Utah Adventure Day 2

Beautiful morning after a good nights rest. Back into the car and we decided to visit the St George Temple before we continue.

The temple was closed for some re carpeting but it was lovely to walk in the grounds and to visit with a lady who was just coming back from a choir rehearsal.

The beautiful St George Temple

The Intrepid tourists......

Our target today was to reach Provo. Our journey took us along the I15 and through Cedar City, Parowan. We stopped at Fillmore for a Burger King (we know how to live!)  we ended up chapel spotting....
Even a chapel that served a trailer park. From Fillmore it was a wide valley through to Nephi, Payson, Spanish Fork by now we were temple spotting!!!!!

Glad to reach Chris and Rachael England's home in Provo, where we were made very welcome and took over the basement. The bed was very welcome after the travel.

Utah Adventure Begins

Another lovely nights sleep and then breakfast before heading off on our Utah adventure. Now Michael has his book of maps we can travel anywhere!!!!!!

We stopped at Wickieup for a drink and snacks...then onto Kingman for fuel and lunch at Dennys.

Cloud formations as we travelled.

I want to say by the time we got to phoenix...but we had left it long behind as we went to the Hoover Dam, an amazing feat of engineering

The new bridge which we drive over instead of the Hoover Dam

The intrepid tourist .......

Went to Boulder City and onto Las Vegas....got a much better closeup of LV than we intended asI came off at the wrong junction...........oops oh well never mind, got back on track towards Salt Lake City

Anyway safely arrived at St George only to realise they were ahead by one hour so it was later than we thought.  Found the Kensington Hotel which was very good. Just time for a bowl of soup for me and a pizza for Michael at pizza hut before going to bed.

Westin Kierland Day 2

After a lovely sleep time for breakfast before we headed to the shuttle to go to the Westin Kierland water resort.
The weather is great and there are not many people about so it does not have a crowded feel.

On the way to catch the shuttle...

The view from our loungers..just had to slip off the chair and into the pool....

Completely exhausted need to rest......

Cooling off...

Lazy river..being the operative words...

Westin Kierland Adventure

Today we went to the Westin Kierland villas. The villas are in Scottsdale and we found it without too much trouble. thank goodness for our little Alamo map of Phoenix.
We found the villas and got registered and we were able to get into our villa straight away.

Our kitchenette and lounge area.

Super sized bed and bathroom to the right with a lovely balcony to the left. Then out to the pool..

So...after a lovely afternoon it was time to get ready to meet Sheryl and Stuart Mcreynolds for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.

It was great to visit with them and during the meal there was an amazing thunderstorm and downpour...

In the pool

The above ground pool installation is nearly finished...and so we had an evening swim. The water was perfect and it was delicious swimming the evening air. We had been lucky to miss the dust storm that went over Scottsdale.

 

A lovely time enjoyed by all.....as the steps are still not fixed properly we got out very carefully....

Swim & Barbecue

We were invited along to a swim and barbecue at the Putnam family home, thanks to Trace & Kate for the invite.
Lovely pool designed and mostly built be Trace and the family. We had an enjoyable time and had a scrumptious barbecue as well.

Jacoby,Mathew and Trace

It was also Cedars birthday so we had cake and ice cream- what could be better

Ruby Wedding Celebrations

We were invited to join in a secret...our neighbours were celebrating their ruby wedding this week and we were invited to the surprise party for them in Wilmslow, Cheshire.
We booked into the premier inn at Wilmslow for the night so no need to rush home. We managed to keep the secret from Mike & Eileen and it was worth the journey just to see their faces!!!
It was a lovely social evening and great to have a leisurely breakfast on the Sunday before heading home to pack for the USA and complete the online booking.

 Waiting for the couple

 

 Eileen greeting everyone

 

 Mike taking the odd photo

 

Mike & Eileen

 

 

A secret well and truly kept....

The Family 10 August 2013

Daniel & Kate got married 10 August 2013

What a fabulous day as the family got together to celebrate my nephew Daniels marriage to Kate Solomons.
We were all dressed in our finery and looking the part. Below are just a sample of pictures.

Proud Grandma and nervous groom

 

Mum with Ann & Me- aren't the hats great!

 

Our family group

 

Sisters

 

The happy couple

 

 

 





British Pageant- Preston

Ruby at the Preston Temple

 

Wow what a day...this morning Michael took Ruby to the park and she had a great two hours down there and came back needing a change of clothes....before we could head off to Preston.
We left Leicester just around 1.30pm and got to Rachel and Ric's in Darwen about 3.45. Not a bad journey although there was a lot of traffic.
We arranged to meet Zoe at the Houghton Arms for tea and made our way there. Zoe had to dash off to get ready for the pageant and so was with us only briefly and took her sandwich with her! Ruby had said she wasn't hungry but managed to eat 3 fish finger, 4 potato waffles and beans....not forgetting the chocolate brownie with custard.
After tea we had a quick detour back to Rachel's before heading to Botany Bay to park the car. We were early enough to get a good parking space and caught the transfer buses to the Preston Temple. Ruby was really well behaved.
We all had a fabulous time and it was well worth the late journey home...which Ruby slept through and into bed at 1.00am..

 

Ready for the show