Wonderful Anniversary Day

Yesterday Alan and I celebrated our 35th Wedding Anniversary......but Alan had to work and we didn't get to spend much time together. However, I was able to spend a wonderful day with two of my sons (Jared and Kyle) prior to taking them to the airport. We took the beach bikes down to Santa Monica Beach/Pier....one of my favorite things to do. While they rode the bikes I took a nice walk, walked the pier, and kept my Kindle company. After they returned, Jared and I rode bikes while Kyle sat at the edge of the beach enjoying the wonderful sunshine and view. Jared and I joined him at the beach after riding bikes. The weather was soooooo nice. As we were sitting on the beach enjoying temps around 70 degrees without the usual wind, I was feeling sorry for the people living in the North East who have been innundated with that awful snow storm and freezing temperatures. I love California for its weather and beauty. I would have posted some pics here but I forgot to take my camera with me. Thanks to my sons, I had a memorable 35th Wedding Anniversary, and Alan and I will have a belated celebration later this week.

Universal City Walk

Despite wet drizzley weather, Alan and I went down to Hollywood Universal Studios City Walk today for a quick day trip. We mostly went there to watch "Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader" at the IMAX Theater. We watched it in 3D. We don't usually travel that far to watch movies, but Alan's staff members gave us a gift card for AMC Theaters and we have Cinemark Theaters in Lancaster. However, we made a fun day out of it. Below is a picture of Alan standing in front of the Hard Rock Cafe.

Here I am standing in front of the huge Christmas tree with the

Theater in the background (to the right). When I saw that

decorated tree, I said to Alan "I hate decorating

Christmas trees, so I'm glad I don't have to decorate that one."

We thought this Billboard right on City Walk really personified Angelinos.

(Click on the photo if you are having trouble reading it)

We also saw people doing "indoor" skydiving, but we were really outside.

I'd never seen this before and found it very entertaining. You wouldn't

catch me doing it, but I sure enjoyed watching it. Maybe you will too.

All in all we had a great day. It was fun just to get away and

spend time together as husband and wife.

Turning Ninety

On November 24th, my mother-in-law, Pearl Stott, turned NINETY years old. She is a pretty private person and doesn't like the "lime light" or to have attention poured her way. However, since turning ninety is a huge milestone, she humored her extended family by allowing us to all celebrate with her. Isn't she beautiful? She is in good health and if she lives as long as her own mother, she will be around for almost another 9 years. We love you Pearl!

Only Alan, Ryan, Cheryl, and I could attend the celebration from our family.

Lovely Ladies -- Three granddaughters getting to know Grandma Pearl a little bit better.

(Karen Susan, and Kim)

It's Official!

Except for having to fight the notoriously crowded L.A. freeway traffic, I had a beautiful trip to the temple this morning. The skies were blue, no wind, and the temperature was perfect (75 degrees). Things got even better once I entered the sacred House of the Lord. I had a 10:00 appointment with a member of the Temple Presidency. He extended an invitation to me to become an Ordinance Worker. Even before I left his office I was set apart to do that glorious work. My shift at the temple will be on Friday mornings at 6 a.m., which means I need to be there at 5:30 a.m. for prayer meeting, which means I need to leave Lancaster at about 4:00 a.m., which means I would need to get up about an hour before that at 3:00 a.m. (unless I have to wash my hair, which takes an extra half hour to blow dry), which means I will have to try to go to bed very early on Thursday evenings. However, I feel that the sacrifices I will have to make will be minimal compared to the blessings that will result as I serve the Lord in the Temple. I start training in January and I'm really looking forward to it. Fortunately, I've made arrangements with a couple of other sisters in our Stake to car-pool with. This will make the trip down and back much more pleasant.