?!?Enjoying?!? the Arizona Heat

It sounded like a very hot idea and it turned out to be an extremely hot experience when we took a trip to Arizona in August. We saw the thermostat register 115 degrees a couple of times, but I was slow on the draw and could only capture a reading a couple of degrees lower. But, by the time it reaches 113 outside, what's a couple more degrees anyway? HOT IS HOT!!!!


We have now become official Isaksen family wedding stalkers. Six years ago to the day, we were in California attending Heather's wedding. More recently we went to Idaho for Brittany's wedding and now here we went to Arizona for Darin's wedding. It was nice to meet his sweet bride, Lisa, and to participate in the family dinner the night before the wedding day.




How great for the Isaksen family to all be together in one spot and have a family photo taken.


We were looking forward to attending a temple session at the Mesa Arizona Temple after the 9 a.m. wedding ceremony.




It's always such a fun thing to see the newlyweds come out of the temple and pose for pictures.






Debbie shares my "love" of hot weather (both of us wondering why anyone would actually want to live there...) and was trying to cool off herself and her grandkids by sharing capfuls of chilled bottled water with them.


The reception was very nice and we enjoyed visiting with all of the Isaksen family one last time before we all went our separate ways.





We definitely didn't let the heat get the best of us.

Making Rolls

When Jeff and Sarah came up recently for a visit, Sarah insisted we have a roll-making class. She chose to make regular dinner rolls with her batch of dough and Rebecca wanted to make cinnamon rolls. Jeff and Brooke got in on a little of the action.










Here are some photos of other things that went on during that weekend.






This last set of photos is of the Excell family.











We're so glad they came up to spend a few days with us and we always love it when Rebecca's family joins in the fun whenever someone comes to town.

Fun Times With the Folks

We had a couple of fun weekend date nights with Dad and Mom in Ogden. The first one was the Youth Spectacular at Weber State University put on by 3,500 youth.






Nani and Jan had been busy for many months making the costumes for their group of kids. These are their costumes.



I loved the end when they had the full-time missionaries march into the center of all those kids as they were singing "Called to Serve" and then everyone held up a copy of the Book of Mormon.


Another touching part was when all the kids turned and walked towards the huge banner of Christ that was rolled down at the other end of the field. They were holding up their small lights as they walked in the darkness to Christ.



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Our other fun fling with the folks was when we went to the Ogden Rodeo for our Pioneer Day celebration.








There really should be a law banning all the rodeo spectators from wearing cowboy hats. This is how annoying it is for people who are sitting behind cowboy-hat wearers. Can't see much of anything going on down on the dirt, that's for sure.


Now here's some irony--the guy in front of me left his cowboy hat ON all night long and he had his cowboy boots OFF during the whole rodeo. Looks to me like cowboy boots make a great water bottle holder.


At the end of the rodeo, they did some motocross stuff. The guys would jump off the lift and do different tricks in the air before landing on the truck ramp. My favorite was the Superman where the rider would only be holding onto the handlebars and his body would be flying out straight behind him, not even touching the bike at all. Crazy stuff!!!



Thanks a bunch, Mom and Dad, for showing us a great time both of those evenings!!!

This Means I Love You

Brooke puts the "olive" in Olive Garden.



Brooke said, "Look Grandpa! This means I love you!"


Glen was so happy that Brooke used the olive sign language to sign to him what he always signs to her.