Visiting Teaching on the Town

June and I went visiting teaching to Charlotte yesterday at Noodles and Company. It's nice to have lots of new choices of places to eat in Eldersburg. We could eat at a new place every month and not run out for a year! I had the Thai Hot Pot which really warms you up on a cold and rainy day! We followed it up with a trip to TJ Maxx, which was just as fun. 

Ed and I had spent the morning walking in the woods with Coda, as we had a showing at our house and had to leave. It was too bad it rained during most of our walk, but we enjoyed the lush greenery in the forest and the many dogwoods in bloom.

Book It Sisters Read The Other Wes Moore

I forgot to take a picture at Cheryl's house last night, which is a shame, as she fixed us such a nice dinner. The Book it Sisters read The Other Wes Moore. It was an interesting story of two men with the same name and background who had very different outcomes to their lives. It made us feel sorry for how the unfortunate Wes's life turned out. It also made us feel guilty about having had good and happy lives.

For our review, see http://bookitsisters.com/the-other-wes-moore/.

Spring in Sykesville

Spring has sprung, and the tulips are up in our garden. These were given to me by my neighbor, Rebecca, last year and I'm glad we are still here to enjoy them!

Our cherry tree gets bigger and fuller each year. I love it and feel sad we won't be around in 10 years to see it in its full glory!

Ed and I  and Coda enjoyed a shady walk on the fire trail where the trees are mostly leafed out now. This is the best time of year! 

Hackey Sacks for Haiti

The Stake Relief Society sponsored a service project this morning. I crocheted a hackysack for an orphanage in Haiti. Mine is the lumpy blue one. I took my second one home with me, and it seems to be going much better than the first one.

The fun part was visiting with the ladies while we crocheted. That was also the problem, as we slipped a few stitches as we talked. Hopefully, the orphans won't notice!

Day in Provo

Ed and I spent the morning meeting with our financial adviser, our realtor, and having lunch over an investment seminar. We whiled away an hour afterwards walking along the Provo river walk. It was a chamber of congress day--a far cry from the inversion we experienced here in February.

In the afternoon we went shopping with Brittany and Mabel. We picked out a weed wacker for John and Brittany. Oh, the joys of home ownership!

I entertained myself by trying to make Mabel laugh. She is easy prey! We're going to miss her when we go back home tomorrow!

Alpine High

We're back in the mountains today and took the opportunity to explore the trails in Lambert park, which actually surrounds our new subdivision.

The trails are shared by mountain bikers, so you have to watch out. In many places the scrub oak was actually tall enough to provide some sun protection (when summer comes).

If you know what you're looking for you can find our house in this picture, with Utah Lake in the background.

We see the mule deer love to hang out in the yards here just as much as the white tail deer do in Maryland.

We were able to meet the home inspector at our new home and take a little time to measure each room so we can decide which furniture to bring with us and where to put it when we move this summer.

We had dinner with Brittany and Mabel at Zupa's, one of my favorite salad restaurants!

We joined Brttany and John for popcorn and a movie in the evening. It was our first experience in their home theater. They mounted a projector and showed the movie on a screen they made themselves.

Seeing the Beach Boys in Love and Mercy made us think maybe we should get a set-up like this in our new home. It was more fun than we expected. The movie was very good, and Ed filled me in on the parts I slept through as we drove home to Grandma's house after the show!

Desert Life

We went for a hike in the bluffs over St. George this morning. With the weather in the 70's and a light breeze it was the perfect day for a walk in the desert.

Mabel loved being in the out of doors with us and was happy to pose whenever we asked her.

The cactus were in bloom, and it was fun to see the bright colors.

John tried an Indiana Jones leap over the crevice with Mabel on his back.

The view of the city from the top of the hills was beautiful.

The highlight of our hike was running smack into an endangered desert tortoise. He was beautiful and not really afraid of us!

We enjoyed going through the new desert garden park and seeing all the native plants afterwards.

On the way home we stopped off at an RV show and imagined ourselves buying a new mobile home like this trailer. Now that we have a new house in Utah in the works its time to think of our vacation home!

We cooled off from a long, fun day with a dip in the pool. It was Mabel's first swimming experience. She liked it!

After being awake and happy all day, Mabel finally said, "I'm tired!" So, we put her to bed. Someone's going to be sleeping soundly tonight!

White Knuckle Trip to St. George

My sister, Annette offered us the use of her St. George house for the weekend, so Ed and I and grandma drove down yesterday for a day in the sun.

The sun didn't exactly cooperate with us, and we spent an hour and a half driving through snow and slush. Mom and I were just glad Ed was driving!

We met my sister, Joan, for dinner. She introduced us to some new Thai taste treats, including this Tom Kha soup, which was delicious. Anything with coconut milk in it always tastes great! Joan says its the lemon grass that makes it! She is a bit of an expert on Thai food, as she travels there frequently for work.

This morning Joan brought me over to Dixie College where she showed me her computer crimes lab. She teaches a class in this room on how to get information off cell phones. I think she is probably the one that broke open that Iphone for the FBI, but she's not admitting anything to me!

Afterwards she let me use one of her computers to update my blog. Next time I come down I'll try not to leave my laptop at Grandma's house!

New Home in Utah

Ed and I are so happy to have finally found a home in Utah. We are so excited about signing a contract for this beautiful home in Alpine!

Spring House Hunting Trip

It was so beautiful looking for houses amongst all the flowering trees! We're back in Utah on house hunting trip number two, and everything looks so much more hopeful than it did in February!

This house in Alpine was our favorite house of the day. It was beautifully situated at the foot of Box Elder Canyon.

The rooms were lovely and large and had fine woodwork and details.

The view from the back of the house was spectacular!

After a fun day of seeing a variety of houses, we stopped for a late lunch at Magelsby's where we discussed the pro's and con's of each house. We were happy to have Mom and Brittany give us their opinions as well. We hope Todd, our realtor, isn't getting sick of us!

After lunch we went over to Brittany's house where we got to see her fruit trees and beautiful flowers. She's lucky the previous owners had such a green thumb!

The highlight of our day was playing with little Mabel. She is so grown up and so cute!

Ed enjoyed trying to maker her laugh. In the end she's the real reason we're moving to Utah!

David and Rachael come to visit

Rachael's sister moved to Maryland, which meant she and David have to come here more often. We were happy to be the beneficiaries of a visit from David and Rachael this afternoon. We had lunch and talked about ways to renovate all the houses on our favorites list in Utah real estate. They had some great ideas, although Ed is definitely opposed to putting in an elevator in the Mapleton house that has the garage in the basement! That is unlikely to happen!

Walk in the Park

It was supposed to snow and rain today, but that didn't deter us from taking a walk in the woods this morning. We decided to try out the McKeldin area of the Patapsco state park, as we hadn't been there in a while.

It is only 15 minutes from home, and the trail follows the beautiful Patapsco river.

The weather co-operated and we were able to walk along dirt trails with a minimum of mud sticking to our shoes.

It is especially fun to see the confluence of the North and South branches of the Patapsco river.

Last time we were here it was hot and muggy, and all the "no swimming" signs were a bummer. Today we were not tempted to go in the water!

Wind, Wind, go Away!

It was a beautiful spring day today, except for the fact that it was 40 degrees and windy! We couldn't even get a good picture of Ed and me going to the temple this morning!

In the afternoon Suzanne and I discovered 4 new trees down right in our path on the fire road! They must have blown over in the wind last weekend! We were glad they didn't blow over on us!

In the evening Ed and I (and Coda) stopped by again to look at our giant downed trees. They must have made a lot of noise when they fell!

Wind, wind, go away!

Co-opting a Couch for Conference

We were happy the Gadberrys let us go over to their house yesterday to watch LDS General Conference. Our power went off about 8:30 a.m. and didn't go back on till almost 3 in the afternoon. It was nice having a friendly couch to sit on, rather than a pew at the stake center.

My favorite speakers were Elder Holland (heartfelt reminder to remember what we've learned and felt) and President Uchtdorf (comparison to Dresden rising from ruins and our lives if we repent). I also liked Sister Oscarson (urging us to internalize what we believe) and Sister Marriott.(we should nurture others). OK, I admit, with Sister Marriott, I just wanted to listen to her lovely Southern drawl all afternoon!