UTAH TRIP !~

We left Monday morning for Utah after picking up Joyce and Lynn. We arrived at Deb's somewhere about 3:30 or so. We played games with Deb, Danae, Alivia and the 4 of us until Jess came and picked up the two ladies and took them back to Bluffdale to sat with them. Tony and I stayed with Deb. Then On Tuesday, we went to Heather's. She had taken the kids to the GARFELD MOVIE so we shopped a bit in Saratoga Springs until they were on their way home and then we headed up to their home.

I gave Heather her birthday present (Early) and we ate some lunch with her and the kids! I sewed some stuffed animals who had tears in them as well as a costume of Rowans. Heather showed me the progress in their yard and garden and Mara showed me her new gymnastics' moves.  Then we went to the porch to do family pictures. Heather loves her porch pictures! Her family .....

Then we got one with the kids!

Then Heather and I got a selfie. 

It's creepin me out that I have two different sized eyes. lol  After our visit with Heather and the kids, we drove to Lehi to see Derek & Rachel and Teancum and Helaman. 

Gideon and Sarah are in Texas working. We had a great visit with them as well. We headed back to Deb's at dusk.

We got a picture of the Saratoga temple.  Got back to Debs and went to bed after making plans for Wednesday.

Wednesday, Deb, Tony and I went to see the Kirkland exhibit at the Church Museum. 1st we went on top of the Conference Center to see the progress of Temple Square. 

Two young Sister Missionaries told us all about the things that were taking place on the grounds. It was interesting. 

We then walked over to the church History Museum and looked at the Kirkland Exhibit. It was a lot of letter's from Joseph to Emma, some pages of the characters that were on the gold plates that Joseph translated. They also had the Liberty Jail door. It was very interesting. We then looked at the Minerva Teichert art exhibit. It was beautiful and we got to take 7 5x7 cards of several of her pictures. We shopped in the Museum store and Tony got two beautiful ties. I got a necklace and earrings as well as two ornaments of Minerva Teichert's art. I put them on my JESUS TREE!  Love them!

We left and walked back through the Conference Center to go under it to the parking lot. I had to take a picture of this picture in the conference center. It is my kind of picture. It's made with paper  done in 3D. I loved it! We went home to Deb's and got out car and headed to Colby and Cindy's. They wanted to take us out to dinner for Tony's birthday.

They took us to SOUTHERN KITCHEN in Sandy Draper area. 

It is owned by a man who was raised in Chicago but learned to cook from his Grandma in the south. He calls himself the SAUSE BOSS! He is a member of the church and is married and he and his wife have 6 children. It was really fun. We drank Hibiscus tea and I told them that Norma made it for us in Texas.  We all had Chicken Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes, corn bread and a vegetable. I got spiced corn and Tony got collard greens. It was fun!!

We went back to their house after dinner and Lehi wanted to show me his new stuffed toy. He also showed me his snake and wanted me to hold it but I declined. lol We were headed to St George the next day so we went back to Deb's to bed.

We got away for Southern Utah and we were literally following Jesus. lol It was a cool painting on someone's trailer.

Going past Cedar City, I got a picture of the Cedar City Temple. We went through it a few years ago when we were on our Temple tour. We pulled into St George and it was one hundred and eleven degrees! Pretty hot. We checked into our room at the Red Lion and then went to Chick Fil A for dinner. We waited for everyone else to show up. Joyce & Lynn stayed in our room and Jess and Diane had a room and Alivia and Deb had a room.  

Friday morning, we got up and went to the new RED CLIFF'S temple. It was so beautiful. I loved the desert colors inside.

I took a picture of a young man and his girlfriend so he took pictures of us. It was hot so we headed back to the hotel to rest before going to the St. George Temple. 1st Deb, Alivia and me & Tony went to FREDDY'S to eat. Mmmmm

I love the Lord's Houses. So beautiful. I love these old temple that the Pioneers built. It is so totally amazing to see their handywork . 

After our session, we walked to the front and got some pictures. There were two humming  birds flying around the flowers.

Jess took some pictures of Tony and me.

Then of the bunch of us.

Then he wanted to do a selfie. lol  He could have at least smiled! lol We went to bed after a long day and got up and dressed for the temple and headed to Manti. 

We had stopped at Beaver Utah on the way down to St. George and went to THE CREAMERY for an ice-cream. Colby told us about it. We ALL enjoyed it so on our way to Manti, Tony and I stopped AGAIN! lol Using Janet's expression...."We're on Vacation!!"  lol

Manti is another incredible temple built by Pioneers. Truly a masterpiece!! It looks like a castle and it is incredibly beautiful. 

After our session, we went to the visitor center and got some pictures of us all.   Tony had taken some things to the car.

So we took turns taking a picture of the group.

Then we got one together when he got back.

I took one down from the temple of the group.

And then Alivia got one for me.

Driving away from this magnificent edifice!n We went to a pizza place in Manti and ate a couple of really good pizza's before traveling back to the Salt Lake area. 

Driving past the Orem temple and I got two really different pictures. One into the sun...

And one with the sun bedside us..  Crooked, but still so pretty!   I love the Cherry Blossom theme in this temple! We got back to Deb's and played some games before going to bed.

Sunday morning, we got up and went to church. Robin is a missionary at a church site in Salt Lake. There is a ward in Salt Lake that they assigned a bunch of missionaries to because it is so small. We went to Relief Society after Sacrament meeting and I was pleasantly surprised to meet  Pat Watson who is Joyce Glaetlie's sister! SMALL WORLD!!

AND, Crystal Emery (can't remember her married name) is the Relief Society President in that ward. I knew her immediately when she stood up. I told her I knew her and she was happy to see me. She wanted a picture to show her parents. It was so amazing!!

Monday, we all went to the movie

ESCAPE FROM GERMANY!

It was excellent!! We are going to buy it when it comes to DVD. It was playing in Draper so after it was over, we drove to my sister Lorie's and visited with her and Dave. We were there almost 2 hours and I was so glad we got to see them.

We got pictures as we were leaving. May I just say, 

I HATE SELFIES! 

lol  I always look ridiculous!

It was nice to see them and catch up! We then went to Jess & Diane's and ate enchiladas and a homemade raspberry shale. It was so good. Diane & Deb are really good cooks. We then loaded up all Lynn and Joyce's luggage and we said our goodbyes to Jess & Diane. We were leaving Tuesday morning so we needed them in Bountiful with us. When \we got back to Deb's house, the 5 of us went to a Fireside at a clubhouse in Bountiful. It was done by Karl Anderson.

He is know as Mr. Kirkland and it was such a wonderful fireside. I learned just how important Kirkland is to the church and how wonderful it is that we were able to purchase the temple back as well as the artifacts from the Church of Christ. The Lord has plans for Kirkland. He was just so interesting. I feel like this trip has strengthened my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and has made me so much more aware of the blessing of it. I am so grateful we were able to make this trip. It was awesome!

We got home and some of them played games and Joyce and I sent pictures to her family.  Then we went to bed. We got up at 8 and hoped to leave by 9 but it was closer to 9:30 when we took off. It was an uneventful trip home and I was anxious to see my yard and to get things unpacked. We got home around 4, got a few things done and then went to a surprise birthday party for Kevin Poulsen. 

It was so fun! We felt privileged to be invited. It was for him and his family and close friends.

He is one of our former Bishops, our Financial Advisor and an all round good man! He just turned 65!

These were on toothpicks and stuck on cupcakes, cakes etc. It was his daughter Sydney's idea. Pretty cute!  We love him and it was a great way to end our wonderful week.