April

It seems that I am barely getting posts done each month so this month I'm doing some earlier!

April began with General Conf.  Jacob did well sitting through most of it.  After the last session Jason's family came over for dinner.

Saturday night Jason watch Priesthood session on TV so I could go downtown and meet up with some mission friends.  Elsa Zayas Shield (my trainer) and Juliann Basta Mann (a companion I had mid mission--I was her last companion).

We met on Temple Square and then went to dinner.  It was very fun to catch up!





 Jacob discovered Jason's pull up bar and wanted it on his door.  Then he propped his Calvin and Hobbs book up there to "read."  Kind of funny!

During spring break we took one of Jacob's classmates, Cache, to Airborne to jump.  They had a good time.
Jacob wanted a picture of him jumping with his head high enough to be out of the picture.

On Wednesday we went down to St. George and Zion's with some friends--the Ahyous.  They have a boy a year younger than Jacob, Elias, and a little girl, Tenyea who is 3 1/2.  

Jason showing how to take a nap

 We got there Wednesday night and at Mexican at a hole in the wall restaurant Ben found.  It was good.

The condo worked great.  Each couple had a room and the kids had a bunk bed with a trundle that they loved.

On Thursday we drove into Zion's and did the Hidden Canyon hike.  It had a swift elevation of about 850 feet.  Good hike, but tiring. We got through most of it and arrived at what we thought was going to be the top, but there was more.  It apparently had a sandy ledge climb, you can see Jason as a speck going up, to get to the top and around to see the canyon.  We decided not to take the kids.  So we waited for Jason.






After that hike we did Weeping Rock before going to get our lunch.  When we got back to the Visitor's Center the line for the shuttle was back to the bathrooms.  We had never seen it that long.  Zion's is getting popular.

After lunch we did the River Walk trail.  This is an easy one.

We skipped rocks and climbed rocks on the way.
















On Friday we did the Grotto trail and then drove through the tunnel to do Overlook trail.  It was beautiful!

Saturday we went golfing in the morning and then the kids went swimming.  We had gone to the pools on Thursday night and Friday afternoon, but it was a bit cool.  Saturday would have been better, but it was windy.  They went anyway and had a great time!

Easter!  Jacob did his annual egg hunt in the house.  It is funny with traditions.  We always had a basket, and as we got older the Easter Bunny would find very creative places to hide it....but we never hunted for eggs.

In Jason's family they did.  So I work on the basket and he works on the egg hunt.

This year Jacob had to find his basket.  It wasn't in a difficult location to find, but it took him a few minutes.

Mom looking at her birthday cake

Then he searched for the eggs.  Then they began to eat the candy.
























For Easter dinner we went to Heidi's house.  It was also Mom's 78th birthday so we celebrated both occasions.

 Both Stephanie and Parker are dating people and they brought them to dinner.  Stephanie brought Devin (she has brought him to other dinners), and Parker brought

Jaxon and Jacob

Cutie patootie Christian

It rained a lot in April, but one of the Fridays we were able to go to a fun park in Pleasant Grove to play with friends.  It has larger structures for older kids to play on and they had fun.

I also finally finished my wedding scrapbook--after 10 years!  It is done!!

March

March is over!   It began with Jason leaving for 2 weeks for work and a trip to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat.  He left on a Thursday, was gone the next full week and returned the following week on Wednesday.  We did fine while he was gone, but it was great to have him back!

Angkor Wat

He stayed in a beautiful Marriott resort while he was working, but unfortunately only saw it in the early morning or late evening.  The plant they were working at was an hour away.

 On Madaline's birthday, Sunday, March 12th, we gathered at Mom's to celebrate Jacob's, Madaline's and my birthdays.  David decided to go with his family to Fiji to celebrate being 50.

On my actual birthday Randy and MarySue took Jacob and I out to dinner at Iggy's.  The next Monday Karen took us out.

On March 20th, Draper Elementary had their annual student art show.  Each grade had art work displayed that they had been working on.  Jacob's grade did "stained glass" and it turned out well.  They have a great art program.

I helped in the art class the 2 weeks previous with the projects and then on Friday and Monday with set up.

Their teacher, Kylie Welling, is a good friend I have known for 20 years.  She lived in Shadow Ridge condos when I did and we were in YW together.  Small world.  

The middle one is Jacob's

After the art show the kids (Jared's family and Randy and MarySue came) wanted to go out on the playground.  Here Jason and Jared are playing a little tether ball.  

 On Thursday, March 23rd we celebrated Jacob's 9th birthday!  He got to open up Lucky Charms cereal for breakfast and the rest of his gifts later that night after dinner.

 He got some mints, gum and a new Xbox controller, but his favorite gift was.....His Ripstik!

 At the end of the month we went to Josh's to celebrate March and April birthdays.  Later that week Jason, Jacob, Jared and Lily all went to the Jazz game.

February

February - Jacob went skiing twice.  On one of the Fridays he had off of school he and Jason went up to Brighton and skied most of the day.  Jason said he is getting better and he seems to really like it.

The second time we went up with Brenda, Chase and Kyle (neighbors) to Alta's ski after 3 p.m.  Again, he really liked it.

While we had snow in February, we also had some "warm" weather (50 degrees). The kids felt no coats and some no shirts was in order when they were playing.

On February 4th Jason and I celebrated our 11th anniversary.  These are some beautiful lilies he brought me.

Jason was in California and Houston, each for a week.  While he was gone Jacob and I went out to dinner.  We sent Dad a photo of us having fun.

This picture was taken after I told Jacob that Jared and Stephanie were going to have a baby boy--after 5 girls.  

 Why did I take this picture of Jacob scrunched up in the stool frame?  Because this is exactly what we used to do as kids with the stool we had!

 Did our monthly lunch with the Julies and Teresa.

 And we had Stake Activity Day.  It was based on the movie Up.  Our theme was: Up! Adventure awaits.

The girls arrived, began their all about me sheet, that would go in the adventure books they were making.

We had a fruit and bagel breakfast and then Corie presented the theme.  It was based on a talk by Pres. Monson in 1999 called: Your Celestial Journey.  In it he has 4 areas:  Gaze Upward, Look Inward, Reach Outward and Press Forward.  Corie showed a clip from Up and then talked about each of these areas briefly before we dismissed for the 3 mini classes.

Paige taught Gaze Upward - Prayer.  She talked about how each of our prayers is like a balloon that lifts us.  She talked about how prayer, protects us, bring peace and help us know we are a daughter of God.

 The next class was Press Forward.  Sherry taught this.  It was on how to learn to get along with others--even if we don't agree.

She had 3 levels and divided the girls into teams with rubber bands on their wrists.  Each team was able to answer questions, one team at level 1, the next team on level 2 and the next team at level 3.  She had them talk about way to solve a problem when we don't agree, how to show love to others we may not always like, etc.

The last game had the girls working together to get from one side of the gym to the other on "stepping stones."  There were just enough stones for the exact number of girls on each team and when the last girl stepped on the floor she had to pick up the paper behind her and the team handed it to the person in front of them so they could keep moving.

This is the Adventure book they made as part of the Look Inward section.  After breakfast they glued in their All About Me sheet and we had taken a Polaroid picture of them.  When they moved to each class they put in a quote that the teacher had come up with for that section.  

How the first 2 pages looked

Prayer quote goes here.

Amy Jex, on my board, knew a girl from her BYU folk dancing.  She was also a former Miss Teen Utah.  Katy Mitari.  She was so good--talked about how we can do simple service by not criticizing, not gossiping, etc.  She had the girls make cards for kids who are at Primary Children's hospital for their lunch trays.  She also had pictures of ice cream cones with a simple act of service on them.  She challenged the girls to do that service and then bring that ice cream cone back to Activity day, in their ward, and trade it with another girl and try to do that service.

 On the back page we had stamps that they could put in each area they had attended.  We had thought about doing it as they left each class, but realized that we wouldn't have time to get them out the door to the next class so we had them do it at the end.

After attending the 3, 20 minute, mini classes they came back to the gym where they could finish their books.  Get the passport stamps, add stickers, decorations, washi tape, we had laying out on their table.  I think it turned out really well!

Door posters

We had the girls stand in front of this poster and hold the
 string for a picture