(Hate pictures of myself, but needed some proof that I still exist.)
Showing posts with label Favorite places. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Favorite places. Show all posts
Friday, April 9, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
So quick, but so fun!
We had such a great time. So glad the whole family could come. Wish we could do it more often. And I'll admit it. After hearing Luke wasn't sure he wanted to come, I was kinda' glad to hear he cried at the airport because he didn't want to leave.
I don't have a lot of time to write much about the pictures-hopefully everyone else will chime in. I will say, notice the dads in park shot. Also look for the picture with Jeff running towards me, "You can see him saying, "Mo-om, it's not fair...'" Abby and Taylor-Jen you can take that one, and cute picture of Jen with the girls on the swing. (Em, I have a better picture of you on the playground, but the wrong one downloaded. When I get back to Scottsdale, I'll try and remember to upload the best one.
If you missed some of the other posts, check out Creepy Crawlies, The Good Egg, OJ adventure and our Easter Egg hunt.
... and the Friday finale! The Statue walk downtown (love the new American Gothic), Mangos then ending up at the Easter Pageant.
CAM! So happy to see you and your beautiful family. It's been a LONG time, but not much longer.
Friday, January 29, 2010
snow
Isn't it beautiful? We already love the views as we drive to visit the missionaries in the Payson and Snowflake zones, but the snow just transformed the mountains and these little towns. It was magical!
Heber had a fresh dusting of powder sugar over everything. I know the people that live in the snow must think I'm crazy, but it's fascinating to me.
As we sat in one parking lot waiting for some missionaries, I watched the snowflakes land on the the glass and along the seam of the car window. Against the black lining, I could see each of the 6 points of the snowflakes. Incredible! I found myself wishing for a really great macro lense so I could take a picture like the one below from charlesimages.
I did venture out to take a few pictures, but since we left our heavy coats in Scottsdale, I wasn't out long. My leather heels weren't exactly made for sloshing around in the ice and snow either.
But there's something about just standing there with snow drifting down into your hair and eye lashes that is so peaceful and comforting despite the cold.
Fortunately, I was able to get a few shots out the front windshield that aren't too blurry.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Happy Labor Day!
Today marked the finale of our family weekend. It was a great trip, and this labor day was no exception. We spent the morning 'laboring' with the missionaries that are serving up here. Mark stayed busy interviewing all the missionaries so he could know how best to help them. Angie, Jessica and Taylor helped judge a competition between districts as they tried to effectively relate random objects to the restoration of the gospel. The missionaries all did a great job, so it was difficult not to give "Paula" responses to everyone. As I became more 'constructive' with my feedback, the missionaries became more insistent that I try it and show them how it was done. I drew a hanger out the grab bag and had a minute to relate it to the restoration of the gospel and invite them to learn more. I'm happy to report...I got through it. It was a lot of fun, and it included some good practice for the missionaries. They have great zone leaders up there, Elder Stephens and Elder Ashton. That training only lasted 45 minutes, and there were several others to follow. It will be great to spend the next two weeks visiting all the zones and observe their trainings.
To help keep the little boys occupied while Mark did interviews, a local ward member [Dayl Seigfried-that's him in the red shirt] invited them to the Eurofresh greenhouses near the church building. Amanda, Sister Willis and Sister Harris came, too.
They can grow up to 1 million pounds of tomatoes on the vine a week-and average 600,000 lbs. per week each year at this facility shipping all over the US and Canada. They grow the tomatoes hydroponically...w/o soil in little root beds among some coconut husk material. There were acres of greenhouses with row upon row of plants that stretch about the length of a football field. Each plant is tied to a bobbin of string and then to the ceiling. As the plants grow up, they unwind the bobbins a turn or two. The pluck off the leaves around the ripening fruit, so the bottoms are naked vines that begin to layer and stack, then fruit, then the foliage and the blossoms above them. There's a lift system that raises workers up to the ceiling to work on the plants-but the boys didn't ride it-whew!
They also had a complex system of pipes for temperature control, watering, fertilizing & everything else you can imagine, but the boys were most interested in making the 'garage doors' open and shut and playing on the conveyor belts. Jeffrey really liked the sticker machine, especially when Dayl started labeling Jeffrey with brilliant tomato labels. There were a lot of lasers and automated machinery. It was pretty cool.
These are some of the 'seconds', since they are all 'single' tomatoes and they are producing on the vine fruit. These will go...? I don't know, but he gave a couple of flats to kids to take home. Lucky us. After interviews we started home and stopped by the Tenney's place (one of Mark's counselors). We rolled up our sleeves and helped shuck, de-silk and prep some corn for freezing. It was fun to watch dad shuck corn in his suit! The Tenney's are an incredible family. They were there with just some of their children and grandchildren including their 40th grandbaby that is 3 months old & 3 high school age grandsons just back from football practice ready to help grandma & grandpa. (yes, they were ALL cute! Hubba hubba. I'm sure we won't have trouble convincing Jessica to come up with us again.) Eva, one of the little girls, said she loved working hard for her family so her grandpa & grandma wouldn't have to do all that work by themselves. What an incredible family. President Tenney will only be Mark's counselor for a few more weeks. They will soon begin a new assignment as the Snowflake Temple President. We have loved working with them.
We weren't able to stay as long as we would have liked to since we knew the holiday traffic was going to be miserable, but we left their place with produce packed all around us. Dinner tonight was spectacular: fresh corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, crook neck squash, and string beans w/red bell peppers. The best part, we had enough corn to blanch and freeze several bags to eat up this winter! What great friends. What a great week end.
To help keep the little boys occupied while Mark did interviews, a local ward member [Dayl Seigfried-that's him in the red shirt] invited them to the Eurofresh greenhouses near the church building. Amanda, Sister Willis and Sister Harris came, too.
They can grow up to 1 million pounds of tomatoes on the vine a week-and average 600,000 lbs. per week each year at this facility shipping all over the US and Canada. They grow the tomatoes hydroponically...w/o soil in little root beds among some coconut husk material. There were acres of greenhouses with row upon row of plants that stretch about the length of a football field. Each plant is tied to a bobbin of string and then to the ceiling. As the plants grow up, they unwind the bobbins a turn or two. The pluck off the leaves around the ripening fruit, so the bottoms are naked vines that begin to layer and stack, then fruit, then the foliage and the blossoms above them. There's a lift system that raises workers up to the ceiling to work on the plants-but the boys didn't ride it-whew!They also had a complex system of pipes for temperature control, watering, fertilizing & everything else you can imagine, but the boys were most interested in making the 'garage doors' open and shut and playing on the conveyor belts. Jeffrey really liked the sticker machine, especially when Dayl started labeling Jeffrey with brilliant tomato labels. There were a lot of lasers and automated machinery. It was pretty cool.
These are some of the 'seconds', since they are all 'single' tomatoes and they are producing on the vine fruit. These will go...? I don't know, but he gave a couple of flats to kids to take home. Lucky us. After interviews we started home and stopped by the Tenney's place (one of Mark's counselors). We rolled up our sleeves and helped shuck, de-silk and prep some corn for freezing. It was fun to watch dad shuck corn in his suit! The Tenney's are an incredible family. They were there with just some of their children and grandchildren including their 40th grandbaby that is 3 months old & 3 high school age grandsons just back from football practice ready to help grandma & grandpa. (yes, they were ALL cute! Hubba hubba. I'm sure we won't have trouble convincing Jessica to come up with us again.) Eva, one of the little girls, said she loved working hard for her family so her grandpa & grandma wouldn't have to do all that work by themselves. What an incredible family. President Tenney will only be Mark's counselor for a few more weeks. They will soon begin a new assignment as the Snowflake Temple President. We have loved working with them.We weren't able to stay as long as we would have liked to since we knew the holiday traffic was going to be miserable, but we left their place with produce packed all around us. Dinner tonight was spectacular: fresh corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, crook neck squash, and string beans w/red bell peppers. The best part, we had enough corn to blanch and freeze several bags to eat up this winter! What great friends. What a great week end.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Snowflake
One of my favorite mission activties is traveling around to meet with the missionaries. That's how we've spent the last two weeks. I have the opportunity to attend each area's zone development meeting. Watching the missionaries interact with each other while they follow up and practice the training they've received from zone conference helps me see how much they grow and develop during the two years they serve here. During the meeting, Mark will pull out each missionary for a personal interview. The more we get to know these great young men and women, the more we come to love them.
Summer vacation yields the benefit of having the kids come with us. Taylor wanted to come to the meetings, so we decided to have all the boys go with us. When our travels take us to the northern area of the mission, we stay at this bed and breakfast in Snowflake. http://www.heritage-inn.net/ That's how we spent last Thursday and Friday. We all love this beautiful place and its proprietor, Dean Porter. He's an attentive host, even loaning us his van once so I could take the kids to see some local sights. His love and knowledge for his community color the history and stories he shares with all his guests. 
Flowers, flowers everywhere! I love it. Roses, geraniums, lavendar, hosta, flowering fruit trees. It's about 10 degrees cooler in Snowflake; a refreshing break from the heat of the valley. It was nice to sit outside and go through paperwork with the warm sunshine and cool breeze. Here, Mark is reading letters from the missionaries. Each missionary writes him a weekly letter about how he/she is doing. We have just under 200 missionaries, and depending on the missionary, the letter could be anywhere from 5 lines to two full pages of reading. That's a lot of reading! (Improving your handwriting wasn't always something I'd thought of as a way to prepare for a mission, but now I know better.) Again, the letters are a great way to get to know them and how to best help and support them. Thursday was typical of our interview schedule. We left the house just after 6:00 am and drove an hour and a half to Payson. After finishing with the missionaries there between 1 & 2, we had a quick snack and then drove another 2 hours to Snowflake. We spent the rest of the evening with the kids, studying/letter reading, and on the phone with the missionaries (there are always calls with the missionaries, but the evening is when most of them come in). 
We usually walk across the street to Eva's Mexican restaurant (my favorite dinner is the carne machaca-WOW!). Then we head back to our room to stretch out and finish up the days work. There are 11 different rooms, and they are all beautiful. This is one of my favorite rooms, even though I can't remember its name. I also love the honeymoon suite and the Lincoln room. Most of the time we stay in the main house, but the kid's room was in the remodled carriage house. They like 'being on their own", but I think there's always a struggle for who will have control of the remote.
SWEET BREADS! Upon arriving at the bed and breakfast, Bishop Porter has an array of sweet breads, cake to you and me, waiting for his guests. If the plate empties (and I admit, it has happened), he always has more in the pantry. He's also happy to offer homemade Mexican hot chocolate in the winter, sodas, and popcorn. I think all the snacks are a big draw for kids.
Another attraction is breakfast. Taylor is squeezing some fresh lemons on his German baby, our family's breakfast of choice at the inn. Breakfast is always accompanied by more sweet breads, piles of fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, toast and home made jams (the cinnamon peach is my favorite). You can also order french toast, waffles, hot cakes, omletes, eggs... but we are creaturse of habit so I know he stocks up on lemons when we're coming to town. Bishop Porter gives all his guests a copy of the recipe, but we've only made it once. It's just better the way he (and his cook/assistant Christina) does it in the cast iron pans. Since we need to leave early and begin interviews, we usually have the breakfast room and Bishop Porter to ourselves.
Next door to the bed and breakfast is an old fashioned soda shop and antique store. It's run by Sister Porter (wife of Bishhop Porter), but closes early. The kids are always excited when we get there early enough to get some ice cream or soda at the big counter. Brandon loves perusing all the antiques for sale; especially those in the basement. He has a wild imagination.
Flowers, flowers everywhere! I love it. Roses, geraniums, lavendar, hosta, flowering fruit trees. It's about 10 degrees cooler in Snowflake; a refreshing break from the heat of the valley. It was nice to sit outside and go through paperwork with the warm sunshine and cool breeze. Here, Mark is reading letters from the missionaries. Each missionary writes him a weekly letter about how he/she is doing. We have just under 200 missionaries, and depending on the missionary, the letter could be anywhere from 5 lines to two full pages of reading. That's a lot of reading! (Improving your handwriting wasn't always something I'd thought of as a way to prepare for a mission, but now I know better.) Again, the letters are a great way to get to know them and how to best help and support them. Thursday was typical of our interview schedule. We left the house just after 6:00 am and drove an hour and a half to Payson. After finishing with the missionaries there between 1 & 2, we had a quick snack and then drove another 2 hours to Snowflake. We spent the rest of the evening with the kids, studying/letter reading, and on the phone with the missionaries (there are always calls with the missionaries, but the evening is when most of them come in). We usually walk across the street to Eva's Mexican restaurant (my favorite dinner is the carne machaca-WOW!). Then we head back to our room to stretch out and finish up the days work. There are 11 different rooms, and they are all beautiful. This is one of my favorite rooms, even though I can't remember its name. I also love the honeymoon suite and the Lincoln room. Most of the time we stay in the main house, but the kid's room was in the remodled carriage house. They like 'being on their own", but I think there's always a struggle for who will have control of the remote.
SWEET BREADS! Upon arriving at the bed and breakfast, Bishop Porter has an array of sweet breads, cake to you and me, waiting for his guests. If the plate empties (and I admit, it has happened), he always has more in the pantry. He's also happy to offer homemade Mexican hot chocolate in the winter, sodas, and popcorn. I think all the snacks are a big draw for kids.
Another attraction is breakfast. Taylor is squeezing some fresh lemons on his German baby, our family's breakfast of choice at the inn. Breakfast is always accompanied by more sweet breads, piles of fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, toast and home made jams (the cinnamon peach is my favorite). You can also order french toast, waffles, hot cakes, omletes, eggs... but we are creaturse of habit so I know he stocks up on lemons when we're coming to town. Bishop Porter gives all his guests a copy of the recipe, but we've only made it once. It's just better the way he (and his cook/assistant Christina) does it in the cast iron pans. Since we need to leave early and begin interviews, we usually have the breakfast room and Bishop Porter to ourselves.
Next door to the bed and breakfast is an old fashioned soda shop and antique store. It's run by Sister Porter (wife of Bishhop Porter), but closes early. The kids are always excited when we get there early enough to get some ice cream or soda at the big counter. Brandon loves perusing all the antiques for sale; especially those in the basement. He has a wild imagination.
I'm not sure if he does it intentionally, but every time we bring the kids there is a cup of fish pellets on the bench by the koi pond. Jeffrey loves it. It's one of the first and last stops he makes.
Though our trips are brief, we enjoy the town and the people we've met there. We're home now, but will be back before we know it.
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