St. George (again)

 

Rick attended his annual conference again this year and I got to go with him and work on my projects and enjoy some warmer weather for four days.  This year I took four large boxes of papers and treasures and continued to go through them and keep the good stuff to put in plastic pages/binders and get rid of the rest.  I found some good treasures along the way. I also watched several movies on HBO that I hadn't seen before. Rick and I took some lovely walks and discovered some new places. We saw two movies - Jack Reacher and "42" about the life of Jackie Robinson and enjoyed them both. We're going to return with our kids in June after Andy's wedding and now we know of some good places to visit.  I love to discover new things to do in St. George.  We also drove around and saw some mansion houses that are in the surrounding areas and wondered if they are all second homes or if people live in those homes year round.  Hum..interesting.  So much construction is still going on there.

The Town Square park is lovely with a splash pad and a carousel and a children's museum will be opening this summer.  We'll be going to this:

 to see this:

We went to this place to see this sculpture that we had heard about. It is an interesting representation of what might happen when a person passes away as they go through the veil and return to the Savior.

Althought we've been here before, we always enjoy visiting the St. George Tabernacle

to see the workmanship of Rick's great, great grandpa Miles who was the head architect responsible for building the tabernacle.  We both commented that the apple has fallen very far from the tree since Rick, his dad and his grandpa don't know a hammer from a screwdriver.  Seriously, they aren't handy at all but they have other skills that have made up for it.
I really love to visit St. George and this year was no exception.  We had a great time and enjoyed a delicious meal at The Painted Pony restaurant the last night we were there and also did some temple sealings in this beautiful place.

  I did my very best to show some self control and NOT eat pie for lunch and dinner at this place.

On the road again

We were so happy we could be in town to celebrate
 Jake's birthday with him this year.  He is such a wonderful
 man, father and husband and we love him!

I haven't done much traveling over the past 8 months since my cancer treatment began. That all ended the first part of April when I took three trips all in a roll!  First to Arizona. Next to St George. Then finally to Charlotte, North Carolina. I must say...I love to travel.  And more than that...I love to visit our children & their families and see how they are doing.

Ada giving some loves to her daddy.

Ellie sharing some hugs.

Enjoying a yummy Italian dinner at Oregano with all the crew

Topping it all off with a cookie-icecream dessert.

Ellie wearing my stuff and putting on her Grandma Vonnie persona.

She does me well, don't you think?

No visit to AZ would be complete with out eating at Tia Rosa's.

The weather was perfect for eating out on the
patio with Paul and DeNae.  Loved our visit with them.

Great-grandma Pat enjoyed her time with the AZ family.
 She had never been to their home and she had a great time.

Me, Lauren and DeNae eating up some great Mexican food.

Perfect weather and lots of sun shine!

We got to visit Paul and DeNae's new home.  What a beauty.

The girls had a great time with great Grandma Pat.
 She bought a bird cage for them to enjoy some bird watching.

Getting set up...I wonder if any birds will come??

Jord and Jake's new couches large
 enough for a crowd.  So comfy and stylish.

We enjoyed shopping at Last Chance (I found some wonderful dress shoes for the wedding at a great price) and we couldn't get Pat out of there, pedicure, going to the Dollar Store with the girls, walks, bike rides, swimming, playing Old Maid, UNO and Skipbo with the girls, watching all sessions of General Conference on the comfort of the lovely new couches, going to the Mesa temple, visiting Jake's work, eating on the patio and just enjoying lovely warm weather and our family.  It was such a fun and relaxing visit.

Truths to ponder from LDS general conference

Ziggy all the way

With Ziggy headlining, former BYU players perform for NFL scouts at Pro Day : CougarBlue.com
check out this video to see Ziggy in action 

If you want to know what all the fuss is about, check out this article in Sport Illustrated to ready about Ziggy's story.  It's pretty amazing. 

We were on campus last night attending a banquet and we passed Ziggy in the hallway. He gave us a nod.  I thought Rick was going to pass out. That guy is B * I * G!!!

I'm in love with an appliance

Last year I got this wonderful Blendtec at work as a gift.  It grinds up stuff like no other.  It's an amazing blender and we love it!  We've been going strong with it all year long and most days I make a green smoothie for breakfast before I head out the door.  It gives me a lot of good energy and it is chock full of nutrition and not a lot of calories.  My good friend Patsy gave me a zip-lock bag with the ingredients for a green smoothy in it the morning of my birthday.  It had six ingredients in it and was delicious.  I've made it may times since.  Here is the recipe for Patsy's green smoothy:
1 cup baby kale
1 cup fresh spinach
1 banana
1 pear
1 cup purple grapes
1 orange or four little "cutie" oranges
1/2 cup water
1 cup ice
If I'm missing a certain fruit, then I just put in another one that I have on hand.

My brother-in-law Brian is a long time guru of making healthy breakfast drinks.  He shared his list of ingredients with me and I've incorporated some of his ideas.  He uses a combination of fruits and vegetables with nuts and spices that give it more flavor and texture.  Here is his list:

Pomegranate juice (available at Costco) about 1/3 cup since it's very concentrated
tart cherry juice or dark cherry juice (great anti-oxidant juice) about 1 cup
any combination of fresh fruits including:  apple, orange, banana, pineapple, strawberries, etc.
any combination of vegetables including: beets (fresh or from the can), carrots, spinach, kale, etc.
handful of mixed nuts
handful of flax seeds
handful of whole wheat germ
handful of dried cherries, cranberries and or blueberries
big handfuls of frozen berries (cherries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc.)
heaping tablespoon of cinnamon
tablespoon of nutmeg
teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice
chunk of crystallized ginger or a tablespoon of powdered ginger)
tablespoons of any sort of protein powder or super green food
teaspoon of pure vanilla

Also, I "liked"  Blendtec on my Facebook page and they give out great recipes to make with a Blendtec.  This week the link was to a variety of green smoothies and I'm going to give some of them a try.  Hooray for green smoothies and for Blendtec.  I LOVE that appliance!