A quick trip to visit our truly "great" Great Aunt Carla!

A couple of years ago, Jill and I decided to take a quick trip to visit her Great Aunt Carla, who lives near Seattle, as I had never been to the Pacific Northwest before. On that trip, we had so much fun that we knew right then that we couldn't wait too long before making a return trip. So, last weekend we flew back to SeaTac aiport, grabbed a rental car, and drove over to Carla's house to spend a few days. For this trip, she had planned to take us to her beach house for the first couple of nights. What a great way to spend a few relaxing days. The time was spent playing games, reading, sleeping in (never awake before 9:00 a.m.), going out to eat, and we even went to a movie, The Soloist.
The trip was a lot of fun. One of the highlights was getting to know some more of Jill's extended family. Carla's son, Steve, and his family spent a couple of days with us as well and it was so great getting to know them. They truly are good people with strong family values. We played a lot of Rummy Cube, Fill or Bust, and Quiddler; staying up late into the night and then sleeping in the next morning. Definitely no alarm clocks!!!! Jill and I can't wait until our next trip Seattle!

The little bunnies that were running around near the beach house!

Fast asleep by the beach.

Post Secret

So two weeks ago, on April Fools Day Steve and I went up to Utah State to hear Frank Warren speak about his website Post Secret, it really was a cool presentation. For those of you that don't know Post Secret is a blog, were people send in their secrets on post cards, it started as a community experiment and has grown to a blog, with millions of followers and several books. Each Sunday new secrets are posted. This week this was the first post card posted, and I loved it, I think it is so true, and is another reminder to all of us to step back and count our blessings. Hope you enjoy.



Here is one other that I enjoyed this week for obvious reasons :)

Thankful

I wanted to take a minute today just to be thankful. I am so grateful to everyone this week for their well wishes, and care and concern while my mom was having surgery. Everything went well, so much better than expected and I wanted to thank everyone for their prayers, thoughts and faith.

It seems that sometimes in life it takes something to humble us before we can truly realize all there is in our lives to be grateful for.

I for one am grateful everyday for the following:

Steve
My parents
My brother Mark
My friends
My in-laws (they are the best)
My great extended family
The Gospel and the comfort and faith that comes with it
My home
My job
All of the opportunities I am provided in life (travel, abilities etc.)
Great neighbors
Modern Medicine
The opportunity to learn

There are hundreds of more things I am grateful for, but I don't want to exhaust anyone :), just wanted to take a minute and count my blessings.

Topaz

Barrack from Topaz, Utah Internment Camp

So, when Steve and I first got married we made a list of places we both wanted to see, or places that one of us had been that we wanted to show one another.

We have done a pretty good job of crossing 1 item at a time off the list, we started last summer with our trip to Mt. Rushmore with the folks, and last weekend we crossed another off the list by visiting the museum remembering Topaz in Delta, Utah on our way to St. George.

There were two things I wanted to note about this museum 1) the fact that the museum that holds all of this information and remembers this site, is so small and underfunded - see the photo below:


2) the guy who runs it was straight out of a novel, a crazy guy, that took Steve and I into a small room shut all the doors and turned off the lights to show us the radioactivity in some of the rocks found in the local area, the whoe time I stood in the room in the dark listening, I thought to myself this would be scary if it weren't so funny.


He also convinced us that we should take the road less traveled to St. George so that we could see the rock with a face in it, it is said to look like Joseph Smith, does anyone else see it?

A St. George Favorite

http://www.twentyfivemain.com/cafe.php
So I spend a bit of time in St. George for work about 4-6 times each year, and over the past year I have found a new favorite in St. George on Main Street there is a little cafe called 25 Main. They have good food, but they are famous for their cupcakes, different flavors are available on different days, so I have been sampling a flavor each time I come down. Tonight I took Steve there for the first time, and I think we have another fan. So if you make it to St. George for any reason, I would highly reccomend you stop and at least try a cupcake $1.25 each, but well worth the cost, and the calories.

Surprise

I hate it when I ruin a surprise that Steve has planned for me, the daffodils featured in the picture above, are another example of my need for control & observant behavior ruining a surprise. About a month ago I heard a commercial for Daffodil Day's, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and I said to Steve, I love daffodils what a great fundraiser. About a week later, I was checking our bank acount and noticed that there had been a donation made to the American Cancer Society, usually I make those types of gifts so as we were driving home that evening I quizzed Steve about the gift, it was a gift made to the Daffodil Day's fundraiser so that he could get me these beautiful flowers. I received them yesterday and it was a nice surprise because I didn't know what day they would be coming, but it would have been better had I not known they were coming at all. A few years ago Steve tried to surprise me with a trip he had won from work, and someone made an innocuous comment about him winning something and I grilled him until he told me, So I guess my lesson is that even if I think something is up or unusual, maybe I should just trust Steve and keep my mouth shut.

Spring!!!

I am so excited that it is Spring, anyone that knows me, knows that I love the snow and the winter, but this year in particular I was just ready for some sunshine, and beauty. There have been a few medical issues going on in my family, and it has all added up to make me feel a little bit down, but yesterady was a great spring day, and I was particularly grateful.

Because it was so beautiful I just wanted to be outside, so in the afternoon, Steve and I went down and walked around the Bountiful Lake (who knew there was such a beautiful place so close to home) - as the Bountiful Lake is located in our own little city of West Bountiful.

Beauty can be found in the strangest of places, because the Bountiful Dump is also located in West Bountiful, right next to the Bountiful Lake, not sure if you can read the sign below but it states that the Dump, in our city is only accessible to Bountiful residents, not West Bountiful citizens... seems a little crazy to me, but in spite of my frustration over our land being used to dump another cities waste, I was grateful for the beautiful walk so close to home.