Winter Distractions  ❤  Happy Valentines Day!

Early birthday celebration at Bombay House with neighborhood friends (my 78th, Gae Rose's 90th!)

I enjoy watching grand kids' sports. Ken coaches son Andrew Taylor's basketball game

        Andrew and some of his birthday party friends at a fun gym

        

Carl Wendenburg (Taylors' German cousin/exchange student) and I enjoyed an exciting BYU volleyball game. BYU students are always enthusiastic! We got tickets from our friends who went to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and just returned successfullythis afternoon!(Mount Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: 5,895 metres above sea level and about 4,900 metres above its plateau base). 

I've been too busy to do my usual amount of reading, but have enjoyed Ann Pachett's essays "These Precious Days" She is pictured with her father and 2 stepfathers.

Walk in my neighborhood. We've had very little snow lately, but maybe this week.

My friend Marilyn visited from Reno and we went to Tru Religion Pancakes for breakfast. Come visit and I'll treat you! After 2 -3 days of flight delays and cancellations she and 11 others were finally able to go to Ghana this weekend on their medical and school assistance trip. Bonus for me: I got her for a day.

                        The BYU choruses concert was fabulous!

              I am a great afficionada of the Winter Olympics. 

Brittany Bowe in a great act of friendship and sportsmanship, offered her spot on the women's speed skating team to teammate Erin Jackson. Only the top two skaters earn a bid to the Olympics. But Brittany Bowe , who came in first at Olympic Trials, decided to give up her spot out of "the spirit of the Olympics," to allow Jackson the opportunity to compete.  Jackson wins gold in 500m speed skate.

It was thrilling to watch Nathan Chen from SLC, a student in statistics at Yale University, win gold in the men's single figure skating, and Mikaela Shiffrin,who had covid last month, win in super G and downhill skiing. So incredibly fast. And there are so many fabulous athletes. 

And there are so many fabulous athletes. Shaun White, snowboard legend leaves without a medal, but inspired many younger snowboarders.

The USA team in opening ceremony of Tokyo Olympics in 2018. The U.S and other countries diplomatically boycotted the Beijing Olympics because of human rights atrocities by China, but allowed the athletes, who have trained and dreamed for years to participate.

Senator Mitt Romney chaired the very successful 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.

My grandson Aaron Taylor enjoys skiing Black Diamonds at Sundance Resort in Provo (where I broke my hip in 2006)

Some of my family came to celebrate my birthday. Phoebe helped me blow out candles! Lucy and others made beautiful cards.

Alby Petelo invited me to a very extravagant exposition of jewelry....$1000-$1,000,000 value. Hard to fathom! We didn't buy anything! Crazy!!!

My grand-daughter Kelly played the role of a pirate in "Wendy and Peter Pan" at her school.

We all enjoyed it. What a great experience for the participants

      Lucie, Carl, Andrew (above)  Molly, George and Kelly (below)

        Another fabulous BYU student production: Ballet in Concert. I also recently attended "Ballet Hispanico" (Latino, Cuban classical and also portrayal of discrimination of Hispanics a la West Side Story

My grand-daughter Lucie raises chickens. Her mom bought her this apron to collect the beautiful colored eggs she collects each day.

Carl has enjoyed several hikes to the "Y". He says these bare and rocky mountains are more dangerous and very different from the forested mountains of Germany. 

Sunday dinner with son Marc and family and three missionaries. The redhead is waiting for her visa for Norway, the next is learning Samoan for Utah.

As we commemorate this week and next the birthdays of our first President George Washington (1789-97) and 16th President Abraham Lincoln (1861-65), I am filled with gratitude and awe for the incredible legacy of freedom, justice and wisdom of those who have gone before us. We have work to do, but we must honor these great men, forgive and understand their times and failings, and rebuild a unified country and set an example of democracy for our world.