May

May began with Fast Sunday.  Going to Argentina I was in a district of 8 and all of us were assigned to the same mission.  I've seen all of the elders and my comp from my group except for 1...Elder Dale Inkley.  He is not on social media and hard to find.  

A few months ago a young couple  moved into our ward.  They introduced themselves and when they mentioned that their last name was Inkley I asked if they were related to Dale.  Dale is Matt's dad.

The Inkleys blessed their baby at the beginning of the month and Dale came.  It was fun to reconnect!

Riley and grandma, Regan and Aunt

Activity Day Mother daughter activity. There weren't as many girls as we have had in the past, but we had fun.  

Melody, Jessica, Sophie, Thea and Shannong

Lindsey and Stephanie

When I moved into the house these were growing under the pine trees.  As the trees got bigger the flowers became dwarfed and no longer bloomed.  When we redid the yard I dug them up and replanted them to see if they would bloom again.  They did!

Mid May we had a nice weekend and invited Catheys over for s'mores.  The girls all wore their grocery sacks over their hair and we had a fun time!  Jaxon wasn't there because he had to work.
 

We got together to celebrate Emma's birthday.

For Mother's Day I received some See's candy.  Oh, so yummy!!

Elias had a 16th birthday party at Classic skating.  They invited friends from school, the bike team, parents etc.  They had a fun!

On May 19 we went to Jacob's choir end of year concert.  They did a great job and it was fun to see Jacob perform!

On Mother's Day my mission president passed away at the age of 95!  He was an amazing man and so loving.  His wife passed away 16 years ago.  

I went to the funeral, saw friends and his son Adam, who was 17 when they came to the mission.  We took a few group pictures.  Because I was only with him the first 9 months of his 3 years there were elders there that I didn't know.  I knew most of the sisters.

Elsa Zayas Shields, my trainer

These make me happy looking at them.

Back in October the 4 Runner began to sound like the muffler had fallen off.  Found it was the "donut" that attaches the exhaust pipe to the engine had become unattached.  We took it in and they fixed it.  

In April on our way to Capitol Reef it happened again, the bolts came off.  It was frustrating considering it had just been fixed less than 6 months earlier.  As I wrote in April's post we got it fixed down by Capitol Reef and the guy said he double bolted it.  

We are now in May and hearing same noise...look and bolts are coming off again!  Jason and Jacob bought some epoxy, Jacob crawled under the car, put the bolts back on and put epoxy on them to try and get them to stay attached.  We'll see.  

School is out the end of the month--in a few days.  Jacob is happy!!

April

 April began with General Conference.  I made cinnamon rolls, as per tradition, for Saturday since we were leaving for Capitol Reef on Sunday.  

Sunday morning we left and listened to conference (or tried to) in the car.  We had decided to take the 4 Runner down and about 1/2 way down there the muffler got so loud we could barely talk to each other.

We arrived in Torrey (the town outside Capitol Reef) around 1 p.m.  We were traveling with Cory and Torrie and the Ahyous.  Torrie has a sister who owns a kiva (like the ones Native Americans built) and she and Corey stayed there.  Ahyous brough their van and parked on the property.  We had a hotel at Capitol Reef resort about 4 miles up the road.

The kiva was built in 1996 by a pair of brothers who built it authentically.  It is so unique! 

After we arrived we played corn hole for a bit and then went to get something to eat.  Went to a Mexican restaurant and it was OK. 

We came back and hung out by the firepit outside.  

That night we went to Capitol Reef and did the petroglyph walk.  Very short, but fun to see.  

While we were at the visitor's center Jacob looked under the hood and could see the "donut", that attaches the exhaust pipe to the engine, had fallen off and was sitting on the crash plate.  This was a piece that we had fixed last October.  

The next morning Jason called a car shop in Loa (about 2 small towns away).  Ben Ahyou has a friend's cousin who owns it.  Corey and Ben followed Jason to the shop.  The guy said he would have parts overnighted and fixed by Tuesday probably.  

They came back and we went to Slacker's for lunch.  We ate a lot on this trip and most of the food was just ok.  This burger was delicious!  I had a jr. bacon burger with pepper jack cheese.  Loved it!

We then headed to hike Chimney Rock.  I was a little worried about my back/ hip, but had it adjusted before we left and was trying to keep a tight core.  The hike went fine, but my legs were tired.  The view was beautiful up there.  

After the hike we went back and later got some pizza for dinner.  It was the thickest crust!  I like crust, but it was almost too much.  

Next day we went over to the kiva and played corn hole, hung out again.  Went and grabbed lunch.

After lunch Corey let Jason and I take his car (a new Bronco) to pick up our car.  It was fun to drive it and see what we thought of it.  The fix was what we thought it was.  The donut. Came back and walked to a shop in town.  Ahyous all bought cowboy hats.  

That night we did dinner at Red Rock Rim Inn.  It was good, but I only had a potato.  I was tired of eating.  

Jacob, Teneya, Torrie, Corey, Ben, Andrea, 
Jason, Me, Elias

That night we played card games.  That was fun. 

We got up the next morning and headed home.  The rest of the week was spent catching up and hanging out.  

April 16 was mom's 86 bday.  Chris and family were in town because the weekend before Mallory and Jon graduated from BYU-I.  

We visited, had cake, opened some presents. 

On Saturday the 19th we went to Jared and Stephanie's to celebrate March, April and May bdays.  We did and Easter egg hunt, and Jason and I made a shrimp boil.  Turned out pretty well, but didn't have as much taste as we thought it should.

Jacob got this shirt. 

After dinner we did birthdays and then gave Daniel and Sage bridal shower gifts.

Jacob wrestling Robbie

Sunday morning was Easter.  This was the first year Jacob has not hunted for his basket/candy.  It is boring!  Next year he's going to have to work for it again!

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Church was very good.  The choir sang, Pres. Critchlow spoke and I was in a small musical number at the end.  

We then went down to mom's for Easter dinner.  Chris' family was all there, Joy/Matthew, Mike/Jessie and we were there.  It was a nice afternoon. 

Wedding time!  On April 25 Daniel and Sage were married in the Draper temple.  The wedding was a 1 p.m. with a luncheon at 3:30 and reception at 7 p.m.  It was a great day.  Those two have a ton of energy and are headed to Thailand for a 2 week honeymoon. 

Waiting for the bride and groom
to come out

Married at last!

March

Beginning of March we went to a book launch for Brandon Mull and his new book on Newell and Doren from the Fable Haven series.

Brandon Mull apparently used to be part of Divine Comedy down at BYU.  So he invited former cast mates to join for a show he did with the launch.  Some of it was funny.

On Saturday, March 8, MarySue held Galentines at her house.  It was medieval themed...we made a personal "crest", played games and had great food.  It was fun.

Lisa, Birthe, Inez and I got together for lunch and had a fun 4 hour visit.  

Later that week, on Friday, I started to feel like maybe a cold was coming on.  Saturday Jason and I went to the Republican convention where they vote on new leadership.  This whole thing of being a delegate has opened my eyes to things.  

The next day, Sunday, I was sick.  I had taken a Covid test that was negative.  I headed into Instacare to get checked out and had Infulenza A.  They gave me Tamiflu which reduced my symptoms.  

By Tuesday I was feeling well enough to be up and around the house.  By Friday I finally felt normal.

Sunday was Jacob's 17th birthday!  In honor of that I cleaned his bathroom for him.  

Saturday morning he and Jaxon went to the Pic-n-Pull junk yard to look around.  That night Elias came over, they went to dinner and then came back for the movie.  Jason and I went to the ward fund raiser dinner for the ward budget that had gotten messed up.

He opened gifts on Sunday morning.  Here he is trying to "figure out" what the sun visor gift could be.  

Lucky Charms and Pop Tarts, 2 video games, new tennis shoes, a Car and Driver magazine rounded out the gifts. 

That night Cathey's came over for cake and ice cream.  Tom's parents were in town and we celebrated Bob's birthday too..March 25th.  

The last Sunday in March Jacob texted Luke Anderson to see if he could hang out.  They invited us over for dessert and games.  Turns out it was Lee's bday.  Had a fun time.