Happy #1 Essie!

Too bad we can't just run up for these special days.  Pictures at least help.  Happy birthday #1 sweet Essie!  We love you!  Hope you like that noisy present we sent.  I took it to the post office thinking I had packaged it well enough that the buttons wouldn't be able to press, but then I leaned on it and it starting bleating like a goat.  The guy behind me thought that was pretty funny.  I was in a hurry to get it in the mail before it went out that day, but I got out of line and put it into another bubble envelope and sent it off.  Well, I guess that still wasn't enough...Brynn sent a text saying that the package was speaking to them too.  Oh well, hopefully the noise won't wear out too soon from all of that use in transit!  But maybe Jay and Brynn do hope it will soon be silent!

Red Mountain Trail in the rain

Decided it was time to start getting Paul in shape for his Pine Valley hike with the scouts this summer.  Red Mountain Trail up to the slick rock to see the pond was our goal.  Our weather report said the rain wouldn't come until the evening...plenty of time!  Well, it came early, hitting hard when we got to the slick rock.  We ate lunch under our umbrella and stuck around on the slick rock long enough to see lots of pretty stuff and then headed down the trail. Everything was so beautifully rain washed, colors so vibrant.  Other than getting very wet, which wasn't bad either, we had a great hike! 10.8 miles of desert beauty!

Flowers everywhere!

Snow Canyon overlook.

One of our goals was to see the pond.  Love this little oasis in the slick rock!

Lunch out from under the umbrella, etc.

Water was gathering into little streams, bigger streams...on and on and then cascading over the cliffs into Snow Canyon.  Awesome to watch!

Just before we left we decided to take a selfie...and couldn't remember how.  Then we got it!  All of this technology is hard for us old folk to remember!

Late Easter with the Lillywhites

If there is a reason to be glad about going to the doctor, these girls (and their mom and dad) are it! Paul had an appointment up in Provo early Monday morning, so we left Sunday after church and had a fun time, in spite of ear aches, pink eye and teething tramas, with these cuties.  I had saved their little Easter treats to bring to them.  Essie especially enjoyed her chocolate bunny!  Thanks Jay and Brynn for being a wonderful bed and breakfast anytime we are up your way.  

Date night along the Santa Clara

Found a beautiful trail to walk along the Santa Clara River for our date last Friday evening!  Saw water, crazy rocks, beautiful desert flowers and petroglyphs up on some of the cliffs.  On our way out a couple of owls flew across and we hooted back and forth with one of them.  We also saw some huge cranes coming down to catch their dinner from the river.  Absolutely beautiful!

Randalls, dinner and plenty of wind!

Lou and Bryan invited us up to eat dinner with them while they were camping out at Red Cliffs. Too bad the weather wasn't more cooperative, but they made the best of it and the food was great anyway!Thanks for good fun and good food!

Paul was very useful - he taught an art lesson, ready a story laugh your head off style and taught Brady and Bryan how to make willow whistles.  

Retiring the flags

Every year one of the packs in our stake hosts a flag retirement pack meeting.  The local VFW comes and oversees the ceremony.  I love to go.  I think it is a wonderful ceremony for the boys to attend. This pack also invites any other pack in our stake to come and join in.  This year we had 4 different packs represented.  It was a great event.  I was happy that so many came.  

Christie's B-day and Webelos Day Hike

Finally got together with Christie and family to do a little b-day celebrating!  We brought cheesecake and presents for FHE and had fun opening presents, eating the cheesecake, playing outside and inside and cracking up listening to Grandpa reading dramatic and hilarious bedtime stories to kids and adults!  Hope that's what you wanted to do for your birthday Christie!  Happy Birthday however you like it!  We love you Christie!  

The rest of the week seemed to turn into meeting after meeting.  Finally on Friday evening we had a date night and used it going up to gather fire makings and put out the plant identification markings for the Webelos Day Hike on Saturday morning.  It was a beautiful evening up there and we didn't mind making it a "working" date. 

Saturday morning, bright and early we were back up there for the hike with the boys.  I ended up leading the hike, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  The boys are a fun bunch and I know some of them from school and church.  When we got there Paul had everything ready for the fire building station. We had a fun day of it.  

First Camp Out 2015

I can't believe I forgot about our camping trip.  It did end up being a bit last minute rushed and I forgot my camera and only had the phone.  Maybe that's why.  But even so it was a good, if quick camp to the old quarry.  It's still too cold up high so we needed some place close and down low.  The quarry is always a good, secluded spot with a great level tent spot. We ate before we left.  We hiked around and then watched a movie and hit the sack.  I can't say that I slept all that well, but there were beautiful stars and some crazy birds that kept singing in the dark.  Had to hurry home to chores in the morning, but it was good to get out.  Love the crazy rocks and view of Pine Valley.  Also love seeing where they cut out lots of rock from the quarry.  

This and that

 It was a busy week with many meetings, but we grabbed a few fun spots in between.  Monday evening we went up to Brookside to check out the hike for the upcoming Webelos Day Hike.  It was a lovely evening walk in a beautiful place.  It's the perfect 3-mile hike for these boys.  

Friday early evening we got over to the Art Festival and enjoyed so many beautiful things created by talented people.  We also checked out a few of the new Art Around the Corner statues for this year. We'll catch the rest another evening.

Family Dinner/Easter egg hunt - March

Moss and Christie hosted the family dinner and an Easter egg hunt for March.  It was a perfect Sunday afternoon.  Yummy food, visiting and egg hunting for the kids made for a really fun evening. Kaebri presented her 3rd Place Science Fair entry to us which was very interesting.  Great job Kaebri. To practice up before the egg hunt, the kids hunted rolly pollys.  What an entertaining bug it is for little ones.  Thanks to Moss and Christie!  

Happy Birthday #1 Joel...plus a little

When you have a birthday on December 26th it kind of gets lost in all of the leftovers of Christmas. That being the case, Lou and Bryan decided to save Joel's birthday for a few months.  We ended up celebrating #1 on March 25th, 2015 instead.  And Joel was just as happy about it as he could be.  For sure his favorite present was his little Nerf basketball and hoop.  He was off to shoot hoops as soon as he got it!  Not even an amazing new fire truck could deter him.  When he took a break for cake he wasn't sure he loved that chicken cake as much as the real chickens.  He looked a bit tentative about it, but didn't mind eating it once it wasn't looking at him anymore!  Happy birthday Joel!  We love you!  Ellie added to the evening with a piano solo of some of the songs she is learning.  So excited to see her learning the play.  Great job Ellie!  

Sweet Sarai is 4!

Such a cute girl who enjoyed her birthday (a few days late to accommodate the grand parents) with excited intensity!  So glad we could join the fun!  We had a wonderful dinner of "losonya" chosen by Sarai, with all the fixin's and long with tasty chocolate cake to finish it off.  Sarai was very focused on opening each present and had plenty of help from her onlooker siblings!  She was in doll heaven with Tinkerbells fairies and a baby to feed and tend and a new scooter to ride too!  Oh one great answer from Sarai when Grandma Dorothy asked here why she was so wonderful (I think that was the question) was, "Because of my brain."  And she does have a very sharp little brain!  We love you Sweet Sarai!  Happy #4!

With sad hearts...see you later Justin

It is good that we are about to celebrate Easter and remember what our loving Heavenly Father and Savior did for each of us.  This day we got the devastating news that Supe's dear friend Justin Graham left us last night. Our personal associations with Justin were few, but they were sweet.  He came down with Supe and a bunch of other friends for Spring Break fun and ended up being here during a crisis.  He added strength to us and Supe in that time of need and continued to afterwards. He came other times and I was always so happy to welcome his pleasant, smiling, appreciative, helpful and fun loving ways around our house and his kind treatment of Bean. He came and helped Supe get his little fitness business up and running.  I think many of Supe's clientele for his business signed up simply because of Justin's charm in selling them on the idea. He was in the process of helping Supe yet again in a manufacturing/engineering project.  He had a kind heart and a smile to share with all.  He was always a welcome ray of sunshine for us and we loved feeding him bread and honey and brownies. He was one of those friends of our kids that we looked forward to following on through their lives. We are so sorry that we will miss seeing him and hearing what new thing he was up to.  Our hearts go out to his family and friends at this time of sorrow.  We are so thankful to know that through Jesus Christ the missing will have an end. "But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.  He is the light of the world: yea a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death." Mosiah 16:8-9  Good-bye for now Justin.  See you later. Until then, we'll remember you with joy.

Justin and Supe had a good time with this little pranking activity.  We enjoyed hearing about it after the fact.