Grandma Wanda is 91!

Grandpa Mike, Sue, Jack, Maddie, Grandma Wanda, Mike, Emily, Katie and Ryan (on his tippy toes)

We celebrated Grandma's birthday Sunday, October 23rd at her house with cake that Aunt Susan and Krissy had made.  Yum!

Jack

Before leaving, Jack and Katie had to get a picture on the deer.

The kids love those!

Katie

Grandpa Mike and Sue spent the night at Grandma's, so on Monday afternoon, after I got my work done, I paid them all a visit.  

Grandma wanted to go for a ride, so we did.  

Sue drove me and Grandma around neighborhoods in Washington Fields; we looked for Grandma's friend's new house.  Grandma knew it was on a corner, near the river, and she was pretty sure it wasn't too big.  We couldn't find it. . . . So we checked on Doyle's cows, admired Washington City's new fishing pond and soccer fields, looked for, (and eventually found) the water park in Pineview Estates, and were disappointed that Krissy wasn't home at the house that Grandma was pretty sure was hers.  We drove through neighborhoods we liked (and some we didn't), but mostly, we just enjoyed being with Grandma and listening to her commentary.

As we were headed back to Grandma's (or so I thought), she said, let's drive to the top of Schinob-ki (I don't know how to spell the name of that hill!).  So, we started heading east on Washington Dam Road with Grandma assuring us we were going to turn left soon.  But soon the road turned to dirt and turning left was no longer an option; only the river was over there.  Grandma said that was fine; she wanted to take Sue to see Sand Hollow Reservoir anyway.  Of course, the last time she came this way(with Aunt Susan and Aunt Ora), they almost didn't make it, and it took weeks to get the red sand out of the under carriage of her brand new Cadilac! 

I figured it couldn't be too bad until we crested a rather steep hill and then headed down to this:

 

At that point Sue and I agreed she needed to keep the car to the right (the left side of that gully was a sand trap), and I quickly sent a text to Michael: 

We are in Grandma's car on Washington Dam road headed to sand hollow.  Don't know how long I will have service.  Bring the truck and a tow rope if you don't hear from me in an hour!

It was a beautiful day.  We had already admired Uncle Dennis' (Grandma's brother's) farm, and Grandma told us about a man who come up from Vegas years ago and built a bridge across the Virgin out here and had big plans to make lots of money.  The bridge is still there, but apparently the guy used all his money building the bridge and that was as far as he ever got.

Then she pointed out this house:

 See it way back there at the base of the hill?

I think Grandma's Aunt lived there.  

Soon after passing that house, I felt a lot better when we saw a couple of trucks with four wheelers pulled off the road, like we were still relatively close to civilization. After about an hour of driving on that dirt road, we made it to Sand Hollow, just like Grandma said we would.

We drove around the reservoir and admired the view of Pine Valley over the water.

And then we took the highway home.

That night, Grandma took the whole Sandberg clan out to Chuck-A-Rama, one of my kids' favorite Sandberg traditions!

They sat together, enjoyed multiple trips to the buffet, and discovered the joys of green jello.

 At dinner, Grandma hugged me and told me she thought our drive today would probably be her last adventure.  I disagreed, told her that she'd have at least one more, and mentioned that I thought it was really something that my last  adventure (meaning my most recent) had come with a 91-year-old tour guide! 

I looked on the map, and I think I've found that left hand turn that leads to the top of Schnob-ki.  I think we'll have to have that adventure next.

Happy Birthday Grandma Wanda!