Lincoln's Baptism; Leftover Sunday Dinner; Jan Lawrence's Passing; St. Patrick's Day Meals; Madison Turns 9

It was a happy day for us to be able to attend Lincoln's baptism. I can't say it enough how much I love having the Excell family living a mere 20 minutes away from us. 

Can we ever get enough cuteness of the photos of Jeff and Sarah with their four boys? 

There was a gathering at Jeff and Sarah's new home after the baptism and confirmation. We were all happy to eat the delicious lunch that had been prepared for us. 

There was so much food left over that I suggested Sarah bring all the food to our home the next day and we could have leftovers for Sunday dinner. YUM!! It was a great idea!!

Natalie decided she would like to join us on Sunday.

After dinner, the grandchildren played in the basement, watched a movie and ate popcorn.

I'm sure it's no surprise to learn we had the usual crowd playing games around the kitchen table. 

Kade and Levi were having a great time admiring the rainbow-colored spots on the wall and floor caused by the light reflecting through our front door window. 

Glen and I have a regular monthly date at El Matador, and this particular day we walked in to see Dallas and Rebecca all dressed up and just finishing their meal. They had just been to the temple.

Funny thing was Glen and I had just been to the temple as well. We met Dave Ziemski there as it is his and Bonnie's most favorite restaurant. 

The last two times Dave has come by himself. Bonnie is now living in a memory care center. It has been tough on Dave to be all alone so much of the time now. 

We drove into Ogden one day to have lunch with Nani at Golden Corral. 

Glen helped Nani finish up her taxes that day as well. 

Nani's best friend of 40 years passed away the week we were in Vegas. Nani had texted us the news. Glen and I had been able to attend Jan's viewing, but not her funeral. 

I was anxious to hear about the funeral and about anything else Nani would want to share. We just love Nani so much and our hearts go out to her in her loss.

Now here's a cute photo of Monty in his St. Patrick's Day shamrock sweater. 

On St. Patrick's Day, we made a trip to Ogden for Glen to help Dad with his computer. As has become the norm--it is never a quick fix when the men are working on that project. 

I asked Mom if she would like to go with me to the grocery store to put some of that time to good use. Later, when everyone was starving because it was way past lunch time, I begrudgingly consented to go get Chick-fil-A take-out for the group. 

Can you see the giddiness on Glen's and Mom's faces as they are indulging in their most favorite meal yet once again!! I asked Dad how he feels about the meal and he says he really likes it. Three to one. I don't stand a chance.

I was looking forward to having a very nice and fun St. Patrick's Day dinner and movie with our friends that evening.

This time it was at Lane and LaVona's home. The table was set all festive in the green theme of the day.

Grant and Diane had done a nice job sprucing up their wardrobe for the occasion.

Lane and LaVona announced they are going to be serving an MLS mission in Alaska for 6 months. That was exciting for them to share with us before we had the blessing and ate the delicious food. 

We had Irish stew, corned beef sliders, cabbage salad, stuffed mushroom appetizers and this festive all-green vegetable tray. For dessert the choices were Irish shortbread cookies with mint chocolate chip ice cream or mint sorbet. 

As we sat at the table, LaVona shared with us an Irish blessing, something like "May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back ..." 

Then we each took a turn thinking up an Irish blessing for the person sitting next to us and we went around the table sharing our blessings. It was a cute idea and we had some good laughs. 

(LaVona and Lane Lewis, Colleen and Bruno Kossin, Debi and Rick Winder, 

Bill and Jan Evans, Glen and me, and Diane and Grant Stewart.)

Our after-dinner movie was "Leap Year." It was a cute, adorable, romantic comedy. The movie was filmed in Ireland, which made it fun to watch on St. Patrick's Day. I loved it!! What a fun evening!! 

The fun ended for Glen in the middle of the night. He was not feeling well at all. 

After 24 hours, he thought he would quit running to the bathroom. But no--the problem continued for days.

Interesting letter we got in the mail from the place in Las Vegas where we have stayed twice in the past month's time. 

It was informing us of some guests who have gotten Legionnaires' disease after staying there. It informed us that if we got sick within 14 days of our stay, we should get tested for the disease. 

We both fell into that category.

I started getting a sore throat the day we got home. It continued to feel scratchy and caused me to have an annoying cough, but didn't feel like it went down into my lungs like is what usually happens when I get sick. 

Then on day 9 of our getting home, Glen became ill. We read up on the disease and it says if we had pneumonia-like symptoms we should get tested. But, Google told us many more symptoms to be looking for and diarrhea was on the list. Sore throat was not on the list.

After dealing with the problem for several days, Glen decided to call the doctor to see if he could get in for a test. The doctor said he has never really treated anyone with this disease, but he read up on it while we were there, and agreed that with the information on the letter and Glen's symptoms, he would order the test. 

We were all pretty sure Glen does not have the disease, and thankfully, he has been progressing in a positive direction with his issues. Still waiting for the results of the test... After over a week now, Glen says he finally feels back to normal.

We met one of our missionaries, Sydnie Wood, at Zupas for lunch one day, and it was interesting to get her life update.

Now here are some cute photos of Kade and Levi.

And look at 9-year-old Madison on her birthday. 

Caroline decorated Madison's birthday cake to look like Madison's favorite stuffed animal named Petunia. So cute!!

Quotes of the Week

 As you prepare for General Conference I invite you to ponder questions you need to have answered...A heart filled with gratitude for the blessings of life and an earnest desire to hear and follow the words of counsel will prepare the way for personal revelation.

--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

When your greatest desire is to let God prevail, to be part of Israel so many decisions become easier. So many issues become nonissues!!!...

You know what you want to accomplish. You know the kind of person you really want to become.

--Russell M. Nelson

His invitation, "Ask and ye shall receive" does not assure that you will get what you want. It does guarantee that, if worthy, you will get what you need, as judged by a Father that loves you perfectly, who wants your eternal happiness even more than you do.

--Richard G. Scott

LAS VEGAS--BYU Basketball Games Played; Buffets; Home to Snow

 Friday morning we tried breakfast at Hash House a Go Go. 

The restaurant was very nice inside. Much nicer than the usual breakfast places we had been trying. 

Glen orders the exact same thing pretty much every morning (except the morning he ordered pancakes).

I ordered a breakfast skillet which was a very fancy presentation. 

Then it was back to The Orleans Arena to start the marathon watching of basketball games. It is so festive with the school flags hung from the ceiling all down the long hallway. 

Thankfully, we had good seats this year. One year we were on the back row with no knee room. Those were such horrible seats!!!

We watched the BYU women's team play and half of another women's team play. In the break between the women's games and the men's games we would go to an early dinner. This night we went to California Pizza Kitchen.

We hurried back to watch the BYU men's game. Hurrah--both BYU teams won that day!!!!

Well, the next day, Saturday, was great for BYU as well. Both the women's team and the men's team won again!!

That morning we ate breakfast at Golden Corral and then our main meal we ate at the Garden Buffet in the South Point Casino.

The late game that night between SCU and USF was so exciting. They ended up having two overtimes with USF finally winning.

I took a picture of my phone when the game ended. The announcer was pretty funny when he announced the first overtime. He said something funny like call your babysitter and say you will be late.  

Then when the second overtime was announced, he said we would be playing "tomorrow." He was right. We went right into Sunday to see how the game would end.

Despite the late night, we got up and went to church the next morning. 

Our one meal for the day was the buffet at the Wynn. We had to stand in line for what felt like hours. At least we got in on the brunch price which was our goal. At 3:00 they really up the price for dinner.

Monday morning we had breakfast at Broken Yolk Cafe.

We watched the women's games that day. Our team lost. SAD!!

We decided to eat at Lazy Dog later in the day. 

The hamburger and sweet potato tots were the absolute most delicious ever!!!

Then back to the men's games in the evening. "Sadly BYU lost this game as well after a valiant comeback that didn't quite come to fruition" (Quote by Glen Thomas).

Breakfast on Tuesday morning was at EGGscellent.

Glen wished we had gone back to Broken Yolk because that was his favorite breakfast all week--especially when we saw the American cheese slices on top of his omelette.

We had some time after breakfast to go back to the Bellagio to see if, by chance, they had changed out the conservatory and botanical gardens. We found out they were in the process of changing everything out to their next seasonal display. 

There was a TV showing what the new scenes will look like.

Not as great as seeing the real thing, but we did think it was quite fascinating looking at the empty canvas and marvel at all the plants and decorations that were going to soon be filling that huge empty space.

In another part of the Bellagio, we walked through an area of sculptures by the artist Richard MacDonald. 

That day was the championship games. The winning women's team was Portland.

For our dinner we went back to the Lazy Dog Restaurant because we both had loved our meal so much. So YUMMY!! One thing about that area is it is right in line for the airplanes landing at the airport. 

The first time a gigantic plane flew over us and it felt so low that I was deafened and it scared me to death wondering what was going on. 

This day I tried to capture the experience, but only small planes were landing right then. Just take my word for it that it was very unsettling.

Back to the men's game to see who would be the winner of the tournament. No surprise when it was Gonzaga. I feel like Gonzaga wins every year.

Well that brought our fun vacation week to an end. Wednesday morning we headed home to Utah. Should I say we headed home to SNOWY Utah. UGH!!

It had been nice to escape the snow for a little while.