Happy 39 years !!!

I woke up this morning to a pleasant surprise... This vase of red roses (my favorite) on the counter wishing me a Happy Anniversary. This is surprising...not because I'm amazed that Roger would give me flowers... because he does that all the time & I LOVE IT ! But I was surprised because he is in New Jersey and I am here in Utah. I'm guessing he enlisted the help of an elf named Lindsay to go & purchase them for me & have them here when I woke up. During the move I bent one of the prongs on my ring pretty badly - so we went to where our nephew Todd Benning works - Morgan Jewelers - & he fixed it for me. In the mean time he also re-did the black antique-ing (is that a word?) on both of our rings and re-did the florentine on both. They look almost as good as they did when we took a similar picture 39 years ago.

I am married to the most wonderful man in the world. He does everything - works, serves in his calling righteously, uses his priesthood to bless me and the whole family, cooks, helps me clean & do any amount of housework, tells me he loves me, dances in the kitchen with me... (and sometimes alone!) and makes me constantly wonder what I did to deserve such a wonderful man! Thank you for 39 wonderful years of marriage! I love you forever, Roger !

Fancy Salad

We had a Relief Society "Summer Salad Social" last night. Everyone was supposed to bring

a salad. They had decorated the back yard of one sister's home really cute with the tables having a red & white checked tablecloth and xeroxed black ants on top. The serving table had ants on it made from black styrofoam balls and pipe cleaner legs... I had signed up to do a fruit salad. So, I thought I'd give a try to something fun & decorative:

I filled the watermelon basket with green grapes, blueberries, watermelon balls, & orange-flesh melon. (no, not cantaloupe -- it looks like a honeydew melon on the outside, but has orange flesh like a cantaloupe - who knew? ) It was a fun, different way to take a fruit salad.

Road Trip !

With Lindsay & Colby here visiting for a couple of months while Cameron is away on business, we decided to take a road trip. (Actually, it was my chance to get away from unpacking boxes!)
We drove up to see Debbie Davis at her cabin in Island Park, ID - near West Yellowstone. We love it there! It is so beautiful - and Debbie spoils us rotten - What's not to love? We love the hammock-time !

And...Debbie feeds us well... well, she feeds SOME of us...

(she's gonna kill me for using this, but it's so dang cute! )

Colby absolutely LOVED being outside:

We rode on ATV's (we sandwiched Colby in between Lindsay & I & went for a short ride)

then Lindsay and Debbie dropped Colby & I off & they donned all the equipment & took off for more fun.

We went to Howard Springs - a place where fresh spring water comes right out of the mountain!

Then we went to the Mountain Man Rendevous... (think Shakespeare Festival only all the men are dressed as mountain men & there's alot of weapons & pelts etc.) A man named Rabbit made a gun for Colby & Debbie learned to play the jaw harp.

Of course, no visit would be complete without going to Playmill Theater in West Yellowstone. It's a small little theater, owned by members of the church, that have BYU and BYUI students come to do 3 musicals each summer. It is great fun! We saw Beauty & the Beast. Colby loved the music and dancing scenes.... the talking ... not so much.

We had a wonderful 4 days ! Colby had tons of new experiences - like... getting stuck under the tables...

or... swinging with nana...

Hearing the sound of the gravel from the driveway crunch under his feet - or better yet, picking up the rocks and throwing them! (such a boy!)

learning about pinecones.... and don't you know where they went after looking at them....


And... feeling Debbie's vibrating tooth brush!

Colby pretty much expressed how we all felt for several days. It's wonderful to see things again through the eyes of a child. They are so thrilled with every little thing. It reminded me to be more grateful for the beauties of this world!

(MD + DD = Mark Davis + Debbie Davis)

Thanks Deb for a wonderful get-away!!!

No visit is complete...

You can't visit Utah and NOT go to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. We started our day at the conference center just across the street.

The inside looks like this. It can seat 20,000 people. They hold conference there each April and October, Music & the Spoken Word each Sunday morning during the summer months when there are so many tourists, and various holiday concerts & plays during the year.

We toured the whole building, including a special room showing the artwork of Arnold Frieberg who had just passed away. Then we went to the roof. There is a whole acre of area up there with gardens and etched mirror walls and a beautiful overlook of the Salt Lake City Temple - if you don't mind seeing all the construction cranes. The temple used to be the tallest thing around, now it's dwarfed by all the high-rise buildings being built.

The next stop was across the street to see Temple Square. We saw inside the Tabernacle where they used to hold conferences. They still do special concerts there and Music & The Spoken Word is broadcast from there during the year except the summer months.

The grounds here are beautiful and, of course, the Salt Lake City Temple is spectacular as always!
We followed the tour next door to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where we saw the movie, Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration. There wasn't a dry eye in the house, including the two oldest grandsons, Mason & Tanner sitting on each side of me ! It was very moving.
When we got out of the movie, even though it was almost 9pm, it was still light out. You exit the building at a beautiful place where you can see a huge reflecting pool and beautiful vista of the temple.

I love to see the temple...

They're tryin' to kill me...

One of the vacation days we decided to go to Stewart Falls. This is a beautiful spot up the Provo Canyon situated behind Sundance (of Robert Redford fame). We stopped along the way to see

Bridal Veil falls.

When we arrived at Stewart Falls everyone ASSURED me... PROMISED me... that this was an

easy 2 mile hike. WHATEVER!!! If that was 2 miles, I'm Jennifer Anniston! It was pretty strenuous- especially for these old knees and a body riddled with asthma. But, luckily we stopped for many water breaks - 'cuz I'm pretty sure those small kids needed a break... yeah.

(Layne was the only smart one- only a couple weeks away from knee surgery she felt she better not try it & she & Arie stayed home)

This must have been the SINGLE flat place on the whole hike... it looks so easy here, huh?

It really is a beautiful hike- when I could get my eyes open from squinting & sucking air -

Of course.... the best is when you get there! It is a gorgeous waterfall. Absolutely FREEZING water, but a beautiful surrounding. And you can run or walk behind the waterfall. Of course you get soaking wet... but all the kids had to try it!

We had a picnic lunch and regained our strength. We waded out to the rock in the middle of the stream and took pictures. And generally had a wonderful time.

Here are some photos of the falls... again, thanks to Brooke's magic with photoshop!

The hike back was just as "wonderful" - but now the fine, silt-like dirt stuck to us worse because we were all wet! So now we were tired, wet, AND dirty! ha! By the end, this is how Austin looked and how I felt!