Ryan and Zach

Two of my nephews, Ryan and Zach, came to spend the weekend with me. Ryan flew in from Seattle late in the evening on July 29 and Zach joined us tonight. After picking up Zach, the three of us went out to dinner and then watched a DVD (Transformers). Zach and Ryan connected last summer when Ryan visited for a week and it was fun to see them reconnect again this summer. Zach thinks it is really cool that they both have the same middle name, "Allen."

Draper Utah Temple

Tonight I took my nephew, Ryan, to Draper so he could visit some friends. As I was leaving, I decided I needed to drive by the Draper Temple and get a close up look. Up to this point, I have only seen the temple from the freeway. I'm glad I took the time because the temple is simply beautiful! This temple is the 12th temple built in Utah and the 3rd temple in the Salt Lake Valley. It was dedicated on March 20-22, 2009.

The Healing Field

This field of flags (healing field) is located at the Weber County Fairgrounds and is on display from July 23-August 3. It includes nearly 5,000 flags, displayed in the shape of the United States of America, in perfect rows spread across five acres of lawn. Each flag represents a military service man or woman killed during the current conflict in Iraq or Afghanistan and bears the name and rank of the serviceman or woman, branch of service,and country of incident.

It was an amazing opportunity to walk through these flags tonight and be reminded of all of those who have given their lives in the service of our country. What a great display and tribute!!! I am very thankful to be an American and appreciate the sacrifices of all of those who have served our country and helped protect the freedoms that we have!!!

Car Wash

This is the car wash where I typically go to wash my car. It has bays where I can do the washing of the car myself, but I have to admit, many times I just prefer to go through the automatic car wash and let the machine wash the car for me...the lazy man's way. This is the option I chose for tonight!!! :)

Exercise, Excercise, Excercise

This picture is a view of the exercise room and some of the equipment at the clubhouse where I live. Besides the treadmills and elliptical machines, there are also various weight machines for upper and lower body workouts. Over the past couple of years, I have spent many hours on this equipment.

Wheat Fields

On my way out of Cache Valley tonight, I stopped and took this picture looking back at Logan. Whenever I see wheat fields, I am reminded of the parable of the wheat and the tares (D&C 86).

Logan Utah Temple

The Logan Temple is one of my favorite temples. It was dedicated on May 17, 1884, by John Taylor, and then rededicated on March 13, 1979, by Spencer W. Kimball. I was able to be in attendance in the upper room of the temple for the rededication and it was an awesome experience. This is also the temple where I took out my own endowments. I went through the temple with my brother, Charles, right before he went on his mission on March 26, 1988. This temple is the 2nd temple built in Utah and the only temple dedicated by John Taylor.

Cache Valley sunset

I couldn't resist taking pictures of the sunset tonight. It was beautiful with all of the different layers and colors of clouds! This picture was taken from the deck off of the back of Mom/Dad's house.

Sleep Over Time

Tonight I headed to Logan for some relaxation time and to spend the 24th of July holiday with my family. After dinner we decided to go out for ice cream and stopped to pick up Zach so that he could go with us. On the way back from getting ice cream, Zach informed me that he wanted to have a sleep over, so we stopped to pick up his overnight bag and took him with us back to grandma/pa's house. We told stories and sang songs before we finally fell to sleep. What fun!

Summer Treats

This Shaved Ice shack sits at the end of my street and everytime I pass it, it is packed with people. There are many comments from people that this is the best shaved ice they have ever had so tonight I decided to give it a try. I have to agree, it was pretty darn good and what a nice cool treat when it is 100 degrees outside!!! I love the way they have taken a simple trailer and decorated it to make it have a "Hawaiian" look and feel. Even the counter where you place your order is a little replica of a surfboard. Very clever!

My Front Porch

I love my front porch and my two rocking chairs!!! It is so nice having a place where I can sit and relax and comfortable chairs that I can sit and relax in. I have a great view of the western sky from my front porch and at times I get to just sit and watch some amazing sunsets.

Buffalo Round-Up

During the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake, the Arts Council sponsored a "buffalo round-up" project where several cities painted life-size buffalo statues. These buffalo were then "rounded up" and auctioned off. They now reside in many different locations around the state. This patriotic buffalo statue sits on the lawn in front of the Davis County Courthouse in Farmington, right across the street from where I work.

Lagoon Trail

Tonight I took a walk on the Lagoon Trail. The Lagoon Trail is a 1.3 mile paved trail (one way) that follows Farmington Creek on the backside of Lagoon. From the trail you can see some of the buffalo and elk that are in Lagoon. Along the trail there are 4 picturesque bridges that cross over the creek. I did a round trip tonight on the trail, starting at the Lagoon Campground and walking to the South end. I then turned around and came back so I got in 2.6 miles of walking exercise.

Fresh Produce

One of the things I like about summer is all of the fresh fruits and vegetables that are available. Many times on Saturdays as I am doing my grocery shopping, I will stop off at the produce stand and buy corn on the cob, cantalope, tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchinis.

Technology Class

Today, instead of teaching a class, I took a class from my co-worker, Carol Nef. Carol was teaching teachers how the Interwrite Workspace software and Workspace pads (shown in picture) could be used to enhance classroom instruction. In classes that I teach at the ETC, I typically use an Interactive Whiteboard in my instruction. I stand in front of a whiteboard and use a "pen" on the board to point and click, open the Internet, etc. and do everything I would typically do with a "mouse" on a mousepad. I can also draw or write on the board to help illustrate concepts. The Interwrite pad allows me to have the same control over the interactive whiteboard but from any location in the room. I am trying to feel more comfortable using the pad and Interwrite software so that I can help teach teachers how to use the software and equipment in their classrooms.

Cherry Hill

Cherry Hill is located in Kaysville, Utah (about 1 mile north of where I live) and sits on 20 acres of land. It was once a working fruit farm. Cherry Hill has over 700 trees, many of which are cherry trees. Cherry Hill now has a Water Park with water slides, a foam padded River Run, Lazy River, children's water playground called Pirates Cove and 2 pools. It also offers other activities which include Batting Cages, Mini Golf, a Climbing ROCK, Video Arcades, Snack Bars and a Restaurant. For the campers, there are 160 campsites nestled among the trees. Every Friday and Saturday evening of the summer, they have free concerts in the park.

Sunrise.... Sunset

I am very seldom awake early enough to see the sunrise :) but I absolutely love watching sunsets! The way the colors change across the sky is amazing!!! This picture was taken from the Farmington bench looking out over Antelope Island.

Dragonfly

Tonight on my way out of work, I saw this dragonfly perched on top of the antenna of the car parked next to mine. I couldn't resist whipping out my camera and taking a picture.

Social Networking

FACEBOOK!!!! Such a wonderful way to stay in touch with family and friends! What did we ever do without these kinds of websites??

Lavendar continued...

I LOVE lavendar and I find the scent very relaxing!!! This is a picture of several of the lavendar items I have in my house.

Lavendar Fields Forever...

This weekend I went to Mona, UT, with my friend, Jayna, to run the 5K in the Lavendar Day Festival. We stayed in a run down Motor Inn in Nephi, (the TV didn't work because it was still on an analog antenna signal, it was a room that had been smoked in and was under the stairs, and there wasn't even a hair dryer in the room) but it was the last room available anywhere close to Mona, so we took it. The 5K run had about 1000 participants (600 people more than last year). Jayna and I did not come in first place in the race by any means, but this was no surprise to us. We had our cameras with us and we spent a lot of time along the way taking pictures. I mean, how often do you get to run through lavendar fields??? It was a great picture opportunity that just had to be taken advantage of. I finished the race with a time of 43:44 and I came in 410th place overall, and 97th in Women 40-99.

Mini...

This is a picture of my friend, Jayna's, cute little Mini-Cooper. I love cruising around in it!!! It's amazing how it can just fit into such tight little places.

Old Farmington Hotel

This picture is of a house that I drive past every day on my way to work. I LOVE this house and especially the history that is behind it. This house is one of the old historical houses that is located in Farmington, UT. It used to be called the Union Hotel and was built in 1857. It was built from adobe bricks by Hector B. Haight, the original founder of Farmington. It is now covered with wood siding. The upstairs bedrooms in the front of the house used to be a two-room suite and was often occupied by Brigham Young as he traveled throughout the area. Every time I drive past this house I imagine what it must have been like for Brigham Young to stay here.

Favorite Pasttime

These magazines are a representative of one of my favorite pasttimes....DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING. I was never a fan of traditional scrapbooking as I was growing up because I didn't like all of the mess, i.e. glue, paper, scissors, cutting pictures, etc. I found it annoying to pull out all the equipment to create a scrapbook page and then having to clean it up when I was finished. I also hated cutting my pictures because more often than not, after I cut a picture or glued a picture on a page, I would find myself wishing that I would have done something different with the picture and at that point it was too late to start over.

When I learned how easy it was to use Photoshop Elements to edit pictures and create digital layouts (with no mess), I quickly became converted. Over the past several years, I have enjoyed sharing my knowledge with others by teaching "Digital Scrapbooking" classes to teachers in Davis School District.

One of my favorite flowers

The day lily has got to be one of the most beautiful flowers there is and the nice thing about it is it grows well in dry, hot climates, which is perfect for the desert climate of Utah.

The Kindle 2

A few months ago I splurged and bought myself a Kindle 2. The Kindle 2 is an electronic reader that stores books that I am reading in one easy to access place. The Kindle 2 is a convenient size, not too small and not too large, and very portable. Adding books to the Kindle is as easy as turning on the wireless connection, finding the book I want to download, and clicking on the download button. Within a matter of seconds the book of my choice is on my Kindle. Most books cost $9.99 or less. Over the past few months, the Kindle 2 has become one of my favorite technology "toys."

The Deck

This is the deck on the back of my parent's house which is located in Smithfield, Utah. I LOVE it! From the deck you can see the entire south end of the Cache Valley. When I go home for a visit, I like to sit on the deck and relax.

Happy 4th of July

To celebrate the 4th of July, my family got together for a family BBQ at Charles' house and then we went to a movie, Ice Age 3, and finally out to dinner at Juniper Take-Out. This is a picture of Charles cooking our hamburgers.

Transformers 2

I spent most of the afternoon with Zach today. At the moment he is very much into "transformers" and he brought his newest toy with him for a visit. This a picture of Zach and "Optimus Prime" before Optimus Prime was transformed into a robot.

Good Friends

Today I got to go to lunch with a couple of my best friends, Jayna Rice (left) and Dianne Smith (center). We all met each other and became friends while working at the Educational Technology Center in Davis School District. Dianne retired in July 2005 and for the past 4 years, Jayna, Dianne and I have continued to meet together on occasion for lunch at Bajio's. Dianne is leaving on July 13 to go on a mission with her husband, Chad. They are going to Tulsa, Oklahoma. I will definitely miss the lunches and most importantly the conversations over the next year and a half!!! Thank heavens for blogs and email!!! :)

My Photo-A-Day Journal

I have always wanted to have a photo journal and document my life through pictures. Today, July 1, 2009, is the beginning of that journal. The pictures posted in this journal might be of people, places, events, or just WHATEVER captures my interest at the moment.



Today's picture is a picture of my home. My home is a townhouse located in a community of lots of other townhouses. It is about 1600 sq. feet with 2 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, a laundry room, a formal living room, a TV room, kitchen and dining room. It also has a 2 car garage. In the picture, my townhouse is the one with the brown rocking chairs on the porch and the green pitched roof. I moved into this townhouse in March 2006.

I love the location where I live. It is easy getting onto the freeways going either north or south and it is about 5 minutes from where I work. It is also about 20 minutes out of downtown Salt Lake. I love the independence that owning my own home gives me!