Spring Trip Santa Barbara

Next we drove to Santa Barbara, CA since Peter's Aunt Elizabeth was turning 100! Isn't she cute, just like a little bird, chirping things like, "I'm 100 years old!" and "Do you like my yard?"

In this picture she is wearing the apron that I made for her. Blue is so becoming! She has lovely blue eyes.

She also delighted in telling the story of how Peter and his brothers were so naughty once while his parents were on a long trip that the babysitter quit and Aunt Elizabeth had to move in with her own children and dog and take care of them. She quickly subdued the boys with a trip to the bakery and had no trouble after that. Aunt Elizabeth is formidable!

Aunt Elizabeth still lives in her own home thanks to a good caregiver, her devoted and amazing daughter Claudia, and her son Warren who comes from Oregon when Claudia travels. Warren is also the fixit guy. They have another sister, Sue, who lives too far away to help out day to day, but visits whenever she can. Sue was there too, that was fun.

Peter, Aunt Elizabeth and Claudia.

So we had two nice birthday dinners--during one at Ruth's Chris, the manager and servers kept coming by to wish her happy birthday. They made her a beautiful chocolate dessert with a candle. Aunt Elizabeth was as gracious as a queen as she accepted their congratulations. When they asked her secret, she said, "I eat lots of sugar!"

It was kind of dark in there!

 Aunt Elizabeth's fabulous yard

Cousins breakfast--Peter, Sue, Warren, Claudia

Claudia and Sue took me on a girl day to a great yarn store and Sephora. They are so nice and let me use their arms for perfume testing when I ran out of my own arm space.

So that was Santa Barbara, we packed a lot into a day and a half.

Next--Arizona!

Spring Trip First Part

Amy, as if you didn't know!

OK, after a little glitch where I though I had somehow changed the login and wrecked it for anyone else to post (I bet you think that is my intention, but I welcome and would love posts from everyone! really!) thank goodness Pam validated it and all is good again.

Peter had training meetings in Las Vegas so we made it a good road trip through Nevada, California to celebrate his Aunt Elizabeth turning 100!, Arizona to see his brother, and Utah where Mary had a dance competition at Lagoon. It took two weeks!

Today I will talk about Las Vegas. Peter had never been there and hated it so much. He is not a city or a crowd person. But he was mostly in meetings and survived it.

I had some adventures while he was working--I got to see Lion King--my favorite Broadway show ever. Still love it!

And I got to see Donny Osmond! Oh, yes with his annoying sister Marie.

 Me with Donny--kind of! This is in the gift shop near the show. I resisted the urge to buy a Donny pillowcase. It did not have a high enough thread count. Yes I still love him. Ladies at my table and I were screaming like we were 14 again!

Pam, do you remember when Uncle Bob came to BYU and drove us by Donny's house and he came out and waved to us?   Scream!  Those were the days!

Anyway, I didn't just stalk, Donny, I got to go to the temple twice. It is beautiful.

 Still wearing the sweater I saw Donny in! I'll never take it off!

 Temple grounds flowers. It was so nice, not really hot yet--end of April. Birds were singing up a storm!

 Th is is Oleander.  Not an Idaho plant.

 Of course, exactly one week later, it was all over the news that Marie got re-married to her first husband in this very temple. Oh Marie, you annoy me so! If you had only hurried up by just one week, I could have possibly seen Donny dressed in white. Sigh!  Done talking about Donny. I promise!

This is called Devil's tongue. When a lady told me what it was, I said, "That's not very nice to have around the temple!" and she didn't even laugh. Must work on my delivery!

Finally Peter finished his training and we walked and walked to see some sights and had a really great dinner.

 Peter and the rabbit!                                                             Bellagio ceiling made by Chihuley.

Oysters! One of my favorite things!

Next time I write--Santa Barbara! You may like to imagine me knitting and knitting as we drove and drove because I was.

I am now the keeper of the cousin sampler!

It's Amy.

My mom and dad were here for a day to hear Mary talk and sing in church and at Seminary Graduation. She was delightful, but that's not what this is about.

My mom is at that stage in life of trying to get rid of stuff. Wait, she's always been like that. Kerri and I can name many of our FAVORITE toys that disappeared, that we still miss. But now things are re-appearing, like a  crewel embroidery Christmas wreath that I did in 1980 or so.

Apparently I said that I wanted the sampler that my mom made for Grandma Katie. I don't really remember my mom asking me, but she must have. She would not lie! So I have the sampler with all our names and birthdays on it--cousins only, I should say. It's very nice and I am glad to have it.

I had forgotten that Lissie is a nickname!

An organized person would put your birthdays on the calendar, but I will probably just let facebook remind me.

My mom and dad have gone to Utah for a few days--heads up everyone! Their car looks like more stuff is looking for a new home. Then they will come back here for Mary's graduation.

Another beware---I am planning on publishing pictures of Peter and my spring trip on this blog. Why get my own?

I am remembering what fun I had last spring visiting Uncle Marvin with my dad. They hated Cafe Rio. Isn't that weird? But their stories were priceless!


Here are Mary and Brett Hardman and Kendon Freeman. They are the only seminary graduates from our ward. The boys are heading on missions in the fall and Mary is heading to BYU-I.