Zade High School Graduation - Desert Hills High School 2025-26

Sunday night, after Gaige's mission  homecoming, Zade graduated from seminary!  Lots of big endings going on  for him right now.  Getting ready to enter the world after high school!  Big happenings!  Proud of you Zade.  You're on a good path forward!  

May 20th - we got a great seat in the bleachers without the sun in our eyes for Zade's graduation!  Grandpa Smith and Kelly got there early and saved a row.  Derek, Tasia, Kaebri and Trigg were also in Zade's cheering section!  We've had a recent cool snap, so at 8 am it was still really nice weather for the event.  Zade got to play in the Jazz Band number at the graduation.  One final gig with his friends.  He was pretty glad that got to happen!  They did a great job!  I didn't really take any pics because it was too far away to get a good one with my phone, but I'm hoping to get some great ones from Derek.  The only thing that could have made it better would be to have Weed and Grandma Smith (Marie) there to cheer him on.  Is that a thing they get to do from heaven?  I  hope so!  

The day after his graduation we took Zade out for a celebration dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse.  You could also say it was a celebration for my retirement dinner too.  We had a fun evening visiting with him and then with the Tasia and Trigg at the house when we took  him home.  We met their new bearded lizard, Lady, then too.  She's quite the pet!  Tasia is home from BYU for the summer.  She's making good progress on her degree up there, but is happy to spend some time at home for a while.  

Clara bear is an expert tumbler!!!

Jay and Brynn came down for Gaige's missionary homecoming early Sunday morning.  They had a special even of their own on Saturday night - Clara's tumbling recital. I'm not sure that's what they call it, but it was her end of the year big event.  It would have been fun to attend, but could not do it right now with Paul's foot still literally up in the air.  We got to watch a video of the performance and it was really awesome.  Clara did GREAT!  Way to go Clara!!! So proud of you.  

Eliza and Trigg - Choir and Karate!

Thursday night we got to attend Eliza's final Advanced Choir concert.  I'm not sure she was thrilled to have us there, but her folks were out of town for the state soccer championships, so we were her fans for the concert.  They sang a varied array of songs and did a great job.  There were many more girls in the choir than boys.  Eliza sang a solo that she did a good job of, but the acoustics in the gym made it very difficult to hear any of the soloists very well unfortunately.  She wouldn't let us take her out for any treats so it was a short but sweet evening.  Great job Eliza!  (She's the one on middle far left.)

Saturday afternoon I got to attend Trigg's Black Belt Level 1 presentation!  He has worked hard for several years to get here.  Now with so many other things, including football, competing for time and money, he's leaving Karate behind.  It was a great learning experience for him with great teachers teaching great values along with the physical side of it.  We are proud of Trigg for working hard for this!  Congratulations Trigg!

Eden gets back to the USA!

 We are so happy that Eden has now arrived back to the USA after her semester in Mexico teaching elementary students English.  It looks like she had a grand time there.  Juge says she was happy to see her at the airport and ecstatic to see her car!  It ended up being a long flight because of some delays, but they made it  home and into beds Sunday morning at 4 am it sounds like.  Eden posted that she is delighted to be back!  Here are some pics Juge posted. Hopefully we will get to visit with her soon!  Great job Eden! What an adventure for you to remember and learn from!  

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!  

Fun with grand kids!

 Paul did some work for a historical group and they invited us to a sneak preview showing a film they collaborated on with Angel Studios - Young Washington.  He could bring some guests, so we invited Zade and Trigg.  It was a really great movie/treats and we enjoyed spending time with them.  

Madi called about a month ago to invited us to her Suzuki Violin Graduation concert.  It turned out that Paul had his one-year knee replacement check up the day before in Park City, so it would be a great time to get to both of those things.  It also worked out that we could attend Annie, a community theater play that Essie was in and even bring her an early birthday present too!  We didn't have time to stay to see Tahlia's play unfortunately.  We did have time after Paul's appointment to visit with Jim and take him to lunch.  On the way home we stopped and took Bean to dinner in Cedar!  It was a great trip for so many reasons!  

Yankee Meadows, Haka dancing, Easter picnic, Easter!

We went up to see Bean and after a great lunch in Parowan we drove up to check out a picnic spot in Yankee Meadows.  It looked really nice.  We may reserve it for our Memorial Day picnic.  It was a beautiful spring day and fun to see how they had restored this little picnic area after flooding had wiped it out a few years ago.  

  Another fun thing happening this week was Supe joining Haka dancers at the Siva Pacifica 20 Year Anniversary program at Tuacahn.  It was a great program.  We didn't really get a close look at him, but Beacher provided a great picture of the whole family.  She and the kids danced at a preshow earlier.  Jem is very into his Hawaiin dance class!  It's nice they can join in celebration of Beacher's Polynesian heritage.   

New guidelines for the no meetings on Saturday evening of General Conference made it available for a little family Easter picnic!  The weather was great for an outdoor gathering in the yard.  We had a fun time visiting with some from every family except Jay and Brynn.  It was so nice to spend time with people even though I was getting a cold.  

I don't know if it's good to lump Easter into all of these other  happenings, but they all kind of ran together.  It started with me being asked to speak with the other wives in the bishopric for the week before Easter sacrament meeting.  I was not excited.  After I quit hating that I had to and started preparing I felt like prayers, mine and Paul's, were answered and I found things to share that were meaningful to me.  I was rewriting till the morning of, but finally felt satisfied.  I didn't feel that great about it afterwards because there was a lot of emotion involved, but after the fact I finally felt good about what I shared.  Poor bishop's wife couldn't find her notes and spoke off the cuff after me.  She did a great job though!  Later she found her notes in her scriptures where she had  put them.  Must have been for a reason.  I have heard many Easter talks now from conference and from reading and studying for the talk and just to get ready for Easter, and I feel like what I shared was from the heart and my testimony of the joy of Easter, particularly the resurrection with regard to Weed and Bean.   I actually feel grateful now that having to speak put me in more of the Easter celebratory mode that I would have been in.   Thank you...after the fact, for having to speak.  I'll try to remember that next time I'm asked to speak! 

March Birthdays - Ferf #48, Sarai #15 and Joel #12 celebrated late, plus Zade!

 

Ferf starts of the March birthdays with a number 48 this year.  We took her and Torin out for  her birthday dinner to the Outback!  We had yummy food and a good time visiting.  She's working hard on her nurse practioner degree as well as working and taking care of her family.  She's amazing, and just a wonderful daughter!  We love you Ferf!  Happy #48!  

Sweet Sarai celebrated #15 this year.  We got to stop by and see her open her presents.  We actually got some of her presents while we were on our cruise in Hawaii.  We got her a yellow T-shirt and yellow socks plus a little cash!  She's growing tall and beautiful and we love her!  Happy Birthday sweet Sarai!  

Another thing to be celebrated is Zade being recognized for his Sterling Scholar Award for computer technology!  Unfortunately the Ferf's birthday and that recognition evening were the same night.  So proud of you for your hard work Zade!  Congratulations!  

And more congratulations for Zade!  He and his Quiz Bowl SkillUSA team went up north for a competition and came home with GOLD again this year!  This means they will travel to Atlanta in June for the national competition!  Go Zade!  I don't know how he remembers all of that stuff!  

And last but not least we celebrated Joel's (his late celebration) #12!  He got a lot of fun stuff including a band saw and some knife making materials for his hobbies.  Cousin Zion and a neighbor friend joined the fun too!  Happy #12 Joel!  We love you!

Essie and Tahlia rocking it!

Thanks to Brynn for trying to keep us a little bit in the loop!  She sent a video of Essie at a recital where she sang and played the piano.  She did a wonderful job of both things!  Wish they were closer so we could attend more of these things.  She sent a great pic of Tahlia when her school took Silver at state for a government thing called "WE THE PEOPLE"! Congrats to both of you for doing a great job of your things!  

 

President's Day Weekend

 Our usual President's Day week end was changed this year.  It's probably the beginning of it being changed forever.  Jay and Brynn usually come down and we do lots of fun family things with everyone.  This year Madi got invited to a Valentine's Day dance at school.  She's just about to turn 16 and things like this are now going to change Jay and Brynn's freedom to go.  It's ok.  Kids grow up and get busy, busy and families adjust.  Also on this week end Moss and Christie had to go out of town for his work.  While they were gone Brenden and Eliza had soccer tournaments and they asked us to go  and watch if we could. We did and spent a long, exciting day of watching soccer games in what turned into some pretty cold, windy, rainy weather by the end of it. They both got wins and medals and it was fun!  I messed up and didn't get pics of Brenden unfortunately.  Kai had a little tournament too.  We watched one of his games after Moss and Christie got home. Unfortunately they lost all of their games and didn't get medals. Didn't get pics there either sadly.  Sometimes you just get so involved in the game that you forget the pics.  

Rodeo, Mini Golf and Fall!

 The morning started with the rodeo parade.  We got to see lots of fun things and also Zade and Trigg marching with their school band!  We had fun watching it with Beacher and the kids and her mom and brother.  Pretty fun!  The kids gathered up LOTS of candy!

Next we went mini golfing with Bean at Fiesta Fun.  It was lots of fun...and amazingly I won and even got one hole in one! After that we went to see new stores at a new shopping mall and ended up trying J. Dawg's for lunch and Duck Donuts for dessert.  Both really tasty.  Then we headed home for a nap and then I took Bean home to Cedar.  We went via some leaf looking up on Cedar Mountain!  It was so beautiful up there!  It turned out to be a really nice day.