Spring Showers & Such

Don't you love the first signs of spring every year? 

2022 hasn't had enough of the real kind of showers yet, but it has brought several of the party variety to two upcoming brides and to an expecting grandchild's wife in our family, with a few more party showers to come!

But before those parties, our branch celebrated the Relief Society's Birthday in March and I've included a few pics. We highlighted all of the artists and photographers in our branch by displaying some of their art to view. There was a huge turnout, I think partly because everybody is sick of staying home and is craving social contact.

There was a sign-up sheet for volunteers to make birthday cakes, and artistic talent was also displayed this way!

I think about 15 sister's artwork was displayed and I took pics of just a couple. Dixie is very prolific and she paints about any subject and in about every medium. She works in watercolor often and she posts  many on Facebook.

Holly Laird is also very talented.

The first shower I attended was for granddaughter, Anna Stratford. Her aunt Jodie hosted it at their beautiful home. Everyone loved these vases filled with fresh flowers announcing spring!

We love this dear granddaughter is so full of her love of life!

Anna's mom, Emily, is catching up with Anna's cousins Katie, Londyn, Abby and Jaylene.

Roger's sisters, Shellie and Susie, were so nice to drive from Ogden.

There aren't pics, but the shower was a brunch and there was lots of fresh fruit, yogurt and granola to make breakfast parfaits, breakfast casseroles, fresh cinnamon rolls and fruit juices and milk.

It was such a lovely bridal shower!

Our newly assigned Sunbrook dinner group had our first dinner at Dixie Stoddard's home on the eve before St. Patrick's Day. Remember, she is the artist who is featured above, so there were many of her lovely paintings hanging in her home. She loves to entertain and her home was all decked out to celebrate.

That is Dixie sitting on the other end of the table.

Everyone brought part of the meal. Isn't this a lovely appetizer plate?

This was a delicious fresh beet salad.

I made a grasshopper pie - it had to be green, right? The hostess served corned beef and an Irish carrot dish and we also had colcannon.

My sister, Joan, and husband, Tom, came to southern Utah from Boise for their spring break and stayed with my sister, Kay, and husband, Ken, which they do almost every year. The evening before we left to go up north for our grandson, Josh's wife's baby shower, we met them at the Rib and Chop House for a yummy meal. We next drove to Kay and Ken's for a delicious chocolate dessert and lots of happy conversation. I love to get together with my siblings!

Jodie hosted Jaylene's baby shower and several of Jaylene's wonderful sisters and sisters-in-law were there (she is her parents' 12th child!). Jodie's daughter, Sadie, was able to be there and she is a talented flower arranger, so this time those pretty vases held her creations!

Roger took some pics before most of the guest arrived. Jodie put the BABY decoration together the night before.

The food was so delicious! We had chicken, fresh pear, candied nut, blue cheese salad, fruit parfaits layered with Jodie's famous fruit dip, and she made her breadsticks, lemon cookies, vanilla cookies and amazing black and white brownies - the recipe for them is found on A Bountiful Kitchen's website and they are truly addicting!

Roger's sister, Chyrrl, was out of town for Anna's shower and she drove up with Susie for Jaylene's shower. The cute ladies in pink are Jaylene and her darling mom, Sally. She told us she wears a fresh flower in her hair every day since they lived in Hawaii. Does she look like a mother of 12? 

It was so cute that Jaylene's dad, Maynard, and Josh came to the baby shower and had fun talking to everyone. It was a party!

Jodie's sister-in-law, Becky, with her daughters

Jaylene's sister, Sarah, looks so much like Jaylene, the family calls them the twins. It's even more in their mannerisms, the way they walk and their voices than it is in their features.

When we visited Chyrrl and Glynn in Nauvoo when they were serving their mission, we traveled to Amish country in Iowa. In a shop filled with woodcrafts they had made, I fell in love with this little train, so I bought it, not knowing who I would give it to. We thought it would be perfect to give it to our oldest grandchild's son and the first one to carry on the Stratford name.

Josh was so tickled to get this backpack to carry their son on hikes with them! They love to go on hikes together!

Remember the beautiful waltz these two did at their reception? The reason they are dressed up is after the shower, they left to go to a ballroom dance at the BYU Alumni Center with a live orchestra. Jaylene is a polished dancer and Josh is a willing student. They were excited to go. The shower was such a fun gathering of family and they were happy!

These showers and gatherings are just getting us started for several more fun events coming up in our family. We're off to a great start!

 

The Wonders of Watercolor

Among the many changes that Covid has made in our family's life, knocking out our annual Girls' Retreat is one of the ones I have missed most. Several months ago, my daughters and I put our heads together and decided it would be fabulous to travel to Watercolor, Florida, where Stacy's daughter, Sydney, and her cute family now live. Jake, Syd's husband, had worked in Public Relations for Marriott at their headquarters in Maryland when Covid hit and he was indefinitely furloughed. Long story short, they picked Watercolor and surrounding areas in Florida to start up a new Property Management company. Stacy's entire family has since fallen in love with the area and we have all been eager to travel there. In fact, our oldest son, Rick, has rented a property and taken his family there two Thanksgivings in a row. We all (daughters, daughters-in-law and it wouldn't be the same without Roger) chose to meet up there February 16-20. 

We wore N95 masks on our 4-legged air journey - St. George to SLC to Atlanta to Ft. Walton

Jake had a great property for us to rent in Watercolor. Charming homes with wrap-around porches and gas torch lanterns were everywhere - what a charming and enchanted place!

We all loved getting to hang out with Syd, Henry and Charlie during the days. She had grocery shopped, baked yummy cookies and made Muddy Buddies for us and we all adored playing with her cute littles.

Jake, from England near Oxford, has a charming accent and it is so cute to hear his cute little son Charlie talk in a mixture of Yankee and Brit. Charlie says his name pronouncedly like his Dad does- Jakob Walker, which sounds very different than it does in an American accent. Great-grandpa Roger had a lot of fun going back and forth with him, each trying to correct the other on how to say it! 

7-month-old Henry has a perpetual grin on his face!

A bike ride together was first on the agenda each day and our first day, we explored the beautiful neighborhood.

Roger and I followed in the golf cart provided - that's how everyone gets around.

Nearby Sea Side is a very popular destination, also, and we were all in awe of the beauty and charm all around us!

A charming little chapel where services are held.

Sea Side is where, "The Truman Show," with Jim Carey was filmed in 1998. We watched it together that night.

This was his home in the movie.

We headed in the golf cart to," The Perfect Pig," for dinner that night.

I'm usually most intrigued by the appetizers on a new restaurant's menu and we did something I have always wanted to do - we ordered every app on their menu and shared them! Some of them: Pig Nachos, Fig Jam Flatbread, Crab cakes, Shrimp Scampi, Loaded Mac and Cheese, etc. Yum! They were unique, creative and yummy! And their Key lime pie was delicious!

Next day was beach day. We knew when we planned this retreat for the middle of February, it would not be beach weather, but my kids are real beach enthusiasts, so off we went. Syd, kids and beach chairs rode on back of our golf cart and the girls rode bikes and led the way.

The fine, white sand is like powdered sugar and the water is so warm and clear in the summer - we have fond memories of spending many hours on beaches not far from here when we lived in Biloxi.

As you can see, it was a bit nippy but it felt good to squish our toes in the sand.

Little Charlie had no idea it was cold! He ran up and down the beach, so excited to be back on it; their little family had gone often in the past months. Aunt Missy brought some little beach toys (note in pic), a surfboard and little surfer dude, and Charlie loved them. They threw said toy out into the waves to watch it "surf" to shore. One throw was too far and it gradually was being pulled out to sea.

Charlie was sad to watch his toy getting further and further out with each wave. So, in spite of the cold water, Mama Syd to the rescue!

Though chilly, the sun was shining and we had great beach umbrellas.

Charlie loved being buried in the sand!

After the beach and back at our house, little Henry was showing off his smiles!

Out and about around Sea Side

For dinner that night, we enjoyed crab cakes, crayfish and fresh shrimp at this walk-up.

We had so much fun playing games each night together - 

"Hand and Foot"card game and a couple of different word games that Stacy brought. We laughed a lot.

Next morning led to the coldest day we had. We had to wait in line outside to get in, "The Doughnut Hole," for breakfast. Mindy had the mistaken idea that the Astroturf would be warmer, so she hunkered down and told Missy to sit on her to keep her warm!

Did it work? Not so much!

We all agreed that it was worth the ten-minute wait. 

This was really delicious chicken and waffles!

Emily had what it said on the menu, the "Diet" Breakfast. 

She just about polished it off!

We drove to Syd and Jake's darling home to hang out for awhile. 

Note her cute aqua blue door!

The girls and Roger had fun playing pickle ball and tennis in different combos. 

I am amazed at how athletic they all are!  

We had a reservation at, "Old Florida Fish House." on the water and one of the top three highly recommended restaurants in the area. Right out of the shower, Stacy's hair was soaking wet, so she hung it out of the van on the way to "blow dry"and I took a pic. It looked great!

They had delicious salads, fresh shrimp, fresh fish and sushi. 

This was my probably favorite meal! Roger and I got hooked on oysters on the half shell when we lived in Biloxi, and none are better than Gulf Coast oysters. When we found out that they are half price during Happy Hour, we knew we were coming back!

We celebrated Mindy's birthday on February 18 and she woke up to these cute decorations Stacy had brought from home.

So we sang Happy Birthday (along with the table next to us) and all shared some Key lime pie. We all love Key lime pie and each restaurant does their version of it - all delicious!

Flights left throughout the day for everyone but Stacy, Roger and I. Stacy ran a taxi service back and forth and then Roger picked up a rented car when Stacy turned in the van after the girls were delivered to the airport. We packed up, then drove to Syd and Jake's to spend a  couple of days with them. Syd prepared a wonderful salmon dinner with homemade breadsticks, "roasties" potatoes, Jake's favorite, roasted squash and asparagus (we should have taken a pic!). 

We were greeted with this message in the boys' playroom:

Each morning Syd, with Henry in the running stroller and Charlie on his scooter, Stacy and Roger went for a run around Syd's scenic neighborhood. Charlie could scoot faster than Stacy could run, trying to keep up with him!

On Monday, Jake's old friend and new employee arrived from Utah and we all went out to dinner to a yummy Italian place that eveing.

Henry is one cute little dude!

We had fun shopping in Watercolor and in Sea Side on our last day and got some fun sweatshirts. I thought this was a cute sign in front of one of the shops. Everyone was so friendly and the shops so quaint!

For our last dinner, we returned to The Old Florida Fish House during Happy Hour, this time!

And we delighted in more of these Gulf Coast raw oysters! We all also enjoyed some delicious sushi.

Stacy's friend, whose family from Scottsdale goes to Watercolor a couple of times a year, recommended the Key lime pie at a certain restaurant, so we thought we'd better try theirs, too. After dinner here, Stacy ordered some pieces To Go there on her cell, we drove to that restaurant, picked them up and took them to Syd's and declared theirs delicious, too! Hard to pick which one was the best of the ones we tried, and when we return, we'll start a whole new contest!

Santa brought Charlie and Henry a wonderful device that records bedtime stories narrated by parents, Grandmas and Grandpas, etc. and she asked Stacy, Roger and I to record some for Charlie. She and Jake had already done so and he listened to them every night to help him go to sleep. We each read a couple of stories from, "You Did That?," the book that Roger and I made a few years ago of our childhood tales. She has told us since we returned home that he listens to them every night and loves them!

Next morning, time to drive to Fort Walton Beach and catch our plane. So hard to say goodbye to this darling little guy! And this loving, wonderful family!

Stacy LOVES being  Grandma Sugar!

We've just got to return again to be with this darling family

and to enjoy the wonders of Watercolor!