Glorious flowers!

Because we had so much rain this winter/spring the wild flowers are going WILD this year.  I had the chance to take a walk in our "backyard" on the Red Hill yesterday morning and it was wonderful to see so many of them.  Yuccas are in bud and just about to break forth.  I'm looking forward to that too!  (I probably do a flower post every year...I'm always so take your breath away happy to see them every year!)  I know some of them by name, but not all.  Firecracker Penstemon, Indian Paintbrush, Globe Mallow, Scorpion Weed, Weakstem Mariposa Lily (and sometimes they say it's Sego Lily), Cholla cactus and Evening Primrose are the ones I don know.  

The way we were!

 Paul had been writing stories about his life as part of a Christmas gift he got from some of the kids last year.  We have hunted through a lot of pictures to try to find ones to add to the stories.  We have found some beauties!  Beauties because they show us when we were young...and much better looking than we have gotten to be now!  I found one that was one of the ones we didn't choose to put on our wedding announcement.  (I don't know where the original of that went.) In this shot we weren't smiling, but we still looked really good...compared to now! It's nice to think we looked good then!  Can't wait till the resurrection!

Another date night drive...without deer!

We've been taking a few drives in our new car to try out the ways of a hybrid.  I miss the turbo in the Passat.  This 4-cylinder engine (when the engine takes over) isn't as peppy as the Passat's turbo assisted 4-cylinder engine was, but the electric engine in this is very peppy.  I miss the roominess, but I don't miss the higher price of diesel and the things that were starting to wear out on the Passat.  It was in need of new tires, the heater/AC was having problems and the brakes needed work too and it was just getting to be an older car. If it had to happen, this was a great time and we got good value out of it from the insurance company...better than we would have trying to sell it ourselves or trade-in value, so I am even grateful that it happened in some ways.  I had been hoping to go to a hybrid, but never would have done it probably without this reason.  But, on to the date drive...

We drove up to Kolob Fingers (East Zion) and the road was open a bit further up now.  It was a Thursday evening after closing and the gate was open!  We drove up as far as we could go (Lee's Pass) and then came back to the Taylor Creek/Double Arch Alcove trailhead and went for a little hike to the first stream crossing.  The water is higher than the usual jump over width we usually find.  We only saw a few people and it was a perfect spring evening.  So refreshing and beautiful!  We even saw a new waterfall coming off one of the fingers that we've never seen before - probably due to the big snows this year!  After that we drove over to see the pond at the side of the freeway that is filled to capacity this year!  We need to go kayaking!  The water was up over the road.  We did drive past a few road closed signs to get there, but all was well.  

April Birthdays - Christie #35 and Essie #9

 April is an amazingly slim birthday month in our family.  We only have 2 - Christie #35 and Essie #9.  We didn't get to do much for Christie...we did try, but they are really up to their necks in soccer season and we didn't want to disturb their day of celebration, so it ended up being a drop by present the day after when she was off at the orthodontist with Eliza. She sent us a very nice thank you text.  Life gets too crazy sometimes!  We feel blessed to have Christie as a DIL.  She is a wonderful wife and mom and we are so grateful Moss found her at the City Pool job!

Essie had her birthday on Thursday, the 27th and she turned nine!  One more year till the double digits hit.  Her mom let us in on some great birthday ideas and we chose a fun card game for her.  Hope it's a hit.  Essie is a beautiful, talented girl.  She sings, swims and plays the piano...and it lots of fun! Happy #9 Essie.  We love you!  

April - Sheep shearing & Toe Shoes & sheep showing!

 Some big accomplishments came to pass in April!  Tasia got Reserve Champion (2nd place, but a blue ribbon) in her sheep sheering contest for FFA at the county fair!  This was her first time competing in this and she and her teammate rocked it!  Congrats to Tasia!!!

Tahlia Grace earned her Toe Shoes in her dance program!  I don't know a lot about how this all comes to pass, but I know she worked VERY hard to do this and did it earlier than most people do age-wise.  Way to go Tahlia!  We are proud of you for your hard work and dedication!

Zade is also involved in FFA this year.  He raised a lamb "Lightening".  He showed him at the county fair and was selected in the top 4 and made the star class.  I know nothing about this, but I'm still really proud of Zade and his dedication to accomplish this!  That's a lot of everyday feeding, watering and tending to he has put in.  Way to go Zade!  Another GOAT sheep stuff going on here!  (GOAT = greatest of all time in the lingo of the day right now!)

Happy Earth Day!

We had a free Saturday and it was Earth Day!  We had talked about going camping, but had decided instead to go and check out several places since we weren't quite sure the place we wanted to camp was even open to get to yet.  Our list of places to check out were the Browse area camp spot by the river, Yankee Meadows Lake and the Hidden Haven waterfall hike.  We got only to the gate, still closed, on the Browse road.  Then we decided that since we were right by it we would drive up the Kolob Canyons road - it was also closed still for road problems.  We went on up the road and at the turn off to Yankee Meadows lake it said the road was not open yet because of snow...we drove up until we could go no further because of the snow.  Then we went to Hidden Haven...it had signs about there being trail problems.  We hiked along the trail (which was full of raging water) and here and there until we got to a point where you could go not further unless it became and in the river hike.  We didn't fell like that raging, mud filled stream was a very safe place to hike, so we headed back. Next, we decided to drive to Brian Head and over Cedar Mountain...and just after Brian Head the road was closed due to blowing snowdrifts.  So, we went back down to Cedar City and over Cedar Mountain that way!  We saw that the snow was really melting, but there is still so MUCH yet to melt.  We stopped to see Navajo Lake which was starting to thaw.  We drove on and stopped at our favorite rest stop for lunch at about 2:30, and then finished up by driving by Coral Pink Sand Dunes and down through Colorado City and Hurricane and got back just in time to take Grandma her dinner.  It was a day of not getting to any of the places we meant to go to, but it was beautiful and relaxing just the same...Happy Earth Day!  

Checking out Pine Park and Enterprise Reservoir

 I had a great day for house cleaning after a crazy week of  jury duty, hitting a deer, shopping for a new car, getting Anna Lou to doctor appointments, getting a new car, getting new auto insurance and on and on it felt like.  Finally Friday came and and I just had the day I needed to do what needed to be done.  On Saturday after cleaning the church we decided to head out for an exploring day.  We decided on Pine Park and Enterprise Reservoir.  The lake was full to the brim and running over LOTS.  That was so good to see after it had been so low last year.  And Pine Park had water running over the road, but we could get in ok and enjoyed a picnic and just exploring the area and enjoying the peace and quiet and beauty all around.  We got home in time to finish up a few more chores, eat dinner and watch another Star Wars movie (we are doing them again after watching some documentaries on how they made them).  It was a day to relax from some of the recent pressures that have come our way.

April happenings...some good, some less good!

 

 A new recipe tried for GC Sunday breakfast!

Happy April!  The month started out wonderfully with General Conference!  The next Sunday was Easter (Fast Sunday) and the church did  something new this year.  They changed it to a sacrament meeting only Sunday and a no testimonies Fast Sunday.  They made a very big push to have us do more as families at home to celebrate Easter pointing out how much we celebrate Christmas when Easter is even more important than that if you think about it.  

From the April Liahona Magazine:  For many of us, celebrating Jesus’s birth at Christmas comes more naturally than commemorating His suffering, death, and Resurrection at Easter.  The familiar and joyful traditions of Christmas begin early in December.  Yet we ought to remember what President Gordo B. Hinckley (1910-2008) taught: “There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter.  The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the Resurrection.”

We have tried to do better, though I feel like we have tried pretty hard in the past as well.  We always change out living room picture grouping each year at Easter and Christmas.  This year we did nightly study via the church website as well as our Sunday School study and today we enjoyed watching a wonderful concert with art and music about the Savior's life and resurrection.  We even figured out how to cast it to our TV for our very first time on our own!  

Easter is the time of year when I am always thinking of Weed and Bean and how wonderful it will be when we see Weed again and how wonderful it is to know she's alive and well...just not here now.  For Bean it brings me hope for his eventual healing from his health issues and the chance for  him to have the life that he has missed so much of here.  I know there are so many other people who have been sick or passed away, but these two really stand out for me since they both were taken by death or health issues at what seemed like way too early.  I am so grateful for my testimony of the Savior's atonement that will eventually "wipe away all tears" as I have shed many for these two.  Happy Easter!  Hosanna!

The Thursday evening before Easter, April 6th, we went on a date.  After dinner we decided to take a drive and then do a little hike up by Brookside.  It was so nice.  We wanted to see what the stream was doing with all of the extra water we've had this year.  It was much higher than usual.  As we were driving home after the hike we had a very unexpected and unfortunate accident when a deer suddenly crossed the road in front of our car.  It was dark, the moon hadn't risen yet, and it was so fast that we had no time at all to react.  There deer was there and then gone.  Thankfully we weren't injured at all, but the car was very damaged and will be totaled by the insurance company because there is way too much damage to fix for how old it is and how much it is worth.  Of course, to us it was still a wonderful car and replacing it is way more expensive than what we'll get for it unfortunately.  Thankfully we do have some money coming from our reverse mortgage that will make it possible for us to pay it off.  That's not what we had planned to spend the money for, but at least we won't have a car payment for very long.  So I'm can be grateful for both of those things.   Our new car is a Toyota Prius plug in hybrid.  We are excited to have a car that will still get good gas mileage because of the hybrid feature.  It's going to be a stretch to learn all of the new technology it also includes, but hopefully it will be a great car to get us through till were done with it! 

Here's the new car!  

Oh, speaking of lots of water this year, we took a drive over Cedar Mountain a few weeks ago at the end of March and the snowpack is so huge!  It is finally getting warm now and it's kind of a worry what's going to happen to all of that snow when it melts very quickly.  Some ski resorts have had over 66 feet of snow this year and the snowpack is said to be at 200%.  We have needed this water so badly.  Just hope it doesn't cause tremendous flooding with a quick warm up now.

I got called up for jury duty this month too.  I know it's a responsibility that we need to be a part of, but I wasn't thrilled because I didn't want a miss a bunch of work.  Luckily it was a short case.  I was chosen even though I knew the prosecuting attorney.  We spent one day going through the processing of being interviewed and then chosen or excused for one reason or another.  Then we came back the next day and heard the case and actually finished it up.  We went a little over regular hours which was clear when the lights went out in the court room at 5:00 pm, but we went ahead and finished up by about 6:30 pm, just before they were going to get us dinner.  So, it was a learning experience for sure.  I met some nice on the jury with me,  and some not so nice people, either the defendant or the plaintiff, who were pretty big liars.  Their stories matched on some details, but not on the things that counted the most.  We ended up giving a guilty verdict on 2 of 3 counts.  I have no idea how he was sentenced since they excused us to go home right after the verdict was read to the court.  So, now I have at least 2 years off from that from what I hear.  I was called up once in NM, but one of the lawyers excused me from a drunk driving case because I was a non-drinker.