Grandma is a Clutz!!

Thursday morning at work I walking down our suite of offices and the carpet grabbed the toe of my shoe and sent me flying... I tried to break my fall landing on my left elbow and left knee. Fortunatelly none of the guys were in their offices. That saved some embarassment! whew :) I got up, gathered myself together and waited a couple of hours before I told my supervisor. I filed a worker's comp form just to be safe. It immediately felt numb and was quickly swelling.

The next day I made an appointment with the Student Health Center. They took 2 x-rays to be sure it was just a bad sprain and bruise. The Dr. said it would probably be sore for a couple of weeks. I go back again thursday for a follow up. He fitted me with a brace and it has helped. Throughout the weekend the black and blue has moved totally around my knee and leg. It is still numb, but I guess when the swelling is totally gone it will feel normal again. I am a total clutz!! I will be happy to get a good nights sleep again.

Sorry the picture turned out blurry. This wasn't even at it's height of beauty.

Mother/Daughter Vacation

This is our third mother/daughter get together in four years. Many thanks to Alyssa, Allen, Brandon and Beau for taking over household chores and child care!! :) We enjoyed eating out without little ones present.

Candace, Gavin and Landon picked Tammy up at the airport on Saturday, Aug.8th. She was so looking forward to seeing the boys especially since she had not seen Landon yet. She had a great time playing with the boys.

Sunday Laura and I arrived in the late afternoon. It was great to see Tammy. Latter Angie LeCheminant came over to visit with us, well Tammy really. We had a great visit. Angie and Tammy's stories kept us in stitches!! Poor Beau several times came into the room but turned around and left saying there was too much estrogen for him to be present!! haha! Angie and Becki Charlton are Tammy's best friends from childhood and high school.

Monday we left for St. George and our much needed "getaway". We stopped in Cedar City at a park downtown for a little picnic. We arrived too early at St. G. for check-in at the condo so we went SHOPPING at the outlet stores. They had some good bargins. After we got settled into the condo we went out to Olive Garden for dinner. Great food and great company!! Tuesday morning we made appointment with Evans Beauty School for the afternoon to have manicures and pedicures. That was fun! SANTA even came in to have his beard trimmed!! No Joke!! He was very particular how it was trimmed. He came in streeet clothes but had a picture in his wallet of him in Santa Suit. He was a little shorter than I remembered! Tuesday evening we went to Tuachan Ampitheather to see Footloose - Great Show! We got back to the condo around midnight. Wednesday we went to the mall and hit several stores. It was around 2:30 before we broke for lunch at In and Out. That evening we had a movie fest at the condo and picked up Pizza and bread sticks. That's what the girls wanted to watch a movie without children interrupting. We had a great time and another LATE night!

Thursday morning we left by 9 am and headed for Candaces'. I think she was ready to return to her home, Beau and the boys. When we got there, Beau looked like he needed some sleep. Poor guy had really been busy trying to work, watch 2 little boys and get their townhouse rented.
Laura, Tammy and I headed for Idaho and the final leg to our journey. Laura's kids were anxious to see her. Bryce, Shauna and their kids were all up to see Tammy. We all had a good visit. Tammy was so surprised how tall and grown up all the kids had gotten. Friday Tammy and I went to the BYU-I bookstore and I showed her around campus for awhile. Then she got a call from KC, Brandon's brother the hair stylist. He was ready to highlight Tammy's hair. We were there several hours. She had a good visit with KC - Stephanie came over to visit just as KC finished doing Tammy's hair. Wish I would have had my camera for all of this but forgot.
Friday evening was the Chester steak fry at the pavilion. Tammy got to see most of her Aunts and Uncles there and many old ward members.

Saturday Tammy got packed up for her return flight home and our trip back to Salt Lake. Laura, Alyssa, Lexi and I took Tammy back to SL. We stayed at the Hilton/Airport. We had a nice stay and Candace and her family came up to go swimming and visit one more time with Tammy. We all left saying we want to plan another one next year and find a new location. Let's work on that.!! LOVE YOU Girls! :) Thanks for a GREAT TIME!!





Here we are at the entrance to Tuachan Ampitheater! This was Laura and Tammy's first visit to Tuachan. We saw Footloose- great show and music!! :) The lead actor "Ren" was played by a Utah boy that was on "So you Think you can Dance". He did very well!! LOVE the outdoor
Theater!!

This had to be intermission! :) It was getting late and we were tired and silly!!

The girls were making silly faces and intertaining everyone.

Here we are at Evans Beauty School in St. George. We made an appointment for all of us the get manicures and pedicures. It was a very relaxing afternoon with some pampering!!

Ducks at the Hilton Airport

After we settled into our hotel room we looked out the sliding glass window and saw the large pond- then we saw the ducks! When we walked out to the pond they immediately started their migration over to us at the shore. It looked like a tidal wave of ducks coming. Lexi got such a kick out of feeding them especially the baby ducks. Beau decided he was going to catch one of the babies but as soon as he grabed the legs and it started screaming the mother was honking and ready to attack him. Needless to say he quickly released the duckling!!

After we fed the ducks at the pond, they followed us right to our rooms sliding glass window!

Notice the mother duck with her 11 ducklings.... HOW CUTE!!!!

We were anxious for Gavin and Landon to arrive and help feed the ducks.

Tammy visiting Chester

This picture is for Shelby!! Here is your Precious Kitty!! Good picture of Precious not so good of Brad. We had tried 3 times to get a good picture of Precious' face and she was starting to get figity! Precious is well taken care of and loved by our family.

This was a good picture of Dad with Tammy

These pictures were taken just before we left for Salt Lake to take Tammy to the airport.

This is as close to a family picture as we could get.

Cute picture of Alyssa and Tammy. Maybe next year Alyssa will be taller than Tammy!

Family Pictures

One of Dad's and my rare photos.

I had one of these with Candace and her family but must of accidently deleted it. Candace email one of those shots to me-I'm sure I took one on your camera! It was so cute with the whole family.

Candace, Gavin, Beau and Landon. What a cute Family!!

Good picture even if Lexi's eyes are closed.
Wish we could have had all the family.

Baby Bears

There were two pens of baby bears! They were so fun to watch as they played with each other.
I could have watched them all day. :)

Bear World

We went to Bear World over Father's Day weekend. It was overcast and cool with rain threatening. We did get afew rain drops but not enough to spoil our visit. :)

Petting Zoo at Bear World

These goats were so cute. This baby loved to ride it's mothers back! The baby was fun to watch as it jumped around on rocks that lined a small stream of water. They are so agile.

They had 2 baby deer. Aren't they cute! They asked us to stay 8' away so we didn't upset the mother.

I just love to take the grandkids to Bear World and the Petting Zoo! The kids reactions to walking in with the animals is so fun and they get so exceited!!

Bear World Kiddie Rides

The kids really enjoyed the rides. Thank goodness it started to get windy and rainy or we wouldn't have been able to get the kids away!

Graceland- Elvis's Home

This picture was taken at the end of the tour. We were there for quite a while. I was much like all the girls in my day growing up - rushing to every movie of Elvis's that came out!!! I am happy to be able to say that I have toured Graceland! Thanks to a lady in Tammy's ward we were able to get several free tickets. She has worked at Graceland for over 20 yrs. She has been through many of his trunks and storage items. One day she came across a Book of Mormon. Elvis had read it and underlined many passages and wrote notes in the margins. She was impressed and it lead her to investigate the church. She says Elvis was her missionary!!

The tours originate across the street and visitors are bused to the mansion for the tour.

As you entered his home you came into a foyer off to the right was this room. I can remember seeing this picture in many a magazine in Elvis's day.

I look wierd in this picture because I have my head set on. The tour is done with the headset and your own pace. I actually learned a lot about Elvis that I didn't know before. One interesting note was a benefit concert he did to raise money for the Pearl Harbor Memorial. All the proceeds from the concert went to fund the memorial. Elvis did so many things for Charity!!

This is the Memorial Garden where Elvis and his parents and grandparents are buried. It is a very nice area. People speaking all kinds of languages are heard reverently speaking and paying respects to Elvis.

Shelby's Baptism

This was a good picture of Tammy and the kids just after we got to the church. Brandon was off getting everything ready for the baptism.

Here is their family picture before the baptism. As you can see the kids have a really hard time holding still.

It was really fun to have both sets of grandparents there for Shelby's baptism. We all stayed at Brandon and Tammy's new home. It was one big sleep over!! :)

This is a picture of our nephew and part of his family. Dean and Annie Baker and daughters, Brooke and Emma. It was such a nice surprise for Tammy when they relocated from Bells, TN to Southaven, Mississippi. There is only one Ward there so Tammy gets to see them often.

Brooke and Emma often babysit for Tammy and Brandon. It has been nice for Tammy to have some family close by.

Mud Island

We took this trip six weeks ago - I am just SLOW in posting it!! Mud Island was very educational. I enjoyed visiting this island.

On Mud Island they had a map that followed the Mississippi River from it's beginning to end.

Shelby and Noah waded the river through all the states.

This picture shows the rail car that can be taken from Memphis over to Mud Island.

We drove across the bridge and parked on the Island. It was a fun visit!

From Mud Island looking back to Memphis skyline. Not far from Beale Street.

Brandon, Shelby, and Noah rode the paddle boat at Mud Island.