Father's Day Weekend and a Little Summertime Getaway

Here's a little of what we've been up over the past few days. 

As usual, I'll start this update with Friday.  Friday morning, of last week, we met with another realtor, NOT the one we currently have our old home listed with. We are not at all pleased with what the current realtor is doing and NOT doing, so we are interviewing other realtors, and hope to be able to change agents.  Our current realtor had another open house on Saturday morning, but again, nothing appears to have come from it.   The meeting with the new realtor was very informative and went on all morning.  When the realtor finally left, I had a pretty bad headache. We also got a text from one of our grandsons who was supposed to go fishing with us Friday evening, and he wasn't feeling good. We ultimately decided to put off the fishing trip until everyone is feeling good.  

Saturday, we woke up to a smoke-filled sky.  The state of Utah now has 3 major, serious wildfires going on, one of which is less than 50 miles from where we live. Evacuations occurred and some buildings were burned, but thankfully, there was no loss of life.

Charly and I took a Saturday morning walk, then we stopped at a moving sale that a couple on our street were having. They were selling this air fryer for $5.  The lady selling it assured me that it works great and she still had all the instructions, and since I had been wanting one, I decided to get it.  I haven't had an opportunity to try it out yet, but I will soon. 

Sunday was Father's Day.  Our Father's Day church service was wonderful, with an awesome rendition of "How Great Thou Art" done by the choir.  It brought chills to my spine and tears to my eyes.  So good.  The messages were also excellent.  After our worship service, all the men in the congregation were given their choice of cold sodas to enjoy.  Charly was very happy with that Father's Day treat!  

Right after I got home from church on Sunday, I had to mark my ballot for Utah's primary election (which was last Tuesday). I had to take my ballot to drop off in the drop box since we would be gone on election day.  The drop box which is actually less than a mile from our home.  I like to vote in every election that I can, so to me, marking my ballot and getting it turned in on time was very important. 

Meanwhile, Charly spent most of Father's Day afternoon relaxing while I was cooking and preparing for dinner with our daughter and her family. 

We had a delicious Father's Day dinner of Charly's current favorite dish, Walking Taco Casserole. We enjoyed visiting and just being together. 

Our daughter made home-made pralines for her dad. Charly loves pralines so it was a great gift! They were scrumptious.  Our daughter is a very good cook, and pretty creative in the kitchen. 

We had a great time with our daughter's whole family.  Being with them made Father's Day extra special.  Charly loved it and so did I.

Monday morning, we headed off on a getaway to St. George, one of our favorite getaway destinations. 

St. George has some fun thrift stores that we enjoy exploring, and we always find a treasure or two. 

My favorite thrift store find was this wall clock, which will be just perfect for our downstairs family room where Charly and I have most of our books.  I took a picture of the clock as I was loading it in the car.   It's a really fun and unique piece. The bottom section of books opens up into a "secret compartment."   I'll post another picture when I get it hung up where I want it. 

We also went out to see and check on the house that we own in the area.  We are currently renting that house.  It is in a beautiful smaller rural community not far from St. George.  I don't know that we will ever move into this home and live there, but I love the surrounding area where it is located - just ten minutes away from Snow Canyon, a a Utah State Park. 

After St. George, our next stop was Las Vegas where we stayed at the Wyndham Grand Desert Resort. This was the view from our 10th floor window.

We have stayed at this resort before.  It is large, comfortable,  and gives us room to spread out.  It also has a little kitchen, including a refrigerator, which lets us eat in the room instead of at restaurants for every meal.  It has a washer and drying in the room, which means I won't have to go home with a big load of dirty clothes. 

The first night we were there, we took the resort shuttle over to "The Strip" and walked around outside. It was interesting, but too hot (about 104 degrees) so we returned to the room after about an hour. We got some post cards to send the grandkids and I splurged on a $4.99 Las Vegas t-shirt.  Las Vegas isn't my favorite place in the whole world.  It's expensive, hot, and dirty (in more ways than one). Still, we found some fun and interesting things to do, which I will talk more about in my next post. 

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

"A little bit of summer 

is what the whole

year is all about."

~John Mayer

 

Another St. George Getaway

This past weekend, we went to St. George for a few days.  Josh had Pioneer Day off from work (Utah State Holiday) and we had some time reserved at the time-share condo in St. George, so we went down and had a very nice few days.  It was too hot to hike, but we did go to Sand Hollow State Park and spent some time in the lake there and on the beach.  We also spent a lovely, peaceful evening worshipping at the Red Cliffs Temple in nearby Washington, Utah. It was a nice little end-of-summer vacation getaway.  I didn't take a ton of pictures, but here are a few scenes from a nice weekend in Southern Utah.

This is the view of the desert from the timeshare property. I personally think the desert is quite beautiful. 

This is Charly and Josh at the Red Cliffs Temple.  This was our first time to worship at this temple. 

Josh took this picture of Charly and I at the temple after worship.  It is a large and beautiful building and is less than two years old. 

This is the reservoir lake at Sand Hollow State Park, where we spent a morning. This was our first time to visit this state park, but we had a great time and will definitely go again.

Here is another view of the lake.  It isn't huge, but a lot of people swim, boat, and fish there.  

There is a good-sized beach at the lake, and a lot of people come to enjoy it.  Next time, we will bring a shade canopy, because the sun can get intense.

The lake wasn't super crowded the day we were there.  Josh enjoyed swimming, but I just waded.  Next time, I'll come prepared to go all in. 

I enjoyed wading. The water was cool, and the red sand was soft. 

It wasn't super hot the day we were there, but I was glad that we had some large umbrellas and hats to provide us with a little shade. 

Sand Hollow is a pretty place with amazing views of red cliffs and the Pine Valley Mountains. 

I really enjoyed the morning at Sand Hollow State Park and look forward to going there again next time we go to St. George. 

Later, we went to one of our favorite "sit-down" restaurants - Black Bear Diner -  for dinner.  This is the place Charly and I had our Thanksgiving dinner last November. 

Josh and I had burgers and Charly had a patty melt - his go to favorite.  The food was good and the price very reasonable. 

This is one of the beautiful sunsets we saw while we were in St. George.  I love desert Sunsets, and this one was a stunner!  I am grateful for a very nice few days in one of my favorite places - St. George, Utah. 

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"There's something about the desert

that feels like home."

~ Jessica Khoury

June Getaway - Part 2 - Sedona, Arizona

During our Arizona Anniversary Getaway, we stayed in a Wyndham Condo in Flagstaff but we went to Sedona two days to hike and do other fun stuff.  Sedona is only about 21 miles from Flagstaff, but because getting there requires traveling winding mountain roads through beautiful Oak Creek Canyon, the drive is about an hour. Here are some scenes from this drive through Oak Creek Canyon. 

I took these pictures from some pull-out view areas along the side of the Oak Creek Canyon. 

The first place we went in Sedona was Crescent Moon Ranch where we hiked along Oak Creek.  Here's a picture of us there.  

The red rock formations near Sedona make this a truly beautiful area. 

This is Oak Creek.

Here is Charly taking a little break from the hike along the banks of Oak Creek. 

There are lots of trees and shrubs along the banks of Oak Creek. 

This is the trail we hiked. It was a very warm day, but the trail was shady and it was much cooler than being out in the full sun. 

We really enjoy hiking along Oak Creek. 

There are wild raspberries growing along the trail.  The raspberries were out in bloom last week when we were there, but last time we hiked this trail, it was later in the summer and we ate some of the ripe wild raspberries growing there.  

Another place we visited in Sedona was The Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is a beautiful Catholic Church built right into a red rock cliff.  

We hiked this trail to get up to the chapel.

This is the interior of the chapel. 

This is a close up view of the large crucifix at the front of the chapel. There are pews where visitors to the chapel can sit and quietly pray and contemplate, and light a candle if they are so inclined.  

Now here are some pictures of the beautiful red rock formation surrounding the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  

I liked this lovely yellow cactus blossom that we passed on the trail to the chapel. 

After several days in Flagstaff and Sedona, we drove to St. George and spend a couple of days there, before returning home.  It was a nice little anniversary trip and we are grateful that we could spend some time in such beautiful and interesting places. 

That's all for now.  Thanks for visiting to share our June Getaway. 

Until next time, 

😊Deb💖

“Arizona evokes a sense of timelessness, 

its landscapes whispering tales of centuries past.” 

~Barbara Kingsolver