Our California Trip Feb 2025

Fred and I planned a few days in California by ourselves before the family cruise. 

The sequence of these pictures are last day to first day. I don't want to do it over.

Here we go: We picked up our car rental and headed to our hotel located in Inglewood which was pretty close to the LA airport. Tuesday 11 February.

Friday, February 14th - Valentines Day. 

After attending the LA Temple, we headed to BJ's Restaurant for our Valentine's Day Dinner. The pizookies are our favorite!

Our table was in the sun. Not crazy about that, but what do you do?

Fred and I were sealed together on March 24, 1979 in the L.A. Temple.

This was the first time we have been back inside. We had planned for a noon sealing appointment so we could go up to the Celestial Room afterwards.

As I was headed into the dressing room, I ran into a friend from San Luis Obispo. That was so much fun and what a miracle. What are the odds?

Onward, so as I was leaving my locker to head to the sealing office, my nose started bleeding. Worst one so far. I asked the assistant to call to the sealing office to notify Fred I was indisposed. 

He met me outside the dressing room and stayed with me. The nosebleed took 45 minutes to end. We visited with the sister who stayed with us the whole time in the first aid room. In our conversation I mentioned I was raised in San Luis Obispo. She told me her grandmother lived there. I asked what her name was and she said Hubble. Well that was Granny Hubble to all of us at church. Many years the youth would go caroling to her home. I spent many Sunday afternoons visiting her in the nursing home after I graduated High School. 

Another fantastic experience. 

Because of the nosebleed we ended up in the 1:00 pm session. 

Much to our surprise, the LA temple closes between 2 and 5:30pm everyday that it is opened. At the end of our session, the ordinance workers kick you out. No lingering. So we didn't get to go the Celestial Room. We were so disappointed.

Here we are 46 years later. 

                                

Saturday, March 24, 1979

Thursday, February 13, 2025

Fred had connected with his drafting teacher from High School. He is the person who recommended Fred attend Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. 

He set Fred on the path to find me. We went and visited with him for close to two hours. I think it meant a lot to him that we came to visit.

Next we drove to Fred's home where he was raised until he went  to Cal Poly for school. 

Cute little house in Whittier CA

We also drove by the schools he attended. 

This is his High School.

This is his Elementary School. 

And this is his Junior High School. 

Fred's first job was at McDonalds. We drove to that location and it was still there, but completely rebuilt.

We drove by the church he attended all his growing up years.

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Disneyland!

It was a rainy drizzly day. Fred was prepared with the necessary items. 

Thank goodness!

Shannon gave us some rubber booties to wear over our shoes. Great idea. Worked for Fred, but not me. I wore holes at the heel and all the water was soaked up by my shoe and sock. I walked around squishing in water all day.

We went to the Star Wars attraction first. We hadn't been through this ride before. I think it's called Smuggler's Run. Walked right on. 

Rain Rain

Very disappointed in California's weather, I mean what are the chances we would be in the rain? We did have a good time though. 

Lines were short because of the weather. 

We'll be back to Disneyland again. 

Those few days together reminiscing were fun and we look forward to doing it again.

Phoenix Birthday and Thanksgiving 2024

We made plans to go to Scott's to attend Evan's baptism. 

As days passed, more events were added to the calendar. 

Celebrating Graham's birthday

Pie Night

Thanksgiving Feast.

Corinne and her family also came for all the events.

It worked out beautifully for us to stay at Ben's sister Becky Olsen's place. 

Just 10-15 minutes away from Scott.

Becky's family had plans in Utah so she offered her home to Corinne's family and also us.

Her home was big and comfortable and we really enjoyed sharing time with Corinne's family there.

Let's begin.

Our family heirloom ride on train that we bought for Corinne now resides at Scott's house.

All of our grandchildren have taken rides on this little train. 

Garrett and Clara wanted to relive the wonder of it.

Sunday we all attended church with Scott & Jess.

Jess's family also were in attendance to all of the events.

Here is a very nice picture of Evan with his Mom and Dad.

This is the crowd that were in attendance at Evan's baptism.

Evan asked me to play the piano and Grandpa to give a prayer.

We were happy to be on the program with him.

We took these pictures after the baptism. I'm so happy to have these wonderful pictures.

We are only missing Shannon in our family photo.

We made an appointment to perform sealing ordinances in the Phoenix Temple. 

Most of Jess's siblings were also able to participate. I really enjoyed that. Jess set is up for us. 

Graham celebrated his sixth birthday the day before Thanksgiving. All of the little grandchildren with parents went to see Moana 2 together. Corinne and I also came along. 

Graham wanted a donut birthday cake.

Just hanging around.

Aunt Jess is the best. She let the little girls help with pie preparation. Look how happy Clara is.

This is our master Pie Baker. Look at that spread! Even though I didn't sample all of them, 

I know they were all delicious. Jess is amazing. 

 Jess puts cards identifying what each pie flavor is. Aren't they all beautiful!

Everyone served themselves. 

Thanksgiving Day. Here are our hosts Scott & Jess. They are a great team in the kitchen.

I love watching Scott with his family. 

Jess wanted a picture of the perfect plate of the Thanksgiving offerings.

Helper Scott 

All kinds of choices. My favorite was the sweet potato casserole one of the brother-in-laws made.

We sat down to dinner later than planned. The tables were all decorated so nicely. 

We had a Daly/Thornton table minus Clara. She got to sit at the little people table

.

Of course, I'm on dish duty. It's my special place.

We all had a good time together. I'm so glad that Corinne's family also came. 

There were a lot of McGuires so we needed a few more of us Daly's. 

Priesthood Weekend Events at Corinne's 2024

The first weekend of January 2025, Fred and I flew to Corinne's for some very special events.

Sunday morning we went to her Bishop's office so Henry could be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood to the office of a Deacon. Spencer was ordained to the office of a Priest. Garrett was able to participate in the circle to ordain Henry and Spencer as well as Spencer also being in the circle for Henry. Corinne did some extra foot work to get that scheduled. It was so nice to be able to be there.

After church, Corinne took some pictures of Garrett for his Missionary plaque in the church foyer.

On Monday, Fred and I went to the Church Museum with Corinne and Clara. In the section where they highlight each Prophet, they have created a passport activity for people. Locating certain items among the displays. Clara enjoyed that.

We took the family out to dinner at Red Robin for the fun of it. 

After the Museum, Fred and I went to visit Fred's aunt Carolyn Daly. We were able to see her new home and also meet up with Fred's cousin Brian who is temporarily living with her. 

On Tuesday, we drove down to Sandy to go out to lunch with Craig and Lynette. It is always so fun to see them. 

A few hours later we went to the Bountiful Temple with Corinne's family so they could perform Baptisms. It was Spencer's first time to be able to baptize. He baptized Ben and Garrett. Garrett then baptized Spencer, Henry and Corinne. We were witnesses for all of those baptisms. Another special event that Corinne did lots of preparing for. 

Wednesday was Garrett's big day. Last minute washing, packing and organizing and going to the MTC in Provo.

A pleasant surprise was Garrett asking Fred to give him a blessing. Fred isn't praying yet, they were just getting situated so I thought it was okay to snap a picture. 

Garrett's final meal was at Leatherbys which is known for their outstandingly huge and delicious ice cream. Between the five of us, we bought three desserts. Totally way too much ice cream, but it was so delicious and fancy looking. 

After lunch, we split up so Corinne, Ben and Garrett could go to the MTC as a family. These pictures are ones taken by them along the way. We did drive by just to see how the MTC looked and where they had probably gone into to drop him off. 

Such an awesome and happy picture.

Off he goes to his missionary adventure in Peru. A very exciting day for all. 

After the MTC event, Fred and I drove to Springville to see Camille and Brian Brower from our Bremerton days. It was as though no time had ever taken place since we saw them last. I think they moved away from Bremerton in 2007 or so. She hasn't changed a bit. So happy and joyful!

From there we drove back up to Provo to meet Rick and Wendy Cloutier at Zupas. We met them when we first moved to Bremerton. They also were newlyweds and had been married a few weeks before us. We have kept in contact all these years. Lasting friendships are pretty special.

On Thursday, Fred and I took it easy at home. We didn't have any committments until evening. Corinne, Ben drove down with us to Salt Lake. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory at the City Creek Mall. It was an especially beautiful restaurant. After dinner, we took a tour of the Conference Center and attended the Tabernacle Choir's evening practice. It was amazing. A beautiful sight and such beautiful music. Both choir conductors led a few pieces. The speed at which they made corrections or adjustments and then instantly went to recording was unbelievable. Amazing!

Fred and I stayed at Corinne's home this time. We had such a lovely time. We are so happy to watch her family progress. We'll be back there in March for Richard's Homecoming.