. Still, it's a highly, highly memory charged spot--even before Timpview was there.  It was a horse pasture and we lived across the street as young Doxeys.

State Champs -- Colossal...in Nate & John's Minds. To tell Nate and John that I played on the state championship team as a sophomore makes it seem like I was a freaking rock star starter on the team. In their minds, every play went through me.  Every sack was done by me. Every touchdown was made by me.

I guess I should milk it for all it's worth right now.  But, the truth is that I was brought up to varsity as a sophomore (probably b/c they needed a new meat squad for practice). I played mop up at the end of the semi-final game, and only stepped on the field the celebrate wildly in the state championship game...and even was pictured in the paper with everyone holding up the state championship trophy.  I'll take it. Until Nate and John "get" that, I'll let them think what they may.

Push the Sled. I stood on the sled to see if Nate & John could push it with me riding it.  They couldn't, but almost moved it.

And by the way, we never had a sled this nice, or a turf field that nice, or a stadium that nice back in the glory days.

Run the Stairs. If I had a dollar for each time I ran these stairs, I would be wealthy. Somehow I thought running the stairs made you so much tougher.

Nate & John really were trying to get their legs into football shape for the tackle football season this fall.

Timp Cave Hike.  We have always wanted to do this hike, but we wanted to wait until the kids were a bit older.  Alas, the time came, and we hiked it.  It is actually a steep little hike.  It definitely gets your heart pumping...especially when you are carrying Caroline the whole way.  Liza hiked it by herself for 90% of the time.  She was great. The boys did well too.

Rescued a Kid Here.  On the other side of this huge rock is about a 300 ft. cliff. Right before this picture there was a little kid climbing up there to peek over the edge.  His mom was not watching as his nose reached the edge of the cliff so I grabbed him and simply said, "Junior, I don't think you want to be going over that."  The mom never even noticed...she just kept on talking to her friends.  Unbelievable.

Steep American Fork Canyon. Love this place.

Inside the Cave. Most National Park workers can be a haggardly sort ... as if they were hewn from the bark, stone and soil they represent.  In our case at Timp Cave, it was a young, beautiful woman who was a geology major from BYU.  Nate and John immediately took a liking to her and forged ahead with her--getting their own personal tour of the cave before everyone else arrived at each section.  They loved it. They were amazed that it takes 6 months for a drop of water to travel from the top of the mountain down into the cave.

Good 'Ole Cabin #50, Our Old Home. Evidently Aspen Grove has made cabin #50 into an open air chalet of sorts... a mini recreation hall in Tall Pines if you will.  Julia and I lived in this cabin during the summer of 1994 while working as counselors at Aspen Grove. If you can believe it, we even had Julia's friends (Jana & Denise) up for a night with us.  Floor space.  It's all about floor space.

The Dairy Keen "Train" Restaurant in Heber.  A trip to Utah is not a trip to Utah without going to the infamous "train" restaurant.   The astute observer will see that we (well, Julia) can  "squeeze a nickel until the buffalo screams" ... that's three shakes purchased, split between six kids and two adults.  A paragon of thrift. The goop in those cups is "precious" and should not be consumed wantonly.

Never Too Big for the Train. We've taken this same shot about 20 times...there is a Spring version, a Summer version, Fall version and Winter version. We probably have enough of them to watch the kids grow.  Needless to say, we love the train restaurant, and have been known to drive all the way up there, just for this shot.  It's especially fun to be there with Max and Tom...like the bygone days of yore.

Stunning Utah Cloud Shots. In the Bay Area, we just don't get cumulonimbus clouds.  Bummer. It's one of the drawbacks to living in the Bay Area. 





In the Bay Area we have almost no atmospheric instability, very few spring or summer thunderstorms, and consequently few vertically growing clouds that just leave you with a sense of awe like clouds do in higher elevations of Utah, Wyoming, Montana, etc.

In short, whenever we visit we don't take these pups for granted.  The combo of good atmospheric instability at higher elevations is hard to come by anymore.

Utah Olympic Park in Park City.  We took all the kids up to the freestyle jumping practice facility and the Olympic Ski Park and the kids loved it.  If you look closely you can see one of the jumpers upside down in the air.  Nate, John, Max Tom, Liza, Caroline loved it, as did we.

Bobsled Girls.  We took the kids to the  incredible Alf Engen Ski Museum where played on all the interactive ski games, sat in bobsleds, held an Olympic torch, etc.  Lots of fun.

Dorothy's Sweet Hookup.  We visited Dorothy and Greg in Park City, which was phenomenal.  Dorothy had some passes that got us all on the gondola at The Canyons Ski Resort. We all rode up the mountain and down again, and then rode the Cabriolet (a standing, enclosed platform like lift) the rest of the way down the mountain for snow cones.  The kids were in HEAVEN.

I'll Bet You Never Knew D.I. Sells Pizza. Well, they don't.  For eons we've wanted to take the kids to Welfare Square in Salt Lake City. 

Per the usual "cram it all in until you drop" Utah modality, we ran very short on time and food to do this. So, on our way there, the plan was to stop at Little Caesars and get pizza, and then quickly find a park to pound the pizza before touring the operations of Welfare Square. 

Be that as it may, we quickly learned that there is no desirable grass anywhere within a few blocks around Welfare Square...and the most desirable grass was IN Welfare Square, on the D.I. grass!  All we needed was a stolen shopping cart with upteen plastic bags hanging off of it, plus a tip cup and monkey churning a music box ... and we could have really done Welfare Square in style. "D.I. Pizza" could be the name of a rock band.

Church History Museum. Of course, we fit in a quick tour of the Church History Museum,  This is a replica of the "below berth" sleeping arrangements of the Ship Brooklyn.  The catch...two to three families (about 10-12 people) were crammed into this little space where Liza lay.

Mo Tab Practice.  We have also wanted to go to a Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice and broadcast for a long, long time. On Sunday mornings we nearly always turn on "Music and the Spoken Word" in HD.  So, this was sort of a "behind the scenes of all that" experience for the kids. Very interesting how it all comes together.  Incredible voices and talent.

The Brothers Four. Nate, Tom, Max and John pause for some recognition.










Amazing Dinner with Mom & Dad Call.  There are very few times when we can just get Mom & Dad Call all to ourselves, with the kids, for dinner. So, this is a real enjoyable feat.  Nothing like it really. Huge blessing in fact.

Canoeing with the Spanish Fork Crew.  Dave and Shanni, Chris and Guy, Mom and Dad Call broke out the canoe and paddles for a great time on the water...until lightening and a storm forced everyone off the water.

What is summertime without canoeing?

Incredible Utah Sunsets.  For whatever reason, summer sunsets in Utah County bring back many memories.  Beautiful.  This was shot near our old house on 825 East.

Fireworks a Plenty.  Utah has eased a bunch of regulations on fireworks, so the 4th of July was a freaking war zone. . . seriously. When multiple neighborhoods are all lighting rapid fire cake fireworks off all at once, it is more intense that you might imagine.

We stuck with the mellow stuff of the sparklers and smoke bomb variety.

Mamma-Chus.  Made famous when it replaced the previous restaurant at the mouth of the canyon, Mamma-Chus is a great place for some Mexican food.  Mom and Dad Call took us all out to eat and the kids managed to keep the foot in their mouths, and their mouths shut for a quick shot to document the moment.

Seree-Sirrah-Sirray.  Let the games continue. We've gone vertical with coverage of this venerable family game.

The Boys Are Back in Town.  As if it were their triumphal entry back into Provo, Nate, John and Tom walked Latte down almost the entire Freedom Festival 4th of July parade route.

After the balloon launch in the a.m. we walked from 8th North down to Center,  over to 9th East, up to Crest Gas Station (because we were starving and thirsty) and then back down to Center.  Latte was even tired!



There were storm troopers, tie fighter pilots and other aircraft. What more do you need?