From Candy for Our Ears to Candy for Our Eyes

We started our week last Sunday with a group of our favorite stimulating friends. We call our group “The Inklings” after a group C.S. Lewis was a part of during his sojourn on earth. The origin is too long to explain here but because of it, we have been lucky enough to gather a stellar group of friends who gather once a month to stimulate each other’s minds and enjoy fascinating ideas. This month we discussed a wonder little novelette about one man’s struggle to overcome selfishness and pride by Leo Tolstoy called Father Sergius. Fascinating!

To start our evening, we were blessed with some divine music from two of Utah’s finest young musicians. Premier violinist, fifteen year old Aubree Oliverson who has recently soloed with the Utah Symphony came with her talented family along with her accompanist father and her little brother played some stunning music for us. An incredible fourteen year old pianist named Konna was also sensational as she played Tarantella and The Flight of the Bumble Bee!

Both the music and the stimulating discussion were a delight.

The next morning we hitched up the horse trailer, loaded the horses and lumbered on down to St. George where the horses have their winter home. Besides working for several days on a building project down there (details coming later), we had the rare privilege of riding our bikes in Zion’s Canyon on a road where only tour buses and bikes were allowed.

It was truly like dying and going to heaven!

See the Great White Throne in the background!

Dad/Richard just couldn’t get enough of the scenery…or the sun!

Zion’s Canyon in the splendor of fall is one of the “other” wonders of the world!

Friends…Vail, Bear Lake, River Song

Since our family left, we have spent some quality time with dear friends! We did a retreat for some friends from Alabama and Tennessee and took in the breathtaking beauty of a resort near Vail, Colorado in the process. What a terrific bunch of parents just trying to be better:

The sessions took place at this couple’s resort home. They have a great story! Long story short, she had a professor who taught her how to be a stellar career woman. Just when she was at the peak of her career and had decided to forgo having a husband and children, she visited the same professor who told her not to forget that the most important thing she could do in life would be get married and raise a family. Shortly thereafter, she met this great guy and they now have two beautiful girls….the light of their lives. 

Vail village was fun!

We met our old friend, Mark Twain….

And enjoyed this beautiful spot on earth!

As soon as we got back we headed up to Bear Lake with some dear friends for 24 hours of great conversation and some good food. We even did a yoga class led by a bone fide  yoga teacher! It will be our last week at the lake for the summer and we felt the tingle of fall in the air!

Even some mature adults can be whacky!

How we love these wonderful women and their handsome husbands! What a plethora of good things we learned from them!  Each is so gifted in his/her own way and has so much to offer the world (and us).  

Dad/Rick is out there insisting on a glamour shot!

Guess who is always thrilled to have a tennis buddy in the group. He is especially happy in this picture because he won, but his opponent deserves that halo around his head. He is truly a saint!

It was a bit sad to pull in all the outdoor furniture and close up for the year, but that was truly a fine finale!

Yesterday we spent 24 hours with other dear friends at a beautiful place on the Weber River called River Song. These are long-time friends who gather once a year to play tennis and catch up. They represent the bedrock of Salt Lake City and this year we had a fascinating time learning about their childhoods in Salt Lake (one tennis pro spent several years in Hollywood so that was fun to hear about too). Sadly, it rained and then snowed so there was no tennis this year but the food, the conversation and the scenery was to die for!

Of course, Dad had to slip in there in all his splendor…

Friends add such richness to our lives and we adore them! Good people have given amazing talents to the world!

Dream Weekend at the Teton Ranch

Dear friends Leon and Karen Peterson invited us to a weekend of spectacular music and scenery at a fabulous ranch in Driggs, Idaho. Young musicians from The Gift of Music School as well as world-class musicians, many from the University of Utah offered first class entertainment amidst scenery and a lodge fit for kings! The concerts were at this incredible home on about 1500 acres of choice land towered over by the Grand Tetons. This beautiful lodge and grounds were something to behold. Just so you know, we didn’t stay there. We stayed at the Super 8 in Driggs. That brought us right back to earth every night! 

 

The Bear Room and Gun Bar!

Inside of a restored sheep-herder’s wagon:

Children’s wonderland:

All that along with three concerts a day by gifted young musicians as well as sensational professional musicians made this  weekend a real-life dream! Just to add the frosting on the cake, the girl on the left is my cousin Ver Non Griffeth’s granddaughter Brie! She and Aubrey Oliverson did justice to the wonderful Bach Double Concerto along with the terrific young members of a the stellar chamber orchestra. Among other beautiful pieces, they gave a wonderful performance of Summer from The Four Seasons.

 

We became “buddies’ with the two marvelously gifted professional singers (whom we chauffered back and for the from the motel) that Leon and Karen brought in who have performed all over the world. So fun to be immersed in the world of music for a while! Sadly we neglected to get one picture of them or the other professional singers who knocked us off our seats on the last night!  The exhilaration of a remarkable concert just can’t be described!  Wish you’d been there!

It was a weekend to relish forever! How lucky are we?