Seventy was celebrated in style with my family and Utah friends

I flew to Utah October 30 to stay with my son's family and my youngest son lives nearby. My daughter brought her sons from Colorado. Sunday she and her boys and I went to church and that afternoon friends came over and we all enjoyed pizza and salad. Next day was Halloween and the kids were cute as can be as train engineer, tiger, Woody and Buzz Lightyear. We walked down the steep hill stopping at every lit house until the buffet of hot soup and homemade bread, then walked back up the other side. It was a perfect night for it and went very well. November 1 we had a delicious dinner and then friends stopped by who recently married and I got to meet the groom. Then my long-time friend Carolyn and her husband came by. Paul brought out balloons at some point and friends just kept coming in. It was a surprise party put on by my daughter and daughter-in-law! I was thoroughly surprised. We danced to Happy which I really wanted to do on my birthday. How fun. German chocolate cake and all kinds of eats came out. Thank you all for that. Steph took us to the stables to ride Rosie on my birthday. Her children and Ev rode with her. What fun. Then my children and grandchildren and I went to beautiful Tucano's for dinner on my birthday and I danced in a circle as staff sang to me in Portuguese. I enjoyed the delicious salad bar and sampled lots of meats cut at our table. The diamond circle pendant my children chipped in for wasn't quite right and next day Eve asked if I wanted to go exchange it for another which we did with Steph and boys and found one with more heft and bigger at Kay's. And Paul called and met us for lunch before I left for the airport. It all worked out amazingly including a walk to the park and a drive up the canyon seeing four deer. I went into a new decade in style alright and sent off the ancestry DNA yesterday that Adam gave me. I'm feeling very blessed. Thank you all family and friends. I got so many nice gifts too.

Happy Birthday Soaring Eagle

Here's what 70 looks like

Take one spectacular garden, thousands of fragrant flowers, numerous hummingbirds and tiny birds in flight, delicious Mexican buffet and homemade caramels, add Class of '64 from Hogan and Vallejo and what do you get? A birthday celebration of us all turning 70! Granted, language was coarse at times which I deplore. I did connect with Roxie and Mary Ellen whom I hadn't seen in decades. Three hours of delight and even the weather cooperated after a rain shower an hour earlier in Concord. Ending General Conference weekend with a baptism could not have been better.

Mary Ellen, me, and Roxie. These were friends from the 60s.

Forty-five years and counting

I met my friend Kathy 45 years ago. We both attended the brand-new singles ward and got better acquainted on an outing to Lake Berryessa. When I was raising a young family in the city the flat next door was for rent and she ended up moving in. We'd invite her over for breakfast before she left for work and got together a lot until she moved and eventually we moved also to the East Bay. Since we met in 1971 we've been eating together and going to movies and on vacation over the years. Independence Day we had a lovely picnic on Mt. Tam. On 9/11 we went to a favorite spot neither one of us had been to in a long time, Tennessee Valley Trail, and hiked to the beach which took an hour and ate our picnic lunch on a bench overlooking the Pacific. What a great couple of outings to celebrate our long friendship.

National Parks Centennial

http://www.pbs.org/a-capitol-fourth/concert/nps-turns-100/

Of all the beautiful parks I've visited because of an adventurous mother probably Yellowstone had the most impact if I had to choose one. Animals, scenery, smells, brick lodge. It was tremendous. I wrote about it in my published journal, One Magical Summer.

Alioto Plaza concerts

https://www.facebook.com/People-in-Plazas-248108193229/?fref=nf

After inviting half a dozen couples just married at City Hall to dance to the concert music this couple agreed. I'm in the pink cap.

Utah, Wyoming and Colorado

The plan worked. I flew Allegiant to Provo, Utah, July 29 where Adam picked me up and dropped me at Provo City Center Temple where I had family names I did. I love this temple, my first time inside. I spent three nights with his family in their newly-built home, we danced to Happy together, attending church on Sunday. We read books. We had a salmon dinner feast that evening and celebrated the twins' birthdays again with a basketball cake after walking to the nearby playground together. Stephanie drove me to Greyhound bus station in Salt Lake City bound for Rock Springs, Wyoming, where I met up with Eve's family returning from two weeks in Idaho. We had a fun road trip to Colorado and arrived at the empty rental. My first night was on the floor wrapped in a beach blanket. Thankfully the van arrived in the morning and two hired men unloaded for four hours to the two-level lovely home. Over the course of a week it was transformed into a beautiful living space for the family. A very fun event was attending the downtown celebration at Olympic City for the opening of the Rio Olympics. https://www.facebook.com/events/1706537516283178/. I especially was thrilled to see the Clydesdales again and stand under two filled hot-air balloons. I danced around to the Brazilian music. I swam one day, took one or both boys on walks to the community room or nearby playgrounds, saw wild bunnies almost daily, and attended church together. I put Happy on for dancing and also played hide and seek. We read books. I helped unpack, flatten boxes, wash dishes, empty the dishwasher and watch the children. Rick got the TV mounted in time for the Olympics August 5 but reception for the station was spotty. He put together a basketball game and they looked at air hockey and a ping pong table for the spacious playroom downstairs. The high altitude definitely affected me even though I made base camp in Utah. I was 1500 feet higher in Colorado. Adam made sure the boys had scripture time and prayer before bed and so did Rick with a song and prayers. Their FHE my last night was memorable with song, prayers, lesson on family, duck duck goose, red light, green light and popcorn and grapes in the patio finally seeing the moon and another hummingbird. Weather ranged from hot to cloudy, rain, hail, thunder, lightning, mostly beautiful cloud formations and one morning an entirely cloudless blue sky. We ate delicious meals together having stopped in Denver on the way where I treated to Spaghetti Factory in lovely downtown. Taco Bueno was delicious twice and fed a family of five for $11.00 with their specials. The ravioli dinner and salmon dinner were delicious. These moves for my children are the third in only two years. Rick would be working in Denver August 9 and awoke at 4 a.m. to take me to the airport.