Springtime good times

 We slept in this morning and then went for a walk on the Red Hill.  It's  wonderful up there right now with flowers blooming everywhere!  We really enjoyed that.  Then we went to Kai's soccer game.  He's in kindergarten now and losing teeth!  They play on very small fields with only 4 kids at a time.  It's pretty cute.  Some of them try very hard, and some of them are in lala land looking around and paying no attention.  Kai's team has a really great coach and this year he loves soccer.  When he first started a year or so ago, he would only play if they bought him a little monster truck afterwards as a bribe!  But now, he's all in!  He played really well and his team won this one!  Go Kai!!! (Christie's sister, Heather, came to cheer him on too!)

Next up was Brenden's next to last game up in Cedar City...they won by a long ways.  Then we watched Eliza play her last game and they won too!  Good times!  We did watch Brenden's last game, which wasn't a win, but we watched it in comfort from the scorekeeper's box with Christie and her folks and Eliza and Kai.  That was fun!  The score was 1 to 1 until a ref made a call that gave the other team a great shot on goal with only 1.57 minutes left and that wasn't enough for them to even things up unfortunately.  

Afton play the role of Phoebe in their homeschool group's Shakespeare play this year.  She did an amazing and surprising job on her part.  It was very funny!  

Another fun thing was taking hot dogs and all the rest of the picnic to Pine Valley and cooking up a picnic a few weeks before the campground opens up and the crowds arrive.  It was so peaceful, pleasant and delicious.  While we were gone someone set the Brooks Pond Park afire with their cigarette butt dropped into the cotton from the cottonwood trees.  It did a lot of damage even with the firemen getting their pretty quickly.  It almost got a house next to it into trouble and they had to replace some telephone poles as well as losing sever big trees.  Too bad.  It happens pretty regularly unfortunately.  

Another fire experience was getting to help cook the DO cobblers for the Single Adult bonfire activity with Francisco, one of the ward members.  It was fun to get to know him and some others a little better that night.

Another great thing happening is Essie turning 10!  She such a cute thing!  They sent us such a cute video of her opening her present from us.  Wish we could be a bit more involved with these kids, but distance makes it hard.  Love them just the same!  Happy #10 Essie!  

Kaibab Campout

 We are loving our little trailer!  It's pretty great to be able to come in out of the cold and have hot chocolate and cookies at the little table, especially Jacob Lake cookies.  We wanted to leave in a hurry without much fuss, so we decided to just eat dinner at Jacob Lake.  It was pretty good.  The new owners may not quite be up to snuff, but it did make things easier than having to shop and prep before coming.  We found a beautiful spot among the ponderosas.  There are still patches of snow here and there and the roads had too much snow/mud to go to any of the view points this time, but we had a couple of nice  walks in the woods.  It was wonderful!  As we were packing up the back of the truck to leave I saw that there was a critter in there under stuff.  It was a little chipmunk.  It kept running around trying to hide and we had to take pretty much everything out to finally get it to get out of there.  Pretty cute.  We didn't have anything in there to eat, so it didn't do any damage.  We also found someone's day pack on one of our walks.  It had been there a few days it looked like and the animals had been chewing on it trying to get in.  There was a prescription bottle inside so we had a name.  I called the pharmacy in Glendale AZ and they said they'd call him and give him our number so he could let us know if he wanted the pack back.  It didn't really have much in it other than a lot of men's colognes, some brass knuckles and some notebooks with some writing in them.  Haven't heard anything yet, but we tried.  

First Campout of 2024...and in our camp trailer!

 We did it!  We went camping in our little camp trailer!  We bought it last year and just never got out in it with all of the stuff happening in Anna Lou's life, Bean's life and just life in general.  And we had to do some stuff to the the truck and the trailer...but finally, everything was ready and we went!  Yippee!!!  We went to the Big Sequoia and only shared the area with a group of students/instructor from SUU.  We got there first and found a great spot that would work for the trailer.  It is early, so lots of things weren't out yet, but it was still beautiful.  We had a few struggles setting up and taking down, but it was a great first effort and we are getting the hang of how to camp in a trailer.  Sitting there drinking our hot chocolate inside while it was so cold outside that night was pretty nice.  And getting up and turning on the heater in the morning was pretty nice too!  But, I don't want to give up tent camping either.  There are some places I still want to go that the trailer can get to.  The bed was very comfortable though!  So it's the start of a new era of camping I guess!  We took a great hike almost to the base of the mountain that evening and even ran into a little bit of snow.  Paul made us a fantastic pork chop dinner.  In the morning we checked out the sequoia and on the way down we stopped to look at the river at another camp spot and then went for a hike to the hidden waterfall which was really beautiful.  Had a little mishap after we got home when I left the trailer keys on the bed cover of the truck while unhitching the truck.  I left them and a rock I had brought home and then we drove down to pick up the car from the shop.  Paul brought the truck home to start unloading while I got the car.  When I got home he showed me how the rock had amazingly stayed on the truck all the way home from the car shop.  (He didn't know I had put the keys there too!)  Then I knew!  And we very quickly drove the route we had taken.  Only a little way along there were the trailer keys in the middle of Bluff Street at an intersection.  Our light was green so we drove out into the intersection and thankfully the other light stayed red long enough for me to jump out and grab the keys and get back in and drive through before the light changed!  Felt very blessed to find the keys, with no damage to them at all.  We had another little mishap coming out of the car wash after spraying off the trailer.  We were coming out and someone cut us off so we had to turn more sharply than we were going to and scraped the air conditioner on the side of the trailer on a post, but thankfully stopped soon enough to back it up and the guy got out of the way and we got out with no damage.  I had taken the blocks out from behind the wheels too soon at the camp site when we were hooking it up to the truck and it rolled back closer to the edge of a drop off than felt comfortable.  We are learning!!!  But, after all was said and done, it was a wonderful first campout of the year and first time in the trailer!!!

Easter Break - Manti Temple, etc.

 We got Friday and Monday off for the Easter weekend.  I had made a reservation to go to the open house for the Manti Temple on Friday.  It was an up and back trip, but it was great.  Thank goodness we had reservations.  That made it so that our wait time in line was just about an hour (instead of much longer without a reservation in the standby line).  I can't remember being in that temple.  I guess we were for Julianne and Roy's wedding though.  It is one of the oldest of the temples and had to be worked on to strengthen it for the long haul.  It was dedicated 17 May 1888 by Wilford Woodruff.  St. George and Logan are older than it. It is the fifth temple built and the 3rd temple built in Utah.  The woodworking is superb and the spiral staircases are amazing works of art and engineering.  We especially loved them and the lily chairs that were in several of the sealing rooms.  The murals were beautiful and a they were saved in the renovation.  I'm glad we got to see this temple.  It truly shows the love of the Lord, hard work and sacrifice that the people who built it had.  We had a nice trip in the cool semi-winter weather.  Luckily it didn't rain or snow on us, but there was a recent snow still on the ground on the way and in Manti.  We listened to a book and stopped in Beaver for dinner on the way home. 

We went to the Art Festival and saw so much beautiful art of so much variety!  Always love seeing it!  We also (Paul mostly) put in a new bathroom fan, toilet and bidet in our big bathroom during the break!  Lots of work, but very nice to have done!  

 We also enjoyed a wonderful Easter!  They made it so we only have Sacrament meeting now and it was a great one.  G'ma and Ferf and Gaige joined us for a yummy Easter Feast.  We have been enjoying the week studying all about Easter in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and watching some of our favorite Easter videos.  The Church is counseling us make Easter more of a celebration like we do Christmas since it is of such crucial importance in the plan of salvation.  I love Easter.  It makes me think of Weed and how all is well with her even thought she's not here with us.  I know that we will be with her again.  It also gives me great hope for Bean.  I know that because of Easter he will be resurrected with a perfect body and no more of this terrible mental illness with all of it's problems to afflict him anymore.  I am so thankful for the infinite gift of the Christ's atonement that makes these things and so much more possible for me and everyone else in the world.  Hallelujah!!!  Happy Easter!

Yippee!!! Gaige got his mission call and more!

 Gaige got his mission call and lots of his friends and some family and neighbors came over (it was a packed house) to be there when he opened it.  They also streamed it on Facebook for everyone else.  He's going to the California, Roseville Mission and will start his MTC work on June 24th!  We are so happy for him!  That's near the Sacramento area of CA!  Can't wait for him to get started...on my birthday!  So proud of him for working hard and doing what's right so this wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord can be a part of his life.  Congratulations Gaige!  

Another congratulations is in order!  Madi got her braces off!!!  Doesn't she have a beautiful smile!

WE don't get to see these girls as much as the ones down here close to us!  Aren't they all beautiful in their matching Easter dresses!!!