Anniversary weekend 2025

Our 37th anniversary is on May 28, 2025. So since we had a long weekend, we decided to do a little get away. We originally looked at southern Utah but ended up going with a slightly northern destination: Park City. Our actual Airbnb was in 

We left (Saturday the 24th) mid-day. To start off we went to the Alpine Poppy Garden. I never even knew this place existed until last week and I was excited to go. It was a short hike to the gardens, but since we didn't know how long it would be, it felt longer...we were growing concerned that the poppies hadn't even bloomed yet. But, yes indeed, we found them! They were wonderful!

I kept thinking that I should drive there and go for walks sometimes on my day off. Why don't I do things like that?

We drove up to our Airbnb next. It was a lovely condo just a short way from the Jordanelle State Park. Officially Heber City but kind of the outskirts. Close to Park City as well.

We had a meal at the Back 40 Ranch house which is nearby in Heber. The food there is really good, we've been there before when we've come up for Swiss days. I really love Heber and wish I lived there sometimes. Now, of course, it's too expensive. We often lament that we didn't look there when we moved to Utah 13 years ago!

We bought groceries (too many) and then it was time to relax at the condo for the evening. We did walk around and check out the amenities and the grounds also.

May 25th

Sunday morning we had breakfast and, having realized that we forgot a bunch of stuff, we took the long road home through the Alpine Loop and Cascade Springs then went home to get the forgotten items. Felt lucky we'd decided to vacation only 45 minutes away since one the things we'd forgotten was Frank's blood meter (which was expiring while we were gone).

While at home, I discovered that my peony plant had gone from one bloom the day before to 22 today! That deserved a picture

Ok, back to vacation!

We watched my brother's ward in California for church so that we could listen to his talk. Both talks were great and it was fun to see my brother speaking.

We were going to ride our bikes to Jordanelle and hang out by the water. But we wanted to bring chairs and a picnic and towels etc...so we ended up driving. LOL Literally 2 minutes away.

But it was a lovely afternoon and the weather was nice. 

We relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful day.

Took zero pictures. :-/

May 27th

The next day, Memorial Day, we started off with a lovely breakfast at Chicks Cafe. Good food and we got smart and shared a meal! Go us. We are constantly ordering way too much food and are trying to do better.

We drove around Heber and Midway a bit and saw a few lovely Memorial Day celebrations.

We then made our way to Midway for the Sheep Dog Finals!

We've wanted to go to this for a few years and finally made it happen. My brother Dion and his family also went so we spent some time together there. 

It was amazing to watch these dogs! 

These dogs had to gather two groups of sheep, bring them together, take them through two separate gates (on opposite sides of the field), bring them to a circle where the dog and shepherd would divide out the non-tagged sheep, then move the tagged sheep only to a pen! It was amazing!

We saw sheep wrangling (probably not the right word), Sheep shearing, and Agility dogs as well.

I loved it so much.  

We also got a lot of sun.

Oops.

Next we drove to Park City for a visit to the Olympic Park.

I had never been before, though Frank had. 

Neither of us can figure out how he's been without me. He was sure I went with him. He even remembers doing the ropes course. But it wasn't with me! haha

Anyway, we decided to live dangerously and got tickets to do the Bobsled. I was super nervous, especially after seeing the sign at the top saying "Beyond this point, serious injury or death could occur" and after they gave us a little safety speech which included how to avoid being a "bobble head" or hurting your back in the 4 G turns.

I was seriously hyperventilating when we were strapped in waiting to go.

But in the end it was a fun ride!

I actually have a video of the whole thing which took forever to find on the live feed. But I found it and managed to record it on my iPhone. It's a bit long and you can't tell its us except for the loading part. But here it is for posterity:

We then took a ride up the ski lift. Supposed to be for enjoying the beautiful view. I was, however, freaking out the entire time. I am becoming less a fan of heights the older I get. Once we got to the top, I proclaimed my desire to take a shuttle back down rather than ever get on that thing again. Frank was flabbergasted and hadn't realized I was so stressed. I tried to calm myself down and force myself to get back on but in the end, we hiked down.  That was an expensive one way trip...we were supposed to be able to ride it as many times as we liked! (which I guess I did)

After Olympic park we drove to old town Park City and walked around, went into shops and then had dinner at Main Street Pizza and Noodle. They had me at noodle.

We also had a lovely ice cream cone.

Back to the Airbnb for News Hour while soaking in the hot tub while enjoying the gorgeous mountain views.

It was a lovely, busy day!

We had intended to do more bike riding but were both pooped after that long day in the sun and decided to forgo it for today.

May 27

We packed up the our stuff and our hardly used bikes and headed back home. I had to work at 3 pm so we just had a relaxing morning and got organized for work to start up again. 

I can't believe it's been 37 years!

We've been through a lot but we keep showing up for each other no matter what. 

I wouldn't have it any other way.

May 28th

The weekend is over but we exchanged gifts in the evening after work.

We had originally planned to go to dinner with Kari and Josh but Kari isn't feeling well so we had a quiet night at home.

Frank got me apple EarPods which was a surpise!

I got him/us a weekend trip in September to some domes in Bryce Canyon so we have another vacation to look forward to!

April 15th New Zealand

Today was downtown Auckland day #2. We decided to take the ferry over instead of driving so that was a fun adventure!

I didn't sleep as well the night before and I felt like I was possibly having allergies or maybe coming down with a cold. Summer and I did another cold plunge.

Doneen and I went for short morning walk so I could post my postcards home and we also got another pastry. We decided the best route was for Dion to drive Dad down and then walk back to the ferry. Doneen and I wandered around looking for the ferry entrance and Dion ended up beating us there. Luckily we had a local tell us where to go. There was lots of construction going on so it was confusing!

We all managed to board the ferry on time though.

It was a nice rice, not too rough. And the sites were beautiful

We arrived in downtown Aukland and did a little sightseeing for a few minutes.

A few of us needed a restroom so we found some on the street...the bathrooms are very high tech. They talk to you and play music and apparently make you leave after 10 minutes but we didn't try out how that happens.

There was a kiosk sort of room that had lots of info about the Moari.and the island in general. We all found it interesting

First stop: lunch!

We went to a pub called Danny Doulas

The food was yummy, as usual!

Some got fish and chips and some got pasties (like a pot pie)

So good.

Next stop was ice cream!

Dion doesn't like to miss out on any ice cream opportunities and we were all here for it

We decided to ride the local buses instead of trying to push Dad around in the wheelchair this time. The bus was easy to find and we could pay with our phones so it went pretty smoothly

The main activity we came for was the Weta Workshop Unlimited.

Weta Workshop is a creative company focused on physical design, special effects, and props for film and television. They did Lord of the Rings and Avatar among others. The Workshop unlimited is a tour/experience that shows a lot about the work they do and how they do it. 

There were multiple rooms and interactive experiences. I doubt I will remember which room is which but I'll try to give the gist.

Even the area where we waited to join our group had lots of fun things to see!

First they took us into a storage room and asked us to count all the boxes. Of course no one did that. haha

We had to solve a puzzle to get out of the room but at this moment I realized that I was not going to make it through this event unless I went to the bathroom first!  I had to be led out and then let back in when I got back. I felt dumb but better safe than sorry...I really had to go!  So I missed how they solved the puzzle.

I think there was a room that I have no pictures of here.

Then we went into a room full of really cool figurines all around the room, some worth thousands!

Then a door opened to a muppet kind of guy (not really a muppet but an animatronic dude) who talked and made jokes and gave us instructions

A lot of these figurines were worth lots of money and were very intricate.

the next room had all kinds of different ways they make moving parts for dudes like him. We could manipulate and try most everything.

This was an alien and it was like that surgery game where you try to remove the alien's organs without getting zapped.

Our guide was always there to explain or show us things

The room after this was for horror. Some people skipped it. I went but no pictures. It was gross. LOL

There were slimy things hanging down that we had to walk though and noises and scary hands etc.

The next room showed how artists draw and carve things for movies.

There was this whole scene with a sleeping artist.

...Then the next space had us feeing miniature but we were inside that exact scene!  Huge pencils, noteboards and even the artist. It was fun!

I thought I took more pictures of that space but apparently not! Dangit.

The next room had an example of a scene for a movie of a big castle but of course it is just a small-ish version that can be used in certain shots.

The castle was very intricate with trees and all kinds of things.

The detail was just amazing!

You could totally imagine the shot from the movie that might have this castle. As you can see, it's still pretty big compared to us.

There were different areas where we could try out our skills (I have none).

We could draw, make chain mail, use clay to sculpt a face, and sit in a big throne with swords and other fake weapons. They had lots of examples of different items showing the skills of the artists.

I enjoyed wandering around and looking at all of it. The chain mail made me want to make some in real life and wear it for Halloween or something. They had some that was real (metal) soooo heavy and some that was fake (plastic) but looked real. It was cool.

As we went through each room, we were learning things and it was as if we were making a movie. Kind of hard to explain but the whole tour had a theme of making a movie.

The last room had the finale of the movie. 

There was a video and an animatronic woman.

It was pretty darn cool!

Luckily there was usually somewhere for dad to sit in each room. 

He wasn't all that into it. 

We finished the tour and spent some time in the gift shop

We had to do a combination of bus and walking and uber (for dad) to get back to the ferry.

We all eventually arrived but we'd missed the ferry so had to wait for the next one.

Dion and Danielle went to make sure she wasn't overcharged for the ferry coming in (her ticket wasn't working right) and we decided to use our time wisely and got some gelato

The ferry home was much choppier and completely full as I think it was commuting time.

When we got home we had leftover night and finally finished the Lord of the Rings movie.

As we were coming in with our bags, Danielle slipped on the stairs and fell. Her back was sore but luckily she was ok. 

Dad was ready to relax! It was a fair amount of walking but he did great!