A Week FULL

We flew in from Hawaii and went straight a nice gathering of older folks in our neighborhood, many of whom have been dear friends in one of our former lives. We had a fun discussion with them about grand parenting. 

The next  morning it was on to hairdresser, which I desperately needed especially because I was on my way to do a Mormon Times TV segment with Dad/Rick immediately after the appointment!

Then it was home to Baliwood after I picked up our newly framed painting from Bali done by a wonderful framer in our old neighborhood.

That night we were back downtown and we got some last minute tickets to a wonderful symphony performance, which is always so inspiring.

An eighteen year old Conrad Tao who simply stupefied us with his brilliant piano performance!

 

We never tire of the beautiful Chihuly glass in the foyer:

The next morning we headed across the street to hear the Tabernacle Choir Sunday morning broadcast which is just a great way to start a Sunday morning! After coming from the snow in Park City, it was a delight to see the gorgeous flowers on Temple Square!

The Tabernacle was crammed with people from all walks of life!

After a church meeting in the beautiful JSMB, we headed for Southern Utah where we stopped to do a fireside in Fillmore, a nice little country town which we always mark as half way to St. George from Salt Lake City. The people were delightful and we had such a good time talking with them and meeting them afterward so they could tell us which of our children they knew. That’s becoming more and more common as we greet people after speeches and it delights us!

From there we headed to St.George. Monday morning was my birthday and I was certainly well cared for and had a great day with messages from all the kids and many friends. Dad went to a new breakfast place and brought me a breakfast that took me right back to my childhood. My darling Mother made a hot breakfast for us every morning before my dad took off for either a hard day’s work on the highway or the farm. It was perfect….yummy eggs, delicious pancakes and burned bacon (my mom always burned the bacon to get rid of those alleged “worms”)! I LOVE a down-home breakfast like that at least once a year.YUM!

 

Rick was simply dying to try out our new electric bikes!  He bought one for me last year for my birthday and it arrived from eBay DEAD! He took it to three different bike shops who said they could fix it but without success. Finally he ended up paying as much as he paid for the bike to get it to work, but work it DID and we had a spectacular ride up snow canyon for our first day!  We rode and then climbed. SO FUN!  I think I’ve found my new sport: electric biking. Don’t laugh. It’s awesome!

Here’s the dessert rat that I went with:

Let’s get a little closer look at that cool outfit:

The next day we plopped the bikes in the truck…. and headed for Zion’s Canyon.

There is a road where only shuttles and bikes can go and it is simply heaven on earth! In no way do these pictures do it justice but you’ll sort of get the idea:

The Valley of the Patriarchs:

The Virgin River runs through it!

See that plane from “another world” streaking through that vivid blue sky?

The ride took my breath away until I stopped breathing entirely because I realized that my phone had worked it’s way out of my pocket as I was peddling….and was on the ground somewhere along the route! I turned around on a dime and head back down the canyon. The first bikers I came to amazing said that they had just seen my phone on the ground and had turned it into two Park Rangers in a little white truck. The race was on!  To make a long hour shorter, I found the truck and was thrilled to have my phone back. So much goes through your mind when you lose your phone!

All’s well that ends well and off we went to see our new little barn/apartment which is being built to replace our little log home that burned down last year. More on that coming soon.

It was real and splendid life all packed into one day….the ethereal along with trials that you always learn from. It was truly a splendid day….especially when that ranger handed me my phone!