Ty's B-day and Our Anniversary

Finishing our vacation is hard work and I'm not getting to it. So here is what we did Labor Day Weekend. First we took Ty out for his birthday dinner at the Blue Iguana Mexican Restaurant. Great food and fun to be with Ty. Then we all went to Gilgal Gardens. A strange place. This mason in SLC decided to create a strange garden. Here is Ty as we enter the garden.

Yes, that is a mix of Joseph Smith and ancient Egypt. It gets stranger.

Here is the mason/sculpture himself. Brick pants, which the guidebook says were very difficult to make.

Ty had to get to work, so Linda and I decided to go to Red Butte Gardens at the U of U. They are beautiful and we think our grandkids might enjoy parts of it--the Children's Garden.

Then we finished off with a baseball game with the Salt Lake Bees. A very good game. A fun day.

Our European Trip, Part 2: England

Here is our hotel room in a little village right next to the Hahn Airport. By the end of 2 weeks of walking all over Austria and Germany we were a bit tired so you see me here resting. The next morning, we somehow made it on the plane (after paying $65 for being 3 kilos overweight--the luggage, not me) and flew to Stansted just north of London where we met Matt, Jenny, Amy, Blake, and Cade. What a thrill it was to see them! So began our short stay in England.

This is a view of the village out our hotel room window.

After arriving in England we went straight to the seashore and had so much fun, but that is in a previous post. Here is just one picture of me and Tot throwing rocks into the North Sea. What can be more fun for a grandpa than to being with a grandchild who is having so much fun!After the seashore we came home to Matt and Jenny's home--no address, just a name. That is so English.

,,, and were intertained by a superb puppet show. Here are the puppeteers.We went to Church on Sunday to their very nice English ward. We met such nice people. I thanked the high priests for being such good people; I knew our little family would be taken care of. Then on Monday we took care of the children while Matt and Jenny got away to London and saw Les Mis (?sp?) On our last day, we started in Stonehenge.

As you can see, it was very windy!

This is just outside Stonehenge. You can see burial mounds behind and right of Jenny and the boys.

Then to Avebury, which also has strange hugh stones. Amy enjoyed rolling down the hill...

...and Tot enjoyed having Matt throw him in the air and catching him--which he always did fortunately.

Here are the large stones in a hugh circle. No one really knows why they were put there but they are very fun to look at and try to imagine ancient people cutting them out, transporting them, and putting them up.

We also visited a village in the Cottswolds. They were breathtakingly beautiful and made you want to just stay there. Of course, the plumbing and electrical is probably terrible, but when on vacation you can romanticize!

Levenham is a fun little village where all the buildings are at weird angles; I guess they just settled funny.

Then we flew home. Oh well, you can't vacation forever. We can hardly wait to go back to Vienna in August of 2010.

We'll start at the end--in England with the Matt & Jenny Holmans

We left Hahn Airfield in Germany about 10:25 am and got into Stansted Airport north of London about 10:40 am England time--one hour difference. After finally getting through the passport check--which took about 45 minutes because they only had 3, then down to 2 agents working--Matt and Jenny and the kids met us and we took off for the beach! We got to a little seaside town and while Matt bought some fish and chips, I took this picture of Blake, Amy, and Cade. Notice Cade's unique way of wearing sunglasses! Then see a couple of pictures of us on the beach. That is the North Sea we were on. It was so much fun! The beach was quite rocky, like the beach at Laguna Beach where I was with the Young grandkids just a couple of weeks ago. I'll post those pictures soon. So much to post, so boring for all of you, but we are loving it!

We ate our fish and chips and pasta salad, fruit, and cookies Jenny made (or brought the fruit, that is).

We ended our first day with fireworks on the American post and Blake and Amy each won a goldfish. But the best part was the puppet show before we went to the Fireworks. Here are puppeteers and the show! Amy wrote the script and they had a great backdrop they even changed between scenes! Pretty professional.

On Sunday, we went to Church and really enjoyed their ward--they are going to be with great people the next three years! Then we ate a great meal and ended the day with a fun walk. During the afternoon, Cade got into painting, including all over his pants! But they were masterpieces--the paintings, not his pants. I mean "trousers." Over here "pants" are "underwear."

Sam's Birthday

Sam came home to presents (3 Kit [American Girl] books and the cute cupcake you see below. Then she went with G & G Young, aunts, uncles, and cousins to Pleasant Grove's StrawberryDays Rodeo. Talk about a good Utah birthday! We do love that girl! And all the other grandkids for that matter. I never realized how much I could love grandchildren; it is wondeful!

After softball camp on Miller Field at BYU (Edwards football stadium in the backgroud) they always get a popcycle. Sam has have a really fun time at the camp!

Since it was the the big 1-0, she decided to have one crazy pose!

Here is Sam on the morning of her 10th birthday. She was up early and getting ready for softball camp.

Sam is Here!

Sam arrived! Sam spent the evening at a bbq with the Youngs. She and grandma Linda are already crafting--notice the 5 new flower fridge magnets. Amy, when you come you girls can go crafting crazy!!

Grandma and Sam posing while I try out our 10 sec. timer. It works. Tomorrow Softball Camp!

Beautiful Pansies

I, Linda, have always enjoyed yard work and I usually have a pretty decent yard. Well...this year I have out done myself. This sweet little "purple pansie touched with yellow gold" has made its way in a crack on our patio. What can I say...I'm quite the gardener!

Our St. George and Environs Road Trip

We started our full day in the St. George area with a road trip, going north out of St. George through Snow Canyon State Park (which we re-visited that afternoon for a hike) and then on to the scene of the Mountain Meadow Massacre. It was a terrible incident, but the site is now peaceful and hopefully settlers and pioneers are now reconciled in the Spirit World. We then took off south...

...visited a cute little Southern Utah town named Veyo,

...saw a dormant volcano just outside Veyo,

...and drove through an Indian Reservation. It was a fun little road trip.

After getting back from our morning road trip, we called Max (Linda's little brother) and Cindy, found out they hadn't had lunch yet and so went to eat together with Lizzy and Amy at the Pasta Factory in St. George. Lizzy, on the end, is getting married to Huck in July and we are all excited.

For me (Tom) the most fun part of the day was our afternoon hike in Snow Canyon State Park. The weather was perfect (low 80s) and as you will see below the scenery is out of this world!

Here I am on the trail next to the Silver Hair Sage. Maybe both of us are silver-haired sages, right!?

Following Kristen's tradition of taking pictures of our feet in Chacos.

Our last day was spent taking the long way home. We left St. George and went through Hurricane and LaVerkin (our guidebook said they are like Buda and Pest except no good food!) and then came to Zion's National Park. These following pictures don't do the park and the scenery justice! But I hope you can still sort of see how breathtaking it is. We then followed Highway 89 up through more beautiful and ever-changing scenery as you'll see below.

My (Linda's) grandma Nicholls was born in Hatch, Utah. It was named after her family. We are important people!

Did you know Big Rock Candy Mountain is in Utah? The one Burl Ives had a song about. We had no idea it was right here! It really does look like yellow candy flowing down the mountain