General Conference was so amazing!! I love hearing what the leaders of the church have been inspired to tell us. There were so many talks that seemed to touch on things that I needed to hear. We went to Jerome for the weekend and got to listen to conference with some of our family there.
While we were planning to go, Dad thought it would be fun to cook some hog legs in the ground (Polynesian style) like he's done dozens of times over the years, then he invited all the family over for dinner after the Saturday session. So we went down Friday evening and got the bbq pit ready for the meat. We put the meat in just as it was getting dark outside (and cold), so we hurried and covered the pit so it could cook over night.
Basically it goes:
hot lava rocks,
the meat, which is wrapped in tin foil,
more hot rocks,
tinfoil,
soaked cardboard,
then a plastic tarp,
and all of that was held down by anything close by that we could throw on.
So we had a couple Home Depot buckets, a shovel, and Grandpa's heavy duty plastic wheelbarrow.
Everything was nice and snug so we went in expecting it to work out like it always has.
Dad went and checked on it around 11:30 and it looked fine so he went to bed. But about 5 minutes later, Grandpa (who had been getting a drink in the kitchen) called downstairs for dad. The next thing I know, Dad's flying all over the place saying, "The whole pit's on fire!!"
He ran outside, and I wasn't too far behind him and Grandpa.
Sure enough, it was nothing short of a massive bonfire.
Dad ran to use the hose he'd had earlier to soak the cardboard, but it didn't reach to the pit. So Grandpa went over to turn on another hose which I held, ready to spray as soon as the water came on. But for whatever reason, it wouldn't work. It was kind of like one of those movies where no matter what you do, something prevents you from getting what you need. Surprisingly, Dad was the only one really freaked out (mostly just because he was thinking of the three hog legs he needed to get out of the fire). I was mostly amused at how much this was like a scene out of a movie. But eventually Grandpa got the water on, then joined me and Mom, as Dad took command of the hose.
As soon as the flames were down he started throwing off all the layers while I started spraying off all the things on the perimeter of the pit that were still on fire, or smoking - fun stuff!
He did manage to save the meat, which turned a bad situation good! :) Grandpa had been so thoughtful and even offered to thaw out some hot dogs in case things hadn't turned out.
It was around midnight by the time the meat had been put into Grandma's oven, and even one of my uncle's ovens. But once that was all said and done we had to consider the damage. "What happened to the buckets?" you may be asking. There wasn't a single trace of them after the fire. The shovel? It doesn't have a handle anymore. But on the plus side, Grandma was quick to find a use for it, saying that the next time the cousins come over asking for a shovel, she knows which one to give them.
And the wheelbarrow? As one of my uncles told his wife after being one of the first to witness the damage the following morning, "I don't think we're having pork. I went outside and saw tinfoil and burnt cardboard thrown all over the place, and half a wheelbarrow." He fondly christened Dad with a new name, "Flame On."
Well, we did have pork and there wasn't even an after taste of plastic (despite our telling Dad there was, just to see what he'd do). Another plus I pointed out to Dad was that if his career as a chef doesn't work out, he'd make a great fire fighter!
It was an awesome weekend!
Pit prep - - - before
After- - - - - (Grandpa got a turn with the hose, too).
Farewell, wheelbarrow!
All's well that ends well!
Another exciting thing that happend was that we got to meet our newest second cousin, Brittney! She was born at the beginning of March, which was early. In fact, as I was holding her and talking to her mom (my cousin) Heather, she told me, "I'm not even due for another week!" :)
Brittney weighs a little under 6 lbs now, and she is so cute!!
It's kind of hard to tell in the picture just how tiny she really is, but you can maybe get an idea. Can you see that the little, elastic waist on her pants are too big around her middle?
So much fun!!
And this is Harley, who had fun rocking out while some of the cousins played "Just Dance" on the Wii.
There's never a dull moment in Jerome!