A Quick Visit to Provo

I had some frequent flyer miles burning a hole in my pocket so I bought a plane ticket and flew up to Utah for two days this week.  I left Halloween afternoon and watched a gorgeous sunset during my one-hour flight to Salt lake City.  The reason I needed to go to Utah was to see my three girls....

First, Alice Matilda Merrill (born September 27th)

I also needed to see my other two girls - Sarah (who just moved to Utah last week) and Kirsti.  

I didn't do much on Wednesday except hold Alice.  So lovely.  Kirsti and I DID venture to JoAnn's to buy fabric for a blessing dress and to a grocery store where I bought my favorite gluten-free bread.  

Sarah arrived on Thursday and while Ryan babysat.....

Sarah, Kirsti, and I ate lunch at an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet.  

After lunch, Sarah and I hugged Kirsti, Ryan, and Alice good-bye and we drove up to Salt Lake where we took in a session at the Oquirrh Mountain temple.

(I finally saw some fall color!)

And then Sarah dropped me off at the airport and by Thursday night, I was back in Phoenix.  A quick but wonderful trip.  I already miss holding baby Alice....

p.s.

I was so keen on showing all the photos from our adventures last week that I neglected to talk about the "smaller" events of our week:

printer - remember when I tried to print some music on our HP printer and ended up reading it off my iPad?  We were afraid we were looking at buying a new printer.  Nope.  Happily, Cartridge World, Phoenix's version of the Ink Factory (recycled ink cardridges), helped analyze the problem and it truly was just a low ink color cartridge AND a faulty brand new black ink cartridge.  Our printer is back in business.   The money we saved on a new printer was spent instead on a new crock pot because the one I brought from Missiouri had developed a crack.

lunch with old and dear friends - Fred and Nancy Richardson from our Woodbridge days and who now live in Litchfield Park took us to lunch Thursday.  We went to Famous Daves BBQ where I was hoping for a Lonnie Rays experience.  Sadly, no.  They glutenize practically everything!  I ended up with chicken (which was good) and coleslaw (it had a strange, unrecognizable seasoning that made it less appealing - but I ate it anyway, like a good girl).

drive to Surprise - I needed to drop off finished Days for Girls items and pick up new supplies and the woman in charge didn't pick up on my hint to meet half-way between her house in Surprise and the mission office.  SO, we drove out to our "old stomping grounds" to make the exchange.  We ate dinner at Culvers and then went to the Phoenix temple.

Trunk or Treat / chili & cornbread dinner - our ward had theirs Friday night.  And it was combined with the Parkside Ward.  LOTS of people.  LOTS of trick or treaters.  We ran out of candy.

Doctor - Steve went to the doctor on Friday for a second freezing of the wart-like growth on his left ear.  I think he will still need to see a dermatologist.  In the meantime, its location makes Steve look part Vulcan.

Sedona

On Saturday, Steve and I decided to check out Sedona.  We were not disappointed.  The scenery was just incredible.  I couldn't stop taking pictures.

can you see why this is called the "teapot"?






Below are photos taken by Oak Creek. 

You probably are aware of the "vortex energy" found in several spots around Sedona.  One is by Oak Creek where we visited.  I honestly could not tell you if I felt any of this energy.  As we got closer to the center, my head started to feel a bit "buzzy" but who knows if that wasn't due to fatigue or the power of suggestion.  Steve felt nothing.  Also, the closer to the center, people created these rock towers.  Tons of them!

As you can imagine, this place is visited by MANY people.  

We visited another vortex site near the airport.  This one required a .6 mile hike one way to get there. Between the rocks and the ups and downs, it just about did us both in.  We are so pathetic!

 
There were several other hikers on this path.  We even saw a mother and son hiking barefoot! THAT is just nuts.

Apparently, the vortex energy caused this cedar tree trunk to twist....

We were told to drive north up Oak Creek Canyon out of town to find a Dairy Queen because there, we would find authentic Native American jewelry.  And, we did.  After enjoying a mini-blizzard, we checked out their wares.

We met Jarod from Cameron.  He is LDS.  

And this is what we bought from him...

It is hard to see, but Steve's ring has carvings around it.  

On our way back home, we visited a Frank Lloyd Wright chapel he build in Sedona.

 

We did none of the shopping that apparently Sedona is famous for.  There was certainly a LOT of traffic to deal with.  But, we would go again - probably to buy more jewelry and to visit Slide Rock State Park.  (it sounds like a Johnson's Shut-Ins).  Oak Creek was also a clear water stream. I dipped my feet in it and it was pretty cold.  But, I bet it is a popular swimming place in the summer.

Carefree Pumpkins

Monday night, Steve and I drove down the Carefree Highway to the town of Carefree to admire the Enchanted Pumpkin Garden - an amazing pumpkin display created / carved by Ray Villafane.  Sadly, we didn't get to watch a carving demonstration but we enjoyed walking around all the whimsical pumpkin scenes.  And it was all free!  

Third Week in October

While the rest of my family is enjoying crisp autumn temperatures and beautiful fall color and raking leaves......here is what I get to rake - 

bougainvillea petals on my back patio

Anthem celebrated their Autumnfest at the Anthem Park over the weekend so Steve and I hopped on our bicycles and checked it out.  First of all, this past week is the first time that we have had bikes to ride since coming up to Anthem.  While in Surprise, we used the bikes that the Johnson's left.  After moving away, we had to find leftover bikes from mission storage and first, it was finding a comfortable seat for my bike (which never happened - we just eventually got a different bike) and then it was getting a bike pump (found one in mission storage) and then it was getting a tire fixed and then it was buying bike lights.  Sigh.  

Anthem Park is about a mile away from our place.  It has a cute little railroad you can ride (Quinn!!!)

 And lovely lakes and waterfalls....

There were dozens of free bouncy houses set up.  This one was cute because it was so "Arizona".  Behind the cactus were cows and a barn.

There was an area of assorted booths - not much art - just crafts. And there was a food area where Steve and I each bought a shaved ice. (no icecream and sweetened condensed milk, though, darn it)

In the afternoon, we drove down the Carefree Highway (don't you just love that name?) to Cave Creek (about 15 miles from Anthem) to a lovely church built in the mission style...

where I played in a trio (flute, violin, cello).  Christ Anglican Church has a strong music ministry with a director who encourages and supports young musicians and composers.  This concert featured all original compositions by adults, teens, and even children.  There was a very talented string quartet comprised of  ASU students who played four of the pieces.  Our trio played a piece called Three Rivers composed by a man who is returning to college for a music degree.  It was pretty enough - not very long and not too challenging.  

In the evening, I played my cello again with two singers and a pianist for the evening session of Stake Conference.  We did the Rob Gardner version of Savior Redeemer of My Soul that is so beautiful.  I had to transpose a violin part into bass clef which produced a bit of drama since our printer seemed to be out of ink but when I got a new cartridge, it still didn't print.  I had to take a photo of the arrangement with my iPad and rehearse with that Thursday night.  Thankfully, we figured out how to make a PDF version of the music and print it with the seminary teacher's printer here at the house on Friday morning so it all ended well.  

Then, after Stake Conference, the core string players for ProMusica (meaning the non-contract players) were asked to play a movement from one of the Mozard Divertimenti for a Rotary fundraiser at the Anthem country club.  We were the last of a long list of performances and I was a bit late arriving (I went to the wrong gate into the country club part of Anthem) so I couldn't find my string people anywhere.  I was just told to go to the patio with all the other musicians.  But, the only people out there were a bunch of men in matching polo shirts who looked like they were with valet parking!  Well, they were actually a men's choir from a half-way house program.  Eventually, a high school madrigal group all decked out in medieval costumes joined us on the patio.  So, it was just valet guys, me and the madrigal singers for about 20 minutes until I finally found my group!  The core string players are just a shade better than the string section of the Mid-Missiouri Community Orchestra (a.k.a. RTO) so this performance was just a shadow of my Prairie Strings glory days when we also played the Mozart Divertimenti.  But, the kind Rotarians donated $500 to ProMusica so it was all worth it.  

We enjoyed a great Sunday morning session of stake conference today.  And that is our news....