Browse-Sequoia Campout + Cedar Mountain

 At last, we went on the first campout of the year!  We tried a few times earlier, but windy conditions put the kibosh on it every time.  So we were so happy when we drove up to the Lone Sequoia campsite and found it empty...just waiting for us!  Lynne gave me a new tent at the end of school, so we tried it out!  And Paul made such good DO food for us.  We had wonderful beef stew and biscuits and little apple pies for dinner and then biscuits and gravy and mandarin oranges for breakfast.  Came home full and fatter.  It was perfect weather, few bugs and almost no other people seen.  We slept in a little even.  And then we decided in the morning, spur of the moment, to pick up some lunch food in Cedar and then go driving around in new places looking for possible family camp spots.  It was so beautiful and green with aspens just leafing out and dandelions every where!  We pretty much made a day of it and had such a beautiful, relaxing time!  

Memorial Day Fun!

 After the fun of Derek and Kelli's wedding, we had the Memorial Day weekend to enjoy together!  We reserved a  group site at Pine Valley on Monday and spent the day up there in the beautiful forest and cooler weather.  We all brought our own picnic lunch and something to share.  It was so much fun and so relaxing!  We had Sunday dinner at Moss and Christie's the day before.  It was good to spend time with the fam!  And we celebrated Madi's June 1st birthday a little early!  

Derek marries Kelli Elizabeth Savage!!!

 On Saturday, May 29th, 2022, Derek and Kelli Elizabeth Savage were married in Cedar City, Utah!  We hope this is the beginning of a long and loving life for them and for their kids.  Kelli's kids do not live with her at this point.  She has a daughter on a mission and 3 sons.  I think the youngest is 17 and lives with his dad.  We have enjoyed getting to know Kelli.  She's very good to Derek's kids and I hope that will be a blessing to all of them.  It's a big step to take and they took their time.  I hope it is a wonderful thing for everyone!  We are excited to welcome her into the family!  She has come to some family parties and it has been fun to have her there!  (Kaebri and Kelli's daughter were "there" in cardboard cutout style!  They sent them dresses to match the bride's maids so they could match!)

Kennis does herself proud!!!

 Kennis works so hard, as well as being really smart.  She enrolled in an accelerated learning program a few years ago and it made it so she was taking college classes concurrently during high school.  And it made it so she actually graduated with her Associates degree from Dixie State University before she graduated from Pine View High School.  So now she has a 2 year-degree already behind her.  That's pretty amazing.  She was taking some of the same classes her mom is taking to get into the nursing program.  And they both got A's!  She decided she did not want to walk for the Associates degree, but she did for the High School graduation.  She can be proud of her hard work and great success!  We certainly are proud of her and hope she will be able to use this head start to a good advantage.  Way to go Kennis!!!

Another year of Kindergarten is over (2021-2022)

I think I can say that this was the best year ever!  Most of our class were kids whose parents had requested that they be in this class and 6 were kids that were the last ones of families that we had most of their siblings in our class too.  Most of them came from very supportive families and that made our work so much easier.  They were the top of the top academically and just such nice kids too.  It was a great year!  And a much needed break year after a very hard class last year. I really needed a break  because I was doing chemo during this year too.  This year was also a great one because we changed to all-day kindergarten!!!  It made such a difference in learning, stress levels, and good times with everyone.  

 

 

Some of their writing was so funny.  This is actually great writing for a kindergartner too!  

A little bit of April birthday and a lot of Baptism! Essie! Christie & Noah too!

 We just took Essie's birthday present up to give her when we went up to go to her baptism on Saturday, May 7, 2022.  It was such a fun thing to go and be part of this wonderful day with her and for me, it was the first time seeing their brand new house!  So exciting!  Essie's a sweetie and we are so happy to see her take this step toward her heavenly home.   It was also great for me to see the beautiful fireplace that Paul and Bean build in this new house!  It was just a great time all the way around!  

Earlier in April, Christie celebrated #34 and then Noah had put his birthday off to celebrate in April too.  #13 actually took place last year, but he wanted to wait for a special present to be available before he actually celebrated.  We celebrated Noah's at a family dinner.  

May Birthdays!

 Unfortunately I don't have a birthday picture of Kaebri.  She is the first of the May Smith birthdays, but this one was taken pretty close to her birthday!  Sounded like she had a happy #20 in the mission field.

 

 

Next came Trigg (10) and Zade (14).  Trigg is way into yo-yo's right now, so Derek pointed me to the perfect one for him.  And Zade was needing a next book in a series - another good tip from Derek.  These are awesome kids and they seem to be doing well after having been through some tough times.  Love them all lots.  

First hike in a long time!

 Paul and I took a really nice hike yesterday up the Browse road.  It was the perfect weather - not too hot and mountain breezes keeping us cool on the sunny day.  We ended up doing about 6 miles.  We went up a new section of trail that has never been accessible before - The Wet Sandy trail.  We just hiked up it for about 20 minutes after lunch.  We had heard there was a big boulder down in the road from the forest service, but never did find it.  Maybe they had already taken care of it.  But we had such a nice out in the forest with no one else day.  The streams were cold and we soaked our feet in one and sat by one to eat our lunch.  We found some new good camp spots too.  We were pretty tired by the end, but it was good to get out!  There were so many pretty flowers along the way!

We came across this sign in what had looked like a good camping spot along the Wet Sandy Trail.  Guess not!  We skedaddled out of there!

Grand 'Edventure' dates - Trigg, Eliza and Torin

We had fun singing in the car, eating ice cream and then going to Snow Canyon State Park to participate in the Scorpion Hunt activity.  We had a great ranger that shared info with us and led us on the hunt for scorpions out in the sand dunes.  It didn't start until 8:30 and we didn't go out hunting until it was full dark and we could spot them with black lights.  Eliza was pretty scared about it at first, but by the end all 3 of the kids were having a good time.  The ranger also took time to point out and tell some about of the constellations which Trigg really enjoyed as well.  It was good to spend some time with these three.  

Good byes are hard

 We had one on April 19th when Derek's mom, Marie Smith, passed away in the night and Kevin found her gone in the morning.  She had slept in another room because she had a bad cough and didn't want to keep him awake.  What a sad thing for him to find her gone.  Of course we know she is not gone forever, but just gone from him and all the rest of us until that time when reunions happen in the future.  She didn't want a funeral as usual.  They just had a viewing and then a graveside for family and close friends.  Kevin gave a sweet talk there and they had a white dove ceremony which was really beautiful. We joined them in a very nice lunch at the church afterwards also.  I'm so sorry for Derek to have lost yet another important family member; Lenae, his brother Trevor and now his mom.  She was such a sweet lady and so good to the grand kids.  They are going to feel a huge void yet again.  We are all going to miss her every ready hugs and smile.  

I have to say here too that another passing touched my heart recently.  I sat by a lady at one chemo session that had been down a long hard road with pancreatic cancer.  I found out in our conversation that she had been a building inspector that Paul had worked with.  She had lost her husband quite early and became an inspector to support herself and her kids for the rest of her life.  She said she was doing this last round of chemo just because her kids wanted her to try one more time.  She said she was ready to be done if this one didn't make a difference. Her kids were all grown up and doing well now and she was ready to go and be with her husband again.  When I saw her obituary in the paper, it touched my heart knowing she had fought the good fight, but was now reunited with him again.