Musings

Our entry for the ward Trunk or Treat.  BYU fans.  Go Cougars!

 General Conference.  Hales cousins.  (Adam is with his girlfriend Stephanie)

 David and I took a trip to Gilbert to see the Byram's.  These two pictures were at a pumpkin patch.

 Sugar cookies.

 Janet, Karen, me, Cheryl.  This was at a farewell party for Karen and Larry.  They are moving to St. George.  So sad to see them go.

 My mom and Kami came for a quick Girls Retreat.  They flew in on Friday afternoon.  First on the agenda (after snacks, of course) was pedicures.  Lovin' those massaging chairs.

 Saturday morning we got up early and drove to Solvang.  We spent the day there shopping. My friend Nancy joined us.  After driving back to L.A., they flew back home Saturday evening.

Okay, so for the title of this blog.  Musings.  I had a list of things to "muse" about, but I can't find the list.  Now to remember what they were.  I'll try to remember.

1.  I am loving the Hallmark movies this time of year.  So nice and sappy and predictable.  I wish they would resolve a little bit sooner than the last 30 seconds of the movie, but I'm still a sucker for "happily ever after."   I can enjoy most of a movie, but if it doesn't end in the perfect way that I think it should, then I will say that I didn't like the movie.  David teases me about this.  Doesn't matter if it was a great story and kept me engrossed 90% of the time.  No happy ending = bad movie.

2.  I love the Christmas music that is on the radio 24/7 now.  And it even started on the 15th!  Love it!  Although I wait to put up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving, I still appreciate the holiday tunes.  And very soon another station will do the same thing.  That way I can go back and forth and avoid those stupid commercials.

3.  And speaking of music:  I've heard "Do You Hear What I Hear" and "Feliz Navidad" enough already.  Once is enough for the entire year.  But my two favorites are "The Christmas Song" by Al Jarreau and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Vanessa Williams and Bobby Caldwell.  Any other version -- I don't like it.  The instrumental parts of both songs are amazing.  I could listen to them a lot.  And today at work - where we have it tuned to the Christmas station - both songs came on one right after the other.  Yay!

4.  And speaking of work (in a dental office):  I don't judge people by the color of their skin.  I judge people by the color of their teeth.  :-)

5.  I think it's kind of nice that I still need the air conditioning on in the car in the middle of November.  We live in paradise.  And maybe it's just a little bit wicked for my friends freezing back east.

6.  So looking forward to seeing 6 of my grandkids for Thanksgiving in Las Vegas.  David also gets to see Jessica this weekend for the BYU/Notre Dame game in South Bend.  Lucky girl gets to travel with her dad and go to the game.  She has researched things to do in Chicago (where they are all flying in) and so their schedule is full.  David's brother and his sons will also be there.  And then David will be traveling to Orlando (Oviedo) in December to see the rest of the Florida grandkids.  I miss those four little cuties.

7.  Looking forward to the annual Temple Devotional this Sunday.  Mostly I LOVE hearing the Southern California Mormon Choir.  They are awesome.

8.  This time of year I have to have peppermint bath gel and body cream.  Why?  Because I'm weird like that. And I even had a coupon to Bath & Body for a free one.  Lucky me.

9.  A friend dropped by this week with some dinner.  Complete surprise.  Being able to come home from work and not have to think about what to have (and then prepare it) was the best gift ever.  I think I will "go and do likewise."    Happy Thanksgiving.

A mini vacation

A few weeks ago, Sharla emailed and said she had a surprise trip for Jim planned in San Diego.  She had made reservations to go on a sunset cruise one night and would David and I like to join in?  Um, yes.  Thank you very much.  So we decided to make it a vacation for us too.

We got to San Diego and checked in at our hotel and then spent an hour reading by the pool.  L.A. is having a heatwave; not San Diego.  It felt great to just lay out and catch up on some reading.

 There's a cookie cutter for every occasion.

 Jim, our skipper, David

Coronado Bay

 The Coronado bridge

 "Sailing takes me away to where I've always heard it could be . . .

 Me, David, Shar, Jim

Trust me, the sunset behind us was spectacular.  Washed out.

 The San Diego skyline

 Coronado Island in the background

 The Navy Seals on their way to do manly stuff.

"Just a dream and the wind to carry me . . "

 "Well, its not far down to Paradise, at least it's not for me..."

 And if the wind is right you can sail away and find tranquility..."

+

 San Diego at night.  The weather was perfect.  Okay, not windy, so not perfect sailing weather, but still pretty darn good.

 Jim and Shar stayed at the iconic Hotel Del Coronado.  

They had reserved a fire pit on the beach for after our sailing trip.  The staff had a fire ready and four beach chairs around it when we arrived.  And then they brought us a bucket full of everything we needed to make s'mores.  Life is grand.

This morning we got up and went running.  We found a trail behind the hotel.  We stopped a few times to take pictures of the rainbow.

 See the double rainbow below?

  And then we met Jim and Shar at the temple and did a session. 

 After the temple, we drove to Phil's to get take-out.  Michael introduced us to that place when he and Laura lived in San Diego.  We haven't been back since his graduation.  We had to take a picture in front of the restaurant to send to him.  (Not included here because it was a selfie.  Those are always gross.)  But we had to rub it in.  We're nice like that.  And then we drove home.  Exactly a 24 hour vacation.

So so so much fun.  No traffic (amazing!), perfect weather, good food, fun experiences, and best of all -- great company.  Thank you so much Jim and Shar!

Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

It's Labor Day Weekend.  I LOVE summer and now all of a sudden it's over.  We had a very cool summer (temperature-wise) until this past week.  Now that the summer is officially over, it finally gets hot.  Murphy's Law I guess.  I'm not ready to let go though!

My friend Nancy Sienicki came down from Santa Barbara at the end of July.  We celebrated her birthday a couple of weeks early by going to a salon for facials and massages.  Fun for both of us.

 Cheri and Spencer and kids came down for a few days.  We spent quite a bit of time at the beach and at a friend's pool.

 Sunday dinner with friends in our front yard.

 After Cheri and Spencer (and Tanner and Sadie) went home, it was time for

TYLER'S MOST EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

 We started a new tradition last year -- when our grandkids turn 8, they get to stay a few days with us.  Tyler was a sweetheart and let Emma stay too.  But he got to dictate all of our activities and #1 on his list was LEGOLAND.  So off to Carlsbad we went.

 A couple of mornings Emma and Tyler would go to work with me.  We set up a table and chairs in the break room and they kept themselves entertained with the ipad, games of checkers and my phone.  They used my phone to take photos and videos to send to their younger brother and sister.  And they LOVED going to the grocery store around the corner.  I would give them money and it was funny to see the stuff they'd come back with each time.  Donuts, firecrackers, and once even a small tube of sunblock.

 They needed the sunblock because Papa would pick them up and take them to the beach for a couple of hours each day.  They got to be very good on the boogie boards.

 FHE treat

We had so much fun with them.  Having each other made so no one got homesick.  We shopped and played and made treats and told ghost stories, went to the movies and learned how to play checkers.  At the end of the week, we drove the kids home.  And then an hour later we all took off for another trip to Great America.

 Emma, Tyler, me Cheri & Sadie, Tanner

 Yes, that's us up there.  Weeeeee!

But the most important thing that happened that weekend:

Tyler turned 8 and was baptized the same day.

 And then it was time for Adam to come home for a couple of weeks between semesters.  He wasn't here on his actual birthday, so we celebrated a few days later.  And he asked for the same cake that he had last year.

Chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting in between the layers.  Also chopped up Rolo's in the middle.  And then chocolate buttercream frosting.  KitKats around the outside and topped with M&M's.  No calories whatsoever.   This kid is 24 years old now.  Where did the time go???

 And then I did the flower arrangements for Stake Conference.

A few days after Adam got home, his girlfriend Stephanie came for a visit.  They stayed busy doing tourist stuff.  David and I joined in with them one day and we all went down to Newport Beach.

 On the ferry going to Balboa Island

 The Kettle restaurant is a must

 Steph and Adam left today to spend the week with her family hiking to Havasupi before going back to school in Idaho.

We have a trip to San Diego planned for this coming weekend.  That'll help me not to feel too melancholy about summer slipping away.  We have great memories though.