Newport Rhode Island

We arrived in Providence, Rhode Island for our fall trip!  We have been so looking forward to this getaway!  We arrived two days before Skylar and Sarah and Brach and Kendra.

I sat next to a lady on the plane who is from RI and said we should get over to Wickford.  We DID drive there and enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the coast.  Afterward, we stopped at a restaurant called Wickford on the Water and had dinner.  I had an amazing bowl of chicken and orzo soup and and wonderful fall salad with butternut squash and pomegranates.  Rick got a bowl of clam chowder with garlic bread.

Good Stuff!

We stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Kings Town got a good night's rest then drove over the Jamestown and Newport Bridges to find ourselves in lovely Newport.

We rented a couple of bikes and rode around the coast!  It was SUPER fun and beautiful!

We stopped at the Rosecliff mansion and took a tour of it.

We had such fond memories of the times before when we've come but this time seemed a little lackluster.  Mostly because the dining room and bedrooms were not fully decorated in the gilded age style like they were before.  It was a nice enough stop, though.

After turning our bikes back in we met up with a small group for a food tour.

The food tour was very enjoyable.

Our first stop was at the Jamaican Hummingbird restaurant.

We got a piece of jerk chicken (served with hot sauce)  and some fried plantains.

I forgot to take a picture:(

but the dish was very good

Our next stop was Leo's a Central American market and restaurant.  

We had a carnitas taco (again I forgot to take a picture but got a picture of the meat on our way out.

It was served in a double corn tortilla, street taco style, with a radish and cilantro with hot sauce.

It was delish!

Next we stopped at the Nitro Bar coffee shop.

The others in the group loved the coffee that they got and we loved the bruschetta that was brought out!

It was a sourdough piece of bread served with pesto, fresh burrata, and tomatoes with a balsamic drizzle.

So yummy!  

Next was Perro Salado a Mexican place.

We were served a sweet based rib with cooked onions and cilantro on top.

It was good.  I felt a little bugged at this place because when we first got there all of the drinkers in the group were served a beautiful cocktail and we got nothing!  Rick asked if we could have a virgin drink and the guide blew us off like it was too much trouble.  When reserving the tour I specifically let them know that we are non drinkers.  Usually a food tour will make provisions for that...but not this one.

We did get some water though!🙄

Our next stop was Mother's Pizza.

The group was also served drinks but this time we were able to get a small drink, as well.

I think she could tell that I was peeved at the last stop.

Anyhoo, the drink was interesting.  It reminded me of something that we would have at Christmastime.

Warm (not really but you know what I mean!) and fuzzy!

Then a wood fired pizza was brought out and it was very good!

Out last stop was at Yagi Noodles.

The ramen was Rick's favorite!  It had a peanut flavor mixed with asian spices.

Our group voted this as their favorite food.  It was really yummy!  

Rick said, "Man, I coulda had a whole bowl of that!

While on our tour our guide stopped at different places to tell us the history of the area. 

 It was interesting to learn about.

This building here is the White Horse Tavern.  It is the oldest tavern in the US built in 1673.

 After our tour was over we headed out towards Hartford CT.  We stopped at a farm store that we passed because the flowers and pumpkins were so inviting!  Rick took a minute nap while I perused for at least five minutes.  HAHA!

                                                  I mean wouldn't this draw YOU in??                            

I've never seen a yellow pumpkin before and I thought it looked really fun!  I bought six ears of beautiful corn on the cob...they really were beautiful!  We'll cook them up for one of our meals together with the kids. 

We overnighted at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Hartford.  We were so surprised that there was a Capital Grill right across the street.  We most likely would have eaten there if not the fact that we ate there for my birthday and are going back for Rick's in just another week or so.  AND I looked it up and found that there are more than seventy Capital Grills throughout the nation.  We were shocked!  We thought it was just a Salt Lake thing.

The next morning we drove over to the Hartford Temple and went through session.  It felt so good to be there.  The emotions his after stepping into the Celestial Room.  It is such a good feeling to be in such a room!

On to Massachusetts and meet up with our kids!!

Grandkids Halloween Party Part II

The night after the littles' party we had the older kids over for their party.

We had a lot of fun things planned for the night, but it seems like we didn't have enough time for everything.  We started out with dinner.  Kendra helped to make a spider breadstick dish filled with marinara sauce.  She also helped to make ghost skewers with cheese, olives, and marshmallows.

I made some homemade meatballs and we also prepared some veggie sides.

It was all very yummy.  The meatballs got all eaten up!

Grandpa made his signature root beer and it was goooood!

We sat around the table telling funny jokes and laughed a lot!

Next we went outside, and the kids had fun running around.  Grandpa pulled out his lighted rockets and we all took turns shooting them up in the air and catching them. We were waiting for the sun to go down so we could spend time at the fire pit and begin our night pumpkin hunt.

Here they are posing in the yard!

As the sun went down the girls decided to climb the tree for a picture!

We made s'mores and grandpa told a scary story around the fire.  

The girls (mainly Scout) got a little scared until he got to the end and we laughed at the funny ending!

After it got completely dark we sent the kids out with flashlights for a pumpkin hunt.  Grandpa (and Eric) had hidden little pumpkins all around the yard.  They each could find two.  Henry was the lagger and took the longest, but after he found his we all went inside to get the prize bags.  

After that it was shower/baths and new jammies time!

Rafe  has grown out of the pajama stage and just likes sweats so I bought him a t shirt that says "all the ghouls love me".  He liked it!

They all look so cute and wanted to do a silly picture! 

Sure do love these monkeys!

Afterwards we went downstairs where grandpa had already started the movie,

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.  Henry and Haivyn pulled out the game Clue and also played that during the night.  I was hoping that we could all play, but by that time I was tired and sat in the massage chair to watch the movie and promptly fell asleep.  I woke up and the movie had ended, but grandpa had started the Harry Potter movie (at Scout's insistent request).  

 Charles and Scout had fallen asleep, but the others were wide awake at 11:30.  We finally got everyone settled for the night and gratefully got into our beds.  By the time I woke up the next morning Grandpa had gotten most the kids out the door for Saturday sports games.  

It was a fun night with our cute monsters!  We love this tradition!  Until next year....

Grandkids' Halloween Party Part I

Last Thursday night, September 26th we had the first of two Halloween parties with our grandkids.  We 

had it a little early because October is plumb full and I wanted to make sure the kids had their Halloween PJ's to wear throughout the season.

We started out with a spooky dinner board.

I had bat chips and salsa, deviled pumpkin eggs, apple slices, cheese nips, cheddar bugles, hot dog mummies and oreo spiders.  We had a peach drink to whet our whistles.  

The kids loved choosing the fun things to eat!

WE LOVE THSES KIDDOS!

 

DESERET PEAK TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE

This past week has been really special!

Rick and I have been serving on the Tooele Valley Communications Council for just about a year now.  In that calling we have been working with the business, government, and interfaith leaders in Grantsville.

There are eight couples serving on this committee, and we each have different faiths that we have been working with in the Tooele Valley.  The directors of our group are Brent and Alexis Beazer from Erda.

Rick and I have been attending four different denominations this past year.  We attend services with Grantsville's First Baptist Church, the Shepherd's House in Lakepoint, San Felipe Catholic Church in Wendover and Mountain View Baptist Church in Grantsville.  We have been trying to build bridges of friendship with each of the church leaders.   After just a few months of attending the Mountain View Baptist Church the leaders approached Rick (I was out of town) and asked us to not come anymore.  We felt really bad about that but of course, wanted to do what they asked of us.  We still miss the members of their congregation but have been able to keep good relations with the pastors...just not at their church meetings.  

We have been readily accepted by The First Baptist Church and The Shepherd's House and their congregants.  We love to attend and have grown quite close with the some of the members.

We have only attended the Wendover Catholic Church a few times but are still working on building trust and friendship with the Father there.

Well, the past couple of months we have been working at inviting the interfaith, business, and government leaders to the Deseret Peak Temple Open House.  We had many people accept the invitation and actually come!  We were so happy about that!

We first went to the Construction Day Open House for all of those who worked on the temple.

We met up on Saturday for that and ended up spending half of the day there.

We were able to walk through the temple and get a view of all of the beautiful rooms!

Here is a picture of our TVCC group.

The first row is Jolynn Wilson, Colleen Johnson, me, Alexis Beazer, Brent Beazer, Maresa Manzione and Melanie Hammer.

The second row is Tom Wilson, Bob Johnson, Rick, Melanie Thompson,  Dave Manzione and Jeff Hammer.

The top row is Josh Spaulding, Heidi Spaulding, Todd Thompson, and Rich Butler (the secretary of our council).

These people are pretty amazing!  They are the cream of the crop and we are so blessed to be able to be working with them on the TVCC!

We started the invited guest portion of the Open House on Monday September 23rd.  I started in the morning, but Rick worked that day and didn't arrive till 4:00 pm.

We arrived by 9 am and kind of hung back during the Media Tour. which took place at 11am.  Next was the influencer/social media tour which started at 1pm.  During the morning we didn't have a lot to do so we spent a lot of the time getting to know each other better.  We have worked together for a whole year but really haven't spent a lot of time getting to know each other personally.  It was just great to get to know some on the council a bit better.  Now I need to make the effort to get to know the others in the coming weeks.

At 4pm that day the invited guests started coming in full force.  We each worked together at the check in desk, the reception, and following on the tours.  We were scheduled to follow the Granstville Stake Presidents and their wives on the tours that they were leading.  Sometimes we had to fill in when others needed help.  Between Monday and Wednesday I went on eleven tours and Rick went on twelve.  He was able to help in translating (Spanish) on two different tours.

While we had many people come on Tuesday, our most special day was Wednesday when our interfaith leaders were scheduled.  The Mountain View Pastors, Ron Ehmann and his wife Wendy and Bob Toomer and his wife Penny agreed to come to the Open House.  We were thrilled that they accepted the invitation!  Bob invited an old friend of his, Nathan Anderson who is a member of the Church, to join us.

I was surprised that they did not ask many question while on the tour.  I felt like they would have a lot but they stayed pretty quiet most of the time.  I hope they came away with better feelings towards us and The Church in general.  The tour took so long that we could not join them in the reception area for very long but had to get on the next scheduled tour when our First Baptist friends came in.

Right from the get go we had a great time with them.  Those who came were Scot McCord, the associate pastor, his wife Tiffani, their son Shawn and Scot's mother Eve Kee and Tiffani's mother, Linda Smith.  Tiffani was full of love and hugs for me and so many others.  She is a socialite and knows many people in the area.  Rick stayed with Eve (Tiffani's mother in law) and gave her his arm for most of the tour.  Scot and Tiffani pretty much stayed together with Shawn and Linda.

One special thing that happened was when we were in the celestial room.  We were asked not to talk while we were in there and we would express any thoughts or feelings when we got to the next room; one of the sealing rooms.  As we were exiting the celestial room I reached over to Eve and gave her a hug and told her I loved her.  She told me she loved me and looked me into the eye and said, "my daughter."

I thought that was really sweet, especially because when we first met months ago, she seemed a little wary of "the Mormons'" intentions in attending their congregation.  I am so glad we are past that and she knows that we are just trying to build bridges of friendship with them.  It was cute because she lovingly called me her daughter one more time in the reception room after the tour.

Here we are with the Mountain View Baptist Pastors and their wives.  From left to right we have Wendy and Ron Ehmann, Penny and Bob Toomer, Nathan Anderson (Bob's friend) and me and Rick.

Rick and me by the front flower garden.

Scot and Tiffani McCord

Scot and his mother Eve Kee

                From left to right we have Linda, Tiff, Scot, Eve, Shawn, me and Rick.

 After the tour we all went into the reception area and had some refreshments.  We talked and laughed and planned another get together in the near future.  All in all it was an amazing and joyful experience to be involved with the Invited Guest Special Tour.  We were exhausted after 13 hour days for 3 days straight, but we would love to do it all again in a heartbeat!  

We will remember this special event for many years to come!  The temple open house is scheduled to run until October 19th and then be dedicated on November 10th.  It's so exciting to have such a magnificent temple so close to us.  We are so blessed!  We already feel such a love for this beautiful, holy temple right here in our valley!