A Fun Day with Grandma & Grandpa by Lovely Lily

My Grandma said it was okay if I told you about my day with her and Grandpa. They came over yesterday to babysit me. This is a rare occurrence because a) I have a regular babysitter but she had an appointment, and b) my grandparents are not around too often because they are what you would call "gypsies". I'm not sure what that means - but it has something to do with moving around a lot and taking their home with them. That sounds to me a lot like a turtle,

but neither of them look like this. Okay, maybe Grandpa does just a little! Anyway, I was happy that they were able to babysit me, and here is what we did together. I just want you to know, that although Grandma isn't in a lot of the pictures, she was there playing with me, and singing to me. She was quite bothersome, though, I have to admit, because she kept holding up this black box to her face and peering through it and asking me to smile, or calling my name. Other times she just caught me off guard.

Our day started off with Grandpa showing me how to make paper airplanes.

His turned out much better than mine. What does he expect? I'm not even 2 yet!

I tired of that quickly so Grandma brought out my drum that's stuffed with noise makers. I like to empty the drum and hand Grandpa all the toys to hold.

See how Grandpa even takes care of my baby doll? Then Grandpa showed me how to play the drum.

And in no time, I'm playing with both sticks!

My baby needs some attention so I stop and give her a kiss.

Then we played with all the blocks on the floor. That was fun. It was even more fun to watch Grandma and Grandpa get down on the floor with me and play, then struggle to get up OFF the floor. Grandpa lets me go from toy to toy because Grandma says that I have him "wrapped around my little finger", but that can't be true because he's much too big to fit around my finger! Grandma's just crazy! But Grandma says that we have to clean up our mess before moving on to the next toy, so I am a good girl and help pick up the blocks.

We have music playing in the background, which helps because Grandma is ALWAYS breaking out into silly songs. This time she grabbed me and danced with me. It was fun to dance around the room.

Grandma started to get a little crazy and sang real loud, twirling me around in a circle! I got butterflies in my stomach and Grandma got a little dizzy, too! We had to stand still till Grandma's eyes stopped rolling around in her head!

All of this playing, singing and dancing made me tired! I took a good nap and by the time I woke up, my Mommy came home for lunch and visited me! I think she really just wanted to check up on Grandma and Grandpa to see if they were doing a good job. She saw that I was no worse for wear, and Grandma showed her the photos from the morning activity, so Mommy felt it was safe to return to work.

After lunch Grandma and Grandpa took me for a walk.

Grandma and Grandpa both like pushing me in the stroller. Grandma usually pushes me, except when she's taking pictures, which is like, ALL THE TIME!

We saw this cool fountain and Grandma suggested that maybe I'd want to put my hands in the water. My Grandma is so cool! Grandpa is too!

Brrr! That water was really cold! Boy that was fun!

Then we walked past the train station and started to head towards home. We heard a choo-choo coming so Grandma turned my stroller around so I could see it.

It was the California Zepher, which is kind of a big deal, but I don't know, it looked like a regular old choo-choo to me.

When we got back home, Grandpa put me in my little swing.

I like to swing on my swing. But better yet, I like to sit next to Grandpa on the glider.

Pssst, Grandpa, look what Grandma is doing!

You know, I have to share Grandma and Grandpa with my four-legged pets. Well, truthfully, not Grandpa so much, but definitely Grandma! Grandma loves all the furry creatures in my house, like Luna,

and Cora,

and Khan.

They are inside cats which mean that they are ALWAYS around. I can say kitty-kitty real cute, or at least everyone thinks so.

Then there's these two knuckleheads

 

That's Atlas on the left and Venus on the right. They are brother and sister. I can say doggies real cute, too. I'm not much taller then these two, so when I'm trying to walk around it sometimes is hard. But I like having so many animals in the house. They like when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit, too. Grandma is always petting them.

Well, that is how my day was with my Grandma and Grandpa. It was fun!

One more picture Grandma. SERIOUSLY?

Things that are ROUND

For your viewing pleasure, I perused my photos that I have taken over the last five years to find things that are ROUND. Here are just a few of the million thousand hundred of photos in my collection. Enjoy.

Rose window, church in Santa Fe

Chihuly exhibit, Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden

Khan, my daughter's cat

ceiling light, Iguana Mac's Restaurant

jet engine, Boeing museum, Seattle, Jeff (son) & brown-haired me

Sculpture at Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright Home

Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville

Save the Earth exhibit, Navy Pier, Chicago

my great nephew, Riley, 2008

half circles (split peas) in a circle

home made apple pies my sisters and I baked

apples to put in the pies

I hope you enjoyed today's lesson on things that are ROUND.

Sunday Bridges - The London Bridge

Remember singing,

London Bridges falling down, falling down, falling down
London Bridges falling down, my fair lady!

Who knew it would really be true? This is the London Bridge, originally built in London in 1831, and is now located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The bridge was purchased in 1962 by Robert McCulloch, the founder of Lake Havasu and the chairman of McCulloch Oil Corporation. He wanted the bridge to serve as a tourist attraction to his retirement real estate development.

The bridge was carefully disassembled and each piece was numbered. Reassembly began in 1968, and finished in 1971.

There was an "English Village" with shops and restaurants by the bridge, but sadly, it was pretty run down when we visited it.  Many of the shops were closed. It is sad, because it could be a nice touristy area. Things may have changed. This was back in 2006.

 
For more Sunday Bridges visit Louis La Vache

Flashback Friday - Salt Lake City, UT

 

In keeping with the "Mormon" theme from yesterday, I thought it would be a good time to visit Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. We were enroute from Arizona to Washington, and decided to make a stop in Salt Lake City because we had never been there before. I was surprised at how small the downtown area was, and the majority of it was taken up with Temple Square, the Mormon's headquarters. Our campground was located just down the main street, a couple of miles from the square. We were told of a free concert by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir being held on the evening of our arrival. So we quickly set up the trailer, ate some dinner then went down to hear the choir.

Normally the choir sings in the Tabernacle. It is the oval-shaped building.

But the Tabernacle was closed due to refurbishing, so the concert was held in the Conference Center, which seats 21,000.

Inside the Conference Center - the auditorium

The stage. Imagine all those seats filled with choir members.

When we visited, the choir was practicing all Disney songs - they were going to record a CD within a few days. I don't know why I don't have a video of them singing, unless we weren't allowed to videotape them. Here is a clip of the organist warming up. I didn't know how to edit it, so just listen to a small portion if you like.









Jim and I returned the following day and took a little tour of Temple Square. The first thing I noticed was the flowers. They were EVERYWHERE.  They were in flowerbeds.

They were hanging from the walls.

 

They were planted around trees. They were beautiful.

People were very friendly, smiling, saying hello. Nobody tried to convert us at every stop. I truly was surprised.

We first went to the Visitor's Center. Inside is a huge display of Jerusalem A.D. 33

Upstairs are large open rooms, where you can sit and listen to tapes or speeches. This is one of the statues in the room.

In the basement are a couple of rooms that you can watch films. They tell the history of the religion. I think we watched only one of them. Also, on one wall is a picture of all the "Prophets", men who are chosen to lead their people.

Two young women asked us if we would like them to give us a tour of the square and we said, "Sure!"

They took us to Assembly Hall, which was built by the Latter Day Saint pioneers in 1877. Now it is used mostly for a concert hall.

 

Our young tour guides were from other countries. Both were serving on their 18 month mission for the church. During this time, they cannot communicate with their family by phone, except for special occasions. I couldn't believe this. It was near Mother's Day when we were there, and I said, "You mean you can't call and wish your mother a Happy Mother's Day?" My eyes welled up. (Jim just rolled his eyes and thought, "Oh here she goes!"

One girl replied, "Oh, no, no, we can call our Mother and wish her a Happy Mother's Day!"

"Okay!" I said, a little relieved.

Of course, at this point, I think the girl would have said anything to calm down this loony tunes.

We left Assembly Hall and walked across the street to the Conference Center where we heard the choir sing the previous night.

This building is huge. What is so interesting about this building is the roof. Looking at the picture above, you can see a little bit of greenery sticking up. That is because they have a garden up there. Well, not really a garden, but it looks like an open prairie. Like this.

I am standing on the roof, on grass, looking at the other buildings of the city.

Now I turn my body in the other direction, and this is what I see.

They wanted it to tell a story of how the Mormons came over the mountains and settled in Salt Lake. This is a beautiful water fall system that starts here and runs all over the top of the building.

The water eventually runs down the side of the building here.

Here are some of the views from atop the Conference Center:

Church Office Building

Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg

We were not allowed in the Temple. (Only Mormons.) The Temple took 40 years to build, and was completed in 1893. Granite was hauled in by wagons pulled by oxen from a canyon 20 miles away. It took four days to travel back to the temple site.

And finally, here is the Family History Library. It has the world's largest collection of genealogical information. In 1894 the Church founded the Genealogical Society of Utah to gather records that help people trace their ancestry. As new methods of preserving records are discovered, the library is able to store more and more information. Today the library has records of more than 2 billion names in data bases; 2.4 million rolls of microfilm; and 278,000 books. With the help of more than 4000 family history centers (branches) in 88 countries, the Family History Library is constantly expanding its prized collection of  records. courtesy of http://lds.org/placestovisit

All in all, it was a very interesting visit, and if you are ever in the area I would encourage you to visit Temple Square, too.