My Godmother

This past weekend I traveled to various places to visit with family. I figured it was over 350 miles in three days. But............to me there is nothing more important than "my family". Pictured is my Aunt Jan who is "my godmother". She has come out west to get out of the cold of the New England States.

The Girls

Aunt Jan, my mom, me and Aunt Sylvia.

Oh Those French !!!!!!!!

I love to just sit and listen to my family speak french. It amazes me at times. Pictured from left are My Aunt Jan, Mom, Uncle Paul and his wife Sylvia. They all grew up in a small town in New Hampshire called Nashua. We are all french descendents from Quebec Canada. Our lines include the names: Caron, Moussette, Desjardins, and Nault.

Get Together Weekend

This past weekend my daughters and I were able to get together for the day. Kenzie and Joe came from the south, Ivy and her family from the north and me from the east. How funny !!!! We took the kids to the park and then went for lunch. It is wonderful to be together. I am truely blessed.

Heartbreaker !!!!

I bought Lukas this cute "Heartbreaker" shirt from Old Navy for Valentine's and the other night he wore it to dinner and told his mom this.........Mom, I gonna be a heartbreaker and break all the girls hearts. HE'S FOUR!!!! Where do they come up with these things????

Layni

Can you say "Strike a Pose" ? I really do think they love for Nana to take lots of pictures.

Playground Fun

Picture Perfect

She has the most beautiful smile !!

Mackenzie and Lukie Bear

Aunt Mackenzie and her favorite nephew "Lukie Bear". Ok..... so his name is really Lukas. But for a really short time we will really only be able to call him little lukie bear. For the longest time we would ask him his name and he would say "Lukie Bear". That's a thing of the past now.

The Tradition of The King Cake of Mardi Gras

The King Cake is believed to have originated in France around the 12th century. These early Europeans celebrated the coming of the three wise men bearing gifts twelve days after Christmas calling it the Feast of the epiphany, Twelfth Night, or King's Day.The main part of the celebration was the baking of a King’s Cake to honor the three Kings. The cakes were made circular to portray the circular route used by the kings to get to the Christ Child, which was taken to confuse King Herod who was trying to follow the wise men so he could kill the Christ Child. In these early King Cakes a bean, pea, or coin was hidden inside the cake. The person who got the hidden piece was declared King for the day or was said to have good luck in the coming year. In Louisiana, Twelfth Night also signifies the beginning of the carnival season which ends with Mardi Gras Day. The bean, pea and the coin have been replaced by a small plastic baby to symbolize the Christ Child. The person who gets the baby is expected to carry on the carnival festivities by hosting the next King Cake party.

King Cake

When my dear sweet Texan friends were here with me one year we got a King Cake from the famous "Raos Bakery "and they let me get the piece with the baby. I was so excited. ... I might add that the cake is also DELICIOUS. Best Mardi Gras Wishes to them: John, Pat, Danny and Janis. I love you and miss you....... And I am jealous that you will be in New Orleans soon.

Mardi Gras

The following photos are from my trip to New Orleans in November of 2008. I thought it would be fun to see them since today is the start of Mardi Gras. Mardi (Fat) Gras (Tuesday). What a lovely area to visit and so much to see. I cannot imagine being there during this time but it looks like quite a party!!!!

Beads Everywhere

There are simply beads everywhere in New Orleans. This is in the Garden District area and you can tell probably some of them have been there for quite some time.

Marie Laveau Tomb

Marie Laveau 1801-1881 renowned practioner of Voudou in New Orleans is buried here at St. Louis Cemetery #1. Born in the french quarter of New Orleans of a white planter and a free Creole woman of color. Visitors draw the three x's (xxx) on it's side, in hopes that Laveau's spirit will grant them a wish.

This beautiful building is located down in the French Market area. All the little doors located on the ground floor are all various little shops. It was close to here that we discovered a great little creation called a "Praline". It's a southern candy confection that is out of this world. For Valentine's I sent my mom a 2 pound box. Was she ever excited to see them!!!!!

Fabulous Homes

My mom and I walked all over the Garden District and some of these homes were just amazing. Notice this great old tree and the roots above the ground.

Market Cafe

Oh yes! I am still thinking about the deep fried oysters and wish I had a big ole platter in front of me.

Street Entertainer

These very entertaining street "persons" are all over down in the French Market area. Most all of them are pretty darn good at what they do and by the looks of his bucket of money he had a pretty lucrative day.

Crazy Times

OK...........so last week I went to the grocery store, bought just a few items maybe 5 or 6. Let's see can I even remember what they were now? Not important and besides I can't remember. Anyway I got into the check out line, put the items on the counter and I'm waiting patiently browsing the people magazines and it suddenly comes to me that.. I needed pretzels. So,I turned my cart around and headed for the chips isle. I'm browsing and eyeing them all in ( all 150 choices). I finally decide on the Chex sweet and salty mix. YUMMY. I put them in my cart and went: "WHERE ARE MY GROCERIES?" Are you kidding me? I got back to the check out and the cashier is just looking at me and said "I knew you would be back!" Who does this ????? I mean really, Are you kidding me? Needless to say I have had some concern about my memory and my behavior. Upon telling my children we have decided that I will definitely be living with the daughter who lives in the gated community when the time comes. We have been laughing about it ever since. Just another sign of "the dwindles" I guess. Please tell me this kind of stuff happens to others?

Life continues to be full of love and adventure around every corner.
God never closes one door without opening another.

Who was "My Valentine"?

My Valentine's day was so nice. My dear sweet wonderful loving children sent me flowers. The card read : " Mom, you will always be our Valentine". I am truly blessed. I stayed home all day and did just whatever I wanted to do. ... I enjoyed my favorite comfort food of Chips and Dip. What did you do?

Zion Blessings.........

I know I am always talking about where I live and posting lots of photos of my surroundings. But, to me it is just one of the most beautiful places in the world. I hope you never get tired of seeing them as I never take it for granted how I am so.......... blessed to be able to wake up here everyday.........

Morning Sunrise

These two photos were taken within minutes of each other the other morning. This mountain is called West Temple. You can see the reflection of The Watchman mountain as the sun rises. These mountains are situated about one and a half mile from each other facing east and west. The little valley between them is where we live. I loved catching the reflection of one into the other. Breathtaking huh?

Morning Sunrise.

A Century of Sanctuary

Zion National Park's 100th Anniversary in 2009.

In 2009, Zion National Park will celebrate a "Century Of Sanctuary". Zion was established as Mukuntuweap National Monument by President William Taft on July 31, 1909. Starting soon the Park plans to have a series of celebrations and events to commerate this historic milestone.

This is going to be a great year for us here in Zion. There will be lots of activities to celebrate our 100th year.

Check it out here: http://www.nps.gov/zion/parknews/a-century-of-sanctuary.htm

My Beautiful Zion Snow Day

Yeah !!!!! It's a snow day here in the canyon. There was about a 30 minute period where it was just a complete white out. Even more exciting!!!

Enjoy my snow day through my photos !!!!

It's a Snow Day.. and you know that makes me happy.

It has been snowing off and on here in the canyon this morning since about 5AM. What a lovely blanket of white and such a blessing for us. Moisture in the summer months here is almost a thing of the past. I am someone who has seen this thing we call "Global Warming". It is a nice reminder that there is still some winter yet to come. If I weren't working what would I be doing? Well...my computer is in for an upgrade and I will pick it up tomorrow. I will now have 1Gig of memory, that is double what I had before. So let's see, I would not be blogging, enjoying my friends on facebook, nor would I be enjoying my ultimate hobby of genealogy. HOW DID ANY US OF EVER SURVIVE WITHOUT THE ALMIGHTY COMPUTER ?????????? Hail to Bill Gates and microsoft !!!!!!So, I guess I am glad I am working especially since I love my job. I will post some snow pictures later in the day. Until then.........many blessings.

THE life given us by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.

--Cicero

Each New Day is a Blessing !

Zion Weekend

This past Saturday I took a drive up into the National Park. Only the months of Nov., Dec., Jan., and Feb. can you drive your personal car into the park. The rest of the months we have a shuttle system, which is great but I love driving and just pulling over and jumping out to get great photos. It had rained on and off most of the day and I was really hoping for some great waterfalls and this photo to the left was as close as I was going to get. I hope you enjoy the rest of the beautiful photos of my day in Zion National Park.

Zion Lodge parking

During the busy season this parking lot is jammed packed. It's so nice in the winter that there is room to move around. I think last summer we had 3.6 million visitors to Zion Canyon.

Zion Lodge

Lodging in the park

These are the cute little rooms beside the lodge that you can rent on a daily basis in the park.

What A View

This is the trail that I was going up when I happened upon the turkey's.

Wild Turkey's

This was awesome. I was headed up a trail and then all of a sudden I see a group of about 8 turkeys. I was actually able to get pretty close but was somewhat anxious when one of them started flapping it's large wings. They do fly you know.........It was fun to watch them for about 20 minutes.

The Virgin River

The Organ

Court of The Patriarchs

Funny Road Signs

I am a huge fan of Halloween and this would have been perfect for "that holiday". But it seems that this is not the case. You have to admit it is funny and let's hope that no one was hurt with the prank. This is on Yahoo this morning and I thought you might enjoy it. Here is the article that goes with the pics...

Slideshow: Hacked road signs stir worry
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. – Hackers are messing with electronic road signs in some states, warning of zombies and raptors down the road. Traffic safety officials aren't amused. The latest breach came during Tuesday morning's rush hour near Collinsville, Ill., east of St. Louis. That's where hackers changed a sign along southbound Interstate 255 to read, "DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES."
Similar pranks have been pulled in recent days near Indianapolis and in Austin, Texas.

Tanzania, Africa

I really wanted to share this photo of my daughter Mackenzie when she was in Tanzania for 3 months. She was there 2 years ago in January. She loved these little children and wished she could of brought all of them home. We all have a special place in our heart for Africa and someday I hope to go too. We have all been blessed by her humanitarian work.

I just want to say how grateful I am for my life on this earth and for all my many blessings.

Just us Girls !!!

This past weekend I went North and spent three wonderful days with my daughters family. The grandkids and I have such a great time together. We even had a slumber party where the kids and I slept out in the living room on the floor and told stories. I took along a few Valentine's goodies and we baked cupcakes. Saturday we shopped most of the day and then later we went to dinner at Mimi's Cafe. The big event of the day was that Layni has been talking about getting her ears pierced off and on for awhile but...just out of the blue she decided that sat was the day. So.... after dinner we all went to Claire's at the mall and she picked out some cute pink flower earrings. With two girls and two loaded earring guns we were just moments away and we now have pierced ears. We all thought for sure that she would chicken out. Of course there were tears but she did great. Thanks Reese for enjoying this great event with us!!!!

Baby Henli and her Nana

Henli helping her Nana take pictures.

Our beautiful baby Henli

Valentines' Pluffies

Nana always brings a few gifts!!!! These are "pluffies". They are made by Ty Beanie's. But don't get them confused....I had to ask what the difference was. The pluffies are softer. OK......so now I know.

Valentine's Cupcakes

We make cupcakes for every holiday. So friday night we baked and decorated. I had forgotten how much fun it was to lick the mixer beaters...and the spoons.........and the bowls. We had a great time.