The first Camp Out of 2019 - Pine Park!!!

And this was also our first camp out using a camp trailer.  Juge and Lance have let us park their smaller camp trailer at our house and have let us use it as we please.  It was fun to try it out and see what a little step up from a tent is like.  We took Bean along and had a great time even though we got a late start and were a bit rushed.  The weather was perfect, there was a full moon.  It was cool at night and warm in the day.  We did have to share the site with a few other people, but we were off a bit from them and had our privacy and tried to give them theirs.  We ate, slept, hiked and saw beautiful scenery.  We stopped by Enterprise reservoir and got shakes at Milt's in Enterprise.  And we loved seeing all of the green and water that this Winter's extra rain and snow have brought! 

We also stopped in briefly at the Art Festival and had a nice little visit with Tara and Bryan and their youngest son, Talon.  

A very special Easter

This year's Easter was a bit more special because our sweet bishop's wife gave us an Easter Nativity to add to it.  The person who came up with the idea says they think Easter should be as special as Christmas and wrote a book, A Christ Centered Easter, and created the Easter Nativity and outlined some things to do to bring more of Christ into you Easter celebration.  This year they produced a video program for each day to go along with it and as we participated it made did make it a more Christ-centered holiday for us.  The new Come Follow Me lesson went right along with it too.  Of course Easter always makes me think of Weed and Bean and how blessed we are to have the hope of seeing sweet Weed again and knowing all will be well with Bean. (We already feel so blessed with how much better Bean is of course.)  So Easter brings us peace and hope and knowledge of the love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  Happy Easter!!!  Hosanna!!!

"And then, just like that, it was Spring...and that thing you've been waiting for?  Braving the storm for? Clinging onto hope for? I thik it might be right around the corner...Hope on, dear friend.  What He has in mind for you is far better than you know!"

"It is Easter, and those words still ring with hope today.  Come and see, and then go quickly and tell about Him who heals hearts and elevates sould and brings strength and power and peace.  He is the grace gifter.  He goeth before you.  On this day, my hear rejoices in Him."

The Son of Man hath descended below them all..Therefore, hold on thy way..Thy days are known..for God shall be with you forever and ever.  D and C 122:8-9

These activities were done at our YSA FHE get ready for Easter activity and also go along with the Easter activities in the Christ-Centered Easter book.  Our bishop's wife put the activity together and it was also a part of making our Easter just a little more meaningful this year.  

One thing I like to do that I probably should stop doing to save time and money is giving the family Easter treats.  It's not anything big and maybe they just think it's silly.  We used to have family egg hunts, but everyone got so busy with all of their city and other hunts it just seemed like too much candy and too hard to get together.  So I just get my little See's chick inside the egg and funny whack-a-pack balloons and something for the parents and maybe something else to going along about the real meaning of Easter.  I should stop.  But every year Jay and Brynn send a cute picture and a thank you and I think, "Well, at least someone likes it!"  And I keep doing it. 

A nice evening for Bean and me

Paul went up north to pick up rock and to help Jim install Kay's gravestone, so Bean and I were on our own this evening.  I was feeling a little yucky with some vertigo, so Bean went and got us a giant Chicago stuffed pizza and root beer for dinner.  I made coleslaw and we had a good meal.  (Maybe not too healthy, but very tasty.)  Afterwards we took a drive and checked out Ivin's resevoir/park to see how the remodeling is coming along - very well.  Then we went out to see how Gunlock reservoir's overflow is holding up.  It has slowed down, but it's still very beautiful and flowing over.  It is so amazing to see snow still on the south side of Pine Valley Mountain, green stuff growing everywhere and the reservoirs all full to the very top.  How wonderful all of this rainy, snowy winter has been for this area.  We saw people camping out and are getting the camping bug ourselves!  What a wonderful blessing it is to be able to spend good times with Bean.  For a while I thought the day would never come again in this life.  I am so grateful that is not the case.  It is so wonderful to have him back among us as himself.  

Family Dinner at the Smiths

Derek and kids hosted the family hot dog BBQ dinner last Sunday.  It was perfect eat outside BBQ weather and it was a fun evening with lots of good food.  Sorry to say that the marriage did not work out after all and Derek and kids are on their own once more.  We had so hoped it would be a good and lasting thing for all, but it was not to be.  We had a good turn out just missing Supe and Beacher and Jay and Brynn.  These are good times to check in with each other and the cousins love spending time together.  We did some talking about how to make Family Camp scheduling a little less of a chore after our reports time and hopefully came up with a better plan for that.  Oh and BIG NEWS of the evening - Brynnli is unofficially engaged!  Looking at a Fall wedding.  We need more time to spend with the prospective groom we all decided!  Many thanks to Derek and family for hosting!

We ate inside, outside, all around!  

Weaver sleepers

Last Friday the Weaver grands slept over while their folks went to a concert.  Juge brought us yummy taquitos for dinner!  Afterwards we made a trip down to the Town Square to do some posing with the newest statues.  It was sprinkly, but very nice.  Then we came back and had dessert, watched a movie and and hit the sack.  Had a fun time in the morning eating pancakes, eggs, bacon and strawberries!  Like our kids, our grand kids have learned to enjoy our taste for art.  Grandpa actually gave them a short art lesson while dinner was getting ready. 

Trying a garden - one more time!

We decided to try to have a garden - one more time.  This is a keyhole style with soil not of our own ground.  We hope having it partially shaded under the Mulberry tree will help it survive the heat and we also hope the soil that we created to fill it will also help since our soil here is not really great.  So far so good...we will have to get an awful lot of produce to anywhere begin to recoup the costs! At the moment it is doing very well; we have picked lettuce leaves twice, the plants are growing well and the seeds have sprouted.

Happy April Fool's Day - Kindergarten style

A little girl brought me some April Fool's Day brownies.  She was so excited to tell me.  I had her take them into class since I couldn't really open them out at recess when she arrived.  And then when I opened them it was so funny!  And I was so glad they were only brown E's instead of brownies since I'm trying to diet right now!  She was so please with her trickiness!  

A few years ago while waiting in some office I saw pictures of an amazing waterfall - Grand Falls aka Chocolate Falls.  It's over by Flagstaff.  It only runs when there's sufficient run off during the Spring or after the Monsoons, so catching it is not always easy.  We needed to go and get some rock over that way and since this year has been so wet the falls are going great.  We checked it out and it really is as amazing as the pictures made it out to be!  Fun trip - business and pleasure. 

Joel #5 and Sarai #8

The March kids got celebrated!  We went up for Joel's #5 celebration.  He never seems bothered that we do it 3 months late!  He had one of the famous Randall cakes that was amazing and tasty too. Sarai's main present came to her via USP, but we dropped by after Joel's celebration to give her a little additional plunder!  Happy birthday to both of these cuties.  Love them both to pieces!  

'Cobra Head' waterfall hunt with Supe, Beacher and Auri

Supe and Beacher went out hiking by Cave Valley yesterday and from up on top of the dome they 

climbed they spotted a beautiful waterfall.  Supe hunted it up on Google maps and found where he thought it would be and a possible route to get there.  Today they asked us to join them in trying to get there.  The route ended up being good and we followed this road and that, the elk trail and the stream until we found it.  All in all a little over 4 miles there and back and not too bad at all since the sand was still wet from the rain and snow.  The waterfall was really magnificent and the rest of the scenery was awesome too!  Fun times.  Probably not what I'm going to want to do with my Sunday afternoons very often, but we came back and pooled our Chicken Alfredo and Pizza and other sides and had a nice visit with them and Grandma Kurtz for dinner.  Auri slept through most of that since she was all tired out from running circles around us and chasing birds and a jackrabbit and exploring everything all the way there and back!  Oh, we saw a herd of elk a couple of times and lots of sign of them. We saw what looked like some kind of cat tracks too.  This is officially our first hike this Spring.  

We decided to give this waterfall our own name - Cobra Head Waterfall - after a nearby rock formation that looked like the cobra head topper of the staff in the movie The Ten Commandments.  It's in two of these pics, but a little hard to see in the one behind me.