My Holiday Ornie Bowl

My wonderful ornie bowl.........Snowpeople and Snowflakes........Cute..................

The Watchman

Another great shot of Zion in the winter. This is the famous "Watchman Mountain" If you look closely and have one of us locals point it out, you can see the profile of an indian looking to the north. Very cool...........

Kenzie and Joe's Christmas Ornie Bowl

Little Snowmen, Trees and Santa's.

HO! HO! HO!

Sweet Baby Girl.........

Our little Cherub Child............

Zion's First Snowfall

Let's see.........I've been to see the Nutcracker, the gifts are bought and wrapped and now it is SNOWING.............LET THE HOLIDAY BEGIN..

Now if I were only 10 years old again and living on the farm............I would be ice skating.............

Oh.....How Sweet it would be............

Zion's First Big Snow...........

Yeah.............A Snow Day and a chance to wear my new "Boots"................

Nutcracker 2008

This past weekend my two beautiful daughters, my grandaughter and I all attended Ballet West's performance of THE NUTCRACKER at Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City.

It was so awesome. I started taking my grandaughter last year and she loved it. She doesn't think to much of the Mouse King though. We did have another person this year go with us and that would be The American Girl doll "Kit" and also dressed in her holiday wear. We ate at the Olive Garden across the street and the Pumpkin Cheesecake was yummy. It was a great time enjoyed by all......

The Family

My Cute Grandbabies..............

New Orleans Trip

Recently my mother and I went on a trip to New Orleans. We stayed close to the french quarter at the Intercontinental Hotel just off of Canal Street. Getting in at 9'oclock at night and going down in the french quarter was somewhat scary.. and that was in a cab..... Bet you thought we were walking huh ? hahahahah. We rode the trolley, visited cool cemeteries, the french quarter, the french market and really did have a great time.............. Thanks mom for another wonderful time together........

Shotgun House

Wandering around in the Garden District we found these cute little houses known as "Shotgun Houses". They are not very wide but go a long distance back...... Cute huh?

St. Louis Cathedral

St. Louis Cathedral located by the French Market along the Mississippi River. Notice all the neat carriages ........Down along the French Market is a great flea market, street performers, art and FOOD.......... Good ole Southern Creole food.

We ate gumbo, deep fried catfish, oysters, shrimp, a po -boy sandwich and a yummy creation called a "Praline".........

Lafayette I Cemetery........Where's Brooke ?

Forget Waldo............

Where's Brooke ???????

New Orleans Trip

This tomb is what is known as a "Society Tomb".

To cut costs people would band together in "Benevolent Associations". These societies would reduce medical bills and help support widows, but their main purpose was to provide a sort of burial insurance, ensuring interment in a consecrated cemetery. Members were buried in the multi-vaulted "tombs". Of course there were monthly dues involved but you were guaranteed a good turn out at the service, as it would be manditory to attend all members services.

New Orleans Trip

These crypts or ovens as they call them are very interesting.......We visited St. Louis I cemetery and Lafayette I. They are known as wall graves and outline the cemetery as a fence. They are bought by families and are also used as temporary graves. Considering most family tombs have 2 to 4 places for crypts.....sometimes there is no room for the next deceased person so they would rent one of these wall spaces until space would become available. The remains of the individual would be removed after 1yr and 1day and be buried in the space below the grave and then someone else can now be buried there.

New Orleans Trip..Tomb of the undead......

This cool tomb is located is Lafayette I cemetery. It is the Karstendiek tomb and is built entirely of cast iron and dates from the 1860's. Does it look familiar? Did you see Interview with a Vampire? As a child Ann Rice played in this cemetery....

Hence it was part of the movie. I don't remember it but come on......that was a long time ago. I guess I will have to watch it again.

What is all the buzz on these Ornie Bowls?

Oh Yeah...... I started seeing these darling creations on E-Bay (Ebay thats another story). Anyway........ These little handmade creations are called Primitive ornies or bowl fillers. Most are baked and scented then you display them in the entry or on a table in a cute flat bowl or a wooden open face tray...... I bought each of my daughters these really cute brown metal decorative bowls and we started this at Halloween........ OH MY GOSH........cute cute cute......ARE YOU EVEN KIDDING ME............ We have now moved on to Thanksgiving with cute littleTurkeys, acorns, etc.... But my big excitement is Christmas. These cute ones to the left were purchased as ornaments at Cracker Barrel at a third of the price and then I will mix and match them with filler such as holly, pinecones, jingle bells, small ornament balls and whatever else................After I put them together I will post a picture of the finished product............

Baby Gap.......Baby Girl

She love her Nana...........................

Mt. Nebo majestic view

What a great spur of the moment photo....

Spectacular view of Mt. Nebo

Madame Butterfly

Recently my mother and I traveled to Salt Lake City to Capitol Theatre to see Madame Butterfly. What a beautiful opera. It is a heart wrenching story of a beautiful young geisha who sacrifices her family, her religion and, ultimately, her life for her American husband. This is a Giacomo Puccini opera. It is sung in Italian and it premiered in Milan in 1904. Puccini also did my other favorite opera of La Boheme. Both VERY VERY VERY Sad.............

Halloween 2008

This is my cutie Ivy and her hubby Cody. I am just wondering where his earrings are......?????

Brooke Tombstone

O.K. I guess there has been some confusion and CONCERN about my profile picture. For those of you who don't know of my addiction.............well it's time you knew..........

Yes, I am a graveyard groopie........I have had this obsession with family history / genealogy now for about 30 years. I also do alot of freelance work for other people.

This particular photo of the gravestone with my name on it was a stone I found at Arlington National Cemetery in August. I am headed to New Orleans in 2 weeks to photograph several ole "FABULOUS'' cemeteries..........

Now you know........................

School Halloween Carnival

I love them Corn Dogs.................

Halloween Cupcake making

We made the cutest cupcakes for Halloween. I had bought 3 different kinds of sprinkles but by the time we were done decorating Lukas had had more fun just combining them all into one...........

American Girl doll excitement.......

Well,

Layni turns 6 on Halloween day and guess what Nana Brooke got her???? It's Kit............She actually got the Nicki doll last year but come on...........Nicki needed a friend to play with. I know I spoil my grandchildren but thats what grandparents are for.

Halloween 2008

Every year up in Northern Utah there is a place called Young Living Farms and they have this fabulous one day event for Halloween. It was a blast......Pictured is Grandma Claire, Mackenzie, Layni and Lukas.

Halloween 2008

Frank and Lukas

Halloween 2008

Ivy, Lukas and Mackenzie making S'mores

Baby Henli

Is she adorable or what.....?????She is wearing her Halloween costume. Hard to believe she is 7 months old now.

Lincoln Memorial

What a beautiful view at the Lincoln Memorial. Remember the movie "Forest Gump"....... Well , this is the place..... I was doing a little

re-inactment............ You Know...

Forest.......Jenny...........Forest.....Jenny...when this girl behind me started laughing.......

My fathers final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery

This is the columbarium located in Arlington National Cemetery.

My father served faithfully as a United States Marine from Nov.2, 1948 to Sept 10, 1952. He landed with the marines at Inchon Korea on Sept 15, 1950 at the age of only 22 years. The bugler pictured had just finished a service nearby and graciously posed for this picture. Even though my father passed on June 30, 2000 my mother decided to have him "Inurned" here in 2008. His "niche" is located on the top row 3rd from the right. He is surrounded by many other marines and members of the armed forces who also faithfully served their country.

Arlington House

The beautiful home of Robert E. Lee and his wife Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee ( grandaughter of Martha Washington). Due to the civil war and Lee's love for the south they boxed all their belongings in wagons and open carriages and left about the 8th of May1861. It stood empty with only servants in attendance until the 23rd of May when more than 13,000 Federal troops marched across the long bridge to occupy it. Eventually they would bury dead soliders here to make sure that Lee would never return.......hence........Arlington National Cemetery.

Mount Vernon Greenhouse

Located on the grounds is this beautiful greenhouse and gardens.................this would be to the left of the main house. You can always go to www.mountvernon.com to check it out. Remember in THOSE days they pretty much had to do for themselves. They grew there own herbs here and much more.

Mount Vernon

This is the beautiful view of the Portico side of the house looking out over the Potomac River. I know now why George and Martha Washington loved this place so much. Here you could see the lives played out by their grandchildren, Nelly Custis and George Washington Parke Custis, of whom they raised. Pictured is my mom.......

Birthday 2008

This years birthday was just "the best birthday ever"......... No kidding. My daughters and their families showed up at my door at 10:00 at night with cupcakes, candles and balloons... Wow Was I surprised............We then spent the next 2 days doing all kinds of fun stuff. We went to Fiesta Fun Center in St. George and rode the go carts and water boats. It was 106 degrees that day. They even bought me what I have been wanting, a Sirius Satellite Radio System. Joe installed it that day. I have the best family in all the world. Thank you and I love you all so much. Thanks for sharing this weekend with me.

My Birthday

My birthday............and I'm not telling anyone how young I am. The only thing I really find great about birthday's as you get older are two things: Being surrounded by a loving family and those AWESOME gifts. This year was the best.
We are headed out to dinner at Majestic View Lodge. Pictured are my grandaughter's Henli Christine and Layni Brooke. What a couple of dollies.

Clint Holmes

This past weekend my mother and I enjoyed a great time together. We love to go and see shows in Vegas. We got a room at the Suncoast out in the Summerlin area and went to see Clint Holmes. What a fabulous intertainer. You can visit his website at http://www.clintholmes.com/ . On Monday we met my beautiful daughter Mackenzie at Marie Calendar's for lunch..............She had lunch but we had Pie....Who doesn't Love the Strawberry Pie??????????????

Penthouse at Queen's Ridge

This is the Penthouse Apartment of the Queen's Ridge that is described in the following post. I'm not really sure I would like living here. But the view................ARE YOU KIDDING???? It faces the strip. But.............the planes coming out of McCarren are right overhead....... Scary.

Queen's Ridge

This gorgeous high rise is located in the Summerlin area of Las Vegas. It is directly across from the Suncoast Hotel. Wow. We even got to watch the window washers do their thing.

Sideways Hummer

This was a bad accident that I saw over this past weekend in Vegas. I have always thought that the "Hummer" was like the "ultimate urban assault vehicle". Well guess what......This was a 3 vehicle crash and both of the cars were still in their upright position. I hope that all those involved were ok.

Beautiful Place

Yes, I live in a place very close to what I think heaven will be...........................

The Great And Fabulous View

Another Great pic of the sunset rainstorm last night. Can you even believe the colors of the sky? Life is pretty darn good here in Canyon.

A beautiful Sunset with Rain.........

Hanging out my front door was just a little bit of heaven. We had the neatest rain storm and the sky was unbelievably awesome. I even danced on my patio......... barefoot in the rain.

My Girls................

A day at Chuckee Cheeze with my beautiful princesses...........................

Look out Tony Stewart.......................

Last weekend I went to my daughters up north and we took the kids to Chuckee Cheeze........Did we have fun or what......... $50.00 later we took a home a few trinkets and a ton of great memories. This is my Little Lukie Bear learning to drive.

Jolley's Gulch

Here is another great pic from my day at the Zion Ponderosa. There is a story and an old house that goes along with this view. The father went crazy and killed his whole family then walked to this place and jumped off. Who Knows?????. You have to check this place out. Web address is in the prior posting. All inclusive resort: ATV rides, horseriding, hayrides, pool, cabins, homes (half million dollar homes to rent), zip line, restaurant, pony rides, ATV's and track for the little ones. Billiards room, rock climbing, spa. Tons of stuff to do. I'm hoping to plan a trip with my kids soon..........

Zion Ponderosa Resort

In June my friend Linda and I ventured over to the east entrance of Zion National Park to a place called Zion Ponderosa. Web address is http://www.zionponderosa.com/. Awesome.... This resort has recently been bought by Jet Blue and was it ever AWESOME. Please check out the web site. We took the hour long ATV ride ($40.00), but we had comp tickets. It was a great time and it was accident free. It was a first for both of us. Thanks Linda for going along!!!