New Year's Day and more 2026!

We did lots of fun things with family after New Years during the time Jay and Brynn were down!  We  went and walked the Dragon's Tail to get a little exercise!  

We went to the Visitor's Center to enjoy the around the world nativities and the stained glass from the Rome Temple exhibit.   

We went to Urban Renewal and saw lots of fun old stuff and tried on funny old glasses and clothes!

We had our Girl's night at Ferf's.  We ate good food and then painted portraits of each other!  Some were more beautiful than others!  

We went bowling at Dixie Bowl. 

Jay and all his girls except Clara (not old enough yet) went to the temple very early to do baptisms for the dead one morning.  Paul helped with the confirmations afterwards.  This was Essie's first time to go!  After that we went to Kneader's for breakfast and then took some home for Brynn and Clara.  

 Cousins and sisters and grandkids are fun!

 A sad event occurred on New Year's Day here in St. George.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Twelve Apostles had passed away earlier and he was laid to rest in the old cemetery here on New Year's Day.  People lined the streets in the rain as the hearse passed by. He grew up here and his wife and in-laws had lived in our neighborhood in younger and older days.  I'm sure he was so happy to be with his wonderful wife again.  We will miss him and his inspiring messages in General Conference.  He sometimes visited our ward when he would come down here to visit his in-laws and when he presided at their funerals, so we got to enjoy  him a little more than most people.  

Another thing that happened over the holidays was Jay and Moss setting up our new computer.  It was quite a huge job getting all of that stuff transferred over and up and running.  I took a few days of their tech expertise to get it all done.  We are so thankful to them for making it happen!  

Thanksgiving 2024

Thanksgiving this year was at a stake center that Moss was able to reserve out in his area.  It was a great building and we had a good turn out.  We only missed Brady (he was working) and Gaige (he's on a mission in CA, and Bean was sick.  We ended up with 43 family/friends of family. Tavin and Kennis brought friends that they know from college and Brynnli's boyfriend, Ryan also came.  Grandma Kurtz came.  (I wish we could have gotten a group pic, but by the time everyone got there, we were ready to eat!!!  I just took table pictures instead.) Jay and Brynn and girls were able to come down and stayed with us which was really fun.  They helped us set up and decorate.  Brynn had some really cute things to make it look nice. Jay and Juge brought delicious turkeys, smoked and baked, and everyone else brought other wonderful food.  We had PLENTY to eat.  We used half of the big gym for eating and closed the door in the middle most of the way and had pickleball set up in the other half of the gym.  We ate and visited and played some games.  Lance tricked us all in Pit by keeping one of everything for a long while and then I finally got a corner with the bull anyway!  It was pretty funny!  

Other activities for the weekend included a fun morning walk over the the Desert Garden for me and Paul with Madi and Clara.  Essie and Tahlia had spent the night with Eliza.  We also went on a fun hike with Moss and Christie and kids to Glitter Mountain where we collected cool selenite rocks (Utah Ice/ gypsum).  We also went over and hiked around to see the petroglyphs at Black Rocks.  More fun was some family getting together at Moss and Christie's for Donuts and hot chocolate and another time we went out to the Alumni Creamery for ice cream...BRRR!  On Saturday morning some family went to the Farmer's Market with Supe, Beacher and kids and played at the park playground. Afterwards people came to our house for visiting/eating left overs and cousin time.  It was beautiful weather and we could even visit outside.  It was a full, fun weekend!  

 

President's Day weekend fun times!

 Finally Jay and Brynn and girls got to come down for a visit.  They had hoped to come earlier on MLK day, but it was so cold it didn't seem like a great idea.  The weather cooperated very nicely for us to have some good times with family while they were down.  They arrived late Friday evening.  On Saturday morning we went on a little hike with them after an amazing French toast breakfast.  It was the south Hell's Hole hike out in Ivins.  Jem came along with us and it was really fun to listen to all of the cute things he had to say!  He's a great little hiker too.  It did get scary one time when we had to cross a pond that had collected from the rain and in the process of it Jem got dropped into the water.  It was pretty terrifying for him and us, but it all turned out well and no harm was done. The water was so cold, but luckily his mom had packed a full set of extra clothes for him and we got him changed at a sunny spot and he didn't cry anymore.  Most little kids would probably have freaked out and been screaming for a long while, but he was happy again very soon and loved wearing Clara's pink sweatshirt for the rest of the day.  It really scared me!!!  I was so happy that it all turned out with no problem.  Lots of family came over after that and just visited and enjoyed the sunny day.  

That afternoon Jay, Brynn and girls and Juge, Lance and family and Supe went climbing.  (Paul and I stayed home and got in a nap and got dinner ready for the group.)  They seemed to have a really good time.  After dinner the kids played and some of us watched the NBA Slam Dunk Contest with Brenden. It was crazy when a 24 year old, 6'2" white G-team player won it!  It was a pretty fun day!

Sunday turned out to have many different church options with on-line church and a couple of stake conferences to choose from.  After that at 4 pm we had family dinner!  It's pretty crazy with all of those people in one place, but Jay and Brynn cooked up some amazing Cup Bop type Korean rice bowls.  They did the meat and noodles and all of the rest of us brought things to go on them.  They were SO GOOD!  Moss and Christie brought yummy cinnamon roll cake for dessert.  It was still good enough weather we could get outside for lots of the day! Moss and Christie brought a fun adult game and we all hung out and the kids did their crazy thing and seemed to have a good time too.   Jay and Brynn also found a spot of time on Sunday to visit Anna Lou which made her very happy!

On on Monday morning we went to the Sear's Invitational Art Show at UT Tech.  It's kind of a tradition for us each year.  They always have an Art Scavenger Hunt page set up for the kids.  This year they had 2 pages.  Ferf, Koen and Torin joined us.  The kids had such a fun time doing the hunt and eating their candy rewards.  And we all enjoyed the beautiful art too!  Then we invited all who could come (us, Jay and Brynn, Moss and Christie, Ferf and kids, Beacher and kids) and bring their lunch for a picnic at Highland Park in Washington.  It was still great weather and everyone had a great time!  (Jay and Brynn also visited Supe and Beacher that morning.) Later that day Jay, Brynn and girls headed home with terrible traffic, but they made it safe and sound and got to see all the folks at this end of the state! They packed a lot fun into a very short time!!! Good times!!! 

Spring Break Staycation

Fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to look at it, our nice, long Spring Break - Friday March 10th - Monday, March 21st  - is going to be a stay at home gig due to skyrocketing gas prices that rip off oil companies are claiming is because of the war going on between Russia and Ukraine.  (We barely get any oil from Russia.)  And also because of our not so abundant financial situation because of some rock that we couldn't get a price for until way after we already had to give the bid for it...and it was way more than expected.  So I have a list of home projects to work on and I hope to find something fun to do every day or at least find some time to relax and take it easy.  I'm sort of cranky and bummed, but hoping to make the best of it. (We had thought about going the Palm Springs Tram/Joshua Tree NP or Carlsbad NP and White Sands NP, but the Tram was already booked up and Carlsbad isn't quite all of the way open yet because of Covid.  And it's a long ways with expensive food/lodging.) 

Friday - I had the whole day to clean the house in an unrushed fashion, do the laundry and the grocery shopping.  That's actually a pretty nice thing and I was glad I could get it all finished and done.  We also got to watch the new trailer for Top Gun 2 and afterwards they had a video about the secret building of some amazing war planes that we watched.  Dinner was planned ahead and good and easy.  We watched an interesting movie that night about a possible pandemic scenario.  So glad our actual pandemic was not so bad.  So, it was a good day!

Saturday - we got up at the regular time, took our walk while listening to a good talk and BOM and then went to clean the church.  It was nice to hang out and do some good.  Then Supe and Jem invited us to go on a nice little hike in the hills behind the house.  It's always fun to hang out with them.  Jem is growing up to be a cute, fun little kid.  We had their dog and Jasmine's 2 dogs along and they had a really good time getting out and getting worn out in the process.  Jem can say all of their names now.  He's getting to be a good little talker, jumper and rock thrower! In the afternoon we went miniature golfing with Bean.  I got one hole in one and one that took so many shots I just gave myself the max score! (Saw a lady bug there.)  Afterwards we stopped and looked at camp trailers.  With gas prices what they are I'm not sure that dream is going to be possible anymore.  Looks like we'll be camping in a tent forever. (I'm just a little bit discouraged right now.  Pretty tired of eating the costs for other people's frustrating ways.  Going to have to be much more careful working with that supplier in the future.  They've done us like this before.) 

Sunday was a great day with a walk, home study, church, nap, more home study and then a fantastic St. Pat's dinner of corned beef and cabbage!  It was cooked just perfectly and so yummy.  Only bad thing was the time change and not too great a night's sleep.

Monday - today's list got done!  Morning walk, breakfast, got an appointment for our reverse mortgage counseling, exercise, study and then errands.  Got some paint for the kitchen sink drawers and bark for the flowerbeds (and an amazing white Calla Lily for the front porch - it was an impulse item) and picked up payroll after lunch and also paid some business bills.  Then it was time to wash the windows inside/outside and dust the blinds - finished!!!  So, I got my list done all but going to the play (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) tonight for today's fun thing.  Of course, the Calla Lily was a fun thing too. I had the perfect pot to repot it to and it looks so beautiful and makes me think of my mom and my home in California all those years ago.  (PS - I also got distracted by the google screen pic of Mt. St. Helens and looked up some videos of what there is to do at Mr. St. Helen's NM and decided that would be a great summer trip to take!)

Tuesday - We had a reverse mortgage counseling appointment by phone this morning that I worked hard to get set up since last Friday.  Then I worked in the yard - weeded, raked, put bark down, trimmed the hedge, blew the back patio, side yard, garage and driveway.  Cleaned up too and got all the trash out.  That took me until about 1:00.  After lunch I got cleaned up and went out to do some grocery shopping and my fun thing was to buy a few things for Easter at Seagull Book and a few things - Essie's bday scriptures and a thing for Kaebri's upcoming birthday.  Dinner was planned - Taco Tuesday - we had flautas.  

Wednesday - painted front door (where the new lock made it necessary) and some of the trim around the window next to the door.  Had a nice little visit with Tony and Paul Brooks when they just stopped by.  Worked on Easter stuff, Essie's birthday stuff and Ministering stuff.  Also worked on Reverse Mortgage stuff.  Did some sanding on the kitchen sink drawers and washed rugs.  To finish out the day we went on a date to Mo' Bettah's and then to a really good little movie - Coda - about a hearing girl from a deaf family.  It was funny and sweet.  On our way home we stopped by Dorothy McMullin's and visited with her for quite a while.  (Paul is her minister).  She's in a sad situation with her 90+ year old husband just getting to the point of having to go into a care facility.  So sad.  They are both such great people.  Then we had a wonderful night's sleep!!! The time change has been playing havoc with our sleep since Sunday.  

Thursday - painted inside of front door where the new lock doesn't cover and some of the scraped corner edges.  More work on the Reverse Mortgage and some good scripture study time.  That evening we watched and old Cary Grant/Alfred Hitchcock movie - North By Northwest.  It was really good!

Friday - We went on the Fossil Canyon hike with Ferf, Gaige, Koen and Torin.  It was as amazing as last time and more...we got clear the the ending point we didn't make last time.  We had a couple of sketching places where you had to do some scrambling, but it then we got past them and saw all the parts we didn't see last time.  We took lunches and ate a picnic in a sunny spot.  Afterwards Paul fixed some sprinklers at Ferf's and then we went out for hamburgers and then went mini golfing.  We came back and had fresh baked cookies and milk.  We got some of the overflow company that's down for a special Brooks event - the statue dedication of Juanita Brooks.  Some of Janet and Tony's grandkids - Kriston's kids - Aaron, Kelton and Katy's boyfriend Jacob drove in from Provo/Rexburg and spent the night.  Nice kids.  Very reminiscent of our YSA glory days.

Saturday - We got up and after our walk and showers made a great pancake, bacon and egg breakfast for everyone.  Then we went down for the statue dedication of the Juanita Brooks  that was really nicely done.  She was "an excellent woman" and as they said, her example is still very relevant for today's world.  She was the catalyst to the church to becoming transparent about the Mountain Meadow Massacre incident and bringing both parties involved to the table to talk and heal wounds.  Tony spoke about her being generous and close to the spirit - things people might not have known about her.  Dick Whitehead's talk about her bearing her the trials that came to her because of her work was masterful.  And Dana Moody's was as well.  We spent the rest of the day visiting the kids around the house and just doing around the house stuff.  It was a good end to the Spring Break week.  (We do get Monday off for teacher prep day.)

Sunday - Just a great Sunday.  Got the kids fed and on the road in the morning, great church and then a nap, ministers, personal study throughout the day, a great grilled salmon dinner and I got the Easter decorations up and we watched a Chosen segment that evening.  Very nice, restful and good sabbath.

Monday - took our walk, got yummy French toast from Kneaders for breakfast.  Did house stuff, went ministering and had some good visits and then took the Smith kids miniature golfing and for DQ afterwards.  And we got to talk to Kaebri for just a few minutes when we picked them up!  She looked great!  Fun times with the kids and Bean.  A great finish for the break.  And back to work tomorrow.  This is the time of year that I start being glad that school is winding down. I love my job, mostly, but I'm always glad for the break in the summer!

 

Happy #11 Madi + cherry picking fun with cousins + family dinner fun

We have to catch birthdays with these girls in person when we can.  We were a couple of days early, but it's fun to enjoy it with them here!  It was #11 for Madi this time!  Glad we got to wish her a happy one here this time! We also gave Essie the little bit we didn't send for her bday last month to finish it off!

Christie can always find something fun to do in the area.  We went cherry picking cousin party!  We all had a good time and the cloud cover cooperated by making it a lot cooler than we expected!  Such cute grand kids we have!  

We can also add the fun we had at Family Dinner!  Ferf and Ryan brought their tiny new puppy to be cuddled by everybody!  It was great good and great to be together.  Still feeling so grateful for these good times after the Covid starvation.  And it's always fun when Jay and Brynn and family can be down for one of these occasions.  

More mini-golf fun - Brynnli & Braden, etc.

 

Yea!  Brynnli and Braden finally got some time off from school/work and were not cooped up from Covid, so we got to spend a little fun time with them and Ferf and some of the kids.  Afterwards we enjoyed pizza, salad and brownies together!  

Hello 2021 - Park time with family!

 In response to Covid-19 safety guidelines we spent a fun...albeit very cool...few hours together with family.  We missed Derek, Lance and Supe, Beacher and Jem.  All the other in town, Enoch, Cedar and Lehi family members were there.  We visited and ate picnic lunches.  The kids played soccer, rode scooters, played on the toys, hiked, hung out.  The adults did take just a short walk to the river - Brynn is still recovering from foot surgery, so there couldn't be too much physical activity and include her at the moment.  It was fun. We did freeze a bit after the wind started up.  (We were at a park - Grandpa's Pond - in Hurricane, so the wind was probably a given.)  But we still enjoyed our time together! Jay and Brynn came down for their after Christmas visit feeling very careful about Covid because after Brynn's family's Christmas party that one person came to feeling just a little bit of a sinus headache, many of their family has now come down with Covid to one degree or another (that person found out they had it after the party).  Jay, Brynn and family are the only ones who wore masks and didn't get it.  They didn't eat at the party either because they didn't want to take off their masks - the others did.  So, while they were down they wanted to be outside or inside (very little) with masks and mostly eat outside too.  They had tested negative before they came down. It's crazy to see the extent of how this disease has altered our lives in everyday ways.  I didn't take many pics, but here's what there are.  I'll be glad when this disease is over and gone!!!  Happy 2021!