Dana Fleming was also flying down to UT the same day I was – Sunday Morning. She and her mom were going to rent a room on the Air Force base right next to the airport so that they wouldn’t have to get up as early to get Dana in on time. My flight was an hour earlier than theirs, so they offered to let me stay with them as well; this way my parents wouldn’t have to wake up and leave at 3:00AM on a Sunday Morning. The whole Fleming family made it to Spokane with us, in two vehicles. We ate an Indian dinner and stopped by REI to do some last minute shopping. I found myself a compression sack for my new sleeping bag that I just had to have. After all, the colors matched and everything. Susan, Dana and I made our way to the Air Force Inn while the rest of the family took off for a movie. Once at the AF Inn I repacked my bags and hit the sack. We woke up at 4:30am to get me to the airport by 5:00am to catch a 6:00am flight.
Bekah picked me up in Salt Lake with her older sister’s car. We threw my bags in and headed back to West Jordan. I had flown in Sunday dress so that we could go straight to Church. We showed up for the last half of Sacrament meeting. After church I unloaded my car and drove back to SLC to pick up Dana and drop her off at a friend’s house in Alpine. When I returned to the Hintze home I stored my normal tires in their garage and repacked my car. That Sunday was ‘Dutch Oven Sunday - Oriental’ in the Hintze neighborhood. Two or three families got together and each brought a dish of Oriental Dutch Oven. There was a lot of rice and a couple different chicken concoctions that others had brought. I thought it best to load up on rice and pour the chicken amazingness on top. As I was leaving the kitchen to find a seat the lady of the house passed me and seemed rather surprise. She said, “Whoa, I hope you like it!’ I looked around and noticed that I had served myself a little bit more than everyone else had. Ooops. I think I turned a little bit red as I made my way into the dining area. Ha, I ate the first half super fast to try and hide the fact that I had more - of course not letting anyone see that I was wolfing it down. When I felt like I had an acceptable portion size I slowed down and began to enjoy it. I really liked the sweet chicken. After dinner the kids went to the basement to place Rock Band. They had me on vocals, how embarrassing. But to my surprise, and I believe everyone else’s, I didn’t do too bad. I think I scored high 90’s each time.
From dinner we hit Temple Square with a couple other friend’s of Bekah. The
lights were B… E… A.. utiful. We took way too many pictures and walked around until our toes and fingers were frozen. When we got back to the Hintze home, Aunt D, Uncle Russ and Jackie were waiting there to surprise us. They had spent Christmas with their daughters in SLC and had stopped by for a short visit. Jackie is tall and beautiful. She brought along a boy that she called ‘Her friend. Well, her boyfriend.’ Aunt D and I talked for a little bit about my future plans and how our families were doing. Little Dinah Hintze was super curious as to why Aunt Dedie was Aunt Dedie when her real name was Janice. I learned that night that Aunt D was a twin. However, I’d never met her sister because she’d died at birth. The best part about this conversation was when Jackie looked up rather quickly at her mother and said, “You had a twin mom?!” In our parting words Uncle Russ gave me a post card of the Columbia River Temple. Printed on the back was his name. His photography skills were now earning him a little bit of money. The local book store buys them from him for 50 cents apiece.Usually when I stay at the Hintze home they have me sleep upstairs in Caleb or Dinah’s room. However, they were extremely messy and they hadn’t had time to do any arranging or prepping of the rooms. I had no problem with sleeping in a messy room but Uncle Frank insisted that I have a nice bed. He pumped up an air mattress, laid it out on the floor, covered it with a sheet, found a pillow, and topped it off with several layers of blankets. I offered to help and let him know that he needn’t do it all, but I kind of felt like he wanted to help me in some way… just the feeling that I got.
I think I’ll sidetrack for a moment and talk about my progress with the Hintze Family. Marla May is my mother’s half sister. They share the same father. I didn’t see or associate much with them because of where we both lived. The few memories I have of the Hintze family when I was younger are at Family Reunions at Salmon and ZCMI ice cream cones after Conference. Though I have a couple memories of my cousins, I didn’t really come to know Bekah or Hannah until we were all at school together. Over the last couple of semesters I’ve been invited back to their house a few times to spend time with them. At first I was a little uncomfortable. Not to be mistaken as a feeling of being out of place – rather a feeling of exploring new territory, I was a little more reserved than I would have normally carried myself. As I kept going back I felt more and more part of the family. And to top it all off - during one weekend that I was staying at their house, I decided to go out with a couple friends. I didn’t return until 2 or 3 that night and alarmed Samson the dog. I woke the whole house. When Aunt Marla didn’t kill me like I thought she would I knew she loved me. Now we have that experience to look back on and laugh. Also – Aunt Marla taught me a lot about my family that I didn’t ever know before. A lot about my ancestry and how our families came to be. I had heard bits and pieces from my mother and her siblings, but never had the stories laid out to me like Aunt Marla did one night. One thing that really stuck out in my mind was her closing comment saying that the effects of the Atonement run deep in our family, and are evident in our loving each other today.
Before bed I updated my Facebook status to read something to the effect of ‘Going into the wilderness, Facebook diet starts now.’
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