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

Adventure in Florida

Sunday afternoon after church, dinner, nap, and watching th O's beat the Rays, hubby and I headed out to see if we could have an adventure here in Florida. We didn't know where to go to look for an adventure so we headed south on Tamiami Drive, which is the usual route to the beach. (By the way we were in the big car as it had almost a full tank of gas.)

Using the navigation system in the Maxima we headed toward Venice and Englewood and evenually ended up on Gasparilla Island. (You can look it up on a map to find it exactly.)

We waded out into the gulf and gathered some great shells. The last couple of times we have gone to the beach, I have found pieces of sand dollars, but no whole one, YET!!

At the end of the pennisula, there is a lighthouse, but it had already closed for the day, so we didn't get inside to see the inner working of lighthouse.

We would have liked to stay longer and explore this island, but we headed home, planning on returning sometime in the near future for a longer stay.

I'm Back

It has been forever since I was able to post anything on the blog mainly because my trusty old computer finally bit the dust. I have been unable to download any pictures and what fun is a blog without pictures. Here are some pictures from the camping trip that Chelley & Jon, Cheryl & Jason and Ben and Spencer and I took a few weeks back over by Bear Lake.

I'm glad Tinkerbelle came with us.

Jon worked really hard to keep us supplied with firewood.

(The only reason I put this picture in was so you could see how big Spencer is getting.)

At the lake

Sorry Jason; I didn't get any pictures of you at the campground or at the lake. I'll do better next time.

I will be posting other pictures from the many trip I took, along with family members later. I did have a great summer with my kids and their families.

Florida Townhouse

I wanted to share some photos of our new home in Florida. We are very pleased with it.


San Michele Townhouse: Home of Roy and LeAnn Turner 3790 82nd Ave. Circle E. Unit 104 Sarasota Florida 34243

Living room wall with the accent color--sliced cucumber

The lake outside our front door

Our living room curtains.

This is the view out of Nate's bedroom window. The tennis court and there is a basketball hoop hidden behind the palm tree. The pool is to the right of the tennis courts.

Prom Night

Tonight is the big night . It is the Evanston High School Prom and Nathan's friend from York, PA came out for the big event. Here are some pictures. Enjoy. Grace and Nate do make a cute couple, (but they are just friends.)

Spring Break

Last week was spring break. No School; I have looked forward to this for a long time. I knew I was going to Rigby to help Cheryl get ready for their baby, but we had no clue what Nate wanted to do. I had hoped he would fly to Florida, but instead he wanted to be independent and go to Magna to spend the week with his friend Jeff.

I left Monday morning to take my dad to the eye doctor. I love spending time with him; even if it means sitting in a doctor's office. After his appointment I bought hamburgers for lunch and then went over to his place to eat. Then I started off for my vacation. I was in kind of a hurry because the weather was supposed to turn bad. I got to Cheryl's before it turned stormy and my sister, Carma, who lives a short distance from Cheryl came over for a visit.

Tuesday morning we woke up to about six inches of fresh snow on the ground and with the wind blowing it was cold. Ben and I went out to play in some of the white stuff. It was a good day to start a sewing project Cheryl had asked me to do for her. (A mei tai baby carrier.

Wednesday morning was a little nicer, so we headed to Rexburg to do a little last minute shopping for this new little one. After a stop at Walmart and McDonald's for lunch we headed back to Rigby. I had started a sewing project Tuesday and I went back to finishing that while Cheryl and Ben took a nap.

Thursday I knew was going to be a busy day. Cheryl had a doctor's appointment in the morning and Ben and I stayed home. I had also planned to drive to Idaho Falls for lunch with my sister. When I got a text message from Cheryl saying my lunch appointment might not work, I knew something was happening. Cheryl's blood pressure was high and so her doctor wanted her at the hospital at noon. She came home and packed her bag and Jason came home and off they went.

Ben and I met Carma for lunch anyway. Ben was a great guy. He ate his quesadilla and part of my chicken enchilada. We headed back toward Rigby, but Ben fell asleep in the car. I did what anyone would do with a sleeping baby--I took a drive. Yellowstone isn't open yet for the spring season, but the drive to Ashton is a fun drive, so I drove to Ashton. By the time we got home, Ben was just waking up.

The rest of the evening went fine. Ben even went to bed without a problem.

At 3 am I got a pic message from Jason showing me a picture of the newest Kimber.

Friday Ben and I drove to Rexburg to meet the little guy and to check on Cheryl. Ben quite liked the little guy. After more mcnuggets, we headed back to Rigby and of course Ben feel asleep in the car. I didn't feel like driving any more, so he didn't get much of a nap. The night ended peacefully when Ben fell asleep watching a "Thomas" movie. At 5 am I was awakened when Ben woke up and went looking for mom and dad. His scream certainly woke me up, quickly.

Ben checking out little brother

Saturday morning about 11, the proud parents and the new little one came home. I had Ben bouncing off the walls, full of excitement about having them home. I was thinking about my boy at home, he had been home by himself since Friday morning, so I jumped in car and started for home. I got 20 miles out of town before I glanced in the back seat and saw Ben's car seat. I turned around and delivered that and finally headed for Evanston.

Spencer asking for something to eat

I couldn't have had better spring break and now I am packing for my vacation to DC on Thurs.

Thanks to Cheryl and Jason for letting me spend this week with them and for that new little grandson. Thanks to Ben for having patience with grandma. And thanks to Michelle for going to Idaho to help this week and then coming down here to make sure Nate gets off to school on Friday. Thanks to Nate, too, for being a responsible adult during the week.