A Visitor and a birthday!

What a wonderful experience it was to assist Connie as she went to the Temple for the first time.  There are some moments in our mortal existence that are truely choice, and are defined above others.  This was one of them!  I am very blessed in the friendships I have been able to make while living here in Denver. Rick & I were able to go again with Connie on Tuesday.

Monday, 6th June brought some exciting news from France.  Elder Bennallack has been transferred to Tulon, which is on the Mediterrean coast in the southeast of France between Marseille and Cannes.  It's about 8hrs from the little country town of Periguex where he was in the west.  He is sad to leave behind the people he has met and did not have time to say goodbye, but is excited with the new challenge and the new area.  He is already impressed with his new companion and is ready to learn from him, (although omitted to tell us his name or where he came from!!)

Elder Jonathon Bennallack with his new district in Tulon.

Lucy also arrived on Monday, a little weary after her journey from Virginia where her sister is.  However, despite this, we all went bowling Monday night.  (Tom has been going for several weeks now with Kelland, and has been waiting to show his skills off to us!)  The shoe hire is $4.00 and each game is $1.00.  So this is a very affordable family activity!  I personally haven't bowled for some time (years) and was very pleased with my first game, especially bowling a spare and a strike and beating Rick.  However, that was my only moment of glory and bowled dismally for the next game.  It was such fun though, especially watching Tom bowl incredibly well!  He bowled 5 strikes in a row, then a spare, then another 3 strikes to finish with a spare.  His personal best score of 235.  We were all very impressed!!!  Nice job Tom!!

Somehow, the ball curves around to make a strike, then another...

In the afternoon, Tom, Sarah and Lucy went to Waterworld, which is comparable to Wet 'n Wild on the Gold Coast, QLD.  They have a season pass each now, so will take advantage of that!!  They came home very tired, but very happy!  A very good day..

Wednesday was my birthday! And if you are wondering, I am now 47!! (which sounds very weird to me).  I am a winter baby, and actually enjoy the rain!  I love to hear it on our tin roof and be cosy inside with a good book or movie, and a big pot of soup on the stove.  Yes, I love the puddles too!  However, this is my first summer birthday, and the gorgeous weather has been warm to very warm, which my birthday has been at odds with!  However, would you know it?  Tuesday night, big thunderstorm warnings flashed across the TV screen, warning about severe weather conditions, including hail the size of 'a half dollar'.  Well, I just had to laugh!  Doesn't it usually rain on my birthday after all?  Wednesday, however bought cloudy, overcast conditions only, and it was warm!  I wanted to go hiking, and explore one of the many, many trails around Colorado, and I found on the internet, a few that included a waterfall.  If I could take some pictures, I would love to paint a waterfall I had actually seen!  However, the one we picked out near Evergreen in the foothills, we were unable to find the trailhead which was disappointing.  However, we did have a good look at the Red Rocks Ampitheatre which is a very impressive local venue not far from here, made from natural rock formations.  It's a popular open air venue for concerts with natural accoustics and very fine views.

On our way to Evergreen in search of the trailhead, we had a look at a trail by Bear Creek called 'Lair of the Bear'.  It's a very pretty and easy walk, following Bear Creek for some distance.  We passed by a couple bird watching and stumbled upon a man fly fishing in the middle of the creek.  I thought this would be a great picture to paint.  This is a very peaceful place.

 Evergreen, is an area about 40 minutes from our home in the 'foothills'.  The mountain sides are covered in pine forests, thick forest areas that go for miles.  It's very scenic.  At one point in our drive, I am admiring the scenery with a comment such as: 'This is so lovely' to which Rick added, 'this is beautiful bitumen!'  The kids roared with laughter, here I am looking up at the scenery and Rick is admiring the road!!  It was funny, but in actuality, we haven't seen too many stretches of road with brand new bitumen.  The winters are harsh to the road surfaces and many are in need of constant repair, and given he was driving at the time, we will allow him the luxury of admiring the roads!! 

Dirty windscreen, but 'beautiful road!'

In the afternoon, I finished a painting of our back yard.  I haven't painted as much, but hopefully will be able to over the summer.  I enjoy this very much, but still find pines challenging..  We have a very busy looking yard, and yes it's very green at the moment!

In the evening, we went to dinner in the city at the Cheesecake Factory which, as mentioned previously has such an extensive menu, it's presented as a spiral bound book!  I thought I would just have a salad, however, when it was served, I was astounded at the size.  This 'Santa Fe' Salad would feed my whole family!!  However, it was immensley enjoyable to be out in the city having dinner.  I was serenaded by my family (and Lucy) and two waiters when dessert came.  My cheesecake has copious amounts of cream on with a candle!  Very nice..

'Santa Fe Salad'.  I only made the tiniest dent in this, it filled TWO boxes to go!! (one of which we gave to a street beggar)

There's some delicious cheescake somewhere under all that cream!!

I was also treated to lunch twice this week for my birthday.  First by my good friend Donna Mercer.  We went to Chili's and stayed for a good two hours.  This was so nice, thank you Donna.  Then on Friday, Dixie and Kenna took me to Applebees.  Another excellent liesurely lunch.  This is the life!!  Many thanks Dixie and Kenna.  Two wonderful friends who have helped me alot while I have been here in Denver.  I will always remember these special people..

I ended the day on Thursday skyping with my three sisters who are together in Perth for the long weekend.  It was so good to chat with them, despite finishing the call after 1.30am and having to get up for the gym in the morning!!  Fun, Fun!!  I just love my sisters!  We got to chat again last night (Sunday), before they flew back to Adelaide.  However, there has been a huge volcano eruption in Chili spewing ash over NZ and Australia and their flight was first delayed and then cancelled until Wednesday. 

A skype photo of JJ, Brigid & Deb

Being the mother of teenagers (boys in particular), I should be accustomed to their antics and have to suppress my humour to look disapprovingly at some of their actions.  I don't know if I succeeded in this one, when the car came home looking like this:

Who eventually cleaned it?  Why Dad of course, after Tom left for Nauvoo!!

Friday we played three rounds of mini golf.  Now has become one of our favourite things to do.  The girls play one round, but Rick, Tom and I went through the whole course, each round of 18 holes.  The first game, from my point of view was ok, not great.  The second game, I putted dismally but the third was intense.  I made a great come back to lead for a few holes.  (Can you tell I'm very pleased about this!) The males in my home are immensely competitive, so I love it when I beat them!!  In the end, Tom & I came in with top score and Rick was only one point behind.  Now that was fun!!

Too easy!

Lucy and Sarah proved to be very worthy competitors!!



This is very serious business!

 On Saturday morning we all got up early to spend some time in the baptistry at the Denver Temple.  It was the first time all three had been there.  It was really nice to spend time together in the Temple, followed of course, by breakfast at Maccas!

Also on the weekend,  Christchurch NZ experienced two more major earthquakes. A 5.5 and 6.0.  The city is really suffering after still trying to recover from the biggie back in February that killed 181.

This morning, Tom & Sarah left for Nauvoo, Illinois via Omaha with the church youth.  All from our ward, there were over 50 youth that went.  They will have a wonderful time as they visit not only Nauvoo, but also Winter Quarters, Adam-Ondi Ahman, Liberty and Independence.  They all had to leave their phones behind, so this will be an interesting week as they go without texting and Facebook!  So Rick and I will be on our own after we take Lucy to the airport.  In a couple of days we are going to drive up to have a look at Mt Rushmore.  It's about 6 1/2hrs drive from here.

All aboard 'Coach America'.  Have fun, see you Saturday!

This morning Jonathon sent some photo's with his weekly email.  This is the first photo's we have seen since the MTC and it is exciting to have a tiny peek at France and at his life as a missionary!

Rick has been loving the NBA Basketball.  He has been following the Dallas Maverick's, and would you know it, after some very exciting, intense games, they have just won the championship for the first time!!  Yay Rick! Nice work, you backed a winner! 

Today, is my mother's birthday.  Happy Birthday Mum, I hope you do something special to celebrate!

My Parents while I was in Adelaide in February this year