Desert Botanical Gardens Phoenix

Beautiful day and we headed off (using google map) to find the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. We did eventually find it but the road signs were less than helpful!
I was amazed by the sheer numbers of different plants and trees that can exist in a desert. There were beautiful colours and bees everywhere. Butterflies of various kinds were all over the place.

The intrepid tourist plus hat and bottle of water.....sooo hot

Sonoran Cactus

Camelback Mountain

Out and About

Today we were up out and about and drove over to see how the construction of the Gilbert Temple is coming. We have seen the temple from the ground up and it is looking really good, hopefully soon to open. The land for this temple was donated to the church and the build costs were raised by local members.
A beautiful temple of the Lord.

Gilbert Temple

After visiting the temple site we went to the San Tan Village and had a potter about......

Deseret Books call

We took ourselves to Deseret Books to have a look around and buy some small items. After a snack at the University Mall we headed to Rachael's and there we helped to tidy the yard. However as it is on a slope and large it took some doing......
In the afternoon the plan was to sit in the garden...the girls stayed with us whilst Rachael, Chris & the boys headed off to look for plants.
We cleared up the ground of dropped pears and then picked a bowlful for pie tomorrow......and then the rain started....and the wind whipped up.
So we headed in and watched  BRAVE a great film. Rachael & Chris got caught in the storm that flooded areas of Orem which was close by. One of the beauties of living on a hill you don't get flooded...

Provo Temple & Sundance

This morning we went to the Provo Temple to do a session. The weather was beautiful and the session was not too full. As the Provo temple is built in the round it felt quite strange walking around in circles.
After the session we went into downtown Provo to look at the new temple being built from the ruins of the Provo Tabernacle. It will be called the Provo Center Temple.

What the Provo Center Temple will look like.

We found our way to the University Mall for a much needed drink and snack...got a bit lost going back to the England's....

In the evening we went with the England's to Sundance Park...beautiful and whilst the England's had the their photos done we enjoyed a berry smoothie and the views. Here is the non professional photo of the England's.

Shopping with Rachael

Today was shopping with Rachael and the boys.........we bought her a denim skirt for her birthday and I bought a lovely jumper to wear with jeans.
We stopped for lunch and I shared my noodles and chicken with Oliver who really enjoyed it.The University Mall was quite a good shopping place and I really liked the shops CJ Banks

The Recycled Teenagers

Today we drove to Sandy Towne Mall to meet up with Margie Cornell.  We had time to do a little shopping  and get some money onto our mobile phone before heading to the Olive Garden.
We met up with Margie who has a serious hip problem now and so walking was painful. We had a lovely lunch at the Olive Garden with non stop talk. We reminisced about our youth and some of the elders we knew such as Rand Martin Perrier and Tim Myers, Elder Huish it certainly transports you.
After lunch Margie tooks us on a mini tour of the area and we went to the Jordan River Temple. Margie was amazed at how lovely it was and wondered if she was allowed to go into the gardens. We assured she was welcome and we wnjoyed the flowers and found a shady spot to chat.....some more

 We are really still 18 in our heads......

We had a lovely afternoon with Margie and it was a joyful time.

Salt Lake City (on the train)

We decided that today we would make our way to Salt Lake City having been assured by Chris and Rachael that it would be easy on the new Frontrunner service. So we drove to downtown Provo and found the station (not difficult) and parked the car. (Note to British Rail FREE CAR PARKING!)
We had a dispute with the ticket machine that didn't seem to like our credit cards and then wanted the exact money for tickets. The machine won!
We caught the train and sat back to enjoy the journey and as ever in Utah we did a spot of temple spotting. When we got into SLC we walked across to pick up the Trax that runs through the city. The trax seemed to have a few problems but eventually we got to North Temple Square and got off to walk around.

This is one of my favourite buildings that I managed to cut the top off.....

The tourist turned up in SLC!

The beautiful statues in Temple Square

The SLC Temple a picture postcard

We walked to the Joseph Smith building for a sit down and to enjoy the beauty of the building. the building was formally the Hotel Utah and was considered the best hotel in the west.

We then went to the City Creek Shopping mall a major development of what was ZCMI, beautiful place with wonderful shopping and a Cheesecake factory where we went for lunch- have to say could have got hypothermia there- but did enjoy the food and shared a piece of cheesecake for dessert.

Those tourists were there again. I made a purchase of a Pandora bracelet and bead really love it and have wanted one for ages.....

Then it was time to go...and I love these sculptures on the train station.

Labor Day (American spelling after all it is their day)

This morning we had our alarm call and got up and ready and went to visit the Bridal Veil Falls. We walked along to the falls where the children could paddle and feed the fish, even climb up the falls (FORGET health and safety)

On our way to the falls

Bridal Veil Falls

After the falls we went to Traverse Mountain outlet shopping centre for a bit of retail therapy. Gap had a 50% off day because if was Labor day.....works for me.
Then in the afternoon we enjoyed an amazing barbecue prepared by chef England

Sabbath Walk

A really good nights rest with our alarm clock working.....the boys running upstairs...... As church was not until 1pm we went for a walk around the Provo Temple

The temple was far nicer than I had thought it would be and is built in the round. The gardens although not large were pretty and a pleasure to walk around.

Church was followed by a delicious dinner made by Chris and Rachael, I didnt think I had ever seen such a large piece of beef! It was lovely to meet with Marcus & Nicole and Grant & Lauren and share the time together.