This is the week that was - some of it anyway!

I confess that I have spent most of the week reading Horatio Hornblower!! I come home from work, flop on the couch, ice my knees and read!! I may run out of books - I'm on book 9 of the 11 of the Hornblower series. I should slow down.

But Saturday we went to Ashlee Miller's reception and had a fine time seeing all the Millers. I only got a shot of Becky and Haley but visited with Terri and Jennifer too.

The groom is actually a good friend of my old roommate MarDel. Don't you love the small world that is the church??


Before the reception, we headed to Welfare Square - LA Style that is - for the dedication of the new facility.


Everything is pretty topnotch - here's the Bishop's Storehouse grocery store.

And here's the dry pack cannery room

These were the Stake Presidents in attendance with Elder Tenney of the Seventy.

I also spoke tonight at the Stake Young Womanhood Recognition Night. I should have snapped a photo or two but was too busy enjoying a pretty good hot fudge sundae - with homemade hot fudge. It doesn't get much better than that!

Only 3 more Mondays to go until school is out - but hey, who's counting!!

A Note:

Dear Hannah and Robbie (say that with a French accent)

We are watching Ratatouille and wishing we were with you in Paris. We love your posts and stories.

We miss you

Love, Bonny and Annika

Viva la Love? Vida Story?

I saw this on our cousin Richard's Facebook.

My girls loved it - so I thought I'd pass it on.

Happy Anniversary!! - and related events of note!

Happy 9th anniversary today to Harry and Dawn!!

Dad and I did the babysitting honors so the happy couple could go out to dinner and a show. We took the kids to Wendy's - it's good to remind myself about fast food every now and then!!


Everyone did "clean their plates" anyway.

And yesterday Dad and Harry did the LA Marathon. For once it was not on a Sunday - but it will probably go back to that, so at least they got the chance.

The weather was "June gloomy" - perfect for marathoning!!

And the celebrating goes on and on for my birthday - Marcie H. made this darling "hat cake" for me - complete with marzipan button, bows and bees!!

It is so great to have wonderful friends - and colleagues! (Photo courtesy of Kyle!!)

Things that make you go hmmm....

Me:

You need to put away your clothes and pick up your toys.

Annika:

I don't care if my room is messy.

Me:

When you have your own house, you can leave it messy.

Annika:

When I have my own house I'll care, but now I don't.

Henry is 8 - and that's great!

I hope everyone does a Henry post - because I love Henry!! And I'd love to read about him all day!! He's a wonderful big brother - a real example to his sibs.

When I started mentioning that we were going up to Portland for Henry's baptism, the consensus from those who aren't around us all the time was, "What, Henry is 8?? When did that happen?" I guess they all thought he was still 5 or something!!

It doesn't seem all that long ago that we met our dear boy!

The special little guy who filled our hearts with joy!!

Who made his granny smile and coo,

and excited Uncle Noah too!

I will conclude with my favorite Henry photo - and a fave photo of Grandpa too!

The Birthday Festivities at 428

Rather than steal any thunder from the recognition of Henry's 8th birthday, I'm posting the pics from my birthday celebration today at my blog.

Sharing a birthday

It's fun to share a birthday. Roseann was the first person I met who shared my birthday, but since then I've met others - I don't have photos of them though!!

Roseann is in the foreground of this shot - with Alice, Harry and Lyn. It was 1968 - in the wintertime. We lived in a little house on 7th West in Provo. The cat was a stray we took in for a bit, but the landlord was not in favor. I'm not sure what we did with the kitty - I'm sure we found a home for him.

This is our shared birthday in 1968. I know I post this every year - but I really don't have many photos of Roseann and me together. This is the kitchen/living room of our very first apartment in the House of Do Chung in Provo.

Hope you have a great day Roseann!! (And Marc, and Casey, and Lexi too!)

Happy Birthday Betsy!!

I'm sure I post the same 3 or4 pics every year - I don't think I took a lot of photos back in the day when Betsy was a wee lassie!!

And I'm pretty sure I always include this one.

Here's the SoCal beach scene circa 1980!! Hope you have a great day Betsy!!

Let us go and make our visit

The three of us will be seeing YOU sometime between July 7 and July 11. Well, by "YOU" I mean people who live close to Mom and Dad's house. Because that's where we'll be!


Awesome picture, right?

Let's all raise our hands for Karen!!

I think I've posted this before - I think there were comments about mullets when I did!!

But it just seemed to go with the title, right!!

Gotta love Amy's mullet too!

Have a great day Karen - be glad you've gotten over a mullet!! (Age has privileges though, you could wear one if you wanted to and we would refrain from commenting!!)

I like to say , each year, that Scott and Karen were the great little kids who made me an aunt - I love all my nieces and nephews, but the first ones always have a special place.

Happy Birthday!

Celebration!!

We had a lovely birthday dinner for Grandma Mary. I made homemade mac and cheese, fruit salad and vegetables. And Dawn made a Mimi Cake!! Mom said she couldn't remember when she'd last had a birthday dinner that hadn't been at her house!

The May Birthday Girls share a laugh!

Harry Dubya has taken a real shine to Noah - he follows him around and makes requests that Noah usually obliges. Noah taught him to say "What's up Dude?" I tried to capture it on my camera's video feature, but failed. I'm not a techno wizard - would have recruited Dad, but the men were glued to the Laker game!

We tore them away for the candle-blowing - and persuaded them to line up for a photo-op. Guess who is standing on their toes?? And who is sitting down?

Sisters share the spotlight with Mom! Mary was coming but came home from work sick, so had to miss out. We missed you Mary!

David couldn't make it either. We always miss everyone who can't make it - but had a fine time with the crowd that came. One thing about Claytons - you can only have a fraction of the family there - and it's still a crowd!

The usual fun time with the sparkling candles and the Mimi Cake!!

Have a great year Mom!

Happy Birthday Grandma Mary!

Who is that intense young woman, purposefully striding on the busy Salt Lake City street? Who is that man shadowing her?

It's none other than Mary Frances Stevens - more commonly called Mom - or Grandma!! (She says the man "shadowing" her is her dad.)

My mother - in the only photograph in existence of her in a bathing suit! I think Joan and Lyn must be in the picture. I was either a baby - or an idea not yet realized!

The Clayton Clan circa Dec. 1971

Mother in the Stake production of The Mikado.

She's the wild Indian on the right as you look at the picture.

50th Anniversary celebration - 1990!

With our neighbor Leona Vergine.

With Eve - a few years ago!

On my wedding day - with Grandma Stevens in the middle - I have always been grateful to come from great women who truly make a difference in the world!

She and my dad were a great team - we can learn much from their example.


Happy Birthday to the greatest mom in the world!! (That's my mom with Joan.)

Wrapping up the weekend!!

Mary and I - mostly Mary - made pillowcases for the YW Transition - we worked on it Friday night and Saturday. We made time for lunch at Subway and manicures at Urbane. I'm glad I asked her to help - she saved my bacon!! (Thanks Mary!)

Then we covered pillows with fabric and tied them with bows - since our theme was "Bring Me A Pillow I Can Dream On: How Relief Society Can Help You Realize Your Dreams"

And tucked the pillowcases in to these cute quilted bags I found at Joann's - they are actually little lunch bags!

We had a good turnout - 5 out of 7!! And there was one girl from each ward in the stake - a first for us! It was an inspiring program - Trista Ogilvie spoke on our theme and the ward R.S. Presidents welcomed the girls individually. We topped it off with root beer floats and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies - that Dad made for me!! (He is becoming the chef extraordinaire, let me tell you!! Even when he says, "Does the t stand for teaspoon or tablespoon - I'm impressed that he knows there's a difference??)

Before that we had gone to Granada Hills to hear Adam "return and report" on his mission. Sounds like he had a great experience. Here is is with Reid and Brenda. (Reid's the one with the "cheesy" tie - from Wisconsin!! And he did meet Sister Melanie Warner.)

Noah made the trek with us.

A "group" shot "for the record" so that you know we were really there!

Uncle Bill came too - the older he gets, the more he looks like Dad! (as in my dad!)

And the older we get, the more I guess we look alike.

Dad fixed a great dinner tonight - and I've been icing my knees.

Happy Week Ahead to All Our Devoted Followers!