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| Picture with the girls |
The first week there he had his Connections class for 3 days, but a lot of other unstructured time. Once classes started the structure helped. He gets along with his roommates and they seem nice.
He did deicide to come home for Labor Day weekend. He arrived home Friday afternoon on the bus. We had dinner and then Jaxon Holbrook picked him up and they went to his house. They come back to our house around 10 to watch a movie.
On Saturday morning he went to Sam Smith's house to see his truck and then met Jaxon at Cars and Coffee for the car meet. They then went out to In-n-Out for lunch and then to Jaxon's to play games until Jaxon had to go to work at 2 p.m.
At 4 p.m. Jaxon H and Paul picked him up and they went to the mall to hang out. He got home around 7 p.m. and was with us the rest of the night.
Sunday we did church and later in the afternoon we went to Elizabeth's for Hannah and Julia's birthday dinner.
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| Hannibal (Emily's husband), Nathan, Debbie (Nathan's mom), Emily (Nathan's sister), their child, Matthew, Jason and Joy |
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| Happy Birthday |
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| Spreken zie Deutsch? |
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| He spent so much time with friends this was our only photo before he left |
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| Last moments with the child |
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We took Jacob back up to school on Monday and then went in the afternoon to Randy's to celebrate Karen's birthday.
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| Cove Fort |
Our first weekend of empty nesting. The week before I received an email from the Shakespeare festival about 2 for 1 tickets. So Jason and I headed down to Cedar City on Thursday and came home on Saturday.
On the way down we stopped at Cove Fort. I have driven by many times, but we have never stopped. It was built by Gordon B. Hinkley's Grandfather and his dad grew up there. When you get there it seems like it is off the beaten path....which for us with I-15, it is. But in their time it was half way between Beaver and Filmore so it gave people a place to stop for the night, the mail came and the stage coach came in 2x a day. So there were people coming and going.
Ira Hinkley had 2 wives and 11 children while at the fort and they worked hard. It was set up well in that they had 6 rooms on each side of the fort. One side was offices, the kitchen, telegraph/mail room. The other 6 rooms were living quarters. Each room had 3 doors. One to enter in from the court yard and then 1 door on each side of the room so if they were all open you could walk straight through from one end to the other without going outside.
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| Court yard |
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| Living quarters. This viewed from the door coming in from the courtyard and you can see the doors on either side. |
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| The Pub Spirits & Kraft Kitchen |
Thursday night we looked online for places to eat and this one seemed different and fun. It was! They had an Alice in Wonderland theme and the menu had normal items (salad, sandwiches, burgers, pasta, appetizers, etc., but they were juzzed up. Meaning they had additions that brought it up a notch. I had a burger with caramelized onions, chipotle sauce and bacon. It was so good! Jason had a 1/2 cobb salad and a Tweedledum sandwich. We were full afterwards!
The next morning we got up, hit the gym, had breakfast of fruit and cottage cheese that we had brought. Since we had eaten a large meal the night before it was perfect! We even sent a picture of us with it to Jacob commenting that we were doing breakfast like Mike and Frankie Heck from The Middle tv show. Jacob commented back, "Don't forget the blue bag!" Meaning the food bag they always forgot.
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| Breakfast |
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| A new crowd |
We headed over to SUU campus and walked around for a bit. We looked at the old (now closed) Adams outdoor theater and various statues they had placed about. Then we went to the play orientation for the play we were seeing in the afternoon...She Loves Me. As we looked around it dawned on us that we are now part of a different crowd. No little kids running around, lots more grey hair. It was funny!
The play was written in 1938, later it was done as a movie..Shop Around the Corner, which then lead to You've Got Mail in the late 1980's.
We then headed into the Jones theater to see it. I liked it and it was well done, but I enjoyed the evening play more.
Saturday we got up and headed out so I could make my friends birthday lunch. It was great to see everyone and to hear that Margaret and Brenda have both been able to retire!
Sunday we went over to Joy's to see Taylor and Ryan. That weekend Matthew's family had a reunion to celebrate his mom's (Gayle) 87th birthday so they were in town. It was fun to see them and visit.
It was nice to get together and visit with Gwyneth. It has been a while. Morgan is graduated and home looking for a job.
We stopped for lunch in St. George. We had to charge the car so we went to eat. We got back to the car and learned it was not a super charger so we then had to head to the Dixie convention center to charge for 20 more minutes so we could continue.
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| Play orientation |
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| Love the chicken, bacon. ranch pizza!! |
After the 2 p.m. play we headed to The Pizza Cart. We usually try to stop here for lunch or dinner when going down to St. George. It is so good. They are so good that they are not open on Saturday or Sunday! Sometimes if you go in around dinner time they may not be able to take your order due to call in orders etc. that will make they busy until closing at 9 p.m!
That night we went to the play orientation again and then saw Something Rotten. This play was written
about 16 years ago and is about 2 playwrights who are contemporaries of William Shakespeare. But Shakespeare is the one getting all of the fame and love. They want to write a play that is better than his. They introduce Shakespeare like he is a rock star, flipping his hair back and all the girls acting like groupies. It was very well done!
about 16 years ago and is about 2 playwrights who are contemporaries of William Shakespeare. But Shakespeare is the one getting all of the fame and love. They want to write a play that is better than his. They introduce Shakespeare like he is a rock star, flipping his hair back and all the girls acting like groupies. It was very well done!
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| Nigel Bottom, Shakespeare, and Nick Bottom |
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| Shakespeare |
Saturday we got up and headed out so I could make my friends birthday lunch. It was great to see everyone and to hear that Margaret and Brenda have both been able to retire!
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| Shanae, Le Ann, Me, Brenda, Margaret, Haeli, Judy |
That night we had our first ward BBQ. It was a pretty good showing.
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| Ryan |
I asked Ryan if he was auditioning for a part in The Choosen. :) He is always fun to visit with.
Jacob seems to be doing well at school. He is taking care of things like going to math lab, getting to classes, etc. He is growing into things!
Jason went on his annual guy trip with Robert Hokinson, Dave Kenner, and Dave Vickers. This year they went up to Laramie WY. They hiked, watched the BYU game, watched movies and did more hiking.
They left on Thursday the 17th and came home on Sunday the 20th. On Thursday I got a pedicure with Joy and later that night we went to dinner.
Here is a picture he sent me from Friday, the first day of hikes. Gwyneth, Dave's wife texted to see if I wanted to do lunch on Friday, so I sent this picture to him.
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| Jason's nature picture |
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| Our nature picture |
It was nice to get together and visit with Gwyneth. It has been a while. Morgan is graduated and home looking for a job.
Saturday night we had a neighborhood BBQ. It was fun to get together as it has been a few years since we've done it. We've had some new people move in and it was good to get to know them a little better.
Donny Osmond!
Back in May Joy and I decided to go and see Donny Osmond in Las Vegas. On the 23rd Joy and I drove down to Vegas.
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| Donny!! |
We arrived at Harrah's, went to our room and then went back out to find out where the show would be. Casinos are so confusing to get around in!
The 90 minute show started 7:30 p.m. and he was great! He did a review of 6 decades of working. Sang his old songs, did a section where he let audience members shout out songs they wanted him to sing. It was fun to see and hear. He came out into the audience and was about 6 feet away from me and he still looks good--especially for 68!
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| Eating with a knife |
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The next morning we got up to go and see the Princess Diana exhibit. I brought my fruit and cottage cheese I like to eat, but forgot a spoon so I used my knife.
The exhibit was great! It went through her life, showed her clothes, the People magazine covers she was on...it brought back a lot of memories since I lived through all of that. Her dresses are beautiful!
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| The 79 dresses she sold for charity 2 months before she died. They made mini replicas of each of them. |
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| This was a replica of her wedding dress. It is made completely of paper! |
Driving the Tesla was fun and intersting. We learned important things about finding a super charger or it takes forever to charge. The car it self driving which is interesting to do.
The navigation can be interesting too. We asked it to take us to a gas station so we could use the bathroom. It took us off I-15, passed a really nice Maverick gas station (we stopped there, but they were cleaning the bathrooms so we drove to Tesla's original destination) to the weird place! I joked that they paid Tesla to divert people to their place.
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| Lovely bathroom |
This was on our way to Cedar City so I could show Joy where we could eat--The Pizza Cart! Yum!
Chicken, bacon, ranch pizza and gelato.
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| Pizza |
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| Gelatto |
It was a fun trip!
On Sunday night Amy hosted a dessert night for everyone living around here.
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It was fun to see people and Tanner wanted to play animal charades--which everyone did. Afterwards we taught Amy's family how to play Bula, Bula (hide the thimble).
