The Motherland...

Every summer our car/van would be packed to the gills for our annual trek north. The anticipation of arriving at Grandma & Grandpa's house and hearing that familiar creaking of the screen door was palpable for most of the 13 hour drive.

By the time we exited the freeway and drove our last 5 minutes to their house all the children had quietly (very very quietly) unbuckled our seatbelts ready to jump out of the car and be the first one to burst through the door and make the mad dash through the house to find them. Would they be sitting side by side in the green chairs in the living room? Would it be time for the nightly wind-down and they would be relaxing in their blue recliners in the family room (side by side of course!)? Or would they have sweetly stayed up late awaiting our arrival in the dark of night?

As an adult now it is hard to imagine how excited my mother must have been on those last few minutes before arriving at her childhood home. Was she ready to burst through the door herself and run to find her parents? It's funny that I have never thought about that before now. To me it was always Grandma & Grandpa's house... to her it was home. Her motherland.

For me Bountiful means a lot of things. Spending 4-8 weeks each year there allowed me to make many happy memories. There were certain things that happened every year. It just wouldn't have been "summer" without them.

1. Shenanigans with Sara- My cousin Sara is 5 months older than me. We may as well have been twins in our eyes. While we didn't see each other often, we slipped right back into sync the moment we were reunited each summer. We often were naughty little girls... hence the "shenanigans". But we had the best time together!

2. Fireworks and Family BBQ's- My Grandparents had 7 living children, and each had several children. Each year we would get together to celebrate the 4th and 24th of July. The children all played games in the front yard while the women huddled in the kitchen preparing our meal. Someone manned the grill and Grandpa continually checked on his famous homemade ice cream. My Dad and Kenneth would try to kill themselves (or so their wives thought) to put on the best fireworks show ever. It was heaven!

3. Mueller Canyon- We would take some hotdogs, marshmallows and cardboard down to the canyon and never had a better time. The water may have been freezing but we always walked in it. We would slide down the canyon wall and get covered in dirt. We all hovered around the firepit and cooked a delicious meal on skewers.

4. Raging Waters- We would round up Shasta soda cans (for the coupons) and load our family and various cousins to Raging Waters for fun in the Utah sun. Everyone enjoyed the wave pool while Mom babysat one baby or another in the kiddie pools. We would try to get Dad to carry our rafts to the high slides and hope to be the one riding with him to make the biggest splash. In later years Sara and I made it our mission to find the cutest guys there! One our all of us would end up with a very nasty sunburn and we would be hurting for several days after.

5. Orange Butterflake rolls at Dick's- OH MY! These rolls are heavenly. You have to get there early in the morning to get them and we always need 3 packages to feed the hungry troops. We would grab some of Grandma's green melamine bowls and heat them up with a pat (or 3) of butter. Heaven.

Now the only trek's north I make are either for work or to Blair's family in Idaho Falls. But if we make a stop in Salt Lake and I have access to a vehicle you better believe I am stopping by Dick's to get some orange rolls! Poor Blair got introduced to this early in our marriage. We came home from our Honeymoon only to leave again for his family reunion in Idaho. You guessed it... he was forced to make a small side trip to Dick's! I may have eaten the whole package myself. And probably before we passed Layton.

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Grandma & Grandpa are gone now. Sara is all grown up with a family of her own in St George. But I always have my memories. And today while thinking of a treat to take with the boys to their new sitter tomorrow I decided to introduce them to one of my favorite treats.

I am no food blogger. I do not come up with recipes on my own. I used the Lion House Rolls and adapted it to my liking. Not as good as the real thing, but they will have to do!