SEPTEMBER 2024

SEPTEMEBR was fun and busy!  We started the month having Dana come visit for about 5 days.  We took her to a concert at the Covey Center in Provo.

The Great Salt Lake Yacht Club played old favorites from our day so it was a lot of fun!

I took her to see Dad a couple times.  The first time he was just sleeping, but we caught him awake on a Sunday and he got a Dana hug!

I loved this pic that LeAnn took of the "boys" wearing matching hats!  I love the newsboy style hat!

This time of year I love taking my class on field trips like this one to a cool park!  I have really cute and sweet students again this year!

We hosted our annual FALL BBQ for our Arizona Phoenix Mission friends.  We were surprised bya visit from a senior couple the McDaniels, who recently moved to St George from Las Vagas. making them a little closer!

Our most recent transplant to Utah was Brad Skalka who moved from New York.  I remembered he helped make us this cool horseshoe coat rack!

We had about 30 little families come see us and that made for a full sandbox most of the afternoon!  They dug up tons of treasures and had a blast!

My preschool went to the Fire Station this month as well!  SO cute with their little hats!

Speaking of cute...while Scott left us to work in Argentina, Jenna and Cassidy flew out to come see baby Sydney.  

Cassidy was my birder friend while Jenna ran on the trails.  She was really good at it!

We got as much baby time as we could...and yes, Jenna hijacked Sydney all the time and Grandma just had to watch and love it!

OK...we photo verified that at least ONCE I got to hold her!  HA!

So, we had tickets to go to the Kansas State vs BYU football game that started at 8:15 at night...make that 10:15 for our New Jersey visitors.

We went several hours early to the field south of the stadium for activities there and it was SO MUCH FUN!

Cassidy participated in a bunch of booths with activities and just had a blast!

Then we spun the wheel to win prizes which was also very exciting!

You can sort of see some of the booths behind us here to get an idea.

Then, the game was REALLY EXCITING!  And cute Cassidy who swore she would stay awake for the entire game, fell asleep before halftime.  I cannot believe she slept through probably the loudest game I have ever attended including fireworks!  It was insane!

But, BYU pulled off a big upset to win the game 38-9.

We visited Dad on Sunday and he was pretty sleepy but happy to see us in his own way.  It was hard for Jenna to see him so changed since last fall.  

We took a beautiful walk up in the canyon...and Jenna spotted two "American Dippers" birds in the river for us and we went to our favorite spot at Bridal Veil Falls!  Cold but fun!

We had a wonderful month with family and friends!

AUGUST 2024

August found us still in Scandinavia.  We were in Bergen, Norway for 4 days and really loved our time there.  We went on a "Norway in a Nutshell" trip via train and canal and bus.

This was our river cruise and it was just beautiful the entire trip.

At the end of the cruise, we hiked to a waterfall area that was supposedly like 20 minutes from the canal...well, the trailhead was.  The hike ended up being well over an hour with hundreds of stone steps to climb to reach the falls, but it was really a pretty view at the top and we were glad to make it there!

We hired a local guide...who ended up being a famous Scandinavian birder, Jules.

He took us with Aaron and Mitch, to several places one of our days there and we saw well over 50 species of birds, most of them completely new to us.  He was amazing.  He could see and hear the slightest things and know exactly what it was.

Bergen is known for having like 300 days of rain a year.  We were blessed to have 3 beautiful days and then got one good afternoon of rain!  We were up for it and it really did not get in the way of anything that we had planned.

We then flew to Copenhagen, Denmark to finish our trip.

We stayed at the Scandic Palace Hotel, a very old hotel right in the heart of Copenhagen.  It was very close to the City Hall, and the statue of Hans Christian Andersen, the famous author.  

It was also across the street from Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world.  We did go to the park one evening just to see the gardens and experience the shows and concerts that also go on in the park.  In the dark, the lights were very pretty!

I learned that LEGOS were invented in Denmark.  This is a LEGO family so we were excited to see some of the stores they have there.

We found that they would give you a LEGO PASSPORT that you could then take to any LEGO store in the world to get stamped.  We got some stamps at the store along the shopping avenue and also in Tivoli Gardens.

We got passports for all our grandkids and a couple kids.

Here we are at the famous LITTLE MERMAID statue in the harbor.  This was also a celebration of Lori getting her Emergency Passport from the US Embassy after she lost/had stolen her entire wallet with passport.

We loved seeing THE CHURCH OF OUR LADY not too far from our hotel.  This is where the Thorvaldsen statue "Christus" is that the Church uses as it's logo.  They also copied the 12 apostles that the church uses in the Rome visitor center.

We loved the houses along Nyhavn where we got to take an evening canal cruise.

We changed our tickets from the afternoon so Lori would be back from the embassy and loved going in the evening with a very small group aboard.

Scott and I walked to the CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOR where he had ancestors christened.  We did not have tickets to walk the spiral stairs outside the steeple (luckily) but it was still cool to be there in person!

We enjoyed the ROUND TOWER on the other side of the canal too, with amazing views up on top of the entire city.

We loved this trip with Taylor Family.  They are all so fun and easy to travel with.  We are already talking about where we would like to go next.

After we returned from Copenhagen...miraculously after our original flight was cancelled, we did some laundry and turned around and flew to Seattle to be there for cute Mackenzie's baptism.  It was a very wonderful family centered event.  So happy for her!

Then...we returned from Seattle just in time for me to start teaching my cute new Pre-K classes.  I love them already!

Austin came to Utah shortly after we got back so he could go to Almo and City of Rocks for a friend birthday celebration campout.  We had a lot of fun taking him there and hanging out at the house and birding.  Good times.

We went to see Grandpa and Austin brought his guitar and we sang.  YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE was the favorite.  Dad has continues to go downhill quickly and looks very subdued a lot of the time.  We treasure smiles whenever we get them.

We hosted a GARDEN PARTY for our ward Relief Society the next week and went to 3 yards in our neighborhood for a progressive "tea."  It was a lot of fun and we had a good turnout.

Ashford, where Dad lives, hosted a PINEWOOD DERBY for the memory care that was really sweet!  We had great representation for Dad with Jennifer and her family and LeAnn and her family joining me there.

Dad's car was painted green with trees on it.  Lucas really enjoyed the racing a lot and we all enjoyed the treats afterwards!

August 31 was our first BYU football game (vs Southern Illinois) of the season and it was a beautiful evening to be at a game.  Perfect weather and...we won 41-13!
 

JULY 2024

Our best urprise for July was the announcement that Austin and family were on their way for a visit! BEST SURPRISE EVER!

We enjoyed having a few days to do things together and started up at BYU where we met at the new BYU scupture for a photo of the family.

We walked to the library to meet up with Laura's sister Emily who works in the BYU library.  We really enjoyed the cool display there of church buildings all created with LEGOS!

Each building was created using the best bricks they could find and having to cut some as needed to make things work.  It was really amazing!

We went up to SLC to see some of the sights up there including the old Taberacle and the Conference Center and the Church History Museum and Family History Library.

On July 4 we of course celebrated Jennifer's birthday!  We hosted a large family get together and it was really a lot of fun!

We figured we had about 25 people over and it really worked out well.  Scott was grill-master and did the burgers and Polish dogs perfectly!  Lots of cute July 4 clothes!

We made a visit to see Dad at his apartment in Ashford and Austin brought a guitar so we could sing old songs with him...this was of course, magic.  Dad sang along to many of them.

Got ao pic of him with the family afterwards!

It was hard for them to see how downhill Grandpa is since they saw him last.

Scott surprised me big time at his Gospel Doctrine lesson about the sons of Mosiah meeting up after their missions.  He had me tell about an experience we had in the temple with a YSA ward member who had returned to activity and decided to go on a mission...well, as I am talking, in walk about 30 of our RM families...the walls of the cultural hall were lined with them and it was a tearful reunion, much like the sons of Mosiah!  There is nothing sweeter than seeing the ones that you served with still faithful in the covenants they have made and teaching their children the same!

He excused me to go visit with them in the RS room and had tons of snacks waiting that he had purchased sneakily while Austin's family was here.

We had the best time!  I visited until his class was over and then he came in and joined me and got to greet everyone as well.  It was just magical!

Speaking of magical...a miracle occurred the following week!

McKenna's anmiotc fluids had not increased so they decided to induce her early.  They opted to wait until the next night to start the process, but this was a real blessing for us because we were actually in town and could be helpful.

on Wednesday July 10 at about 8:45 PM, baby Sydney was born and her name was a complete surprise to me...an emotional one!  McKenna was a total trooper for her long process of labor and delivery and it was love at first sight for her and Braden!  6 lb 8 oz 19 inches long

We got to bring them a late dinner and visit with them and hold this new baby...our first experience of being nearby when a grandchild was born!  And we loved it so much!

We visited the next day as well and brought lunch for them and Scott met us after work.

Susan came to visit the next weekend and that was a lot of fun having her here as well.  We spent a lot of time with Dad and he may not know we were there, but it meant a lot to us.

We did have a sister night to eat dinner together but forgot to take a photo of that...but got one with 3 of us before LeAnn took Susan to the airport for her ordeal of flying home...the big computer issues with microsoft happened while she was there and it took her 2 days to get out.

Scott and I did some hiking birding up Payson Canyon the following weekend and saw this toddling baby deer with his mom hiding on the side until we waited for her to get up the nerve to cross in front of us as well.  

Another day we walked in Provo Canyon and saw a guy taking a photo of a snake crossing the path so we took some photos too, with Scott getting up closer to the front of the snake to get a better view...and me telling him that the tail looked a bit bumpy and "maybe it was a rattlesnake?"

Well, he photo IDed it later and IT WAS!!!  scary!  Not sure if it was a good thing I did not know it was a rattlesnake or not.

We were inspired by the cute bookshelf that Braden and Mckenna put in baby Sydney's room and Scott helped me put up these cute disply case bookshelves for preschool.  I love them!

We spent as much time taking meals over and helping out with baby Sydney as we could before our trip to Scandinavia.  Got a few almost smiles and some sleep smiles.  She is sweet and wiggly and strong!

July 28 we picked up Lori early and started our Scandinavia adventure together!  Took Trax from Scott's work after leaving a car there.

We all met in JFK and flew to Stockholm Sweden together!

Here we are by waterfront there in Stockholm!

We were exploring the town and went through this cool archway and then discovered that there was going to be a "Changing of the Guard"

So, we waited around for that and it was really neat with a brass band and all!

We found another area with the pretty bright painted houses.

And an overview of the waterfront from one of the many water views you get in any city near the canals or inlets from the sea.

We got a kick out of some of the names of the stores there...

Went out birding early with the boys and this was one view when no one else was hardly awake in the city.

Our birding boys.

Our guide Sophie taking us on tour of the city.

Inside the big City Hall.

They hold Nobel Prize dinners here in this big room there.

And another great room in this building with a mosaic that even had the Eiffel tower and US flag and statue of liberty, welcoming all cultures to their city.

At Skansen, the equivelent of our "This is The Place" monument and city in SLC...it was all about Sweden and houses and culture and farms and animals etc.  Really a great place to visit!

A neck loop to punish you if you were bad!

At the very interesting VASA museum where they brought up an old viking ship that was sunk on it's first voyage...too heavy.

It was an amazing and artistic ship and they rebuilt it and made a very cool museum all about it and the shipping industry that inspired it.

Not sure where we were here, but we had to use the selfie stick!

Headed to BERGEN for 4 days on the 31st of the month!

Bergen, Norway!

Me with antlers.

Our game spot in our hotel.

Us in downtown Bergen.

At THE BLUE ROCK

Cutest picturesque streets!!

And houses!

WE loved Bergen!

More to come in August!