What Friendship Means...

Deer Creek

Thanks, Brady, for coming to town and planning this boating trip to Deer Creek. As usual, we had a great time with the Rowsers! No wonder Brady constantly impresses the women - he was amazing on the wakeboard!

READY...

SET...GO... (although the video is terrible, the sound tells it all!)

Birthday Adventures

We LOVE our grandkids, but birthdays can be tricky knowing what presents will bring smiles to their faces...so we began a new tradition to, h0pefully, create memories that will last longer than unneeded toys.
Jody, Mary, and I celebrated Mary's 1st birthday by going out to lunch. She had fun throwing food everywhere...on the floor, table, and herself! What a mess! Jody cleaned it up before we left, but Mary was totally in charge of her very first birthday!

Taylor celebrated his 8th bday at Lagoon. He nearly bit a hole in his shirt sleeve worried over riding Wicked or Colossus, even though we promised him he could ride whatever he wanted for his birthday! His favorites were House of Terror and the back row of the Tidal Wave. He's already talking about going back this year and riding Colossus. We love our Taylor bug!
Ethan spent his 6th bday at Hogle Zoo with his siblings, cousin Jason, Sharece, and Bryce - and one VERY scary ROARing lion! We also visited grandma Fern, played SkipBo, and saw newly-born cousin Makayla at the new IMC. Ethan awoke to a Belgian waffle breakfast, then we drove to Capitol Theater to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I'm certain we sung Chitty's theme song at least 100 times! On his "real" birthday, we bowled at Fat Cats with gpa Lee and family. Gpa won 360 tickets on an arcade game, and the kids traded the tickets for toys. We had KFC chicken, brownies, & melted ice cream at Murray Park! Early the next morning gpa, Brent, Taylor, Emily, and Ethan climbed Mt. Nebo - 9 miles round trip up some very steep terrain! What a HUGE achievement!

Emily and I went to the Oquirrah Mountain Temple Open House. How exciting for me to experience this thru the eyes of an 8-year old. We're looking forward to going back when Emily is 12 to do baptisms. We painted darling picture frames for her and Rebekah, and she learned how to play Fast Scrabble. Grandma Fern invited us up for a game of SkipBo and gave Emily some of her famous homemade buttermints. We also saw Murray City's production of Beauty and the Beast. We also had Swedish pancakes - I'm so glad Emily loves them as much as I do! Emily is so grown up and smart!

Rebekah's birthday included lunch with us and daddy at Zupas and bowling at Fat Cats. Then off to Hogle Zoo where we rode the carousel AND had an ice cream. The cloudy day kept people away - but the animals sure were lively! Sharece loved our surprise visit afterwards to help them move into their new town home in Bountiful. On the way home it rained so hard - we saw a triple rainbow! The next morning we went to Emily's special baptism. Rebekah is so loveable and is getting so big - I love her tons!

Aiden's 5th birthday included a sleepover, Tracy Aviary and Liberty Park's playground, Hogle Zoo, and grandma Fern's for a game of SkipBo. What a blast! Ohhh, and Aiden made a spider dinner using Rhodes rolls! We had a "lucky" day. We got a great parking place at the zoo, sat on the very front seat of the train, petted a penguin that wobbled to the fence, and Aiden won several games of SkipBo at grandma Fern's. Aiden is so much fun and is my little buddy!

We flew to Tuscon to celebrate Kyler's 4th birthday (a bit late - but we got to spend 4 whole days together!). We went to the zoo and to the mountains for a picnic. We saw Kyler's soccer practice and game. He didn't care too much about running the field; but once the coach put him in as goalie, he was utterly amazing! He blocked 2 goals in about a 10-second time period. He was the hero of the game although they lost about 10-0. Kyler is amazing on his new swingset. He does flips on the bars and swings super high! We miss Kyler and Ryan so much and look forward to the day when they move back to Utah.

We're still waiting to celebrate Jacob, Jack, Austin, and Melana's birthdays. What fun memories will we make???

Idaho's Back Country

There is really nothing that excites Lee more than to load our camping gear into the plane and head out of town - not just anywhere - but especially to Idaho's beautiful back country. Moose Creek, Johnson Creek, or Smiley Creek are 3 favorite spots! We spent one week at Smiley Creek this year but flew to 14 different airstrips - sometimes to eat, sometimes just to touch 'n go to the next one. Idaho certainly has some beautiful land! No matter which way we looked, there was water - lakes, streams, waterfalls. It was beautiful! When we landed at Johnson Creek, two couples from Afton, WY, knew who we were. "Oh, you're the ones staying in a yellow tent with two blue lawn chairs at Smiley Creek," they said. Freaky! Modern technology - and webcams. I hope we were on our best behavior! We (mostly Lee) also enjoyed 2 BIG hikes. Thank heaven's for a good, solid, leak-proof tent. We're the only campers that stayed dry the last two nights.

Last summer we stayed at Moose Creek. I worried SO much about bears that Lee changed our plans for this year, and we stayed at a more "people friendly" spot! Not the cheapest camping trip, but possibly one of the most beautiful!

Dumbo Finally Delivers

Our family vacationed at Disneyland in the "olden days" - waaay back when the parking lot was located next to the rides. As we left the Park late one evening, I cried that I didn't get to ride Dumbo the Elephant. Dad said it was too far to walk back to the ride and promised I could ride it the next time we visited Disneyland. There have been many "next time" visits, but never enough time to wait in the long lines to ride Dumbo. This past June when Lee and I vacationed there, Dumbo delivered on the 3rd day! We had the early-bird pass to enter the Park one hour early. After riding Buzz Lightyear twice, and on our way to Splash Mountain, we passed Dumbo. Lee wasn't about to get on the ride (what an excuse that round n' round rides make him sick!) - but he did wait for me to go on Dumbo. Bless his heart for standing there taking pictures of ME - his wife - 50 years after she wanted to ride Dumbo the first time!