HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY, ELVA!

We had the opportunity to go down to Bryce Canyon this weekend, to celebrate Kay's mom's 90th birthday. I don't think I've ever had the chance to celebrate someone's birthday who is that old! She is quite the character and has improved so much since we moved her from the Springville Care Center to her new place. She now walks with a walker, works out on a machine that helps strengthen her arms and we can see she wouldn't have lasted much longer at her old place. She initiates conversations and has her sense of humor back. We are so happy to visit her now, seeing her with such a happy disposition. It's amazing how one elderly center "lets" them lay down and die and the other improves their existence while they are still living. Kathryn and I made a chocolate birthday cake for her, we sang and opened presents and she was so happy. We explained that we couldn't put all 90 candles on the cake, because the smoke alarms in the room would go off. So, we put 9, each one representing 10 years...She was fine with that!

Gary also came down and spent the time with his mom and us. We stayed at Kathryn's and when we all get together, all hell breaks loose. We saw Cougar tracks all over in the snow around Kathryn's back yard deck and then thought about the many times Kay and I went out to have a smoke, in the evening. Wow, you really have to be careful down there. The tracks were of cougar paw prints and a baby cougar next to the large prints. A cougar has been sighted down by their house for about a month now, and they can't seem to track it down.

We had a great time and Doyle and Kathryn are always so welcoming and begging us to stay longer. Next time we go, which will probably be in a month, we'll stay a couple days longer and do some 4 wheeling in the snow....I've only snowmobiled, but not 4-wheeled in the snow.....!!! Sounds fun to me!