June: trip to Mesa, June bdays, dermatologist visit

Glen, Eric, and I traveled to Mesa at the beginning of June to visit Andrew's family. We stopped in Vegas both ways and stayed at my sister's. It was such a wonderful trip--easy traveling and it was SO good to see everyone.

In Mesa, we took Henry and Joy to a children's museum called the i.d.e.a. museum. That was really fun. Glen and I also took the kids to a park, plus we also got to share a family dinner with Heather's family.

It was Dad P's 89th birthday while we were in Mesa, so we celebrated with him (and many other family members) via Zoom. Happy Birthday, Dad! June is also when my brother Kyle and my brother-in-law Pat have birthdays. So, Happy Birthday, Kyle! Happy Birthday to you, too, Pat!

We also played a ton of games while we were in Mesa, one of which is a new one Andrew has created--Chief Judge of Zarahemla. It's really a great game--the object of the game is to get more votes for your candidate for Chief Judge than your opponents. 

We also loved playing Century Golem Edition and Sagrada so much that when we got home, we bought ourselves the games. We would have also bought another game that I really enjoyed playing -- Ex Libris-- but it is out of print and therefore very expensive, but it's a really fun game.

On the way back to Denise's, Eric treated Glen and me (and himself) to a visit to the Meow Woof Omega Mart. He had been to the one in New Mexico before. It's a very unusual place. I didn't really like it at first, but then we found some things that I thought were fun and I warmed up to it. It was mostly visual but there were also some hands-on activities (which is the part where I started to like it a bit).

I had an appointment to see a dermatologist because I had a growth on the side of my nose that was quickly growing and it was in an annoying spot. It wasn't cancerous, but he also found some precancerous patches on the end of my nose. He froze them all off, so I'm good to go. I just feel blessed that I had the fast non-cancerous growth so that the precancerous ones could be caught early in the "pre" stage.

Grandpa reading to Henry and Joy

Heather and I got to play a duet--I'm not a good sight reader, but it was fun!

Joy helping grandpa to shave

Beth, Eric, Glen, Joy, Andrew, and Heather playing Gugong

Chief Judge of Zarahemla game board

Eric, Glen, Andrew, and Heather playing Chief Judge

Joy playing at the graffiti exhibit at the i.d.e.a museum

grandpa and Henry making masks

Heather, Henry, Joy, and grandpa having fun with the green screen

what the green screen portrayed

Henry at the park

Joy

Henry, age 6, and Joy, age 3 1/2

Dad P's zoom birthday party

one of the light shows at the Meow Woof

outside the Meow Woof

May: garden, headstone, skit, Chopped, Duolingo, Raku

I forgot to mention in my last post that in April we got new neighbors! Our nephew, Brent, moved in next door with his family, Alice and baby Hunter (who isn't really a baby anymore). 

And our niece and her husband, Sarah and Luke, are now the proud parents of baby Miriam! 

And then in May, Alicia and Dallin became the parents of twins, Samuel and Renee! 

So happy for everyone!

So, our May happenings:

Glen's been busy with his gardening plans. And it was his birthday this month...but we neglected to take any photos. My sister Denise also celebrated her birthday this month. Happy Birthday to two of the most important people in my life!

tomato and squash plants

Uncle Jim and Aunt Margaret's headstone was put in place. It was made to match my in-laws' stone, which is just above Jim and Margaret's. Looks great.

Had a church social at Alan and Debbie's. We almost had to cancel the party, but the rain stopped just when the party was starting, so it was all good. Glen, Eric, and Joseph were part of the entertainment and performed the skit "Foolish Questions" at the fire bowl.  

May 21st Eric, Glen, and Joseph

Eric's Young Single Adult group (run by Alan and Debbie) had a "Chopped" activity. Eric's group came to use our kitchen and their cupcakes placed first! Some items they had to use together: bacon, cake mix, ramen noodles, cream cheese, and mixed fruit. It was pretty tasty.

May 24th

On Sunday the 23rd, I finally finished my Chinese course on Duolingo just 4 days before I hit my 3 1/2 years streak--which was when I first started learning Chinese. You earn a "golden owl" for completing a course. I still need a ton of review, especially of the most recent lessons, but it feels good...

My Golden Owl (Duo) at the end of the course

May 27th (but I admit I used some "streak freezes" along the way...about 13?)

For this semester's last pottery class, we had a raku firing and pot luck at the teacher's house. I did horsehair raku for the first time...you put horsehair on super hot pottery and it burns and makes black squiggles and lines. Cool technique. My skills are only so-so as I put too much hair together and it made black globs in a few areas instead of just cute squiggles, but I'm happy with my projects.

May 28th--everyone's pieces

my glazed pieces

my horsehair projects

Some of our class members:

Candy, Wanda, teacher Jeanne, me, Diane, with Tammy in front

And I helped Glen and Eric in the movie theatre's concession stand last night with the "rush" hour. ("The Pacifier" and "From Russia with Love" were being shown.). Glen makes the slide show that precedes the movie and he puts in things like this: