Along the path...

Happy birthday to a fabulous sister, friend, and example! I love you more than words can say. Thanks for letting me be a part of your life. Hope you have the best birthday yet with many more to come! (Thanks too for letting me steal your darling pic!)

A day at the zoo. Beautiful weather. Fabulous company. Cooperative animals. Congrats on retiring, Mom! What a fun way to spend Labor Day! (Missed you much, Adam, Renee, AJ and EL.)

Hope you have the best birthday ever, Sis! Love you bunches! You da bomb!

Last night my entire family and I went to Gardener's Village in Salt Lake for dinner in the old mill ( Archibald's ) and to walk around the village. It was such a surprise to have us all there together--even my sister and brother-in-law and their kids were able to make it. By the time we had finished with dinner, the shops had closed. It was still the witching hour as we walked around the shops to meet the witches. So much fun! Thanks for coming and for spoiling me rotten. At work my coworkers took me to lunch at the Thai Chili Garden , provided cake and ice cream, and were way too kind all day long. Thanks to everyone for their calls, emails, Facebook notes, etc. I appreciate your thoughts and wishes. It was a good day.

Hope you had a great birthday and a happy cinco de mayo!

Last Saturday, before the sudden cold snap, we took a family to the Hogle Zoo. The weather was perfect--not too hot, not too cold. The animals were out and about. The zoo wasn't too crowded, and we got to see them feed a penguin fish. RD loved the lizard his dad told him was a dinosaur. IC said she liked the zebras the best. In this picture, AL was a little nervous at first when the giraffe started to lower and tried to pull herself up the pole until she realized that the animal would rise up and sink down. Then, she was fine. She had a ball going around in circles and waving at everyone as we passed. The rest of my nieces and nephews who were old enough to care about riding on a carousel had ridden the turn before. What a fun day! Becca thanks for sharing this picture!

These are some pictures that my sister took of her daughters. Aren't they adorable? I wanna be just like you! IC Posing AL posing Together!

IC turned FIVE on Saturday, November 15th. Hooray for birthdays! Becca baked her this princess castle cake. Isn't it darling? It was delicious too!

Tonight, the majority of my family met at Gardner Village for dinner at Archibald's and then planned to wander the Village. It's Witchapalooza and witching time at the Village. By the time we finished dinner, most of the shops were closing. We looked around a bit and snapped a few pictures. I'll post them another time. The witches and pumpkins and Halloween decor was frightfully fun, but I don't think I've had such poor customer service at a restaurant before. I wish I could say that the restaurant was packed. Maybe there were extenuating circumstances we weren't aware of. Maybe it was an off night for them. Maybe I'm just grouchy. Birthdays sometimes do that. Guess I'd better see the Witch Doctor or something to get it straightened out. The company was grand: mom and dad; Adam, Renee, AJ, and EL; Nathan, Bekah, RD, and AM, and me. Their service gave us a lot of time to sit and visit. RD and AJ were darling. Both were in very good moods. RD had on hi...

The first weekend in September, I went to visit my sister in Cache Valley , because ZM was being blessed. I left Friday night shortly after Mini-Fest and changed from my performance costume to "street" clothes in the bathroom of a gas station in Highland. Needless to say, several customer gave me strange looks as I walked into the station in full regalia. (If you are unsure what that all entails, check out some of my earlier blogs about our dance troupe or visit our dance company website .) By the time I arrived in Hyrum, my nieces were both fast asleep. ZM (age 5 weeks) had waited up for me with his mom and dad, though. Saturday morning, Becca sent AL (nearly 2 years old) to see who was sleeping downstairs in the guest bedroom. How surprised was she to find me! Morning - Gotta Put on My May-up! While their mom and brother went to a friend's shower and their dad went to work, I took IC (age 4) and AL to the Utah State Fair . The drive to Salt Lake was full of silly songs ...