Mother's Day in Moab

Steph and Mickel invited me to go with them for a weekend jaunt down to Moab for some hiking. I had not been down there for quite a few years (the girls and I used to go regularly), and I forgot just how spectacularly beautiful it truly is. We went for quite a few hikes in Arches National Monument. When we weren't doing that, the kids were swimming. The weather was absolutely perfect - in the 80s, with sunny skies and a breeze. It was pretty hard to come back to Salt Lake's cold rain!

Delicate Arch, while being one of the more challenging places to get to, is so dramatically beautiful - it's almost shocking as you come around that last bend. At least this time we managed to not get lost on the trail and end up coming up the face! And you know how you meet people you know in weird places? Well, I ran into a former co-worker (DJ) at the top. It's a small world!

The kids loved Balanced Rock. Teague especially wanted to always be sure that it hadn't fallen yet.

Kaiya is an absolute fish in the water. She dives, retrieves stuff off the bottom ... pretty much anything.

Teague's already in Level 2! He has always loved the water. Sand ... not so much.

Thanks again, Sharp family, for an absolutely perfect Mother's Day! 

Family

This weekend, in addition to it being Easter weekend, I was lucky enough to have both of my sisters in town for a visit - Valerie from Nevada, and Karen from Arizona.  It was really just a coincidence, as both had planned earlier visits and had to postpone.  I was so glad it worked out that they were both here at the same time!  The sisters had a sleep-over on Saturday night, following a fun dinner with Steph and family, Kris and family and Kara and family.  What a houseful!  And what fun!  Here's baby sister Karen on the right, Val in the middle, and big sister.

Our very own Charlie's Angels!

On Easter, the girls and I (my girls, that is) and families went for our traditional Easter brunch at Market Street Grill.  Our kids all (young and old) looked so great!  These are my favorite people in all the world.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family. 

 

  

 

Visit from Tim and Mark

My friends Tim and Mark were up from Tucson for a visit a few weeks ago, and it was fun to have the chance to hang out with them.  Tim received a Christmas present of tickets to the Donnie and Marie show ... here in Utah.  Now, if I had really been paying attention at all, I would have figured out that the show isn't playing in Salt Lake City, and I would have called Tim to tell him so.  Luckily (?) I have been in my own little fog, so it truly never dawned on me that I hadn't heard anything about the show being here.  I was just glad there was a reason bringing them here for a visit.  So ... the reason for the visit obviously wasn't Donnie and Marie.  Instead, Tim's true surprise was tickets to the Lady Gaga concert.  And, on top of that, the surprise of a California friend joining him for the show (the "other Susan").  Anyway, we had a lot of fun during their visit.  We went to brunch at Market Street, hung out at Shannon's, and had lunch at Little America.  I always have such a great time with them!

 

Disney World

Last week I had the pleasure of going to Disney World with Steph, Mickel, Kaiya and Teague.  This was a Christmas present to the family - although Kris and Sterling decided not to go because Atty is still pretty young for it.  It seemed strange to go on a 10 day vacation while unemployed, but the fact of the matter was that it was pretty much paid for, and non-refundable.  So off we went.  I'll apologize upfront for the number of pictures, but we had so SO much fun, it's pretty difficult to pare it down.  We spent one day at Sea World, three days at Magic Kingdom, two days at Hollywood Studios, and one day each at Animal Kingdom and Epcot. It was a go-go-go schedule, but the kids handled it all very well.  Also, it was much colder in Florida than I hoped it would be, but it was warmer than Utah, so that was a plus!

Here we are at the airport (minus Mickel, who joined us a couple of days later), anxiously awaiting the start of our fun. 

 

The first day was spent at Sea World, thanks to the pass that Steph & Mickel's friend Amanda had (she and Devin live nearby).  She brought along her cute little boy, West.   I'm not sure what Kaiya's pouty face is about.  :-)

This "seaweed" is really a sea horse.  Weird. 

Kids in a bubble, in an aquarium.

Merry-go-rounds are always a hit ...

Here's Amanda and West.  Isn't he darling?

An assortment (but, believe it or not, not all) of the characters the kids met.  We spent a great deal of time doing this.  The kids had their autograph books handy for everyone.  Snow White is Teague's favorite princess.

Special mention needs to be made here.  Peter Pan is Kaiya's ABSOLUTE favorite.  It's her favorite thing to play, and every time (nine, to be exact) we went on the Peter Pan ride she would say "Oh, Peter, it's just like I always dreamed it would be" as we first encountered Neverland.  She readily acknowledges that she has a crush on Peter (actually, she has three boyfriends - two are real boys and one is Peter).  He again blew her kisses in the parade (two times), which she takes as irrefutable proof that he likes her.  Then, when it came time to meet him the first time, she kind of froze.  He was very kind and took her to the wishing well to make a wish.  The second time she met him, she was a little less overwhelmed.  But, as she patiently explained to me, she can't marry Peter - since he will never grow up!

The safari in Animal Kingdom is awesome!  These are just a few of the animals we saw.

They also had a petting zoo, with sheep, goats, donkeys and llamas.  Kaiya and Teague really enjoyed brushing the oh-so-soft sheep.

DinoLand was another favorite, complete with a dig and a Bug's Life playground.

Isn't she just the most adorable little girl ever?