Fabulous February!

I look forward to February every year, no matter how dreary the weather and the doldrums of winter turn out to be, because it's my birthday month, and, with Valentine's Day, it's the month of love! As it turns out this year, I'm not sure St. George has even had winter! We had one day hit 71 degrees in January and a day or two hit 79 degrees in February.

USU invites us to an annual music workshop held in St. George, which includes a dinner and performances by instrumentalists and choirs from USU. Dane Graham, whom I've mentioned before, invites Roger and I go to lunch or dinner with him the night before. This year, I came down with something the day he came, but Roger met him for dinner at the Rib and Chop House and had a nice visit with him. 

A delightful surprise happened the first part of February - I received an invitation to a Valentine Party from an old Ogden friend who has a second home in St. George, Joan Petty. Through our mutual friend, Connie Minnoch, who also lived in Ogden (her husband was our Stake President there) and now lives in Sunbrook, Joan found out I live here now and invited me. She has this party every year. Some of her Ogden friends come and stay with her and help her put it together and she invites old and new friends from St. George. She goes all out - Valentine motif at street signs, up her walk, on the garage, on her porch and everywhere in her home! She decorates us as we arrive - necklaces, bracelets, even sparkly beauty marks! Lovely quiches, salads, trifles, cookies, and other goodies cover her counter tops and tables are set up for eating, then playing fun games. It was a delightful afternoon for me because I talked to so many whom I had some connection with - either from Ogden, or college days or distant relatives or St. George. I think the older we get, the more we appreciate happy surprises!

They remembered to take the pic below when more than half of the guests had already left. We were even sent out the door with swag bags!

We used to always celebrate my birthday by going to Vegas for a couple of days, but this year, I thought sticking around home sounded better (surely I'm not getting old!), so we had a delicious dinner at a new restaurant, the Cosmopolitan, with an old, known chef in the area, Chef Imi. We went a couple of days before my Valentine birthday to beat the crowds.

On my birthday, Roger took me to lunch at Painted Pony and I had my favorite, fresh Ahi tuna salad.

I was thrilled with the beautiful bright orange roses Roger greeted me with that morning!

Loved ones made me feel so loved on my birthday!

My birthday was Saturday. Sunday, after we attended church, had our Sunday salmon dinner, listened to the weekly Tabernacle choir program, we were watching a podcast for Come Follow Me. We heard the doorbell ring, and . . .

I truly could not have been more surprised! Roger had no clue, either, about these two daughters, Stacy (lives in Gilbert, Az.) and Missy (lives in Boise, Ida.), and Missy's two daughters, Claire, and Ellie (who goes to UTU in St. George), coming to surprise me for my birthday and to attend the St. George Home Show the next day. Best surprise ever!

On Tuesday, before everyone left for home (except Ellie, who went back to her apartment), the girls took us to lunch for sushi at Sakura.

A robot delivered a birthday dessert to me, sang Happy Birthday and I blew out the candles.

I am so lucky to have these beautiful, wonderful girls in my life!

More cards and gifts came, so we had to take some more pics.

Roger took this one morning after we had a frosting of snow come on the distant mountains.

Our talented granddaughter, Addie, who lives in Alpine, Utah, invited us to come up north and see her in this production, so, on Wednesday, February 25, we drove to Mindy and Jeff's.

As you can see, it states the performances go from February 20-28, with no mention that there will not be a Wednesday night performance. Addie got her theater make-up on early that evening, costumes in hand, had her mom drop her off at the school to only find out that there was no show that night. We were waiting at Mindy's house when they both came back, so apologetic, and Addie, crushed.

We drove home, after the whole family took us to dinner at a great Japanese restaurant, Himachi. We received this text the next day.

Mindy Lind:

Thank you again for coming yesterday… I still can’t believe you came all that way and then there wasn’t even a play🤦‍♀️. Thank you for being so gracious about it! I hope the drive home wasn’t too awful. It was so wonderful to see you and get to have dinner with you and all the kids. About 15 minutes after we got home Fiona came up to me and said, “I really miss grandma and grandpa.” I love you so much!

I answered her, saying:

It's so weird how sometimes things work out even better than the original plan, even though things go wrong. We loved having so much time to be with all of the kids and you, to talk and share and laugh and eat together! Probably much more time than we would have had, especially with Addie. We talked about how each of your kids is so special, so talented, so smart, so wonderful. We could feel their genuine love for us and we feel it so strongly for them! We're very lucky parents and grandparents to have each of you to love! It  was so worth the drive to be with you all! And thank you for a fun and delicious dinner!

Mindy sent pics of Addie in some of her scenes - she played three different characters.

This production is being said to be one of Lone Peak High School's finest! I love this cute pic of their family (Fiona had somewhere else she had to be that night).

One of our favorite friends, Nancy, asked us, "Are you guys gamers?" We laughed and answered, "Sure!" though we never were into games much as we were raising our kids. Now, they're fun, though I feel that I'm never quite quick enough - most games require quickness. I've told my kids that I want on my tombstone - "She was slow, but she was good!"

So, we have been invited to be in a little Gamer Group to meet once a month.

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IT'S TIME FOR FUN AND GAMES 😆🤣😂

WHEN: Friday, February 27

WHERE: VanNoy's Home

TIME: 6:00 pm

BRING: Your favorite hors d'oeuvre to share!

Roger set the iPhone on the timer and placed it on a far-away shelf for these pics, not great, but they remind us of a very fun evening!

Here are some quick pics. This is grandson, Max Young, ready for a school cowboy-themed dance. He's now 6' 4''!

And here are some updates of new great-grandkids. This is Anna and Jack's, Charlotte, meeting her cousin, Peter and Izzy's, Theo!

Here is little William, Josh and Jaylen's third child, getting hugs from his big bro, Caleb!

It's so nice to be able to label a whole month fabulous! As we continue to get older and so many sad and hard things are happening in our personal world and in the world all around us, we appreciate the happy, fabulous times!