The first week of the kids' spring break we spent in Arizona helping my sister Melinda and her family move into their new home in Chandler, Arizona. Leaving right after Sacrament Meeting, we drove all day Sunday arriving around 10:00 at night. It was very fun to watch the outside temperature rise as we continued south! We spent four days there trying to get boxes moved and unpacked. Elliot and Clark were the designated entertainment for Karen and Jackson. The highlight for 5 year old Karen was learning how to play Mario Kart 3 — she was sad when we had to leave and took the Wii with us! It was fun to see Melinda and Jared's new house. The pool looks fun, although it was too cold for us, but it will be great for their family this summer. We drove back all day Friday driving into Sandy during a slight snow storm. It was hard to come back from the 80-90 degree weather!
The next week of Spring Break we spent relaxing (well, Madeleine had to work quite a bit), but we did fit in a couple of movies, some bowling (for the boys) and some fun clothes shopping (for the girls!)
Thursday March 12th was Elliot's 15th Birthday which we celebrated over dinner and pie with the grandparents. He continues to get taller and older looking (older acting?...Hmmmm.) He is already starting to talk about driving, so I guess we need to start getting geared up for round 5 of driver's education.
Even though Elliot finished his Eagle Project last September and his board of review in December, we had to wait until March for him to finally receive his award. We planned it with our neighbors and friends the Perrys, whose son Keith was also receiving his. It was a really nice program with a slide show of the kids and an opportunity for each of them to speak for a few minutes. Of course we also got to hear some really nice things about them from their leaders. It was a great evening.
Dinner with the In-laws
Our life has been so crazy every since Loren and Anne became engaged, that we hadn't had a chance to properly meet Anne's parents. Finally we were able to get altogether and have dinner together. The Bogues invited us down to their home in Provo to make homemade ravioli together. It was fun and yummy and we had a really pleasant evening getting to know each other better. They are wonderful people and obviously really like Loren a lot. We are so happy that he can marry into such a great family.
Draper Temple
We were able to tour the Draper Temple again this month with several Spanish-speaking friends and their families. Loren came up from Provo to translate for us and we had a nice temple escort that was also Spanish speaking to help us. Our friends thought the temple was beautiful and were so happy to have been able to see it. It's always fun to do a little missionary work!
A couple of weeks later we were able to attend the temple dedication with our children. We had tickets to attend the 4:30 session in the temple. It took all afternoon really, because we had to be at the stake center at 2:00 and we didn't get home until past 7:00. But it was worth all the waiting to have such a great experience. We ended up being lucky enough to be seated in the chapel — a beautiful room that just happened to be on President Monson's way to the Celestial Room. So, the prophet, President Eyring and Elder Scott all walked though the chapel on the way back and forth from the Celestial Room. We all stood and President Monson paused to say hello to all of us and to shake a few hands of those closest to him. It was a special experience for our family that I will always remember.
The following Tuesday was the first day that the temple was officially open and Alan and I along with my brother Mark and his wife Cherry were lucky enough to be able to attend the 8:00 pm session. It was so fun to back there again, but this time participating in the ordinances of the endowment. There was a marvelous spirit and of course everything was so beautiful and new. How blessed we are to live in the valley of the temples!
Clark's Scout Campout
Now that Clark is 12 years old, he is invited to all the campouts. So this past Friday we packed him up after school and tuned up his bike and sent him off with his leaders and friends. They set up tents and camped overnight near the Jordan River. Saturday they embarked on their 25 mile bike ride. Clark hasn't been riding his bike a lot lately, but he did great and was only a little bit sore the next day. Only 25 more miles and he will have the Cycling merit badge! Oh, to be young again....
Loren's University Orchestra Concert
After many years of not playing his cello much, Loren was able to participate in BYU's University Orchestra. They performed Tchaikovsky's Cossack Dance from Mazeppa, Finlandia by Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan William's English Folk Song Suite and Dvorak's Slavonic Dance. It was a great concert. It is always great to see our kids continue to enjoy music in their lives.
Young Women General Broadcast
We finished the month with our last Mother/Daughter YW dinner and broadcast. Madeleine will be moving on to Relief Society which will be great, but there is a tiny little part of me that keeps noticing these little "lasts" that tug just a bit on my heart. My children keep growing up.
Every year I have had daffodil envy because mine would either come up with no flower or would bloom one inch off the ground. So, I pulled out all the bulbs and decided to enjoy forced bulbs from the grocery store instead. But, last year when Loren and I were downtown at the Conference Center, we saw the most wonderful miniature daffodils and I knew that I had to try again. So I did some learning about them and ordered some off the Internet. I was excited to plant them and see what happened. Well, they came up just great and I was thrilled, except that we live in Utah where we have a fake spring and then more winter — I now have a few hundred mini daffodils frozen to the ground. I really only got to enjoy them for about 10 days. So very happy and then very sad.