January 2019

I'm always glad for a new year.  It is like starting over again fresh and new.  Family is a high priority and on January 1st Dennis invited the children and grandchildren to watch the new Mary Poppins movie at a theater. Rachel was still in Utah for the Christmas holidays but Rob had already returned to Seattle.  We spent New's Year's Eve with the Beus Family.  Each year they reserve a church and play games, dance to music and eat.

Rachel and Ely stayed in Utah to ski and visit until January 6.  Ely was getting to be a really good skier by the time they left.  We also went to the Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake with Ely and Rachel while they were still here. 

Chad had asked Dennis and me to go to his home in Lexington, Kentucky while he went on a vacation with Jeana to Panama.  We were there with all four of their children for 10 days starting on January 11, 2019.  It was unusually cold and snowy.  I went out with the children to sled down the hills in their backyard.  Soren and I made a snowman in their front yard.  The snow didn't last long but our snowman was still around after all the rest of the snow had melted. 

We were ready for church and about to get in the car and drive 25 minutes to get there when we received a call from Jeana saying that she had just heard that church had been canceled because of the snow. The day before on Saturday we had taken the children to a museum.  I was so impressed when we got to the puppet stage at the museum.  The children each took a puppet and made up an impromptu play.  It is amazing how acting out another character can make an individual come alive on stage.  Since church had been canceled we read some bible stories and then Dennis wrote out a simple puppet play depicting Daniel and the lions den.  Sophie helped me make some simple hand  puppets.  We rehearsed the play a couple of times and then Dennis recorded it while the children performed.  I thought it was a good way to used a snowed in Sabbath.  

Spencer was working on a science project that was due shortly after we got there so we helped him with that. It turned out very nice.  

I went to our Stake Relief Society conference and was delighted to hear Gail Miller speak.  She and her husband, Larry H. Miller bought the Jazz basket ball team and have car dealerships all over the state.  Larry had diabetes and died and so she is carrying on with all those business adventures and is extremely successful.  I really admire her.  She got her family together before Larry died and they had him talk and teach her and her family how to run all of the businesses they own.  she and her children also took an online class from Harvard business school so they would know how to handle their business.  I went out and bought her autobiography that she had recently written and read it.  It was 

very interesting.

Dennis and I flew to Puerto Vallarta on January 28 for a little vacation time together.  It was warm in Mexico and cold in Utah.  We stayed at the Marriott Hotel and purchased some of their excursion packages to do some guided touring.