August

Since our last vacation, Ken's entered his audit busy season at work, and I've entered my music busy season at home. I lead the ward choir, a women's group called Keynotes, and I teach voice lessons. We take a summer break for choir and started back up on August 15th. Keynotes start next week. With both groups, I have to listen to, choose, study, order and prepare lots of music for the "season"- through Christmas. I started voice lessons this week. So, I had to ban myself from blogging to get that all done. Well, and we haven't done anything too exciting. We did go to the Shakespeare Festival twice. First, we saw "The 39 Steps," an Alfred Hitchcock spoof which was hilarious and so well done. Then, for our anniversary we ended the evening back there at the festival and saw the musical "Great Expectations." It was SO good. We spent that day in the mountains, and had dinner at our favorite place at the mouth of Cedar Canyon, Rusty's. The Coconut Shrimp there is worth the drive.

Last weekend, Pam and I traveled to Patty's to have a short sister retreat. Joan came from Boise. Patty prepared a nice lunch for us on Friday, then we went shopping in Salt Lake- my first IKEA experience. We had a delicious Thai dinner, then Red Mango which IS practically health food. On Saturday, we had a delightful ancestor tea party with all the girls in the family who could come. They all brought delicious goodies. It was so fun to see everyone. I love those girls- big and small. Us old sisters (sorry!) shared memories of Grandma and Grandma Gabrielsen after the tea party. . . lest we forget!

It was such a fun, little trip. As we left town on Saturday (I told you it was short,) Pam and I bought corn and tomatoes that have been SO good all week. We've had corn every night and I made Summer Tomatoes with those delicious tomatoes. I should post that recipe. Those are my favorite summer treat. We've enjoyed peaches from our own tree, and our second one is just coming on. Time to bottle!

While I was gone, Ken gathered a group for a day hike on his favorite Whipple Trail on Pine Valley Mountain. They had a great time. Ken's brother, Don went and our niece, Melanie along with friends from the ward, Kurtis and Steve . They had a great time and even found where one of the aforementioned carved their name in a tree up there years ago. We won't say who!

So there you have it, August in a nutshell or a peachskin or something.

Cedar Mountain

We stopped to look at this little cabin that was for sale. It was a no.

Grouse on our property on Cedar Mountain

We stopped at our mountain property to dream about having a cabin there. This would be our view!

At the Shakespeare Festival (though we didn't actually see any Shakespeare plays) That's us with Will.

Sisters at Patty's ( I know! Look at that lunch!)

Sister Thai Dinner

Red Mango

Tea Party!

Princess Lucy

Princess shoes

Patty, Pam, Kay, and Joan

The girl cousins

Their mommy's: Tricia, Sara, Kelly, Allison

Allison, Eleanor, Joan, Sara, and Zachy (he was the only boy there)