Early Halloween in Phoenix

I'm running out of motivation to keep posting to my blog.

Part of that is I'm not taking pictures as much anymore.

It's harder to post when there are no pictures. 

That doesn't mean we're not doing things. 

So we did go on a trip to Scott and Jess's in Phoenix. 

We squeezed in two quick days. 

They had lots of stuff going on and we actually had a hard time 

finding 4 or more days free from events on the calendar. 

We stopped over in Santa Fe for one night on the way.

We arrived on Thursday late afternoon. 

A pretty relaxed evening at home. 

Friday morning started off with a bag.

First we jumped in the car and went along to take Evan to school. 

Next we came home for a bit and then I went with Scott and Graham to Music class.

It was so cute. Of course, there were Halloween costumes. 

It's about 40 minutes. Letters, reading, music, instruments. 

I love watching Scott with his kids. He is so good!

After music class, we headed to swimming lessons for Graham. He is a good little swimmer. We were happy to tag along. Next door was a donut shop so we stocked up on donuts and came home and ate donuts. When Evan got home, the plan was a trip to Dairy Queen.

That night was their ward's Halloween Party. It included a chili cook off dinner.

Jess came home with three awards! No pictures.

It was the first game of the World Series, so Scott set up a tv in the back of the mini van in place of Halloween decorations.

The best part of this trip was Graham did not hold back at all. In the past, it seemed like it took a couple days before he would be in our space. This time he was comfortable and cuddly with us from the beginning. 

Evan wanted us to push him in the pool. So here he went.

We all played a game of Aggravation. Luckily Evan won the game!

We were also able to attend one of Evan's basketball games. Jess coaches and Scott coaches from the bench. Evan is comfortable with the ball and plays pretty well for his first season. 

Here he is with his team and fantastic coaches.

We had such a good time at Scott's. So happy we were able to go for a visit.

On the way home stopping in Sante Fe again, we had to eat at Blake's Lotaburger that we saw on the side of the road last time through Sante Fe.

It was pretty good.

Fred and I just submitted an application to be service missionaries in the Clothing/Laundry department at the Denver Temple. These are our mug shots for the on-line application.

 Look at these old people.

July and August 2023

We had a pretty busy July and August this year. 

We went to a Rockies baseball game with our good friends Brian and Angie Erickson.

We got there a little late because of dinner.

We sat through about 1 1/2 innings when it started to thunder and rain.

They announced for all the upper decks to get under cover.

We stood around about 20 minutes and decided just to call it.

We walked back to the car in the rain.

These are the photographs from my Dad's room that I wanted to keep.

My Mom and Dad, Mom's parents and Dad's parents. 

I finally got them framed, but still need to hang them up. 

M is really good to go out to the garden with Fred to harvest our bounty.

At the end of August, we took a road trip to Provo, St George, San Luis Obispo, CA, back to St. George, Clearfield and then home. The goal was to attend a memorial service in SLO for the mother of some of my very good friends. 

1st stop was Provo where we attended one day of BYU ED week. We have never attended and thought attending one day would let us know if this is something we want to go back to. If housing weren't so expensive, I would consider it. We probably will not go again. 

When we walked out of hotel in Provo the first morning, Sue Frandsen from Bremerton was walking towards us. She was there attending Ed Week with some of her grandkids.

What a small world. Then she sat in front of us at the Marriott Center.

There is a lot of hype about a CougarTail. It's basically a footlong mapel bar. 

It wasn't that great. Just messy.

This is us walking towards the campus from the parking lot. 

After classes and dinner, we hit the road to St. George where we stayed with Fred's sister Sharlotte for the night. This is the new Red Cliff's Temple right near our home on Signature Way. It's hard to believe it is just about done. What would life have been like had we stayed?

The next morning we headed to San Luis Obispo. I reserved an old motel. It seemed the ratings were decent and it was affordable. It wasn't really a bad room, except the toilet. OMG I've never experienced a toilet like that. First, the floor around the toilet was soft. ICK. When you flush it, it does this weird two time flush and then it sounded like a helicopter. So noisy and grumbly. Weird, like what is that?

This is the studio apartment  that Fred rented when we met. 

Gosh it is really old. 

We did the driving around to look at old places. I've taken pictures of those places when we visited in 2019. This time we drove by Beckie Crandall's house. It doesn't look very different. 

The memorial service for Shirley Thomas was so nice. I saw many friends that I haven't seen in 44 years. Jack Legge, Brian Duncan, Eric Woodman, Phylis Vierra, Jeann Forsyth and her daughters Keri and Tami, Karla Brown, Stacy, Drew, Marc, Kristie and Doug Thomas. Dana and I had met up a few years ago in Springville, UT. It was a wonderful experience. I'm so glad that we went. 

We stopped at Corinne's for two nights. They are a busy family. It was a very short visit, but we did enjoy the time with them. 

We aren't too sure we want to do a roadtrip like that again unless we stretch it out more. 

Alaska Cruise 2023

We got up at 2:30 am and Shannon drove us to the airport. 

Our flight left at 5:30 am to SeaTac.

Here is Mt. Saint Helens.

Of course, it's a beautiful day in the state of Washington.

We arranged for transfer service to Pier 91. This is the Princess ship that was also headed to Alaska.

It's a breathtaking day here in Seattle. I can't believe we lived here for 34 years. 

Sometimes I wonder how I ever wanted to leave. 

The embarkation onto the ship was slick and quick. We are on the Holland America cruiseline. 

We headed for the buffet for lunch. They had scoop ice cream everyday and it was delicious.

Fred got sprinkles and I sent this picture to Shannon to show M 

who loves sprinkles more than her Mom.

As we left the pier, this is the beautiful landscape that we saw. If only the sky could be clear and sunny most of the year instead of gray.

Seattle skyline.

 Our first port was Juneau. We have been to the Mendenhall Glacier before.

I didn't remember the waterfall. It is very powerful.

Here's Fred.

Look at this old retired couple.

Part of the excursion was a salmon bake. It was so delicious. I could have eaten a lot more, but it was the beginning of the cruise and I didn't want to go crazy.

The area that the salmon bake took place was really beautifully done. 

I took this picture of Fred at the Salmon Hatchery and sent it to the kids. It's a Daly thing.

This was us headed back to the ship.

The next port was Skitka. It was raining when we left to load the bus. The weather did improve a bit.

I loved these big leaves. This was in the Sitka National Historical Park. 

The highlight of the cruise was meeting Fred Bettes and his family.

We actually first met him at the buffet and asked if we could share his table. 

His wife Debbie and their daughter Amy joined us at the table.

As we introduced ourselves, it was a fun moment when we realized we had two Fred's.

These two had a lot in common. 

1. Same name

2. Both engineers by trade

3. Both born in December

4. Both collect ball caps on their travels.

5. Both are Mr Fix It

Another interesting fact, was Fred had been at the pickleball how to meeting

and we had been at a table right next to theirs one evening in the dining room.

Once we got acquainted that day, we met up for a couple of shows, shared two evenings in the restaurant and met up to play Five Crowns.

In Ketchikan we finally had decent weather. 

We had tickets for the Lumberjack Show. It was fantastic and so much fun!!

It was another beautiful day when we pulled back to port.

We had to scramble a bit to figure out what to do all day. We got off the ship around 9:30 and our fight was not until 8pm. First we tried to rent a car so we could drive to Bremerton or just sightsee. Cars were so expensive. We went back to the airport and rented a locker for our luggage. We took the Light Rail to Pioneer Square. 

We found a Mod Pizza for lunch and then just walked across the street and found a table. 

We simply sat and enjoyed the weather.

We headed back to the airport. Checked in and waited for our flight.

Shannon picked us up. 

It was a good time. We don't need to go back to