Young Again

 A weekend with Spencer Flindt and his friends makes David and me feel young again.  On April 22, 2016, Spencer and Naomi brought Spencer's friend, Logan, and Naomi's friends, Emily and Megan, with them to St. George.  All are BYU students, returned missionaries (East LA, Bulgaria, Paraguay, and Indiana), and full of fun.  Spencer et al. hiked in Zions during the day, joined us for dinner, and then watched movies and soaked in the hot tub at night.  I worked my way through the latest edition of "Cook's Country," cooking Brunswick stew, crockpot spareribs, Basque green beans, berry smoothies, and chocolate mousse cake--all recipes from my magazine.

Dave told the kids about his impersonating our decorator and arranging rocks from the road as a centerpiece in our St. George living room.  I loved the arrangement as long as I thought it was from the decorator, and I threw it out when I learned it was Dave's doing.  As a hostess gift, the kids bought us our own beautiful rock from one of the Springdale gem and mineral stores!

 On Friday, Dave and I hiked eight miles of the West Rim Trail.

 The views on the way to Angels Landing were glorious.

 We could see all the way down Zions Canyon.

 Instead of turning off towards Angels Landing, we kept walking up and up, past white slickrock to a white peak covered with green trees.  As I asked, over and over, "How much farther?" Dave answered, "It's just around the corner."  A 70-ish, wizened woman hiker, trudging next to her lean, equally wizened husband, leaned over to me and whispered, "How many times, in my married life, have I heard, 'It's just around the corner!'".

 The views as we walked down were breathtaking.

 On Saturday, we hiked around the neighborhood, checking out garage sales, and then attended a session in the St. George Temple.  We then drove to Kanab to visit Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.  It is located on 3200 acres, and has the mission of ceasing the euthanasia of animals in shelters.

 Best Friends also runs a pet adoption program.  We saw this doggie leave with a new owner.

 On our way back through Springdale, we stopped at Worthington Gallery, our favorite.  We bought two small pots which looked perfect in our St. George bedroom.