Wimsatt Family Reunion

This weekend we had our 2nd annual George and Ina Wimsatt reunion. My brother Craig,Tracy,Josh,Cameron and Chasity came from Arkansas and Miranda here in AZ. Paul,Joanne,Jeni,Chris,Ethan,Ryann from California and Justin from Utah. My parents,George and Ina from AZ.  My kids and grandkids,Brinton,Cote,Nixin,Brexton and Trey,Jenna and Montana from AZ. We had everyone except Craig's daughter Hannah because she is working this summer in Alaska. As you can see we had a great group and we got together at The Buttes in Phoenix for some fun pool time. Before that a few of us went to the Phoenix Zoo for the annual snow day.

It was a great day. I somehow didn't get a picture of Miranda or Joanne but they were there. I really appreciate Paul and Joanne, Craig and Tracy and their families making the trip to Arizona. 

How cute is Montana ready to hit the zoo?

Jenna is a trooper. Its was hot and humid and she is going to have a baby in about three weeks !

This picture says it all about our little diva. Love her!

There was a lot of snow being shoved down the back of shirts ,not naming names (Cote).

We got Ryann up a little too early for this. Oops!

Ethan was caught on quick.

The peanut gallery.

Nothing like a snow cone on a hot day. 

I have lots of pictures of all the boys on the tractors at the zoo,even Nixin's dad Brinton.  Glad Nixin wanted to give it a try too!

Yep, that would be Montana kissing the goat. Makes me smile every time I look at this pic.

Nixin was going to brush every goat.

Brexton and Ethan made the rounds. They were more interested in the bodily functions of the goats.

Montana was one brush and done.

These next three pictures are my favorites. We took these at the pool at the Buttes. Nixin,Brinton,Brexton, our baby Montana held by Trey.

Add Cote and Josh on the right to this one.

Priceless!

Trey and Justin

Chasity is so good with the little ones. Ryann and Ethan are so happy to hang with her.

Wish I had a close up of Craig and Tracy's family.

Ryann,Chris,Jeni and Ethan look pretty happy.

My parents George and Ina who started all of this.

Our Utah Trip

Steve and I both really like Utah. Steve attended BYU and I lived in Provo for a about a year in 1979. We recently took a trip to Tremonton,Logan and Salt Lake City the end of May first of June. 

Our main reason for visiting Utah was to see Dorothy Gunnell. I never met Steve's mom,Olive Gunnell. Unfortunately she died before I met Steve. When I started dating Steve his father,J.Darwin Gunnell had been married to Dorothy for approximately 2 years. Darwin passed away just over two years ago and at that time Darwin and Dorothy had been married for 16 years. We had not seen Dorothy since Darwin's funeral and she celebrated her 93rd birthday June 4th. We knew it was time to pay her a visit! Dorothy is living in a care facility in Tremonton where her daughter Rita lives. Tremonton is where Dorothy grew up and lived with her first husband until he died. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Dorothy at our visit. We were happy to see she is doing remarkably well. We enjoyed a nice dinner with Dorothy, her daughter Rita and Rita's  husband Vaughn.

We spent one night in Salt Lake.  We toured temple square and we always love to eat at the Lion House resturaunt  by temple square.

I loved the reflection of the tabernacle in this office buildings windows. 

The Salt Lake Temple is so beautiful. Built with sacrifice and love. 

We stayed two nights in Logan. We took a 40 minute drive to Bear Lake. Along the way we stopped and took a little hike in a wildlife preserve. It too was beautiful.

Bear Lake. The little town at the bottom of the hill down by the lake is Garden City,famous for their raspberry shakes. We decided to give them a try and they were berry,berry,delicious!

Logan has a cute little Zoo called Willow Park Zoo. Its a 2 dollar admission for adults that on the honor system you place in a metal box. They claim to have over 600 animals. I believe they do but they are mostly birds and water fowl. We were so impressed with this little zoo. It was clean and the enclosures were very nice. There were some very beautiful exotic birds and fowl that I had never seen before from the middle east. They did have bobcats,coyote,raccoons,elk,turtles and deer.

If you enlarge this photo of the Emu you will see a baby on the left side of the Emu on the right. There were two babies.

One of the beautiful pheasants.

An albino porcupine.

The grounds are gorgeous.

We paid a visit to the Logan temple another beautiful house of the Lord.

We enjoyed our short trip to Utah. We will be back.

Duchess

Duchess the 52 year old orangutan at the Phoenix Zoo sadly passed away. At the time of her death she was the oldest living orangutan in captivity. She greatly exceeded the lifespan of a wild or captive Orangutan.

Duchess is one of the first residents of the Phoenix Zoo,arriving in early 1962. In those days,zoo industry practices were different from today's standards. Duchess and her eventual mate Ben,frequently left the Zoo to visit area business and participate in fundraisers. Duchess and Ben became very familiar with the human world when they were young. 

The Zoo's current state-of-the-art orangutan exhibit was opened in 2011. My mom who has volunteered at the zoo for 21 years was concerned that Duchess would not have the opportunity to live in this new facility. She prayed that Duchess would live long enough to enjoy that luxury and she did! Duchess touched the lives of so many people. She was a very intelligent,entertaining and compassionate animal. You can see a celebration of Duchess's Life @ The Phoenix Zoo Facebook page. She will be missed!

Duchess

3 generations. From left to right Bess (Duchess's daughter)Kasih (Duchess's  granddaughter) and Duchess. Bess is Duchess's last offspring.

Thank you Duchess!

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time Steve had chicken envy! Scott has built the most incredible chicken coup,truly amazing,I'm not kidding,you have to see it to believe it,its a mini mansion......I could go on and on about how fabulous it is. Scott,Carrie, Martin,Miller and Mallory have approximately 33 chickens in said chicken mansion. Steve with his chicken envy decided he too must have chickens.

My first thought was, no! Only because I already take care of three horses,two high energy dogs,my African Grey Kya and two desert tortoises. Yesterday Steve told me he had found a chicken coup he wanted to buy, he would be responsible for the chickens and better yet Scott and Carrie and the kids were going to give us two chicken! Once I committed I actually became very excited and read the first book about caring for chickens that Carrie let me borrow.

My Dad always bought the Rhode Island Reds when I was growing up. My Mom told me today that my granddad  always had White Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds. Steve likes both of those so we chose a White Leghorn and a Rhode Island Red. Our Rhode Island Red is named Little Red Riding Hood aka "Red",our Leghorn is Snow White aka "Snow".

Heres our chicken coup. I'm happy to say that Steve no longer has chicken envy,in fact he is actually outside checking on them right now,I love it! Thanks Scotty and Carrie!