First May in Utah

We completed our first month of true retirement and have accomplished quite a few things. We moved into a new home in Price, UT,

 

 

Went sight seeing and hiking with the family in Little Wild Horse Canyon,

 

Installed new quartz counter tops in the kitchen,

 

Celebrated a first birthday with Alexa,

 

Commemorated Memorial Day with the family by visiting the cemetery,

 

Finally found the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep after several attempts to see them, and

 

Drove 100 miles, one way, on a dirt road to see the ranch where Wayne's ancestors had a cattle ranch on the Arizona Strip.

 

 

This picture does not do justice to how dirty we were when we returned. We were very, very dusty!

 

We are looking forward to getting totally unpacked. We still need to figure out how to run the sprinklers for the lawn (or how to make some of the lawn into xeriscape). We are enjoying being closer to more family members and look forward to upcoming visits. We miss our family, friends and familiar surroundings in Virginia.

Play Day in the Nation's Capital

Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America An Oasis of Peace, Washington DC

 

We found that the monastery was indeed an oasis of peace and we chose a beautiful spring day to make the visit especially enjoyable.

 

The Insect and Butterfly Garden was inspired by Father James Edmiston, a Franciscan Friar and entomologist who studied flies with Wayne. He was our friend for many years and "Father Jim" and Wayne co-authored research papers. Jim died prematurely at the monastery shortly after returning from Russia where he had been on a church assignment for several years. His grave is in the monastery cemetery.

 

 

The Ascension Chapel

 

Saint Francis and the Turtle Doves

 

Plaques with Ave Maria in a multitude of languages are displayed under the covered walkway all the way around the garden. There are also many mosaics depicting events in the life of Christ.

 

We wondered if this angel is holding the US Capitol Building? No one could tell us.

 

This is one scene inside the very large chapel. We once attended a Mass where Father Jim officiated and his Funeral Mass was also in this chapel.

House Sold

 

We listed our house on Monday and sold it on Friday, with three offers to consider. Pictures had been taken but we had offers before they were even added to the listing. The house is sold, pending an inspection and appraisal, so now we have some tense moments waiting to get by those two things. Closing date is scheduled for May 10. We will soon be on our way to Utah. We have lived in "the east" since July 1976.

We're Planning a Move

Wayne has retired and we have been trying to decide where we will live. We were pretty sure that we wanted to move to the west, but there were several locations that held attractions for us. We have decided on Price, Utah, Wayne's hometown. We only want to move once and we felt that this was a location where we could plant roots and be happy. We found a home that will hopefully be a destination for kids, grand-kids and friends to come and visit us. Be prepared for a slower lifestyle if you are visiting from the east!

 

Our destination home in Price.

 

We are preparing our home in Stafford for sale. This is what moving looks like!

A New Granddaughter

We recently returned from Arizona where we met our new granddaughter, Samantha Jane Mathis. She was born December 28 and set a record for birth weight in our family--9 pounds 5 1/2 ounces. We are very happy that she has joined us.

Aaron is 5 and Grant is 3. They love playing cowboys and super-heros.

The brothers are very "helpful" and adore their cute baby Samantha.

We visited Old Tucson one day. It is an amusement park and movie set for western movies. It is probably now Aaron's favorite place to visit in Tucson. He was selected as one of the assistants for the show. The cowboy asked him to hold a $1,000 bill in his lips so that he could snap it out with a whip! Aaron was happy that he got to keep the bill.

Saguaro National Park is a very short drive from Michael and Jenny's home so we visited it a few times. We had a very nice visit, but we froze. Tucson had it's longest cold spell since 1917. It was in the 20s at night and 40s during the day. It was not how we had anticipted spending our two weeks in January in sunny, warm Arizona!

Samantha was 3 weeks old when we left

Flora and Fauna of Alaska

We can never get enough of the sights in Alaska. For example:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nome, Alaska

Wayne has wanted to collect flies on the Seward Peninsula of Alaska for a long time. We finally made it. We were there for 10 days and it was good we planned for a longish stay because they had rain, rain, rain. We were able to get out on the few sunny days and the trip was a success. Nome is a frontier town and was interesting to visit.