O Be Joyful!

This year seems to be winding down to a very fast finish. So much so, that it appears I may not get around to Christmas cards this year. But in all the busyness, I have taken time to count my many blessings, family and friends being among the most appreciated. I'm also so grateful for a loving Savior whose birth we celebrate this month. O Be Joyful! He lives and because he lives, we know we will also live again! I'm wishing you all a very, Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

The adventures and activities continue. New York was a marvelous get away in October and the month ended with a little bit of trick or treat, depending on your outlook and age. I was invited to a Halloween costume party, so I went for fast and cheap, and purchased my costume for the event.

Maughan grandchildren with me (the Devil made me do it?)

The first part of November was an Armenian Missionary Reunion organized by President and Sister Carter. It was so fun to see the missionaries and senior couples One couple, Bob and Barbara (Barbie to her teasing husband) were kind enough to pick me up in Provo as they traveled up from their home in Nevada.

Senior Couples: Watkins, ? Pincocks, and Jones

President and Sister Carter and me at the Reunion

The Beckstrands: She served in Armenia and he served with me in Federal Way

Alisa came to visit briefly just before Thanksgiving. She brought Josef, her Swedish friend who lives in Germany. They were checking out several sites in Utah as possibilities for a project he has in mind.

Alisa, me and Josef

Testing out the new video game that Maughan kids have been creating

The day after they left to return to New York, Jacob (my grandson) and I flew to Portland for Thanksgiving. It's always great to be with family. We had a wonderful visit, managed to complete a challenging puzzle (only took to 2 a.m.), and Jake proposed to his girlfriend and it looks like we'll be adding another family member next May.

John, Julie, Anna, Emily, Jake, Kenzie, and Joseph Peterson

David, JaneAnne, Anders, Leif and Berit on Thanksgiving Day

JaneAnne and Anders puzzling

The Completed Jelly Fishes

Jacob proposing to Kenzie at Pioneer Square in Portland

A hat and a kiss from a Midshipman, Joseph, on his way to airport and back to school

I was home long enough to see a cute Granddaughter, Kate, dance at her school's winter dance program. As a senior, Kate choreographed her own dance and then did it. Way to go, Kate! Well done!

Kate performing with the Dance Company

Proud grandmother with Kate

The next day I was on the road again. A brief stop to enjoy a lunch with long-time Portland friends was great. I managed to get a picture of all the women who came to the Oregon Soiree at the Fergusons. It was fun to see the Fuhrimans who happened to be in town to do some child watching. I wonder if they'll move to Utah like the rest of us have done? Pictured standing are Janet Pollei, Mary Gail Worsley Plothow, Me, Becky Fuhriman, Marianne Buchanan, Hope Hyde, Carol Ferguson (in the middle) and Shirley Nelson and Pat Ottley in front.

Oldies but "goodies"

After eating some delicious food, I headed to the airport where I hooked up with John and Julie and we all flew to Washington D.C.National Airport and from there drove to Annapolis. My grandson, Joseph, is a member of the Navy Glee Club and they were performing the Messiah in the Navy Chapel on Saturday and Sunday. What a treat it was to be in that beautiful place and to see where Joseph lives and is spending his time. Saturday, we took a walking tour through several of the buildings. The architecture is amazing and the stained glass in the chapel is done by Tiffany. We enjoyed good food at some of the local establishments and the concert was beautiful. Handel's work  of Isaiah's words is amazing.

Army-Navy Game coming up next week...a very big deal here

All decked out for Christmas

John and I on tour, visiting the Dahlgren Hall

Some of the beautiful architecture in the Naval buildings

Naval chapel with Tiffany stained glass

John Paul Jones Crypt in basement of chapel

Joseph joins us by the crypt

Lunch at Annapolis at Chick and Ruth's Delly

A wonderful deli, "Big Cheese" run by Judy and her husband

Water Witch Fire Station in Annapolis

John, Julie and Me with the Goat at the USNA

Julie, John and Me at the Messiah concert in the Naval Chapel

Me, Nels Anderson, John, Julie, and Kirsten surround our Middy, Joseph

Hearing the words of the Messiah, what a great way to end the trip. The day I got back I was finally able to reconnect with some Armenian friends we became acquainted with in California when we served in the Arcadia Mission. We love their family and Rog kindled an interest in Robert who still loves to go fishing. Thanks, Alina H, Artur Y, Robert and Stella for a wonderful Family Home Evening. Artur is interested in putting a tour group together to do Armenia next spring. Anyone interested?

Stella, Alina, Artur, and Robert

We have a group, called the Canyon Capers (they used to go visit various canyons in the summer, but now it's a luncheon, book group) and today we had our annual Christmas potluck lunch and program. These are a great bunch of women and I managed to capture a few of them with some of the delicious food items. Two of the women had just returned from a trip to New York and were wearing their glitzy "I love New York" hats.

Joyce, Mona and Joan at Isabella Ng's home

I'm looking forward to Christmas, followed by a family reunion in Arizona to bring in the New Year! Thanks friends and family. I surely appreciate all your love and support!

October 2015, New York, New York plus

October has proved to be a wonderful month full of all sorts of good things and a little adventure, too. Being able to listen to General Conference was a marvelous way to begin the month. So many words of wisdom and such a spiritual uplift. It was great! I think I need to get "ponderizing".

Conference often brings visitors to town and this year was no exception. Al and Heidi Dow came from Maine and Lyn and Jeff Shulz organized a get together for some of the Armenian senior missionaries. It was so great to see them!We enjoyed a great meal and even played some games, throwback to our time together in Armenia.

Jill & Tom Blotter, Jeff, Heidi, Albert,, and Lyn

It was a great month for re-connecting with friends and I was able to get together with Reynold and Diane Brown (friends for over 50 years).  Carl and Joanne Byers came back for another visit and we finally got some game playing time. I just didn't remember to get out my camera. I also was able to go with friends to the BYU Spectacular (including guest artist, David Archuleta). Very entertaining!!

October is also football season and more Armenian missionary friends, David and Connie Pincock came down for BYU's Homecoming game. They had an extra ticket and invited me to go along. I also enjoyed a fun tailgate party/lunch earlier in the day. Thanks friends!

Dave and Connie Pincock enjoying some shade on a warm, fall day

Guess where I am? Beautiful, sunny warm, rather summery day for a game

Probably the biggest event of the month was a trip to New York City. All of my girls, minus Tamsen (we missed her a lot...but Truman [almost 7 months old] was glad she stayed home to take care of him) went. Alisa had wanted us to come to "her town" for a long time and we finally put it all together. We flew from three different states, but by late afternoon on the 14th, we were finally all together.

Jana and I getting ready to board our Delta flight to New York

Alisa and JaneAnne did a fantastic job scheduling our itinerary and we packed a lot into just a few days. JaneAnne made arrangements for our housing with an Air BnB. It was a brownstone, 4th floor walk-up in Harlem, just around the corner from Alisa's apartment. It had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a nice kitchen, living, dining room combo. My phone says the location is near Malcolm X Blvd. We purchased MTA passes for the week, so rode the subway and/or buses whenever we wanted to go somewhere. We also took the Air Train into the city from the airport and $6 versus a cab ride is quite a savings, especially for the five of us traveling.

Alisa, JaneAnne, Jana, Julie and Sue in our apartment

Home for a few days, 193 Lenox Ave #4

View out the windows, very light and pleasant place

View out one window

We walked up four flights of stairs (didn't want to do that too often, but once a day was okay), left our luggage and headed out for our first agenda item...food and it was Harlem Shake for delicious burgers and fries, then on to the Apollo Theater for Amateur Night (an icon in this area).

Jana, me, JaneAnne, Julie and Sue at Harlem Shake

Ready for Amateur Night at the Apollo

Pretty good talent and entertaining

After the show, we headed back to our apartment to get a little sleep in preparation for a big day on the morrow. Alisa and Sue had put together a picnic lunch for us. So, early the next morning we headed out to Battery Park, picked up our City Pass (entrance to a lot of interesting sites) and boarded the ferry headed first towards Liberty Island and then to Ellis Island (the place where immigrants landed before coming into the country from about 1890 to ?). Following the Island visits, we took a walking tour through Wall Street and the Trinity Church on our way to the 9/11 Memorial/Museum. The visit to the museum was amazing. There was so much to see, to think about; it was a challenge to take it all in; almost overwhelming. It was hard to "wrap my head" around it. Touching and inspiring! We stayed almost to closing, but realized we hadn't eaten anything for a long time, so we were pretty hungry. We enjoyed dinner at Maison Kayser and followed it up with Big Gay Ice Cream.

On the road (subway) again, off to the islands, Liberty and Ellis

A ferry boat trip

On the ferry looking back at New York

Patti and JaneAnne enjoying the ferry ride, windy

Jana and Sue as we approach Liberty Island

View of the city from the Island

There she is, a wonderful icon of liberty

,Sue, Jana, Alisa, JaneAnne, Patti, Julie with Miss Liberty's face located in Pedestal Museum

Miss Liberty and the city view

Me and Sue on the ferry ride

Trying to get a better angle?

Our traditional "selfie with Miss Liberty

Our "selfie" pose on Ellis Island; enjoyed our picnic here

Broadway and Wall Street

Trinity Church

Inside Trinity Church

Water feature at site of one of the twin towers. Names of victims are written there

One of displays inside 9/11 Memorial

Night view of 9/11 Memorial

Dinner at Maison Kayser

Enjoying our "salted pimp" (what a name!) ice cream at Big Gay Ice Cream

The next day we'll call it a museum day because we visited three of them: The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The architecture of the buildings and the contents of each were different, but very interesting. We had two great meals, one at The Wright (because the Guggenheim was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright), and the other at Hale and Hearty Soup.We ended our day by attending Alisa's performance in a chamber opera by Martin Halpern. She did well with a rather interesting score.

On our way to the Guggenheim via shank's pony

Our "selfie" pose outside the Guggenheim

The spiral of the Guggenheim

The Wright Cafe/Restaurant

Getting ready for a fabulous meal at The Wright

Beautiful background and beautiful women

Metropolitan Museum of Art, an overwhelmingly large structure with tons of art

A large stained glass from Tiffany at the Museum

Sue with a favorite sculpture at the MoMA

In the garden at the MoMA

Interesting?

Saturday was our "show" day and visits to the Empire State Building (both daytime and at midnight for the lights). We also took in Times Square, Grand Central Station and the Rockefeller Plaza. We dined and dashed at the Shake Shack for lunch and Dim Sum (Chinese) for a most excellent dinner including Shanghai dumplings. As Alisa said, real Kung Fu ingredients. Other food delights were Levain Bakery for yummy cookies. There was a man on our flight coming home with a sackful of cookies and he said his family was waiting for their souvenir from NYC and would probably not let him in the house without them. We wished we had thought to bring some home. Additionally, we made a stop at Magnolia Bakery after the shows for some "to die for" banana pudding. Is it any wonder that I gained a few pounds in spite of walking over 10 000 steps each day?

Jana, Sue and I waiting for our cookies from LeVain Balery, delicious!

On the road again, headed for the Empire State Building

The lobby of the Empire State Building

View from the top. Amazing to think; it was built in just 11 months

Another view from the top

Windy and cold on the top, but what a view!

"Selfie" view with the Empire State Building

Waiting for Matilda to start

Like a zillion post it notes on the set prior to the beginning

Matilda was a fun show

Times Square "selfie"

Later evening at Times Square

Dinner at Dim Sum, cold by the door, we kept our coats on

Grand Central Station, beautifully refirbushed

Grand Central Station

The ceiling had constellations in gold, beautiful!

Grand Central Station, a beautiful site

Our "selfie" while waiting for Wicked to begin

Costumes for the Good and Bad Witches

Close up detail of the costume, beautifully intricate

Wicked was an amazing show and we all enjoyed it

Rockefeller Center-Plaza

Beautiful floors at the Empire State Building

Midnight view from the Empire State Building

Another midnight view

Beautiful ESB

Our last day in New York started out with church in the Harlem 1st Ward. At the end of the first meeting, they have all the visitors stand up individually to introduce themselves and then they give them the Harlem welcome. So fun! We followed church with a delicious brunch at Le Pain Quotidien and then a visit to The Frick (a beautiful old home converted into a wonderful museum).

Our last meal in New York! Loved the avocado toast, etc.

Julie, me, JaneAnne, Jana and Sue outside the Frick

In the Garden room at the Frick

This was the end of our adventures. What a whirlwind of activities! It was so great to experience the Big Apple with my girls. A trip of a lifetime as the saying goes!