Arizona for My Birthday

"We should take a girl-trip together," my daughters suggested awhile ago.  Since we all like the musical group, "Pink Martini", we decided that attending one of their concerts would be a lovely activity to do together.  The girls found a concert in Scottsdale, Arizona, happily scheduled on my birthday, January 18th.  So we divided the tasks of making it happen into three parts:  Jessica found a place to stay; Audrey got the concert tickets and I scheduled the rental car.

We did all of this several months ahead of time, so we had plenty of time to anticipate.  Finally our time arrived.  All of us joined up at the Phoenix airport where I got the rental car.  Online arrangements indicated that anyone over 70 could not drive.  Humph!  I thought.  But I kept the reservation and made Audrey the designated driver.  When we checked in I made a comment about their too old policy and the agent was surprised.  He said it wasn't so, that anyone with a valid driver's license could drive their cars.  I changed my tune and made myself the driver after all.  Cheers to us older girls!

We headed to Scottsdale, where Jessica arranged for a condo rental for us.  It turned out to be a very cute place.  The girls gave me the master bedroom, since it was my birthday.  So nice!  We grocery shopped for the weekend  and got ready for our concert.  The theatre turned out to be a lovely facility.  We joined the crowd, bought some popcorn, and settled in.  It was a friendly audience!  We visited with a few of the people around us, than all settled down once the concert began.  Pink Martini is an interesting mix of musicians--bass, violin, piano, trumpet, bongos and drums.  And a variety of singers, including "visiting" artists.  Their sound is great!  Their albums contain numbers I don't especially like--sort of filler songs along with the great ones.  But the concert was all about their best pieces.  We loved them all!  It was joyful music that asked us to move.  Too bad there was no dance floor!  It was a bright, happy experience.

Here we are in the theatre.

Pink Martini.  Their lead singer is dressed in red.

Jessica and Audrey, outside the theatre.

Jessica really wanted to tour Frank Lloyd Wright's home in Scottsdale, so that is what we did on Saturday.  It turned out to be the highlight of the day!  His desert compound included homes for his apprentices, which he always had, both in Wisconsin (his original location) and Scottsdale.  It also had work spaces, storage spaces, and a theatre.  All was made of materials found on the land; stones set in concrete.  There was some wood too.  Designs tended toward the geometrical, his preference.
He loved the color red too.  We were enchanted with this place.

I'm sitting inside the Wright's living room, in a chair designed by FL Wright.  Note the geometric shape.  Also the red; gotta love that.

Outside the living room, this shows the use of local rock for the walls.  It is consistent throughout the complex.

Jessica and Audrey standing in front of the Wright home.  Once they put in a well and had water on the property, Wright was able to put in this pond and lawn.

Later we walked through Scottsdale's "Old Town", all lit up in the evening.  We walked through it and window shopped among the crowd.  We had dinner at a place called the Mission, where the prices were high and the food was less plentiful than cheaper places.  It was really good though!  Vacations make this kind of splurge fun.

Here is Scottsdale's Old Town.

Sunday Audrey and I went to a local Sacrament meeting.  It was a friendly, warm ward.  We so enjoyed it.  Then we headed into the desert and a hiking trail that Jessica found.  We hiked the trail for several hours.  I can see why people like the desert.  We found much to admire in the views that presented themselves to us as we walked along.  It was even beautiful.  We took lots of pictures.

Desert view.  Note the glowing cactus.  They look so soft and lovely.  But they almost reach out to us as we pass, to attack us with their needles.

Beautiful sun rises over the hills by our path.

Audrey and I with a giant cactus who's name I can't remember.

Audrey and Jessica along our hiking trail.

My body is used to walking for a certain period of time.  Our desert hike was longer than usual for me.  So I was sore a couple of days later.  But it was fun to be out in the winter warmth.  While we were hiking we saw a far-away fountain and wondered what it was doing there, in the desert.  So we investigated and found that it was located in a desert town called "Fountainville".  We decided to drive there and see the fountain close up.  It was located in the middle of a park and came on for 15 minutes every hour.  We timed our visit for the right 15 minutes and enjoyed it as we walked around the lake that surrounded it.  What fun to explore without worrying about time or place.

Me, at the park surrounding the fountain at Fountainville.

The Fountain, located in the middle of the park lake.  It is one of the tallest fountains in the world, our research said.

 We returned home and watched the moon eclipse.  We could see it cloud over with just a hint of red.
We all took pictures, but photos just could not capture it.  We ate our left-overs and went to bed.  Monday morning was our goodbye as we went our separate ways to fly home.  We've decided that we should make these girl get-aways a regular event.  So we are already discussing our next adventure.
Maybe Mt. Rushmore?

This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind.  We've been asked to take over the English program for one of our refugee centers here.  We've been teaching there already so we should be able to pick it up easily.  You would think.  But it takes planning.  I'm on it but I'm still not sure how we should proceed.  We've had company and gone out to eat several times this week.  Wow.  So now I'm 76 and busy as can be.  Its good to be an old lady with a challenge to meet.  But sometimes I'd just like to take a nap.

Welcome 2019

We have had a whirlwind holiday time and it has been great.  We were only home from our California Christmas for a couple of days before New Year's Eve.  I was thinking we would just float through it with our little family circle and go to bed early, but Layne really wanted to have a party.  This is quite unusual for him; he is normally not much of a party guy.  I told him I'd go for it if he made the invites.  So he did.  We had 12 of us for dinner and lingering, until midnight for a toast and general cheer for the New Year.  Some still lingered after that so we didn't get to bed until around 2 am.  But it was so fun!  I'm glad Layne promoted it.

Here's friend Larry Wintersteen toasting and Angelica popping on New Year's Eve, midnight!

Layne is into the toast.

2018 has been a year of losses, as far as friends go.  We have said goodbye to Ernie Trutner, David Thomas, Don Harmon, and Jim Wilkie.  Did you notice that they were all men?  It goes to my theory that men are just not built to last!  It makes me sad as I love the men in our lives.  This is the time of life for losses as we begin to leave this world for the next one.  It is to be expected I suppose, but I don't like it much. 

We drove to Utah on New Year's Day.  I talked Layne and the kids into coming with me since I was afraid of icy roads.  But there were none.  Why knew?  This time we stayed with Layne's twin, Lynn, and his wife, Camille.  It was so fun!  We don't spend much time with them normally, but this time we spent two nights with them.  The kids enjoyed them too, and loved playing with their dog.  We also had a brief visit with Bob and Maryanne.  I was excited to give them our late Christmas gifts and I think they liked them.  I'm hoping that the pjs I made for Maryanne will be useful.  I'm hoping to spend more time with our Utah family this coming year. 

Lynn and Camille's daughter, Kristin Jones, stopped by while we were there.  Here she is, between us.

Here we are, munching at the Black Bear.  Left is Angelica, Lynn and Camille.  Right is me, Layne and Seth.

After we got home from Utah, Allegra, Scott and his Jessica (#3) stopped overnight on their way back to school at BYUI.  It was a short visit but sweet.

We started our new Church schedule today--2 hours of Church instead of 3.  And a whole new study program for the year.  New ideas are usually pretty interesting and I can't help being excited about these.  I'm full of plans for the new year too.  I'm hoping to actually do some of my resolutions this year.  I'm hot for it!

We are home and settling into a regular routine at last.  The kids start back to school tomorrow.  I'm a little tired; I'm an old lady now, you know.  But things are looking good for a calmer week ahead.

Christmas Time

When my children were very young I remember the sweet feeling of knowing that they were all safely tucked into bed and all was well.  They have grown, left and multiplied now, but there is still such a sweet feeling when we are all back together again.  We came close this Christmas, as we gathered to California to celebrate together.  We missed son Gerald and his Frances, but everyone else was there! 

Layne, I and the kids drove to California last weekend and met up with Chris and daughter Jessica, where we stayed in a rental, in Mountain House, together.  Here are the Gendreau kids and Angelica in our rental house.  Seated:  Gemma, Miles and Peyton.

Our California days were filled with fun events.
Sunday:  Bethlehem Dinner at Reed and Dorothy's, after Church.  In spite of all the activity, there was still time for some people to indulge in a little media!

Monday:  Gingerbread houses at Ben and Jessica's.  Miles and Gemma are working on their unconventional masterpiece.  

Even the older kids got into it.  James and his wife, Alejandra, are hard at it.

All this lovely fun was provided by Ben and his Jessica, who baked all of the gingerbread herself!

I was in charge of Christmas Eve.  I planned it all out in my mind and it went so well there.  I warned myself to prepare for things to go not at all as planned.  With all those little people about, how could one expect all to go smoothly?  In my mind, the teenaged children would read a script of the Christmas story while the "littles" would portray the manger scene.  To my absolute surprise and delight, it all went pretty close to how I imaged it!  The teens did a great job of reading their parts and the "littles" stood their ground, in their proper places, the entire time!  Layne played Santa at the end and gave everyone a small flashlight, to symbolize being a light to the world, as Jesus would have us be.  Add a few carols and it all turned out rather well.  

Here are our readers:  Timothy, Vincent (who played Satan), Zachary, Miles (who was Jesus), William with his head down, Seth with his head up, Abigail, Peyton, Angelica, Alexis and, hidden on the right, Jacqueline.  In front is our nativity characters:  Olivia the angel, Jonathan as Joseph, Tia as Mary and Bruce the shepherd.  

After the nativity presentation and Santa's appearance, Christmas Eve gifts were passed out to all the kids.  Christmas pajamas; its tradition!

Tuesday, Christmas Day:  After individual Christmas mornings, some of us went to Audrey and Cliff's for a breakfast buffet.  It was almost the only get-together with them as they missed most of our activities because Rayne's hub Dom was hosting his family, visiting from England.  Later we met up with everyone at Reed and Dorothy's for Christmas dinner.  Wow.  Dorothy didn't take a chance that there would not be enough food.  She had enough for twice our number.  And it was so good!  

Of course we pigged out all during this happy California time.  After dinner, we had a family talent night.  Most of it involved the piano, with most of the grandkids having various levels of piano lessons.  I am proud of this sweet collection of children and grandchildren; their goodness, and their talents.  Layne and I even sang a song with Seth and Angelica.  They were less than enthusiastic about singing with us, but it turned out pretty well as we divided into parts to sing, Mary Did You Know.  I am almost over my nervousness in singing in front of other people.  It is still not my favorite thing to do, but I can make it through now.  Here's Zachary, playing his memorized piece.

Having us all together makes for lots of talking, laughing and all sorts of bonding.  It was all happy, noisy chaos and we loved it.  

Wednesday:  We visited several people, returned to Ben and Jessica's for a "group date" that Ben's Jessica arranged.  She got all the 16+ year olds together, along with dates, so spend the evening at their house.  She had all sorts of activities arranged to keep them busy and talking and it seemed to turn out OK.  While that went on, we met up with Audrey and Cliff, Reed, Chris and Jessica and went to dinner.  Picking the kids back up and driving back to Mountain House made for a very late night.  It is an hour's drive between Palo Alto (Ben and Jessica's home) and Mountain House (Cliff and Audrey's home and our rental), so traveling between places was a bit of a pain.  Traffic in the Bay Area has become pretty bad; there doesn't seem to be a good time to be on the road.  It just is always packed with cars.  

But it is magical to have so much family nearby and together.  I miss it here in Idaho.  We drove home on Thursday.  After 11 hours on the road, we were so happy to be home again.  I thought I felt pretty energetic throughout all these happy events, but Friday I crashed.  This old girl needs her naps, it seems.  Friday morning we awoke to new snow.  I love the snow!

More and more I realize how precious it is to have a family.  I cannot find the right words to express how happy I feel in being with them, and having them in my life.  I see more and more why the Lord emphasizes the importance of family.  That sweet feeling that came to me long ago comes back when I am with family.  I feel overwhelmingly blessed to have one!

  

Thanksgiving, Plus!

We spent this Thanksgiving at home.  It was especially sweet, as we had family with us!  Reed and Dorothy came, with their family, including son James and his wife Alijandra and son Alex.  Isaiah and Allegra drove over from Rexburg.  Gerald was here too.  We had quite a lovely collection of family.  I cooked just about everything the week before Thanksgiving and froze it. That made for a much less hectic holiday.  Spending enough time with Reed and Dorothy to be able to have deep conversations was especially nice.  Sometimes I feel starved for time with my children.  Of course they are busy with their own families, but that does not mean I don't miss them.  You may say that I brought this separation upon myself since we are the ones who moved to Idaho.  And you would be right.  But, again, that doesn't change my heart's longings.  Here is the Thanksgiving family.

Reed and Dorothy were here for about 5 days.  Vincent, who is now 17, asked Layne to give him his Patriarchal Blessing while they were here.  Layne did a beautiful job of it.  Being a Patriarch was not his favorite calling, as, he says, it requires "revelation on demand."  I can understand his struggle with that.  But the Lord always comes through.  I could feel the inspiration behind what he expressed to Vincent.  We all gathered to witness it and felt a lovely presence.

Here's Vincent just before the blessing.

Our time with Reed and Dorothy was a busy, happy time.  They are currently thinking that they will move to Idaho this coming summer.  My dream is to have family close by again, but I'm not counting on it until I see them on the Idaho horizon, packed for a move.  Things can change so quickly!  Little Alex is one year old now and so cute.  James is working hard on a degree that will lead him into being an actuary.  Allegra and Isaiah both seem to be happy in school.  It is a joy to have Gerald here as he spends tons of time with his kids and runs them to their various activities.  We have had some great conversations too.  It is good to be able to see a little way into the minds of my children.  I so enjoy what I see there.

Alex playing patty-cake.

Me with Reed and Dorothy.

We are set for Christmas now.  The house is full of decorations and holiday anticipation.  We had our first snowfall December first.  There is more snow today.  My heart is full of gratitude at this moment in time, even if Gerald leaves for Taiwan tomorrow.

Our first snow.

 

Fall Events

You may think that the past month has brought us little to speak of, since there have been no blog entries for awhile.  But you would be wrong.  I am having trouble making time to record our events, but today I'm going to make the effort!

We have an especially friendly neighbor, Jim Wilkey, who, along with his wife Inez, has spent quite a bit of time with us.  He is a bigger than life kind of person, who has succeeded in uniting our neighborhood through his outgoing personality and friendly ways.  Whenever Layne is on the phone laughing I know he is talking to Jim.  He is always there whenever activities take us outside as well.  He laughs with us and helps with all sorts of projects.  Until now.  After a couple of weeks of not feeling well, he went to the doctor's and discovered that he had leukemia and HAD ONLY WEEKS TO LIVE!  Wow.  We were stunned.  Sure enough, he was gone in just that time.  It happened so fast that we have not had time to adjust.  I can't imagine life here without his happy presence.  We have been spending extra time with Inez as we all try and regroup.  She will no doubt have a time adjusting to life without him.  That is the sorrow of this time of life.  People we love are beginning to leave.  Jim is the third good friend we have lost just within the past few months. 

Here's Jim.

With our grandchildren living with us there is less time for trips.  Fortunately for me, Layne does not mind if I make a few trips and leave him with the kids.  So that's what I've been doing.  It has been a long time since I've been to Utah to visit my sister.  I remedied that several weeks ago, when my friend Pat Green and I drove to Salt Lake, right after Jim's funeral. Pat spent time with her son and I spent it with Bob and Maryanne.  Maryanne is a genealogical genius.  She works on her art every day and is rewarded with new information so quickly that I cannot keep up.  It was she that pointed out to me that we have at least 15 great grandfathers who fought in the Revolutionary War.  I'm so inspired by that.  So I wrote about them and put it into a little book for the family for Christmas.  I'm so hoping that they will be inspired too.

Here's Maryanne and Bob in their 50th anniversary picture.

Pat and I had a lovely time driving to and from Utah together.  She is the kind of friend that I can visit with endlessly.  So we talked, non-stop.  Once I arrived home on Tuesday (Nov 6), my good friend Margie Thomas met me and we made plans to drive to Richland, WA, the next day to visit good friends Gary and Nora Jacobson.  They are dear people that won our hearts when we lived in Fremont.  Nora is having lots of health issues these days, so we decided that visiting them would be a good idea.  Margie is one of my recent widows.  Her husband and dear friend David died just two months ago.  We talked and talked about that and many other things during our drives to and from Richland.

Here's Margie and me, at our house.

Gary and Nora were in better condition that we thought they might be.  We enjoyed a day of visiting, spent the night and left the next morning, early, for the drive back to our house.  Margie drove the rest of the way to her home in Salt Lake City.  Now that she is a widow, I feel even more urgings to keep close to her.  It must be very hard to do without your sweetheart after so many happy years together.

Gary Jacobson looks just about the same as we remembered him.

Nora is struggling a little with health issues but is her same sweet self.

After our return from Richland, Audrey flew in from California.  She arrived at 1 AM Friday morning.  She spent the weekend with us.  I always love it when my girl is here with me.  She and Angelica bonded over finger nail polish and make-up.  We shopped of course.  Audrey and I also shopped for Seth, who is growing so fast that he needs new cloths every other month or so.  Yup, its hard to believe but true.  We didn't realize how picky he would be.  We returned most of what we chose for him, but we did score on a few things.  After that experience I will not shop for him again.  Next time he's coming with me!

Audrey and Angelica, with fresh nail polish.

This week Reed and Dorothy are coming with their kids to spend Thanksgiving with us.  I'm so excited to have family to celebrate with!  Gerald comes on Tuesday and my college kids, Allegra and Isaiah, are coming too.  Wow.  Family.  Here.  That is something to rejoice over.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Pre-Holiday Days

The world is as lovely here as it ever gets.  The trees are full of color and there is a wonderful crispness to the air.  It is a joy to be outside.  My neighbor, Linda, and I walk together every weekday morning and take in all of this beauty.  "It's so quiet here," my grandson Seth complains.  He is used to the busy world of city life in Taiwan.  Perhaps it is my age, but I love the beauty and quiet that surround us here. 

Here is a view of part of our autumn-filled neighborhood.

October brings several family birthdays.  Seth and my sister Maryanne share the 2nd.  Layne is celebrated on the 5th.  Dorothy, and now our son-in-law Dominic share the 7th.  Several friends also fill in the early days of October with birthdays.  Gerald was here to help us celebrate Seth and Layne.  I love it when he is here!  While he was here we also enjoyed a fall concert in which both Seth and Angelica performed.  The music they learned was both beautiful and spiritual.  It is a treat to listen to.  Here's Seth, in happy birthday anticipation.  He turned 16.  He thinks that means it is time to learn to drive. 

Layne turned 78 on October 5th.  His birthday treat was a carmel sundae.

It's always a joy to have Gerald with us.  The kids presence with us brings him here quite often.

Seth and his Sonous group sang in a local chapel and it was glorious!  The acoustics there made their sound deep and rich.  Can you spot him?

I feel blessed to have family visits fairly often.  Audrey and Cliff were here last weekend.  Of course they spent time in Pocatello visiting Chase and family and their college kids, Allegra and Isaiah.  But we got a piece of them too.  We shared an order of grass fed beef with them and are now the proud owners of another freezer, to accommodate the extra meat.  I think we are pretty set for meat for the next year and beyond!

Last Saturday friends invited us to their new house to experience an Indian ceremony to dedicate their new home.  Wow was that interesting.  They hired a Hindu Priest to come and perform the ceremony.  It took well over an hour!  He blessed everything associated with that home, the owners, and even the bugs that were disrupted when the house was built.  He read from his ceremonial book and chanted in Sanskrit, with the home owners sitting nearby, partaking of various fruits, flowers, seeds, salt and so forth, from a collection of these items placed on a table before them.  The rest of us sat on the floor of the empty house and listened.  The Priest did his best to explain some of what he was doing, but I must admit that the American guests got a bit restless with the length of the ceremony. What a contrast between that ceremony and our own practice of dedicating a home with a simple prayer.  The Indian women in the group then served a delicious meal of various Indian dishes.  That was tasty.   

Here you can see the ceremonial table, filled with items the Priest inserted into various parts of the ceremony as he dedicated what felt like an endless list of home related items, including the new owners themselves, Vikram and Megan.  They sat on pillows in front of this table during the entire ceremony.

It seems to me that this time of life begins to bring losses, as more and more friends in our age group begin to die.  So far, we now have 5 widowed friends.  Our beloved neighbor, Jim Wilkie, is our latest loss.  He was diagnosed with cancer a couple of weeks ago and is already gone!  I feel the loss of him and others whom we love.  I suppose the losses will escalate with time.  I don't like that about getting older.  Well, old.  Yet somehow we will adjust and, somehow, life will go on.  I feel, more than ever, that the dead continue on, and are near us; that the veil between us and them is very thin.  Death holds little fear for me, for I know that, one way or another, life goes on and on.

A Seattle Job

Quite a few months ago, daughter Jessica asked me to spend 9 days with her kids while she and Chris went on a trip to Europe.  Gemma is 18, Miles is 16 and Peyton is 14.  They didn't really need much from me, except to be there while their folks were so far away.  Committing to dates that are far away is pretty easy.  Several months ago my September calendar was quite empty.  So I quite happily committed myself to this happy errand. 

Of course the month filled up around this commitment.  Scott and Jessica stayed until my departure day almost two weeks ago now.  Here they are about to begin their drive to Rexburg and BYUI.

Then Allegra and Isaiah arrived for a few days visit the evening of my departure day.  I captured them at the airport, but otherwise missed their visit altogether.  Audrey came later that week and I missed her too.

But I loved spending time with my three Gendreaus.  I walked with Gemma almost every day.  We got some good conversation in.  She is feeling better about leaving home for college.  She was such a great helper for me, anticipating most of what was required of me and offering assistance.  She has become a beautiful, good hearted girl. 

Miles is a problem solver.  One evening he told me some of his ideas for solving everyday frustrations.  His mind automatically goes to that, it seems.  He spends his open time coming up with creative solutions for these kinds of things.  Such a great mind! 

Miles has the interesting habit of getting up early, eating a quick bowl of cereal, then crashing on the couch until time to leave for school.  Here he is in his usual morning location.

I was able to watch Peyton play at one of her soccer games.  She's a good player so it was fun to see her in action.  All told, it was a lovely time.

In the meantime, Chris and Jessica toured Copenhagen with friends, then Berlin.  They sent regular messages and pictures.  Looks like they are having a great time!

Seattle is a beautifully green place, with things growing everywhere.  Abundant rain is the price of that.  There were lots of grey skies and rain while I was there.  But most days were also full of sunshine.  Summer brings less rain than the other seasons.  Still, everything was green except...most of the lawns.  People in the local neighborhood as a rule do not water their lawns. So they turn brown.  There they are, a brown swath surrounded by lots of greenery.  Why?  It seemed so odd to me since our Idaho area has the greenest lawns in summer.  Because we water them!

Here's the green.

Here's the brown.

In spite of a sweet time, it was good to be back home.  Our gang here seemed to do just fine without me.  Except for searching out missing items or misplaced ones, all was much as I left it.  Layne was so glad to see me.  I noted that at the airport since he actually came inside to find me instead of picking me up curbside.  So sweet! 

I am feeling more settled with Seth and Angelica here.  I suppose I have adjusted to their presence without even noticing it.  Things seem to flow more smoothly this year.  I am enjoying them more.  Gerald and Frances will soon be here for another visit.  I always love that.  October brings more family birthdays, including Layne's.  The days are growing cool and crisp.  Early signs of fall are in the air, with the trees just beginning to show their fall colors.  It is a wonderful time of year.