April in Texas

We spent part of the second and third week of April in Texas with Debby. It turned out to be (by Debby's reckoning) the most beautiful time possible. The weather was perfect: cool, with warm sunshine, and the bluebonnets, for which Texas is justly famous, were at the height of their bloom. As we always do, we ate, shopped, visited, watched movies and we got caught up with Project Runway and Victoria.

 Leaving Las Vegas en route to Houston

 Late lunch at CorkScrew BBQ in Spring, TX

 Debby and Kris

Delicious brisket

 We were there just in the nick of time: 

when the food is gone, they close

 Brenham and Chappell Hill to see wildflowers in bloom

 

 DSDG, DAT, and KBT

 Bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush

The girlies in fields of bluebonnets

The back roads of Texas

 

Delightful old homes in Chappell Hill

Simple, vernacular Greek Revival

 Lunch in Brenham at the Funky Art Cafe

 Tasty and fun

 A visit to Leftovers Antiques west of Brenham

 Bluebell ice cream is a Texas favorite

 Huge scoops of ice cream for one dollar

Buc-ee's is huge and the most beloved road stop in Texas

Lots of movies with our MoviePass app

 Cooling our heels at Hughes Landing before lunch at Fogo de Chão

 Dolmades at The Olive Oil restaurant: music, dancing, 

and plate smashing

 A beautiful morning at Market Street in the Woodlands

 Market Street Square

Brunch at Levure Bakery and Patisserie in Creekside: French toast,

croque madame, and croissant bisquits & gravy were yummy!

 Headed to town

 Houston's in Houston is a favorite

 

Delicious food and button holes in the napkins!

Thanks to Debra Sue for such a great week! It was delightful, and home seems a bit boring by comparison. That's all for now.

OXO

D.

March and Early April 2018

March is the birthday month in our family, but in addition, there were some other exciting adventures. They removed my kidney stone, Lizzy performed in Into the Woods at her school, the Marlpit Hill Boyntons came for a short visit, and Kris and I made a quick trip to Arizona to help the Youngs with materials and finishes selections for their new home. Our visit coincided with Easter.

 Cousins' Breakfast

 La Casita for Phillip's birthday

 Bombay House for Phillips birthday

 Cake and custard

 Happy birthday to Jayson

 Bye bye kidney stone

 Into the Woods

 Rock and gem show with Pippy

 Delicious Italian Group Dinner at Boyntons

 With the Boyntons at La Casita

 They wanted to see the City Center Temple

SKT treated me to lunch on my birthday

 Birthday dinner at P712

 Street tacos at Mucha Lucha with the Youngs in Arizona

 The Young boys dying eggs

 Dinner and gelato with Grandmother in Mesa

 Easter egg hunt where Harry found the golden egg

 Easter dinner

 This is where the Young house will rise from the desert

 Checking out the model homes

Hale Center Theater with Pippy

 

An early birthday celebration for Katy, because we will be in TX

Tomorrow morning early we leave for Texas for a week with Debby. This is all for now.

OXO

D.

January and February 2018

The grandkid photos were finally completed and hung in January and we received our only real snow storm of the year. The heated driveway worked a curse on the weather this year. We postponed our departure for the southwest until Phillip returned home from Hawaii and we spent an afternoon in Salt Lake City before picking him up.

We found all well in Arizona and had a productive week with Grandmother helping her make decisions about carpet and tile which will be installed soon. We had a mostly delightful day out with a drive up into the mountains to Miami and Globe. We had been there years ago and still had memories of a Mexican lunch with Grandad at La Paloma in Miami. That restaurant is closed now, but the one next door is a winner. We traveled home by way of the Roosevelt Dam and the unpaved road down to Tortilla Flats must have shaken a kidney stone loose, because by the time we got back, I was in horrible pain. We spent the evening in the emergency room at Banner Baywood Hospital, and by the time we were to fly to Texas, nothing had improved. So we canceled our Texas trip, packed up, and Kris drove us home.

 This year's photos

 The heater works

 This is the only significant snow this winter

 A fun matinee at the Hale Center Theater

 An afternoon tour of my old SLC neighborhood

 Connor took Gradmother to see Hamilton

 

 And we went to Peoria to see the Youngs on the 

opening night of the Winter Olympics

 Iron Canyon on Highway 60 to Miami

 Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, 1917, in Miami

 The red building left of center was La Paloma -- we ate at

Guayo's  El Rey

 The chili verde was excellent and the frijoles were perfect

 Remnants of Miami's mining past

 Miami

 Roosevelt Dam was rebuilt since I last saw it -- it was originally

the largest stone dam in the country

 The Salt River below the dam forms Apache Lake

 An evening in the hospital with a kidney stone

 Headed back into Utah

A really delicious Valentine's supper in Kanab

I have been to a urologist and am controlling the pain waiting for the stone to pass. It was a bummer to cancel our Texas trip, but the ticket is still good for a year, so we will visit later.

That's all for now.

OXO

D.