Meeting the Relatives

Amy is taking after both Ryan and I in one respect: I think she's trying to figure out how to suck her middle fingers. Ryan and I both (uncanny, isn't it?) sucked our middle fingers, so it looked as if we were going around signing 'I love you' to everyone. Ryan and I also liked the feel of silky things as tikes...we'll see if she does too. We're trying to get her to rest her head on the right. I always put her with her head facing up when I put her to sleep, but she favors looking to the left so much that her head is getting a little mis-shaped. She's very stubborn about it. I try putting a rolled up blanket under her shoulder so she'll roll to the right a bit, or put something up against her cheek so she can't turn left, but I'll come back in to check on her and she's looking left. She'll wiggle off her blanket or essentially smother her face. So I'm resigned to changing her head after she's fallen asleep. She's sure fun. On another note:

My Grandpa Olsen grew up in Logan and his brothers and a sister still live here. We used to go to these huge Olsen Family Reunions here where we'd all have to wear name tags. I don't know many of my relatives on that side of the family...but the benefit of strong genes is that every one of my Grandpa's siblings looks like him. So, when I spotted Rulon Olsen at the Temple, I didn't even have to check his name tag to know that he was my Grandpa's brother.

Last night Ryan and I drove over to Rulon's place to hear some stories about my Grandpa, see Pelican pond which my Grandpa used to ice-skate on in the winter and see the old beet farm my Great Grandpa raised his family on. Rulon prefers to be called "Uncle Mike" and is quite spry. His wife Vera lamented that he'd climbed the pine tree in their yard to top it off, yet he warns her of the danger for her if she climbs on top of a chair for something in the house. His comment: "Well, I'm agile. But she's not." I hadn't noticed the size of the pine tree when we first got there, so when we went outside I was stunned! It apparently was getting a double head, and Uncle Mike wanted to cut one off. The pine tree was HUGE and he's 86 years old!!!

Apparently all the Olsens except for my Grandpa settled near the farm. Every house he seemed to point out belonged to a relative I'd never heard of. He showed us the old farm, and with the setting sun, the new growing hay was a vibrant green. Ryan's interested in fishing pelican pond which has some beautiful birds too.

I must look more like my mother than I realize because when we went to meet Jim, another one of my Grandpa's brothers, Jim's wife said: "You must be Jill's" And Mike said I was her youngest. "Saw that the moment you walked in -- just like Jill." It was a really nice visit and nice to get to know some of my relatives a little more. Uncle Mike and Jim told me we better come visit again soon. I think we will.