The Zoo

We couldn't have picked a better day to visit the zoo.  Holly and her kids, Ashley and her kids, and Alex and I had a great day there.

There was a special animated dinosaur exhibit.  I think it sort of confused the little ones.  It was hard for them to understand when they were seeing live animals versus robotic ones. 

Logan was wearing a gorilla t-shirt.  Lily, Jack and James were hoping the gorilla would pick its nose and eat it like when we were here last year.

Olivia was an absolute angel in her stroller all day.

Have you ever seen a more pathetic looking camel.  Yuk.

I'm not going to tell you what the giraffes were doing.

The wait for the train ride was over 30 minutes.  The ride lasted about one minute.

"Who wants ice cream?"  We love to stop at the Centerville Dairy Queen after a long day at the zoo.

Vegas

I had the chance to go with Dave on a business trip to Las Vegas for 4 days.  I did a fair amount of shopping, mostly browsing and buying some grandkid birthday presents.  They have some great malls down there.  And the weather could not have been more perfect.

Perfect pool weather.

A view of the hotel we stayed at - the Luxor.  Not the greatest hotel, but it didn't cost us anything.  So how can I complain, really?

We ate some amazing food.  I was very excited to eat at Maggiano's.  It is one of our favorite restaurants in Chicago and how exciting that they had one in Vegas.  Killer pasta!

I wandered around the strip in VERY uncomfortable sandals.  Not recommended.  Everything is a lot further away than it appears.

I'm not a huge fan of Las Vegas, but it was a very relaxing four days and I'm glad Dave let me tag along.

Memorial Day 2011

We woke up to snow for Memorial Day this year. Nice. Dave and I still went on a run this morning. We just had to bundle up like it was January.



We had the Stowers crew over for Banana Macadamia pancakes later in the morning.


Then we went to visit graves. All the while it was raining, raining, raining.


We took Dave's dad to the Ogden Cemetery.


Then we drove up to Logan and met mom and dad.


We ate a late lunch with my parents, Billy and Nana at LaBeau's. Raspberry shakes are the bomb.


On the way home we stopped in Brigham City to see how the temple is progressing.

The week (but not necessarily "the weak")

My oldest grandchild graduated Preschool.



The Ogden Marathon.Dave, Ashley and I ran our first half marathon. Holly ran her first marathon, but I didn't get a picture of her. The run by Pineview dam and then down Ogden Canyon was breathtaking. Somewhere in the middle of the canyon Dave turned to me and said, "We HAVE to do this again, next year." Hopefully we will. Dave was a sweetheart. I kept telling him to run on ahead of me so he could get a good time. He stayed with me until we were through the canyon, then went on ahead. None of us got injured, so that's a good thing. I later found out that Steph and Jared had run a 10k in Michigan the same time the rest of us were running. Fun!

In Loving Memory of Uncle Lynn

My dad's brother, Lynn, passed away this past week. Dave and I drove down to St. George on Sunday for the viewing, and for the funeral the next day. We took my dad, mom and my sister, Carrie,with us.

Uncle Lynn was an amazing man. He had his priorities in order. He was a dedicated church member and a wonderful husband, father and grandfather. He was a sweet, friendly uncle to me. I have nothing but good memories of him. He was a great story teller and when we would sit around at family reunions and get-togethers he would keep everyone laughing with his humorous tales. He will be greatly missed.

Lynn's four brothers - Bruce, Clare, Karren (my dad), and Mark.

His two children and wife. Jill, Shauna and Nate.

His children's spouses - Chris and Kate.

Aunt Shauna with her grandchildren.

The cousins who came to the funeral. There were actually a few more who came, but they had left before this picture was taken.

Lynn was a great example to all of us. We will miss you, dear Uncle.