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Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Trip to Corinne's

We were able to purchase tickets for the MCO concert in Salt Lake. 
Ben, Garrett, Spencer, Henry and Clara all participated. We reserved a hotel and hit the road.
We stop at Love's on our road trips. Fred bought two rollers from their "food court" so we were rewarded with this free Stawberries and Cream Dr. Pepper. 
 On Friday all of the kids had school except for Clara. Margot and Gary (Ben's parents) were also there visiting for the concert so Gary took Clara with him running errands. We wanted to take Corinne out to lunch for a late birthday celebration. She wanted to go to Leatherby's. So that's what we did. Their ice cream menu was very big so it was very hard to decide what to get. Our's was delicious!!
There was a dress code for the choir participants. This is the cute jumper set for Clara.

I was glad Ben thought to have this picture taken.
I'm not good about taking pictures anymore.
During preshow warm up and waiting, Garrett was messing around with some of the 
other boys and somehow fractured his forefinger on his left hand.
Miraculously Corinne was able to get him to urgent care and patched up and then 
get back in time for most of the first performance.
For Mother's Day Richard sent his Mom a card from the mission field. 
This is the picture that was inside. He looks so happy and content.
We went to church with Corinne on Sunday. She played the organ and Garrett gave a talk. 
After eating lunch and hanging out with them, we took off before dinner and headed 
to our friends in West Jordan to spend the next two nights. 
Shan and Judy are our good friends from St. George. They left St George before us and now have ended up back in West Jordan. That's a good thing because we will be visiting Corinne and can always stop by to see them too. They got us into board games so that is what we do together.
Judy works for Norweigian Cruiseline and works from home. 
She works the afternoon and night shift. So while she worked, 
we made our way to the nearby Zupas.
We have to do that everytime we go to Utah. We miss that place.
We had a very nice time. It was a very busy weekend at Corinne's. She left Monday morning for her next work trip to Richmond Virginia. I think we will be squeezing in short visits from now on with all of her business travels. That works. Short and Sweet that way.

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Houston & San Antonio tourists

After we left the pier, we both hailed a Lyft to take us to the Space Center in Houston.
This was another example of Shannon's family getting a Lyft no problem and us waiting there for about 40 minutes. Several of the Lyft drivers accepted and then canceled. It was super frustrating.

Finally we made it to the Soace Center even before Shannon and Brian. 
They had to pick up the rental van.
I did enjoy being here with Fred. He wasn't out of control or anything, but he was very interested and enjoyed everything on display.  
Here he is just to give a scale of the size of that engine. I guess that is what that is....
This is a full-scale shuttle replica mounted on top of the original shuttle carrier aircraft NASA 905 
 This is a rocket. I've googled pictures trying to figure out exactly what this is called. 
A "rocket" is the best I could come up with.
Scott recommended Rudy's BBQ for a Texas BBQ experience.
The next morning as we headed to San Antonio, we drove by the Houston Temple. It was a drizzly kind of day. It sure is a pretty temple and lovely grounds.
Grandma and Grandpa. 
Of course, you cannot drive to San Antonio and not stop at Buc-ee's. This is a typical expression for B.
The kids were great travelers.
Once we got to San Antonio, we headed to the Alamo. It was plenty warm, but not horrible. 
There were lots of displays, but I didn't go crazy taking pictures.

Outside in the garden/plaza is this Live Oak. Walter Whall moved the 40-year-old Live Oak to the Alamo in 1912, proving you CAN move large trees and transplant them successfully.

From the Alamo, we walked to the River Walk. It really is a beautiful walk. I remember going years ago while visiting Scott. We got the see the Christmas parade. In the dark, it is so beautifully lit.

The next stop on our sightseeing journey was to see Scott and Jess's first home. It looks very much the same. I loved that house. A wonderful representation of one of their many accomplishments.
The last stop was the San Antonio Temple. 
The stained glass is all around the temple and it really beautiful. 



I got a teeth smile out of Fred. 
For dinner, Scott and Jess recommended this Mexican Restaurant La Fogata. It was very unique. It has outdoor seating and what looked like another separate buildings for indoor dining. There is a beautiful courtyard in between the two eating areas. 

I think this is so cute. 
The restaurant defnitely had an authentic feel about it. Actually we ate under a outdoor covering. So there is one building for indoor and this covered outdoor and more outside seating. 

It was dark by the time we left. A live band was just getting started as we left. 


So our vacation is over. We spent extra hours in the airport because of delays. 
We were all entertained thought. 
We had an amazing time. Shannon and Brian were generous to include us. It was easy traveling with them (except the stupid Lyft and Uber experiences).