Labor Day Weekend in Phoenix

We drove to Phoenix for the Labor Day weekend.

I packed us a lunch to eat in the car while we drove.

Fred scoped out the eating along the way and it looked no one was offering

dine in. We didn't want to order food and then park somewhere in the 100+ weather.

Eating as we drove proved to make for a much faster arrival.

We arrived in time to go with Evan to his swimming lesson.

His swimming lesson is held in a private facility. I've never seen anything like it before.

Scott grilled us some Kabobs, minus the skewers. Pineapple, peppers and steak. It was very delicious. 

Scott and Jess have a list of home improvement projects. 

Scott and Fred tackled this project. Actually Scott did 99.9% of the work. 

I thought Fred was a great supervisor. He pointed out a few options and Scott made the decision.

I loved watching this process.

On Saturday afternoon, Fred and I drove to Scottsdale to meet Shan and Judy Hubsmith for lunch.

It was great to see them and catch up on what's been going on with our lives since they moved away.

That evening they tackled one more job. A new light fixture over the dining table. 

First meal under their new light fixture.

Here the boys are cooling off while Scott and Fred were working on the lights.

When we first arrived, this was the birthday greeting the family

created for me. The boys helped too.

A very sweet gesture!

Looks like necklace examining time for Evan. The boys seem pretty comfortable with us. They are still young so Fred and I are still navigating how to interact with them. We aren't comfortable being too pushy with them. We sure do like being there and watching everything going on.

We did go swimming on Sunday afternoon. That was fun. 

Jess worked on wedding cake flavors and we got to reap the benefits of that. 

It was a good trip. Comes and goes very quickly.

Birthday Number 63

Once again, I arrived to work to find these beautiful decorations.

It makes me very happy and I feel the love.

Many people take their birthday off from work.

Not me - I kind of love the attention!

Becky brought me these balloons.

Here's the front desk from all angles.

Janie brought me all these cupcakes which I shared.

My good friend John brought me this cake from Nothing But Bundt Cakes.

Red Velvet!!!

These are some of the cards I received.

Becky wanted to take me to lunch on Saturday. When I arrived, I didn't notice Rachel (next to me) sitting in the corner of the waiting area. She finally stepped up to me and then it registered that something was going on.

Rachel and Tina are my good friends from church.

This is Becky and her mom Frankie.

Rachel brought me this beautiful potted plant.

Fred and I went out to Red Lobster for my birthday dinner.

I took Friday off so I could just enjoy being off work to lounge around or get caught up.

Friday morning we headed out to Walmart, Costco and Kohls.

It was so wonderful to shop during the weekday.

Nothing was too crowded. I never get to do that.

My Dad asked if I could come up with something to hide the cords draping from his TV.

I decided to make a wanna be wall hanging.

This is the backside of the wall hanging.

I bought some fabric self adhesive ink sheets to print off some pictures.

It was actually so easy to use and I'm really pleased with the outcome. It didn't really take too long.

It's plenty plain, but I didn't want to make it too busy and have it be distracting to 

what he is watching on TV.

So I had a really wonderful birthday as well as a few more celebrations in the days before and after.

On Monday before my birthday, my good friends Suzy & Jill took me out to Chinese food.

The Monday after my birthday, Fred took be to Red Robin for my free birthday burger.

What's been going on lately

My company's summer party was a drive in movie.

The Staheli Farm hosts this event.

Fred loaded us up with all the comforts we would need.

We didn't end up using these, but it was good to know it was an option.

It was about 104 outside that night.

We did smell cow every so often when the breeze picked up.

Here's the screen. We had a good view. There really wasn't a bad place to park.

Work provided a huge assortment of candy, popcorn and bottles of water. 

They also brought in this Zeppe's Italian Soda Truck.

It was SO GOOD!

The movie we watched was Dr Doolittle with Robert Downey Jr.

Fred fell asleep for a while and I fell asleep twice.

The next development is my new face shield I've been wearing at work. 

I really like it. It is so much more comfortable than the medical masks.

The only drawback is I forget I have it on and when I go to put something in my mouth,

 I am met with resistance. This is peanut butter.

Since we have moved here, Fred's baby soft feet are no more. His heels have become quite dry. I told Fred I would give him a pedicure. He actually let me do it.

I scrubbed and scrubbed with my heel scrapper, I used a foot scrub, 

Mary Kay Satin Hands products too.

I feel like I just exposed more open scales. But I did like giving his feet a nice 

massage with lotion. He was a very good sport.

So that is the end of our excitement for now.

 

Colorado Baptism

Fred and I decided to take a road trip for Buddy's baptism weekend.

Our first stop was this Love's in Salina. 

This is a favorite stop when Shannon brings her kids for a visit at our place.

It took 10 1/2 hours for us to drive there. We made 4 stops.

I was feeling pretty good about that.

After we checked into our hotel, we  headed to our new house.

It's huge.

Now we have a record of what our new address is.

It is even bigger than it looks from the outside.

This is a picture of the view from the 2nd story.

This is the view from our living room window.

Friday just the four of us got to have the afternoon to ourselves.

Corinne was able to arrange a "private tour" of the Ft. Collins Temple.

Everyone had left for the day so it was so quiet as we walked through.

The conversation in the car as we drove was enlightening. 

So many memories brought up that I didn't remember at all.

The baptism was Saturday morning. 

We all met outside of the church before we could go into the Relief Society room.

Brian's parents and three of his brothers came with all of their family.

We had a nice big group, but still held it under the 30 maximum.

Henry was so sweet just sitting in his seat waiting for things to start.

Corinne played prelude music and our opening song.

I forget how beautifully she plays. 

Here is Buddy and Brian.

A super great picture of them together.

    Love this picture.

There were really too many of us to get everyone in one picture.

We opted for just the Daly/Drees group.

Henry & Mima were pretty much best buds for the weekend.

Later in the evening we celebrated Buddy's birthday.

Nana Drees made him a volcano cake.

All is well at the dessert bar.

Before the birthday celebrating, we took the three grandchildren back

to our hotel for some swimming. Fred and I both went in.

I'm glad I did. A lot of the times, I just don't want to get wet.

This was me making faces about the cold water.

The hot tub is always a hit.

Henry told his Mom that their basement is really fun.

They do have a lot going on down there.

Shannon took Corinne and Henry to the airport Monday. These are all the pictures they sent us.

I wonder if they planned matching purple????

As we drove out of town, the weather was just right for us to open the sunroof.

That is a noisy experience. 

Once again, we stopped at the Salina Love's.

Took us the 10 1/2 hours back. I even drove for an hour and a half.

This was a very nice long weekend. It was fun to meet up with members of Brian's family after many years. I think the last time we saw his siblings was at Mima's baby blessing in 2013.

It was worth the 20 hours in the car.