Paul's foot surgery - getting out!

 Monday Paul had foot surgery for some toe problems.  He's supposed the spend the next two weeks with the foot elevated...and boy, is that boring him to death!  I took him for a little break Friday morning.  We went up and walked (he scootered) around the Desert Garden.  It is pretty level and paved so he could maneuver his borrowed scooter there.  While there we got to see the death bloom of a century plant.  "Most agaves are monocarpic, spending anywhere from 10 to 30 years---hoarding energy for a single reproductive event.  Once it blooms, the mother plant dies."  We also could see where some great horned owls have nested in a cliff and are raising 3 owlets.  The rest of the desert garden is always great as well.  Some of the desert plants are blooming right now.  It was a good get out for him and me!  So glad that Sister Brady lent  him her scooter.  It makes getting around so much more comfortable than using crutches.  

Just to make things more interesting this week, our refrigerator died on Thursday.  It made noise all day long until we figured out it wasn't even keeping things cold.  I went to get some popsicles for Jem and Kaia and found them all melted!  Friday morning I went out getting quotes for a new one since fixing the old one would cost almost as much as a new one.  I went 3 places and ended up deciding on one from Lowe's because we do get a pro-builder 5% discount there and that made the one there the best buy of all the ones I got quotes on.  I don't think it's quite as nice as the one we had, but it's the price we can afford and the size that will fit our space.  Thankfully we  have grandma's old fridge in the garage and it is doing a good job for us until we get the new one.  It's just a little inconvenient getting everything from downstairs and taking it back when you need to eat.  Whine, whine!  I'm just so glad we have that fridge and freezer to keep stuff cold for now.  

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! 

Lots of wonderful weekend fun!

On Thursday afternoon Brynn posted about Tahlia's school play that was happening.  Last minute like we decided to drive up and see the Friday night show!  She did a wonderful job in The Little Mermaid Jr.  She was in the water dancers/chorus.  They had beautiful costumes and she was fabulous!  I was so glad we could make it and also get to see the rest of the family in the process too!  We went out to Leatherby's Family Creamery afterwards to celebrate Tahlia's great job (she went hot tubbing with friends) and ate way too must wonderful ice cream! We got to see Madi with her short hair a little between her activities. She got 12 inches cut off recently donating it to make wigs for people. She looks as cute as ever. The girls are growing up and getting busy with activities and friends.   We got to visit a little more in the morning before we had to take off. 

Madi's before and after hair.  

Below is Madi playing first chair for her most recent concert.  Way to go!!!

It had to be a quick trip because we had a wedding reception to go to for the Akita's son on Saturday afternoon.  I wasn't quite sure why they invited us.  We don't know them well, but they lived in Weed's neighborhood when she passed away and were so wonderful to the whole family in their time of need.  For several summers after they moved to Hawaii, Trigg went over to spend time with them and their son who was a childhood friend of his.  I think Becky was like a mother figure to him when he really needed it.  It turned out to be such a fun reception.  The Akita's are Hawaiian and the bride's family had Tongan and Samoan roots.  After the yummy Polynesian dinner there was lots of hula type dancing by different family members to honor the bride and groom.  As they were dancing, people started coming up and throwing dollar bills around the dancers and even putting it in their clothes!  We found out that instead of giving gifts, this is a way to give to the bride and groom as they start their lives together.  They actually had to sweep up piles of bills after each dance.  It was fun! I had already given them a gift via Amazon.  Becky came over to our table and shared some of the money she was going to throw so we could have a chance to participate in that fun little tradition.  There were lots of really nice people!  The little girl in the picture with Kaebri has Lenae's name as her middle name.  So sweet.  Becky wanted us to meet her for sure.  Lenae has other namesakes as well.  Lenae Fawson, in our homeward is named after her too.  She is the sweetest, kindest and prettiest little girl and smart to boot.  Love seeing these namesakes!  

This morning before church, Paul and I took our walk on the Red Hill to see if there were wild flowers since we had a little rain the other day.  There weren't tons, but there were some and it was so nice to see them.  

We have had wonderful week with daily Easter Readings.  We had lovely church today.  Happy Easter!  I am so grateful for the gift of Easter that makes all my fondest dreams possible.  Thanks be to Heavenly Father and Jesus for this infinite gift of love.

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!  

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!

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.  

Spring Break - 2023 - Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains, White Sands & The Nautilus/Toadstools

We packed a lot of beautiful places into a Monday-Saturday Spring Break vacation!  We visited 4 National Parks and some other cool stuff!  We took off on Monday morning and our first stop was at Jacob Lake for a pit stop and cookies.  There was snow there.  It was beautiful and the cookies were delicious as usual.  We kept going and got to Cameron AZ about lunch time.  We found a great picnic spot and pulled out our lunch gear and ate overlooking the Little Colorado River (which had water in it because it has been such a rainy year so far).  Then we headed on and made it to the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest Visitor's Center near Holbrook, AZ.  We had time to drive around and make some stops at some overlooks of the Painted Desert, the Painted Desert Inn, the old section of Route 66 that once cut through the park, some Native American ruins and Petroglyphs at Puerco Pueblo and then we drove the Blue Mesa Loop/hiked the trail down to see amazing badlands and petrified wood.  We also stopped at the Agate Bridge.  Then it was time to get some dinner (Arby's in Show Low) and then head to our motel (Green Tree Inn & Suites) at Pine Top AZ.  It was a long and wonderful first day.  The weather at the parks was cool/windy and Pine Top had snow on the ground.  It was a very nice motel in a beautiful forest town.  In the morning they provided a great breakfast.  Paul and I took a walk beforehand in the forest neighborhood behind the motel.  

Tuesday - a long day!  We drove the long/scenic route through beautiful mountains to get to Carlsbad NM on this day.  We stopped for a very interesting lunch at Silver City, NM.  We located a park with a working bathroom finally and ended up sharing the park picnic area with several idle older people who seemed to have little to do other than smoke and drink.  Marijuana fumes were in the air.  It was an interesting experience.  One man may have been homeless and probably was mentally ill.  I wished I could have given him a sandwich, but wasn't sure how it would be received and didn't.  He was pretty busy smoking and just hanging out.  Silver City was kind of a run down mining town it seemed like; at least the part we saw was. We drove on through the southern part of New Mexico and stopped at Artesia for a wonderful dinner at McAllister's.  We took a wrong turn there and had to do some backtracking, but finally made it to our destination at Carlsbad, NM where we stayed at the La Quinta Motel (which was very nice and also had great breakfasts - even  green chili chicken soup one morning).  We stayed here for two nights.  

Wednesday morning we got on our way to Carlsbad Caverns which was very close by.  It was crowded (it was Texas's Spring Break too from what we heard), but the weather was great. I was a little miffed at first because after going through the on-line reservation hassle I again had to wait in line to finalize our cave reservation and get our tickets.  It seemed like a redundant waste of time to me.  Another thing that bugged me was that Paul and I paid for headsets to use to learn about the 50 or so marked stops along the self guided cave trail...and by the #2 stop it only played in German and neither of us could get it to work.  $10 wasted.  I was not in a very good mood then either.  (And I was still smarting that they have so few reservations available for the only Ranger led cave tour and we missed getting that with all of the confusion about whether we would even be able to go on vacation because of all of the problems with having Anna Lou taken care of while we were going to be gone.) But once we got going in the cave,  it took me in with it's gigantic awesomeness!  I have never been in such a huge cave!  And the further in we went the better it got.  And when I could finally get the flash turned off on my phone camera, I could take pictures of how awesome it was!  We went into the Natural Entrance Route which descends about 750 feet down and follows the traditional explorer's route. It is steep and narrow and about1.25 miles. Then we continued on and did the Big Room Route which is another 1.25 miles.  We took our time and enjoyed it immensely and because they limit how many can come it, it didn't seem overcrowded.  It was SPECTACULAR AND SO BIGGGG!  When we came out we had hoped to watch the park film, but that didn't work out.  But, we did get lucky and find a great picnic spot right by our parking spot and had a beautiful view of our next destination in Texas...Guadalupe Mountains NP!  On our way out of the Carlsbad we saw some mountain sheep along the road.  They looked browner and smaller than the ones we see at Zion.  They were Barbary big horn sheep.  We have desert big horn  sheep at Zion. 

After lunch we headed for Guadalupe Mountains National Park just over the border in TX.  It wasn't very far.  It was so crowded we could not park at the Visitor's Center, but did get lucky enough to find an empty parking space elsewhere.  There are many hikes in this park.  We chose the one called the Devil's Hall.  It was about 4 miles and much of it was in a boulder/rock strewn wash.  It's limestone.  We loved seeing the plants here that are just a bit different from at home.  I love the distinctive bark of the alligator juniper trees.  There were some huge trees that looked so much like our manzanita bushes.  They are called Texas Madrone.  The hike was beautiful even though rocky.  And then you get to the end and it is amazing!  It's like a huge gray limestone staircase that leads up to a hall of stone!  It is very steep and slick and I just couldn't make myself go up it.  I had been slipping on the slick limestone in the canyon on the way there already.  But thank goodness Paul is not so faint of heart.  I stayed back and talked with another lady who just didn't feel safe going either.  Her husband and Paul went up and brought pictures back for us.  Maybe, if it hadn't been so crowded...no one else but us there...I would have slowly tried it, but it didn't happen.  I'm still glad I got to see it from the bottom and just enjoy Paul's report and pictures of the rest.  After we got down, we did get to go to the Visitor's Center and it was really a nice little place and very informative.   Then it was time to head back to Carlsbad for the evening.  We were pretty hungry by the time we got back and found a Chili's and had great food there and then headed for our motel.  

Thursday, after another great breakfast, we headed back to Pine Top and the Green Tree Inn for another night. Along the way we backtracked just a little bit and stopped in to see White Sands NP! (It only became a NP in 2019.  The sign on the road still calls it a national monument!)  It was so beautiful and so strange to see something that looked so much like snow, but wasn't!  I did make a sand angel.  We watched a very informative park film (glad we did) first.  We took a boardwalk trail out to an overlook and then took a little hike as well.  This sand is made from gypsum and is so much easier to walk in than our red sand.  It packs and was much firmer.  This is a very unique place with very few other gypsum dunes in the world. We could have gotten a little saucer and slid down the dunes, but didn't take time for that. You could see how the plants and animals have to adapt to live here.  This was the perfect time to be here before it becomes a blistering hot place later in the year.  After that we took a different route which was shorter and lower to get back to Pine Top.   It was a good thing, because we still got a little bit of a snowstorm before we got back.  We got very lucky and found a picnic table behind a city building in the little town of Carrizozo, NM for lunch.  And we just went inside and used their bathroom too.  It worked out great!  We got back just at dinner time and ate at Panda Express and headed to our motel for the night.

Friday morning Paul and I took a really wet but beautiful walk behind the motel again.  This time we found a little hiking trail off into the forest and enjoyed seeing a beautiful stream and some really crazy little things that we don't really know what are...maybe a mushroom or wasp egg sack?  We got a little muddy and soggy, but it was great!  Had another great breakfast and then got on the road.  Again, we made a little backtrack and saw more of the Petrified Forest where we took a hike among the giant logs and then watched the park film.  It's a pretty cool park if you take the time to see the many different parts of it and the Painted Desert.  After that it was time to head for home.  We took the same route that we came in on from here on.  We made our lunch stop at the Cameron Trading Post where we enjoyed Navajo Tacos!  They were very tasty as usual. We took a pit and scenery stop at Rainbow Bridge and saw the CO River and Condors flying while we stretched out legs. We listened to some great books during the drive there and back.  It was a GREAT TRIP!  Bean was such a big help being another driver.  (I never drove.)  Thank goodness that these places of amazing natural beauty are being preserved for us all to see and enjoy!!!  We have now been to 30 National Parks.  Paul has been to one other one, the Great Sand Dunes in CO.  We thought about going to Big Bend in Texas on this trip, but it just didn't work out with the time we had and the money we wanted to spend.  Maybe another time?  

Friday night we were still pretty full from our Navajo Tacos, so it was a cold cereal at home dinner and a great night's sleep back in our own beds!  Saturday morning we decided to add one more exploration as our Spring Break Finale.  I heard about this cool rock formation near Kanab - The Nautilus.  It's a couple of hour's drive, but we wanted to do it and the weather was cooperating perfectly.  We drove there via Zion NP (as beautiful as ever) and then followed a bloggers directions to the short hike up a sandy wash to find the formation.  We got a little sidetracked along the way taking little side hikes to see lots of amazing rock formations.  We found some sand pipes like we have only seen at Kodachrome Basin SP before.  The geology of this area is spectacular.  And the sand was packed because of the recent rains, so it was great hiking instead of slogging through dry sand.  We found the Nautilus and it was awesome - like a giant seashell carved in stone that you can walk through. Then we decided to keep on going and kept on going until we found an "ending" spot that we could be satisfied with.  It was a huge dryfall with a gigantic stone ledge.  It would be an amazing thing to see with water coming over it, but probably not a good place to be in that kind of a storm at all!  We found more sand pipes along the way too. We hiked back and ate lunch at the Whitehouse Campground nearby where the Dive of the Buckskin hike comes out. It's a great little campground that would be fun to camp at sometime.   Since it was a long drive to get here we decided to revisit the Toadstools that are nearby after lunch to get our drives worth.  I love the Toadstools and was glad to have a chance to see them again. Then it was time to head back and call it a day and a Spring Break well spent.  We stopped for dinner at Wendy's in Kanab and then made our way back home.  Happy Spring Break 2023!!!

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!