Celebrating Owen's Birthday Early

Happy Birthday to Owen!!

.

Since Owen and Megan were at our house, 

we decided to celebrate his birthday early.

We had a DELICIOUS dinner (thanks to Megan's recipe) which tasted a lot like the Pork Salad from Cafe Rio, and rootbeer floats!

Here are the highlights...

HAPPY  BIRTHDAY  OWEN !!!

We had a GREAT trip to Arizona visiting Karen and Danny!!

We went to the Olive Mill, shopping, out to Sushi and Bahama Rama Mama's.

We went swimming at the Bush's and really appreciated their hospitality.

Here are some pictures of our fun.

(After posting these pictures,...I realized that ALL the pictures are of Bennett!!  

I guess he was the star of the trip.)

Isn't that what grandkids do though?...Steal the show!

 Bennett LOVES my smoothies!!!

Just couldn't get enough!

Makes grandma SO happy!

Ariel's Wedding Day

Ariel Lovett married Ryan Chaffin today in the Redlands Temple!!

 Kathy and Kylie...Best of friends!!!

Love them both!

Just had to throw in this picture of my roses.

I LOVE roses!!

FINALLY getting the ceiling fixed!

Probably about 20, YES, TWENTY, years ago, we began having a water leak from the upstairs bathroom down to our dining room area. It started with kids having fun and splashing water out of the tub. It was so minor that we just assumed it would stop once we insisted that the water stay INSIDE the tub. Then over time, it would leak occasionally. We called a plumber and got the leak fixed, so we thought. Well, over the years, the leak has gone away and come back caused by various problems that we would get fixed. The ceiling though was in need of repair and so last week after TWENTY years, we had the ceiling repaired and the plumber out again!

Then Rich and I got busy painting! Here are the pictures.

Then, of course we did the walls which I was too busy to even think of taking pictures of.

But we LOVE the result and I'm so grateful for a friend who is a genius with colors and actually made the recipe of the perfect taupe color.

Last night we got some strong men to help move our piano back in and so the room is beginning to be livable.

Luckily, I have Kathy coming home tomorrow and she can help me decide where to hang the pictures and you know how one thing leads to another, I think I will change our curtains now.

:)

Easter at Stephanie and Jay's new house

We had a very fun time celebrating Easter at Stephanie and Jay's new house!

Their house is GORGEOUS!!

We ate a delicious dinner in the backyard on this beautiful day.

I felt like I was in the mountains with the tall trees and the smell of pine filling the air.

We were fortunate to have arrived early so I snapped a few photos before other guests arrived.

Love her kitchen!

And backyard!!

Denise and Phil seem to find their niche serving the food !

:)

Good food and nice friends and family!

So happy to have been invited!

2012 Trip to the Virgin Islands!

Our trip to the Virgin Islands was really a vacation where you feel like you have stepped off the world and gone someplace so remote that you are totally away from everything. This first picture is from our motel room where we stayed our first night before getting on our boat.

Here are a couple pictures of St. Thomas Island on our first day. After this, we were without TV, computers, telephones, emails, facebook, etc.

We boarded our 35' sailboat and this is what we saw our first 2 nights on the boat.

The little splashes that you can barely see are those made by baby dolphins!!

These next pictures are out of order, but on one of the days we found ourselves in the middle of a sailboat race! It was very exciting and we tried to stay out of everyone's way. They go SO fast!!

Whew!! Made it through without hitting any!

We did a lot of snorkeling at places that looked like this.

It was like swimming in someone's tropical aquarium.

We saw dolphins, turtles, stingrays, and lots of small colorful fish...

okay, I guess people really don't have dolphins and turtles in their aquariums.

We sailed over to the British Virgin Islands and saw very exclusive, beautiful beaches. It seemed to be the places where you would find the rich and famous....so why are WE here??

Our boat. The Paradiso.

These rocks are called "The Indians". Known for their great snorkeling.

Beautiful sunsets.

The Captain.

We were on the boat for 10 days. Did all our own cooking on the boat, except for one night.

My memories of this vacation will be treasured forever. We did a lot of hiking, snorkeling, swimming, sailing, reading, (I read 4 books!), and relaxing. I LOVED every minute of it....well I did once we got away from the pirates on the land!