Easter Dishes

I showed you the platter that I got in St. George at Dillards.  I love it and the more I thought about it the more I decided that I wanted another platter.  So I went to Dillards to see if I could find another platter and thinking it might be on sale.  When I got there, no platters available but all their dessert dishes were on sale for 50% off.  I told Neal and we went back down and bought all they had.  We now have 27 Easter dessert plates.  They don't make dinner plates.  Just dessert plates.  Not sure why, but I'm happy with what we got.  Here are the three patterns.  We tried to get an even number of each pattern.  However, we had to take what was left.  This first plate is my favorite.  I would have bought all 27 if they had had them.  But the variety is good.

I saw these cute kitchen decorative towels and they were on half off so of course had to have them.

Excited for Easter next year to use the plates and display the Easter stuff.  It will be fun to serve something on the plates.

As we were leaving the store I spotted this t-shirt that I had seen months ago and told Neal about.  It is a Tommy Bahama t-shirt and has 4 of a kind on it.  Remember that was Neal's singing group when he was in college.  Neal bought one.  He just had to have it in memory of.

Stitching progress report

This project is certainly going in the fair this fall.  I'm hoping that I can get it done and framed.  I should win a blue ribbon for sure.  I love it and can't wait until it is completed and framed.  It will be beautiful.

Sunday Thought

This thought from our new church president, Russell M. Nelson:

Easter

Wow!  Can you believe it is Easter already.  I think about Jeffrey and miss him.  The wonderful thing about Easter is that it gives us hope.  There is hope, no matter what, there is hope.  That is the message of Easter.  If a man dies, will he live again?  Yes.  When death steals a loved one away, we think of the resurrection and we have hope.  Because of Christ, there is hope, no matter what, there is always hope.  How wonderful this gospel message is.  I often think of the song, "Consider the Lillies of the Field."  That song always touches my heart deeply.  I bear testimony to all my children, grandchildren and posterity that Christ died for us and that he was resurrected and because of that we will all be together forever as a family.

Yesterday we celebrated Easter.  We had Mindy and her family, Lynda Ann and her family along with Jeff's parents, Maren and her family and Lyndsy and her two boys.  Of course we greatly miss our California family.  I know how much Tucker loves our traditions and misses being a part of them.  We did have contact from Derek.  He and Mindy were texting back and forth and he told Mindy to give me a hug, which she did.

We had the traditional dinner followed by the egg contest, followed by dessert and topped off with games until about 10:00.  What a wonderful day.  Happy Easter to all!  I bought a new Easter platter.  They have plates to match and I may have to splurge and buy them.  I'm hoping they will go on sale tomorrow.

 Sweet Abby gave me a vase and a bouquet of flowers for Easter.  She is such a thoughtful grandchild.

 Just sitting down for dinner.  This isn't everyone but most of the crowd.  We had 23 people for dinner and festivities.

 This picture of everyone holding up their Easter eggs for the contest.

 My egg and Neal's egg.  Obvious which one is mine and which one is Neals.

 Maren and Lynda Ann smashing eggs.  The next picture tell you who won and who lost that hit.

 Andrew comes out the winner for 2018!  Congrats Andrew Man!

 The traveling trophy getting signed with Andrew's name and year.

I forgot to add these two pictures of the chicken cake surrounded by little bunny rabbits.

 As we waved goodbye to the last car pulling out of the drive way, we turn around and saw this gorgeous moon.  Emmi even texted me to look at the moon.What a beautiful way to end a perfect day.  (this picture was actually taken the night before at Wheeler Farm.  But, it was just the same as it appeared over Mt. Olympus.)

A trip to Wheeler Farm

Annie called me and said that she, along with Abby, Andrew and Hayley were in town to go to the Jordan River Open House and then they were headed to Wheeler Farm and wanted to know if I wanted to join them.  Didn't want to go to the open house but met them at 6:30 at Wheeler Farm.  Neal couldn't come because he was waiting to finalize his purchase of his new car.

After the farm we stopped at Woody's for a hamburger.  Neal joined us there.  Here are some fun pictures of Wheeler Farm.  There were people there with their guide dogs.  We got there a little late and they were just closing down their exhibits.  So Annie and the kids helped them carry stuff back to their cars.

 Abby thought this would be an excellent place to help teach Saint not to be distracted by other animals.  He actually did really good.  Abby has done an amazing job training Saint.

 I seriously couldn't get enough of this turkey strutting his stuff for a hen in the cage with him.  I don't think I've ever seen a turkey show off like this one did.  The funny thing was that the female acted like she could have cared less.

 You can see the female in the back ground was more interested in getting something to eat than what her companion was showing off.

 These next four pictures are old trees that Wheeler Farm needed to cut down.  They decided to let some local artist come and create carvings from trees.  That way preserving them.  They were amazing.

 The owl, the bench and the wishing well all from old trees that used to be standing there.

 I think this was my favorite.

It was a fun evening and I'm glad I was invited to tag along.  I have to take Neal over to see the carvings.  He will love them.

Lunch with Emmi

Emmi called me last week and said that she would be coming through Salt Lake and wondered if I would like to have lunch with her.  I was excited to join her.  It is nice when my grandchildren still include me in their every day lives and decisions on the horizon.  Emmi is graduating from BYU this month and has career decisions that she needs to make.  One of them is joining the Navy for a four year commitment.  she has interview with them twice getting all the information she can and all her questions answered.  She hasn't decided yet.  She is also working at Dugway this summer and it is possible they may offer her a full time job there.  It was fun to sit and talk about her future plans.  It is hard to believe that she has completed four years of college.  Neal and I are so very proud of her accomplishments.  Graduation will be an exciting day in her life.

Pier 49 was our choice for lunch and it was delicious!  I love a good pizza and a diet Pepsi to go with.

Emmi's birthday surprise

I found out that Emmi loves axe throwing.  I had no idea she did that or liked it.  Annie arranged a time for the whole family to go and surprise Emmi.  They all got involved and apparently had a fun time.  Where in the world Emmi learned about axe hunting is a mystery to me.  We will have to ask her how she got interested in it.  Annie sent me this picture of the family at the event.

Spring trip to St. George

Neal and I were invited to St. George for the week of  UVU's Spring break.  It was nice to go down and have a whole week without Neal running to the club house to get on the computer and do school work.  We had a wonderful time as always.  Ate well, played golf, played bridge and watched Criminal Minds and SVU a couple evenings.
Golfing was really fun. If you look really close you can see the St. George temple way in kthe back ground.  It is amazing how far you can see that temple.

Bridge is always a part of our trips.  Ron found this headline in the paper (that didn't have anything to do with our bridge game) but brought a round of laughter.

Judy is the bridge expert and Ron, Neal and I are continually being taught.  Every single hand has a lesson to it.  So we loved the bridge victim's grieving sign.

Ron had a puzzle going in the spare bedroom and he kept wandering in there and putting a piece or two in the puzzle.  He didn't have much spare time with golfing and bridge.

One of our traditions is to go to the Bear Paw for breakfast.  Friday morning about 11:00 we headed over and even at that late hour still had to wait for about 30 minutes.  That place is always crowded no matter the time of day.  They are open from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  Food is absolutely delicious!

We went to the Pizza Factory for dinner one night and when we got back from dinner we decided we need to take a walk around the golf course.  It was a beautiful evening and Ron and Neal kept wandering off the cart path to find golf balls.  I guess one never has enough golf balls!!!

It was a perfect trip.  We left St. George Saturday morning and headed back to Salt Lake and reality.  We made three stops looking at BMW's for Neal.  He found one he liked and it is now at the BMW place in Murray being checked over.  It will be nice to have another car in the garage.  It works to share but much easier not have to :-)

Pedicures

Yes, it is time to get our feet some much needed and customized care.  Neal and I were going to St. George and knew we would be wearing sandals.  Time to get our toes and feet pampered.

I didn't take a picture of the finished project but they ended up a pretty bright pink!  Just mine, not Neal's!!

Must be Spring

It must be Spring and even though we are still getting lots of rain and some snow, the pansies and other flowers are blooming like crazy and welcoming in the Spring weather.  As I was backing out of the garage this morning, there were the ducks.  The disappear early winter and come waddling back early Spring.  I love that they always come by the pool and by our driveway.  They aren't intimidated by me and just keep waddling slowly on their way as if to say, "We are back and it is Spring."

Saints birthday

Abby and Lynda Ann came by with Saint.  They were on their way to the puppy class for Saint.  It was Saints birthday so Abby created a cake that all the dogs at the puppy class could have a bite of.  The dogs aren't given treats but on their birthdays they can have a 'doggie' treat.

Well trained dog.  Sitting there waiting for the go ahead to have a taste.  Abby has done an incredible job training Saint for someone who will need a guide dog.  What a wonderful service Abby has taken on.  We are proud of you Abby.

The car wash

I took the Jeep through the car wash before we left for St. George and just had to take a couple pictures.  You will notice Olaf still sitting on the dash board.  We bought him in California when we were visiting with Tucker and Jamie and the girls and he ended up on the dash board and apparently found his home.  Neal named him Olaf.

 Ahhhh!  Nice and clean once again.

Probably a silly thing to blog but I thought it was kind of fun to take some pictures as I was riding through on the automated tracks.