April Activities

We had a lot of stuff going on in April. The kids had spring break the first week, followed by Easter. The second weekend was Brad Wilcox events - one night for the young single adults (18-35) and the next night for the youth (11-18).  I helped plan and advertise the YSA night, since part of my job involves that age group.  I made several cookies to contribute towards dessert for both nights.  I helped with clean up on both nights, picking up tiny pieces of popped balloons from the youth dance that followed the devotional.  Alex and Owen put up and took down all the lights for the dance.

Brad Wilcox is a religion professor at BYU and a well-known motivational speaker for our church. He was also in the Young Men's General presidency for 2 years (2023-2025).  Nathan took one of his classes last semester and loved it.  I loved his messages about grace, merits, and mercy (same message both nights).  He also was very personable - he greeted and talked to as many people as possible.  Owen was the chorister for the youth night.  After the closing song, Owen headed over to give Brother Wilcox a hug.  It was the biggest bear hug I've seen.  He grabbed Owen and held on tight!  This was the weekend that Weston was in New Orleans, so he missed out.

We had swimming, volleyball, and track meets (later posts). I also had my first Activity Days night, which involves activities twice a month for girls 8-11 years old.  I got called as an Activity Days leader in March, but I didn't have my first activity until April because of track and Spring Break. (I'm also still a youth Sunday School teacher - doubling up on callings.)  It was a little bit of a rough introduction. I thought our activity was already planned and organized - a pinewood derby.  They had made cars at a previous activity.  I checked in with the other girl's activity day leader the day before the pinewood derby to see if there was anything I could help with.  She said, "I'm not in charge of it. Check with the Primary president."  When I did that, I got the same response, except it was "I'm not in charge of it. Check with the other activity days leaders."  There are 4 leaders - 2 for the boys and 2 for the girls.  When I mentioned that I had already checked in with an activity day leader and directed to her, she sent out a group chat, asking how everything was going for the pinewood derby.  No one had done ANYTHING except announce that it was happening (with dinner before the pinewood derby).  No one arranged for the cars track to be set up, for the computer program to be organized, for tables and chairs to be set up, for plates and utensils, etc.  It was the day before and no one had organized anything.  When I asked about awards, I got the response, "Good idea!"   Oh boy... what's a race without any prizes or awards?  Guess who made awards??  I put together some certificates that I could fill in and attached Kit Kat bars to them.  I found some printable paper ribbons online that I could make to attach to some soda bottles.  I had things that day before all the way until 9:30pm, so I didn't get started until about 9:45pm on making the awards.  Owen and I helped set up the track, tables, and chairs after volleyball that night with one of the boys' leaders.  Luckily, it was a potluck dinner, so everyone brought food to share.  The other girl's activity leader took care of the tablecloths, plates, and utensils. It actually turned out to be a successful activity, but I wasn't sure if we were going to pull it off. 

Guess what stopped working in March and April?  The used washer and used fridge that we bought back in September last year... The dryer still worked, but we couldn't get an installment for a new washer without also replacing the dryer, so we bought a new set at Home Depot.  The fridge also wasn't working well, so we bought a new fridge too.  Sigh... We got through 6 months on the cheap used appliances.  The fridge is nothing fancy, because we were limited to options due to the space. We do have functional appliances again. 

There were lots of baby showers in April and May.  I made it to 4 of the 5 baby showers. One of the pregnant moms was not in this photo of 4 moms (the one in the pink dress in another photo).  She actually had her baby 3 days after this photo was taken of the other ladies.  Four baby girls and 1 baby boy on the way!  Savannah came with me to 2 of the showers to see all the cute stuff. 

Just some other random photos - a nice walk one evening, Kai, a date night, the temple, Savannah biking during her spring break since she was bored, Savannah's friends, and a youth activity.  They did a fun night where the youth chatted and got to know the older folks in our ward.  They only had a couple minutes with each person and then moved to the next seat, until they had chatted with everyone.

I don't have any pictures, but Alex, Savannah, and Weston went to a service project - an annual project packing meals that go to Ecuador and Uganda.

The fourth weekend in April, we got a visit from Nathan!  He was in between terms, so he and his roommate made the drive home.  His roommate Devan stayed with us a couple nights and then joined his family later in the week when they got into town.  Most of us were still busy with work, school, and all the normal stuff, so we didn't get to hang out with Nathan very much.  We did watch Owen's volleyball game, played 4-person volleyball, went out to eat, played some games, watched a Thunder basketball game on TV, had some good food and apple pie, watched a movie, planned Jared's BYU classes for the fall, went to an event to celebrate our friend Julie, and went to church. Nathan sang in our ward choir without having practiced (we were short on singers).  He also replaced our broken screen doors while he was here.  He visited me at work a couple days (coming for "waffle Wednesday"), did a little shopping on his own, took the dog for a walk, and went to the beach. Hopefully he had a decent week.  The highlight may have been playing Ticket to Ride Asia, which is played in teams. Nathan and Weston finally beat Owen and me (previously unbeaten in our team Asia games).  They had a depressing first game but then had sweet redemption when they smoked us in the second game!  Savannah and Alex are usually teammates for this game and should have won the first game, if not for one mistake at the end.  It's a pretty fun game, but the challenge is you can't communicate with your teammate during the game.  Some people (ahem... Weston!) are not the most observant players as to what's going on!  Ha ha.  They still won by a lot the second round.

Easter

We did the usual egg dying, Easter baskets, and sugar cookies. General Conference was on Easter this year, so we got to be at home and listen to messages while sitting on our couch.  I enjoyed all the messages and noticed that several of the speakers mentioned the phrase, "Jesus is the way."  What's interesting about that is I had made an Easter card for Jared and Nathan about a week before Easter and conference.  I was trying to decide what quote or phrase to put on the card.  I thought, 

"What message would be one of the most important right now?"  I decided on, "Jesus Christ is not our last chance.  He is our only chance.  He will show us the way because He is the way."  And then when several conference talks mentioned that same phrase, it was a little confirmation that I had picked a good one (out of many possible good phrases of course). My favorite talk was by Emily Freeman "Best Days and Worst Days".  I like how she used the example of Peter:  

"History could suggest that Peter was a man who tried to stand in the way of the Father’s plan, who nearly drowned because of lack of faith, and who denied knowing the Savior three times—and that would be true. But it is also true that Peter walked on water, he was the first Apostle to bear witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and he was given priesthood keys to preside over the Lord’s Church. And maybe it took both the worst days and the best days for Peter to become who the Lord needed him to become."
 

We all have best and worst days, but we need both to become who God wants us to be. 

The picture of us dressed up is from Palm Sunday.  Savannah, Owen, and I sang in the choir. We had one set of missionaries from our ward over for dinner, along with a few other friends. We had scalloped potatoes, ham, rolls, green beans, salad, fruit, mini cheesecakes, Twix cheesecake bars, and sugar cookies.  The food was great and the weather was perfect for eating outside.

 

School Trips

Weston went to New Orleans with the jazz band.  He had a pretty good trip, although his bag and trombone didn't make it until evening of the 2nd day of the trip.  Luckily it did show up and Weston had concert clothes and an instrument to play by the 3rd day.  It didn't bother him too much.  In fact, he forgot to mention it to us when he first messaged that he had arrived.  It was the next day when he casually mentioned that his luggage was lost.  If anyone can do a trip without extra clothes, it's Weston... 

The band got 2nd place out of 6 bands. 

Owen got to go to Hawaii with the elite choir.  He also loved his trip, although there was a power outage for half of the trip.  They sang without microphones and in a room where they could just let light in.  So they had to adjust a little bit.  Despite the rain, they still hung out at the beach and wandered around.  They were back home before most of the flooding happened. They got to eat lots of good food, sing karaoke, and learn the hula dance. The choir received a score of 96 out of 100 on their performance.

 

March Music

Weston had a jazz band concert in February and a jazz festival in March.  They won best jazz band at the festival and best sections in rhythm, trumpets, and trombones.  

Owen and Weston also participated in a choir festival and received top scores. 

 

March Misc

 We did our festive green dinner, cookies, and cereal with green milk for St. Patrick's Day.  

We went to a birthday / farewell party for our friends (and Owen's boss).  Sad to say good-bye to them!

Savannah had a big school social studies project and presentation that they had spent a lot of time researching and preparing for.  Their group had to paint a backdrop, dress up in simple costume, and then do a history presentation with interactive visuals.  They talked to elementary school kids and showed them how to make "mochi", although it wasn't real mochi (so not edible).

I snapped a picture on my jog at the harbor one morning.  

Owen did a prom-posal and she said "yes!"  He got a date to prom (and her dad even filmed Owen asking).  Owen plays volleyball with the dad, so he already knows and likes Owen.  

Weston had a fun day hanging out with friends.

We weren't able to go anywhere for Spring Break this year, but we did go out to eat at Chili's one evening. Alex and I biked to the beach one morning - a little less than 6 miles there.  On the way home, less than 1/2 mile in, my bike tire went completely flat.  Alex had to bike back on his own and rescue me with the truck.

Savannah had a fun camp-out one night, including petting a horse, swimming, and the usual campfire and such. 

Winter Basketball

Savannah and Owen played winter basketball.  Savannah was on team Fever with 7th and 8th grade girls.  They only had one 8th grader though.  The team had a rough season, winning 2 of 10 games.  One of the losses was only by 1 point though.  For that game, Savannah's teammate got fouled on a 3-point shot with a few seconds left.  Instead of getting to shoot three free throws, they called the foul "on the floor" and only got possession of the ball.  They lost in the first game of the single elimination play-off game by one point as well. They were down 13-19 at half time and came back to be up by 1 point with 40 seconds left.  The other team was able to score another basket to win it in the last 20 seconds.  This was the same team they lost to by 1 point in the regular season (the second time they played each other).  The first time they played, they lost by 25 points, so they made a huge improvement throughout the season.  Savannah didn't shoot the ball that much but made a couple of baskets during the season.  Her main strengths were setting screens and rebounding.  It wasn't the season she hoped for, but she did have fun with her teammates and coaches.  Her coach said she showed the most growth, was coachable, determined, and showed grit and aggressiveness.    

Owen played on the JV team this year as a bench player. Before making the team, the coach personally called him. He said that Owen could be on the team but would get little to no playing time. They wanted him on the team to be a role model for his good attitude and work ethic. Owen was okay with that role and happy to be on the team.  He also took that chat as a challenge to earn playing time.  He did average about 4-5 minutes per game.  A couple of the games, he got 10-11 minutes.  He got to be a starter for one game with the other bench players.  His most memorable game, he played 11.5 minutes and scored a season high 11 points (three 3-pointers and another bucket).  In three other games he scored two 3-pointers in each game.  He scored a couple other buckets and a couple of free throws throughout the season.  He scored 37 total season points.  His team did pretty well.  Owen missed about 4 games, so I'm not sure on the record, but I think they had about 11 of 15 wins for league play.  For non-league games, they had about 6 of 11 wins, so the team had a total of about 16 wins for 26 games.  Owen's coach said he was a coach's favorite, always worked hard, never complained, knew his role and was going to go really hard.  

February

Alex got home from New Zealand just in time for dinner on Valentine's Day.  We had roast, potatoes, carrots, rolls, jello with strawberries and whipped cream, lemonade raspberry sherbet drinks, and chocolate pie.  I gave the kids some of their favorite candy.  Alex brought back a pearl necklace that he gave to me.  

I taught youth Sunday School on the 15th, which was on Noah's ark.  I thought it would be nice to take treats that also coordinated with the lesson theme.  I found some cool looking rainbow jello cookies online and thought they'd be fun.  However... they didn't turn out anything like the online photos!  We had a good laugh about it.  Nailed it... I made some other cookies but let them try the rainbow ones if they wanted to.  The jello gave them a tangy flavor, which reminded me of Nerds candy or those sugar straws.  

I went to an activity with the church ladies, a "Galentines" dinner, which was fun.

Owen, Weston, and Savannah went to a church dance on the 7th of February.  It was Savannah's first dance (since she needed to be turning 14 this year to go).  She had her brothers watching her closely.  They snapped a couple pictures of her.    

The random photos:  Savannah made pie and Weston had "a little bit" of ice cream with it.  He also was being silly with his glasses.  I made cinnamon rolls, eggs, and bacon for a birthday breakfast for one of our friends, Becca, who comes over on Tuesday and Thursday mornings after seminary.  Owen did "valograms" one day at school, singing in small groups with other members of the choir.  They sang to people who had been gifted a song and treat, paid for by family or friends.  In this photo, they sang to one of the teachers.

Alex and I got our monthly temple visit in.  I helped decorate and make a cake for an Institute night celebrating 100 years of the program.  We had pizza and salad, along with cake, and listened to a broadcast of Elder Kearon (Quorum of the 12) and his wife.

I've been enjoying my Saturday morning jogs along the coast. I've been jogging about 4-5 miles (walking a little bit).  I took a few pics one morning.

Nathan has been having fun, enjoying sports and a little more social this semester.  His roommate Devan posted an Instagram photo with them and a group of girls.  I don't know what a Roblox Meet up is... I think they were just going out for dinner / ice cream though. We spotted Nathan at a BYU volleyball game and a basketball game.  He had pretty good seats for a couple games, thanks to one of his friends inviting him to use one of their "VIP" seats.

Work Trips

 Alex took 3 work trips in January and February - to Brazil (6 days), the CA coast (2 days), and to New Zealand (16 days).  He really enjoyed them!

                       CA Coast

                 

New Zealand

Birthdays and January Misc

Alex and the boys got back from their camping trip on Saturday evening, just in time to celebrate Nathan's birthday.  He actually was back at college on his birthday, so we celebrated early.  We had dinner, cake, and opened presents on Saturday night (3rd).  Sunday was fast Sunday, so we didn't eat breakfast.  Nathan, Owen, and Alex participated in ordaining Weston to the office of a priest right after sacrament meeting.  Nathan then took Alex to the airport for a work trip to Brazil.  I made birthday breakfast for Nathan on Monday morning (the 5th), right before he headed out to drive back to BYU. 

Nathan and his friend Devan (also his new roommate) caravanned most of the way back to Provo. We chatted with Jared on Monday while Nathan was driving.  Nathan stayed a night with my aunt and uncle on Monday night and then went the rest of the way on Tuesday.  He started classes again on Wednesday.   

Savannah kicked off the new year with a church activity with the young women making vision boards for the year. 

Unfortunately, one of our older friends passed away in January, so we attended his funeral. It was interesting to hear more about his life from his sons and close friends.  John was assigned to be our home teacher and did that faithfully for several years.  One memorable story about John was one day when he knocked on the door and asked to borrow our car for a little bit.  I handed off the keys, with no questions, and he returned them a little bit later that day.  It wasn't until either that evening or the next day when we realized he had replaced our cracked windshield on the car.  That was so kind of him, and he didn't expect anything in return.  It was just a thoughtful and quiet act of service that he did for us, simply by recognizing a need and taking care of it.   

We had Savannah's friend party in January, which was pizza and a movie.  We had trouble choosing a movie to watch but finally decided on the first Now You See Me movie.  If it was up to Savannah, she would have invited 20 friends, but I only let her invite about 10 friends.  I wasn't very good about taking photos that evening.  I think they probably got enough sugar - cake and ice cream, soda, and candy, along with pizza and popcorn.  

Owen, Savannah, and I went to a USA vs Chile women's soccer game the end of January.  USA won 5-0!