Ashley's 21st Birthday!

Ashley turns 21 on Tuesday, September 1. We decided to celebrate her birthday early. First came the presents:










Then came the cake, which was a variation of the "slime cake" that we often make; this time it was a "mud cake":










It takes a lot of work to get it to look just right:

Last, but not least, add the candles and make a wish!

Happy 21st Birthday, Ashley. We love you !!!

Wicked (The Musical)

Julie, Ashley, Cori and I watched "Wicked" at the Gammage Auditorium last night. The kids and I had seen it on Broadway when we were in New York a few years ago and absolutely loved it, so we were looking forward to seeing it again. The performance was very good. Seeing it for the second time, I picked up a few more points in the story that I hadn't noticed before or had forgotten.

We're making tentative plans to see "Phantom of the Opera" and "Mary Poppins," which will be coming to Gammage during the next 12 months.

A Visit!

After the wedding celebrations I brought my three youngest nieces, Sara, Morgan, and Hannah, home with me for a week. This has become an annual event and they were looking forward to a week in the pool. They literally were swimming every chance they got, morning and night as you can see from the pictures. However, the weather was very hot that week and so we couldn't swim in the afternoons. We filled that time with various activities, including a trip to Jeepers. They remembered it from last summer and it was their first request for this time. I lost track of how many times they went on the bumper cars and roller coaster. The evenings that Cori was here were spent in Disney Scene-It challenges. I can't remember who won, except that it was never me! They are too good and too fast for me to keep up with. Sara's birthday was yesterday so we had a birthday party too. It was great having them here.

A Wedding!

My niece, Courtney, got married on July 11 and I went out to Hemet for the celebration. Her husband, Nick, is in the Navy (as you can see by the uniform) and just did a tour in Iraq and is now stationed in San Diego. The wedding turned out very nice and it was wonderful to see everyone. We also celebrated my brother and sister-in-law's wedding from the week before. Congratulations to all of you!!

Vacation in Idaho

From Walla Walla, we drove to my sister's home in Meridian, Idaho. We were met there by Kevin and his family, who had driven up from their home in Utah. Keith's daughter Beth came up with them. We had a great dinner of barbecue chicken at Julie's house, and then made the 2-hour drive up to their summer home in McCall, a little town on the shore of Payette Lake. We'd been there two years ago, and it was great to get together with everyone again.

Their home, and the surrounding area, are gorgeous. These are views of their home from the beach and of the lake from their home:










It was a fun, relaxing time. We did jigsaw puzzles, played card games and board games, shot pool, relaxed with a good book, and had a blast playing beach volleyball:




















We also spent time riding jet skis on the lake and and riding in the boat watching Jared and Blake demonstrate their skills with wakeboarding and wake surfing:











There was plenty of good food to eat, and everyone helped with the preparations and clean-up. Blake made some awesome dutch oven cobblers:










To celebrate July 4th, we watched a parade of sailboats, sat around a campfire and made s'mores, and watched a spectacular fireworks display.
It was wonderful to spend time relaxing with family. We appreciate Lance and Julie for opening their home to us, and Kevin and Becky for making the long drive up.

Walla Walla

Julie, Jared, Ashley, Cori, and I flew up to Boise on Tuesday, June 30, rented a van, and drove over to Walla Walla. Although that's where I spent the first 18 years of my life, the last time that I'd been there was nearly 18 years ago. Some things had changed and some things hadn't.

As we were planning this trip, I was surprised to see how many homes were available as vacation rentals in Walla Walla. Who knew that there'd be that many people vacationing in Walla Walla? Many of the homes already were booked for the week of July 4th. We ended up staying at a home called "The Stone Compass." It looked good on the website and, fortunately, turned out to be a very nice place:











The home was located not too far from the home in which I grew up and was very close to Pioneer Park and Wildwood Park.

We saw the home in which I grew up; it's changed a bit since I left:

We also swung by Edison Elementary School. The old school is closed and probably will be torn down. The new school, which is being built right next to it, is huge! Here are some photos of the old school:











And here are some of the new:











Of course, we had to stop at the Iceburg for lunch:










We traveled to "downtown" Walla Walla and saw the Courthouse, the old County Jail, and the old Liberty Theatre:











We also visited my Aunt Elaine and made a trip to the cemetery to see the gravesites of my dad, grandparents, and uncle:











We drove all over the place, walked around Pioneer Park and the downtown area, had a hilarious dinner at the Modern Restaurant, visited our old stake center/ward building, and generally had a wonderful time seeing all of the sites from when I was growing up. It was a great way to start our vacation.

A Fun Weekend!

This weekend I had a visit from the Horn sisters!!! We had been planning this trip for several months and I was really excited for them to come. We had a great visit. It is not very often that all four of us are together and so we made the most of it! They wanted to see the temple so we went over there on Saturday morning and went through the visitor's center. We watched the Joseph Smith movie. Nancy and LaVern had never seen it. Annette and I had both seen it 3 or 4 times, but it is still very emotional every time I watch it. We also walked around the grounds and saw lots of people waiting for brides and grooms to come out of the temple.

Across the street from the temple at Pioneer Park is a statue of some of the settlers/founders of the Mesa area. One of them, Charles Crismon, is a great grandfather of the Horn's! It was really neat to see him in the statue (he is on the far right) and know that he was instrumental in how this area came about.

But what we spent most of our time doing was preparing for Father's Day in my ward. The Primary was in charge of the Father's Day treats and we had decided to make tie shirts for cards (see below) and make brownies to go with them. Well, at the last minute a couple of the people who were helping me ended up with family emergencies and so LaVern, Nancy, and Annette came to the rescue!! There were some sisters in the ward who baked brownies for me and then LaVern baked the rest (She is an INCREDIBLE brownie baker!) and Annette and Nancy figured out how to make the cards. I was given 70 of them already made and so we had to make about 50 more. They just whipped up the pattern in a matter of seconds, I was amazed! And then we put put everything together. It pretty much took all weekend! It was a lot of work, but it was fun working together. It made it so much more fun doing that with them. Thanks to all three of you for all your help!!!
We did manage to squeeze in time for a couple of movies while they were here too. They were cute girlie ones! Scott was sooooooooooooooo glad they were here so that he didn't have to watch them with me! Thanks, you guys, for coming to see me! I love you!!