Annual Mothers' Day's Chocolate-Covered Caramel Pretzel Trek Up North

On May 10, we headed up north to kill a few birds with one stone -

 to pick up the V-Chocolate caramel pretzels to pass out to all of the moms on Mothers' Day in the branch; to have Jessica work on my hair, since I haven't been up north since Christmas and it needed a major re-haul; to go to lunch with Grandma Strat with all of the girls who could go to celebrate Mothers' Day; to stay with Rick's family and catch up with them; and to return a box of my sister, Patty's, treasures she loaned me for when I taught the personal history workshop.

On Friday, Sadie had the busiest day ever!  She was in two events in the regional track meet - the high jump and she ran the 200 yard dash.  She came in second in her heat, which I think is awesome!  Like I told her in the car afterwards, I didn't think anyone in our car had ever done that; I know I haven't!

Look at Sadie go!

We then hurried to Roy for her to play in a basketball tournament. Sadie was her team's point guard, and she was like a female John Stockton! The game was way out west.  When we lived in Roy, there was just farm land that far out. Now it's like a whole other city. We drove by our old house in Roy after the game to show Rick's kids where their daddy used to live and talked about Roy memories. Most of Rick's childhood was spent in Roy.

Then, when we got home, Sadie mowed their lawn!  Oh, to be young again!

On Saturday, all Grandma Stratford's daughters, daughter-in-laws and any grand- daughters who could come, met for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory in the new City Creek in SLC. There were 14 women and Roger came, too, since he doesn't get to go to lunch with his mom very often, and besides, he loved being the only guy with a bunch of women!

Hey, Jodie!  So glad you could come to lunch!

(Dad just took this random shot of her, but don't you love her Michal Negrin earrings and pretty eyelashes?)

Dad and I were bowled over with the beauty of City Creek.  It is so well designed, with lovely landscaping, fountains, and a pretty little creek meandering through it. The views from the sky bridge of the Salt Lake Temple are gorgeous!  And the old ZCMI facade on Roger's left was preserved when they redid what was existing.

We all went shopping after lunch and took a few pics.

You can see some of the majesty of City Creek in the background.  And can you believe how amazing Grandma looks at 86?!

Susie had gone home before we took this pic, and Janae couldn't come to lunch, but we got a shot of the rest of Grandma's "girls." 

I don't have a pic, but we stopped at Patty and Hal's on our way home, which, by now, was dinner time.  After delivering the box and visiting a few minutes, we decided to go get a bite together at a new, non-chain (my favorite) barbeque joint in Payson.  So fun to chat and catch up with Patty and Hal, and the food was tasty!

So, Roger took the annual Mothers' Day pic of me after church.  And I must record our little saga afterwards.  We got home after 11 pm on Saturday night, so we did the "ox in the mire" thing for dinner on Mother's Day.  Roger didn't want me to cook, and we had no groceries for him to, so we set off for the Mothers' Day Buffet at Los Lupes in Mesquite.  Just before we were to enter the gorge on I-15, traffic came to a complete stop, and we sat there without moving for over ten minutes.  Two or three cars were braving the dirt median and turning around to head back to St. George, so we thought it was kind of silly sitting there, and headed back.  We ended up having sushi at Ichiban Seafood Buffet in Washington, which was actually quite yummy.

My favorite part of the day was delivering pretzels to ladies who were not in church - Connie Minnoch, who had hurt her back, Lilian, our cute next-door neighbor, Linda Webb, who has just returned to St. George after having difficulties, and the mission president's wife down the street.  The delighted looks on their faces were priceless!  Everyone loves those pretzels!