State Capital Photo Shoot

I paid for Sarah and Eliza to have a "mini session" done at the capital since the trees were in bloom. Kids were dragging their feet and we missed our time slot. We decided to take the whole fam to the capital and got some cute pics. I usually have a million of Audrey and a handful of the other kids, but I actually managed to focus on a different child this time. ;) 

Stopping to smell the tulips

 I kept our somewhat annual tradition of visiting the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. We rented golf carts again, but decided next year we want to take out time and walk it. Still, it was nice to be together, and even though all of the flowers weren't in bloom, it was still beautiful. Mike and Andy acted like children playing bumper cars, so they weren't allowed to drive anymore. ;)

New family pilots

 Mike hadn't flown in a small airplane for a while and he wanted to take each of the kids out. He got checked out in an Archer and took them each for their own flying date. 

Steven was up first and brought Roland. They had to wake up really early to go. The boys each got to take a turn flying and we went outside in time to see them fly above us. Pretty cool! 03/12/21

Next up was Sarah. She and Eliza woke up early, which is saying something for teenage girls on a Saturday. 

Last but not least was Adam. He had a lot of fun and Andy joined them. April 9, 2021

Happy Easter

 Last Easter I had to watch the festivities from my room due to a kinked neck. This year I was able to take part. I'm kind of lame when it come to Easter "gifts", since I feel like it's become 2nd Christmas for some people, but I like to allow the kids to enjoy the secular with the spiritual. 

We started the day with an Easter egg hunt for Adam and Audrey. We decorated eggs and only one showed up a month later. After the Easter egg hunt we watched conference. Nothing beats conference on Easter. I think they are the perfect combination and I love how more messages are focused on Jesus' resurrection when they align. I bought a temple Lego set off a yard sale site and Steven put it together while everyone napped, I mean watched. 

After conference we went to visit Erik. All of my kids were there, but I accidentally only took pictures of Audrey. Hopefully my eldest children forgive my oversite. Luckily they all still love her, so they don't seem to mind. 

I know I say this every year, but I love Easter. I love what it represents. I love that we have a loving Savior that not only lived and died for us, but was resurrected for US. I'm so thankful for this unimaginably precious gift we've been given. "O death, where is they sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Cor 15:55 How lucky and blessed we are that death has been swallowed up in our Savior and that it is just a matter of time before we get to see our Erik and other family members again. Happy Easter everyone! (From July 15th) ;)

Lava Hot Springs

 We decided, kind of last minute, that we wanted to go somewhere for Spring Break. We'd never been to Lava Hot Springs, so we found an RV campground, nabbed Amelia, and headed off. It was chilly, but that's the way it should be, so we weren't roasting in the pools. The experience was...interesting. It's an entire event/vacation revolved around sitting. It was good to experience, but once was enough for us. The lava hot springs were hot, and maybe helped my aching bones, but there's only so much sitting in a hot tub you can do.  We tried a local pool as well and it was so busy you couldn't really swim. 

One of the highlights were the ducks Audrey was able to feed throughout the day. We even bought them some peas and corn, but they only wanted our wheat bread. 

We explored the town a little. It's pretty small. There was a short nature walk that was cool. We found an old school Merry go Round and relived the glory days as we spun the kids so fast they flew off or got sick. Kids these days are "soft", so we had to toughen ours up. ;) A random family was at the park, by themselves, with their masks on. Once we arrived unmasked (Mike and I have both been vaccinated) they decided to leave, but not before the kids asked why we weren't wearing masks. Outside. With only our family. ;) There was a candy shop that sold random candy. They had "toy cigarettes" which Mike and I had to admit we thought were cool as kids. We bought them for the kids and then regretted our decision. ;) We bought the kids some poker chips at the grocery store and they decided playing Black Jack is the coolest thing and we had to put the brakes on it when they talked about have kids over to gamble when they got home. It is now only a camping game. It was a nice, short trip and I'm glad we could go. 

Random March

Mike and I went skiing and had a blast. We didn't get a selfie of us, but we saw this guy and thought he deserved being immortalized in our family blog book. 

When Covid shut down regular baptisms last year my presidency and I decided to start giving the children a bookmark and a matching mask. It was fun to see the children wearing the masks at church after their baptism. I was even asked by one of the parents. Just a small thing, but it was a nice service we could provide. 

Yes, we went to a Jazz game. Tickets were a little pricier than usual, but it felt great to be back in the arena. Mike had something ugly on his upper lip, but it wouldn't wipe off. ;)

I wouldn't normally post one of my running selfies, but this was kind of the beginning of the end for my running year. This was fourteen miles in the snow and I felt good. In another week I'd do 16 and it wouldn't go well and I'd have TFL, Piriformis and lower back issues stretching into July. (It's July 5th) Oh to be in healthy running condition again. Sigh...

Our neighbors across the street lost their daughter Brooklyn a couple years ago. She and Audrey are close in age. Their families started a drive to make "Brooklyn Bears" to donate to hospitals and first responders. I bought/cut material to make a dozen, but only ended up having time to make four. It was a neat project to be a part of.