December Happenings

 We have had a very busy December in spite of me having bronchitis twice this month, - one time with laryngitis . No fun, but I was still able to enjoy having family around. Life goes on.

The first fun thing we did in December was to attend Ella and Livi's dance recital. Then we got to watch them, plus Eric, & Nicole perform in the Nutcracker a few days later. At the dance recital, Ella got to play the part of Mary in the Nativity dances. Livi was part of the group dancers dressed in nativity clothing.

I love these beautiful dancing granddaughters of mine.

 There were too many dances and too many pictures to post them all here, but here are some of my favorites from both the recital and Nutcracker.

Eric all dressed up ready to play the father of Clara in the opening scenes of the Nutcracker.

Everyone did so well! It really was a joy to watch them perform. This is Ella's last time to perform in the Nutcracker since she will be graduating H. S. in May and then she will be attending Utah State University in the fall. 

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Cheryl's family arrived here on December 21st and on December 24th, she threw a "One Year Old" birthday brunch for Wesley at our house. Wes doesn't actually turn one until January 16th, but since so many family members were in town on both sides of the family, Cheryl chose to have it a few weeks early.

The theme centered around donuts, which is reflective of Cheryl's monthly pictures of Wesley as she grew, adding a donut per month until she has a full dozen. Besides donuts, she also served a breakfast casserole, muffins, fruit, and a variety of drinks. 

Cute little Wesley and her smash cake. She was very dainty about it. We thought she would tear into it, but she didn't. She just pulled a little frosting off the top and she was satisfied.

Wesley opening her birthday presents. 

Her brother and cousins helped her open them. 

We got her this cute little princess tent. She loves it.

This is the cute invitation Cheryl sent to those who attended.

On Christmas Eve, Kessler put a tasty snack out for Santa Claus and his reindeer. I'm sure they enjoyed every bit of it.

Having little children around makes Christmas a lot more fun. It was fun to watch the excitement on Kessler's face when he opened his presents.

Kessler loved his walking, talking, dancing robot and Wesley loves this little stroller she got from her Grandma and Grandpa Stronk.

Wesley also loves this little unicorn rocker we bought for downstairs. She can climb on and off all by herself. Such a big girl. Since the family arrived last week, Wesley has been walking a lot better. She can stand up without holding on to anything and can take several steps before falling/sitting down. It's so fun to watch babies learning to walk. Her personality is really coming out, which is fun to see. She is very playful.

Ryan was here to enjoy Christmas day with us and then Eric, Ella, and Evie came over to exchange gifts and have Christmas dinner (which was really at lunch time) with us. Nicole and Livi were sick and couldn't attend. Sharing Christmas with family is priceless. Sure do wish Kyle's family and Jared could have been here too.

On December 27th, we decided to celebrate our 47th anniversary by attending a matinee of  "A Christmas Carol" at Hale Theater. We enjoyed it. Hale Theater always puts on good productions. We then had an early lunch at Rodezio Grill. The food was fantastic. I'm so glad that even though I was feeling sick and had laryngitis, I was still able to celebrate being married to my prince and perfect partner for 47 years. Seems like we just got married. Life is good with Alan in it. I would be lost without him. I'm so glad I can be with him for eternity.

Visiting the Lee's

 Ever since moving to Utah, we have wanted to travel to Idaho Falls to visit our good friends, the Lee's. We finally made it up there earlier this month. We spent about three days with them before heading over to the Jackson Hole Wyoming and Grand Tetons area.

On the way up to Idaho, we decided to stop at the Hill Air Force Museum where we saw lots of war planes and helicopters.

I particularly liked this display of all of the dog tags of Utah's fallen military members who served in the Korea, Vietnam, Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars up to May 2016. It was very sobering. I so appreciate those who sacrificed their lives for my freedoms.

After the air museum, we headed to Promontory point where the railway running from the East met the railway running from the West to complete the transcontinental railroad. This is where they drove in the "Golden Spike" to commemorate the finish of the railroad. We found it a lot more interesting than we thought it would be. They put on a demonstration with two replicated trains from that era - both were steam engines, but one was powered by coal and one was powered by wood. 

The coal powered train

The wood powered train

This is a twenty-star flag. We were told that nobody had an updated U.S. flag when they held the Golden Spike Ceremony, so they used what they had. It still flies at that site.

Once we got to Idaho Falls, we stayed with the Lee's and had a fun day with them at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. It is a vast ocean of lava flows with scattered islands of cinder cones and sagebrush. Here are some pictures I took while there. It is a pretty desolate looking area, but we had a good time.

Idaho Falls is a beautiful city, especially around the temple. We enjoyed the beautiful views there.

I was impressed with this beautiful monument and water feature 

in downtown Idaho Falls.

We really enjoyed visiting Idaho Falls. We drove from there over to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and also hit the Grand Tetons.

Iconic antler arches at a park in Jackson Hole

Grand Tetons

Cabin we stayed in at the Grand Tetons. Rustic, but that's what you would 

expect at a place like this.

We stopped in Logan to take a look at the Logan Temple. The grounds were closed, but we were able to get some pictures from outside the fence.

We found that early October was a good time for this trip. The temps were pretty ideal and the summer rush was over, for the most part. 

Ella's Exemplary Excellence

 My granddaughter, Ella, has always been a high achiever. She has excelled at dance, piano, and academics, along with many other talents.

Ella is currently in her Senior year at Riverton High School. Several months ago, she got the results from her ACT (college entrance exam) test. She amazingly got a 34! A 36 is a perfect score. An average score for a Utahn is 19.9, so you can get a picture of how outstanding a score of 34 is. She has never gotten any grade below an A in school. This boggles my mind. 

Because of her high grades and superior academics, she has been awarded the Presidential Scholarship at USU (Utah State University) for next fall (2023). This means that she will get full tuition and all of her student fees paid for. She is also one of three Riverton High students who is a finalist for the national merit scholarship. On top of that, she has been officially named as the Sterling scholar for English at Riverton High. I couldn't be more proud of Ella. She is truly a great scholar and a great leader. 

 Ella's leadership skills have come in handy lately at her place of work. She works at Boondocks, which is a place where families go to have fun. They have mini golf, go-karts, bumper boats, video games, etc. Ella was recently promoted to "Supervisor" there. 

 Ella is growing up to one amazing individual. I couldn't be more proud of her and her accomplishments.

Reaping the Harvest

 I've heard a lot of people complain that they can't grow zucchini. Fortunately, we don't have that problem. In fact, we had a plethora of zucchini this year - enough to give away and make loaves and loaves of zucchini bread. 

Our garden turned out kind of iffy this year. We planted things we hadn't planted before, like corn, lettuce, string beans, carrots, strawberries, raspberries, and peas. The biggest disappointments were the watermelon (not seedless), the carrots, the cantaloupe, and the raspberries. We didn't get any raspberries even though the plants looked healthy. They just didn't produce. We got a minimal amount of strawberries.  I was sad about that. Hoping for a better crop next year.

This is one zucchini that was hiding from me. Didn't see it until it was gigantic!

Our fruit trees were disappointing this year. We did get a few pears, which are just now being harvested. They taste delicious!

We didn't get any plums on our tree, but fortunately for us, our back fence neighbor got a ton of them and one or two branches cross over into our yard, so we took advantage of our good luck and we've been eating them. They are so good! This is my favorite type of plum.

 I really missed those delicious peaches we harvested and canned last year. Maybe next summer we will have better luck.

I never knew I would love gardening as much as I do. We didn't have a garden in California, so I didn't know what I was missing.  I sure wish I had paid more attention when my dad planted his fantastic gardens. He was terrific at gardening. He knew exactly what to do. I just plant and hope we get something good out of it.

 Having this year's garden brought me a lot of joy even though it wasn't a super successful year. Gardening is one of my happy places. 😃

Fall Colors at Silver Lake

 Alan and I got up very early last week to meet up with Ryan and drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Silver Lake. Going up the canyons here in Utah is always pretty, but this time of year, it's spectacular. The fall colors were on full display and we loved it! The sun was just rising at Silver Lake and it really lit up the hillside, especially with the reflection of the lake.

A moose was standing in the water on the other side of the Lake when we arrived. Later, it went up into the trees and sat for a while.

This is the road we traveled on. Ryan took this picture with his drone a week before we went up there. Beautiful red, orange, and yellow leaves.

One cool thing is that we saw this beaver pulling a tree limb to his dam. He was a very busy beaver trying to get ready for winter, I guess.

The Fall here is amazing...but it's also a reminder that winter is just around the corner. I'm bracing myself for cold weather. Not my favorite time of year!