Me's Trip to Utah

I (Me) flew up to Utah for a few days mid October for a conference and to visit some friends.

Beautiful view of the Grand Canyon!

Janae, a friend from church, picked me up at the airport. We ate lunch and visited a bit before I drove to Ogden to meet up with Noelle, a friend from Anasazi who I had not yet met in real life, and her daughter Elizabeth. We went out for a yummy dinner at Hug-Hes and then drove through Ogden city center. Ogden High School looks like a castle and is listed on the National Registrar of Historic Places. We also saw the Egyptian Theater and city hall. The temple is beautiful. We even got out of the car (and froze!) in order to see the glasswork up close. We stayed up late visiting and we were able to chat some the next morning before she went to work. It was fun to talk about missions (Noelle served in Bordeaux so we have French speaking missions in common). Elizabeth taught me a lot about linguistics!

The temple theme is roses.

A couple pictures of Noelle and Me. The picture in the background is a bridge in Bordeaux.

The next morning, I was able to meet James and Becca! It was so cool to see them. We had a delightful visit. Since it was a bit chilly outside, we met at Barnes and Noble. James loves books so he was happy pulling lots of book off of the shelves and looking at them. He is quite the little talker and he mimics what others say a lot. Becca said that a few months ago, he was adding 10+ words to his vocabulary every day. He loves Bluey and Bluey's sister Bingo, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Pajama Time and lots of other books. James says/sings the alphabet a lot, always saying "Z!" with great gusto. Becca says he has started pointing out letters places which is so fun. I enjoyed getting to know Becca better. She is an excellent mom and it's obvious James loves her a lot.

James running across the stage.

James and Becca reading.

A few photos of James.

Me and James

We got lunch at Red Robin.

Becca and James

Me, Becca and James

I drove back down to Orem. Janae and I went out to Cubbys where we got salads for dinner. I was able to see her in the show "Flowers for Mrs. Harris" where she played Violet Butterfield, the best friend of Mrs. Harris, as well as the French Char Lady in Paris. In the Paris portion of the play, a lot of the lines were in French which was fun for me! It was a cute play that had good messages about the importance of friendship and kindness.

Me and Janae after the show.

Thursday, Janae and I put together this puzzle.

Cindy the cat. She slept a lot but could be very loud at times.

We ate lunch at Maglebys. I had halibut which was delicious. I also had some yummy sweet potato fries.

Me with the Wolverine at UVU.

We went to the Roots of Knowledge stained glass mural at UVU. It was so interesting! The docents were very helpful and full of information.

Who do you see there? If you said Stephen Sharp Nelson (cello) and Jon Schmidt (harpsichord), you are correct. There are lots of little Easter Eggs like this throughout the stained glass mural.

Thursday evening, I went to the keynote address of the Repair Conference with Jim Ferrell. He spoke about how everything is relational and how evaluating the space between the people gives a good framework for how to work on relationships. Friday and Saturday, I attended four workshops about peacebuilding. They were really good with lots of practical skills and mindset shifts. Definitely a lot to think about!

Chad Ford posing with his photorealistic iceberg. His class on Dangerous Love was really good!

Beautiful sunrise Saturday morning

Provo City Center Temple

After the conference was over on Saturday, Janae and I got dinner at Bianca's French bakery. They had yummy food! The next morning, I headed out early to fly home.

Beautiful view of the mountains on flight home.

Flying into Phoenix from the west, Me could see the Footprint Center, Chase Field and the Arizona Science Center.

Some artwork at the Phoenix Airport Art Museum.

December Happenings 2024

 December is always a busy month between the end of the semester and Christmas festivities. Ours started out with a nice visit from Grandmo and Grandpo.

Megan's reaction to the possibility of seeing her kindergarten teacher over break.

Matthew's social studies project on cuneiform.

Megan's social studies project on hieroglyphics.

Between the projects, backpacks and instruments, it was a crowded car on the way to school.

Megan and some friends participated in the gingerbread house building at school. They were told their castle looked like Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Megan and Matthew had their first robotics competition.

Megan and Matthew with their class

The principal Mrs. Cook came to support the team.
Mila, Sean, Garik, Grady, Mrs. Cook, Matthew

Diego, Mila, Megan and Alex with the robot of Megan and Matthew's team. (Diego and Mila are also on their team.)

Ethan S, Adam, Ethan K and Matthew with the robot of Ethan S and Adam's team.

Bogle vs Bogle in the round of 16! (They are the 38247 teams.)

The Bogle vs Bogle match.

We helped with a food drive for AZCEND at Diamond Lake in Sun Lakes. They had luminaries lining the edge of the lake and people decorated their backyards. It was very beautiful! And we got a ton of food!

Me got a birthday present from Sarah. It was very pretty!

Melinda's cousin Jessie was in town for work and so came over for dinner one evening. It was great to see her!

Me and Jessie headed to downtown Chandler to check out the Tumbleweed Tree and other decorations.

Jessie and Me

Sarah came to our house for a short visit since she was in the area. It was good to see her.

Sarah showing the stocking Grandmo made for Lionheart. I love the lion and heart at the top of the stocking.

Megan, Sarah and Matthew posing in front of the tree. The younger two were trying to recreate their younger years.

Champion and Lionheart came to pick up Sarah. Champion and Sarah went on a walk and left us with Lionheart which was amazing. We gave him a tour of the house and fed him a bottle.

Lionheart and Grandma

Lionheart and Grandpa

Lionheart and Matthew. Matthew really enjoyed being around Lionheart and talking to him.

Matthew successfully took his last peanut oral immunotherapy dose and can now free eat peanut!!! Such a huge thing. (And so many trips to the allergist for the OIT!) He does need to continue to eat at least 8 peanuts per day.

The patient table in the room was super wobbly. Matthew offered to fix it while we waited the requisite one hour after he ate his dose of peanuts. (He had 12 peanuts at home when he got up in the morning and 12 more at the allergist.) They couldn't find a screwdriver but did find a drill which Matthew was super excited about using.

Matthew fixing the table.

Matthew reading a book to pass the time. He still chooses lots of strange reading positions.

Megan and Matthew built and decorated a Haunted House.

They were proud of the roof....

And the gravestone.

Matthew was pictured (as Stumpy) on our friends' Christmas card.

Artemis enjoying her bone.

U, Megan, Matthew and Me enjoying our Jeremiah's.

We did a lot of baking and cooking. This teaspoon measurer was a casualty.

Grandma and Grandpa Martin stopped by to wish Megan a Merry Christmas.

Me finished her nativity puzzles. She really enjoyed doing them every day.

Megan and Matthew playing Napoléon in Europe with Ethan and Sean Kirkham. It was a loooong game. They spent around 12 hours over 2 days playing it.

Megan and Matthew with the latest assembled Hack Pack: laser guns! They are pretty cool. When you get shot, the lenses rotate so you cannot see anything through them.

We went to Zoolights which was enjoyable as usual.

Megan, Matthew and Me with big leaves near the entrance.

Pretty strings of LED lights.

I really liked the sea turtle and coral.

Unfortunately, Megan, Matthew and U got eaten by a shark.

Matthew, Me and Megan with a jelly.

Megan loved this color-changing dragon.

Me, Matthew, Megan and U with flowers.

Me loved the hummingbirds with moving wings.

We finished the Exit Advent Calendar game. This is what the game looked like at the end. And yes, it really was supposed to be disassembled like this. It definitely felt good knowing that we had saved Christmas.

Our prize: postcards to send to people letting them know we saved Christmas.

Front of the postcards. There are scenes from some of the rooms as well as some general pictures of the game.

The reassembled room section where you can see the 24 rooms.

We did the Holiday Yum Box.

James with his Christmas present from us. The engineer training has begun! Ha ha!