Christmas at the Ranch

So every since the last football game when we got snowed on, my camera has been a little fuzzy.  I'm sure that I have either ruined it, or gotten it out of focus.  I have taken pictures with my phone also, but can't find the cord to download them to my computer, so I'm in a pickle.  Hopefully when I come home for Christmas, one of my children who is tech savy will rescue me.  Until then, you will have to see slightly fuzzy pictures on my blog. 

Dr. Young is a Christmas decoration fanatic.  Christmas decorations are his hobby and we start putting them up the end of October every year.  He says that putting together the village scenes is his therapy and he does an amazing job of it.  I would like to take you on a tour of the village starting with the front door.

After you enter the door, you encounter the main Christmas tree and the Christmas village.

As you can see, it is too big to fit in one picture.  Next comes smaller pictures of the village.

I wish you could see all the moving parts on the houses and all the little details on the streets.  There are even 2 boats on the water.  There are little people dancing and ice skating.

The hills are actually the sofas in the living room covered in quilt batting.

The train tracks go around the entire display and the train runs either as fast or as slow as you want.  My personal favorite is the little sleighing hill with sleigh riders going down continually.  I don't have a good picture that you can make this out.  Also by the village is a life-size Santa.

All I could think was how much the grandkids would like to see this.  The pictures are too fuzzy, but there is a Christmas tree in every room along with an incredible Santa collection.  One of these years, we will have to have Christmas down here in California so all of you can see this.  The outside lights are pretty amazing too, but again my camera is having issues.

Merry Christmas everyone, can't wait to see all of you.

November Good Times

You know the saying "How time flies when you're having fun."  Well, November flew by and was lots of fun.  We had lots of great family times, like tailgating before the Hawaii game.

Then, of course, the skies opened up during the game and rained and rained.  We all got very wet and cold.  Sione was the hero with his tarps and Ela had lots of rain ponchos for everyone.  All in all, good family times.

November also brought contrasts in temperature for me.  One weekend, I'm laying out by the pool, soaking up the sun.

The next weekend, I'm sitting in snow for a football game and white knuckle driving through the snow and rain home to Provo. 

We had wonderfully spiritual and family times with Clayton's blessing.  Scott did a beautiful job with the blessing and Fia and Scott did a great job with the family get together afterwards.  Thanks Fia and Scott for the family day.

Then, of course, November brings Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday.  It was a good day to stay inside, be warm, and eat.  Everyone contributed to the meal and it was enjoyed by all. 

Last of all was the annual Christmas parade on Center Street.  We started out with dinner at Brick Oven and then proceeded to Center Street.  The parade was sporadic, but culminated with Santa coming to Provo.  Tre was most excited to see Darth Vadar and the Star Wars group and couldn't wait for Santa.  All in all a good month with a great family. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween everyone.  Yes, this is a Halloween Tree in the office with all sorts of little halloween decorations and witches.  I know I'm technolocally impaired and can't figure out how to rotate the picture, so look at it with your head bent to the side.

Dr. Young is a huge fan of the holidays, so we have a Halloween Tree, Thanksgiving Tree, and about 15 Christmas Trees.  I will get pictures of the other trees as the holidays approach.

There are also a lot of witches and a wizard.

Also a very spooky Halloween Village.

Hope everyone has a great Halloween.  Wish I could be there to see all the little ones trick or treat.  I bought full size candy bars just in case any of the kids in the apartment complex come here.  If no one comes, guess I'll be bringing them home for the next game.

Braveheart Women's Event

Okay, so all of you who know me know that I am not the best event planner in the world.  Holidays and family dinner are about all I can manage.  You also know how badly I stress over these simple events.  Normally I am not a huge worrier, but events that I have to be in charge of stress me out.  I worry about whether the venue is okay, there will be enough food, what food to serve, how everyone is going to like it, etc.  If there is something to worry about, I will worry about it.  That's why you will laugh when you see that I was in charge of setting up an event for 60 women at the ranch.  I can't claim to have done this myself and if I would have been left with the previous kitchen staff, we probably couldn't have managed this great event.  In the end, it turned out beautifully.

The women were all from the Braveheart Group lead by Ellie Drake.  If you want to check it out go to http://www.braveheartwomen.com/.  It is a networking site for women who want to make a difference in their families and communities.  The name of the event was RESTORE and was designed to teach the women about alkalizing and how it can bring them to better health.

The staff I have at the ranch are amazing and helped me get everything set up on Saturday so we would be ready bright and early Monday morning when the buses arrived.  We had three venues; the pool for the majority of food and cooking demonstrations,

The classroom at the office where Dr. Young and Shelley both spoke, and then our own Palm Grove.  This is a gorgeous area down further on the property that involved some transportation issues, but ultimately was worth it.

I can't say that everything went without a hitch, but it did go well and I was exhausted after setting everything up on Saturday and then coordinating events on Monday.  It was a great experience though and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity. 

During the event Dr. Young talked about "The Box".  This box contains everything you need to gain health.  It also comes complete with a one day retreat to the ranch where you can learn the program, experience the atmosphere first hand, and sample our great alkaline food.  The women were very taken with "The Box" and it was a hit.

Sorry, I can't figure out how to rotate "The Box" so you can view it properly.

This is Rainbow Salad, one of the yummy foods the ladies were served.  We also had delicious wraps, veggie pizza, 2 different pates on seed crackers, soy pudding, seed pancakes, and vegan chili.  The food was delicious and Shelley and the kitchen staff were amazing.

All in all it was a great day.  Who wouldn't be restored when you can spend the day learning about how to be healthy, enjoying good food, good service, and good company.  Of course, the view helped too.

Great Weekend

Thursday afternoon was a pretty narrow escape.  I came closer to missing my flight from San Diego to Salt Lake than was comfortable.  I arrived at the airport at 6 pm and my plane was supposed to depart at 6:11 pm.  Luckily there was no line at security and the flight was a little delayed so I was able to make it.  It has been a while since I have run, but now I know I can do it if necessary.  I'm so glad I made the flight though, because it was a great weekend at home.

First up was visiting with Fia, Scott, and Clay (the new grandbaby).  He is so adorable and I could just sit and hold him forever.  We had a great visit Thursday evening on the way back from the airport.  Friday morning I helped Lua with Ari and got ready to go to Logan for the game.  As I am sure everyone knows, Utah State beat BYU 31-16.  It was so fun to sit in the stadium and feel the energy of this tremendous win.  Don and Marie were able to attend the game with us and enjoy the Aggie win also.  Russ was quite funny because he is such a big BYU fan that he was texting his dismay to me during the game.  I have to say this was one of the most awesome games I have ever attended.

This is after the game when Naki and his friend Tyler Larsen were celebrating the fantastic win.  Everyone was able to go to the game except Fia and her family and Lua and her family.  After the game, we hung out by the locker room as usual to congratulate Naki and take him to dinner.

Saturday was very busy with getting my hair done, visiting with Beth and Russ, and preparing for the vistory celebration we had for Naki at Jared and Adrian's house.  Thank you Jared and Adrian for letting us use your house for the party.  It was fun to watch the game highlights again with Naki and have him explain things.  We also were able to sing Happy Birthday to Vea.

Sunday morning was another visit with Tre and Clay.  Tre was so cute when I arrived, running out in his fireman clothes for a big hug and yelling "Hi, Grandma".  Clay is such a sweetie and I can't believe that he is going to grow and change so much before I see him again.

Naki and Lindsey were able to get me to the airport in plenty of time.  Thanks so much to everyone for a great weekend.  I'm happy that I get to come home again in a few weeks.

First Half of September

It's time to get caught up on my blog.  I have been busy the last three weekends, but before that I have no excuse. 

Over the Labor Day weekend, Ela and Daniel came to visit.  We had so much fun.  On Saturday we went to the Vista Farmer's Market.  They had tons of booths and many interesting things to see.  Ela and I got sucked in by a perfume salesman and ended up buying 3 little bottles of perfume.  Mine does smell good when I remember to wear it.

There was a lady who raised llamas with skeins of hand-carded wool for sale.  How fun it would be to make an afghan out of hand-made llama wool.

We celebrated Ela's birthday with pedicures and went for lunch at the Elephant Bar.  Then we laid out of the pool while Daniel went swimming.  Sunday and Monday were also lots of fun.  Thanks Ela and Daniel for visiting with me even though you didn't win your million at Harrahs Rincon.

September 11th was spent watching Ari, going to Daniel's flag football game, and then going to watch Naki and the Aggies beat Idaho.  Two football games in one day was definitely my kind of fall Saturday.

The pictures would have been better if my camera battery hadn't died.  It has been great to spend some time with family.  I'm looking forward to more great weekends.