Desert Winter Wonderland

Here we live in the beautiful desert of southern Utah and we get bombarded with snow...yeah yeah yeah....I know it's not Buffalo, but this is the desert for crying out loud...hahahahaha. Sue and I went out walking in the snowstorm the other night...lots of fun. We'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Gracie's Big Day

Jimmy and Hollie's daughter, Gracie, had her very first dance recital this past weekend. Sue and I were not able to attend do to some church commitments, so we went over and visited her, and she gave a us a very special private performance. Sue I and felt that she was awesome. She looked so cute in her little Christmas concert. Hollie told us the other day that Gracie performed magnificently and was not shy. Gracie is such a sweet little girl...everyone just loves her.

Way to go Gracie....woooo hooo.....Watch our Broadway here I come :o)

Champs Birthday Bash

The "Champster" has finally turned two years old. Chris and Alicia had a nice family party at their house for the little guy. Jimmy & Hollie were able to come over and so did Sue & I. We all had a very nice time sharing Champ's birthday. Sorry about the low picture quality, I forgot our camera and had to use the camera on my phone. Everyone had a nice time.

Finally Some Thanksgiving Fun

The Thanksgiving holiday started when Talon, Chris and some friends of ours went shooting with our arsenal at the new shooting park that is close by the house. We shot for hours and had lots of fun. Sorry Talon, I forgot to take the camera along. Sherri & Talon were able to get in the hot tub for some much needed R&R.

Thanksgiving day and dinner were awesome. By that time Annie and Brett had arrived and Chris, Alicia, Elonna, & Champ came over too. Jimmy had to work. We had tons of food and a great time with each other. Everybody chipped n to help with cooking and dishes.

On Friday, Sue left early for a flight back East to visit Kari, Tina, and Amber. She had a wonderful time on her almost "girls only" weekend. Sherri & Talon had to leave for their week long Mexican Riviera cruise...how fun.

Brett, I, and Jimmy were able to go golfing. Chris got sick and wasn't able to come so I asked my good friend, Jeff Robicheaux to come along. We all had a great time. As you can see the scenery was spectacular.

What an absolutely wonderful weekend. It was so great to have our family here even though we missed those who could not be with us...we love everyone all so much!

We're looking forward to the next time that we can all get together

Fishing at Otter Creek Reservoir

Sue and I had a fun filled day of fishing at Otter Creek Reservoir with our good friends, Terry & Dana Kelvington. The day began at abut 8:30am and ended around 10pm. Sue and I had not fished for years. We all caught plenty of fish (Rainbow Trout), and most of them were really nice size 2 1/2 to 3 lbs. with a couple at 1 lb. We stopped for breakfast on the way up (2 1/2 hour drive from St. George) at a quaint little restaurant in Circleville, UT. Otter Creek is close to Richfield off of Hwy 89. The weather was beautiful the whole day with the temperature in the mid 50's. I'm sure that we will do this again in the spring.

Beautiful Fall Weekend

Sue and I had a really busy and fun weekend. On Friday night we went out with our complete Bishopric for dinner. It really was a great time spent together. Our Bishop is like the Ward Grandpa...everybody just loves him.

On Saturday morning we decided to go to Snow Canyon ( a Utah State park with beautiful red rock vistas and lots of volcanic lava) and do a 6 mile hike. It was such a beautiful day, about 72, which around here is as perfect as it gets. Both of us did real good but we were feeling it by the end of the hike, especially when the return trip was all severely and constantly uphill. Enjoy some of the great photos we took of the perfect day.

We ended the day by going back to Tuachan to see the "BYU Young Ambassadors" which is a song & dance troupe made up of students from Brigham Young University. They performed to music from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and the present. They were very entertaining if not spectacular.

Spooktacular Family Fun

Grandkids are where it's at. We love them all and miss those that do not live close to us.

Chris and Alicia stopped by the house last night to show us Elonna and Champ's Halloween costumes. Ruh Ro... Champ was Scooby Dooby Do, and Elonna was Sleepover Hanna Montana... a real original. They were so doggone (pun intended) cute.

Alison and the boys stopped over to see us too. Corbin is the little pumpkin, Andy is Darth Vader, and Baxston is Spiderman.

After a fun night at the Ward's "truck or treat", we stopped by to visit Jimmy & Hollie. As usual, they had a great party going on with their annual Pirate theme. Gracie was (is) a princess, and Preston was a mini pirate.

We didn't get to see all of the grandkids, but we do have some pictures of them.

Kari and Will's family look so cute. Brinly was Wonderwoman, Payton was Ironman, Bronson was Spiderman, and Eli was a cute little monkey...hey, wait a minute he IS a cute little monkey. Kari and Will looked so good too

And of Course, Felipe and Tina's daughter Raquel was the cutest little pink 3-eyed monster we've ever seen.

We missed seeing those guys so much....Halloween, what a fun time of the year

What a great fun-filled night it was.

"Thriller" of a Weekend

We went to see the stage production, Thriller, at Tuachan Friday evening. It was awesome. Actors were in various Halloween make up and put together many ghoulish set to music. It was mostly modern and jazz dancing. It opened and closed with zombies dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller. It really was extremely entertaining. We started the evening off by going out to the Gun Barrel Steak and Game restaurant.

Saturday was a work day for Sue as she had another "flu shootout" in Hurricane. She worked hard until mid afternoon. I was a able to go golfing with my son Jimmy and we had a blast. The rest of the weekend was pretty much laid back and relaxing.

Life is good!

Celebrating Sue's Birthday

All Sue wanted for her birthday was Dish TV's Center Ice package so she could get the Sabres games on TV. That was just too easy. She also received a nice leather jacket and a gift card to Kohls so she can go shopping for some fun fall/winter clothes. We spent the evening at Scaldoni's restaurant, which is a very nice high end restaurant. The food was good, not great, but the time spent with Sue was fabulous. The best part of Sue's birthday though was that she was able to talk to her girls....that really made her birthday special. All in all I think she had a great birthday.

As always, Sue looks terrific and easily looks 10-15 years younger than she is. It's no wonder she has 5 beautiful daughters.

Fall Conference Weekend

We decided to take off for a long weekend in the Utah mountains and spend it at the Sundance Resort (owned by Robert Redford). We were also lucky enough to be able to attend General Conference for the Saturday afternoon session. This was the first time that Sue has been able to attend and both of us really enjoyed the experience.

We spent Thursday evening and all day Friday and Saturday morning at the resort. The colors were beautiful, especially when you add the mountains to the colors. We had a beautiful mountain suite cabin that had all the amenities of home but still held the quaintness of a mountain cabin. We enjoyed a beautiful mountain drive along the Alpine Loop and enjoyed some very exquisite food as well. I even talked Sue into getting a massage (her first ever) and we both loved the experience. I think she only fell asleep once or twice on the massage table :o)

Friday was absolutely gorgeous and Saturday it rained constantly but that didn't dampen our spirits. We enjoyed getting away together and each others company. We also went to see the "This is the Place Monument" up in SLC where the mormon pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley on their trek across the plains. After that we went to see the Body Worlds exhibit where human bodies are on display that have been removed of their skin and fat then preserved by infusing their bodies in a plastic type material...it was amazing. You really can view a body in so many ways to really see how it functions. It may sound gross but it was not at all.

Enjoy these beautiful photos.