Viva la Mexico!

We had such a great time in Mexico City, the biggest city in the world with 25 million inhabitants!  Our hosts there were spectacular people with three beautiful children. Paola (Paula) is a magnificent cook and we were treated to an amazing dinner at their home on the night of our arrival. I can't turn this picture around. I know it's strange quality because it was sent via blackberry on one of the guests' phones as I forgot my camera. Even my Apple genius couldn't figure out how to turn this crazy picture around, so turn your computer around if you're interested.

 

Our darling hostess Paola took us to a the old part of the city where we enjoyed a beautiful cathedral and a museum dedicated to two of Mexico's most famous artists...Diego Rivera and his wife Frida. It was an amazing piece of property!  Look at the amazing Aloe Vera plants on steroids! 

One wild thing about Mexico is these wild hairless dogs!  They are rare and several are kept at the museum. One of these dogs is a statue (the one facing you) the others love being being in, under and around them.  Weird!

Paola took us to a fun place which is the Venice of Mexico City. In ancient times all the "streets" were water. There are enough left that this place is flooded on weekends. Paola plans to have her birthday party on two of these boats hooked together.  

Some musicians showed up and provided some great entertainment! 

MEXICO CITY IS A SPECTACULAR CITY! We felt very safe and loved learning about the history of this amazing place!

With the crown of victory in her right hand and the chain of bondage broken this is a beautiful monument to the revolution!

 Below is a poor guy being tortured (feet burning) by Cortez' guys so that he'd tell them about Montezuma's treasure....of which there was none!

 

 More monuments of liberty and the bi-centennial of the revolution: 

 

 In addition they had just had the big Independence Day Parade and the fabulous paper mache' figures from the parade were still on display in the promenade. So Mexico!  Imaginative and Creative! 

Gorgeous Opera House being renovated 

In the beautiful downtown there endless architecturally amazing buildings. Very impressive! 

 

And this is without the doubt the most amazing anthropology museum in the world! 

This is the central waterfall holding up an enormous canopy! 

The museum would take days to inhale!  Simple amazing!

No flashes allowed but this is Dad standing by Quezekotal, the great feathered god, which he got a replica of for his birthday! 

In this downtown Cathedral (which is sinking) the light did shine on the soon to be birthday boy:

The best part of course were the delightful people who hosted us. We had a wonderful night meeting with about forty couples and then a breakfast meeting the next morning where we discussed parenting in more detail. All seemed to have terrific families and were involved in a lot of charitable giving! 

And did they ever surprise him with a delightful and perfect birthday cake.  They sang both the American AND the Mexican birthday songs. What great folks! 

We got home just in time to do just what Rick wanted for his birthday: watch the World Series!

What a guy!  What a trip!  A birthday to remember!

Blast in Boston

I spent last week in Boston with Saydi and Jeff's kids while they went to London and I had so much fun! It love being with the grandkids sans the parents. It's just a different chemistry and did we ever brew up some exciting potions! I got to see where Charlie goes to school...

 

And I got to learn what a great big sister Hazel is! 

 

We had so much fun doing crafts and building towers...

And of course the leaves were spectacular! 

After a few days, who should show up on our doorstep but Grandfather! The kids and I were delighted to see him and we drove up to Newburyport and visited a wonderful cemetary (since we couldn't find Eva and Adam. It was a great chance to celebrate the birthday tradition with the darling Shumway kids!

Saydi and Jeff had a great time and we had a few hours to catch up on all the fun before we left at 5 a.m. the next morning for the airport. Thanks for making such terrific kids you guys!

You can not imagine what it took to get this post up! In fact you would laugh! I need Apple help!!!

I have more great pictures but they'll have to wait!

From a Crazy Computer Change to Crazy Hair

I haven't posted for a while because my cute little travel computer crashed. Now I have to make the transition to my lovely Apple, which is beautiful but it's like learning a foreign language all over again to make it work. So much to learn. So little time!

But onward and upward. Although I still don't know how to make the pictures and font bigger, I've learned enough to get by before I forget all these memories and until I get back to my next class down at Gateway.

Dad and I had a lot of fun at the Senior Games in St. George, an annual event for the past 17 years. This year dad went over to track events to compete and without properly warming up (which was a big mistake since he hasn't done the broad jump or triple jump since last year) he pulled a muscle in his calf which was too bad because it hampered his abilities with tennis as well.  Still, he won the bronze in singles and lost in a tie breaker for doubles for the bronze. His doubles partner however won the gold in his division (he's younger than dad) so after coming back from a serious back injury, he was elated!


We spent a couple of days at Kolob watching conference and enjoying the beautiful fall weather there. We tromped around the property and dad had fun riding Duffy around the field. Lady has thrown a shoe.

One of the things I love most about fall is the golden grass which is in abundance on the property!

 

In St. George we loved being with Oliver, Silas and Eliza for a couple of days while Saren took the older kids and had a little fun in Las Vegas.  They stayed at "The Pyramid" and saw my personal favorite show,"KA". They loved it.

They got home just in time for crazy hair day at school. The kids were prize winners!

We also were lucky enough to get there in time to see the reflections program.  I couldn't catch up with Isaac but here are Liza and Ashton with their prizes in literature and Oliver and Silas with their art masterpieces.

 The Loosli family are in the throes of deciding on a house in Ogden but wherever they end up they are going to dearly miss this unrestricted view of the gorgeous red rock mountains that flank their home!

We came home and went straight to Logan to be inducted into the Old Main Society. We're started a class on Family/Work Balance at USU so they asked us to join. It was fun to see a lot of old friends!  That night there was an amazing concert at the Fine Arts Auditorium with the combined chorus and orchestra directed by Craig Jessop, the former conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was a tribute to Mac Wilberg who is an amazing genius who has added more to the world of music than any of us will every realize. It was a stunning 2 1/2 hours of pure joy!

I helped Grandma organize her closet and we found the cute outfit that we gave her last Christmas, still unworn so we left with her as cute as a bug. She enjoyed the concert immensely. Her life is hard. Growing old is the pits!

 We got home just in time to see Shawni and Dave and their kids at the airport for a few minutes before they took off for Disney World and the Disney Cruise. They had a three hour layover in Salt Lake. The thing everybody was most excited about was showing Lucy the Princesses!  We had such a fun time with this adorable family which we haven't seen since August!

With three days to catch up, I'm headed for Boston to take care of the Shumway kids while Jeff and Saydi explore London.  FUN for all!