The 4th of July

Happy Birthday, USA!

The 4th of July found us without opportunity to get together with family, so Roger and I decided to go to a matinee of, "To Kill A Mocking Bird," at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. We arrived in Cedar about 11:30 AM, hurried to the box office and got pretty good half-priced seats on the third row. 

Lunch at the Garden House of Cedar City was tasty. They have a bit unusual combinations of flavors in their soups and salads.

The restaurant is in an old home near the CSU campus, where the Shakespeare Festival is held.

We attended a briefing before the play, which was led by Charles Mitton, a dear friend of my dear friend, Jan Noyes. He was her drama teacher at BYU and they had re-connected when Jan, Karleen and I went to the Shakespeare Festival two years ago. I chatted with him about Jan after his briefing, and he was so interested to hear all about her.

Roger and I are in front of the Randal Jones Theater after the performance, which was masterfully performed; we enjoyed it so much! "To Kill A Mocking Bird," is one of my all-time favorite books.

Grandma Stratford's Visit

Susie, Roger's sister, was invited to come to St. George for Jerry Hagen's birthday and retirement party (Jerry is our family doctor), which was Monday, July 9. He is her close friend ever since Susie and Craig lived in St. George many years ago. She invited Roger's mom to ride with her, so they drove to St. George on Friday night, July 6th, and we got to have Lois stay with us; Susie stayed at Hagan's. We loved having her all to ourselves. I wrote a girlhood sketch and tribute to her in my last post.

Roger and I drove her out to show her the new airport, and near there, we found the new waterway or mini-lake where wake boarders can practice jumps, pulled by pulleys over various ramps. It was fascinating to watch the dare devils fly off the ramps!

On Saturday night we met Susie, with Delores and Jerry Hagan for a Mexican dinner at Los Lupes in Mesquite.

Sunday, it was fun to have her attend our branch with us. 

One guy said, "If you put a blonde wig on Roger, he would look just like her!"

Dad and I fixed Jodie's marinated flank steak, roasted potatoes and asparagus for dinner.

Susie and the Hagans came over for a late Sunday afternoon visit.

On Monday, we asked her,

"How long has it been since you saw Zion National Park?"

It had been a long time, so we drove through, then turned around and drove back, which offers entirely different views on the return trip. We also took time to view the movie about Zion in the Visitor's Center, which was very well done.

We stopped to take a pic of this impressive arch shape, naturally carved into the mountainside. 

Roger spotted a pine growing seemingly all alone on this huge red mountain. It is in the lower left of the pic.

Then he zeroed in on it.

Susie took a quick pic of us when she came to pick up Grandma on Tuesday morning. I'm looking lovely without make-up (?!), but we wanted a pic of the three of us together.

It was so fun to have her stay with us and we hope it won't be very long before she returns!