Sunday, November 26, 2017

Thanksgiving Weekend

Our kitchen is in disarray due to an unexpected renovation (water damage) so Katie graciously invited us to her house for Thanksgiving dinner.

We enjoyed two fun days playing with their family.

We had to keep in pretty calm because Joshua broke is arm a few days before, and needed to still kind of keep in quiet, or at least try too.

So, we painted rocks, make a cool fruit turkey, watched videos together, did some serious lego building and went to the beautiful Los Angeles Arboretum. 

Here are some pictures and videos.













Friday, July 7, 2017

Forty-Four Years

When you say the words forty-four years, it sounds like a very long time.  How, then, has the time gone by so quickly.  It is hard to believe we have been married for forty-four years.  I am so grateful for such a wonderful husband.

 We had a fun and full day celebrating our anniversary.  We started out by going on a hike at Kerncliff Park. It was beautiful area that used to be the site of a quarry.  We hiked a boardwalk over the wetland area, forested hilly area and escarpment.  It was so peaceful and quiet. 
















After our hike we changed and went to the Toronto Temple. Being in the Temple helps to remind us that we can be a forever family.  The Toronto Temple is beautiful! 










For dinner we drove to Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto and went to the waterfront.  We ate at a cute little restaurant, The Snug Harbor, and then enjoyed a leisure walk.  










When we first arrived in Toronto, on our way to our rental we saw a huge white tent in Mississauga.  We wondered what that was all about and just accidentally found out about this spectacular horse show Cavalia Odeysseo.  We thought that would be a fun thing to see for our anniversary.  It was stunningly beautiful!  I am so glad we went to see it!   If you ever get an opportunity to see this show, DO IT!! 

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Traveling Back in Time to Brantford

On our third day in Ontario, we spent the day with my friend Jo-Anne.  Our moms were best friends growing up and they stayed close through letters and phone calls into their eighties.  They both grew up in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  I had found an old letter Jo-Anne wrote to me many years ago in a box about a year ago.  I decided to see if she was on Facebook and low and behold, I found her!!  She remembered me and we became friends again, just like that!!




This is a picture from 1959 when I last visited Brantford with my family.  Jo-Anne and I are standing up in the back!  The front row is Aunt Eva with Tim, my Dad, Lillian, Doug, Grandma Virginia and Fred Nelson.  I guess my mom took the picture!

Anyway, Jo-Anne still lives nearby in Hamiliton.  She agreed to take us on a little tour of the old homes where our families lived.

But, first we toured the Dundurn Castle a 40-room Italianate-style villa built in the 1830’s.  It was pretty interesting to see how high society lived back in those days compared to the servants who lived in the basement! 





I loved the back of this piano!  



The first home we visited was my grandma's little bungalow house at 47 6th Street.  This is the home I remember from when I was five and went to visit my Grandma and Aunt Eva.  It is very different now as you can see from the picture below.  


This was back in 1959!  I have such fond memories of this visit.  We picked fresh peas from her garden and ate them right then and there.  Nothing better!  There was a little market down the street and we would walk down and buy candy. 



The house has a big tree in front now and several in back and is overgrown with flowers and bushes!  






This is the home where Jo-Anne grew up.  It is interesting as soon as I saw the address, I recognized it as the address my mom would send all those letters to Lillian through the years!  


This home on 111 Winniett Street. was the home where my mom lived from age 4 years old until 17 years old.  She has fond memories of this place and many of the stories she shared from her youth came while living here. 








This is the home (now a bike shop) around the corner from my mom where Lillian grew up.  Mom meet Lillian while walking to the store one day.  Lillian's mother was Alice and that is my middle name after her! It's Jo-Anne's middle name too! 


My mom called this place Strawberry Hill.  The Strawberries are long gone and there is new development.  Such is progress, but it's sad!




After touring Brantford we took a lovely drive to Port Dover Beach, along the shores of Erie Lake.  It was very pretty. 





We ate dinner at the Cove Room.  They actually roll a little salad bar to your table and it stay while you eat dinner.  I had never seen anything like that before. I had perch for dinner. It was yummy and fun!



We enjoyed our day with Jo-Anne! She is delightful and we had fun! Hopefully, she will come visit us sometime!

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Fourth of July in ....Canada

Evan is away at camp and Mike and I decided to visit the Toronto area for our vacation this year!
It just happened to be over Independence Day, so we decided that would be a good day to visit Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.  We have been to the US side twice before, but never the Canada side.  They light up the Falls and have a fireworks so show so, it was perfect!
We spent most of the day and had fun being tourists!  





This is the backside of water! 






We wore yellow poncho's when we were at the bottom of the falls. 


Red poncho's were for the Hornblower Cruise.  It was a blast! 





I loved seeing the Canada flags from the boat with the backdrop of the falls.




We got just a little bit wet!  It was a warm day! 








This was our view at our lunch table in the Table Rock restaurant! 





Further down the Niagara River from the falls there is a whirlpool, with an Aero Car that crosses above on cables!  I still can't believe I rode in that thing!  It was scary but fun.  









This is the view below, there are actually people down there.  It's the American side and somehow there is a trail.  



One of the things we decided to do was walk across the Rainbow Bridge that goes to the United States.  At least could say went spent a part of the day on United States ground. We had to pay a .50 cent toll.  


Here is the border.  We didn't go through customs on the US side, but we had to go through Customs to get back into the Canadian side!  At first I grumbled because it was a long line.  But, I got my passport stamped and that made me very happy.  It is the first stamp in my passport! 











At night they light up the Falls in Red, White and Blue.  It was beautiful! 




We enjoyed fireworks to end our night.  I am grateful for my strong Canadian heritage and equally grateful to live in the USA! 









Thursday, June 29, 2017

Utah or Bust

We headed to Utah last week to attend our newest grandson, Owen's, baby blessing (kind of like a christening). We decided to give ourselves a week so we had time to play with grandkids and visit with our older children. 
Our first whole day we spent just hanging with David and Sariah's kids.  




Sometimes it just nice to relax and read a book together.






And, just share a little love!!






We had some laughs playing the barnyard game.







Spencer showed off his culinary skills with some yummy made-to-order grilled cheese sandwiches.



It was fun to watch him! 




The finished product and it comes with a smile! 




Later that day we headed to West Jordan to see John, Amy, and their boys.  Grandpa got to meet little Owen for the first time. 



Callan is an awesome big brother. 



Callan and Aiden had fun at a splash pad while the adults chatted about life.




Friday was a fun day. We went to Mount Nebo where we drove the loop trail, found a cool little wheelchair accessible hike and a Payson Lakes!  


This is Devil's Kitchen, it is like a mini Bryce Canyon. 





Some people do NOT like their picture taken! 




Cutie Joanna, had fun finding painted rocks.


My hiking buddies, Joanna and Leah! 



I always enjoy the flora! 














I love beautiful mountain lakes with green trees around.  



Spencer enjoying the sunshine.  

Should they jump in or not?




Of course!!





Callan was my hiking buddy on a walk around the lake. 



What a funny crooked tree.





Andrew brought his cool hammock. It was very comfy! 




Friday was a busy day.  After our trip to the mountain we went to a Lego exhibit at UVU






We saw some cool things built with lego's, like this aircraft carrier.


Complete with sailors. 



And a waving American flag. 


There even was a lego picture of the Christus made completely out of Lego's. 


This is the famous Rainbow Road from Mario Cart. 




We all went out to dinner at Good Thyme Eatery in Provo. It was yummy and these two sillies had fun! 


Saturday, Mike and I started the day at the Provo Temple with David and Sarah.  It is a beautiful temple.  We wish we lived this close to a temple and could go more often. 



That evening we went on a date with David and Sarah and had some fun laughs at Dry Bar Comedy!  



Sunday was Owen's blessing day. I was able to sit in church with some of my grandchildren. A rare but delightful event!  



Uncle Evan and Owen.





Sweet sleeping baby Owen. 




Monday morning was time to head home.  As we drove through Cedar City, the new Cedar City Temple up on the hill beaconed us closer.  We had a little adventure finding it.  It is still under construction, but looks beautiful.  I love the dome on the tower.  



We took a little break to visit Kolob Canyon, the northwestern part of Zion Canyon National Park!  It was incredibly beautiful.   I don't know why we never visited before. 




This canyon was just calling to me to explore, but it was very hot and not accessible so will have to wait until another time! 









We decided to spend an extra night in Las Vegas on the way home to visit with one of our favorite people, Aunt Delma!  She is just delightful! 




We decided to drive up to Mount Charleston to give Aunt Delma a break from the over 100 degree temperature of Las Vegas.  




We enjoy the 80 degree sunny weather and the beautiful trees and rock formations. 




And of course the company was fun.  Aunt Delma has lots of great stories to tell.  There are times I look at her and just see and hear my sweet mother-in-law Viola, her older sister.  We all miss her! 
We always love visiting our family and the bond we have together! 

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