Sledding; Aunt Della's Funeral; Spencer's Ordination; Abe, Newland and Wynne Ski Utah

The snow has fallen. A lot. I mean a really lot. Tons and tons of snow. All winter long. So why not take advantage of the winter snow activities in Utah??

That's what Rebecca's and Ben's families decided to do one day. They went sledding at the golf course with Dallas as the photographer. He captured some great moments.

My Aunt Della Ward passed away. We drove to Idaho to go to her funeral. She has now joined her husband Joe (my Dad's brother) in heaven. 

It was a beautiful funeral service and made the drive up there on a snowy day very worthwhile as we got to see a lot of our cousins and aunts and uncles. 

Spencer wanted his Grandpa to ordain him a deacon, so we enjoyed that special experience with the Golden family. 

The grandchildren gathered around Glen one day when he was practicing the piano so they could marvel at his piano-playing skills. 

He has been amazing at doing his daily practicing and has progressed all the way through his first song book. We bought a simplified Hymnbook to add to his playing repertoire as well. 

Jan was at it again inviting our group of friends to their home for dinner. 

This time she had Bill pick up some Chinese food from one of their favorite restaurants. It was yummy and always a treat to get together with friends for good food.

We had some other gatherings with our friends. One time we met at the movie theater to watch "A Man Called Otto" which was so good. I had read the book and that helped enhance the movie experience.

A couple of weeks ago Kossins invited us to their home for pizza and a movie. They have a lovely home theater in their basement where we watched "Top Gun: Maverick." 

Glen and I had seen that movie before, but Glen was all in about watching that movie again. For me, once was enough. At the end of the evening, Bruno asked how I liked it and I commented that my favorite kinds of movies are the ones where there is conversation and calmer and quieter without all the chase and shooting scenes. 

Well, my wish for that kind of movie happened the very next week when Kossins planned for our friend group to meet at Mandarin Restaurant for dinner and then a movie afterward at their home.

We watched "Jerry and Marge Go Large" and it was a delightful, funny movie. Way more to my liking, that's for sure. The whole group loved it, too. Glen was even talking about it the next day. 

We had a dinner night with Glen's sisters Barbara and Rich and Maurine and Ray at Maddox. I was glad the weather cooperated for us to drive to Brigham City that evening. 

Look who came to town: Abe, Newland and Wynne!! They came to Utah for a ski trip and this is definitely the perfect winter for skiing with all the snow we have gotten. 

It snowed during several of the nights they were here so they had fresh powder in the mornings when they arrived at Brighton Ski Resort.

We were very happy to finally be able to pick them up at the airport because their flight kept having delays. They had big plans for the evening and we were hoping everything would work out despite their much-later-than-scheduled arrival. 

Newland was anxious to watch some of the BYU ball game with Glen and was able to do that while they ate their dinner from their favorite restaurant: Cafe Rio. 

It was a quick meal because they had tickets to see the play "The Little Mermaid" at Hale. They agreed with the rest of us that it was quite a magnificent production. 

The next morning they met up with Klarissa's father, Mike Jackson, to go to the Sunday morning performance of "Music and the Spoken Word" at the Tabernacle on Temple Square.

When we got home from the prison, we got busy preparing Sunday dinner. Wynne insisted on helping peel the whole big bag of carrots. She was a good little helper.

Abe took his kids to see Sarah's new home and she fed them all lunch. They were back here to eat Sunday dinner with us and Rebecca's, Sarah's and Ben's families. 

Then of course we had to gather around the table to play games while the cousins had play time together in the basement. Sarah taught us a fun new dice game.

Natalie had come up from Provo to have dinner with us. We thought it would be a good idea if she braided Wynne's hair so she would be ready for skiing early the next morning. 

Ben's family spent the week at a cabin at Brighton. Haley's family was having a family reunion there. Ben thought it would be nice to have some ski time with Abe, so they planned for Abe's visit to coincide with the reunion ski resort week. 

Mike Jackson had flown out to spend time on the slopes as well. He stayed at Klarissa's brother Morgen's home. 

Wynne went to ski school in the mornings, they all had lunch together and then skied together the rest of the day. This was their schedule Monday and Tuesday. 

Abe shared some videos of Wynne skiing down the mountain. She was doing amazingly well by the end of the week.

We tried to get in as much cousin time as possible while Abe was in town. 

Wednesday was Grandma day with Wynne. Abe felt like Wynne would need a break from skiing and they wanted to ski hard all day that day. 

She was happy to stay home for the day and had been eying the markers. She started her day using the markers to make the most colorful rainbow to give to Sarah for her birthday card. 

I got out the coloring books and work books that I have had forever in the cupboard to see what might catch her attention. She started out with the tracing book and got busy creating some cute characters.

Then she really got hooked on using another book which showed her how to use shapes to free-hand draw characters that had silly captions with each one. 

She drew one after another after another...all day long. 

We got her to take a drawing break when we took her to Costco. Once back home, she picked up right where she left off.

She was determined to draw every character and then make a book out of them. 

 

Sarah had told me the day before that their family would not be joining us that evening for dinner because Jeff was going to fix a nice birthday dinner for her.

Well...she called on her birthday and said their day was super crazy busy, and she needed to pick up rental skis in Bountiful for her and Eli, and wondered if they could just come here for dinner. 

Sarah had made herself some birthday brownies to share.

Jeff made some homemade ice cream to go with the brownies. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to SARAH!!!!

Abe is a very persuasive individual and managed to talk Sarah into pulling Eli out of school to enjoy his last day of his skiing vacation with them. 

Sarah has been a snowboarder, but decided she wanted to try skiing. This was Eli's first time on the slopes. At the end of the day, I asked him if he would want to go skiing again and he said yes, so that was good.

Well, the ski trip came to a close and the out-of-towners were on their way back to North Carolina. It had been so fun to have them here and hear of their daily skiing adventures.

Dad has been needing help with his computer, so we went there to help him and then they wanted to take us to dinner. Chick-fil-A, I am learning, is a restaurant Mom really loves. Glen has always loved that restaurant, so he is always happy to go there.

This isn't Glen's usual Chick-fil-A happy face because he said I didn't give him enough time to clear his mouth for the photo.

We had the sweetest visit last night from Ben's family. 

Kade walked in carrying this beautiful flower arrangement and had the happiest, smiling face as he presented the flowers to me. What a cutie!

Haley does wedding photography and sometimes she is given a flower arrangement at the end of the celebration. 

I was so happy she wanted to share this one with me. It is our anniversary/Valentine's Day month after all. Flowers are perfect!!