Randy & Raylene

St. George Get Away

2010-06-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

We spent the afternoon at this water attraction in downtown St. George. There is a man made stream running through the middle and it is all built out of the red rocks so prevalent in the St. George area. There is also a fountain the kids can play in also! Audrey loved playing in the water.

Kennedy is loving the park!

Randy and Bethany hanging out.

Daddy to the rescue! Ryan was just not comfortable with Audrey being so high up on the rock wall.

I love this picture of Audrey at the St. George Temple!

Grandpa and Audrey catching the bus.

Bethany and Audrey at the bus stop.

Audrey loves to take pictures! This is a little girl she made friends with in Zion National Park. The funny thing was that this little girl was French and didn't speak a word of English. I don't think Audrey even noticed and without words they were able to communicate that they liked each other! We would run into her and her family at different stops in the canyon. I finally talked to her mother and her mother interpreted to the little girl - she was a year older than Audrey and Audrey took this picture of her!

Audrey loves to take pictures of her own feet! No wonder, they are such cute feet!

Another Audrey self portrait!

Kennedy's Blessing

2010-06-02T09:57:00.000-07:00

Kennedy in her beautiful dress!

Audrey, Ryan, Kennedy, Bethany - the family pose!

Shipshewana Indiana Quilting Retreat

2010-04-21T07:53:00.001-07:00

We stayed at the Farmstead Inn. The area was a lot like this picture - big grassy areas and white farmhouse style homes. This is the East wing - there is also a West wing and a couple of "red barn" style buildings where they have conference rooms. It was a fun place to stay!

A Dear Jane quilt. The retreat was organized and put on by the Dear Jane quilters. Brenda Papadakis saw this old quilt done by Jane A. Stickle in 1863 and decided to figure out how the blocks were made. She wrote a book and published it. Pretty soon ladies were wanting to actually Make the quilt and that is how it all started. There are 225 different block patterns either pieced or appliqued. It takes a significant time to complete this quilt and the idea is to make blocks and keep a diary of the experience - when you are finished you have a family heirloom!!

This is the red and blue version of a Dear Jane quilt - I am trying to get up the nerve to attempt!!

Some of our "quilting buddies" standing behind a Dear Jane quilt.

I went to Shipshewana with Earlene and Marilee. Here we are at the Blue Gate Restaurant.

We saw a lot of Amish people during our stay. They asked we not take pictures of them - (I understand why - how would you like tourists coming into town taking pictures of the Mormons!!?) It was OK to get this picture of a buggy hitched outside the stores. Soon after I got this picture a cute family came out of the store and hopped in.

We ate at an Amish farmhouse one night, and had what was supposed to be a typical Amish dinner. Everywhere we went the condiments on the table included apple butter and a peanut butter spread. We got the recipe for the peanut butter spread and it turns out it consists mainly of peanut butter, marshmellow creme and corn syrup. They serve a couple of dishes - one is potatoes and gravy with noodles on top. Another is a turkey sandwich and potatoes with gravy poured over the top. I think it was called a Manhatten. This is a very old and valuable Amish quilt.

The town is small and one area had some quaint little shops like these. We ate at a cute cupcake shop at the end of this street. Really good food!! We met the owner and she told us the history of starting the store.

Yoder's Red Barn Store was across the street from where we stayed. It had four sections: clothing, fabric, groceries and hardware. A typical country store.

This shop had the best doughnuts I've ever had! They weren't light and airy like Krispy Kremes - they were denser and dipped in caramel and covered with cinnamon sugar powder. Probably a million calories but well worth it!!

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-04-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

In Utah it is hard to do an Easter Egg hunt. We still had a lot of snow on Easter so decided to have the hunt in our family room. Kaleena stuffed the eggs with toys, candy and tickets for the "toy store" she organized upstairs, Nicholas hid the eggs in obvious places and then tried to keep Wedge from finding them. He wanted to participate as well! The little girls ended up with a lot of fun toys and candy - much to their parents delight!!

Gigi is not quite sure what she is supposed to do!

Kennedy is oblivious to the festivities, and Grandpa is loving it!!

I made these skirts for the girls and they came up with the pose!

I was unaware that I had been using these baskets the wrong way!! Chloe and Audrey are sporting their Easter attire!!

Happy Birthday Grandad!!

2010-03-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

Today is my grandad's birthday. He passed away in 1976 and I still miss him. He was born in 1899 so would be 111 years old today. Some day I will see him again and be able to give him a big hug. Until then - love you grandad . . .

My niece has a daughter born on this day - she is one year old now - Happy birthday Peyton you were born on a very special day!

High School Reunion

2010-02-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Recently I met some girlfriends from high school for a reunion. From the left:

Cally, Raylene, Jan, Nancy, Linda, Joyce and Maxine. It started out to be a bigger group but for one reason or another several were unable to attend. We've been out of high school for almost 38 years now!!! We still look 18 though don't we??

I'm Almost Ready!!

2010-02-19T12:31:00.000-08:00

Gigi is going to skip the crawling stage and go straight to walking. This is the game she plays with her mom. She will alternate between standing in front of the couch and leaning on the couch. Next step . . . taking a step!!

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-19T12:26:00.000-08:00

Chloe and Audrey had a great time frosting Valentine Cookies at Grandma's house. Audrey loved the sprinkles and piled them high with candy on top! (she, however, doesn't like cookies with frosting or sprinkles on them - she insists on plain cookies to eat) Chloe loves the frosting and candy though, so she made sure that the cookie she was going to eat had wall to wall frosting AND candy! They had a ball!!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

2010-01-27T12:31:00.001-08:00

We took some time this year to See the Lights - First in Ogden . . . This is the group - minus me . . . even Wedge came and it was SOOO cold!!! We went back to Emily's house for Hot Chocolate when we were thoroughly frozen!!

Kaleena and Chloe - the picture I took of Chloe with her mom was blurry, but this one turned out cute!

Next we went to Temple Square - Randy has a blanket wrapped around his neck. I told him he couldn't make fun of me anymore for the towel wrapped around my neck when we toured the Grand Canyon in a snowstorm!!

Gigi was the warmest of us all!
She was quite cozy in her warm little "sleeping bag" in her stroller.

Chloe and Audrey LOVE each other - Bethany says they are frenemies - They love each other to death but don't he sitate to fight over toys, etc.!

Here are my beautiful girls. Interesting that the daughters are not standing by their mothers!!

Grandma and her sweeties!!

The Hendricks Head for Portland

2009-10-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

About 2 or 3 months ago, Randy said he was going to take off a few days of work and wanted to know what I wanted to do. I told him I wanted to go on a road trip - my favorite kind of vacation!! He thought Portland would be fun so that was the PLAN!!

This is our stop at Twin Falls, Idaho. Randy had always wanted to see Shoshone Falls and so it was the first stop on our trip to Portland.

Our first night on the trip we stayed in a Rodeway Inn in Pendleton, Oregon. Whatever you do DO NOT STAY THERE!! It was a dive! The room was small and the bathroom was really weird!! It had a tiled shower from the 1960's with a floor that severely sloped to the drain. Made it hard to balance as you were taking a shower. There was no tub - the refrigerator did not work . . . just don't go there!

As we were driving through Hood River - Randy mentioned that his printing company had done work for a pizza place there, as we turned off the road to find a place to get lunch, there was Pietro's Pizza, the place he had done printing for. We stopped and had a great lunch for a VERY good price!! The food was excellent too. Hood River is a very pretty place. This is a picture of Multnomah Falls - it was the biggest and best of the waterfalls we saw. They said that a few years ago a boulder the size of a bus fell out of the wall behind the falls and crashed down to the lower falls. We also saw Horsetail Falls and Wakeenah Falls.
We spent Saturday at Seaside the furthest point west of the Lewis and Clark trail. Here is Randy with Lewis and Clark!! There is a boardwalk area with shops behind the statue where we spent some time and had crab at the local restaurant.

We visited the Japanese Gardens in Portland on Sunday - it was very beautiful, peaceful and green. They insisted you not have your cell phones on and to quietly view the gardens.

I took lots of pictures of roses from the Portland Rose Garden. It is in the same area as the Japanese Gardens. There were lots of beautiful roses there. I think they create new breeds of roses in this garden. There was one they developed named after Julia Roberts. (Not this one)

No trip would be complete without visiting at least one shopping center. This is The Lloyd Center in downtown Portland. Lots of great stores and and ice skating rink as well!! This was our last Portland adventure - except the outlet malls on the way out of town!! It was so great to be with Randy for a few days and just be together. We listened to a book on tape on the way home and the trip just flew by . . . it was hard to come home. Except we missed all of you!!!

Thanksgiving Point

2009-09-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

We recently went to Thanksgiving Point for their $2 Tuesday. Audrey and Chloe had a great time at the Farm Animals area. Here they are waiting to go on a ride on the horse drawn wagon.

Chloe loves this little house . . .

Audrey is very brave feeding the bunnies!

Happy Birthday Grandma

2009-09-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

I had a great birthday - two of my favorite people are in the picture with me!! Thanks to all of my family for a great celebration!!!

Tea Party in the Backyard

2009-05-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

Chloe, Audrey, Randy and I had a "tea party" in the back yard. The girls were most excited about having it under the umbrella!! Lemonade and cookies were on the menu and everything had to be little (little cups, little cookies, little chairs). Here is Chloe helping herself to the Lemonade. (I went all out with the food). Audrey had lots of drinks in her little cup.

Say CHEESE!!

2009-05-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of my week is watching Audrey on Mondays for Bethany and Ryan. She is a joy. Randy and I meet in Sandy to give her back to her parents and we all have dinner together. Here we are at Costa Vida - we went there because Audrey loves CHEESE and she can get a little cup of shredded cheese there!!

The Wicked Crowd

2009-05-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

We made it to see Wicked. I read in the newspaper that tonight is the last night it will play in Salt Lake City. I'm glad we made it. Randy was the one who was willing to get up at 4:00 to go stand in line to get tickets. We went together of course and got our limit of 6 tickets. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy and we were lucky to get tickets at all - we ended up watching it in the directors box as they opened up those seats at the last minute. Pictured are Randy, Ann Heath, Kaleena, Emily, Rod Heath and ME!!

2009-04-21T15:48:00.001-07:00

Chloe is our little soccer player. Her team is called the butterflies. Randy wants to know why that name wasn't considered for the REAL soccer team! Their team rally is gooo sparkle butterflies. Chloe spends most of her time following the crowd. She is one of the youngest on the team (she is 3) and so isn't really sure of what she is supposed to do. This uniform is the smallest size and drowns her.

2009-04-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

We had a little Easter egg hunt with Chloe and Audrey a couple of weeks ago. Chloe is three years old and really gets the concept by now . . . Audrey is only two and will understand how it works by next year. They loved their little toys and candy - Randy and I love being with them while they experienced it! They are so much fun to be with!!!

Chloe is Totally in to it!!

Audrey would rather throw rocks in our waterfall than look for eggs!!

Audrey's favorite was the M & M's but doesn't like the Chocolate on her hands.

Chloe's favorite was the bubbles in a duck necklace.

Reno Automobile Museum

2009-03-17T22:48:00.000-07:00

Randy was excited to visit the automobile museum in Reno. This was one of my favorites. It was beautiful and very expensive. It is a 1936 Mercedes Benz. It cost over $10,000 when it was originally built.

Circus Circus hosted the Aggie Fans

2009-03-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

We stayed at Circus Circus in Reno for the trip - my brother Aaron got us a free room - it was great! We got there Thursday afternoon and stayed till Sunday morning. Circus Circus was the host hotel for the Aggies. They even had a pep rally in an open hallway between casinos. It was so fun walking around the hotel seeing all of the Aggie t-shirts being worn by Aggie fans. We were all excited to see one another and talk to each other about our hopes for the game that day. We were there for all three tournament games.

2009-03-17T22:17:00.000-07:00

This is the final score of the game between Nevada and Utah State - We won! 2009 WAC champions! We were a little worried that they may not win after the previous game where they only beat New Mexico State by one point in the final seconds of the game, but they didn't let us down and the relief of having won was felt by all Aggie fans!!

I Want to be a Blogger!!

2009-02-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

As you can see, I have not posted a blog on this site for almost a year. I had an intensive training session from Kaleena on how to be a blogger last night and so I am on my way. I also have a blog called Owning a Home in Utah at Utahhome4you.blogspot.com. It is in the development stages so check back when I get it going!! That is all for now . . .

What's up in Bountiful, Utah?

2008-04-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog and so this is kind of an experiment.
I am looking forward to keeping in touch with friends and family and perhaps reconnecting with people I haven't seen for a while. Permit me to share with you our adventures and some photos of great moments in our lives . . .

I also would like to promote my real estate business on this site! I need a buyer for a beautiful Bountiful Condo I have listed currently. It is a twin home style rambler/condo in a cul-de-sac, with a small yard and was built in 2006. It is fully finished and has a nice master suite with 3 additional bedrooms and a total of 3 bathrooms, AND a 2 car garage! If anyone would like more information on it e-mail me: raylene18@hotmail.com. See accompanying pictures!