Strawberries and Sharks

Conference was great as usual, and they mentioned that we shouldn’t spend too much time blogging so I’m trying to be quick.
Mom and I discovered why small children are given to the young and foolish. On Friday we babysat for Danica and took Jensen and Lily to a wedding reception (Austin’s ex girlfriend Amber and she married an elder from Austin’s mission) at the new Merkling home in Perry Park. Beautiful home, tons of people, and of course a large basement with a huge spread of food. To keep Jensen and Lily busy while we waited in line mom gave Jensen several chocolate dipped strawberries. It was a panic to try and go through the food line with 2 little kids, they were grabbing at things and mom and I were trying to balance plates of their food and our food in a very crowded room. We successfully sat down with enough supplies to keep kids and grandparents happy when Jensen jumped down off of a lap and raced back to the strawberry table. He wanted to give back the strawberries he ate and promptly threw up all that chocolate and berries right back onto the serving table. Mom hustled them into a bathroom for me to watch while she cleaned up the mess. Jensen was released from the bathroom and promptly went back over to the desert table and reached over and squeezed and crushed all the little white wedding cake slices within his arms length. It was time to leave the party. All the way home Jensen sang “Strawberries go out my mouth”. I’m glad I’m just a grandparent.
I got freaked out at the aquarium this weekend. I’ve been diving for almost two years now and only had the opportunity to dive in the big shark tank once. So when I saw an opening for this Saturday I canceled everything a signed up – I dove the big tank, WOW!!! It was freaky right from the start. I was feeding the small fish with lots of little chunks of squid and two pesky turtles kept coming around and snatching the food. These are big turtles and flip and push with their flippers. There is very little peripheral vision in a diving mask and so I would just feel a big push on my back or leg or head from these stupid turtle. You have to be careful of their beaks because they can hurt. That was bad enough, but then the Leopard Shark came over to join in and they have teeth. So I’m in this space about the size of my SUV with two huge hungry turtles and a massive 6 ft. shark – their hungry and I’m got the food. I survived but to relax I swam down in the trench by the big sharks but not where they swim. It was magnificent to watch then glide along all stomach, muscle, and teeth. As I turned to go back to the protected part the granddaddy, big mean, razor toothed, 8 ft. Sand Tiger shark had chosen the same path and we almost bumped noses. We came within 6 inches of each other. You have never seen anyone with full scuba gear swim backwards faster. That freaked me out. I’ve never been so close with something that would consider me dinner. I loved it.
It was also a weird week for memories. My old college roommate Doug Rosborough contacted me through Facebook and he and I are going to do some business together. Then on Tues I got a call from a girl I had known from the 8th grade through graduating from high school and it was such a fun conversation about old friends. Then on Friday an old missionary companion found me on Facebook and we talked forever about Samoa and what has happened to us since the mission. I think I spent more of this week thinking about 30 – 40 years ago then I did about the current day. It was a nice break.