Utah Vacation, Part Trois

There is a creepy new show on TLC called “My Strange Addiction” that chronicles the bizarro lifestyle choices of people who eat couch cushions or comet, sleep with their hair dryer, or go tanning as often as thrice daily. Alixa has her own obsession, although hers is not especially unique, as it is shared by many people, notably including her brother-in-law Nate. She constantly craves Café Rio pork salads. So much so that even though we were in Utah for two full weeks at the end of December, she forced her family to pack up and head out again only three weeks later so that she could get her fix. Her addiction has also caused her to react in a hostile manner towards those people who are “crazy” enough not to feel the same way she does. She often speaks of wanting to punch people in the face for not fully appreciating the goodness of the Café. She may be clinically insane, but she makes great lunches for Jarom to take to work every day, so he accepts the bad with the good.

Lixi trying to take a nap

While they were out in Zion collecting stamps towards their next free burrito, they decided to attend the 80th birthday party for one Paul B Winn on the top floor of the Joseph Smith building at Temple Square. There was quite a collection of relatives and friends, many of whom Jarom had not seen in years and Alixa had not seen in ever. It was a touching tribute to a great guy who has lived a pretty remarkable life and seems to have a few decades left in him. All of the Winn children made the trip, so the rest of the weekend was spent doing a variety of fun things with the family. On Saturday there was a bridal shower for Kristi, attended by a whole lot of women. Jarom and Jenna did the smart thing and took a nap that lasted nearly the entire time. Then they drove down to Lehi to see Zak and Sam and their little munchkin, Eva. After a meal at Café Rio it was off through the Provo Canyon up to Heber where they had a horse-drawn sleigh ride planned. When told that she was going to meet some horses, Jenna was nearly out or her mind with excitement. However, once she saw that they were a pair of 2,000-pound draft horses and were nothing like the stuffed animals she loves so much, she decided that she didn’t really want to be close to them. Her mean mother forced her to get within a few feet, which terrified her and brought out some serious tears. The ride was far more relaxing, despite the chilly weather. Jenna enjoyed looking up through the clear mountain air and pointing out the many stars that she saw.



Throughout these past few trips the Winns have noticed an aggressive independent streak that Jenna is developing. It is fun to watch her learn to do things by herself, but sometimes it gets a little tiresome because she becomes irate if you help her in any way, shape or form. In fact, if she is in her independent mood and you help her, she will undo whatever help you provided so that she can start from scratch all on her own. So if you put her up on a couch that she was climbing by herself, she will jump back down to the ground and began the ascent again. She will also scream at you, usually just “no, no, no!” at the top of her lungs. So Jarom and Lix have learned to just let her take her time and do her thing, or to distract her if they need something done right away, like buckling up her car seat or putting on her shoes when it is time to leave. But it is definitely cool to watch her personality grow and to see her be able to do so many things that she couldn’t before. She is always proud of herself when she accomplishes her task, and she has learned to say “ta-da!” when she finishes.

A fine example of her newfound independence

On Monday they headed back down to Provo to take some pictures of Eva and Jenna at the request of their mutual grandmother PJ. Lixi’s aunt Christy was kind enough to offer up her services as a photographer. Her original idea was to go up the canyon a little ways and get some shots of the kiddos with the snow and the river as a backdrop. Sounds beautiful, right? Except that the two subjects were dressed in summer dresses, one isn’t old enough to sit up by herself and the other is afraid of playing in the snow. So after about five numbing minutes we headed back down the canyon to take some pictures in and around Christy’s house. I don’t have the photos yet, but I’ve heard that there should be some pretty cute ones. After the pictures Jenna left with PJ, and Jarom and Alixa headed to Rodizio’s, where they were meeting a large contingency of the Winn family for a wonderful evening of Brazilian grilled meat. Due to some traffic congestion most of the party was delayed, leaving Jarom and Lix by themselves at the table for about 20 minutes. Classier people would have waited until everyone got there before they hit up the salad bar and started having chunks of cow delivered to the table, but little Bo gotsta eat, and Jarom didn’t want Lix to feel bad for eating solo. So the table was already warmed up when everyone finally got there. But nobody cared and everyone enjoyed themselves.

They both fit, so their parents could carry them onto the plane

Tuesday began with a trip to Mimi’s for a farewell breakfast, and then it was off through the snowstorm to the airport for the first flight of their three leg journey to Denver, Minneapolis, and then on to Richmond. Fortunately there were lots of empty seats so everyone could stretch out a little, which is always a nice treat. So now everyone is back in Virginia, where there are no Café Rios to be found. Hopefully her withdrawal will not be too severe, because who knows when we’ll be able to visit the Rockies again.

Basketball Diaries

Fourteen months ago Jarom was graduating from the University of Tennessee and amid a particularly fruitless job search when on a trip to Delaware for Thanksgiving his wife spoke to his brother and found out about a job opportunity in Richmond. Nate agreed to assist in the hiring process, speaking with his boss and essentially helping him to get through the preliminary stages, with only one condition: if Jarom got the job, he had to live within the same ward boundaries so that they could play basketball together.

Well Jarom got that job, and he has been playing basketball with Nate roughly every week since his arrival. Usually this means pickup ball, but during the winter months it also means playing for the church team. Last year Nate and Jarom were central characters in a feisty game against the nearby Innsbrook ward. Multiple technical fouls were called and according to some witnesses it nearly came to blows. Unfortunately, many of the people on the Innsbrook team were among the group that played pickup basketball each Wednesday. Soon after that game they decided to switch the night that they played to Tuesday, and asked the Winns to not make the switch with them. Some feelings were hurt, but both Nate and Jarom have managed to carry on with their lives.

Flash forward to January 28, 2011, when Jarom and Nate get to play the Innsbrook ward once again. For the purposes of this story I will tell you that while there are many people on the Innsbrook team that are whiny and annoying and do not like the Winn brethren, there is one in particular who seems to lead the way. I don’t know his name, so we will simply call him #12. Now it seems that #12 had not forgotten the events of last year, because as soon as Jarom entered the game and touched the ball he began to complain in his best little brother voice about how Jarom was constantly carrying the ball. When he was not in the game he would whine from the bench, and when he was in the game he would whine on the court. He whined to the refs, but to his great consternation they seemed unwilling to call the obvious violation. He whined to Jarom, who thanked him for his concern and referred him back to the refs. And yet not once was the violation called.

Actual photo of #12

This does not mean that his complaining did not yield any results. Because when Jarom knows that there is something that really annoys someone, he is an expert at snidely bringing it up over and over, until the person’s head explodes or they grow up and get over it. It gives him great joy to get inside another player's head. Nate also took notice of the griping and decided to react in his own way.

It is important to understand a little about Nate and basketball. No one would call Nate a great basketball player, but Jarom very much enjoys playing with him because he does a few things very well, he knows what those things are, and he doesn’t try to do anything outside of his skill set. He plays good interior defense, he gets rebounds, both offensive and defensive, and he sets picks. And setting picks is his favorite thing to do when opposing teams bother him, because it is the best way for him to capitalize on the mass advantage he enjoys over other people. So as soon as #12 began running his mouth, both Jarom and Nate knew what needed to happen. Jarom brought the ball down the court, guarded tightly by #12. Nate came just outside of the 3-point arc and set his feet. Jarom started to go right, then changed directions and drove hard towards the left. #12 was working feverishly to stay with Jarom and never even looked up. He practically bounced off of Nate and crumpled to the ground as Jarom calmly sank the now wide open 15-footer, and it was impossible for either Winn brother to keep from smiling as they ran back on defense and watched #12 slowly pick himself up and immediately seek out a ref to let him know that he had just been hit by an illegal moving screen. It made me a little sad that Bruce could not have been there to see his boys in action. In my mind’s eye I envision him jumping out of his chair on the sideline, sticking his tongue out and squinting while flicking his wrists frantically. He would have been so proud.

The whining continued throughout the game, which was an edge-of-the-seat, overtime victory for the Winn’s team, followed by a less than cordial hand shake between Jarom and #12 and a passive aggressive apology for all of the carrying violations he had committed. Ah, the joys of being mentally superior to an opponent. Both Nate and Jarom spent the next day or so on cloud nine, because there is no feeling that is better than beating a whiny, complainy little girl who really deserves it. I can’t wait till next year.

Back to the lab again

Having returned from the Far West, Jarom and Alixa began the new year by laying out some resolutions and getting to work on them. During a mean-spirited game that was played in Grandma and Grandpa’s basement after a family home evening Alixa was asked to make a resolution for her husband. She chose “Go to the gym three times a week.” It hurt Jarom a little bit, but only because his physique has plummeted from mediocre to embarrassing over the past few years. The truth is painful. So he has been working out more, and Lix has been great about encouraging him. Unfortunately she is still baking cookies and sweet breads and making muddy buddies about every third day, so it seems to be a zero-sum game. I suppose there are worse things than being married to a great chef who loves to make yummy treats.

Another of the resolutions is to get the house ready for the arrival of Blake Owen (I reserve the right to make any adjustments to this name as needed.) This mainly consists of doing some organizing, especially in my room, which has hitherto been a storage repository but will soon become an actual room with an inhabitant that actually needs space to operate. So there has been some putting of stuff in boxes and sending it up to the attic, and the semi-regular analysis of old clothes to decide what things can be sent to the goodwill. The decision was also made to organize the upstairs linen closet and to provide the family room with some cubbies for the kidlet’s toys. Alixa received the inspiration from Wes Carter and bought the equipment at Target. I will admit that it has done wonders as far as keeping the floor free of toys and Jarom doesn’t trip nearly as often when walking through the house. It’s only mid January, so I’d be cautiously optimistic about the continuation of these goals, but so far, so good.



The new year has also brought with it a new church schedule, which has been great. The ward is now meeting at 9 am, which means that the Winns are less likely to show up early, but more likely to not be grumpy because church is interrupting their naps. Another big change is that Jarom and Alixa now have less of an excuse for not paying attention in Sunday school because Jenna hit the 18-month mark and now gets to attend nursery. It was little surprise that on the first day they went to drop her off she bolted away from Lix and excitedly began playing with the kitchen set, forgetting that she even had a mother. They have puzzles and books and a slide and other kids in there to play with, so Jenna is pretty much in her own personal nirvana. And the nice women that are there to take care of her love that she will sit on their lap for an entire book reading and that she pretty much never cries or complains. Jarom and Alixa are very nervous that the universe somehow messed up and gave this kid all of the good qualities of an entire family and now each subsequent child will be an unmanageable devil.



Basketball season has also started for the church leagues, and Alixa and Nate have been called as the young women’s and young men’s basketball coaches, respectively. This means that Jarom has unofficially been called as the assistant coach to the young women’s and young men’s basketball teams. He has practice on Thursdays from 6-7 (boys) and 8-9 (girls), games on Friday evenings (old men) and two on Saturdays (boys and girls). Throw in the once a week pickup game that he regularly plays in and that is a lot of basketball. But he very much enjoys it, and it is a lot of fun for him to help Lix and Nate coach. So far the teams have an aggregate record of 4-1. Jenna also enjoys hoops, and has become a very vocal cheerleader. Alixa taught her how to yell “Go Daddy” and “Go Natie” while watching their latest game, and she knows that she should never clap for the opposing team.



The only negative to speak of recently is a little bit of sickness that seems to have invaded the Winn home. Jarom has been battling a sore throat that isn’t too bad except for the occasional hacking up of phlegm that makes anyone within earshot want to puke, and Alixa and Jenna have suffered from it as well. The problem with Jenna is that she has a very sensitive gag reflex and sometimes she coughs so hard that she barfs. Jarom taught her how to take deep breaths in order to calm herself down, and she has gotten pretty good at controlling it herself. We aren’t sure if it is still the cough or if she has caught something else, but last night was a terrible mess. Jarom was heading to bed around 12:30 when he heard a cough and some gagging from Jenna’s room. He quickly went in and found her sitting up and crying, having thrown up on her favorite stuffed animal, Pendy Pete. He picked her up to take her to the tub, and on the way she threw up in the hall and again in the bathroom. They washed her up and cleaned up the mess and finally got her back to bed around 1:45. At about 2:30 she threw up again, and it was back to the tub. Jarom stayed home from work to take care of her today, as Lix needed to baby-sit Kenna and it probably isn’t a good idea for them to hang out all day together. She seems to be doing better, which is great. Hopefully it was just a quick bug and it is all out of her system now.



On a lighter note, everyone is very excited about Grandpa Winn’s 80th birthday party this weekend, where there will be lots and lots of cousins and family. Cross your fingers that everyone will be back to full strength by then so that they can have a great time.

Utah Vacation, Part Deux

In the Winn family, Christmas is not associated with fancy meals, as we (I consider myself a Winn) are not a fancy people. After presents are opened in the morning, a large breakfast would be prepared and eaten. The rest of the holiday you were pretty much on your own to make whatever you chose. The Hegewald family tradition is pretty much a polar opposite. Christmas dinner is a fancy, dress up, sit down affair akin to Thanksgiving. In an effort to keep a small part of her childhood alive, Lix asked Nancy if it would be okay to have a nice dinner on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas. Her position is not anti-dinner, she just doesn’t want to spend all of her Christmas preparing food, so she was thrilled with the idea of Lix making some stuff. A honey-baked ham was ordered and picked up and rolls, potatoes, etc… were gotten and some class was brought into the Winn Christmas. It didn’t last long, but it was there for a moment.

Lixi's masterpiece

Christmas morning came at a leisurely pace, since there are no children at an age that puts them in a hurry. It was just the two toddlers and a bunch of adults. So the family went downstairs whenever and opened gifts and chatted about them and about each other. Grandpa got a ridiculous hat that he will wear a little too proudly, a Russian style one with the ear flaps that can be folded up. David got a coat that was very nice, but he complained that it was a little too tight in the arms. We get it, you’re a meathead. Alixa got the maternity coat that she has been asking for, so now she doesn’t have to choose between wearing her own coat unzipped or one of Jarom’s. Jarom got some professional grade hair clippers that are so nice that Alixa actually wants to help him cut his hair now. And the statuette that Lix picked out for Grandma made her cry when she opened it, so it was a pretty good morning all around. That night there was a mission party that Bruce and Nancy had to attend so the kids all went up to Temple Square to see the lights, which were lovely. When they got home Jarom and Rob decided to have a little wrestling match. Rob just finished a jujitsu class at BYU and Jarom is always looking for a good competition. Unfortunately, Jarom is a little bit out of practice since he hasn’t wrestled anyone for about a decade. He did okay until he remember how totally exhausting it is, and nearly had a heart attack after 2 minutes. He is planning on doing some training so that he can be better in late January for the rematch.
















Inspired by the wrestling match, Jarom tried to think of other physical activities he could do in Utah that he hadn’t done since the 90’s and made plans to go skiing with David and Rob at Brighton. Might as well take advantage of the “Greatest snow on Earth”, right? He was actually impressed at how well he did considering the layoff. The biggest obstacle he had to overcome was actually the ski boots, which as usual were not the most comfortable piece of attire he wore that day. But he didn’t crash into any trees or require the assistance of the ski patrol, so we’ll call it a good day. The girlfriends that were left behind took advantage of their freedom by heading out to some of the 375,000 bridal stores in the Salt Lake Valley to find a wedding dress for Kristi. They found one that everybody loved and it only required the one morning, so we’ll call it a good day.



Before heading back to the right coast Nate and Kenz came down from Farmington, where they had been spending a week with Kenzie’s family, for an Enna photo shoot and a nice meal at the Cheesecake Factory. The photos were taken at Sears by a girl who had little to no interest in taking pictures that day. Despite her best efforts to sabotage the session, the cute little girls managed to get a few good shots taken.

How many one year olds try to eat french fries with two utensils?

On their last day Lix convinced Jarom to make a drive up the canyon to the bustling metropolis known as Heber City. Heber is home to nearly 300 people, including one of Alixa’s best friends and classmate, Heather. Any time that Heather talks to Jarom she tries to convince him to get a job wherever she lives. Her case was a little bit weakened by the 23 inches of snow that had been dropped on the town the previous night. You could hardly tell where the houses and stores were. The fact that there aren’t a ton of jobs in Heber probably isn’t helping either. But it is a quaint place to visit for a few hours. They went out for a pizza at a nice little restaurant and then Heather got to show off her cute house and Jenna got to play with/look at her two black lab puppies.

Exhausted, at the end of a day in Heber and two weeks in Utah

Sadly, although it sometimes seems to be the case, Jarom does not have infinite vacation days and they had to return. The universe once again smiled on the Winns in their travels and provided them with an empty seat in their row so that Jenna had space to color and wriggle and lay down. This was surprising to Jarom, because he had recently won his fantasy football league title for the third time in four years, and assumed that he would have to sit next to Rulon Gardner for four hours to make up for his good fortune. But Lix is always giving her loose cash to beggars in order to amass good karma points, so a big thank you to her.





The Winns flew back to Philly, where they spent another day visiting with the residents there, and were lucky enough to attend a 2nd birthday party for Hailey Jane. The party was crashed by a slew of Slaughs, who were all in town for the holidays. Hailey got about a dozen presents, and it was all fun and games until both Hailey and Jenna decided that they wanted to play with the piggy bank. Then the screaming started. There were some tears and some yelling and physical violence was narrowly averted when the two parties were separated. Since they had been away for so long, Jarom decided that he wanted to get home to sleep in his own bed, so on New Years day they hit the 95 back down to Richmond, where everything was just as they left it. Such a great vacation, but it is nice to have them all back in the house.

Utah Vacation, Part Un

This year’s Christmas vacation began one day earlier than planned thanks to a snowstorm on the eastern seaboard. So instead of driving up to Delaware on Thursday to catch their Friday morning flight out of Philly, Jarom and Alixa and Jenna packed up Carlotta and hit the road at about 10:30 Wednesday night so that they would have clear roads to drive on. They had some great hosts in Delaware who had beds made and cribs set up so that they could go right to sleep as soon as they got there. Thursday was spent playing games with cousins and getting ready for a very early cross country trip. Poor Jenna was woken up from her sleep at 5 in the morning so that they could catch their flight. When they got on the plane they found nobody sitting in the third seat in their row. Jarom immediately crossed his fingers and told the universe that if it would give them the empty seat it would be okay if he did not win his fantasy football league championship. It seems that the universe is a dealmaker, because even though the flight attendants seemed to keep that door open for eternity, nobody else walked on and Jenna got her own seat. She slept a little, and watched a lot of Tigger and Pooh on Jarom’s iPod, and soon enough they were landing in the Salt Lake Valley. Grandma picked them up at the airport and couldn’t have been more excited to see one of her favorite grandbabies. You might think that the first thing to be done would be to go to the house, but no. At the top of the things-to-do list was a stop at Café Rio, where Lix got her favorite, a pork salad. This was just the first of many trips to the Café, which is always a sign of a great vacation.

I guess Jenna has been paying attention when Lix gets ready every day

For the next two weeks the crew was staying with Grandma and Grandpa, who are serving as the president of the Salt Lake City mission. So the first morning was spent at the Mission Christmas devotional, where Elder Richard Hinckley, former SLC mission president, was the main speaker. When Jarom was on a mission, he remembers these sort of events as being pretty cool, but it turns out they are only fun for current missionaries, and not all that great for former missionaries with a wife and an 18-month old. Jenna was not overly impressed with any of the speakers, and spent much of the time running around the halls. After a nice lunch, Jarom went to the airport to pick up Lixi’s little sister Mikah who had just finished up her first semester at BYU Idaho. Her two brothers came up from Provo as well and a mini Hegewald reunion was held, first at Lixi’s grandparents house and then moving to the Winn home.

So many Hegewalds

This pile of junk had to be organized and distributed among the missionaries. This was just one of the tasks the Winn children were forced to do during their vacations. Below, another one of those tasks, and a very excited Jolene.

The next day was the last Sunday before Christmas, which in most LDS churches means a program consisting primarily of music. However, the ward that Grandma and Grandpa live in kicked it up a notch. They had what seemed to be a complete orchestra, with cellos, basses, violins, and assorted woodwinds to go with a massive choir and the piano and organ. The group sang songs from Handel’s Messiah, which is Alixa’s favorite. She has memories of going to that musical with her family, and she got a little teary eyed as she listened to the performance. Meanwhile, Jenna could not have been happier as she led the music from the laps of Grandma and Kristi the entire time, although her little arm surely must have been exhausted.

In addition to seeing lots of Jarom’s family, including Jolene, Rob, Kristi and her new boyfriend David, the Winn’s have lots of old college friends who have been unable to escape the vortex-like pull of the Utah Valley. The list consists mostly of Alixa’s old roomies, since Jarom neither has nor has had any friends of his own. First on the list were Dave and Laura, who were visited both pre- and post-delivery of their second baby, reminding Jarom and Alixa just how tiny those things are when they first arrive and how little they remember about how to take care of a newborn. They also got to see Joey, Laura’s pet chinchilla, a treat that Jenna enjoyed immensely.

Jenna has started feeding herself real people food, and Alixa continues to feed the Winn family whenever they get together

Next up was a trip down to P-town, with stops at the Hagen residence (an old bishop from the Winn’s school days) and the Carter household. The original plan was to eat dinner with Mandy and Dave and then play a rousing game of Settlers of Catan, one of Mandy’s favorites. Unfortunately, Jarom got some sort of food poisoning and instead spent the evening alternately throwing up in the Carter’s newly remodeled bathroom and laying on the couch under several blankets. Most of you know that Jarom has never been called the life of any party, but even by his notoriously low standards he considered this to be a little anti-social. So they decided that they would try again the next week when Jarom felt better. They did, and the next time they invited another of Alixa’s former roommates and her new boyfriend, and Jarom was pleasant and conversive and didn’t make a single trip to the bathroom to vomit.

Jenna spent lots of her time playing the piano...

...sending text messages...

...and eating spoons

The next big event was a trip to the BYU basketball game against UTEP. President Winn himself was in attendance, and Grandma was nice enough to stay at home and watch the kiddos. For a pregame meal the family went to Tucanos, where far too much meat was consumed and everyone left fat and happy. After the meal the girls dropped the boys off at the Marriot Center so that they could go to the BYU Bookstore to do some shopping during the first half. The aforementioned Bishop Hagen was kind enough to provide a bunch of tickets that were pretty good and conveniently located only a few rows from the honorable Judge Jordan, a good friend from Delaware who was in Utah visiting his progeny. The game was exciting, with BYU spotting UTEP to an early lead before beating the snot out of them by hitting approximately one million three pointers. The girls got there around halftime, which was plenty of college hoops for them. The twins and their significant others drove north after the game to the Winn home, where they would stay until early the next week. It made the house a little crowded and required some planning in terms of showers and meals, but it was a whole lot of fun to have so much family around. Jenna warmed up to everyone pretty quickly, and it didn’t take long until she could identify Rob, David, Kristi, and Jolene by name, although she would sometimes get a little confused when you would ask her to identify one of the twins while the other was standing nearby.

Two balding dads risking their daughter's lives. The daughters couldn't be more excited about it.

Jenna developed a small case of the sneezers, and Jarom insisted that the result of this particular one be documented

Alixa’s recently returned-missionary grandparents were hosting a little Christmas Eve party for all of the Hegewalds in the valley, so they stopped by to spend some time with the Gunthers and Omi and Opa. The highlight of the party was supposed to be a visit from Santa himself. He did show up, and I suppose for some of the partygoers he was a treat, but Jenna could not have been less pleased with his presence. From the moment he came through the door she was giving him dirty looks and it only took about 30 seconds before she broke into an all out scream. Just the thought of him being in the same room as her was too much. So Jarom took her down to the basement where they watched an episode of Curious George and waited for the bearded intruder to leave. He eventually did, but was nice to enough to leave behind a very cute little nativity set for Jenna even though she wouldn’t talk to him. Maybe next year.