Daughters and Granddaughters

One of my six granddaughters spent Friday night and a large part of Saturday with us. Ali is five, very bright, and if there are no words coming from her mouth she is asleep. It is that simple. She is very creative. And has more energy that that Energizer Bunny thing!

We went to Apollo Burger for lunch on Saturday. Because Apollo was one of the Greek pantheon of gods, for years it has been an inside joke with my friend and former colleague, Todd, to refer to the place as "Greek-God" Burger, as in, "I'll meet you noonish at Greek-God Burger on Thursday."

So, as I held Ali's hand on the way into the Greek Fast Food Restaurant, Ali asked, "Popie, What is this place?" and I answered without thinking, "Greek-God Burger." Her incredulous look led me to realize that I had made a mistake, and I quickly told her it was Apollo Burger.

Imagine the look on Nicole's face later in the day when Ali told her that we had lunch at "the restaurant where Jesus cooks."

And speaking of Nicole, she had the first of what I am sure will be several wedding showers on Saturday evening. This one was given by Dan's Grandmother. Nicole was taken back by the generosity of the many friends of Dan's family that Nicole has never even met. As always, Nicole was gracious and I'm sure they all loved her. (How could they not?)

Sunday, my youngest daughter, Natalie, rounded out my very feminine weekend when she graduated from the 4-year LDS Seminary program. (Thankfully there was some balance when I had lunch with my son Friday, and then attended Lodge later that night and enjoyed the camaraderie of my fraternal brothers!)

There are Seminary buildings adjacent to the Middle and High Schools in Utah and parts of Idaho. These students either attend early in the morning before school starts, or during the day in a "release time" arrangement where they give up an elective to take the religion class. These classes are more than Sunday School, but less than a full-blown religion class and teach LDS youth how to apply the theology of their faith to their everyday life.

Both Natalie and Nicole are graduates of Seminary. Both were deeply impressed and influenced by their experiences. Both have an inner spiritual strength I don't think I possessed when I was their age. And both are committed to living a good, moral, and productive life. I continue to be very impressed with and by them.

I realized Sunday that we are learning things about our Natalie that we didn't know because we never attended school with her. We always knew she was bright, social, sensitive and very funny. What we are seeing now is that she is extremely thoughtful, artistic and empathetic. It is interesting what you don't see until they are all grown up!

All in all, it was a very satisfying weekend of daughters and granddaughters! Hawkeye Pierce would have said it, "Finestkind!"