Picnics and morning walks beauty

 Right now I have to take morning walks without Paul.  Sometimes I vary the routes since I have more time since I'm retired.  This week I found some fun things on different versions of my morning walks.  One morning a little bird was enjoying taking a bath in the overspray from a neighbor's sprinklers.  It was so cute!  We also had our first ripe tomato one morning this week!

This collage is a mix of morning walks, a picnic at Oak Grove and a picnic at Pine Valley.  We also got ice cream using up what was left on a gift certificate we had to the Brandin' Iron.  Both picnics were lovely and the walk on the Red Hill this morning was wonderful.  We've been having a little cool snap that has also made it really nice.  Paul and I also walked on some little paths at the hospital the other morning after his cardiology appointment and discovered some fun things there too.  

Art around town...beautiful!

 Today we tried to go to see a new art exhibit at the university.  I had the dates wrong, but they had a small exhibit of paintings of Christ in the foyer.  They brought a very sweet feeling.  

After that we decided to see what they had at St. George Art Museum.  It was a southwestern exhibit and some other things.  Most of the southwestern art was by native American artists.  Some of it I liked, and some, not so much.  I took pictures of a few.  I'm glad that these places don't charge you to see their exhibits.  It was a good way to get out a little since Paul is still not able to do a lot.  We both enjoyed it! 

Memorial Day 2026 - Cedar Mountain Picnic/Cedar Breaks

With the burning down of our regular Memorial Day picnic site at Pine Valley and people having too many other commitments, we decided to postpone to another year our regular visit from Jay, Brynn and family and just get together in a couple of weeks at Family Camp.  That left us to find something else to do with the day.  Paul, Bean and I went up to Cedar Mountain via Parowan for a picnic and visit to Cedar Breaks.  We stopped in at Parowan to add some jalapeno poppers from Smokin' Joe's to our picnic lunch and then drove up to look for a site.  It ended up being really cloudy and cold up by Brian Head/Cedar Breaks, so we drove down lower to Uinta Flat area to find a warmer spot.  Along the way it started to rain pretty good!  It stopped for a bit and we found a nice  spot and had a great picnic with some Earnie's chicken along with chips, cottage cheese, beans, poppers, rootbeer and Oreos.  Then we drove over to Cedar Breaks Visitor's Center, got more rain along the way, and enjoyed seeing the beautiful sites there.  It was about 37 degrees up there at the top!  Our picnic site had been around 59 degrees.  And then back in St. George it was around 85 degrees!  Glad we have Cedar Mountain for a great cooling off get away spot!  It was a beautiful drive up there and so good to see the rain and there were still some snow drifts up there too!  

Get out of school celebration! Grand Canyon/Jacob Lake

 We decided that for a get out of school celebration we could go over to Jacob Lake, stay in a cabin (still no camping for Paul with his foot in a boot), visit the reopening North Rim of the Grand Canyon and go over to Lee's Ferry/Lonely Dell Ranch and pick some fruit, visit Navajo Bridge.  We did all of those things and it was a great little get away.  We left Friday morning and drove over to the North Rim with a stop in at Jacob Lake for a cookie break along the way.  We first drove out to Cape Royal and walked just far enough in to see Angel's Window and the Colorado River below.  Paul can't go too far in his boot.  Then we stopped off at Vista Encantada on the way back for a picnic lunch.  Next we drove to the Lodge area.  Everywhere wherever we drove there were spots of burned trees.  It was very patchy.  But lots of forest is still left, thank goodness.  The lodge is pretty much a loss.  There is some stonework left and they may be able to include it in whatever the build to replace it.  Surprisingly quite a few of the cabins and administration buildings are still fine.  The water plant was a melted mess.  Overall, though, I was surprised that so much was still ok.  So glad. We still had some time before check-in, so we drove over to Lee's Ferry/Lonely Dell Ranch to see if any fruit was ripe.  Not yet.  We did find a few tree fall apricots that were nearly ripe and pretty tasty.  We drove to the dock area and saw people getting ready to raft the canyon.  We stopped off at Navajo Bridge and enjoyed the view and did see one condor on the bridge below us.  

After that we went and checked in and got unloaded in our little cabin.  There were so many people there when we went for dinner.  We had a long wait, but had fun visiting with a plumber from Prescott on one side and a 4th grade teacher from Orem on the other side.  The plumber was going to hike rim to rim the next morning and the school teacher was with 11 people heading over to the South Rim for a singles group trip. It's always fun to talk to people there while you eat at the bar.  Dinner and more cookies/ice cream were great when we finally got them!  We went out and sat on a log and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.  The weather was perfect.  It did get a little hot at Lonely Dell Ranch - 95 degrees, but up at Jacob Lake/Grand Canyon it was in the 60's/70's and got very cool at night.  

Saturday morning we had a great breakfast and visited with a lady going to pick up her fiancé from his rim to rim hike after she ate.  He had started at 1:30 at night.  I think that's a sad way to do such a beautiful hike.  He missed so much scenery in the dark.  After breakfast and packing up we got on our way home going via the Kanab/Coral Pine Sand Dunes route.  We got home early afternoon.  It was a great little trip.  Just right for Paul's foot and still a great way to get out and celebrate!  

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!

Paul's foot surgery updates...getting out of the house

 Last Tuesday we went for Paul's two-week check up.  It was good.  They took out the stitches, cleaned it up a little and rebandaged it...for another two weeks of boot wear.  He still has to be careful to keep it clean and dry and up for a lot of the day.  We were hoping it would be less of that, but they said it's a broken bone healing and feet get less circulation than most any part of the body, so it's slow healing.  I'm hoping he's out of the boot for Family Camp, but it's going to be close.  We took a little drive yesterday to help with the cooped up boredoms.  Bean went with us up to Enterprise Reservoir.  It was a pretty drive.  Made us wish we were going camping, but it helped with the doldrums.  We stopped in at what used to be Marv's.  Paul and I shared a shake and Bean got something for him.  Now it's called Joe's.  The food was still good!  

We took a get away drive to the big sequoia tree in the afternoon after Zade's graduation.  Paul, and Bean and I, need to get out of the house lots.  Feeling trapped by the healing process of the foot surgery!  

Today, my last day of school, we got out early.  This afternoon Paul, Bean and I took another nice drive to get out of the house.  We drove out to Gunlock State Park Reservoir.  It was beautiful and a very lovely drive.  On the way home we stopped in at a new store in Veyo - The Bread Lady.  She makes all kinds of delicious sourdough products.  We tried her breadsticks and a cookie.  Both were very tasty!  

My last year of Kindergarten comes to an end

 9/9/2004 was the beginning of my kindergarten Title 1 Aide job.  I was really scared to take the test to qualify, but actually did very well...and then it was a go!  I had been volunteering in a kindergarten class before that and they decided they could use me.  I needed to go through the testing and application process to make it official.  My beginning wage was around $8.51 per hour and ended (with a wage freeze for a period of time) at $19.61.  The money wasn't great, but it was better than nothing, and I really came to love the work, the teachers and the kids.  I worked at West Elementary to begin with and the principal was Melanie Olsen.  She had been Moss's kindergarten teacher years before.  West Elementary had opened in 1955 at 12 North 300 West. It was closed just before Christmas vacation in 2007.  Students and faculty were moved to the new Heritage Elementary School starting at the beginning of 2008.  The West Elementary School building was demolished early in 2008 to make room for the new Fifth District Courthouse.  Some of the old mulberry trees that were on the playground survived the demolition and are still there.  I did not go to work the first year at Heritage Elementary.  It was a time when my mom and Bean were both needing lots of help.  Mom was moving out of her home and Bean was struggling mightily with his mental health problems.  I took off a year of work.  Thankfully the principal, Melanie Olsen, and the teacher, Lynne Godfrey, were both glad to hire me back and I started at working again at my prior wage.  My last day will be May 21st 2026.  That's 21 years with the one year off.  I've seen kids I helped teach go on missions, get married and have children!  It's been a joy for me to work with these littles and teachers most of the time.  This last year has been the worst year actually, with one child so messed up and unable to adhere to any school standards of behavior that he was finally moved to a special school for behavior challenged students.  I worked with Lynne Godfrey for most of my years, but she retired and then I worked with Hillery Hunt for the last few years.  They were both amazing ladies and great and good teachers.  Now I will have to start a new chapter of my life.  I have felt the need to do it, even though I don't know what it is I will do yet.  We had a stake conference with much encouragement for seniors to serve some kind of mission a year or so ago and I have felt that after we are released from our Single Adult calling probably in January, we should find some way to serve locally.  We can't really leave Bean to go anywhere else, or afford to go anywhere else, so we will have to find out what that's going to be.  So, onward to the next adventure is how I'm trying to look at it.  I'm sure when August comes around I'll be feeling a little sad that I'm not going back to school.  I will miss having present and past students give me a hug.  I will miss the daily adventures of a school days with our tiny humans!  

Several of our kids have not returned to finish school after they did their Kindergarten program.  Miss Hunt was nice enough to take pics of me with the ones still hanging in there to the end of it!  Left to right and down - Beckytt, Harli, Arianna, Evander and Dominic.

Left to right below - Riley, Haizlynn, Jayden, Aristelle, Beau, and Ed.  

Left to right - Hazel, Indy, Sofia and Gianna.  

We missed getting a picture of Noe.  He didn't come back to school after our water party day.   Today at Zade's graduation I heard the name of one of my early students - Porter Shelly.  His mom was such great parent helper.  Just loved their family.  I messaged his mom and found out that he's heading on a mission to Uruguay in August!  So fun to hear that they are going on to do good things with their lives.  

Below - Last day in the class!

Happy Mother's Day 2026

 It was a peaceful Mother's Day.  Ferf and some of her kids came over bearing gifts from all this morning.  Gaige was with them, so it was nice to see him for the first time since he made it home from his mission.  Brynnli, Ryan and Kennis and Torin were here too.  So nice to visit with all of them.  Moss and Christie and kids stopped by this afternoon for a bit which was nice too. Lou, Juge, Supe and Jay called and Derek and Kaebri texted.  Bean came over for dinner.  We had corned beef and cabbage; one of my favorites.  Paul is still down and wasn't able to attend church today.  There's not too much said about Mother's Day in a singles ward, but it was still nice.  They gave out Swig cards and my home ward dropped by some yummy brownies and ice cream which Paul was here to put in the freezer for me.  Everyone put together for some nice gift cards for me for dinners and a movie which Paul and I will both enjoy.  I'm glad that my kids have grown up to be good and wonderful people.  Paul and I tried hard to do it right...and even though we certainly weren't perfect parents, our kids have turned out in spite of our imperfect efforts.  I'm thankful for that! Love them everyone!  We always miss Weed, but we've made our peace through the Gospel with that for now.