Steamboat with the Bookies

What a beautiful weekend to go to Steamboat Springs for our annual literary Sojourn!

Suzanne flew in from Baltimore, and Sheryl met us at Nora's house to drive up the mountain together.

We stopped for a really late breakfast at Hilldaddy's Wildfire restaurant in Idaho Springs.

We must have all been on the same page, because we all ordered the Omelette Loraine, with Hollandaise sauce! We just might have to stop back again next year! Mmmm!

We were happy we got the same condo as last year. We love the view from the balcony!

We went to visit the Botanical Garden in Steamboat. It was so beautiful, with the turning leaves and fall flowers.

The sun coming through the leaves was breathtaking!

We walked along the Yampa river and had to work hard to keep Sheryl out of it! Fortunately she left her waders at home, so she couldn't do any fly fishing this trip!

Martha had to come up late, as she was working, but she joined us in time for dinner at the Smokehouse BBQ.

After that we went back to our condo and looked at wedding pictures. When you only see each other once a year you have a lot of catching up to do!

Shopping Day with Crystal

We celebrated Crystal's birthday belatedly by going shopping together today. We started out with a walk to Walmart along the Highline canal trail. The weather is so perfect, and it reminded me of why we loved living in Denver so much.

We cooked both breakfast and dinner at Crystal's house, which was fun for me. Crystal makes a wicked breakfast burrito!

After breakfast we wore ourselves out at World Market, Costco and Park Meadows Mall. I impressed two clerks with my clever use of Samsung Pay at the register. They both told me it wouldn't work at their store, but it did!

We invited Aunt Verlene for dinner. She couldn't go shopping with us, as she had to work. Working always gets in the way. Happily for her, she only has 122 more days before retirement! (But who is counting?)

Denver Again

I drove to Denver all by myself today. Ed was so nice to let me drive his fancy new car. I was afraid mine might get another flat tire!

It is fun to see Crystal in her own home (apartment).

I enjoyed going to Crystal's dulcimer lesson with her. I liked her teacher because he not only makes beautiful arrangements, but also thinks Crystal is a dulcimer savante!

We met Aunt Verlene for dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, and she brought me her prize winning wolf painting for my lodge room in the basement! He won best of show at her painters' club art show! I'm excited to take him to Utah!

Everything was great, except for the leaf bug over Crystal's doorway. He scared the daylights out of us and almost kept us from getting home!

Temple Square

After church yesterday we took Tom and Tina up to Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

We enjoyed going through the visitors centers, as well as the tabernacle, where we got to hear the amazing acoustics (where you can hear a pin drop from the podium). The sister missionary sang a very beautiful song a cappella.

In the evening Brittany, John and Mabel joined us for dinner. Mabel got more on her face than in her mouth!

After dinner we had a little musical entertainment during which Mabel did her best to steal the show!

It's been a great visit, and we hate to see Tom and Tina return to Arizona this afternoon! We always love spending time with them. They are such fun and interesting people!

Ashton Gardens and More

We had two fun things to do today. One was babysit Mabel for Brittany and John and the other was visit Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point. We posed in front of the tulips, because we know they are famous for their tulip festival in the spring.

We found an incredible array of other flowers despite it being quite late in the season!

Mabel slept through the entire visit, as it was her naptime!

They even had wonderful waterfalls and cliffs there. I loved this pool!

It was so fun feeding the koi that I was tempted to wake up Mabel to do it with us!

We got home in time for dinner on the patio. Another beautiful day!

After dinner I read a bedtime story to Mabel, who mostly wanted to play with the books with her feet. She was really cute!

Tina, Tom and Ed went down to Sub Zero to get ice cream for us. It is always fun to see how they freeze the ice cream right in front of you!



















By the time Brittany and John got home from the wedding of their good friends, Mabel was fast asleep at grandma's house. We felt like good grandparents!

Big, Big, Big, Big Day!

We started our day yesterday with a visit to American Fork Canyon, where we enjoyed seeing the beautiful views and the changing of the leaves on the hillsides.

It was a chamber of commerce day, with temperatures in the 70's with a slight breeze. We enjoyed the waters, boardwalks and paved walkways at Cascade Springs.

Tom's wheel chair can go anywhere and do anything, but, as some of the grades there are a little steep it cut out occasionally to cool off. It was a mechanical way of complaining about the hike! It just gave us a little more time to dawdle!

We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at the Foundry Grill at Sundance Ski Resort. It has that great, rustic atmosphere, with delicious food to match it!

When we got back to Provo we stopped at the Monte Bean Museum where Brittany works. In addition to some great stuffed wildlife exhibits the educators have some live animals that they use for shows.

It turns out Mabel takes after her mother. She ain't afraid of no snakes!

We topped off a great day by meeting at Taste in Provo to celebrate my Mother's 88th birthday! She looks like one of the kids, doesn't she? Barbara and Kent also met us for a fun evening of chocolate sampling. An unexpected plus was getting to sample flavored vinegar and olive oils. It turns out you can live a long time in this world without even knowing those things existed!

Great Uncle Tom and Great Aunt Tina

Ed's brother, Tom and sister-in-law Tina drove up from Tuscon to visit us in our new home. We are so excited that we have a room that will accommodate them this time! Mabel also came up for dinner to meet them!

Brittany wanted to be there, as we really have so little time with our Bush family.

After dinner we went for a little spin around the block with Coda. We're looking forward to spending the next several days with them and showing them the sights of Utah!