Beverly's baby blessing

Roy and I had a ball taking our four oldest grandchildren to "The Little Mermaid" at the Centerpoint Legacy Theater.  When all of Ariel's sister's came onstage (in their modest mermaid costumes), Ollie slumped down in his seat and covered his eyes.  It was a fun moment when we realized that the Prince was being played by our Bountiful neighbor, Ben Lowell.  Of course, he was only our neighbor until he left home and got married.  The cast did an excellent job.  I think it's amazing that so much talent can be found so close to home.  These actors don't get paid, either.  They do it for the love of it.
At the end of the play, I told the kids they had to have a couple of pictures taken.  They were exhausted (Gunnar said, "I just want to go to bed."), but I was having my way this time.  Later, Ollie told his mom, "We weren't shy this time, we had pictures with Ariel and the Prince and Ursula...Now can I get one with Tiny Tim?"  Sorry Ollie, it's too late until the next time you go to Christmas Carol.

For FHE this past week, I made bread and we took it to a few families.  We took some to Heeyoung and rang the doorbell.  It looked like they were home but no one answered the door.  I didn't have my phone with me, so I called them when I got home and told them the bread was there.  Heeyoung felt terrible she hadn't answered.  She said she has some annoying neighbors so they didn't want to answer the door.  She sent me a couple of pictures of her kids enjoying the bread.

Thursday morning Roy and I headed to Texas for baby Beverly's blessing.  We didn't arrive until the evening.  Our plane was delayed by nearly an hour, but Andy kept the kids up to see us.  The weather was nice.  It was in the 70's, which made it hard to come home to a foot of snow.

When we got there we were finally able to give them the gift from the Christmas gift exchange.  It was a hit.

I tried it once but it made me dizzy.  The boys had a hard time
taking turns.  The point of the glasses--you put your i-phone in there
with an app and you have 3D

 On Friday we all went to the zoo (and more importantly, The Chocolate Bar!!!)

The first thing we did was feed the ducks.  I was almost certain Mav would walk right off the edge into the pond, but he didn't.   We had buns to feed them, but soon found we had to break up the bread for Mav because he threw in whatever we gave him.  There were turtles vying for the bread, too.  I didn't know they would eat it.

Max and Mav

Mav

Then we rode the train.  It's not connected with the zoo and it's about a 20 minute ride.  The boys love it.  And even Beverly enjoyed being outside.

Roy and Mav at the zoo.

Question: What do you get when 2 giraffe's collide?

Answer: A Giraffic Jam 

Question:  Why don't leopards like to play hide and seek?

Answer:  Because they are always spotted.

Question:  How do you stop a rhino from charging?

Answer:  You take away their credit cards.

(These puns are in honor of Matt.  They were on posters in the women's bathroom--I'm not that clever.)

The reason for Texas was, of course, Beverly's blessing.  Elise had invited Jennie Norton and her family, along with us and Andy's parents.  We got a few fun pictures before the meeting started.

Andy, Mav, Roy and Max, Catharine, Beverly and Elise

Bella, Brooklyn, Colin, Jenny, William, Jared, John, Andy Max and Mav, Elise with Beverly, Catharine and Roy (didn't I do
a good job with the names!)

At the end of sacrament meeting, an Uber driver came to pick us up and deliver us to the airport.  His name was Mohammed (which says a lot).  We had a nice discussion.  He asked Roy if he was allowed to have more than one wife which opened up a discussion on religion. I realized after I answered his question that many Muslims have plural wives.  He said they are allowed to in Pakistan (not in America), but only about 2% take an extra wife because of the expense.  He thought he wouldn't mind a 2nd wife if it weren't for that.  We told him that we believed that families were very important.  He was right with us on that one.  He told us that he was very happy that we had such a nice conversation.

Going to Texas for only 2 1/2 days (not including travel time) is exhausting.  I've gotten very little done today as "I don't travel well."  (This is sort of a joke because mom, Ila, always said that banana's "don't travel well".  I've found that bananas actually travel far better than strawberries or peaches).  I'm pretty exhausted after a long day on the plane.  Eating healthy is also hard on travel days.