The Great Northwest

It’s become a tradition.  We visit my sisters and their families in the great Northwest every other year, coaxing them to visit us in the beautiful Southeast on the off years.

We always say we’re going to Seattle, but my sisters actually live in Monroe and Federal Way.  They willingly drive us up and down the freeway between their homes. This year while in Monroe, we were able to see five of Kathy’s six children and some of their family members.  And while in Federal Way, we had lunch with Tamara and her daughter, Cindy.

We ordered up a week of PERFECT weather.  I kid you not.  The daytime temps were between 72 and 74.  It dipped to about 60 in the evenings.  Clear, blue skies and lots of sunshine. Very low humidity. Thank you Seattle, WA, for giving us perfect weather. 

Highlights of the trip include: tons of game playing at Kathy’s, delicious meals, spending time with her family, freshly-picked homemade raspberry pie at Kammy’s, shopping at Deseret Book, attending the beautiful Seattle Temple, going to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Exhibit with Kathy, eating at Salty’s with Tam and Cindy while looking out at beautiful Puget Sound, and of course, many walks with Kathy’s dog, Teddy.  Russ tried to be helpful to both my sisters and ended up spending a good part of two days on a deck project for Kathy. Just one reason I love him so much.  He is awesome at giving service and does so with a smile.

I wish we could squeeze the middle USA states together so that TN and WA were almost touching.  I would visit the Seattle area much more often.  But for now, I’ll just cling to the wonderful memories of this year’s visit.

 

Kathy and me at her home in Monroe



Playing "Slide Five" with Kathy and her son, Scott

Below: a few of the pictures I took at the Chihuly Exhibit





Kammy's homemade raspberry pie



Lunch at Salty's with Cindy and Tamara



Only pix we had with the Puget Sound showing

Inside Salty's with my sister Tamara
and her daughter Cindy

 





             

Space Needle at Seattle Center                                                         Seattle, WA Temple

 

Thanks for the memories, Seattle, Sisters, and Company.

Vying for #1 Son-in-law

I am so blessed to have fantastic sons-in-law and daughters-in-law.  No, really!!  I honestly love them all and am so happy they are part of our family. 

The sons-in-law here in Knoxville have some friendly banter about who is the #1 son-in-law.  And I must say it is neck-in-neck.  We had major problems with one of our computers in February/March, and our son-in-law, Scott, came to the rescue, spending more time than anyone could expect helping work out the bugs.  He certainly held the #1 son-in-law spot during those months.

But that all changed in April. I mean, does anyone have a son-in-law who would put their hands in their mother-in-law’s mouth to adjust her brand new retainer which he just made for her?!? Thanks, Allen, for helping get rid of  my teeth-crowding. For the past month, Allen’s been #1. 

 

I got to choose the color of my retainer

 

 

But yesterday, we got a call from David and he told us he was bringing us a pie from Old Mill Bread.  He called from the bakery and even let us choose our kind – we went with peach, and it is oh, so good!!!  Thank you David!!

 

Well, just gotta say: David is # 1 today. :)

David's peach pie puts  him in the the #1 spot for favorite son-in-law this week.

Photo Shoot

For years I've wanted to do a photo shoot with my six granddaughters.  It seemed the thing to do since all six of my granddaughters live right here in Knoxville. I have 13 grandsons, but they are scattered across the country.  So again, it just seemed natural to do a photo shoot with these sweet six granddaughters.  The oldest will  leave for BYU in a few short weeks, so we quickly squeezed in a photo shoot in between conference sessions on Saturday.  A big thank you to Brianna Fisher of Nu Image for doing a fantastic job.  There were so photos that I liked, it was hard to narrow it down to post some here.  But here are a few and when I say "few," I mean "quite a few."  The very first one is my most favorite of all of them. Thank you granddaughters for doing the photo shoot with me. (Click on Brianna's name to go to her website and see what else she's done--she's good!) 

 

Allie, Sydney, Afton, Lydia, Claire, and Emma surround me in the living room on the piano bench

What Grammy doesn't like kisses from her grandchildren?

I love the way Afton is tilting her head.

My girls!

Sweetness inside and out.

Six beauties!

 

Love these girls!!

 

And the winner is...............

 

Sydney!!!

Congratulations, Sydney, for winning the Krispy Kreme

Donut Give Away ~ One yummy deal!

 

 

**Just wanted to give a quick update:  The Krispy Kreme in Farragut will officially open on April 9 Tuesday, at 6 a.m. And for the brave, the first 100 customers will receive free donuts for a year and a commemorative T-shirt.  Not sure how many donuts are included in the "year's worth."  But if someone is up for the challenge, bring your sleeping bag and park outside the new Farragut Store.

Guess who's coming to town?

 

That’s right.  Krispy Kreme is on its way to being two miles from my front door to its front door.  If you’re ready for some Krispy Kreme donuts, enter this giveaway.  This is open to adults, children, and even your pets – if they like Krispy Kreme.  Contest ends March 17^th—St. Patrick’s Day at 10 p.m. EST.  Gift card will be mailed out to the winner on March 18.  May the luck of the Irish be with you.

 

Future Krispy Kreme

Bucket List

When I was a teenager I had never heard of the term, “Bucket List.” But now it’s a catch phrase. Russ and I never really made a bucket list for our lives together, but of course, there were things we wanted to do in our lifetime.  Now after 45+ years of marriage, we are finding things we’ve done that should have been on a bucket list.  So here’s our list after-the-fact. Those with *’s were actually things we planned to do at some point in our lives – they were actually on our bucket list. But the others are things that we just happen to get to do and had not consciously made a plan to do in the future. Looking back, we’re so grateful for all these adventures together and hope there are still a few more surprises for us in the future. 

 

 

*1) Toured Europe (we visited 9 countries)

 2)  Visited England

 3)  Traveled to all 50 states together

*4) Vacationed in Hawaii

*5) Took Alaskan Cruise

 6)  Attended a presidential National Convention

 7)  Spent two weeks in China

 8)  Spent 12 days in Israel

 9)  Attended the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade

10) Vacationed in Mexico

11) Visited many Civil War sights, including Gettysburg

12) Went to both Disneyland and Disneyworld

13) Attended a live taping of Live with Kelly and Michael show

*14) Visited Church History sights: Nauvoo, Palmyra, Kirtland  – several times

*15) Went back to Argentina, where Russ served his mission (trip given to us by our children)

 16) Had dinner with the president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

 17) Had members of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles sleep in our guest room

 

 

I’m sure there are more I could add to this list, but this is what I’ve come up with today.  And we are actually quite content.  Perhaps there are a few more surprises in the future, and we have got one more official “bucket list” item: visit Australia/New Zealand. But already our bucket is full and has far surpassed what we ever imagined.  What’s on your bucket list?

Hawaii, September, 1981 - Sharlene by banana tree

Eiffel Tower in Paris, France - with our tour group - March 1987

July, 1997 - Sharlene and Russ at Carthage Jail

Jerusalem, October, 1997

Wailing Wall in Jerusalem

 

Dinner with a prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley and his wife, Marjorie - March, 1997

 

View of Margerie Glacier as seen from our Alaskan cruise ship - June, 2001

Sitting on the red couch with the newly-adopted granddaughter - Sept. 2004

September 20, 2004 - Gotcha Day - Julie, Claire, Sharlene, Russ - Chongqing China

Sharlene in front of the Pink House, Buenos Aires, Argentina - 2006, October

October, 2006 - Russ in center of Playa de Mayo in Buenos Aires
 



Sharlene & Russ on the set of Kelly and Michael in NYC - Oct. 2012

Christmas/December Happenings

Can one post about Christmas mid-way through January?  If I were a professional blogger, I’d have had this post up the day after Christmas, but alas, I’m not.  Also there's been a little problem on blogger with posting pictures, so these are  not posted in a great way, but a least it's a peak at just some of the fun December happenings beginning with when we returned from Utah. I think my favorite part of the Christmas Holidays is our traditional Nativity Pageant, so I've put a lot of those pictures in here. 

Valiant 11-12 Primary Class Christmas Party

Claire has the lead in the Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz with a Christmas twist



 

 
 Book signing with Jason Wright







Afton helps decorate our tree

            Posing with our Knoxville grandchildren right after they open their gifts from us.

Allie, Tanner, Connor and Sydney

Carter, Claire and Jared

Ben, Josh, Emma, Afton, and Lydia

Traditional Mother-Daughters Christmas Pose - Julie, Lori, Sharlene, Lisa

I always get to be the narrator for our Nativity Pageant

Russ and I pose with the entire cast

Josh is Joseph & Claire is Mary (doll is baby Jesus)

Angels Sydney, Emma, Lydia, and Afton

Adding Claire (as Mary) to the Angels

Carter is a Wiseman



Tanner, Ben, Jared, Connor, & Josh