Grandma's Visit

Grandma Turner flew into the Orlando airport late Monday morning for a 2 1/2 week visit. We hope to show her all kinds of fun stuff we have done since moving down here.

Tuesday was a relax day since it was about 2 am on Tuesday morning when we got back to Sarasota. About the only thing we did was drive to the Famers Market to get some fresh fruits and veggies. Then we sat on the front porch and watched the birds on the pond and did some reading.

Wednesday was a very busy day. We met Pa for lunch at Olive Garden then went to do some shopping. Grandma needed some summer clothes so off we went. She got some great light weight summer fashions. We stopped for some groceries, then home. Later, after Pa got home from work, we headed to Lido beach for a nice late afternoon of sand. Just relaxing on the beach on a nice "winter" day. It isn't spring yet. Temps for the next few weeks will be in the low 80's. Bright sunshine and lots of sunscreen.

The gulf water is getting warm enough to enjoy getting your feet wet.


She isn't wearing her new beach clothes, yet!!

Thursday we had tickets for the O's vs. the Pirates at the pirate's stadium. It was a perfect day for baseball. The O's only had one starter in the line up so it was fun to watch the youngsters show off their skills. One player who shows a lot of promise is their back up catcher, Jake Fox. He has hit seven home runs this spring--two on Thurs. The O's won 13-3. (I still need to post pictures from our first spring training game. The O's and the Red Sox played 10 innings to a 4-4 tie.) Pittsburgh Pirates field in Bradenton, FL.

Marty the Pirate, the pirate's mascot.

Friday was a relax day--only thing really scheduled was a trip to the farmer's market. It is still strawberry season so we needed more strawberries. (and eggplant since I was planning on making eggplant parmesean for dinner Sat. night for the Sister Missionaries. However, not eggplant was found so we started planning something else for dinner.)

Later, when Pa got home from work, the three of us went to the beach with a drive up Longboat Key and Anna Marie Island on the way home. It was kind of fun when the draw bridge went up just in front of us betweeen Longboat and Anna Marie Island. (Grandma is going to have so many stories to tell when she gets back to Evanston.) Of course, I hadn't brought my camera to the beach with us on this day. Sorry no pictures.

Saturday, March 19 was our ward's temple trip. We probably would have gone anyway, because Grandma needed to visit the Orlando temple while on this trip. We started out on the two hour journey only to sit in traffic for 1.5 hours while a major accident was cleaned up just short of our exit. We missed the session our ward was scheduled to attend, but had a great experience anyway.

Orlando Temple

We were late getting home because of the traffic problems so for dinner we fixed KFC. That was okay--missionaries will eat anything, right. The new member who they were going to teach the new member discussion to, never showed up. It was a great evening, anyway and the perfect ending to a great fun filled week. (Oh, yeah, BYU won their nCAA tournament geme, too.)

SPRING TRAINING is here

I pass this sign every Sunday on my way to church. I will always be an Orioles fan.

The sign welcoming you to the new Orioles Spring Training site.

The catchers taking batting practice.

Yesterday (Monday) would have been a much better day to go to practice. I only was there today for about 45 minutes before the players headed into the clubhouse.

After all the players left for the clubhouse, Terry Crowley, who has been hitting instructor for the Orioles for forever came over and signed autographs. I have one of his signatures now. He got on to the golf cart with another coach, but before Crowley drove off, the "other coach" got off and came over to sign autographs. That other coach is Buck Showalter, the skipper for the Orioles. Way cool. That's him as he walked toward the crowd.

Manager Buck Showalter signing autographs. (Yes, I have one.)


It was very exciting to meet Jeremy Guthrie at church on Sunday, too. I am going to love being at spring training for lots of years to come. (I might be lucky enough to go to opening day in Tampa, O's vs. Rays and maybe even luckier to be in Baltimore for their home opener.

Oh yeah, I head to snowy, cold WY tomorrow.

Fun time in Idaho

I had come out west, leaving warm Florida, so I could pack up things in Evanston. Jan (Roy's sister) is moving into our house there when she finishes her mission in a few weeks. It was difficult going through everything we have accumulated over the years. I threw out a lot of stuff and sent a lot of things to DI. If I thought any of kids might want some of the stuff, it is saved in the basement. After a few days of working and going through everything, I needed a break, so Chelley, Nate and I planned a little vacation--Northward.

Nate, Chelley, and I headed to Rexburg on Jan. 28. Nate wanted to check on Copper--it had been a long time since the two of them had been together. This was the weekend of the "Snowfest" in Rexburg, too, so we went up to spend some time in the snow. It was a lot of fun sliding down the hill on Jason's inner tube. There were horses pulling sleigh for us to ride in too. Hot chocolate to drink to warm us up.

We had a great time visiting with the Kimbers. The kids are FUN. It is so nice to visit with Cheryl and Jason. Next time we will make sure we bring along our winter clothes...waterproof pants and warm boots, but we hope they are not needed in the summer. (We are all hoping we get over our colds real soon.)

Thanks for letting us come visit, Kimbers Jason and Ben on the sled.

Nate and Chelley sliding on the snow.

Ma and Nate doing a little sledding

Ben just wanted to go play on the slide

I think Spencer is wondering what all the excitement is about. Maybe he is thinking it's just plain cold. (I got news for him..It's going to get even colder in the next few days.)

Our Horses

Ben and Jason on our sleigh ride. It was really alot of fun.

Nate and Chelley on their Sleigh ride

(BTW, Copper seems to be doing just fine. Thanks Cheryl, Jason, Ben, and Spencer for taking such good care of my dog.)

Fun Weekend

Saturday morning was a beautiful morning in Florida so pa and I decided to go out hiking. There is a hike we drive by every Sunday on our way to church and I had read a little about it, so we headed that direction. It is called "Red Bug Slough" and it is truly an urban park. There are houses all around it. Here are some pictures I took while we were walking. I am enjoying learning about the birds that are found in this area. Most of them are new to me.

A Wood Stork looking for something for breakfast.

Great Egret in flight


I am not sure what this bird is called, but I am not finished trying to find out.

Sitting on the dead branch is an interesting bird called an Anhinga. It looked like it was enjoying the beautiful sunny morning.

This vulture looks like he is waiting for something to die.

We passed this sign while we were walking along the water. Makes you keep your eyes open.

After we went home for breakfast the weather was still nice, so we headed to the beach. We went north this time to Bradenton Beach. It was fun to go somewhere new, although I think we went here with Carolyn and Stew when they came down for Thanksgiving.

Then it was home to relax and enjoy (if you can call the Ravens games enjoying) some football.

WELCOME 2011

Ma has neglected the blog for the last few months so now it is time for an update. We spent Thanksgiving week in Evanston and did some finishing up on the work on the house. Just getting to Evanston was an adventure as we spent one night in the Minneapolis airport sleeping on the floor. Here's hoping we don't fly through Minneapolis again, at least during the winter.

Hardwood flooring went down in the upstair bedroom--maple--that is pretty enough to be a basketball court. I love the color of the walls, too. (I picked it out-peach something and I painted most of it during visits over the summer and fall.) We have done a lot of work in that old home, but still more to do. We won't be doing as much for a while, though.


Pa needed to spend more time in the DC office to fix a few problems there and so I made a trip with him in December. Together we went to a Redskins game and ate lots of great food. (I love seafood and Maryland is a great place to eat seafood). We stayed near a shopping center so I could venture out and do some window shopping, but it was sooo cold that it wasn't fun to go out after dark, so no Christmas shopping got done, but that was okay. Ma traveled back to Florida to get ready for Christmas.

Here's our Florida Christmas tree.

Here are the palm trees decked out for the holidays, too.

Nate traveled to Florida for the holidays and he chilled out and went to the beach with us. The weather was pretty nice and we were sporting nice sun tans for the new year. Santa Claus was able to find us, although we didn't leave an address change with him. I got a new "electronic" sewing machine that does all kinds of neat stitches. Pa got snorkeling gear that will be used when the water warms up just a little. I want to go snorkeling with the manatees and Pa can use the great underwater camera the girls gave him. We got some great books on New Mexico and will use them when we have enough time to vacation there with Dave and his family. Thanks everyone for the great gifts.

Nate has gone back to school and I really miss him. It was so great to have him with us. Pa will be spending most weekdays in DC working. I will be going to Wyoming to do some more work on the house in Evanston. Jan is scheduled to move in the end of Feb. to take care of the house for us.

2010 was a GREAT year for us and I have lots of things I want to do in 2011. Time to get started, but first I need to go to the beach. Hope everyone has a great 2011.

Another week in Paradise

This past week has been a quiet one compared to the previous weeks--I think. Pa was busy with meetings all day every day and sometimes into the evenings. This gave me a chance to work on a couple of projects I brought back with me.

I finished the quilt I had tied in Evanston just in time for some cooler weather. It's not a Wyoming warm quilt, but just right for a cool Florida night. I really like the color and it is perfect for nights when Pa is away on business.

After our ward's Relief Society Super Saturday, Pa and I went shopping to pick up a couple of things we needed for the house and brought home a couple extra items. This little guy, our hermit crab, sits outside on our porch ledge. He is much bigger than a real hermit crab, but perfect for our house. He was just what we were looking to give our outdoor space the beach look.

We couldn't resist this colorful tropical plant either. Its pot is a coconut shell. Very unique and very Florida looking.

I also finished scrapbooking our Arizona hike, too. I'm not really good at scrapbooking, but by the time I finish all the pictures I have to do, I'll be pretty good at it.

I can't believe it is November already and the way time flies it won't be long until we are flying to Wyoming for Thanksgiving. Can't wait, but I am not excited about the cold and the snow. I guess I am too soft for the winter.

FLORIDA=Travel

Ma Turner has been in Florida now for two weeks and I have seen ALOT of the state. Florida is not at all what I pictured it would be. I thought palm trees and swamps, but it is a lot of pine trees and brush, too.

Pa's job is much like his job with CWI when we lived in PA, only on a much larger scale. He has jobs all over the east coast and since we are living in Florida now, I will take the opportunity to travel with him to check out some of the jobs in Florida.

Our first trip took us to the "panhandle" to check out the work in Panama City and Destin. (While he went to work, I stayed at the hotel which was right on the beach.) Tough job, but I was up to the challenge.

We left Wed. afternoon and arrived in Panama City about eight that night. We stopped at a restaurant that featured "head on" shrimp. It's not so easy eating shrimp that have eyes staring back at you.

Sun setting on the panhandle. October 20, 2010

After Pa checked out the job in PC, we headed toward Destin, but first we stopped at a beach along the way. (Beach #1 for this trip) Sorry, no pictures.

This is the beach at SanDestin, where we stayed. (Picture taken from the balcony of our hotel.)
Beach #2 for this trip.

While on our way home on Friday, we stopped at St. George Island State Park and had a picnic, walked along the beach there, and took some pictures. (We stopped at the local Piggly Wiggly store for our picnic supplies. Yes, that is the real name of the grocery store.)

Pa walking along the St. George Island beach. Beach# 3 for this trip.

Light house on St. George Island

We arrived back home late Friday night aftera very fun trip to the panhandle. But, the weekend was not finished.

We got up early Saturday morning to head to Orlando. Pa had volunteered us to be chaperons for the the youth temple trip. It was a GREAT day. I'm glad he made arrangements for us to do that.

Just let me say that I really, really, really like our ward here in Sarasota. We are in the Lakewood Ranch Ward. The members are very friendly. Pa is the ward mission leader and so we get to spend a lot of time with the missionaries assigned to our ward. Right now it is a set of sisters, Sister Turner from Ogden and Sister Fox from Kanab. I love having them come over for visits which they do quite often.

(The first Sunday I was here, it would have been the 17th, this ward had a baptism and Pa Turner did the baptism. Pretty special night.)

On the 25th the sisters and the sister that Pa had baptized came over for family home evening. It was a very fun evening.

On Wed., the 27th it was time to pack up again for another road trip. This time we were heading for the Atlantic Coast. Our first stop was in Orlando to look at a job not too far from the Disney Theme Parks. Sorry we didn't have time to stop to see Mickey and friends. We traveled on to Daytona Beach. We stayed the night at the hotel next to the speed way. I'm not much of a NASCAR fan so I didn't get too excited about that. The next morning we drove to a job just south of Daytona and then traveled on to Boca Raton to spend the night. After a delicious pizza dinner, we went over to the DelRay beach for a night time walk along the beach. I love walking on the beach.

The next morning it was time to check out another job and then we drove to Fort Lauderdale. We stopped at an outdoor kiosk and started our Christmas shopping. We had a great lunch of crab legs and then slipped over to the beach.

Fort Lauderdale Beach

We headed for home, driving across Alligator Alley--no alligators were seen, but I saw some interesting birds along the way. We stopped in Naples for the night and then drove home. After a nice nap, we went over to Lido Beach for an evening walk. Apparently, At. Armand Circle is the place to go "Trick or Treating" because it was packed with kids and grownups all dressed up.

After church on Sunday we headed over to Siesta Beach for the afternoon. We took the beach chairs and had a very relaxing afternoon of reading, dipping in the gulf, walking along the beach and listening to the drum concert that is held every Sunday evening. It was a perfect way to spend a bright sunny afternoon.


We have done a lot of traveling over the past two weeks, but now it's time to slow down a little and work on some projects I want to do while Pa spends a lot of time working in the office. I have been asked to do a class at the ward super Saturday this week and Pa's bosses are in town this week, so we will be staying home.

Visit to SUPAI , Arizona

Leta and Dave Hardy invited us to go along with them.. (Leta is Roy's sales manager in the Florida office. ) They were alot of fun to go with. Leta and Dave hiked out of the canyon instead of helicoptering out with us.

You can see the trail as it winds through the desert. And yes we had to hike down to the bottom and keep right on hiking. The hike to the Supai Village is 8 miles from the starting point, Hualapai Hilltop, and the campground is another 2 miles from the village. The first 1.5 miles is long and hard--switchbacks and steep. The rest of the trail is sometimes sandy and sometimes very rocky. It was a very hard hike.

Mules can be rented to carry gear down to the campground. Next time--the mules carry all our gear down.

Here we are--The happy hikers

The canyon was so very beautiful

Another picture of the scenery of the canyon

Havasu Falls

(there are four falls in this canyon. The first is Navajo Falls, then, Havasu Falls. Mooney Falls is another 1/2 mile from the campground and finally Beaver Falls is another 3.5 miles from the campground. We saw the first three.) I love the rock that has been eroded away by the spray from the falls.

Navajo Falls (a flash flood changed the run off from the falls in the background to the one in front.)

The pool at the bottom of Mooney Falls

Mooney Falls

The landscape from the helicopter

The helicopter that flew us out of the canyon