Dinner with my Cousin - Bahama Breeze

My handsome cousin, Lyle, and his beautiful family live down in the Fort Lauderdale area in Florida. He had come up to Orlando for the day on Thursday, January 13, 2011, for a trial for work. He's a very good lawyer.....and a very sweet guy! We all went to dinner with him that night at Bahama Breeze in Orlando. It was great to see him again for a short time before he headed back home to his family. My only regret was that I didn't get to spend more time with him or get to see his family.....or get to see my other cousin, Suzanne, and my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Ira. Hopefully, next time! :)

This is my cousin, Lyle, and I after dinner before he left.

Unfortunately, the pictures turned out pretty fuzzy, but I was trying to get a picture of the Bahama Breeze restaurant that we had dinner at. I really enjoyed it! It was quite tasty! :)

September 11, 2001-Remembering

I will forever remember the date of 09/11/2001 like it was yesterday. I will forever remember the feelings I felt that day......and the feelings I still remember today. Especially having lived outside of the country for many years growing up and experiencing other lands and cultures, my love and admiration for my country....the United States of America.....will forever fly in my heart with great pride!! Though we may not be perfect....may we ALWAYS remember to take pride our our most beloved and sacred Country!! This Country was not built on an 'accident'.

Thanks to all of the many, many thousands of men and women who have in the past, present, and future served our Country....fighting for our freedoms we so often take for granted!! Thank you! Thank you! My heart is full today......

Thank you, Dad, for always fighting for me my whole life.....in every aspect!! I love you and I admire you!! You are wonderful!!

Happy 34th Anniversary

Sunday, December 27, 2009 was also my parent's 34th Wedding Anniversary. Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad! We sure do love you and miss you!! :)

Congratulations, Xavier & Tammy!!!!!!

Xavier & Tammy are officially engaged!!!

Congratulations to the 2 of you!!

We're so happy for you!! :)


Xavier was so excited and planned a whole special day with Tammy at Dreher Island in South Carolina. He presented her with a rose, in which her engagement ring had been placed and proposed to her on Tuesday, March 23, 2010. She, of course, said 'yes' and they are now officially engaged to be married sometime after Xavier hits his year mark of joining the church in November. They are planning to be married in the Columbia, South Carolina Temple.


I knew when Tammy and Xavier left Utah after visiting with us for 2 weeks that he would be my future brother-in-law. I'm proud to call him my brother!! :)

Thanks to Xavier for sharing the Big Day with us by taking so many great pictures!

(Xavier moved back to South Carolina for 3 months on Saturday, March 13. He will then have to go back to France again for a short while......but he'll be back as soon as possible to stay permanently!)

Snow Storm

Ok.....Here are the final pictures from Xavier & Tammy's trip to Utah in November. I was happy that we got a good snow storm on Saturday, 11/14/2009....and that they were able to go out and play in it for a few hours.

It was my weekend to be 'on call' for work, which meant that I was pretty housebound all weekend and wasn't able to do much during the day. I felt bad, since it was the weekend before they left......but they kept themselves pretty entertained playing in the snow and playing Wii......and just enjoying being together.

Here are some pictures I took of them outside the house playing in the snow. As you can imagine, both Tammy & Xavier were pretty excited to see so much snow since neither one of them live in places where they see much of it! They spent pretty much all afternoon outside on Saturday and built a 'Snow Bear' next to our garage, which you'll see in the final pictures. It was pretty cute......

Xavier & Tammy flew out of Salt Lake City the morning of Tuesday, 11/17/2009......and we were sad to see them go! We had a very enjoyable time with them the 2 weeks they were here and hope they'll come back again in the near future!

They flew to Columbia, South Carolina.....where Tammy lives with my parents......and Xavier stayed there for 2 weeks and met my parents and other family members living back there. They had a really great time together and, as mentioned in a previous post, Xavier was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (a.k.a. Mormon Church) on the afternoon of Saturday, 11/28/2009. He then flew back home to France on Sunday, 12/06/2009......with a promise to Tammy that he'd be back as soon as possible!

The Canyons/Park City & Guardsman Pass

We spent the majority of the day on Saturday, November 7, 2009 driving up through Big/Little Cottonwood Canyons, Park City, and over Guardsman Pass. Xavier is from Bretagne, France.....which is on the beach.....so he's not used to such big, beautiful mountains. He was very excited to get to go up in them and see the beauty up close. These first pictures are in the Canyons. In the first picture, you can see Matt, Tammy, and Xavier climbing up a small waterfall. I was obviously just down below them taking the picture. The second picture is of Tammy and Xavier. I really like this picture of the 2 of them!

I really like the way this picture and the next one show the colors created on the rocks/boulders as the water is cascading down over them.

Since we were up there, we drove up to La Caille Restaurant, which is a very pretty and expensive restaurant up the Canyons. These swans live in the little lake out front.

As we started going up Guardsman Pass, we found snow and Xavier and Tammy had to get out in it and play for a few minutes. Xavier RARELY sees snow......so this really fun and new for him to experience.

As you can see.....Xavier was taking pictures, too! :)

And here is Xavier freezing to death but, yet, he insisted that he didn't need a jacket and that he was fine! :)

Tammy is about to get back in the truck after having a quick snowball fight with Xavier.....

Some pictures up Guardsman Pass.

Here are some pictures of Matt and I up Guardsman Pass.

If you look closely, or click on the picture to blow it up bigger, you can see that there are people parasailing out on the lake. Xavier thought that was pretty cool!!

Here are a couple pictures of one of the many ski lifts in Utah!

We greatly enjoyed showing Xavier and Tammy a small portion of the beauty that this great State has to offer!!

Salt Lake City Temple - Vistor's Center.....Christus Statue

Friday, November 6, 2009 - We spent some time taking Xavier to see Downtown Salt Lake City and Temple Square. Unfortunately, we didn't get down there until it was getting darker and later, so this is the only picture I got of us. However, I really like this picture of the 4 of us A LOT!

Xavier was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (a.k.a. the Mormon Church) when he came to visit us. Tammy had been doing a lot of missionary work with him over the internet throughout the course of their correspondence. Xavier had seemed to be very open and receptive in their conversations, and had many questions and a certain thirst for knowledge while he was here, so that's why we took him downtown to see Temple Square. While at the Visitor's Center, we walked upstairs to see the Christus Statue......which is where this picture was taken. I LOVE this statue! It brings tears to my eyes when I see it.

We spoke with a couple of sister missionaries while there and they played the recorded presentation for us in both English and in French, specifically for Xavier so that he could get the full message. While Xavier never seemed to say much........he did seemed to be touched by the Spirit quite often. It was a really great experience for Matt and I to be able to be a small part of helping him to learn and recognize what it was that he was feeling during those times.

Thank you for being so open and receptive, Xavier, and for allowing us to share with you one our greatest joys in life! You are a very special man and I know I told you before, but I believe that Heavenly Father has prepared you for this time in your life. I don't believe that you 'meeting' Tammy the way you did, etc, was an 'accident'. I felt something very special in you almost from the time that I met you. You have a very strong Spirit and I hope you will always remain strong and close to your Heavenly Father!

And, Tammy.........I'm so proud of you! You've grown up into an incredible young woman! It wasn't easy, but I'm so very grateful that you were close enough to the Spirit to feel the promptings and to be strong enough to heed those promptings as you continued your relationship with Xavier. You are an inspiration to me and I'm proud to call you my little sister!

As long as you both remain strong in your testimonies and stay close to your Beloved Heavenly Father, you will do well and learn and grow continually in your life! I sure do love you both and I'm so proud of both of you! Stay strong!!

(P.S. - If you're reading this and haven't already guessed it.......Xavier ended up getting baptized and joined the church on Saturday, November 28, 2009, in South Carolina. After he reaches his year mark this year......he and Tammy plan to be married in the Temple.)

Las Vegas - "Final Chapter"

Here are the rest of the pictures that I took on the trip to Las Vegas. These were all taken on the same day, Wednesday, 11/04/2009, These first 4 pictures were taken as we were walking out of the Mirage Hotel. I thought they were gorgeous and had to have a picture! The pink flowers are very similar to some that Matt and I saw outside of our hotel on our trip to Hawaii in 2008. I thought they were beautiful and fell in love with them then......and I still love them! Seeing them in Las Vegas reminded me of our trip to Hawaii.

This picture is the view from the Mirage Hotel as we were standing at the Valet Parking in front, waiting for them to bring us our SUV.

These are just 2 more pictures of Vegas that I took as we were walking the strip some more.

While we were down there, the 4 of us stayed at the Luxor Hotel. It was pretty nice and we enjoyed our stay. Here are some pictures of the hotel.

These pictures are of the Venetian Hotel.........Absolutely gorgeous!

On the Strip, there are lots of shops, etc......lots of different ways to spend your money! We spent the morning of Thursday, 11/05/2009 walking around and checking out a couple more things on the Strip before we headed out and drove back home that afternoon. We stopped in at this little shop to find out more information about taking a helicopter tour and to see if maybe the four of us could go before we headed out of Vegas. Unfortunately, it costs a lot of money and we didn't have enough time to do it. Next time, though!!

Anyway, Xavier has a great love and fascination with helicopters and flying. He's very passionate about it and very knowledgeable. It's what he wants to do for a career and he's been working very hard to achieve the goal of flying helicopters and saving lives....hopefully in the near future! As a result, I had to take a couple of pictures of this helicopter they had as part of the decoration in this shop. Here you go, Xavier!! :)

Thanks for going to Las Vegas with us, Tammy and Xavier, and for giving us a good excuse to get out of town on a quick trip for a couple days! We had a lot of fun with you guys! Sure do love you both!! :)