You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

Today was Valentine's Day.  Last night Tyler and Baylor drove up from Utah and stayed with us.  Wendy provided us with some Valentine's gifts today.  This evening the four of us went to Sizzler's for a quick bite to eat, and then we went to watch Jeffrey perform in the musical, "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown".  Jeffrey played the lead as Charlie Brown.  He worked hard these past few weeks to learn his parts and sing his songs.  He even had a vocal coach helping him with the musical numbers.  He did great, and we enjoyed the performance very much.  It was held at the Leavitt Center in Pocatello which is a small venue, but there were still about 40 people in the audience.  I really enjoyed his performance in "The Kite", "The Book Report", "T.E.A.M.", and my favorite, "Happiness".

  

Mirren Ray Alley is Born

Caz and Ashley had a baby girl who was born on January 27, 2026 at 12:30 p.m.  She weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. and she was 20 inches tall.  She had lots of dark hair and long eyelashes.  Both Ashley and Mirren were healthy and well.  Wendy and I went to their room at the Ogden Clinic Women's Center at the Ogden Regional Medical Center about 2:00 p.m.  We had a chance to hold Mirren and visit with Ashley and Caz for a couple of hours.  We stayed until LaDonna brought Camden.  He was a little shy around Mirren and didn't seem too sure what to think.  He got to open a present that Ashley told him was from Mirren, and that seemed to help him relax.  Mirren is a beautiful baby.  The name "Mirren" is Scottish and can be interpreted as "Beloved", "Sea White", or "Drop of the Sea".  We love the name.

Baylor's Dance Recital

On Wednesday night I drove Wendy down to Caz and Ashley's home.  She packed for an extended stay.  On Friday she was picked up by Jaylen and she went to Tyler and Jaylen's home to stay for a few nights.  On Saturday they attended a dance recital that Baylor participated in.  Wendy said the place was packed.  There was a good group together supporting Baylor, and after the recital they all went to have dinner at R&R Barbeque.  Wendy stayed with Tyler and Jaylen until Monday, and then she returned to Caz and Ashley's that night.

Our New Year Holiday

On New Year's Eve, Wendy and I spent a quiet day at home.  We put away most of the Christmas decorations.  We shared a Cafe Rio burrito for dinner.  We even decided to call it a night after 10:00 p.m.  On New Year's Day, we packed an overnight bag and drove to Utah.  We stopped to visit with Mom and David at the Lodge in North Ogden.  It is now called Spring Gardens Senior Living.  We arrived just as they were getting their lunch and we were able to join them.  We had a nice visit, and Wendy gave them a New Year's Wreath to help them celebrate.  

We then drove to Caz and Ashley's home to stay the night.  We went with them to Chili's for dinner.  We returned home and Wendy realized she forgot her glasses, so I drove back to the restaurant and found the glasses.  On my way home I stopped at McDonalds for Hot Fudge Sundaes.  We stayed up to play a couple rounds of Quixx.  It's a fun dice game that they introduced us to during the Christmas holiday.

On Friday, January 2nd, we slept in and relaxed for most of the morning.  We drove to a furniture store called Living Spaces to browse, and we sat on several different sofas.  Most of them were expensive - between $2,000 and $3,000 each.  After leaving the store we drove to the Hill Aerospace Museum and walked through the exhibits for about an hour.  We stopped to get lunch at a grocery store and then returned home.  About 2:00 p.m. Wendy and I left for Salt Lake City.  We parked at the Conference Center underground lot, and then walked to the Church History Library.  We went to the FamilySearch Library first, before realizing we had gone the wrong direction.  We found the correct building and I went into the reading room to look at a diary that I had requested a few days ago.  It was the diary of William Bramall who had served as a missionary during the time my great-great-grandmother converted to the church.  I discovered that he was not the one who baptized her, but he was present when she boarded a ship in Liverpool to immigrate to the United States.   It was fun and challenging to read his book from 1862.  I thought it would be on microfilm, but they brought me the actual book instead.

We walked from the Church History Library to City Creek, and we ate at the Cheesecake Factory.  It was busy, but we managed to get a table after waiting for about 15 minutes.  While we were having dinner, Ashley and Wendy were texting back and forth about a couch and sofa for sale on Facebook Marketplace.  They were leather recliners and only about a year old.  Wendy contacted the seller and arranged an appointment for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. to look at them.  After dinner we took the Trax one stop to the Utah Symphony at Abravenel Hall.  Kevin and Kay had purchased tickets for us to attend "Star Wars:  The Empire Strikes Back in Concert".  We had great seats, and I was surprised that the hall was completely full with an enthusiastic audience.  I couldn't see an empty seat.  The theater went dark when the movie started and the orchestra began with the 20th Century Fox original intro.  The audience erupted with applause, and then everyone applauded again when the orchestra played the "Main Title", and then again when they played "The Imperial March".  It was fun watching the movie with a live orchestra.  The audience gave the orchestra a long standing ovation at the end.

We returned to Caz and Ashley's home with cheesecake for dessert.  On Saturday, January 3rd, we planned our furniture purchase.  I made a reservation for a 10 foot U-Haul truck in Clearfield.  Caz dropped me off, and I waited while Wendy, Ashley, Camden, and Caz drove to the home where the couch and sofa were for sale in North Ogden.  Wendy called me to say she wanted the furniture, so I rented the truck and drove to meet them.  Wendy had paid $1,000 for both sofas.  Caz helped me load the sofas into the truck.  We stopped for lunch at Wendy's restaurant, and then we all left for home.  Wendy drove the car while I drove the U-Haul.  The weather was fine and the roads were dry.  We arrived back in Pocatello a little after 2:00 p.m.  We spent the next few hours moving our old furniture out and the new in.  We cleaned and treated the leather on the new set, and it really made them shine.  It also made the living room floor slippery, and Jeffrey took a fall when he stepped on a really slippery spot.  He was OK, but we had to clean the floor to avoid any more slips.  We were pretty tired, and we relaxed the rest of the night on our new recliners.

Our Christmas Holiday

Tuesday morning, December 23rd, we worked on the final preparations for the holiday.  Janice and Lizzie cleaned the upstairs rooms.  I finished organizing and boxing up items in the garage.  Jeffrey set up the Ping-Pong table and delivered a few gifts to neighbors.  Wendy worked to clean and organize the downstairs and finalize the gifts.  Grandma Sims packed a few things and left with Karen to stay with them.  Our family started arriving in the afternoon.  Ashley, Caz, and Camden arrived and settled into their room downstairs.  Tyler, Jaylen, Baylor, and Murphy arrived and settled into their rooms upstairs.  At 3:00 p.m. Jeffrey took Wendy to a doctor's appointment, and then they picked up the Prime Rib.  About 4:30 p.m. we ordered three large pizzas from Bigfoot Pizza and then picked them up at 5:30 p.m.  Ryan, Megan, Cooper, and Beckham arrived after that, and they brought a salad.  We ate dinner and then played Minute to Win It style games that Wendy had prepared.  She had several prizes lined up as well.  Jeffrey took guesses for M&M bottles.  We also played Ping-Pong.  Ashley and Jaylen baked the potatoes for our Christmas Eve dinner.  

Wednesday morning, Christmas Eve, Wendy and I went to the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor's office.  They said her nose is healing well.  Then we all met up in Blackfoot to watch a movie at the Blackfoot Movie Mill.  Ryan and Megan's family arrived earlier to watch Avatar.  We watched Zootopia 2.  The movies ended about the same time, and we managed to get a group photo.  

We got back home about 2:00 p.m. and the kids started preparing the dinner.  Kevin, Kay, and Kaleb arrived about 4:00 p.m. and checked into their room at the Holiday Inn Express.  We sat down for dinner about 6:00 p.m. and we enjoyed Prime Rib, Twice-Baked Potatoes, Seasoned Green Beans, Shrimp, Orange Jell-O Salad, and Geraldine Rolls.  It was excellent.  Wendy handed out gifts to the grandkids which included T-shirts and pajamas.  The young ones went to bed and then we did a White Elephant gift exchange.  The gifts we bought were based on some of our favorite things.  Then we got ready for Santa's arrival.  Wendy wrapped several presents, and it was getting late by the time we all got to bed.

Thursday, Christmas Day, we woke up a little after 7:00 a.m. and watched as the kids found their gifts from Santa.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it.  We started making breakfast about 8:00 a.m. and the entire family was able to be together for that.  We had Aebleskivers, bacon, hash browns, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, orange juice and milk.  It was a great breakfast, except I was a little short on eggs.  The family gathered downstairs to open gifts, and we enjoyed that very much.  It was about 11:00 a.m. when the kids started preparing to leave.  We took one last family photo before starting to say our good-byes.  At 1:30 p.m. Wendy and I went with Kevin, Kay, and Kaleb to visit Grandma Sims at John and Karen's home.  We visited with them for about an hour and then returned home.  Kaleb, Jeffrey and I tried to swim at the hotel pool, but it was too cold to stay in for long.  We had leftovers for dinner along with crackers, chips, salsa, cheese, and all kinds of snacks.  I ate way too much.  We played games including Flip 7 and 5 Minute Dungeon that Jeffrey got for Christmas.