More Summer Happenings

While it is still warm here in Utah the temperatures have been dipping a little bit so I am getting those first yearnings of fall.  Even though fall is my favorite season of the year I find myself wishing for two more months of summer weather!  I love the freedom of summertime.  Always have!

While we were in Victoria both Skylar and Henry had their birthdays.  We celebrated with Skylar the day after we got home and had dinner with family.  Sarah made up some homemade cinnamon rolls at Skylar's request and they were delish!!

Happy Birthday my TWENTY EIGHT year old son!  Your dad and I love you so much!  You have been such a blessing to us your whole life.  Thank you for being such a good person.  You and Sarah are raising a beautiful family and serving the Lord in the capacities that are asked of you.  You bring much joy to your parents!

The next day we celebrated again with lunch at Tsunami Restaurant.  

Skylar got his fair share of sushi and the littles enjoyed eating with their chopsticks!

Birthday dessert.

Energy solutions pool close on the weekend before school started so I took Kaitlyn and Alyssia and their little ones for one last swim.  This was Xavier's first time in a big pool!  He liked it!

So did Merik!

Since we were out of town for Henry's birthday celebration, Rick and I took him out on a birthday date.  He requested Chuck E Cheese so thats what we did.  He love playing on all of the arcade games and getting  tickets for a prize at the end.

                                           He beat me at air hockey!!

We sure love our Henry boy!  He is a delight to have in our home.  We will sure miss having him live in our home when he moves across the street in just a few weeks!  He won't be far, though!!

My garden is producing a lot of onions and peppers.  tomatoes not so much but I made a couple of batches of salsa to use up some of this produce!  Everyone loves it!

Another birthday!!  Our Merik boy turned ONE!  He is such an easy baby.  He hardly ever cries and is so pleasant to be around.  We love him so much!

We had a little birthday get together with cousins.  Pizza, rootbeer floats, and cake and ice cream complimented the party!  We had a little pool for the kids to get wet in and they all enjoyed playing in the water!

                                           Look at that face!!

Smash cake time!

Red frosting was EVERYWHERE!

Another trip to the Downtown Farmer's Market.  We always spend too much money here but what are markets for.  We bought a box of delicious peaches, fresh mozzarella, baguette, a loaf of country white, pastries, bath bombs, fresh lemonade, and an Italian sausage for Rick!  Oh how we love the summer market!

On Monday Rick invited me to drive to Moab to look at some jobs that needed to be bid.  We left early in the morning.  Rick was not feeling well and he barely ate anything the whole time we were gone.  He had trouble sleeping but by the time we were driving home the next day he was feeling a bit better.

Tuesday morning before the drive home we hiked up to Delicate Arch.  I was concerned that Rick would have trouble because of him not having much nourishment but he did better than I did.  It is a pretty tough hike and we didn't have much water but Delicate Arch is such a beautiful sight to behold and worth every step!!  It took us about 45 minutes to get there and 40 minutes to get back.  There are some pretty steep slopes and beautiful scenery all around.  Arches NP is so amazing!  I'm glad we made this little diversion!

Victoria BC Part 2

On Thursday of our Victoria trip we took a half hour flight around the peninsula.  While we all enjoyed riding on a float plane it was a little anti-climactic.  We thought that we would get to wear earphones and have a "tour" from the captain of what we were seeing.  Didn't happen.  The peninsula was really beautiful from above but we were left guessing what we were flying over.  We did figure out toward the middle of the flight that we were directly over Butchart Gardens.  Another reason it was hard to enjoy the flight was the smell of airplane fuel inside the cabin.  It was very strong and we were happy to get out and get some fresh air.  The taking off and landing were kind of neat, though.

After our airplane ride we walked over to Chocolats Favors to get an ice cream cone.  These are not just any ice cream cones.  They are a soft serve that is dipped in REAL chocolate.  I chose a dark chocolate dip and it was divine!!  Extremely messy but divine!

Pete was smart and got his in a cup.

That evening we drove up to Sidney by the Sea for the Farmer's Market.  It is no secret that Rick and I love Farmer's Markets.  This was no exception.  We found some yummy food right away.  This particular stand was really cool.  I had never seen this before but a clean potato is put into a peeler/corer and then place on a stick.  It is deep fried in oil for a few minutes until it starts to soften than transferred over to another vat with hotter oil to give it some crisp.  They come out like potato chips on a stick.  There were all kinds of sauces to put on it but rick just chose salt. 

 They were super yummy!

The next morning we had scheduled a Segway tour.  The safety instruction was ridiculous.  A couple hour of safety instruction.  Way overboard.  Usually it's just a fifteen minute instruction including practice ride time.  Anyway, we all got the hang of it and had a good time riding around a forest park for about an hour.  We all wore silly helmets, which made us feel.... a little silly but....whatever.  

Everyone enjoyed our ride.  Especially Deanna, she REALLY  had a fun time zipping around.  This was hers and Kelly's first time riding a Segway.  My thought was, "After riding these in Salzburg, I am ruined for riding them anywhere else!"  HAHA!  Salzburg, though.......just WOW!

After the Segway tour we stopped at a cafe that was featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives.  Kelly found a few different places on his phone that fit the Triple D category and we decided on John's Place.  It did not disappoint.  I had the soup and everyone was happy with their meals:)

After lunch we the host at the restaurant tipped us off to a must see place on the peninsula.  We drove a half an hour up to place (I wish I could remember the name) and hiked a little bit to get up to a scenic area that gave a 360 degree view of the island.  It was really beautiful.  It was a nice clear day and we could see down into Victoria on the West and over to other islands on the East.  We were happy that it was recommended to stop there because we would not have known about it otherwise:)

Later that day we stopped over to the Parliament Building.  It was pretty inside and out!

That evening we had our last dinner of our trip at The Beach House Restaurant.  It was a very busy and loud place but we all enjoyed our food.  Afterward we walked down on the beach and collected some rocks for our 'littles'.

The next morning we packed up and headed over to the Clipper for the trip back to Seattle.  It was a fine trip back.  We bought a little lunch on the ferry and then Terri brought out some mini chocolate bars for a sweet snack.  When we got back into port and collected our luggage we said our goodbyes and Pete and Terri and Deanna and Kelly caught a taxi to the airport.  

Rick changed into his suit and we caught a taxi over to the Seattle Temple.  it was about a 20 minute drive but the taxi smelled terrible.  Like someone had just urinated in my seat!  Rick didn't notice it but I couldn't wait to get out of that taxi.  We did some initiatory work in the temple and then met upstairs in the most beautiful room int he temple.  It was a joy being in the temple.  It made me anxious to get back to our own Salt Lake Temple Wednesday night shift!

After the temple I wanted to try Uber so we did.  We had a really wonderful experience with that!  Our driver was there within five minutes and was very pleasant.  His car was immaculate and the fare was less than a taxi cab fare.  Score!!  We enjoyed dinner at the airport and then got home in time to fall into bed for a good nights rest before the Sabbath Day began.  

Our time with the Blakes and the Shields turned out very nice.  Hopefully next time we plan a family trip more of my siblings will be able to come!

Victoria BC Part 1

On August 6th Rick and I left for a six day trip to Victoria BC.  We left early Monday, flying out at 6 AM.  We arrived in Seattle with time enough to do some sightseeing.  We grabbed a taxi from the airport (our driver was from Ethiopia so we had some good conversation:)  and was dropped off at the Clipper (Pier 69).  We got our bags checked in and then found our way over to Pike's Market.  We enjoyed seeing all of the fresh flowers (my favorite) and fruits and seafood (Rick's favorite).

The flowers were uh-mazing!

                                   The fruit was so beautiful and colorful.

The lobster tails were HUGE as were the scallops and shrimp.

After perusing the market we were ready for breakfast and crossed the street over to Post Alley, a good place for eating.

We found a really great sandwich shop that had THE best soup.  

We loved our breakfast sandwiches, too:)

We found an awesome bakery with cookies the size of frisbees.....almost.

I bought some flowers for our rental in Victoria.

We walked a couple of blocks through the shopping district, over to the Seattle Monorail and took a quick 5 minute ride over to the Space Needle.

We had to wait in a long line (45 minutes) to get up to the top of the Needle.  

It afforded us 360 degree views of Seattle.  Very beautiful!

We then got to go Chihuly Garden where giant works of blown glass art created by Dale Chihuly are on display.  The pieces were so beautiful and full of amazing color.  We didn't have a whole lot of time but we walked quickly through the museum admiring these works of art.

We then headed back on the tram and over through the market and walked back to the pier.  We were able to meet up with Kelly and Deanna and Pete and Terri for the Clipper ride over to Victoria.

On the Clipper leaving Seattle.

Once we got to Victoria we were met by our VRBO hosts who promptly took us to our rental.  The home we rented was an older home but it served us well during our time there.  We each had our own room and bath and there was a nice size kitchen and sitting area for us to visit in.  We also rented two cars a mini van and an older land rover.  We only ever used the one car because we all just stayed together the whole time.  That first night we found Romeo's, an Italian Restaurant.  Some of us enjoyed our meals while others did not.

                                                           Our group

After a good nights rest we drove over to Buchart Gardens and enjoyed the beauty there.  Rick and I have been to Buchart a couple of times but the others had not.  We all enjoyed it immensely.  Amazing gardens!

After Butchart Gardens we drove over to Craigderroch Castle, an old mansion home in Victoria.  

I love the history of this home!  It takes you back to a different time entirely.

After touring the home we drove back toward our rental and stopped at the market to gather food for a bbq.  While the guys grilled up the steak and chicken the girls put together a salad, chopped fruit and cooked the corn.  It was a really nice evening spent out on the deck with some delicious food!

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The next morning we had breakfast on the deck and then headed off to the Fisgard Fort and Lighthouse.  We enjoyed looking around the area and touring the lighthouse.  Since it is a working lighthouse we were not allowed to walk to the top.

That afternoon we all took a whale watching trip.  We got to ride on a Zodiak which is a raft type boat that travels really fast.  The company provided floating dry suits for us to keep warm.  I was sure grateful for it because it did get cold on the water.  I wished that I had some ear muffs to keep the cold wind out of my ears.

We got to see humpback whales not too far out of the harbor.   The orca's on the other hand were quite a ways away.  We traveled for a good 45 minutes at (seemingly) full speed to get to where they were.  But what a sight to see.  The orcas were very active and we were able to see them breaching out of the water which was really cool.  We actually were able to see two different pods and stayed with them about 40 minutes.  Then we traveled back to the first pod of humpbacks and spent a little more time with them.  On the way back we passed Race Rocks lighthouse.  We saw sea lions and  a couple of harbor seals.  This excursion was a highlight of our whole trip.