Las Vegas Weekend Adventures

We decided at the last minute to head down south to Las Vegas to do some shopping instead of going on the geocache hunt on Saturday.

It was time to find Sue a dress for the wedding, she is such a reluctant shopper. We started the day off by going to Mimi's cafe for breakfast then headed over to the Galleria mall. We literally went through every dress store in the mall to find the right dress (I actually enjoyed every minute of it), probably because this was the first time that Sue and I had gone shopping together and because I had such a blast looking at her shop for her special dress. We finally found the perfect dress at Dillards then Sue didn't want to buy it because she thought it was too expensive (no way...but she is so frugal). Honestly it really was the perfect dress. After I twisted her arm and assured her that the dress was not too expensive and that "she" made the dress look even better she agreed to purchase it. She only did so when I agreed that she could take it back if she found something as nice but cheaper.

We then went shoe shopping and I took her to the "Designer Shoe Warehouse" and then the Zappos outlet. I love those stores. As hard as I tried to convince Sue to purchase a few shoes I could only talk her into two pairs that could possibly be worn with the wedding dress. They look great though.

When we finished there we went to the "Premium Factory Outlet Stores" and looked for more shoes and dresses but to no avail. It was something like 111 degrees there that day and while we went inot almost every shoe and dress store, we were beat. It was time for dinner.

We finished off the day with a nice dinner at the "Macaroni Grill".

Sunday was a typical busy day for me in the Bishopric, but I didn't have to go to my meetings until 11:45am. When I got home we had a nice meal of Chicken Cacciatore then began moving some stuff around the house to make room for Sue's things.

We had another great weekend!

Geocaching Adventures of Sue & Ray

We are adding geocaching to our list of fun activities that we do on a regular basis. Sue and I already do a lot of hiking so we thought why not add another fun activity.

We are planning on doing some fun local treasure hunts this Saturday before we get too adventurous and venture out into the wilderness.

We will be keeping everyone posted on where we go and what we find. It should be a fun addition to our blog.

Enjoy our travels everyone!

What a Busy & Great Weekend!

Wow...what full and exciting weekend. Sue and I went up to Cedar City to the Shakespeare festival to watch the play, Othello and the Green Show just prior to it, on Friday night. It was awesome. We couldn't take nay pictures of the actual play but were able to get some of the actors in the Green Show.

Saturday was quite the adventure. It was 108 degrees in St. George so we drove back up through Cedar City on the way to Cedar Breaks National Monument, which is like a mini Grand Canyon and is at 10,350 ft. It was truly awesome and only about 70 degrees. We then drove up to the Brian Head ski resort and "tried" to drive up a mini mountain that overlooked the ski resort at 13,200 ft. The problem was that there were some small patches of snow still there and I, of course, had to test the off-roading ability of my Cadillac CTS...needless to say, that was not a wise choice on my part and proceeded to get us stuck for about an hour. Luckily there were a bunch of people right there to help us get out. I think we provided them with some great entertainment quality as well.

We then drove some cool (no pun intended) back roads back to the desert heat of St. George. Sue hadn't seen most of these areas and the drive was beautiful. We went to the Priesthood and Adult session of General Conference on Saturday night and enjoyed that time together.

Sunday was very busy as well. We started the day out by going to a three Stake combined session of Stake conference where three of the Southern Utah Stakes were realigned and another one added. We are now going to be in the Washington Utah East Stake, which is made up of Wards previously in the Washington, Buena Vista, and St. George Washington Fields Stakes. Our Ward remained the same.

We ended the day and weekend by driving up to Pine Valley which is Northwest of St. George. It is up at about 6500 ft. Our good friends, the Kelvingtons', invited us up to the cabin for an afternoon of relaxing followed by a steak cookout. We had a great time and a fun and busy weekend. I think I tired Sue out just a little....but she is a spunky little thing and a real trooper.

Our adventure continues....

Father's Day Weekend

What a fun weekend. Sue and I went to Zion to see a Native American Flute concert on Friday night...real nice...and different.

I got up at 4:20am on Saturday morning to cook my southern style pit barbecue for a High Priest social at my home at 6pm that night. Sue and my good friend Terry Kelvington were a HUGE help to me. We had about 30 people show up and we had tons of food and even an impromptu band. Everyone had a great time...I was Beat!

Sunday was the absolute best though. Sue and her daughter Annie surprised me by showing up at my church...that made me sooooo happy, what a nice gesture. After church we had my two sons , Chris and Jimmy and their wives, Alicia, and Hollie, and their kids, Elonna & Champ, and Gracie, and Preston over for dinner, along with Sue and her daughter Annie and her husband Brett. It was the first time that Sue had met Jimmy and Hollie and also the first times that Annie & Brett had met my family. We grilled some steaks and had a very nice time. I had a blast with everyone especially the grandkids. We also got to meet the newest addition of the family, Stanley, Brett and Annie's little 8 week old little Pug puppy. He is so cute and the kids just loved him.

June 7th Weekend Update

We had Youth Conference in my Ward this weekend. I am the counselor over the youth so I pretty much was there for most of the activities. I love being around the youth.

It started with a fireside at my home on Thursday night followed by banana splits. We began Friday morning with breakfast and a service project. We cleaned up the trails in Coral Canyon and removed about 200 lbs. of trash. We then took the kids to the Pizza factory for lunch. We held an amazing race for them that had them going all over town in teams of two. One boy and one girl. Everyone had a blast. The leaders were their chauffeurs. We ended the meeting watching a John Byetheway video at one of the leaders homes. Everyone got up early on Saturday to go hike Zion's Narrows....a narrow canyon where the Virgin River runs through. Everyone hiked up the canyon (all in the river) for about 2 hours then headed back. I didn't go to that, but everyone had a great time doing that too. We ended the evening and the conference by having a formal etiquette dinner that was followed by a great talk form one of the local seminary teachers, then had a testimony meeting. The entire conference was a huge success. Our youth and youth leaders are absolutely phenomenal.

Sue and I had our first dinner together at my house where we had some of our friends over for dinner. We have gone out with friends before but hadn't had anyone over to the house as yet. We all had a blast and Sue looked absolutely at home there. I can't wait for her to move in permanently in August after we are married. I know she is going to be so happy there.

We also made the decision to start moving some of Sue's things over to my house instead of wasting trips back and forth all of the time. This way the move back will be that much easier. We're mostly just moving boxes of personal items and keepsakes right now.

Red Wings Win Stanley Cup-Ray is VERY Happy!

The Detroit Red Wings won their 4th Stanley Cup in the last 11 years making them one of hockey's all time great teams.

The Pittsburgh Penguins put up a great fight but ultimately could not match the Red Wings depth and experience. The Penguins will be a great team though for many years to come. Their goalie, Fluery was unbelievable.

Henrik Zetterberg was the winner of the Con Smythe trophy (MVP), and Nicklas Lidstrom was the first European captain to win the Cup.

Ray's favorite sport is hockey and as a boy went to many Wings games at the old Olympia arena.

The Octopus lives! Long live the Red Wings Dynasty!

For all of our Buffalo family, I'll be sure to be rooting for the Sabres next year every time they don't play the Wings.

Go Wings, Go Sabres!

Grand Canyon, North Rim, May 31, 2008

Our Grand Canyon North Rim adventure was awesome. The weather was beautiful and it was Sue's first visit to the North Rim and she had a wonderful time. I have been there 3 times before but enjoyed seeing how happy she was. We had a great day together and even found a "special" hike that is going to be our own little get away when we return. It was a 1/2 mile walk down a steep ravine that opened to a private canyon and had a spring. There were tons of deer prints in the area and it looked like it was a deer bedding area. It was truly magnificent. We ended our day with a wonderful dinner at the lodge which sits right on the edge of the North Rim...what a perfect ending to a perfect day. A day of hiking in God's beautiful creation with the woman that I love...It simply doesn't get any better than that.