Grammy & Papa time

Back in the land of granddaughters.  Time went too quickly but we had a great visit.  The highlight was Christy's graduation from Northern Arizona University's Speech Language Pathology program. With "White" as your her last name, she was next to the last of 31 masters degree graduates so it was a great surprise to hear her announced as the Outstanding Graduate for 2011.  She had a hunch she might be getting something since two professors asked her if she preferred Christy or Christina on official documents and she has a 4.0.  We celebrated at Mormon Lake Lodge outside of Flagstaff with a fun lunch.

The rest of the two and one half days were filled with movies, ice cream cones, a spa afternoon with Bailey making a sea salt rub for our feet and then polishing toenails, hike and mountain bike outings for Larry,  a walk around the duck pond, yummy meals and Bailey and I putting together a fancy, restaurant-like-setting dinner for the rest of the family.  She was the hostess/server and I was the cook.  McKenna went to a birthday party and both girls had a dance recital rehearsal.  The family is looking forward to summer vacation, which Christy will be able to share in more this year with a month off.  She still has six months of practicums and internship so she doesn't officially finish until December but at least there are no more classes/tests/papers etc.

Today, Monday, May 16, we drove from Flagstaff to St. George, Utah, to spend the night in a Worldmark resort.  We drove through Kaibab National Forest and Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, both of which were beautiful and interesting, although I already miss the lush green of the Southeast.  In St. George we saw historic Mormon buildings and lots of modern suburban development.  It appears to be a thriving place and we had a wonderful dinner at a local pizza/pasta restaurant:  salad bar and freshly baked breadsticks.  Really hit the spot!

Tomorrow we go to Zion National Park for, we hope, three days of hiking.