Hooray for May!

 Every elementary schooler's favorite day: The Track Meet. Unless you're like Erica and don't like running or competing. She does like hanging out on the bleachers with friends so she was okay with the day.

Justin's parents are remodeling their house. We went over to help with some demo because that's fun.

 Here are the biggles pulling off the mantel and surround.

Spring around here means green grass and trees but snowy mountains at the same time. I love it.

James's little group of friends are so funny. They migrate from house to house eating popsicles and granola bars, jumping on trampolines (here), playing video games (Calvin's), etc.

On Saturdays they start right after school and go until dark or even past dark. I think this is the right way to be seven.

Saturday morning we hauled in a truckload of compost for our garden. It took a few hours and the kids did a better job not complaining than I expected.

This is at Walmart later that day. Erica and Henry discovered the toilet paper tunnels.

Erica is trying again to get her submission accepted into the Friend magazine. I sure hope she gets it but maybe they get a lot of Lego temples. (This is not the photo she submitted but I kind of wish it was)

More green and snow days. We like to ease into spring around here.

Demo started on the Provo Temple. Is it a complete knockdown or just a outside redo? I'm thinking full knockdown. I'll go back soon and see.

While I was in the area I walked around rock canyon park.

Sarah got her wisdom teeth out yesterday. I took a picture of the spread of instruments but I didn't show her. It would freak her out.

Not laughing so much with the laughing gas. I stepped out once she went under and it only took a half hour. We were home 90 minutes from the time we left. She didn't say or do anything funny, only that she couldn't find her mouth because it was so numb.

That night was Henry's orchestra concert.

He did a great job and has so much fun performing. There are so many orchestra kids in middle school that his teacher held 4 separate concerts.

Next week is Sarah's last concert. The school year is winding down!

Other April Things

Sarah and James had their piano recital a couple of weeks ago. The theme was John Williams and they could dress up if they wanted to. Sarah played the Olympic theme and Indiana Jones theme. James played Hedwig's theme and brought his stuffed Hedwig. They both did a great job. This was James's first recital and he didn't even seem nervous. 

I found these sheets at DI. This was the set on my bed as a kid. It's trippy to see things out of the past. It's like a time warp.

You make hundreds of rolls and once you roll the perfect one.

They were for a bishopric barbeque we were hosting. I took this picture and then ate it.

Justin and I had the honor of attending the sealing of this cute and amazing family. They were in our ward until the great split of February 2024. They were the first sealing in the newly rededicated Manti temple and were even in the exact sealing room Justin and I were sealed in. I held my emotions in check until the kids filed in youngest to oldest and then I lost it. Their oldest (Erica's friend) was just grinning so big the entire time. Seeing them all gathered around the altar was really the best thing I've witnessed in a really long time. It was just the best.

Besides a sister, the attendees were all from the ward. Neighbors, friends, ministering brothers and sisters, a former bishop--it was great--and no one wanted to leave because we were all just so happy.

Sarah adopted my high school denim jacket. I wore this from junior year all the way through college and maybe after that. She found this in the pocket and had no idea what it was. That made me laugh and feel old at the same time. Do you know what it is?

Here is said jacket in 2001

Were you wondering what James's scar on the back of his head and ear look like? James was wondering too so I took this picture to show him.

Aaaaand some more spring pictures because I am obsessed. 

This is the park at the north end of our street. There's no playground so we don't ever go there but it looked pretty with the ominous clouds.

Spring in full swing

Spring is my second favorite season because it's such a spectacle. Nature changes fast this time of year and if you don't stop and pull over (or in my case stop walking for a second) and take a picture, you'll miss it. Here are some pictures I've taken the last few weeks.

This is at the city buildings in Springville.

My back stoop

I love tulips but they never last long enough. 

Grass so green it hurts my eyes.

Eclipse shadows

James's class got to go outside for it and his teacher sent this picture.

These flowers make me so happy!

This is outside the Orem temple. I have never seen a flower like this before. It was among the tulips and daffodils and thought it was a variety of one of those. But google says it's a lily.

Found this view on a walk. Green fields and snowcapped mountains.

This could be a pretty view if it weren't for the powerlines and dirt. Soon there will be a house in the way.

This is across the street from our house. I'm waiting for the sheep to return with their new lambs.

Again, seriously, I live in the prettiest little town.

Hobble Creek is full! We need all the water we can get.

I love this tree

Spring Break 2024

 Wait first I want to show how this hallway downstairs turned out. When we redid all the floors of the house during the Great Renovation I didn't have anything done with this hallway that goes out to the backyard because there was a water damage situation that I wanted solved first. Fast forward to last week: I caulked the outside of the door and threshold like crazy and then decided to do some inexpensive peel and stick tiles. This way if I haven't solved the problem (I think I have) I won't stress. You can't see in the first picture but there are some dried out worms that wiggled their way in. So fun!

It took me 8 hours and I could barely walk the next day as my hips were so tired and my knees were so sore. There are a lot of places the tiles aren't perfect so please don't look at it too closely when you come over. I am pleased with how it turned out. Honestly anything would have been an improvement over paint splattered concrete.

James set out his clothes like this the night before we were leaving on a little trip. He does this when he's excited about the next day and wants to be very prepared. That's Harry Potter as the head. He calls his clothes person Frank.

Wednesday morning we got up and drove to Capitol Reef National Park. We went 4.5 years ago so James didn't remember anything about the trip and Erica remembered very little. As I was aksing the kids if they remembered this-or-that as we drove down James said, "Wait, I thought this was new to everyone." Nope buddy, we've all been here before, including you.

The Grand Wash hike

 

Picnic lunch. I'm pretty sure eating lunch in a national park is one of my most favorite things to do ever. It's so American. This is also where we ran into our neighbors and Justin's coworker and his family. (Our neighbors are related to Justin's coworker and were all together)

The Gifford house--what's left of the pioneer settlement of Fruita before it was a national park.

We bought the last four cups of ice cream.

Sulphur Creek hike (didn't smell like sulfur)

Henry hiked up his shorts for no reason than to make us laugh.

It was only like 70 degrees but this would be a great hike on a hot summer day.

Then we left the park and drove around a mountain to visit our friends that own Signal Peak Mini Resort. The kids played mini golf while the sun went down.

We stayed in one of their amazing bungalows and the next day they took us on a tour of their alfalfa fields and let us ride their four wheelers.

I asked them loads of questions so now I know all about farming alfalfa.

The pictures don't show how windy it was this day. Just a steady wind all day long. I hate wind.

This is at the hotsprings just barely outside of town. There are a series of pools but I didn't take any pictures of that because they were full of people and I didn't want to be a creepy lady taking pictures of people while sitting in hotsprings. 

Later that afternoon we drove north an hour to the Manti Temple open house. We had heard about the long lines so we were mentally prepared to wait. We stood in line about 1.5 hours. Those without tickets it was more like a 4+  hour wait.

This is the temple where Justin and I were married so it's very special to us. We pointed out to the kids the exact sealing room. I don't think many people get to show their kids that.

The third story is an assembly hall that I didn't know existed. It looked just like the Kirtland temple. Do they use it for anything nowadays? What's really neat is you can see out those windows at the entire valley. Temple windows are usually covered or stained glass so that was a new experience for us.

18 years next month!

We got home late Thursday and then Friday morning I took James to get his stitches out. He was so flinchy until they gave him a sucker. We are so glad to be done with all of that!

Then it was conference time! We always do conference bingo but the novelty wears off after a couple of sessions.  This time I did the conference treats for the first time ever. Each treat had an apostles name. Apostle speaks, we eat the treat. The kids seemed to enjoy it. I am proud to say I found 15 unique snacks in my house and didn't have to buy anything. Or is that bad? Anyway, they listened better than they ever have. I don't know if it was the treats or they are just getting older. I never make them watch but I do get after them if they keep others from hearing. "You don't have to be in here but you do have to be quiet if you are." 99% of the time they choose to watch.

We pruned the apple trees Saturday afternoon so that meant plenty of sticks for teepee building.

And that's the end of spring break! Not the best weather or the most eventful but sandwiching it between Easter and general conference made it extra nice.