Fun around town

 We have taken some beautiful morning/afternoon walks the last week.  You can see the effects of all of the rain we've had recently with rain puddles, greenery and flowers blooming!  So beautiful.  And one night we went out back and enjoyed roasting marshmallows for s'mores!  

We also enjoyed going to a birthday open house for one our Single Adult ward members #38!  Clarissa Humphries.  She's one of our favorites!

October birthdays!

 Jay started off the month with his 50th!  Whoopie!  They are in Kauai right now for his birthday/Fall Break celebration!  I would say that's a big enough party for a 50th birthday!  Happy big FIVE-ZERO Jay! We love you!

Next up would be Koen with another big one...#18!  Made him a birthday picture card and gave it to Ferf to give to him when he came to her house.  He's pretty much ghosted our side of the family.  Divorce is an ugly thing and causes so much heart ache.  Happy Birthday Koen.   We love you!

We had to do Tasia's birthday when she came down from school a week early.  She had things at work that kept her from coming down on her birthday.  We had a great visit with her!  She's loving her classes this year and is so enthusiastic about what she's studying! Happy #22 Tasia!  We love you!

September Birthdays are here!

The celebration is for Juge's #45 and Lou's #51.  Crazy! Guess how old that makes us!  Wow!  We had a fun time doing a party/lunch at Park Place in Cedar City on the 15th.  That's when we could all get together and we had a great time.  Lots of good food and crepes and lots of fun visiting along with it.  So proud of both of these ladies and the people they are today.  They are both amazing and so accomplished in so many ways.  Love you girls! Hope you feel loved and celebrated!  And that's all of the September birthdays, believe it or not!

 

August Birthdays are here! Clara #10, Bean # 38, Tavin #25, Torin #12

Brynn sent us an enthusiastic early birthday morning video of Clara opening her present.  She seemed happy to get her new backpacking water bladder.  She got the new backpack her for birthday (maybe early for a family backpacking before school starts trip).  Now she has a great one that should last her for many years.  We also sent her a book and a little bracelet - a rubber one with words that are so popular right now.  I forgot to send the bracelet with the rest, so it's coming to her pretty soon!  Happy #10 Clara!  She's into the double digits now!  We love you Clara!!!

We took Torin out for a birthday dinner and hand golf date!  See the other post about it for more details  Happy #12 Torin!  We love you!

Tavin was actually down here for his birthday, so we went over to Ferf's and wished him a happy #25!  He finished up an internship with the Utah Jazz and is now looking for other work.  He's an amazing graphic artist and such a very nice  person.  Love you Tavin!  Happy Birthday!  

We also celebrated Bean's birthday a little early since is was on a Sunday.  See the post about it for more details.  Happy #38 Bean!  We love you!  

Bean's #38! Brians Head Peak, Bunker Creek, etc.

 Today we did some birthday celebrating with Bean for his #38.  His birthday is actually on Sunday, but you can't party too much that day, so we did it today.  We took a beautiful drive in our newly fixed pick up on Cedar Mountain.  We went on the dirt roads we hadn't been able to go on while the truck was in the shop and enjoyed a cool day on Cedar Mountain.  We ate a little brunch at Wood Ranch, we took the beautiful short hike to Aspen Mirror Lake, we drove over to Mammoth Springs and walked there too.  Then we took a new drive up Bunker Creek Road to check out some camp spots up that way.  There were some beautiful ones once we got past a lot of burned out areas.  We drove over to Cedar Breaks and then up on top of Brian Head peak to see the restoration work they had done on the old CCC structure up there.  Then we came down and went to an early birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  After a little nap we made chocolate chip cookies and had them with ice cream...Bean's chosen birthday cake. Then he opened presents - lots of nice new shirts.  We hope to celebrate a little more tomorrow and then maybe a little more at a family dinner on Sunday after Stake Conference. Happy Birthday Bean! We love you dearly!

Torin birthday dinner date and golf fun!

 We took Torin out for a birthday dinner and hand golf date!  He's turning 12 next week, but will be with his dad on his birthday.  He already celebrated with his siblings last week when they could come down.  Life's crazy sometimes.  We had good "Taco Tuesday" food at Costa Vida and then headed over to the golf course.  We had a good time playing hand golf.  He had never done it before.  He has a good arm and could send that ball way down the course.  The sprinklers came on to cool it down which is always lovely this time of year.  It was a fun night.  We stopped on the way home for ice cream cones and French fries and then he opened presents back at his house with us and his mom.  Happy #12 Torin!  We love you!

And another August birthday gets celebrated...Bean's #38.  I have another post that tells the whole story, but here are the birthday pics.  Happy #38 Bean!  We love you!

July Birthdays - Beacher, Jem and Supe, Kai and Ellie

We had Supe and Beacher and kids over the other night to celebrate 3 birthdays.  They are going to Oregon in July and would be gone for their birthdays, so we did them early.  Beacher will be 36, Jem 6 and Supe 40.  Kaia's birthday isn't until December, but we just let her celebrate too so she didn't feel left out.  They opened gifts and then we had dessert with some candles for the kids to blow out.  After that, we played a little mini-cornhole game that we gave to Jem and Kaia.  It was a set of two, so it worked out for it to be for both Kaia and Jem so she could get  something too.  It was a really fun evening.  We were going to celebrate Moss's Kai's birthday too, but he got sick, so we will have to catch him later. Happy Birthday!  We love you all!  

We got to wish Kai a happy birthday at our little 4th of July gathering with his family and Ferf's.  He's been really sick and hasn't been able to get better.  He's been on a few different meds and had a shot for what they thought was strep, but now they think he may have mono.  Feel so bad for the little guy.  He's so tired of being sick and having to just lay around.  Hopefully they get a real diagnosis now and he can start on a path of healing.  But, Happy Birthday Kai!  We love you and hope you enjoy your birthday presents when you're feeling better.

No birthday pics of Ellie, but she turned 20 and celebrated on her mission!  We just got to message her and sent her a card and some fun money!  Happy birthday Ellie!  We love you!  Here's what she wrote about her mission birthday:

 Happy Birthday!! What a better way to celebrate your birthday than doing missionary work??  It was Saturday and we had no luck all week long finding friends.  We didn't know what to do.  We had to take our truck back to the shop so we were biking again.  We ended up having the lesson with the guy we had met in the mountains and he was so interested. Friend number 1. After we headed out on our 30 minute bike ride to get our truck, we decided we would stop by one person on the way, she told us that she had met with missionaries before and would love to do it again!! Friend number 2. Later that day we stopped by this guy but he had a huge gate. We decided we would call him and see what would happen. He was soo Interested!! Friend number 3!! When you  "pray like everything depends on God, then work like everything depends on you" you see miracles!!  Also that day we had dinner at a members house with Napoleon and his super anti wife.  We were really worried how it would go.  It went so well and her heart was somewhat softened.  

June birthdays & Father's Day

 Madi starts June off on the 1st and is turning the BIG #16 this year!  She had a friend party before the big day that looks like lots of fun!  She made her own, very beautiful, cake! Another great thing happened for Madi's birthday!  She got her driver's license!  Yippee!!!  

Lance came next with #48!  He was actually down at Havasupai with the fam on the day of, so he had to wait till they got home to have cake and presents.  We just mailed it and luckily it got there to be waiting for him.  Happy Birthday Lance!  I'm sure you had a fun birthday...at Havasupai and again at home!  

Happy #49 Derek.  His girlfriend, Niki, organized a gathering for him even if he didn't want a party!  It was fun to go and hang out and visit with people there.  Happy Birthday Derek!  Hope the next year it a great one for you!

Father's Day - Had a great meeting at church to start it off.  Next we had Paul's choice of dinner:  Ham/Pinto Bean soup, corn muffins, melon and German Chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting and Costco vanilla ice cream.  It was just Paul, Bean and I.  In the evening Moss and Christie and family and Ferf and Jared (boyfriend) came over to visit and bring presents and eat cake!  It was a fun time.  Other kids called or texted to wish him a happy Father's Day!  We talked about how grateful we both feel for our own fathers who were great examples to us.  So thankful for being blessed by great fathers who were role models. So thankful to know that we also have a Father in Heaven and Savior who also love us and are the fathers of our salvation and redemption.  

Moss's birthday #42 - I started the day reading my old journal of the day he was born and for a little afterwards.  He came at a pretty challenging time, but we were happy he came and joined the family...finally, a little brother for Jay!  There's quite an age gap, but at this stage of life it's not such a big deal and I'm happy I persevered to have the promised sons and did not stop after Juge. I would have missed some wonderful people joining our family it I had. Happy Birthday Moss!  So glad to have another great son to bring joy into our lives.

On Moss's birthday (June 23rd) Lou, Joel and Afton came down and brought us a wonderful lunch.  We didn't know they were bringing it for us too, but they did, and it was a delicious salad!  After lunch they had a few hours to spend and one errand to run before heading back up for Joel's swim team practice.  What a nice time it was to spend with them.  We went to see the Eccles Fine Art show of Fire & Ice.  I loved seeing it again and sharing it with them.  Next we stopped in at the Red Cliffs Reserve center and they enjoyed seeing all the desert critters and such.  I love that place too. Oh, outside before we went in we saw a stone well with a bucket.  On closer inspection we saw that it had a plexiglass bottom leading into an old early St. George stone well that a family that was called to live here by Brigham Young. The had built the well for their home that had been on the property where the county office building is now.  As it was being built, they discovered the old well and saved it and put a historic site sign next to it.  So cool! Last we went to the St. George Art Museum.  They had changed the exhibit I was hoping they could see, but they had one that was quite interesting about people in prison in the the downstairs gallery and up top they had some religious art that was deep, lots of reading for interpretation, but worth it.  There was too much to see/read for the time we had, and the kids got a little bored of it, so we left some unseen.  Then we went back to the house for root beer floats!  Such a fun time visiting and going fun places.  Yesterday had been a very hard day for me, and this morning started with a scorpion in the garage, but the day just got better and better!  I feel like my birthday started a day early.  Oh, Lou and family gave me another James Herriot DVD that I'm excited to watch!  Happy Birthday #71 to me!  Thank you Lou and kids for making it such a nice day for me.  Time truly is one of the very best gifts you can give.  

On my birthday it looked like we might not find something fun to do because our truck was in the shop and we had already taken all of the pretty paved drives we could think of to get out of the house with Paul's foot restrictions.  The day dawned cloudy, a little bit rainy and so much cooler.  I took a nice morning walk and stopped by that old well we had found and read more about it.  While Paul was fixing the faucet in our camp trailer I went in to read scriptures and found a fun card and present from him.  He and Bean had very sneaky like gone shopping for it the day before.  It was a brand new Lifetime card table and a pink Lowes bucket, both things I had been wanting!  After lunch we went out with Bean for some fun.  On the way to our destination at the Kayenta art galleries we spied some historic  buildings we wanted to see in Santa Clara...and the caretaker, an old friend, just happened to be there to unlock them for us.  She had to leave and just said to close the doors when we were done.  It was an old pioneer home and Santa Clara Relief Society building.  It was so fun to look through them.  Next we did go out and look at a couple of the art galleries at Kayenta Arts Center.  They had some beautiful and unique works of art that we enjoyed very much.  Then we took a beautiful drive out to Gunlock reservoir and then went out to early dinner at Olive Garden using a gift card I had gotten for Mother's Day that paid for all of it!  That evening Ferf came over bringing lots of nice gifts from all of the kids and we enjoyed my free Nothing Bundt Cake and my free cheesecake from Olive Garden and a little visiting time with her.  I got some nice phone calls and texts from the other kids throughout the day too!  Lots of FB friends wished me a happy one too!  That evening Paul and I relaxed watching the fun James Herriot DVD movies that Lou and family gave me.  What a nice day it turned out to be!  Today, I got a really nice phone call from Janet too.  Paul and I had a good visit with her.  Happy #71 to me!  Thank you to everyone who made it a lovely birthday for me.  And that's all of the June birthdays!  

One more cool thing I got for my birthday a few days after was a bday card from my best teenage friend, Malinda Carter.  We had such fun times together and then she moved.  Lots of my teenage friends moved before we graduated.  But, we did keep in touch some through the years, mostly writing letters after we were both married.  She has been the good one at instigating I have to say.  I get busy even with my own sisters and don't keep much in touch.  But for my birthday, she send me some old pics I had sent her, the graduation announcement I had sent her and some letters I had written to her after Lou, Jay and Ferf were born.  It was a fun walk down memory land to read them.  I wish she could do FB or Instagram, but because she once had a job at a prison, she feels unsafe putting herself out there.  Maybe we are just going to have to get in the habit of a yearly Christmas or birthday (darn, I forget hers) letter/card.  Thanks for the memories, Malinda!  

 

May Birthdays! Kaebri, Trigg and Zade

 The Smiths have the May birthday's sewed up!  They start early with Kaebri on the 1st turning 24 this year.  Next up is Trigg on the 3rd.  He turned 14. Then Zade finished it up on the 13th turning 18!  I knew May was going to get too crazy with all of the end of the year school activities going on.  We decided we better just hit the birthdays all at one time so Kaebri, Zade and Trigg (and Tasia and later Derek) came over for brownies and ice cream/birthday celebration.  This time they all got a card with money; boring, but then they can spend it for what they want.  Happy Birthday to all! We love you all! Tasia is the only child in the Smith family with a different (October) birthday.  We are glad she had gotten home from BYU and was able to come and join the birthday fun too!  

April birthdays - Noah #17, Christie # 38, Essie #12 & Turkey hunting!

 Noah started off the celebrations with his late celebration of his #17.  We dropped his present off early and then shared the opening of it on Facetime.  He's an amazing snowboarder without enough snow to keep him happy this year.  He started tennis at school and is pretty devoted about practicing at 5 am in the morning at a friend's indoor court.  He had a list of many snacks that we satisfied for a birthday present:  thin Oreos in regular and golden,  some Yoggies from Costco and ChapStick in mint and green apple. He should be set for a while with those.  Happy birthday Noah!  Hope you get more snow later in the year!  

Christie celebrated #38 this year and we were able to get a present over to her a little early - a waxed amaryllis and a pedicure gift cert.  She's a talented and busy lady.  She is a wonderful wife and mother.  The family helped her put together a puzzle she got while they watched conference and celebrated Easter!  They did lots of other fun things on the day of her birthday!  Happy #38 Christie!  We think you're awesome!  

Here's another little celebration that went on  during April - Trigg got his first turkey hunting with brother Zade and his dad.  Pretty big deal for him!  Congrats and hopefully good eating!  

Today is Essie's #12 birthday!!!  We wished her an early one a couple of days ago when we went up for Madi's violin graduation and also to see Essie's play, Annie!  She's one of the orphans and it's a great community play!  Her first one!  She had to audition to be in it and was pretty nervous, but now she knows she can do it!  We loved seeing her perform so well.  Happy Birthday Essie!  We love you tons!

We didn't get any very good pics while we were there...shucks.  Maybe I can get one from them!  

January Birthdays - Eden, Bryan, Afton & Brady and Brenden

 Eden started the birthdays off for the new year turning 19!  And, I think it was on her birthday that she left to go to Mexico to teach Spanish for a few months.  She's flown the coop!  She's been working hard to earn money for the last several months since high school graduation to help pay for this.  Kind of scary to have her off in foreign parts.  Hope she has a wonderful adventure...and then comes back to the USA!  Happy Birthday Eden!  We love you!  Can't wait to see pics and hear about her Mexico/teaching adventures.

We did the Randall birthdays (Bryan #50, Afton #15, Brady #21) all at once this year.  We went up and joined them for Afton's day of birthday dinner and then did presents for all and played some games and had the most delicious cinnamon rolls (Afton's choice for her birthday cake).  Bryan got called out to pick up their neighbor who had been just about to go and then did during the evening.  He got back in time to have cake.  They are a pretty wonderful family. and we love getting to join them on these special days.  Ellie had called earlier in the day to wish Afton a happy birthday from her mission in CA!  We gave them all lightweight backpacking pillows to go with the backpacks that they got for Christmas.  Bryan also got a fun shirt.  

We got a minute to wish Brenden Happy #17 - they stopped by in between some of their goings and comings!  Happy #17 Brenden - we love you and we're proud of you!