Kids + Cookies = Fun!

Yesterday Kathy had Jenny & her kids and me over to make Halloween sugar cookies. Kathy had premade the dough and had everything ready. She got out the flour and spread it all over countertop and the kids went at it. Rolling the dough and cutting out cute little witches hats, skull faces, ghosts, bats and pumpkins. Needless to say that flour was everywhere....on faces, hands, arms, legs, hair, and a fair amount on the chairs and floor. But what budding artists we have!

After we baked them to perfection, Kathy put me in charge of coloring the frosting. We decided on white, orange and purple. OK..normally this would not have been a problem but since Kathy's little dropper bottle of red food coloring was empty she pulls out her large 'capped' bottle of red coloring. Now orange calls for 2 drops yellow to 2 drops red and purple calls for 2 drops red and 3 drops blue, so I very carefully poured some of the red coloring into the cap to try to 'drop' it in the frosting. Somehow it flowed everywhere, making the process very difficult and totally coloring my hands.

What fun we had frosting the cookies and decorating them and especially EATING them!

What delicious works of art! Thanks Kathy!

My Dad, My Pal

I'm thankful for my Dad. I was the youngest by 7 years of 5 girls. I was supposed to be a boy. But an all wise perfect plan intent, defines where we belong. I always felt sorry for Dad. We all busted our buttons with pride when we talked about his 'glory' days as a star BYU football player. How he earned a full ride scholarship from excelling in sports at his small rural Brigham City High School. A farm boy made big. All 6' 4" and 220 lbs. of him! This amazing speciman of athletics ends up with 5 girls! Poor guy! But Daddy loved us. He took care of us. Even during hard times he never slacked, always providing for his family. I remember as a kid he would put up his arms to show his muscles, he would make them 'dance'. Then we would hang from his arms like tricky bars and he would carry us around. He taught me how to throw a baseball. Not like a girl but with a great wind up. He was always 'the softy'. I don't think he would have refused anything that we really wanted. He endured a lot in his life. He served his country. He loved God and His Son. He taught me patience, he always used to say, "If a string is in a knot, patience will untie it". Dad never showed you how to do something, he TAUGHT you to do it yourself. He was a great gardener. He loved to work in and keep a beautiful garden. He was good with his hands. He could build or fix anything. A grandson once said that 'Grandpa could put the wings back on a butterfly'. He taught me to have integrity. He taught me be strong. He taught me that big guys can be gentle. He taught me what to look for in a husband. Most recently he has taught me that I can make the right decisions. Thank you Dad. I love you.

My Mother, Myself

My daughter Jenny decided to write in her blog about the things that she was thankful for and she inspired me. I started to think about what I am grateful for and decided I'll be posting updates occasionally. Today I have been thinking about my dear Mother. I'm thankful to her for giving me life. For enduring the LONG nine months of complete discomfort and the LONG hours of labor and delivery, the LONG episodes of crying, the LONG sleepless nights. Come to think of it, she endured a lot from me. Heaven knows she was not perfect. But she did the best she could with what she knew and was taught. She'll be 89 in December and I'm always comparing her different ages to were I am now...ie; when she was my age I was.....for some strange reason in my mind she always seems older than me.

She taught me to be honest. She taught me how to work hard. She taught me to always tell the truth. She taught me patience. She taught me compassion. She taught me about God and His Son. She taught me about love.

I love you Mom, and I am thankful for you.

Hoodoo? We do!

Rick and I traveled south on a business trip to Southern Utah last week. We pulled the trailer (affectionately known as the ‘Pleasure Palace’) down to Provo on Saturday and parked at the University Mall and took the bus to the BYU vs Wyoming football game. BYU again dominated with another impressive 44-0 win. Afterwards we bused back to the trailer and journeyed on to Nephi, Utah. We stayed at the High Country RV Park. We were glad it was only for one night. After breakfast on Sunday we drove to St. George and set up camp at the Templeview RV Park which was a wonderful place.

As you can see in the picture we were able to park in the shade of the only tree in the park. Lucky for us since the temperature soared into the 90’s everyday. While Rick was busy at the conference, I jogged, shopped, read, ate, rested and shopped some more. It was good to have some ‘down’ time.

Thursday morning we packed up and headed for Bryce Canyon. The Webster’s Dictionary defines hoodoo as: 1 : a body of practices of sympathetic magic traditional especially among blacks in the southern United States 2 : a natural column of rock in western North America often in fantastic form 3 : something that brings bad luck 4 : Nonsense, Hokum.

Well, we knew we weren’t going to do any traditional black magic tricks, at least not intentionally, and we really didn’t want to run into any bad luck, but we were excited to see the ‘hoodoos’ that Bryce Canyon is know for. The beautiful brilliant orange columns in fantastic forms! And believe me that’s no nonsense!

We realized that we hadn’t been there in about 30 years. Hard to believe when it’s our favorite of the ‘canyon parks’. We set up camp at Ruby’s Inn RV Park and drove into the canyon. It was sunset and the beauty of it is difficult to put into words. Friday morning we got ready and planned our day, a morning hike on the Navajo Loop trail, lunch at Bryce Point, then an afternoon hike to Mossy Cove.

What a glorious day! The Navajo loop trail was a little taxing, especially on the way up! Lots of switchbacks but beautiful. The Mossy Cove reminded us of ‘Weeping Rock’ in Zion Canyon. Dripping water has formed the cove and it has deep green moss growing all around. After hiking in the warm sun the coolness of the cove was delightful. Then we hiked over to the little waterfall that flows from the Tropic Ditch river. It was so beautiful and crystal clear. While we were there, dark clouds started to form and we could hear thunder, so we hiked back to the car and went back to camp. Lucky for us because about 15 minutes after we got back the heaven’s opened and it poured for about 1 hour! It cooled down the temperature and it smelled so good!

Saturday morning we packed up and headed home. What a glorious week. We thank our Heavenly Father everyday for the beautiful earth that He has created for us. We are so blessed to be able to enjoy it.