Recipe for a Perfect Wedding (and Marriage)

from the kitchen of: Karen Mordue

Take 2 kids in Love

Add 1 proposal on top of a beautiful mountain

cover with a little bit of icing

and a little bit of flowing frothiness

and seal it in the right place

with the right authority

(grandpa covey)

For Time and all Eternity.

El Cordova!

I tried looking up "El Cordova" in the Spanish to English dictionary to find out the meaning of this word, but I kept getting the "I'm sorry, I really have no idea what you are trying to find here...are you SURE you spelled it right?" message. But to my eight-year old brain, "El Cordova" will eternally mean unfettered freedom from adult supervision during the most idyllic time of my childhood. For a brief span of time, my family lived in this hacienda-style hotel on Coronado Island, and yes...my siblings and I roamed freely as we explored the beaches and the famous Hotel Del Hotel. We made fast friends with the sweet old lady who owned the small little gift shop inside the courtyard of the El Cordova and she always gave us candy. (I truly hope my little brothers never "purchased" their candy using the five finger discount...). It was here in this very swimming pool that my brother Tom, "the FISH," taught himself how to swim by hanging on to the edge with one hand while paddling around with his other. On one particurly hot Sunday, my dad wouldn't let us go swimming to cool off, so we "swam" in the bathtub. I remember ripping open my leg on a fence by the beach and still have the scars to show for it. We collected sand dollars and star fish and brought them home to dry them out. I was introduced for the first time to fascinating t.v. shows such as Popeye the Sailor Man, Get Smart, I Love Lucy, Mr. Ed and The Monkees. I recently visited this hotel and ate lunch at a restaurant that is in the courtyard and shared with my daughters my girlhood memories of living at this place. It dawned on me in amazement that my parents let me and my little brothers run around so freely with out constantly hovering over us. I am even more amazed to think that while my parents and the younger kids of the family lived in one apartment, they allowed my teen-age siblings to live in a totally different hotel room clear across the courtyard from where we were. When I mentioned all this to my parents, they just smiled and said, "times were different then."

It's sad that we can't let our children have that kind of freedom.

Three Dollars

When I was little and my Grandma Thon (pronounced Tone) was still living, we always had to go to her house to pick up our homemade birthday cake and a birthday card that contained three crisp one dollar bills. During the time we lived in Utah and California, we didn't get the home made cake (obviously), but we always got a card in the mail with three dollars. I remember when my older brother turned eighteen and how he chuckled at the card with "the big money." We loved getting this from Grandma Thon...it wasn't just about the money, but the tradition and knowing that we could count on getting three dollars for our birthday.

Today, while on my birthday run along the beach in San Diego, I looked in earnest for a sand dollar to take home to Ashley. I hadn't seen any so far on this trip, but I was out early enough this morning that I thought I might have a chance of finding one. As I got to the end of the beach, where very few people venture, I began looking and lo and behold...I found one! I went a few feet more and I found and second one and then a third one. And I thought of Grandma Thon and her three birthday dollars. Thank you, Grandma!

Some Like it Hot

Today I went running along a beach path past this very old and very famous hotel on Coronado Island. When I was eight, my family moved to Southern California from Utah, and we had to live at a hotel for about a month or so while our house was getting ready for us to move in. The hotel we lived in was kitty corner from the Hotel Del Coronado, and my brothers and I had so much fun exploring this hotel. I remember running up and down the stair cases and pretending that we lived there with all the other fancy people. We played at the beach everyday and collected sand dollars. I looked for sand dollars this morning and could not find any--this made me a little sad and reminiscent of my childhood and that very weird time in my life that seemed floaty and a little surreal.

After my run, I came back and met up with the rest of the family and we went down to the beach in front of the "Hotel Del" and quoted lines from "Some Like it Hot" (we watched it last night) and pointed out the different places that were a part of the film. We laid out our towels and blankets and soaked up the 80 degree sunshine and wondered out loud how cold it was back home and decided that we needed to stay for longer than five days because we are a few of those "someones" who like it hot.

Happy Valentines Day!

May 28, 2010

Bountiful Temple