Boggled

Saturday we relaxed and helped Tandy fix food for a graduation party.  Tandy shopped, kids played with friends.  Damian mowed their lawn and discovered a bitty little fawn. Damian and Braeden went for haircuts in Damian's new "midlife crises". Actually, he said it's a Financial Investment. Really it's a Corvette Stingray.... he even took Mike for a ride in it. Tandy and kids were busy all evening, so me and Mike and Damian and Pam just had a nice visit in the evening  together.

Sunday was Church. In person at 9 a.m.,

BLT sandwiches for lunch. Naps and reading in the afternoon. A major production to make Tandys chicken enchiladas for a later dinner, and a few games in the evening with Braeden and Ella. Ella(age 13) SLAUGHTERED me and Damian at "Big Boggle" . Damian was so proud of his daughter that he went and cried himself to sleep , truly humiliated. Nah, all just fun and games, but those two kids were amazingly good and Damian and I were truly ashamed of how badly we did.  The ol' brain cells are failing fast. Robert Autrey will have a good challenge with THOSE kids!!

The Grannies, relaxing. 

Vroom, vroom. 

It bitty fawn in long lawn. When Damian mowed on Saturday, it wa in front of green electrical boxes. Sunday it was in the lawn.

Tandy and Lexi figuring out phone stuff m

This just made me giggle. Gum on the music stand. It does tend to affect one's embouchure. 

Texas and Prom

 Braeden is so tall! About 6 feet. Wow!

Mike and I traveled with Pam to Dan Antonio. We flew out of Las Vegas. Nice uneventful travel day.  We like those.

Tandy took photos of all the couples, individually on her front porch.

And she orchestrated a group shot on their stairs.

The couples took a "shuttle's to the restaurant,  then the country club for the dance.

I should have jumped into the pool when I could. That evening it started to rain. By 10 pm there were flash flood warnings and non-stop thunder and lightening. Wowza. I opened our blinds to watch. Until I was so tired I just closed my eyes. 

Quick trip to SLC, May 22-23

 Ah, well. Photos loaded backwards. Again.

Here's my cute cousins and Aunt.

Baby Emily. 8 days old. Such a sweetie.

Logan. Blowing bubbles out in the wind.

All four, surrounding the newest.

Babies!

Jane.

Rachel holding Emily.

Saturday evening we attended a memorial service for Dee Snarr who died of COVID -19 in November. It was really a casual luncheon with families and friends. Good Hawaiian food. This is Mike with Lynn Oyler. They were Missionaries together a long time ago. Lynn's wife, Betty, is Dee's sister.

Aww. Sleepy Emily.

One doting Grandpa.

We stopped at the Provo Cemetary to put some flowers on Mike's parent's graves. Peonies from our yard.

Bike to Work Day

Today, May21, 2021, was Cedar City's "Bike to Work Day" and the nice City and Bicycle folks had a fun event at the corner of 200 North and Main Street from 7:30 am to 9:30 am.  So I went!  Well, I went with co-worker, Anne. She told me about it since I'm in the dark and haven't kept up with all the piled up newspapers at my house yet. We were gone for a week, remember? ;-)  It was COLD and WINDY. To get there, it was pretty much down hill. Getting to work? Uphill against the wind.  My bike got a much-needed tune-up (below) and I got a free t-shirt and a nice red blinky red bike light.

And the peonies in my back yard are STILL spectacular and I am still bringing them to work and enjoying them with co-workers.  (and they are still on the dining room table). Surprisingly, they drink a LOT of water!!
 

Travel day home, Saturday the 15th of May, 2021

 We were kind of sad to come home. It's hard to leave a fun vacation like that one, but we WERE tired, so kind of ready to leave.  Saturday morning we had to check out by 10 am, so we got up when we woke up, got cleaned up and packed up and fed up (meaning we ate the last of our sausage and eggs and toast and OJ and milk) and checked out . . .  b u t  our flight didn't leave until close to 5, which meant we could probably keep our car until close to 3 pm before heading to our gate. So we did.

We drove to the Orlando temple and took some photos of it from outside of the grounds since the grounds are not open. A nice mad stopped us at the gate and told us where to drive to get a decent shot.

Pretty area. We also drove through a neighborhood near our hotel, just to see some housing areas. We were in kind of a new area. Nice homes. It's so green here!  But I'm guessing it's pretty buggy since nearly every large newer home had a screened in back YARD. It was crazy. Someone invented a nice product and has a big market here!

Then we got on a road and drove to Cocoa Beach. Just for fun.  When we first rented our car, they offered to take care of all the tolls for us for a mere $50 extra. We declined.  Ugh.  Had we been driving around for much more, I would have really been regretting that decision. However, I finally figured out how to encourage Google Maps to find the routes with NO tolls. Overall we spent far less than $20 I'm sure. But it was still very frustrating to panic (well, almost) at every stop, wondering what it would be, if we had the right amount of cash, would they give change, etc.  Once, it said we couldn't get back on, yet said we had to pay. Or at least that is how we interpreted it.  Ugh. Not so. Should have stayed on the toll road, but we got off and got lost. Kind of but not really. Mostly Mike needed a bathroom, so all was well.  We got to see more neighborhoods!  We enjoyed the trees and ponds and lakes and . . .

MIKE ACTUALLY SPOTTED AN ALLIGATOR!! 

He was thrilled. I missed it. Could have been a log.  But he was insistent that what he saw, driving 60 mph down a road and glimpsing off to the side through a fence was really and truly an alligator in the wild.  It made him happy.

We made it to Cocoa Beach.  There were a LOT of closed businesses so I'm guessing this tourist spot was hit pretty hard by COVID last year.  We just wanted to have a quick lunch, see the beach and leave. So we did.

Isn't this a pretty walking path to the beach. Here I was in Airplane attire--jeans and tennis shoes. haha

It's a BIG beach. Looking left, above ...Looking straight ahead from the path, below with Mike and his big red shirt. On that photo above, looking left, you might not be able to see it very well, but there is a large, white log-sized piece of driftwood.  We were standing there, enjoying the view, taking our photos when a little family came to the beach and when their little boy (probably about 4-5 years old) saw that big white thing, he excitedly exclaimed, "Whoa! Look at that! That's so cool! IT'S A WHALE!!!" He was convinced there was a beached white whale on the sand there. It made us chuckle. He was so thrilled with that find.

And below: Looking right. Which would be south, I'm thinking.

And it was just a pretty day, with families walking to the beach. We were really lucky to find a parking spot. Hotels are right on the beach, and their parking is not open to the public. 

We were so blessed with such good weather this whole vacation. Our shortest day in a park was the absolute hottest, but we had seen everything we needed/wanted to see and were done. Our longest day was the cloudy and overcast day on Thursday at Animal Kingdom. The rainy day was the one we had no park reservation and could stay inside and rest and nap.  When our company came, the pool was opened back up just in time. When we drove places, we got there (eventually) without incident. Our hotel food came out exactly even--no leftovers that we felt bad about leaving behind. We only ate out once the whole time we were gone, and enjoyed the groceries we got on day one. We got good food at nearly all our Disney Park reservations and if we didn't, it was my fault. Who chooses to eat at an English dining establishment, anyway?  Well, I figured their fish and chips would be super. They were "meh" but the waiter was far and above all expectations and took such good care of us and we ate overlooking the water at Epcot and had birds and breezes for company.  We adored the hotel room/suite we had. It was so comfortable and luxurious (kind of like our new house. ha).  We didn't have ANY major aches or pains for being as old and out of shape as we are. That felt like a miracle in and of itself.  And we just really had a lot of fun together. Mike loves visiting with people and got to sit most of the time and not walk everywhere and I am fairly comfortable standing and walking.  We both like most of the same rides except his tummy was giving out on the spinning ones. Darn, we had to skip Teacups and Dumbo, but we didn't have time anyway.

"Navigating with Linda."  Yeah. Even with a phone with maps and a GPS, we can still get lost. And we do. Frequently.  Well, not really lost, but just kind of unsure exactly where we are supposed to be going. We were confused by some signage. And sometimes I accidentally try to close my phone and end up with a screen shot! Like this:

I was going to delete that photo from my phone, but decided to leave it here to prove that I really did use google maps.

So much water in Florida! I wish we could have brought some home with us.

When we returned our car at the rental place at the airport, boy was it busy! There was no personal anything. Just park where they direct you, leave the keys in, take your stuff and walk away. Really? It seems a bit unsettling, but OK.  That's what we did. And we walked into the airport on that floor and saw the SAME LONG LINE as when we were originally there a week ago. Crazy. You'd think they'd learn. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the same people. But it was still too long.  Hours and hours long.

There's Mike n his red shirt hiking back to the end to snap some photos. We have words to say with the original car rental place and are demanding our (non-refundable) money back. Wish us luck.

The flight was non-stop to Las Vegas. Totally full. Mike sat in the front and I was in the back. I was busy at Disney's Animal Kingdom at Southwest's Check in time, so we were (again) the last ones on. And that doesn't bother me. I just snoozed through the flight. Mike had tummy troubles all flight long, unfortunately. I never left from my window seat and enjoyed the views between naps.

We were home by Midnight-ish.  Now I need a week to recover.  But Church starts at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, so off we go!  

And I have some busy weeks/months ahead of me  . . .

helping with a conference presentation (have to practice with the group first. . . and it's all virtual)  

hosting another session of the ULA conference for another different group

hiring a replacement person or two in Circulation as we shift things up around there

partying with my co-workers May 27 to celebrate my retirement (a couple of months early since July 15 is a bit inconvenient for many faculty who don't like to hang around in the summer and a LOT of folks are on vacation)

meeting our newest granddaughter!!

attending a memorial service for one of our friends from St. George who died of Covid-19

we are also attending a 70th birthday party in June for one of Mike's best friends. Huh? 70?  How is it that we are getting that old??? !!!

Oh, and Medicare stuff to figure out for me. . .Insurance . . .retirement

a basement window to cut out of a 6 inch concrete and install

a back yard to landscape

deck stairs to install . . . 

it's a long list. Getting longer. Oh, and another trip out of Las Vegas Airport in a mere two weeks to go to celebrate Lexi's High School Graduation in San Antonio.

Who has time to work??? Hurry up, retirement!! 61 days from today, May 16. :-)

Last Day, Friday the 14th

 We went back to Animal Kingdom again! Originally I had planned to do our fifth day back at the Magic Kingdom, but changed that reservation to a second day at Animal, even though it made them back to back. I'm glad we did, since we were so tired when we left on Thursday night. There was one ride left that I wanted to do, but we saved it for Friday. Navi River boat ride was our first stop. We had a lunch reservation at the Rainforest Cafe at 11, and since we didn't get there close to ten.... well, we kind of had to watch the clock for a bit! They charge you if you don't keep your dining reservations. 

This second day was shorter and more laid-back. Still much walking, but this time there was sunshine. There is lots of shade to walk in, though. It made it so pleasant. Oh! And cooling breezes! What a pleasant day. It was only about 85 or so, very nice.

We went on another Safari.  A bit different from the first one. And of course we went on the Avatar ride again. We got so see a bird show that was VERY enjoyable, Mike chose to get wet on the river rapid ride,  while I walked through a jungle hike area to see tigers, etc. Nice. We found out about a "secret" bird show at the tree of life and we made it to that one, too. That was cool and really made us smile. It was just parrots flying in, but they are so pretty and they fly in right over our heads.

Harumbi, African village. Compete with bicycles hanging around, tangled electrical wires, worn bricks and stones, faded billboards, etc. So fun!!

Unfortunately, you cannot see mount Everest in the background.

Floating mountains of Pandora. Amazing.

I loved walking through the villages in Africa and in Asia.  So cool. The carvings on the trunk of the Tree of Life are amazing. Well, it looks like wood carving, but its really sculpted concrete? I dunno. Disney magic of some kind. But I love it. Pandora was amazing. The rides were great.  The company good--the best! But,  We are ready to come home.

Tomorrow! 

And today our 13th grandchild was born. Nick and Kaylee had baby number four today. We dont even know her name yet.

Emily Liebhardt 5/14/2021, 7 lb 2 oz, 19 1/2 inches lng

White Castle burgers opened a new restaurant across the street from our hotel. It is the first in this area, has been really hyped up, and it's CROWDed. Cop cars are there directing LINES of cars all day long! So many cars. Amazing. And, no. We have not eaten there.

What you can see in the photo above is the pool area.  We had multiple hot tubs to choose from and enjoyed them a LOT. What you canNOT see in the photo is the street with cop cars with lights flashing at the intersection of our property across from the newly-opened White Castle hamburger joint. And the line of about 50 or more cars each day, waiting and waiting to get into the drive through lanes!  Crazy. There were two big white tents in their parking lot to accommodate seating, too.  And we never even bothered to eat there. We had plenty of good food in our hotel room.

One very interesting thing about our room was the Jet Propelled toilet!  Not really. But it seemed like it. The water pressure was so fast and noisy and STRONG that I literally jumped and squealed when I flushed it the very first time . . . and maybe a time or two after that, as well. Very thorough.

A memorable quote by Mike as we were standing in a large group of people, slowing going through a very long line (like most of them were), "Disney doesn't really make theme parks. They just make people warehouses." It had a ring of truth to it at the time.