Smith-sitting!

Holy Macaroli, it has been a long time since I have posted. 
Who pushed the fast forward button on our lives?

On November 2, we drove to Boise to be with our cute Smith grandkids while Missy/Jedd went on a cruise out of Houston with Mindy/Jeff and Jeff's sister, Emily and her husband, Dave.
Saturday morning, before they flew away, we all went to Jared's and Sam's scrimmage football game.
As the pics show, they are the superstars of the team!

After church, we had a roast pork and butternut squash dinner, with Missy's homemade applesauce.

Anders kept saying something we couldn't quite understand, so we had him say it over and over.  Suddenly, a light bulb went on in my brain, 

"HELP WITH TRAINS!"

Down Roger went on his knees, which he did many times that week.  Trouble is, he would just get it all set up with bridges, train cars through buildings, etc. and then Anders would sing, 

"Clean up, clean up, Everybody clean up!"

Then he would start shoving the tracks and train cars into the toy buckets.

I guess Missy has trained him a little too well!

We had to go get our favorite pizza at Primo's one night.

I got to meet my high school friend, Dana, for lunch.

She's had a real rough year, but her heart transplant husband is still hanging in there after ten years with his new heart!

We had to take a pic of Ellie's lovely, newly-trimmed hair with her Mom's hair clasp in it.  She was so excited to wear it to school, and she was so careful not to lose it!

We were in Boise the last week of the Boise Temple Open House. It has been newly-rennovated, and the rooms, with stained glass, chandeliers and paintings, are gorgeous!  We were excited we got to walk through it.

We rode over to Joan's, who had just gotten back in town, and visited with her, and we also had lunch with John and Cindy in Nampa.  I love my siblings so much!

We saw Grandma on the way back through, then stayed with Rick and Jodie, before heading back to St. George. A big snowstorm came through, and here is the result on their lovely home!

What a gratifying trip, being with dear loved ones!

2 Field Trips

From the time right after I was first married, 

I have loved Relief Society! 

The lessons apply, whatever time of life I am in, and I love getting to know the sisters.

And I love being a visiting teacher!

My visiting teaching partner, Rowena Thiess (4th from the left), works at Dixie State College; she is the head of the Tutoring Department.

I, and the ladies on my "beat," had missed the "grand tour" of the Jeffrey M. Holland Building on the WSC campus given by another member of our branch who works there.

So, on October 29, I picked my ladies up and met Rowena for a tour, 

then we had lunch in the Gardiner Center together.

From left: my darling neighbor, Lillian Heuter, who is inactive and is in remission from leukemia; me; 

Di Thurgood; Rowena Thiess; Ann Staples; Ann's mother, a St. George native her entire life; and Ann's sister, who is from Sandy.

Behind us, it looks like tile, but it is little booklets that visitors can pull out and write in - little messages that will record passages of time through the coming years.

(Cool idea!)

Very next day, our entire Relief Society was invited to Newcastle, near Enterprise, to tour the giant green houses that provide many potted plants for grocery store chains such as Kroger, Albertsons, etc.

 Bill Gordon ( I have talked about the Gordons before - they served a CES mission in Russia with Patty and Hal), 

is one of the owners.

Many of the husbands, including Roger, said, "I wanna go." so several of them came, too.

Patty Abraham's (a sister in our branch) son-in-law, Scott (his dad is the other owner), runs the operation.  

He gave us a great tour, explaining from start to shipment,

 the details of all that goes into growing the beautiful flowers.

A big reason why these greenhouses are located here is the natural hot springs under the ground.

It was amazing to see how they can control light and temperature,

 to "tell" the plants exactly when and how to grow.

Their biggest "crop" is poinsettias;

 very likely, if you have bought one here or in surrounding states at Christmastime, it was grown here.

We had lunch together at Marv's, a hamburger institution in Enterprise (Marv opened one in St. George, too).  

They have THE BEST hamburgers and fries!

Bill graciously gave each person or couple a beautiful potted mum.

This is Jone Liljenquist, a talented musician in our branch and the mother of Stacy's good friend from Connecticut, Marci Benson.

It always amazes me what a small world it is!

Picking out our flowers

(That is Bill Gordon with the ice cream cone!)

These were two great field trips in a row;

the school kids have nothing on us!

Past Blasting

The last few weeks, Roger and I have been sorting through old slides, then scanning them and putting them in iPhoto. I have a long, ongoing project of writing my personal history, so I have had my head back in the past, trying to remember. 

HUGE challenge!

Just for fun, here are some pics of a horse-packing trip we took in the wilderness from Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. 

Kurt Loosli, a friend and fraternity brother of Roger from Ashton, Idaho, provided all of the gear, horses, food, etc. Our goal was to reach Shoshone Lake, but a big rainstorm stopped us from our original destination, so we stopped and set up camp.

West Yellowstone

(Now, don't laugh at those boots - I think I borrowed them from Roger!)

Loading up at Kurt's 

Are the matchsticks convincing that we're real cowgirls?

Mosquito-proofing

Getting out of the rain in our quickly-assembled shelter

 Carol and I were in good hands with two frontiersmen!

Ah, to be young again!

Two Birthdays and a New House in Mesa

The builders are telling Stacy and Tom that their house will be ready in just over a month. 

Roger has been dying to go check it out before it's all finished (it's the great attention to detail he has from his Woodside Homes and Sunbrook Homes days!).

With Conference weekend coming up and no Church responsibilities for Roger or me, we left for Mesa in the morning on October 3.

He took a quick shot of it after we arrived, in the late afternoon before sunset.

Isn't it beautiful?

When we got back to their rental house, Luke was busy "preparing dinner," complete with his onion goggles. 

Both boys truly aspire to be chefs. 

This has not been a passing fancy. 
 Ever since they were toddlers, they have wanted to "cook" with Mommy.

Max and Luke have seen Ratatouille countless times, and they are watching it in their chef coats, 

spellbound, yet again!

We watched the Romney/Obama Debate that night and loudly cheered for Mitt!  

He was fantastic and we are all huge fans!

We are crossing our fingers, praying, and telling everyone we know about his goodness and his suitability for President of the United States!

Next day was a busy one. We went over to the new house with Stacy and we helped her make several detail decisions about tile placement and garage door color.  We then headed to downtown Mesa to pick out material for the countertops in the garage.  We grabbed a quick sandwich at Urban Picnic. 

This cozy (it is cement!) hot pink chair is out front.  

The boys are holding their left-overs from lunch in their lunch boxes.

Next day was Londyn's 11th Birthday!  
We were so excited to get to be with her!

Londyn had nine friends (including cousin Anna) over for a fun birthday party.  Stacy made lemon cupcakes (Londyn's favorite), they had Italian ices, then were taken to the new cartoon movie, Hotel Transylvania.
Roger and I took a carload and enjoyed the movie - it was cute for kids and adults.

iPhone pic after the movie

Hangin' out with the twins is pure joy!

That night we went out for dinner at Londyn's pick restaurant for a bloomin' onion, wedge salads and steaks. Yum!

Happy Birthday, precious Londyn!

When we returned home, we watched the USU/BYU game.
Groan! 
Neither team played very well, except both of their defense teams!
BYU squeaked out a victory!

Roger got some cute shots of Max and Luke driving their car.

These boys live in costumes. 
I mean, every day they are a different character. 
 Doesn't matter if it is 110 degrees outside, they wear their costumes. 
 All day. 
 Every day.
With one exception. 
They do wear church clothes to church.

Saturday we enjoyed watching both sessions of General Conference together. 
Ryan and Emily were leaving for Disney World with their kids the next morning, so the adults went out to eat after General Priesthood meeting for Stacy's birthday to a wonderful pizza place. So good!

The kids are hard at work making birthday cards for their Mom.

On Sunday, Stacy's birthday, Tom and the kids served Stacy breakfast in bed.

Then her kids treated her to a leg massage/pedicure/hair styling parlor.

We watched both wonderful sessions of General Conference, then served Stacy her birthday dinner.

Tom barbecued fresh salmon and veggie shish kabobs and Londyn helped me make a tossed salad with homemade gorgonzola dressing and cheesy garlic bread.  She has serious knife skills!

We also had salted baked potatoes and I made Joe's Stone Crab Key lime pie.

When Stacy was growing up, she always asked for Key lime pie instead of a birthday cake.

Stacy is holding the Le Creuset jumbo baking dish we gave her for her birthday.

We love our precious daughter Stacy!

Early Monday morning, Tom, Jake and Roger golfed and Stacy ran over to the new house.
When she got back, we went shopping for kitchen appliance handles, then checked out the new Nordstom Rack.
Roger met us for lunch at Fresh Choices, then we headed for home.

Stacy took these pics just before we left.



We love to visit Mesa and see our two wonderful kids and families there. 
We hope next time we can spend more time with Ryan, Emily and family.
He was in Chicago attending a national meeting of the American Urogynecological Society, of which he is a board member and treasurer, all week, and he got home Saturday night.  
We're glad that we got to see him briefly and also Emily and the kids at least a little bit, anyway.