Wednesday, August 31, 2011

My 2nd "Must " in SLC..

Okay, so Lethaby's Creamery in Salt Lake City is a MUST visit . We decided to go as a celebration of Emma's first day of kindergarten. The ice-cream is amazing, and the sundaes and banana splits to die for.

But first we had to drive across town, which after your first day of Kindergarten can prove to be an exhausting trip.


Then we check out the menu to make our choices...........



Sunday, August 28, 2011

Our visit to the Zoo...

Top of the list of places to visit in Salt Lake City for me is the Hogle Zoo. On my last trip, three years ago, the zoo was undergoing some major changes, so I was looking forward to seeing what had been completed.
There is still some work to be done, but overall I was impressed .

Today Evette, Emma, Lucca  and I braved the heat , left home real early and headed over to the Zoo. It goes without saying that the kids had a great time, with visits to just about all the animals we could cope with, a ride on the carousel and a train ride. But for me the highlight was the visit to the Gorilla. He was the ugliest, biggest yet most beautiful specimen. Out came our cameras and Evette and I went crazy trying to capture as many photos as we could. After a few minutes Evette was standing in front of the glassed indoor enclosure, clicking away madly when without any warning the Gorilla just rose up on it's hindquarters and lunged towards Evette, smashing his fist against the glass so hard that you could feel the vibration of the window where we were standing. Needless to say we all screamed like we had been scalded, and left there in a real hurry. A bit further on we told one of the keepers in passing what had happened and she said that this Gorilla was a real Diva and often took a dislike to people, or perhaps just the "paparazzi".

Below are some photos of a wonderful day, good on you Hogle Zoo for doing all the changes the Zoo is a pleasure to visit.






Oh, What a Night......

Over the past few years I have followed and enjoyed a lot of Blogs, getting to know people from all over the world, every now and again wondering what it would be like to meet these great people in person.

At present I am visiting my "Grandies" and my daughter and son-in-law in Salt Lake City, and as one of my favourite bloggers Life in Red Shoes lives in Salt Lake City it seemed an opportune time to meet up with her and some other bloggers from the area . 

So last night we met up at Bridgette's adorable house for dinner and a chance to put some faces to some bloggers names. And what a night it was, it was  like catching up with friends that I hadn't seen for a while. You know those friends, that even though you may not see them for a long time when you meet up again it's like you just pick up from where you left off. There was an instant connection with all of us, talking about our families,  grandchildren in particular,  and how we would right all the wrongs in the world. But, best of all there was an awful lot of laughter, we all seem to share the same sense of humour and a passion for Santa,( You had to be there), together with a love of good food and all things chocolate. The chocolate cake was a true winner , and Kay's gorgeous sugar cookies were a definite hit.

Thanks so much ladies for an awesome evening it was a pleasure to meet you all, and I am sure it will not be the first or last time we meet. 

Bridgette, me, Colleen, Cathy and Kay. Evette was behind the camera lens as usual.

Friday, August 19, 2011

AWOL from Blogland....

To all my blogging friends I must apologise for not checking out your posts of late, or of even making the effort to put up posts on my own blog. The thing is I have had a major "Blog Blank". There doesn't appear to have been a whole lot to blog about, same old, same old. Get up, go to work, come home, keep warm, go to bed, get up...Blah,blah,blah......

I put it down to Winter, dark in the morning when I get up and dark when I get home. Just trying to keep warm uses up so much energy. And add to that the totally weird weather we have been having, I mean to say we have had snow in Auckland, in fact it snowed here in Waiuku where we live. "Okay," I hear you say, "what's the big deal, snow is snow who cares.  " Well we care...we live in a sub-tropical area, with lots of rain throughout the year, humid in Summer and cold in Winter...IT DOES NOT SNOW!! And boy was it cold, freezing, temps of -2dgrees celsius. Just to prove it here is a photo taken from our from verandah on Tuesday, it is snow, I tell you it is snow... ( well perhaps sleety sort of snow} If you look real close you can see the snow... And of course all the Spring blooms are early and have been destroyed by the cold weather..


Add to the cold Winter, the fact that I have been horrendously busy at work and when I get home all I want to do is chill out. But that is about to change, I am about to take a break, hop on a plane and visit my beautiful daughter Evette, my totally gorgeous grandchildren Emma and Lucca , and my wonderful son-in-law Jared.. I'm off to the States on Wednesday...Wahoo!!

Off to see these guys...

This photo was taken a few years ago, I will be making sure I get lots of current photos of them all together..

So, if I'm not visiting your blog or posting on mine, sorry, but I'm going to be a tad busy.


Sunday, August 14, 2011

Shadow Shot Sunday..





The  neighbours over the back from us have a huge section covered in trees, something we are more than happy about as it gives us a lot of privacy. That is up until a few weeks ago, when one of the pine trees was cut down and revealed these two very old cars sitting in the long grass. I have no idea how long they have been there, or what make or model they are. But they made for some great shadows...



Thanks Tracy for hosting Shadow Shot Sunday, click on the link above to see what other shadow chasers around the world have been up to....


Sunday, August 7, 2011

Shadow Shot Sunday..





We had some fine sunny days this week, thank goodness. It was so nice to feel some warm sunshine at long last. Late afternoon sun cast a nice shadow against the lounge wall.




These are some of the shells that I collected over Summer, a reminder of warm days down at the beach,  BBQ's in the evening and for us here "downunder" in the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas.
Have a great week everyone, and thanks to Tracy for hosting.......

Flowers on Saturday..





First signs of Spring...

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