Trip to Arizona and California and finishing up March

From Tuesday, March 22nd to Tuesday March 29th, Steve and I were in Arizona and California to visit family and friends.  It was a great time....

After we landed in Phoenix around mid-day, my sister Juli met us at the airport and we immediately headed west for Mojave, California where Judy, our 87 year old sister lives.  We arrived at our hotel in California City around 7:30 that evening and we were all just too tired to drive to Judy's that night.  But, we spent the whole day Wednesday with her.  In spite of her being bent over with age, her mind is still very sharp and we had a great visit. Her daughter Jill, who lives in nearby Palmdale, came over for awhile.  You see Ray in the last photo.  Ray is Eber's son (Judy's late husband).  He lives with Judy and helps her a lot.  

Jill, Judy, Juli

Judy and Ray

We stayed in a Best Western hotel in California City which is not as close to Mojave as the map would indicate.  It took us 30 minutes to get to Judy's and we won't be staying there again in the future.  We headed down to Pasadena Thursday morning, after stopping one last time to bid farewell to Judy.  My two high school friends, Susan Lyon and Susan Lendroth (a very popular name in the fifties) both have memberships with the Huntington Gardens and Library and Juli, Steve, and I met up with them (and Susan Lendroth's daughter Kyla) for a very lovely afternoon visiting and admiring beautiful gardens and art.  Kyla has taken classes at the Huntington and was a very knowledgeable tour guide.

me with the Susans

Susan Lyon and Susan Lendroth

We stayed in Hacienda Heights Thursday night and headed back to Phoenix Friday morning.  We arrived around 5:00 pm and after dinner, Juli dropped us off at the car rental place by the airport and she headed back up to Payson.  We spent the rest of our time staying with Amy and Cory in Mesa and for the next three days visited with as much family as we could.  We saw my 88 year old sister Jerri Saturday morning, my cousin Dave Fraedrich and his wife Shelley Saturday afternoon, my cousin Kay Winfield Sunday morning and cousin Neil Fraedrich and his wife Gloria Sunday afternoon.  Sunday evening, we visited with Jerri's family including Rob and JoAnne, Brent and Susette and their crew, Cade and Summer.  Monday we saw Amy's two daughters, Emily and Atley with their children (Emily has four, Atley has two).  I was very sad that we didn't get to see my brother Jim.  He and his wife Joan are still very afraid of Covid and just didn't feel comfortable visiting with us.  Sigh.

In between family visits, we drove up to Anthem two days in a row.  First on Saturday to teach my two cello students and again on Sunday to attend church at the ward we attended while on our mission.

me with Jerri

Dave and Shelley

me with Kay

Gloria and Neil

Rob and JoAnne

Luke, Brent, Susette, Evie, Brig in back, Parker and Rose in front

Cade and Summer

Amy with her youngest grandbaby

Atley and Emily

Amy and me

On Monday, Amy, Steve, and I explored the Queen Creek Olive Mill and learned all about olives and olive oil.  Fascinating stuff.  Tuesday morning, before heading to the airport, we loaded up our baggage with as much citrus as we could from Amy's trees.  Then, we drove to the Mesa Temple grounds where Steve and I walked around admiring the beautiful flowers.  

During our California trip, because of all of our dietary restrictions, finding places to eat was tricky.  Two wins were the gluten-free pancakes at IHOP and a fun fish fast food place called Pete's located near the Phoenix airport.  The entire cinderblock wall surrounding Pete's was painted in the cutest mural.

 

Emily picked us up from the airport Tuesday evening and our amazing family visit out west was over.  A shout out to Beckie who helped make it happen because she stayed at our home to watch the dogs.   And who had to listen to the incessant beeping of a smoke detector needing a new battery.  The crazy thing was I had just replaced all the batteries of all the CO2 and smoke detectors a couple weeks back and still there was something was beeping.  It must have driven her crazy.  I FINALLY found the culprit in one of Steve's drawers.  It was one that he took down from the ceiling almost a year ago because it kept going off at the least provocation and the number of smoke detectors in our little house is more than necessary.  

It has been a catch-up kind of week since returning home....grocery shopping, laundry, lessons.  Larkin came over Friday to hang out with us.  She loves playing with the tiny tea set and the beanie kitties

We had quite a bit of rain throughout the day on Thursday and the double daffodil blossoms just can't hold up to all that water weight so Larkin and I picked the flowers that were drooping down in the dirt and made a lovely bouquet.  She helped me wash their little faces in the sink and put them in vases.

The front flower bed has erupted in purple and white crocus (why are they later than the yellow ones?) and the miniature daffodils.

 

When we took Larkin back home Friday afternoon, we helped Emily clean up her huge raspberry patch and brought home several canes for our yard.  Steve spent his spare minutes before, between, and after the General Conference sessions yesterday planting them.  Hoping for huge raspberry harvests this year and in the years to come!  We finished watching the new West Side Story Friday night which we started while in Arizona.  It was beautifully done but I think I don't need to see that movie ever again.  What a dark and depressing story!  I watched King Richard while on the flight back to Missouri.  That was hard to watch at times but, because I knew the "rest of the story", I was able to get through the difficult moments.  It was pretty inspiring.  I started to watch The Eternals but half-way through, I decided I didn't need to see the rest and I just read the ending on the IMDB synopsis.  Yep, I think we are getting too many super-hero movies with basically the same plots.  It is hard enough keeping track of everything surrounding Captain America, Iron Man, etc.  without another group of super-heroes to figure out.

So, now it is Sunday and the second day of General Conference and the third of April.  I just love early spring and I am looking forward to this month.