St. George Get Away

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

Kennedy in her beautiful dress!





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

Shipshewana Indiana Quilting Retreat

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

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!!

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

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!!

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

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!!

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!!