Celebrating a Belated 19th Birthday For Brooke-- Part One

I wrapped these presents before I left for Utah so they'd be all ready for Brooke when she got home from BYU!  It was a fun FHE together!  We opened gifts and then went over to the church to play volleyball and other games with the black lights in the dark.  We played some games that weren't in the dark too.  It was fun!  Happy belated birthday Brooke!  This girl is a little smarty pants too... she got straight A's her first year of college!  Brooke-- you are going to do AMAZING things in your life!  I'm excited to see what your future will bring!  It's not easy getting all A's and I know that your classes were hard, but you worked your tail off and studied hard and you reaped the reward of doing so!  We love you Brooke and have enjoyed every single year of those 19 years that you've been a part of our family!  :)  (BTW: It was fun to listen to Brooke play her new ukulele!  She learned how to play up at BYU with her roommate CC her also plays...) 

Youth Conference-- Day 2

Here's some pictures of Katelyn up at our ward Youth Conference.  Katelyn said it was a lot of fun! It looks like the youth had a great time!

Youth Conference in Heber-- Day 1

Looks like it was a great start to the ward Youth Conference!  The glow party looks pretty cool!

Packing Up Brooke!

Today we spent almost the entire day helping Brooke pack up and clean her dorm room.  Megan came to help, and then after work, Todd even came as well.  (It was nice to have him around to help carry stuff down to the car!!)  We had fun working together and trying to keep Brooke motivated to get everything packed...she was dragging her feet and the rest of us wanted to get out of there!)  When we left, it was kind of sad... the end of an era for Brooke!  We enjoyed lunch together at the Skyroom Restaurant at the Wilkinson Center and then took a bunch of Brooke's stuff over to the Condo to store while she's on her mission.  (So I don't have to haul it back or store it!)  Again, I was super glad to have Todd there to help haul everything up to the 3rd floor again!  (Brooke lived on the 3rd floor of the dorm too!  What is it with our family and the 3rd floor?)  It was nice to get this project accomplished and enjoy the rest of our time together with Megan and Todd before we hit the road to go back to Arizona!  It was a fun weekend of shopping for Brooke's mission and spending time with Megan and Todd.  We stayed at their house and had fun watching movies, visiting, playing silly games and starting a game of Shanghai Rummy that we never finished, but I won, because I was winning when we stopped!  Hahaha!  We enjoyed meals together-- using up Brooke's meal card for some of them and having a yummy Sunday roast and dinner with Megan and Todd.  It was fun!  Now onto our next adventure in getting everything ready for Brooke to leave on her mission on June 19th!

Sweet Little Surprise From Katelyn!

This sweet little note was waiting for me when I went to bed tonight!  I was exhausted from a busy day and it just lifted my spirits!  What a sweet girl and so thoughtful!

Easter!!

Megan got this sweet text message out of the blue yesterday while she was studying for finals from one of her converts on her mission.  This sister was profoundly influenced by Megan's love and testimony of the gospel!  I am so glad that Megan was able to serve a mission and be a light and and influence for good in the lives of so many!! Pretty soon, Brooke will have these same experiences, and who knows, even get a surprise text like this one sometime!  I love that Lauren thinks about her conversion to the gospel at Easter time!  Easter is one of my favorite times of the year! 

Today was a beautiful Easter Sunday!  I played a flute obbligato for an octuplet that sang "O Savior, Thou Who Wearest a Crown"-- a beautiful tune set to the melody of "If You Could Hie to Kolob".  It turned out beautiful and everyone performed and sang so well!  My youth Sunday School class went so well and those kids just amaze me with their testimonies!  We had such a beautiful discussion about the Atonement and Resurrection of the Savior!  The kids came prepared to share different things with the class and the Spirit was so strong as they bore their own testimonies of the Savior-- so much more powerfully than if I just presented all that information to them!  They shared many, many beautiful insights and I always love their fresh approach and understanding of the gospel!  After church, we took our Easter dinner over to Grandma's house and ate with her.  After, we had our Easter egg hunt after it had cooled down a bit.  It was so nice outside right before the sun went down!  It was a beautiful Easter Sunday!!!

Good Friday Fun at the Grand Canyon!

There was no school on Good Friday which was so nice!  Bill, McKenzie, Katelyn and I took a day trip up to the Grand Canyon.  The girls are always saying that they’ve never seen it!  I just wish Brooke and Megan (and of course Todd) could’ve gone with us.  They’ve never been either.  I don’t know about Todd… he probably has.  They’re always teasing that we have one of the 7 Wonders of the World in our backyard, and they’ve never gone to see it.  So we did!  It’s kind of a long drive for a day trip but we did it!  Bill and the girls did a helicopter ride over to see it better.  I’ve done that before and so I didn’t need to do it again.  (Dad took us when I was in high school, I believe, on a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.)  After they came back, we drove the South Rim and walked around to the different observation points and some visitors’ centers they have.  Everyone was getting hungry (hangry) and felt they’d seen enough, so we left and drove to Flagstaff for dinner.  We had a nice dinner at Chili’s, and then headed down the mountain back home feeling the temperatures rise, even at night!  It was a gorgeous, cool day at the Grand Canyon!  Bucket list item checked off for McKenzie and Katelyn, at least...