Finally on Our Way

It was a very busy weekend, and all of the doings associated with our stake conference made it even more hectic. We had meetings starting at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning. I was home by noon, and didn't have to go back until a dinner that we arranged for all of the stake leadership. The dinner was very nice and a good prelude to our 6:00 PM session on Saturday night. I had a talk in that one. Daniel and Rosalyn were house-hunting and visiting us, but alas they were left to their own devices much of Saturday and Sunday because of the conference.



Bubby did get this nice shot of Mr. Drewfus and we had a lot of fun seeing the kids. Daniel made us a special lemon pudding cake for dessert on Saturday night. Thanks Dan for all of the effort. It was very tasty.

On Sunday, I conducted priesthood leadership, and then we did the general session. We were all released and although I am sure it will feel weird for awhile, it is going to be good to go to Church with Bubby. It will also be nice to have a little more flexibility with Tuesday afternoons and Sundays. Of course, something new awaits. I already have to speak in Sacrament meeting on Sunday, March 15th.

After lunch with Daniel and Rosalyn and sending them on their way, we started to get ready to drive to LAS and catch a plane. I went on-line to check us in, and saw something weird, our reservations said we departed on Tuesday morning instead of 11:15 PM on Sunday. I tried calling Delta (our airline) and we got busy signals. I finally got through to Expedia, through which we booked the flights, and after much consternation on their part, it was realized that Delta had canceled our flight and re-booked us on Tuesday morning at 11:40 AM. I looked into alternatives, but of course the cost was triple what we had initially paid for our tickets. The problem was weather at JFK, I guess it was an awful snow storm.

After a conference call with Gayle, and a realization that we were not going to be able to leave until Tuesday morning, we decided to wait until Monday morning to drive down to Las Vegas. We were able to sleep in our own bed, prepare for departure in a leisurely fashion, and still left home by 10:00 AM. I did some checking and got us a room at the Mandalay Bay. That is Bubby's favorite and after lunch at the 4 Kegs and some shopping at Trader Joe's, Fry Brothers, and an oriental store, we checked-in. It must have been a quiet night for Mandalay Bay, because they offered us a half-price upgrade to a suite. We jumped at it and had a really lovely room for the night. Bubby had a jacuzzi bath.



When it came time for dinner, we headed to an old favorite, located in the Commercial Center off of east Sahara. We both had soup, mine was huge and full of noodles. Bubby's was so hot she has been suffering ever since. She ate it all anyway, though. We also shared some green papaya salad, and of course some dessert.



Bubby wanted to include this image for all of the sticky rice and mango fans we know. It was really good.



I decided to put this one in for Booty. He'll remember the coconut ice cream. They now offer it as a topping to sticky rice. It was really good, much better than what Bubby ate.



On Tuesday morning we left Mandalay Bay at about 7:30 and headed to Weiss Deli in Green Valley. We had decided that we wanted a bagel to take on the airplane, which turned out to be a very good thing. Had it not been for the bread and cheese and bagel we took with us, we would have been consigned to our "milk run" flight with little more than soda and Biscoff cookies. We also had a cheese Danish for our breakfast, in honor of Aaron's birthday. Bubby's was apricot, and she loved it.

While we were waiting to board our first flight (we flew LAS to SLC to ATL and, finally to BWI), we realized that Delta had put us in 1st Class for the first leg of the flight. This is Bubby immersing herself in the experience. Sure, it was only for a 45 minute flight, but it was absolutely wonderful. We were sorry to land. It made the other two legs seem even more crowded than they were.

When we got to Baltimore, we finally rounded up our luggage at about 11:45 PM, and then waited until 12:10 AM for the light rail to the Inner Harbor. We got off at Camden Yard, very nervous to be wandering downtown Baltimore (the panhandling capitol of the world as far as I can tell) that late at night. Luckily it was too cold for the homeless and we were able to walk directly to our hotel and were in bed by 1:00 AM.

We had missed most of our conference,through no fault of ours, so we don't feel too bad. There is lots more to tell, but we will do it in the morning. We are headed into Williamsburg for a grocery run.

Buboppy

Winter Over?

I won't belabor our travails during our return to Cedar City, but they were many. The most frustrating was waiting an hour for our luggage which had clearly been sitting on the tarmac in the rain. It rained all the way to Cedar City, where the precipitation changes to a light snow. We even had a windshield wiper malfunction that we fixed in the parking lot of an Auto Zone store in Mesquite, NV. Thanks for the kind gentleman who held the flashlight while I made the repairs.

Once home, things really kicked into gear. I had to drive over to Escalante for a board meeting on Tuesday. It was a snow-packed, white knuckle drive, but a very interesting meeting with the Escalante Heritage Center board and the architects who are designing their new wayside exhibits. The snow was pretty much gone by the time I drove home.

After Tuesday, I don't remember many details except that things were busy. Friday night we were just glad to be home and on Saturday we did our early morning shopping and then met Uncle Phil and Aunt Karen for lunch. It was fun to catch up with them. They are planning and preparing for their trip to Japan to visit Jim and Kim during cherry blossom time. Uncle Phil is shopping for an mp3 player and was actually considering buying a Zune over an iPod Touch, because of the added storage. I told him, probably too forcefully, that the gold standard of mp3 players is the iPod. If he needed the added storage, he should still buy an iPod classic over the Zune. However, I pointed out to him that a 32 GB iPod touch would hold about 60 movies. How many did he think he would need for his flight to Japan? Besides, the user interface on the Touch is so very elegant, and then there are the gaming capabilities. I guess he had been getting the same story from Tony, and he said he would buy the Touch, and I agreed to show him how to use Handbrake Lite to convert his DVD library to mp4s. I am confident he will love it.

We went to watch the last T-Bird home game on Saturday night, but not before taking a long walk in the spring-like weather. Sunday was Sunday, with a ward conference an elders presidency reorganization, but a nice weekend. Sorry we don't have any photos to share, but the snow is almost entirely gone from the front yard, so life is very good indeed. St. George will be in the high 60's this week. I could be fishing down there very, very soon.

Buboppy

Going to Church

Of course part of the fun of this trip is to just be around a five-month old Leo. He has started his cereal. He took a little time to warm to it, but now he likes to eat it just fine.



He leans forward from the waist and tries to get whatever he wants into his mouth. You can see that in this photo. He is really awesome in his bumbo chair. He sits up, "like a big man" (Bubby quote).



Leo got a new tie for Christmas from his Aunt Danielle. It had cool soccer balls on it and he really looked smooth when he went to church.



Yesterday when we were shopping we got some lovely asparagus and some pork chops at a great price. We had the butcher cut them special for us, and they ended up a little on the thick side. However, as you can see, Booty did a nice job getting them cooked and on to the table.



Laur made us a yummy carrot cake for dessert and it was a nice Sunday dinner. Of course Leo sat up to the table in his bumbo chair. He got some more mush and another bottle while we were having our lunch.

Buboppy

Valentine's Night in Dallas

We decided to try and get some dinner at about 5:30 last night. Booty and Laur offered to cook, but since we are from Cedar City, and our food choices there are somewhat limited, we opted for "out". Our first choice was Maggiano's Little Italy, however we were told it would be a 2.5 hour wait. So we headed for Patrizio's, a local Italian restaurant. We were told that it would be about 45 minutes wait, so we went in search of a diversion. We ended up in Gymboree where we did a little looking. We didn't buy anything, but Leo did try on some really cool shades. He was quite cooperative while we waited.



Once we got seated, we got right to it. I promised pictures of our dinner, so that is what you are going to get. This is my plate, which was a chicken and mushroom lasagna with a smoked gouda cream sauce. It was magnificent.




Laur had lasagna, as well, but of course Leo decided it was time to eat once the food arrived.



Booty had a pasta dish that contained Italian sausage, lots of roasted red pepper, and penne. It was spicey and very tasty.



Bubby had some eggplant, parmesan style. She had plenty, so we all got a nice taste. It was very good, as well.



Of course Leo was the center of attention in the restaurant and he got lots of attention from nearly every passerby. We had a very nice dinner, and headed home, vowing that if dessert was desired, we would eat some ice cream at home. We never got that far.



Bubby and Poppy are always ready for bed by 9:00 PM, and once we got Leo settled in and watched a couple of episodes of "The Office" it was bedtime for all, including Booty and Laur, who had been up quite a bit with Leo the night before. It seems he prefers his crib (in the room where we are sleeping)to the baby bed in his Mom and Dad's room.

Buboppy

Much More of Leo

Bubby is trying to get as much quality time with Leo as possible. This one was taken when we first arrived. He wouldn't smile for her at first, but can you tell who is coaxing him just off camera. That's right, he is definitely in Mommy Love. Happy Valentines to her!



Booty and his boy. They seem to have some definite facial similarities.



We had dinner at Saltgrass last night. That was the restaurant that Bubby really wanted to visit. We had a lovely dinner. Matt and I had their amazing chicken fried stake. It was truly inspiring. So good, in fact, that Bubby abandoned her shrimp and shrimp (two kinds of shrimp and a baked potato) to help me eat it. She has been sneaking bites of the leftovers all day today. Booty, Laur, and Leo had cheescake for dessert (yes, when Laur went to the restroom, Leo had a taste, and liked it).



We got to witness the wonder of Leo's bathtub "River Dance". He does love his bath and gets all excited as soon as they start to undress him.



This morning, we took our time getting ready to go to the grocery store. Bubby tried to get Leo's photo in his Bumbo chair, but he wouldn't cooperate. We did get this nice photo of Leo and his Mom.



This final shot shows Leo getting his first tech lesson from his Dad. Yep, he is intrigued by the iPod Touch, too. We are having a great time just hanging out here in Dallas. We are out to dinner again tonight. We'll take some photos for our reader's review.

Buboppy

Lovin' Playin' with Leo

We have arrived safely in Dallas and we are taking turns playing with Leo. He is so cute! Possibly the cutest baby in Dallas. Bubby took off his socks and found him as ticklish on his feet as Poppy is. Lots more later.

February Update

We realize that this is old news now, but we did get to celebrate Paul's birthday with him. Bubby made dewlicious cupcakes, but struggled with the frosting process, as you can see. She bakes just a well as Babsy, but her decorative efforts need a little refining. Of course, when it comes to cream cheese icing with orange juice and zest, isn't the proper ratio a teaspoon of icing per bite of cupcake? Happy Birthday, Paul.



As those who follow Jodie's blog will know by now, we had a play date last night with Kado, Zachy, and Sam. Sam is so cute and never even whimpered when his Mom left. I was so impressed. He ran out of gas and took a short nap part way through our play date. He has the most delicious round head, sprouting crop of hair (which I am told has been cut a couple of times already!) and cute little curling ears. A very sweet boy. In the photo, Bubby is considered trying to help him out with a little formula, but once it was prepared he was absolutely insulted at the offering. It just didn't have the correct taste and feel to his pallet and lips.



Zach and Kado insisted that I would not be allowed to take their pictures. Of course, I just waited for my opportunities. Unfortunately, when forced to take them unobtrusively, one doesn't get much in the way of smiles, and sometimes the pictures are out of focus. But I did get the pictures.



We played with the PlayMobil stuff for quite awhile, enjoyed cupcakes, played a little golf, and then read Bubby's politically correct version of Black Sambo. All in all, a fun evening for a couple of out of practice grandparents.

Now we are all tuned up for Andrew's arrival on Saturday. He telephoned his Bubby earlier this weekend and together they worked out the timetable for his arrival. He is coming after swimming lessons on Saturday. I hope we can keep him entertained. We were hoping for some sunshine which would allow outside activities, but there is rain in the forecast. We'll have lots of fun just being together. He knows how to play Old Maid!

Buboppy