Breathing and Mary Jo

PTA has hit me like a pan in the face.  Mary Jo came for a visit and as soon as she left, I've had a fire under me to get some PTA business done. It's been fun to be involved and I've enjoyed it. It's nice to have the first few days under my belt and I'll be excited to have back to school night completed tonight. Right now, I've done all I can to prepare and now I just remind myself to go with the flow if things don't go as planned.

In an effort to catch up my journaling, I will start with our visit with MJ from PA and write as if weeks haven't passed by. Mary Jo arrived mid July and as always, it's awesome to hang out and have the full attention of our dear friend.

This is just after we picked her up at the airport. Feel the happiness.





And in true Mary Jo fashion, she always has some kind of gift in her bag.  Mmmmm, adobe cracker nuts, so good.



We had a lite supper (supper is what she calls it--) and we headed to bed.



The next day we hit the Tracy Aviary and the Pizza Pie Cafe--my kids favorite place to eat in the whole wide world.  I don't need to take them to Disneyland because the Pizza Pie Cafe fills that need for them.







In true Mary Jo fashion, she finds all animals cute.  She loved taking pictures of the many birds, birds and kids, birds sprinklers, birds on buildings, birds with knick knacks, birds in bathroom sinks....



Later that night she taught us the game Skunk.  Just love her.



The next morning we were St. George bound, but before we left, Emily had invited us over to pick yummy raspberries from her mom's garden.







It makes you crave some raspberries doesn't it? One of my favorite fruits.  I take that back, it actually is my favorite fruit.



I stopped at Walmart to get a few things, and in TRUE Mary Jo fashion, she bought the kids their birthday presents.  She gave them a little budget and took them to toy land to pick it out. Becket and Micah knew exactly what they wanted, Gretchen carefully strategizes and stretches out every dollar. I was just glad they said thank you for all of the spoiling taking place.



On the drive down the kids enjoyed lots of Grandma Tootie time.



We also stopped at the dairy in Beaver for ice cream.



We puttered around St. George...went to lunch at Benjas, saw a few movies, went swimming, my mom and Mary Jo hit bingo in mesquite, while I took the kids crawdad catching.






















I happened to run into my cousins at the Veyo pool and had the rare chance to catch up with my Aunt Nan. Tate is one of my youngest cousins on top of the tower.



Mat took the kids camping while we went to the play.  In true Dannielle fashion, she takes really good care of us and packed extra snacks and food for the kids. Mat would have been living off the land and eating leaves for dinner if she hadn't thought to do so.



Micah had so many bananas this trip that we teased her of turning into one.  She replied, "You'd have to eat like 99 of them to turn into a banana," coupled with a "duh" look.



pedicures--clearly, I don't know why I explained that.



We went to the Shakespearean Festival and Anything Goes at the theater. Pronounced, Thee-a-ter in an English snobbish accent. We noticed that old coach Laden, former coach of the Jazz, had decided to join us. His wife really got jamming in those musical numbers.



Sunday we had a picnic with Mat's parents and Casey and Tiff. Mary Jo made her mom's potato salad where everything is chopped into miniature pieces.



and....... some got to cruise up the canyon in the mini











A visit to Le Calle for our blessed peacock feathers that seem to fall all over the house.



Le Calle management was nice enough to give the kids free expensive truffles.



We headed for bowling and ice cream the next day.









Micah looks like Sally from Charlie Brown.



We also threw a combined birthday party for the girls at the Classic Fun Center.  A child's dream.



Wow! I take some awesome fuzzy pictures and I only took two.  I was too busy chatting and having a party.



The next day (Mj's last) I labeled it Canyon Day.  We went up to Little Cottonwood Canyon for a hike to Cecret Lake.  We were able to witness a mama moose and baby moose swim laps around the lake.  Breath taking really, especially for someone from Pennsylvania.



The baby is starting to test the water in the bottom right hand corner.  Again, I was too busy watching to take any more pictures after that, so you'll just have to take my word for it.



Beautiful


Mat mountain biked Corner Canyon so we decided to continue our canyon day by driving up Big Cottonwood over Gaurdsman's Pass stopping for lunch in Park City, then we  headed down through Parley's Canyon and over to Emigration Canyon, stopping to meet Matt and Lindsay and Bob and Andrea at Red Butte Garden.

Here is Mary Jo holding onto the car because of the vertical drop down below.  She would have felt better if there were guard rails.



Mat also did his classy belly shirt pose with Mary Jo not knowing. We show her the picture afterwards, and she just laughs and says, "Oh Mat!"













We ended Mary Jo's trip with fireworks across the valley.  It was the 24th of July, but it was also Abuela Tootie's last night so I thought it was appropriate of Utah to send her off with a bang. We sure loved the time we got to spend with Mary Jo.  What a treat.  She is back home taking care of her dogs and teaching school.  We look forward to next summer!  Just wish we lived in a neighboring state so we didn't have to wait so long.