I just love these sweet flowers, I have them on our balcony. We brought them into the house on Monday, and watered them good, hoping they would survive the 6 days we would be gone. (Happily, they did!)
First thing on Monday Dad and I hustled over to your cousin Matt's wife's house that Becca is selling, to do a bit of touching up before its listed. I tried three different paint colors before I got this close ....
Dad put this door back on its hinges.
and put the missing tile back up.
He painted the door frame and
the garage door frame too.
I got this plaid mirror hung, as it had been in the van for a month. Ooops. I love how it looks.
Then Trevor came by to borrow the cement mixer.
That night we went to the Springville Farmers Market and saw Liesel and her twin Gweneth. Dad saw online that Liesel has been making jewelry and wanted to support her. Gweneth was one of our missionaries, Liesel is her twin who served in Denmark. They married a pair of our assistants, in fact probably our 2nd and 3rd favorite assistants. (Number one was Brett Anderson, who used to live in Trevor and Nell's ward.)
...and if all that was not enough, Dad finished reading the Book of Mormon in Finnish for his 10th time.
Then on Tuesday we drove to Denver ... the mountain canyons were amazing.
We loved the drive.
In Denver we stayed on the 30th floor of this 37 floor Hyatt Regency hotel.
Welcome to the hotel.
At the convention center on Tuesday, we saw the famous bear peeking in at all the people. So fun, it is huge.
On Wednesday we went shopping at a Target nearby. The parking was very expensive and a little tricky to figure out, when it came to coming and going, so we avoided taking the car for the most part. Dad is shown with Dave Thorell who tuned 83 that day.
This quartet was from Japan. They were so much fun, but I guess not technically correct on things they judge for.
this quartet was from Sweden, one of two. The other one, who had been working towards winning this contest since 2012, did indeed win. Google the winners, their name is Lemon Squeezy.
Here's a quartet from Dad's chorus that competed.
The couple from behind us in our assigned seats were from Minnesota, and he is 75% Norwegian while she is about 50%, like me.
After Dad's practice that day, and watching some quartets, we took the car out and went antique shopping. We also went to lunch and had an impossible burger. We were trying to eat in house, as we were a little 'house poor', but getting all the nutrients I rely on was a bit of a trick.
The antique store was full of discounted booths, and I got some good deals. This dealer likes plaid as much as I do.
Loved this photo/frame wall
Then on Friday I was off to walk a mile to another antique store when I ran into a couple of gals on their way to FanX ... in the same convention center that was just huge. One of the workers told Dad that they sometimes have 6 or 8 conventions going on at the same time. It was fun seeing all the folks in costume from Thursday through Sunday.
On the way I saw this amazing tile work on this store in the Hispanic Quarter.
I was exhausted after walking the mile but managed to spend a couple of hours in the store. I bought an old painting by this artist. Mine is eggs in a wire basket in the same style.
I loved the stenciling on the stairs.
And also following the yellow brick road.
Not sure I've ever seen an Eva chair before, but took a picture of it for our Eva.
Dad drove out and got me and then in the afternoon we watched choruses.
I loved the colors of this group, and also the youngest singer. Lots of interesting groupings, a lot with women, though this is the only young child I saw.
This group was from England and did a Beatles song.
The gal in front here is the director.
Meanwhile, Darby evidently drove up to Idaho to hang with some cool kids.
"floating on the Boise River ...."
Looks like they had a ball,
don't you think?
After watching the choruses on Friday night we walked to a Mexican Restaurant with others in the chorus for dinner.
After dinner we stopped for a picture. Here we are in front of a building that looks like it was designed by the Spanish architect, Gaudy. It also reminds us of the fun architecture in Finland.
We'd seen it when we drove into town on Tuesday, and this picture is a little more clear.
No sure about what this business is, but thought the outfits were fun.
It was the fourth of July and I thought this building was perfect for representing the season. After dinner we had a bit more of a walk to the building where there was a concert with a lot of historic quartets singing, including the winners in 1975, three of the four have continued to sing with another guy for the last 50 years, and they were still very good, even though they were all in their 80's. Wow.
With the mile to the antique store included I ended up with 15,000 steps, and I haven't had that many since our trip back to West Virginia last October. When we got home we were able to watch fireworks from the window of the hotel for almost an hour. What a great day.
Meanwhile back at home these hooligans hiked up Timp for old times' sake, when Papa used to haul the kids to the top on the 24th of July several times.
They made some new friends in the process.
What a beautiful view.
and what a hike.
Nell made it fun for the rest of Spencer and Britt's family that day.
Here I am on Saturday making lunch for us to eat before heading to the final session of chorus competitions, knowing there would not be time to eat between that and the quartet finals that night. Not having a microwave was very, very annoying, you can see me here making a grilled cheese sandwich with an iron,
Later, while waiting for Dad's chorus to get out of their practice, I saw the folks from New Zealand getting ready for their performance, which I hear was amazing. (They took 3rd)
Here is Dad's group on stage.
He is in the middle here.
Singing his heart out.
The young man in the lower right here is the just graduated high school student Dad has been driving to chorus practice for almost a year. They ended coming in at 23rd, up one place from the last time they went to International in 2023.
Vocal Majority, probably the best chorus in the association, won the chorus contest. They are huge and are from Dallas. They even have a preparatory chorus for training purposes.
Then it was time to load the risers for their ride home.
There were about 10 guys to do it, and that made for ....
quick work.
That night we watched the quartet finals and we loved seeing Lemon Squeezy win.
and later with their trophies.
This morning, we headed out around 10, and got to Price where we stopped to see Dad's Uncle Ralph for a while. (Ralph Dyett was married to Grandma Connie's sister Mackie, who passed away years ago, both of Grandma Connie's sisters, and her brother had diabetes from childhood.)
Here he is with his wife, Dee.
Then we stopped in Spanish to pick up the Indian Food the kids had picked up for us on Saturday. We got to see the cute Happy Birthday banner that Adi's friends gave her for her 13th birthday, yesterday.
How fun is that?
Here's Papa's collage for her birthday.
and last of all, our blast from the past. This is Dad's ninth grade seminary picture ... can you see him? His girlfriend is the one in the dark colored dress.
