Easter made more special for Jim and family

One more thing that made Easter a bit more special was something Paul did.  He and Ross shared the costs to refurbish a headstone that had errors on it and make it into a new, beautiful headstone for his brother Jim's wife and Jim.  Some people we do stone business with sawed off the face of the mistaken printing and cut and polished the stone.  Paul designed, with Jim's daughter's help, a a new face for it and Paul took it to a local shop and had it carved.  Paul took it up last Wednesday and he and Jim installed it at the grave site.  Jim's daughters have done other nice things to improve the little site too and it made a lovely Easter gift for all of them to have their mother's gave finished up nicely.  They seemed very pleased and thankful for how it turned out. The grave is at an old Pioneer graveyard called Pleasant Green Cemetery.  So glad Paul and Ross helped out so this could be done. Paul also had a good visit with Him and with Jay and Brynn while up that way.

The first Camp Out of 2019 - Pine Park!!!

And this was also our first camp out using a camp trailer.  Juge and Lance have let us park their smaller camp trailer at our house and have let us use it as we please.  It was fun to try it out and see what a little step up from a tent is like.  We took Bean along and had a great time even though we got a late start and were a bit rushed.  The weather was perfect, there was a full moon.  It was cool at night and warm in the day.  We did have to share the site with a few other people, but we were off a bit from them and had our privacy and tried to give them theirs.  We ate, slept, hiked and saw beautiful scenery.  We stopped by Enterprise reservoir and got shakes at Milt's in Enterprise.  And we loved seeing all of the green and water that this Winter's extra rain and snow have brought! 

We also stopped in briefly at the Art Festival and had a nice little visit with Tara and Bryan and their youngest son, Talon.  

A very special Easter

This year's Easter was a bit more special because our sweet bishop's wife gave us an Easter Nativity to add to it.  The person who came up with the idea says they think Easter should be as special as Christmas and wrote a book, A Christ Centered Easter, and created the Easter Nativity and outlined some things to do to bring more of Christ into you Easter celebration.  This year they produced a video program for each day to go along with it and as we participated it made did make it a more Christ-centered holiday for us.  The new Come Follow Me lesson went right along with it too.  Of course Easter always makes me think of Weed and Bean and how blessed we are to have the hope of seeing sweet Weed again and knowing all will be well with Bean. (We already feel so blessed with how much better Bean is of course.)  So Easter brings us peace and hope and knowledge of the love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  Happy Easter!!!  Hosanna!!!

"And then, just like that, it was Spring...and that thing you've been waiting for?  Braving the storm for? Clinging onto hope for? I thik it might be right around the corner...Hope on, dear friend.  What He has in mind for you is far better than you know!"

"It is Easter, and those words still ring with hope today.  Come and see, and then go quickly and tell about Him who heals hearts and elevates sould and brings strength and power and peace.  He is the grace gifter.  He goeth before you.  On this day, my hear rejoices in Him."

The Son of Man hath descended below them all..Therefore, hold on thy way..Thy days are known..for God shall be with you forever and ever.  D and C 122:8-9

These activities were done at our YSA FHE get ready for Easter activity and also go along with the Easter activities in the Christ-Centered Easter book.  Our bishop's wife put the activity together and it was also a part of making our Easter just a little more meaningful this year.  

One thing I like to do that I probably should stop doing to save time and money is giving the family Easter treats.  It's not anything big and maybe they just think it's silly.  We used to have family egg hunts, but everyone got so busy with all of their city and other hunts it just seemed like too much candy and too hard to get together.  So I just get my little See's chick inside the egg and funny whack-a-pack balloons and something for the parents and maybe something else to going along about the real meaning of Easter.  I should stop.  But every year Jay and Brynn send a cute picture and a thank you and I think, "Well, at least someone likes it!"  And I keep doing it. 

A nice evening for Bean and me

Paul went up north to pick up rock and to help Jim install Kay's gravestone, so Bean and I were on our own this evening.  I was feeling a little yucky with some vertigo, so Bean went and got us a giant Chicago stuffed pizza and root beer for dinner.  I made coleslaw and we had a good meal.  (Maybe not too healthy, but very tasty.)  Afterwards we took a drive and checked out Ivin's resevoir/park to see how the remodeling is coming along - very well.  Then we went out to see how Gunlock reservoir's overflow is holding up.  It has slowed down, but it's still very beautiful and flowing over.  It is so amazing to see snow still on the south side of Pine Valley Mountain, green stuff growing everywhere and the reservoirs all full to the very top.  How wonderful all of this rainy, snowy winter has been for this area.  We saw people camping out and are getting the camping bug ourselves!  What a wonderful blessing it is to be able to spend good times with Bean.  For a while I thought the day would never come again in this life.  I am so grateful that is not the case.  It is so wonderful to have him back among us as himself.  

Family Dinner at the Smiths

Derek and kids hosted the family hot dog BBQ dinner last Sunday.  It was perfect eat outside BBQ weather and it was a fun evening with lots of good food.  Sorry to say that the marriage did not work out after all and Derek and kids are on their own once more.  We had so hoped it would be a good and lasting thing for all, but it was not to be.  We had a good turn out just missing Supe and Beacher and Jay and Brynn.  These are good times to check in with each other and the cousins love spending time together.  We did some talking about how to make Family Camp scheduling a little less of a chore after our reports time and hopefully came up with a better plan for that.  Oh and BIG NEWS of the evening - Brynnli is unofficially engaged!  Looking at a Fall wedding.  We need more time to spend with the prospective groom we all decided!  Many thanks to Derek and family for hosting!

We ate inside, outside, all around!  

Weaver sleepers

Last Friday the Weaver grands slept over while their folks went to a concert.  Juge brought us yummy taquitos for dinner!  Afterwards we made a trip down to the Town Square to do some posing with the newest statues.  It was sprinkly, but very nice.  Then we came back and had dessert, watched a movie and and hit the sack.  Had a fun time in the morning eating pancakes, eggs, bacon and strawberries!  Like our kids, our grand kids have learned to enjoy our taste for art.  Grandpa actually gave them a short art lesson while dinner was getting ready. 

Trying a garden - one more time!

We decided to try to have a garden - one more time.  This is a keyhole style with soil not of our own ground.  We hope having it partially shaded under the Mulberry tree will help it survive the heat and we also hope the soil that we created to fill it will also help since our soil here is not really great.  So far so good...we will have to get an awful lot of produce to anywhere begin to recoup the costs! At the moment it is doing very well; we have picked lettuce leaves twice, the plants are growing well and the seeds have sprouted.

Happy April Fool's Day - Kindergarten style

A little girl brought me some April Fool's Day brownies.  She was so excited to tell me.  I had her take them into class since I couldn't really open them out at recess when she arrived.  And then when I opened them it was so funny!  And I was so glad they were only brown E's instead of brownies since I'm trying to diet right now!  She was so please with her trickiness!  

A few years ago while waiting in some office I saw pictures of an amazing waterfall - Grand Falls aka Chocolate Falls.  It's over by Flagstaff.  It only runs when there's sufficient run off during the Spring or after the Monsoons, so catching it is not always easy.  We needed to go and get some rock over that way and since this year has been so wet the falls are going great.  We checked it out and it really is as amazing as the pictures made it out to be!  Fun trip - business and pleasure. 

Joel #5 and Sarai #8

The March kids got celebrated!  We went up for Joel's #5 celebration.  He never seems bothered that we do it 3 months late!  He had one of the famous Randall cakes that was amazing and tasty too. Sarai's main present came to her via USP, but we dropped by after Joel's celebration to give her a little additional plunder!  Happy birthday to both of these cuties.  Love them both to pieces!