Day 9: Leaving Nevada and Thank You Aaron!

 We spent the night in the home of Steven and Isaiah.  We asked if we could take them to breakfast before we left – though neither are early risers.  Some birthday present Steven had at our waking them.  We did try to hold out, but Richard wanted to load the car back up before it got too warm.  Jai, Richard and I played a few round of spades before he finally called Steven on the cell phone.  He was a lot more thoughtful than I asking to deactivate the security alarm.  I would have set it off without thinking about it.  My mom got an alarm after Richard and I were married and so they haven’t been a common part of my life that I automatically think about it. 

We took Steven to IHOP but said Isaiah would not be joining us as he didn’t feel well.  But he did join up with us as we were waiting for a table, but left again before we got the check.  He had made plans for Steven’s birthday which I would have liked to celebrate but Richard wanted to get back on the road and so we did not even have the birthday cake that Isaiah had mentioned. 

There were a number of small areas that we had passed through – none of which I had heard of before.  Jai took some pictures along the way and looked up some of the places on her phone and read what information she could find.

 

We ended up checking into a Quality Inn in Weed, California.  Aaron had already worked a shift that day but was called in to replace another worker whose car had left her stranded somewhere.  Both Jaime and I liked how helpful Aaron appeared to be.  He said we could leave our luggage strapped to the car as the hotel has security and he would be watching the lot.  We were less than four hours outside of Myrtle Creek, but Richard really needed the rest.  I think he tried too hard to make it home in the 15 hour drive.  In my opinion we should have spent more time with Steven.

Day 8: Las Vegas

 We left St. George on Friday morning.  Kevin, of course, wanted us to stay for the duration, but as we were only two hours out of Las Vegas I wanted to visit my brother Steven (who was not able to make it to Su Casa with my other two sibs).  Jai pointed to the sign that welcomed us to Arizona.  It’s funny how there is a piece of I15 that connects Mesquite, Nevada to St. George – but there is no off ramp in Arizona.

It was wise that we had left when we did as there were pockets of road construction in Nevada. Our two hour drive turned into three and a half.  We did not go to the strip but to North Las Vegas to unload our car. We had a three hour window before Steven had to leave for work.

After everything was unloaded we headed for M&M world.  The traffic in Las Vegas is horrendous.  If I lived there I would be taking public transportation – which I’m certain would take three times longer.  Not all drivers are insane, but there were enough of them to make it seem like all of them were.  Oh, my word!

We found parking and walked to the Coca-Cola building, purchased souvenirs and moved on to  M&M world. 

After we had made our purchase we headed for the Omega Mart where Steven works for Meow Wolf.  Jai thought it was enjoyable to find different paths that led from the market to the cycadelic art rooms.  Steven said Fridays were not as busy as Saturdays.  Busier than before the mask mandate was lifted – at least I would imagine.  Jai got some good pictures.  The internet has some funky pics also.  Check out these sites:

 https://news3lv.com/news/local/art-installation-omega-mart-opens-area-15-las-vegas

https://www.wheretraveler.com/las-vegas/play/exploring-las-vegas-newest-attraction-meow-wolfs-omega-mart

https://tickets.meowwolf.com/las-vegas/

https://meowwolf.com/articles/5-things-you-must-know-about-omega-mart

This was Jai's favorite entrance 

Both Richard and I were so tired after we returned to the house.  He went to bed and I tried staying up while Jai and Isaiah talked.  After a while I just couldn’t seem to hold my eyelids up anymore.  I excused myself.  I have no idea how long they talked.  The next morning I learned that Isaiah had given Jaime several gifts.  I saw her pick out the blue-faced purse the following morning. 

Happy Birthday Jenna and Archer

 Jenna has never appreciated having her birthday fall on Conference weekend.  Often Conference has not been the factor for postponing or cancelling her birthday - but rather the weather has played a part on activities held.

Last year was nice and she had met up with a friend and went on an Easter egg hunt downtown.  She enjoyed his company and enjoyed the day.  Yesterday she had also met up with friends for a small gathering.  They met at a table at the park. Originally she had scheduled an indoor activity on April Fool's day but realized that more guests had been invited than what she had planned and felt our back room might not be large enough to hold them all.

It was a lot cooler yesterday than last year or the year before.  As I recall, the weather was quite awesome on her 16th birthday - but it was 2020 - a unique problem by itself.  That was the year that Archer was born.  We were able to see him just ten days ago.  Jaime would sing the song "We are the Dinosaurs" to him and so I ordered Laurie Berkner's "Whatdaya think of that?" after we had returned home and sent that to him - though it won't arrive until after his birthday.

For Jaime's birthday, Richard had made a card featuring Hamilton

On the inside he had included a ten dollar bill which he folded to pass off as a wallet size picture

and for Archer he had made a card featuring a Two-Rex.

I am grateful that Conference is recorded and I can refer to the talks more times than just the live session.  My thumb still hurts from Valentine's Day and my handwriting has always been horrible as is.  Throw the wounded thumb into the mixture . . . lets just say I will get more out of rewatching the talks than relying on my notes..

Tomorrow I will continue on with my spring break journey with Las Vegas and other parts of Nevada.  Now going into the kitchen to have some of Jenna's (Jaime) favorite breakfast.  That is French toast.

3 Days in St. George

bottom two photos found on this site: https://churchof 
jesuschristtemples.org/st.-george-utah-temple/news/

 We spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in St. George where Kevin and Tara have been living the last year or so. They had been living near Buffalo, New York when we saw them in 2020.  Archer had been born on Jai’s 16^th birthday.  He was three months at the time we saw him last.  Now he is almost two and has a baby brother born 2/22/22 which was on a TWOsday.

Richard made breakfast each day we were there.  The first day he made french toast with bacon and eggs and Kevin made tater tots. I did some laundry on our first day there.  Jai had hoped to go to Arctic Circle sometime during our travel as she has fond memories of having gone while living in Utah.  We went to one in St. George.  I don’t think anyone was impressed with the food.  Afterward we went to the Alumni Creamery – a chapter of BYU creamery.  That was good.  I have missed BYU creamery chocolate milk. 

Kevin wanted to play pickle ball with Richard and had taken us to a pickle ball court but it was extremely windy and we weren’t there for very long. I didn't know that the wind blew in St. George. The next day Kevin took us to Pioneer Park where we climbed rocks.  

I would have loved seeing more of this; Thank
you Aaron D. Adams for the eagle project

Apparently I wasn't ready for the tackle of the climb

Kevin and Jaime crawled in spaces while Richard and I held back with Archer.  We also toured Brigham Young’s winter home in person (I had toured it myself virtually just last year; this post) 

We ate at a place called Hawaiian Grill and had dessert at Nelson’s frozen custard.  I have not had a lot of frozen custard in my life, but have always enjoyed it.  I wasn’t disappointed.

Richard and I had been put up in the room next to Archer’s.  He was having a rough night our third night there.  I had gone into his bedroom to see if I could calm him down.  I would sing to him – which seemed to work, but then he would cry again whenever I would stop.  Finally Kevin offered to take over.  He fell asleep in the rocker holding Archer.

Tara was the one who normally slept in as the baby kept her up, but on Thursday she got up and let Kevin sleep in after his rough night with Archer. We went to Smith’s market place as I was in need of some toiletries and something to sooth my dry throat. Jaime and I both had dry coughs and she had nose bleeds as well as the air in St. George does not offer the same amount of moisture as western Oregon – which is why we moved initially.

We’d gone to the Dinosaur museum and temple visiting center.  The temple was closed due to renovation.  This is the original.  We also passed by a second temple that is being built in St. George.

Day 4: Shopping and Sibs

 We checked out of Layton’s Comfort Inn and headed toward Salt Lake City.  Richard had decided that Jaime and I would need to bring some Salt Water Taffy home to our friends.  He decided that we would have to buy from the most expensive place he could think of:  Trolley Square.

Hey, Trolley Square does have its perks – but they are also rather pricey.  Wherever he believed the taffy was no longer exists – but hey, he did find some kitchen equipment that appealed to his eyes.  We made our purchase and headed out to Valley Fair Mall.  I do remember having purchased candy there.  But that was seven years ago.  Before the pandemic. Neither Jaime nor I especially cared about the taffy.  It claims it’s made with the salt from the Great Salt Lake (which by the way has not been that great for a couple of decades now) I wondered if there was any lake left.

 

While at the food court, Richard saw what appeared like a bowling alley.  We discovered an arcade and bowling had been added to the mall.  I took some pictures of Jaime enjoying herself along with some of the machines. 

From there we went to the West Valley Library.  Richard was happy to be in a real library again.  Jaime and I walked around to look at Fairbourne station.  She was disappointed that the water was not on.  I had not expected it to be. We did take a few pictures.  Mostly to compare then and now. 

Jaime went on a scavenger hunt leftover from St. Patrick’s Day.  We hung around until almost 3:30 and then drove to Midvale to have dinner with my brother Patrick and his wife Sunny and my sister Kayla and her family.  It was so nice to get to see them.  I should have invited Peggy who is a dear family friend who lives closer to Su Casa than either of my siblings do.  Jai was definitely happy to be at Su Casa as she misses the tradition of having gone there so often with grandma (her grandma; my mom)

After we finished eating and took some family pictures, Richard, Jaime and I continued to drive further south and made it to St. George sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.  

We stopped in Beaver to gas up.  Richard took our photos in front of the famous chair.

Randy greeted us at the door and put us up for the next four nights.