Julina's visit

Julina's visit last week was so fun.  On Tuesday, we drove up to Flagstaff in order to drive down the beautiful drive of Oak Creek Canyon on our way to a day in Sedona.

This is the view at the start of the drive down

Because it was a Tuesday, the tourists were light so we actually found a decent parking spot and walked a bit along the street with all the souvineer shops.

We had lunch at the Crescent Moon Picnic area and took the hike to the "vortex"

Remember the rock cairns from previous visits???

Well, they are all gone!!!  

Did the "vortex" sweep them away???

More Sedona photos...

Julina came into the office with us on Wednesday where she met up with Alex's sister, Terry, for lunch.  While she was there, Sister Collins came in and so we took a mother/daughter photo.

Kristen Collins, Jenene Poulson, me, Julina

Julina spent Thursday with Aunt Joan (my brother Jim's wife) and Steve and I went into the office that day.  Juli and Joan went down into old Scottsdale for lunch and some browsing.  That evening, Jim and Joan took us to dinner at the historic (100 years old this year) Rock Spring Cafe in Black Canyon City, just a short 15 minute drive north of Anthem. 

On Friday, we took time off from the office again to take Julina to Cave Creek.  We hiked the Jewel of the Creek trail.  You can see that it was cloudy and a teensy bit rainy but not enough to spoil the hike.

Of course, while in Cave Creek, Julina had to see the Rare Earth Gallery, have lunch at Big Earl's Greasy Eats and enjoy ice cream at the City Creamery.  That night, we cooked pork steaks on our little make-shift grill and later enjoyed a movie.  In fact, we watched a lot of movies while Julina was here:  we went to the theater on Monday to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie.  We also watched Lemon Drop Kid, What's Up Doc, and The Man Who Invented Christmas in the evenings.

It was just a terrific visit and a great week.  We were sad to put her on the plane Saturday morning.  Thanks, Julina for coming.  Thanks, Alex for giving her up for a week.

Thanksgiving week

The week before Thanksgiving:  the mission office was open through Wednesday and they were normal days.  When we were home, I spent every spare moments at the sewing machine finishing up 33 drawstring Days for Girl bags so I could deliver them in Mesa when we were there on Saturday.  

Thanksgiving Day - Steve and I watched "White Christmas" early in the day while I baked pies and wrapped Christmas gifts.  We left for Payson around 10:30 a.m. and had a lovely, relaxed day with my sister as the turkey cooked.  Jesse had to work until 6:00 so we had Thanksgiving dinner at 6:30 with just Juli, Jesse and Kat.  

Friday was a big day.  I continued to sew bags and then I left for Mesa around 10:30 a.m. to join in a Young family history field trip to Tucson.  Brent initiated the whole event and he and Susette and all of their seven children piled into their big van and Amy, with Jerri and me, followed in Amy's handicap-accessable van (Jerri being in a wheelchair).  After a disappointing lunch at a Chick Filet in Casa Grande (they were out of gluten-free buns and no salads were available due to the e-coli/romaine lettuce scare - so I ate the cheese stick and tortilla chips I brought along as a just-in-case), we drove on to Tucson and our first stop - the Binghampton Cemetery 

It was so fun to see how engaged the Bowden kids were in finding Young family tombstones.  Susette even found Cardon family graves, including her namesake.  I found where my Aunt Lillian was buried.  She died a young girl in early 1920 - likely from the influenza epidemic.

After lingering at the cemetery, we looked for the home that my grandfather and grandmother Young lived in on Dodge, just up from the Binghampton church on Ft. Lowell road.  And, we found it!  It is currently a ceramic studio called the Tucson Clay Coop and it just "happened" to be open when we arrived late that afternoon.  I walked in and said "my grandparents lived in this home" and the woman just about died she was so thrilled.  She had just recently hosted a 100-year birthday celebration for the house and had searched for anyone who could tell more about it's history.  She let us explore the house and even took us to the root cellar under the kitchen.  It was so wonderful.  Below are photos of me and Maxine and her with Brent and Susette.  I have her contact information and, when I get back to Missouri, I will look for more information on the house.

We drove by the house on Richey that my mom and grandpa Fraedrich built but, as before, it was behind a locked fence since it is now used for storage for a plumbing company.  We drove to Fraedrich street and saw what was likely my mom's childhood home but, again, it was behind a fence.  Then, we parted ways with Brent's family since Jerri needed to get back home.  On our way out of town, we found my Aunt Cleo's home, also on Richey. (Cleo was my mom's sister).

It was a long day but SO rewarding.  And Jerri held up through it all.  In fact, when we visited her again the next day, she just kept talking about what a great time she had.  Why were we back in Mesa on Saturday?  Well, to pick up Julina who arrived in the morning for a week-long visit.  A birthday present for me and a nice, relaxing break from her crazy life for her.  We picked her up, dropped off my finished Days for Girls bags, bought her breakfast at a Waffle House, and then went to see Amy.  My sister, Juli, drove down from Payson for the visit.  She and I played our "O Come, O Come Emmanuel: duet (the first of many performances).  We visited Jerri. We ate lunch with Amy and family. And then we all parted ways.  Amy and Cory have inherited a tortoise named Spike and Amy's granddaughters, Ava and Sophie were over to visit him (they live next door).  (Sophie has the curly hair)

Sunday was my 63rd birthday.  I had a lovely day.  We cooked a Thanksgiving dinner, complete with pumpkin cheesecake.  I got to talk to all seven of my children (well, I had to visit with Beckie on Monday morning).   "happy birthday to me, I'm now sixty-three"

p.s.  we put our "tree" up and I finished my decoupage project.  (thankfully, the photo doesn't show  the wrinkles)

Second full week in November

I am failing at picture taking!  There were a few events this week that could have had a photo.  Sigh...

Steve had two milestones this week post-back surgery:  he had his first physical therapy visit yesterday and he rode his bike twice this week.  

We bid farewell to Elder and Sister Brown this week as their missionary service came to a close.  They are residents of Phoenix so they won't be moving away, just moving on to other activities.  We had a carry-in lunch on Monday which gave me a chance to try out a gluten-free gooey butter cake.  It was delicious.  Here is a photo of us all...

back row:  President Collins, Elder Harris, Elder Poulson, me, Steve

middle row:  Sister Collins, Sister Harris, Sister Poulson, Elder Baggiore

seated:  Sister Brown, Elder Brown

Steve and I watched the second movie on the DVD that also featured Man of La Mancha (see last week).  It was The Fantasticks.  This particular version was filmed in 1995 but not released until 2000.  The leading woman was also in Mr. Holland's Opus (Jean Louis Kelly who played Rowena).  Steve and I enjoyed watching the movie and we have decided that the next time it is offered as a play nearby, we will go see it.  It has some beautiful songs.

On Friday, we took my cousin, Kay Winfield, to dinner.  We checked out Dillons KC Bar-b-que and it was pretty tasty - almost as good as Lonnie Rays.  And, unlike Famous Daves BBQ, they were very gluten-free friendly even down to offering a crust-less cheese cake on their dessert menu.  Our time with Kay would have been a good photo op  :/ .

My sister, Juli, was down from Payson on Friday to take some friends to the airport.  She then came up to Anthem to stay overnight.  Saturday morning, we did some shopping at the Arrowhead Mall and in the afternoon, we three did baptisms at the temple.  It was a nice, relaxed visit and it was fun to have her here.  Another missed photo op!

Our friends down the street, Janet and George, had us over for dinner Saturday night.  George grilled some Korean marinated beef (his mother's recipe) and Janet made delicious sides and a gluten-free apple crisp with tons of pecans on top for dessert.  It was all just yummy and it was fun to catch up because we are all so busy.  Janet teaches full-time and plays tennis in tournaments all over the valley.  George works in the temple and often goes over to Hawaii to help some of their kids or to work on some property that they recently bought.  Steve and I also loved getting to pay attention to their cute Westie, Mochi.

Our seminary house needs some religious pictures so I ordered a large Karl Bloch print from church distribution but it came unframed.  I walked over to Deseret Industries and found a canvas that had someone's modern art painted on it.  My plan is to paint over it in a dark green and then modge podge the Bloch painting over it.  Below is my plan.  I'll post the finished result once it is done.

I have a few other projects also in the works - I need to do some Finale transcriptions for a musical number coming up on Dec. 8th, I have Alice's Christmas dress almost finished and Larkin and Lucy's dresses still to cut out and sew - my goal is to have them finished by December 1st, and I have some Days for Girls bags to sew up.  I need to wrap Christmas gifts and get them in the mail the week after Thanksgiving.  I have gluten-free pecan and pumpkin pies to make for Thanksgiving up in Payson.  I will have a turkey and pumpkin cheesecake to make for my birthday next Sunday.  And, by the third week in December, I will have made 20 dozen sugar cookies for the mission home Christmas celebrations for the missionaries.  I am certainly NOT going to be bored through December!