I met up with my Golden Girls for an afternoon, which melted my heart. I sure love those gals. Thanks Becky, Kathy, Teresa, and Jeanette for all of the memories and a great friendship.
A friend from high school that we've kept in touch with some, Mike Bullen, flies smaller airplanes and he took Kathy Fishburn, Dale and I up in his plane. We were able to view all of the water that's still causing some concern for the area as well as see Bear Lake, the mountains, the Ogden area, and the Great Salt Lake. The highlight of the flight was watching the sun go down. It was sooo pretty! We landed in Brigham City, UT where Mike flew out of, and grabbed a bite to eat at Maddox and then he drove us back to Logan. Aren't friends great?
I ushered some fun shows for the Eccles; Leaping LuLu and Slapstick Sonata. Both were fun and I'm grateful for the friendships I've made while serving, as well as the cultural refinement I've gained by seeing the shows. It's been a win, win deal.
I also served in the Logan Temple's Youth Center. I helped watch two kids, 5 & 6, (that were brothers and sisters) that had been in the foster care program with the family that adopted them. They also had a 17, 14 and 10 year old that were their biological children. It was really special to see how the older kids totally loved the younger ones and vise versa. Just a really neat experience to see the tears and feel the love during the sealing. Serving in the Youth Center and seeing these special children sealed to their parents just melts my heart every time. I feel pretty blessed being able to serve in this way.
I am also helping KaeDawn Falsev, a teacher at Sky View high school, with a class she teaches. I get a couple of kids assigned to me to help them with a resume, and then hold a mock job interview with kids in the class. The class is helping them to prepare for life after high school, in the real world. I was impressed with the caliber of kids taking the class. There's a group of 5 women that help out. It's been a learning experience for me, but I enjoy working with the kids.
The Mallory gang had spring break and headed to Utah to spend some of it with us. While they were here they went to Sacrament Mtg. with us and heard Dale and I speak in one of the Married Student Wards, then they went with me to hear Dale sing with the American Festival Chorus at the Logan Tabernacle for an inter-faith devotional. They had everyone from the Institute Choir, a Hindu meditation and prayer to bagpipes, a Bass player, and the Westminster Bell Choir preform. It was a nice all around program.
Dale took a evening, and a full-day off work. For the evening, he played lumberjack, and with Matt's help cut down the big willow tree that we've been battling for the last while after every wind storm. Matt's help came in especially handy for the clean up the next day. Thanks Matt!!
TIMBER!!!!!! Now the work begins. :(
After they got it cleaned up, while I was serving in the Logan Temple's clothing area, Dale took the Mallory gang to go fishing at Wellsville Lake. It even had a playground area for the kids to play at. Jaxson and Amie were the only two that caught fish, but they all came home with a sunburn and a smile on their face.
I tagged along with the Mallory crew and we headed south and met up with Danica and her boyfriend, Jason, as well as Matt's family from Burley, for some dinner at Red Lobster where we grabbed a bite to eat before heading over to the Vivint Smart Home Arena to watch the Jazz vs. The Cavaliers basketball game. The Jazz were behind most of the game, but pulled it through for a win in the end. For half-time they had the team that went to the play-offs awhile back highlighted. We got to see some of my favorites---John Stockton, Jeff Hornesack (who is the coach of the Cavaliers) Coaches Frank Layden and Jerry Soloan to name a few. It was pretty neat and a fun game. We stayed over night in Salt Lake because it was a late game.
After a good nights sleep and some breakfast we went to the Utah Natural History Museum. It was pretty neat and very informative. The kids loved it. (So did us bigger kids)
It was a fun full day. We celebrated Jaxson's birthday with him a little early. I'm sure he didn't mind a bit though. He turned 11 this month!! Hard to believe. They grow up so fast. We were glad we got to spend some time with them.
With all of the snow they've had this winter they've had a few chances to go skiing at Pomerell, and Langston's learned to ski. He's pretty proud of it too.
Day 2: Dale headed over to the Conference Center with all the other board members and so I hooked up with the spouses and we all bought a Mile High 3-day City Pass and headed over to the Denver Museum of Art. We rode the metro to the end of the free fare area and walked about three blocks to get to the museum. We ended up walking through a city park that's in front of the state Capital Building that put us out of our comfort zone a bit. There were A LOT of homeless people sitting around on the grass and because marijuana is legal there, the strong smell of it made us wonder if we'd get high walking through the park.
The museum was really neat though and so family friendly with a lot of interactive type areas for kids. I'm always in awe at how people come up with such varied forms and ways to present art. From paintings, paper mache', Contemporary, Fashion Designs, clothing and textiles, Ceramics, metals, and fabric, we saw it all.
We found a place to eat some lunch and then headed out again to go see the Molly Brown House. She was quite the gal, with a lot of money and a lot of courage to speak our for women's rights back in the day. Ever heard of the Unsinkable Molly Brown? That's her!
We avoided going through the park on the way back to catch the metro because there was a Trump protest going on. Boy, there were a ton of police around and even a Swat team. We definitely felt a lot safer walking back with all of them around.
Day 3: We met up with the guys for a lunch that was hosted by UASBO and then while the guys went back into meetings us gals ventured out again. I lined up a ride for us through Uber (my first time using the app) and this time we headed to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. This was way cool too!! Another place that was very family friendly as well. I probably liked the Taxidermy area the best. The scenes were so life-like and just really neat. We got a ride back with Uber as well and both ways we had a nice car and a friendly driver. I'm sold this is the way to go when you need a ride.
Day 4: Some of the group left before noon to catch their flights. We had the hotel hold our bags because we had a later flight out, so Tonya Bagley and I used our navigational skills and combined the free ride metro area with walking to get to the History of Colorado Museum. Another real nice family friendly museum. We learned quite a bit about Colorado too. Did you know Colorado had a refugee camp for people from Japan after World War II? Again, as we were walking, we saw a lot of police out.
Who would of thought I'd be spending the majority of my time in Denver in museums? You know Denver wasn't like I thought it would be. I never really even saw the mountains until we were out a bit, but I enjoyed myself. However, it's not a place I'd jump to come back too. I think I'd like to be outside of the downtown area next time.
Tonya and I joined up with board members, Kathy Christeansen, Teri Rhodes, and our husbands for some lunch and then we got our bags and caught a ride from the hotel to the metro stop that takes us to the airport.
Farewell Denver, it was fun for the spouse,s and the board members were enlightened on new issues and procedures for helping school boards. We have a fun school board and I'm glad to be able to associated with them. Thanks Dale for letting me tag along.
Nate's been busy with his residency winding down, but he was able to get away and meet up with some of his buddies from high school in Las Vegas for a bachelor's party for Eric Avery before Eric got married. They enjoyed the time catching up with everyone.
Kim got away from her training and work as well, and soaked in San Diego's sunshine to give her a boost . Sunshine on my shoulders always makes me happy, how about you?
Lindsay took Eloise, Nora, and Grandma Leslie (Nora's grandma) to Salt Lake and spent some time with Nora's birth mom, Sadie. They went to lunch and did some shopping. It was good to have a girls outing.
Andrew got home from working in Missouri. While he was there he got in a little sight-seeing and he got to see Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn's houses in Hannibal, MO. Pretty neat.
He also got to see the cave Mark Twain hung out in Hannibal, MO.
On their way back, Andrew got to go into a mine at Bonne Terre, MO. It had a big lake in the mine and they got to go on a boat ride. He said that they do a lot of scuba diving there and that the water was really clear. He really liked the mine.
The kids always LOVE when dad's around. He's always glad to be home as well. They love picking him up at the airport and going out to eat after.
Nora got her hearing aids. They're a sparkly bright pink. Lindsay said her face just lit up when they put them in. She can hear 100% in both ears now! So tiny!! That melts your heart.
Danica took time out of her busy days and went ice skating to support her boyfriend Jason, at a work affiliated event at the ice rink in Ogden.
She also went to the Living Planet Aquarium and another Jazz game with Jason. They don't seem to sit around much, those two.
I guess it's good to be busy cuz with the type of weather we've been having you just need to roll with the changes or you may just have a melt down and what good would that do?
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