Becoming Cultured

One of the really great things about living in Utah is that there is a plethora of wonderful cultural events going on all of the time. And we are becoming CULTURED! I already wrote about how we have gone to several productions by the Utah Symphony (courtesy of the Monroe family as a Christmas present.) And, in the first few weeks of April we have gone to many more events. We went to BYU to see the Carl Bloch exhibit. Absolutely fantastic! He was a Danish painter who has painted many of the pictures we have seen all our lives about the life of the Savior. The exhibit was free, but we splurged and rented the $3 ipads which explained about the painter, and gave amazing insights about each painting as you wound around the exhibit. (There is an article about the exhibit in this months Ensign). Then we finally achieved something we've wanted to do since we were students at BYU. We went to the Hale Center Theater in Orem ! We saw Hairspray there. It was wonderful! It's a small theater with seating on 3 sides of the stage area which is level with the first row of seating. It's small and intimate & we loved it! Then, I figured we were on a roll, so I dragged dad to BYU to see the play Persuasion by Jane Austen. I thought it was fantastic! Dad... well, let's just say he was a trooper. He sat through the whole thing just for me. In fact, probably 98 % of the audience was women...but he endured. Then last week we went to see the production of Les Miserables done by the Orem High School! It was absolutely AMAZING! Another example of so many places here that have wonderful plays & musicals. The high schools here put on plays that are practically as good as professional ones! This one was done in their brand new high school . Barbara & Dick & dad & I went and we were not disappointed in the least. The top 5 or 6 lead actors & actresses all had incredible voices. We are just becoming sooooo cultured ! ha! We are loving having all this access to so many wonderful events right in our own backyard.

Road Trip to Cali

For those of you reading this, I am closing in on catching up with our current life- This blog entry will be about events that took place in March - so, I'm only one month behind & closing fast. At the beginning of March Cameron came out to Utah to help Lindsay & Colby get home on the plane. So now with the house quiet, what do we do?? Leave again, of course. We needed to have our taxes done by our regular tax accountant in California (mostly because of all the monies associated with the severance & retirement) - So, we drove to Calif. because we would need to bring Mason back with us. There was a huge snow storm expected that weekend, so we loaded up with books on tape, & headed the southern route thru Las Vegas & up to Antioch. Since we were coming in from the south, we drove by Modesto. Roger was kind enough to stop there so that I could visit Cris Rawe's grave (my best friend who died of a brain tumor 13 years ago) Since we've moved to Utah, this might be the last time I'd get to visit.



We arrived in Antioch just in time to go see Zach compete in his very first Pinewood Derby. And, even better, we got to see him WIN !!! Congratulations Zach! On Sunday we got to see Arie in her new dress looking so cute... Then, after having been there for only 3 days, we left to go back to Utah. Mason had to do a job shadow/internship for school & he really wanted to do it at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, UT. So, we arranged for him to do it & took him back with us, and then he would fly home to his family after his 3 days in Utah. Both quick trips ! Mason had met Rick, the Paleontologist there, a couple of times before- but now he would be working with him all day - 10am to 3pm for a couple of days. He was thrilled! He got to work on an actual bone imbeded in sandstone. It took him 2 days, but he finally extracted the entire bone. He worked around the museum in the various exhibits too. At the end, Rick sent him home with several bones, & cast impressions, and he was a very happy camper! He is the only student ever to leave the state to do an internship. Way to go, MASON!

Layne & Arie come

Layne's son Mason wanted her to be able to come & see Lindsay while she was recouperating. He organized substitutes for her classes, carpool drivers, and even the plane schedule & then went to his dad to have HIM pay for it! ha! After all that trouble & kindness, Aaron couldn't refuse, so Layne & Arie came to visit. Since Arie is only 6 weeks older than Colby those two had a great time:
they loved their bathtime:
they loved playing with toys together:
They loved their new boots They loved papa getting them ready for bed:
They especially loved pulling the chairs up to our picture windows in the eating area & watching for the bus each day and seeing the cars go by:

and they loved dancing to the concert on the DVD Alvin & The Chipmunks. They loved either dancing together or by themselves. Colby swings his hips and Arie stamps her feet up & down.
We went to the park for a photo shoot - Colby wasn't too sure about the swings...
but he totally loved the slides:


Sunday came & we had our own photo shoot:

Then poor little Colby got sick. The doctor prescribed breathing treatments. Originally Colby hated it & fought having the mask over his face, even though it was a cute monster mask... Papa even tried to show Colby that it wasn't THAT bad by putting on a mask too:

Even Arie tried to be sympathetic by using a cup to be her mask & take her breathing treatment too! Eventually he got so used to it, though, that he would fall asleep while taking the treatment:

Kraig Moll brought over a fluffy stuffed dog to help in Lindsay's recovery - but Colby took it over instead: We had fun watching the many moods of Arie: smiling:

cautious: and my personal favorite - the pouty princess:

We had a nice day toward the end of their visit & felt we really NEEDED to get those kids outside! So, we went for a walk around our subdivision (named Renaissance)

trying to pose these kids on the rock was fun all by itself:

We had so much fun - Thanks for coming Layne & Arie - And thanks to Mason for arranging it all & for Aaron who held down the fort at home & for Zach for just being a great kid!

Valentine's Day 2011

We celebrated Valentine's day while Lindsay & Colby were here. Here's the table before we started to open.
Roger & I had agreed NOT to go crazy getting presents & just be minimal this year. So, I got the roses and some yummy candy. I gave him his favorite cookie... which he used to get all the time in the Red Carpet Room at the airport when he would travel.

Lindsay got a present from far away. Cameron secretly had us pick up a present he had ordered for her. Ugg boots - perfect for Utah in February! Since Lindsay was still recouperating from her shoulder surgery, we kept having to find shirts that were button up the front, but were also warm enough for February...thus this gorgeous creation, which was her dad's old flannel shirt.

Colby loved the cards almost as much as the presents... especially "Mickey" ones.
He especially loved the Lion decorated box full of cookies. Even when we emptied it from the original cookies, we kept other treats in it. At dinner each night we'd tell him to eat all his dinner & he would get a treat from the Lion. So, he would eat everything just so that we'd go get the Lion & he could pick a treat.


But our favorite valentine pictures were of our favorite "Bachelor"


What a wonderful Valentine's Day !