Draper Temple Visit

Tuesday afternoon we picked up Allen, Nancy, and Martha Ostergar and drove to Draper for a visit to the new Draper Temple during its pre-dedication open house. After the tour we went to the Braza Grill in Murray for dinner. It was a very nice outing.

For the temple tour, one parks at an outlying chapel and rides a shuttle bus to the temple grounds. They emphatically reinforce that you must catch the proper color-coded bus back or you will be dropped miles from your parked car at the wrong chapel. We were reminded at least ten times that ours was the green bus. The world must be chockablock with inattentive people.

The temple interior is really beautiful with a kind of rich-taupe-brown color palette and lots of natural wood. Most of the furnishings are quite beautiful and surprisingly edgy. The only disappointment for me was that many of the LDS-art reproductions hanging on the wall are awful. There are, however, many good original paintings that are really nice. And the murals in the ordinance rooms are great.

The food at Braza Grill is delicious. Their salad bar/buffet has less variety than Tucano's, but the meat, pao de queijo, and other dishes are better than Tucano's. We liked it.

Chrurch photo of the completed Draper Temple
taken before the open house

We pretended the "green" bus was a #94 in London

Watch out for those updrafts, Kris!

The baptistery is fantastic with lots of natural light

The aspen murals in the other ordinance
room are even better than these

The Celestial Room has a huge quantity of vertical space

Martha, Allen, Nancy, Katy, and Kris

Angelo Moroni - must be Italian

Back on the "green" bus again

Braza Grill

Kris waiting for some churrasco

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Bits and Bobs

Not to worry. This post isn't about remnants of fabric and bits of thread. It's about recent unrelated activities all stitched into a single post.

Friday evening the "group" gathered at Stan and Sharon Miller's for a genuinely lovely dinner: pork loin w/ (incredible) home made mustard, high-brow funeral potatoes, glazed carrots, summer salad, hot rolls, and Godiva chocolate cheese cake. These dinners are always better than eating out. We thought fondly of Vern and Jerry in Brasil.

Sharon, Liz, Nancy, Kris, and Vicki
looking as lovely as they are

Rod polishing off one last petit morceau of cheesecake

Sharon, Liz, and Phil

Sunday evening, Anna and Rob hosted the family dinner. Emily, Jayson, Madi, and Katy stayed in Provo to watch the Academy Awards, so Kris and I gave Max and Lizzie a ride to Taylorsville. When Lizzy came to the door she looked fantastic, dressed in a pouffy gold princess dress, a dashing pink straw-like hat, and flip flops. She was set to go -- no coat required! The food was great and it was fun for the cousins to get together. The adults had a nice visit, too.

Anders, Tucker, Max, Lucy, Lizzie, Meg,
and Ollie enjoying their dinner

Clara liked the artisan bread

It seems that Kris and Meagan like the bread, too

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

That February Holiday Weekend

I thought it was nice to have Valentine's Day and President's Day on the same weekend. It made the weekend seem longer and more festive, somehow.

February weather is interesting. It can snow like crazy one day, and the snow is gone the next. Valentine's day was snowy and cold, but we were snug and warm inside reading by the fire. Valentine's dinner was a last-resort-sort-of thing. Because we were HUNGRY and Outback Steak House could not have take out ready until after 7:30, we opted for Cafe Rio take out, which was good, but not the viande rouge we had dreamed of.

Sunday the family was on its own for dinner, so we had a more intimate dinner, joined only by Chelsea Gibbs. On President's Day evening the family all joined us for a huge Olaf salad. We missed Rob and the Hastings kids who spent the day on the ski slopes. Clara and Anna did a good job of making up for the missing members of their family. We baked a batch of cookies to finish the evening.

The Valentine's Day storm left us about
5 or 6 inches of snow to shovel

It looks wintery but was gone in a day

An amusing old couple reading by the fire

Kris's Valentine flowers offer a promise of spring

Sunday afternoon with Katy and Chelsea

The girlies (sans Maren) on President's Day,
booking Miss Saigon tickets online

Phillip and Meagan, post Olaf salad, looking content

Lizzie, Max, Clara, Meg, and Ollie slicking up the chips and salsa

Baby Goat Cheese loved the cookies,
climbed the stool, and served herself several

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Heppy Valentimes Day!

Wishing you a very happy Saint Valentine's Day. If all goes well, Katy will make her famous "chocolate-covered buttah," and it will be a happy day indeed.

It's true - The couple that prays together, stays together.

Have a great holiday weekend!

OXO

D.

It's Always Fun When Debby Comes

Debra Sue Darling Gibbs arrived in Provo Thursday afternoon. Her visits are always greatly anticipated because something fun always happens when she comes. It has always been that way and all of us, married children included, look forward to a visit from Debby.

Thursday evening, since we had Meg and Ollie with us, we ordered take away from La Casita and ate at home. Friday, Katy went with Debby to SLC to pick up Hilary before proceeding on to Logan to surprise Alison because it was her birthday this weekend. They all returned to SLC on Saturday and Kris and I went north to meet them for a screening of Last Chance Harvey, which was playing at Jordan Landing (no longer showing in Utah Valley). On the way, we dropped by the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. The exterior is now complete and impressive. The movie was well-acted and built around a good story. The best part, however, was that a significant part of the movie was filmed as Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson walked around London. We returned to Provo and had a birthday celebration for Alison at the Bombay House.

The Oquirrh Mountain temple

The east front

A London-lover's movie

The lovely ladies at the Jordan Landing Cinemark

Waiting for the main feature

Debby and Kris at the Bombay House

Alison, Alison (Hilary's dear friend),
Paris (her friend), and Hilary

Yesterday (Sunday) the family came to our home for dinner, which is always fun. This Sunday was even better because Debby and Alison were here too. Deb bought a delicious birthday cake at Dippidee in American Fork: chocolate with raspberry filling. It went down very well.

Baby Goat Cheese, Lizzy, Lucy, Madeline, and Max

The birthday girl and her moma
with the delicious cake and cupcakes

Nice job, Al

It was a great weekend. Thanks to the Gibbs girls for coming. We are already looking forward to their next visit, whenever that will be.

OXO

D.

A Winter's Tale

Hank and Colette were in the area last week for a "furnace check" at their cabin. Hank was also able to ski a bit and they hosted a dinner or two at the cabin as well. Kris was sick with some crazy strain of flu for most of the week, so she stayed in Provo, but Stephen and Ann, Tom and Katy, Jeff and Amy, J.R. and Nicole, and I went to Brickerhaven on Friday night for a good dinner and visit with H&C. The snow was deep and beautiful, the fire was cheery, and the food and company were stellar, so it was a very nice evening.

Sunday was Stake Conference. We normally meet at 10:00 A.M. in the Tabernacle, but the other Stake using the facility that day had a General Authority who pulled rank and made our stake take the later time. He must be a football aficionado. We had conference at 2:00 P.M., which made the morning quite free and leisurely. Katy and Tom decided to take advantage of the slow morning to host a "compound" breakfast. The meal was so enjoyable that we decided to share a meal once a week on Monday evenings. We will all take turns cooking and hosting, which is great, because it means at least two less meals to cook during the month. We had the first communal dinner last night at our house. It should be fun while it lasts.

H&C's cabin in the woods

The Ringers and two sets of Taylors at the cabin

Conference-morning breakfast at Tom and Katy's

That's all for now, but Debra Sue is coming to town at the end of the week, so stay tuned.

OXO

D.