Moore May, 2022

Our neighbors, the Pedroza's, are one of the families we minister to in our ward and a couple of their boys are in a couple of the Willow Creek Middle School bands.  They invite us to come to their concerts which also includes several other kids from our ward including some of our Sunday School class kids.  It's fun to support them in their activities.  We heard Cesar and Noah Pedroza, Ben Anderson, Owen Greenhalgh, Alyssa O'donnal, and a couple of other kids from the ward.  They are really good!

Cesar on the drums and Noah on the bass guitar

Alyssa on the trash can on the far right.  This piece was awesome!


Obviously they have a fun director/teacher.  He dressed in costume for several of their songs, including this one from Jurassic Park!

I had a couple of fun volunteer experiences this week at Ashton Gardens.  One day I helped pull tulips.  They remove and sell every tulip bulb in the entire place and then replace them in the fall!!


 

Dinosaur Island is coming to Ashton Gardens May 28-August 28!

I also got to volunteer as an usher for the Lyceum Youth Philharmonic and Gentri concert.  It was so good, especially Gentri.  They are incredible singers. Gentlemen Trio is what Gentri is short for. 

Todd and Kimiko's home is underway!  They broke ground on May 19th!  I'm so excited for them.

Mike planned a fun Saturday activity on the May 21 for Eric, Hannah's family, and I.  We met at his childhood home at 717 McClellan Street in Salt Lake City, he told stories of his childhood and we walked around and saw his elementary school, his grandma Minnie's home, East High School, and several of the homes of people he knew including the Abravanel's who he delivered newspapers to.  The Abravanel Hall concert hall downtown Salt Lake is named after him.  

It's my birthday week!  The Week of Sue! I took that from the TV show, The Middle.  The teenage daughter in the show, Sue Heck, is the eternal optimist and also the dorkiest, most awkward girl ever.  She is so loveable!!  She declares her senior year of high school The Year of Sue and I have borrowed that phrase for May, The Month of Sue and my birthday week as The Week of Sue!

I had lunch everyday of my birthday week!  Monday, Jimmy John's by myself after the MTC, Tuesday with Eric at the Trellis Cafe in Ashton Gardens.  I don't have pictures of these.

Wednesday, Cindi and I had lunch at Art City Trolley before picking up our huge flower pots at the Diamond Nursery in Springville.

Thursday was lunch at Cafe Rio with a couple of my sweet Colorado friends, Carol and Rhonda

Friday, I had lunch with Jennifer Montgomery, also a Colorado friend who I haven't seen for 20 years!  We had a wonderful long visit and decided we needed to see each other a lot more to really get caught up!  They live in Spanish Fork so we should be able to make that happen!

Mike and I went to see the new Top Gun:Maverick movie starring Tom Cruise.  It was so good.  One of the best movies we have seen in a really long time!



I hate to have to include this sad news, but there was another horrible elementary school shooting this week in West Texas, Uvalde.  21 were killed by an 18 year old high school boy, including 2 teachers and 19 children ages 7-9.  We are praying for those families, community and our country.  We need more protection in our schools and this has to stop happening.  So so sad.



My birthday week continued into the weekend.  Mike and I met Eric and Ben at the Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner on Saturday.  We had never been there and had a gift card that Eric had given Mike for his birthday in October.  It was really delicious.  Mike got a filet mignon, I got the lamb chops and we split our up between the two of us. Good choices!  Eric and Ben shared a t-bone.  Everyone left happy! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures!  

We had dinner on Sunday at Eric's house for my actual birthday.  Hannah's family weren't feeling well so it was the four of us.  I had requested chicken enchiladas and Eric made them from scratch including the corn tortillas!  He also made guacamole and ceviche which is kind of a salsa with shrimp in it.  So yummy!  We played some games and Mike had gotten me a delicious cake from Kneaders so we ate that with some vanilla ice cream!  It was a totally fun evening.  I also got to talk to most of my kids and some of Mike's on the phone and heard from most everyone on texts.  I got a lot of facebook messages and felt so much love!  I am truly blessed!





Our Relief Society puts these cute signs in our front yards when it's our birthdays!

Memorial Day was on Monday, May 30th.  I went to the MTC in the morning and we welcomed a lot of new senior sisters and couples.  

I love the USA and am so grateful for the many soldiers who have served and are now serving our country to keep us free and safe!  There is no where I would rather be than living in America and being an American!  God Bless the USA!

Then at 1:00, we had some of the family over for a "BBQ" -- quote marks because it was 50 degrees and rainy!  Oh well, Mike still grilled the burgers outside and we all had a great time eating and visiting inside.  Our guests were Eric and Ben's cousin Brittany--I was so happy she was comfortable coming when Ben had to miss to go to work, Meg, Chase and Violet (Hannah was still sick), Joel (Erin was in Colorado), Garrett, Louise, James and Vera.  It was a nice group of our family.  It was so fun having baby Vera in the house!  Sure do love babies as you can tell because we really didn't get too many other pictures than with her! Vera turned 5 months old on Memorial Day!

Violet stayed overnight with us.  Hannah was helping a friend in need the next day, so we were happy to have Violet stay.  We had fun playing, coloring (she's become a really good colorer and drawer), watched Tarzan and stayed up late (because she wasn't sleepy and couldn't fall asleep).  I didn't get much sleep but it's ok and worth it!  

On Tuesday, Violet and I met Cindi and her grandson Eli at McDonald's and Violet and Eli hit it off really well and spent a couple of hours playing puppies in the play structure.  They called themselves Sassy and Butch.  They did take a break and ate their Happy Meals and then they were off again on their puppy adventures!  It was a fun outing and Cindi and I had a fun time chatting!  When we got back to our house, Violet and I did some Karaoke kids songs and then Hannah came to pick her up.

We are starting summer!  It's June 1 and the weather is getting nicer and we are heading to Florida and then the Carolinas in two days!  We are so excited for our travels to begin!