Monday, March 22, 2010

A little SLC

Glen was invited to present a seminar to dentists in Salt Lake City, so I went along. While he and son, David, spent the day with the dentists, I made my way a couple of blocks east to Temple Square and the art museum. Then I ventured a bit further east to the Lion House. It was a gray, cold day with intermittent snow flurries. The west wind blew, so on my journey back to the Radison, sleety snowflakes were in my face.

Glen surprised me with a new camera earlier this month after I expressed my frustration with my old camera which sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. I was really disappointed when it stopped working before I could snap H & J in their white dresses amongst the beautiful flowers at the temple on their special day. May I say that I am really enjoying my new camera.

Weddings go on in spite of the weather. How many brides can you count? I counted seven, but may not have caught them all.


If you want to enjoy a spectacular spring flower display, it's best to come a month later. There were some of these and pansies.


These were the only tulips in bloom. I think there must be some source of heat under this flower bed.

Lunch was a bowl of clam chowder and a roll.

Our room was on the north side of the Radison on the 15th floor overlooking this parking lot. You may notice an unusual number of pick-up trucks.

This is why. Men in orange vests and hard hats drive into the lot early, early in the morning. By mid-afternoon, they begin returning to the lot. There is an amazing amount of construction going on in downtown Salt Lake where the old Crossroads shopping center and ZCMI Center once stood. That is sobering as I can remember shopping in both shopping centers when they were new and I was an intern at Utah Power and Light. Now they have both come down and they were younger than I am!

Later in the day, Glen and I went for a drive. After driving by our old home in Bountiful, we found ourselves up in the Avenues looking at the old houses and the hospital where Glen was born. We soon realized that we were at the back gate of the cemetery. We drove right to the grave site of President Hinckley. That was a pleasant surprise.


We continued to explore and found the markers of several other former presidents. We reminisced about the time we brought the kids years ago to the cemetery to explore.


We also found the marker for James E. Talmage.

As we drove back toward the temple and the setting sun, we were reminded that the next day was the first day of Spring and time for the equinox. The sun was peeking through the spires of the temple.

As we drove closer, my new camera enabled me to capture this shot.

We spent Saturday in Provo. We crashed the very end of Nichelle's baby shower, visited with the Alvords, and had dinner with Brittany and Dane. After a good night's sleep in our home away from home we headed south for church in St. George.

We enjoyed a wonderful Sacrament meeting where Jordan bore strong testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ and shared the thoughts and feelings of his heart. He gave a wonderful talk, probably my favorite missionary talk ever. I was so thankful to be there. Elder Ika will be a wonderful missionary! It was a very special day for his entire extended family, but most especially for his mother, Glen's sister, Wylene.


As we headed south after the meeting, we had plenty of time to study the road leading to the new bridge as well as the bridge which will cross the Colorado River just south of Hoover Dam. Once we turned left off of Boulder's main drag we were in stop and go traffic for eight miles and it wasn't due to construction. It made our trip one hour longer. We had traveled this route on our way north on Wednesday and spent almost two extra hours getting over the dam, but that was due to blasting for the new road. Our advice is to avoid this route until the bridge is finished.

As you can see, that will not be anytime soon!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Back outside in the garden

I am happy to report that I am feeling well enough to be outside gardening for a couple of hours each day. I am slowly catching up and there is now a Spring Garden. Since I am planting a few weeks later than I usually do, let's hope that May is May and June is June this year. My tomatoes will need as many pleasant days as possible!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Nae's day


Happy Birthday Janae!

I hope that the current boys in your life gathered round to make your day special.

You seem to have been destined to spend your life surrounded by boys!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

For Lynette


“Where is Kansas?” asked the man, in surprise.

“I don’t know,” replied Dorothy, sorrowfully; “but it is my home, and I’m sure it’s somewhere.”

“Very likely.”

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Brazilian Beauties

Glen asked that I snap a picture of this plant from Brazil while it was in bloom. He has been very patient while waiting for these pink beauties.

This Brazilian beauty arrived in Mesa a couple of weeks ago. Isabella is the sister of our own beautiful Emilia. Today she was married in the Mesa Arizona Temple to Issac who has been patiently waiting. The story of how they met involves Emilia and she can best tell it!

The weather was lovely when they entered the temple this morning. Unfortunately it was cold, windy, and rainy when they exited in early afternoon; another wrinkle to their unique love story. We were bemoaning the weather in the lobby while waiting for the bride and groom when a lady stopped, looked at us and said, "My son was married last summer when it was 115 degrees. Count your blessings!"

I think that an umbrella as a prop makes for a cute picture!

Family gathered around as I snapped away.





It was a gathering of umbrellas and a wonderful day in a spite of the weather!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Some sock monkeys

No, the "R" and "H" don't stand for Ruby and Heather (they got tutus for their doll's ice stating outfits.) Yes, they do stand for Raymond and Henry. I've worked hard to finish them this week so that they can make it into the box leaving for St. Kitt's on Monday. I guess sock monkeys are most often made from socks, but I started from scratch so I guess I've been knitting socks, too. I also read "Becoming Jane Eyre" this week and there was a reference to the housekeeper knitting socks with four (or was it three) needles. Wow, now I know what that is all about and might I add, it's pretty hard going at the beginning of all those legs, arms, and tail (yes, they each have a tail which I slide through the slates so they would stay upright for their first formal picture :) As I wrangle four needles, I find that either my fingers are in the way or perhaps, that I need more hands. I'm not sure.

It was a free pattern at Michael's and I just couldn't resist. I hope that they fit in with all the monkeys on St. Kitt's!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

One month of garden neglect . . .

gets you this overgrown and going to seed mess. The bees are in heaven with broccoli, arugula, curly leaf, and romaine flowers to explore. They seem to be especially enamored with the arugula on the left. Here's hoping that I have enough energy to get my Earthboxes replanted over the next two weeks!