Laura's Birthday

Laura wanted to go to Thanksgiving Point with her friends (Saige, Kennedy, Jenna, Ella and Brooke) on her birthday. The tulips were still blooming and we had a fun time! Afterward they came to Laura's soccer game with us and then to Costa Vida (Laura and her friends' favorite place) for dinner. We ended the day at our house for cake and ice cream. For some reason I don't have any pictures of her with our family opening her presents that day, but it was a good day. Laura loves playing the piano, playing soccer, hanging out with her friends, going to Costa Vida, taking pictures of things in nature with her phone, and finding things to organize. Laura is a great friend. a great helper and a great piano player. She will play and play until she gets a piano piece down. She also has a great desire to do what is right. She's funny and loves to laugh and will tell me all her funny stories as well as the things she's sad about. I hope that will never change. I rely on Laura a lot and I am so grateful for her! We love her!                                                                               

Programs, Concerts and Conferences

At the end of April, Megan had a program at school about Utah's history. She dressed up like a pioneer and did a great job on her part! Also at the end of April, Lia had her last orchestra concert. She did a great job too and she was so excited to be done! And lastly, I went to BYU Women's Conference with Tiffany and Jennifer and Jennifer. 

Mid April

Nate and I celebrated our 18th Anniversary in April. We went to dinner at the Tree Room up at Sundance (probably one of my favorite restaurants) and Nate gave me a new necklace to replace the one I lost at youth conference in February. It was a really great night! And then we had egg dying on Easter, a cute picture of Lia, Megan's field trip to This is The Place State Park, Megan making herself a target for her squirt gun, a visit from Darren (where I happened to get a picture of both brothers sitting in the same position picking at their toes), Megan playing with Hannah and Stella, and lastly we had the Elmer kids over for dinner while their parents were out of town. 

 

April

In April we bought a third car for the family. It is not technically Lia's car, but for now it is Lia's car. It is an almost 20 year old car with 200,000 miles on it, but it's a Toyota so we're hoping to get another 100,000 miles and 3 or 4 years out of it. It's not Lia's dream car, and she certainly wouldn't have chosen a gold one, but she is so excited!! Laura and Josh were excited too and wanted to take it for a spin around the church parking lot. The next picture is my nephew Brady's truck. He let Josh drive it the day he got his mission call. He has been such a great friend to Josh. They talk cars all the time. The day he opened his mission call, we were running late getting there because the weather was bad. I called Kristen to tell her to go ahead and open it without us. They didn't. When we got there, Brady stood up in his suit and welcomed everyone there. He apologized for the wait but said he needed to wait for his cousin Josh to get there because Josh is a special boy and means a lot to him and it was important that he was there. I cried my eyes out. Josh cried too. And Megan cried for Josh. It was a moment I won't forget. And I will be forever grateful for the good influence Brady has been on Josh. Next we had a skating activity with the young men and young women at Classic Skating and then Nate dressed up as the WWF wrestler Ric Flair for a work activity at Comicon. I don't have any words for that. But he loved every minute of it. 

Spring Break

Over spring break we went to the Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point with Ashley and her kids (we always love hanging out with them) and then we drove down to the Manti Temple with our friends the Lepores, the Bronsons and the Sanders. I've always wanted to take the kids and I thought spring break was a good time to do it. And we thought it would be more fun with friends. I loved seeing my girls there, I loved seeing Jaxson and Eric baptize everyone, and I love that Josh has young men like them to look up to. Megan and Aspen were good sports to wait in the waiting room with the younger kids while we did baptisms. Afterward we had lunch in the little town of Spring City before heading home. 

Nate Turns 40 Continued

In between Nate's birthday party and his real birthday, he squeezed in a trip to Brazil for the conference he's gone to the last few years. He got home on his birthday. We sang happy birthday to him and he opened his presents and then we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. We rented a couple of golf carts that the kids were thrilled about and had fun being together. I'm sure Nate was exhausted, but he went along for the ride as he always does. We are so grateful for him!