April 2017

How does time pass so quickly! 

APRIL

I finished up a quilt I made for Christian and Heather's first baby. It was truly a labor of love, as I am not a natural seamstress! I love how it turned out, and it was fun to tackle a creative project.

Geoff went to a YGL event in Buenos Aires, Argentina and had a great time connecting with amazing people.

Ceci had his typical welcome home sign.

We updated our passports, which is only tolerable when anticipating future travel!

We had an early Easter with egg coloring and baskets. Some thought the tactile experience was more interesting than the painted product...

The girls really wanted to drop them off the balcony. No. So they went down to an empty dumpster on the street and threw them as hard as they could.

We took a Spring Break trip to Southern California. We stayed with Geoff's dad and his new wife, Robin in their home in Vista, California. Geoff and the girls took surf lessons every day and got pretty good! The weather was a bit cool, but the sun and sand and salty air filled our souls and we felt ALIVE!

While in a coastal town shop Geoff ran into a YGL friend from the Netherlands. He and his family were finishing up living in California for a year. We got together a few times over the next few days, our kids hitting it off. It was so fun to get to know these great new friends.

On Easter morning we gave the girls a surprise egg. It was a beautiful Easter.

Back at home, we met up with the Serafins for a hike to Friar's Peak on Antelope Island. We got eaten alive by biting gnats, a bit like a pestilence, really, but the views are spectacular. It felt like we were in Ireland, or in the middle of Lord of the Rings. Stunning!

(If you are wondering what my hair is doing in the picture above, I am too.)

The rest of the month was busy with meetings for the Waldorf May Faire, coming up in May, arranging for a snack booth for Ceci to have at the May Faire in an effort to earn some money for Korea, and a CHOICE Humanitarian breakfast where Adele helped out as a member of the youth board. In addition, Ceci gave her first sacrament talk, where she was a total natural! She also auditioned for a class play at school and got the lead. Her cute teacher wrote each student a little card about why she felt they were perfect for their part.

Ceci immediately memorized her lines and was in search for the perfect costume. This picture of a wig was sent to her teacher for approval, in character, of course. How could you not love her?

She had a deal with another tom boy type of girl that they would both wear frilly dresses to school. She left the house like this.

Ceci's class also learned math through opening businesses. There were bake shops, snow cone shacks and fish for sale, among many other little vendor stands. Ceci's was A PHOTO WITH MOTOMOTO (from the movie Madagascar). I paid a dollar.

Geoff had a meeting downtown and rode his skateboard. He took it into work and was caught walking through the office like this.

March 2017

We kicked off March with a private Elton John concert. Our friends, the Serafins, got Geoff, Tennie and me tickets. Zig works at Qualtrics, who sponsored the concert. It was great to hear familiar, legendary songs, but it was overwhelmingly LOUD, and Geoff and I listened from outside the arena. I felt old.

Tennie with Sela Serafin. 

The next morning Tennie and I joined youth conference up at a private home on the top of a beautiful mountain near Kamas, Utah. It was planned by the two wards with youth this year and was perfect. We only have about 30 active youth in our stake, and they really bonded well and had a good time. We missed Ceci, who was still home sick.

They had an Iron Chef competition.

We went tubing on a groomed hill.

After awhile all of the youth connected their tubes and went down in mass.

There were lots of games in the barn gym.

We heard from the outgoing stake young men's president, Gary Crittenden, who is now the managing director over the missionary department, we watched a Face to Face event and had a testimony meeting. It was fast and fun, and there was a LOT of snow!

We've been trying to eat better. Life seems to consistently knock us off the healthy eating saddle, but we keep getting back on! Look at a few of our dinners! YUM!

I got together with a few friends to celebrate my dear friend Ashley's birthday. She is a gift, so creative and able to make life beautiful in every way. (Left to right: me, Heidi Horlacher, Ashley Serafin and Erin Mecham, Ashley's sister.)

I spent a long weekend in St. George helping my mom pack up her house. She sold her home and is building a new one. It was a whirlwind of boxes and packing paper, but she was ready to go by the end of the weekend. We came across my old Baby Beenie doll (actually my second, I'm not sure what happened to the first). My brothers used to so lovingly tease me by singing, "What does Baby Beanie do? Baby Beanie beans on you! One, two, three, four." I was always so offended and hurt. 

I got to see my brother Mitch and family a little. I love his boys Tag and Pack.

After missing seven weeks of school, Ceci finally recovered her strength from mono and got back to a normal, daily routine of school, chores and play around mid-March. Seven weeks. That is a long time to be out sick!

Tennie turned 17! The night before her birthday she and Geoff went to get her driver's license, so she could officially say she got it when she was 16.

She drives herself and Adele to early morning seminary!!! And she drives herself to activities, orthodontist appointments and even taxied Adele to her CHOICE board meeting. I missed out on a whole year of this! But at last it happened at last.

We walked to a new restaurant downtown to celebrate her birthday. Other than that it seemed pretty uneventful since she only wanted money and planned her own birthday gathering with friends on the weekend.

Adele had emailed Tennie's friends asking various questions about Tennie. She compiled a little book of friend love and gave it to her after dinner. Tennie loved it!

She and some friends gathered over the weekend for hanging out at the mall, going out to eat and riding bikes in the rain. They spent a lot of time at our house playing the guitar and singing and lounging around enjoying each other. Tennie is easy to love and be with.

Other things that happened in March include going with Ceci's teacher and her family to the Temple Square Choir and Orchestra Spring concert, taking sewing lessons every Wednesday morning to make a baby quilt for Booch and Heather's baby and getting a special spa treatment from Ceci that included a 45 minute foot rub!

Adele and I put a little package together for cousin Eli who had his tonsils out. When the girls were little and had a bad sickness, Mormor would send them a little package of things to do. It always cheered them up and brought so much love. To help Eli feel Mormor's love we collected little Dollar Store things Mormor would have sent, and I got to deliver them and spend a few hours reading books and talking with this cute little three-year-old. I love to see how the family is inspired in different ways to continue Mesha's influence as a mother and grandmother.

Ceci and Bailey could have been mistaken for robbers in our building one day.

Our lobby is getting a major makeover so we've lived with construction and dust. On a more exciting note, Geoff's dad got remarried in San Diego to Robin Rienking. We got to listen into the ceremony online and look forward to a visit to their home in April. Adele planted a small garden on our balcony that includes peas, strawberries, lettuce and variety of herbs. It is an experiment as we only get morning sun and this Spring is quite cool so far, but she is diligently watching over her growing, living things!

And on the final days of March Geoff left for the World Economic Forum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It wasn't one of his easier travel days. He woke up extremely dizzy, running into walls and feeling nauseated. Strange, but he was going anyway. He missed his connection in Atlanta by ONE MINUTE (seriously, the guy just closed the doors and wouldn't let him on the plane) due to weather and had to be rerouted through Rio de Janeiro for a seven hour layover. Making the most of the layover Geoff went to the beach and while distracted by a tattoo vendor, a towel vendor stole his backpack with ipad, shoes, sacrament journal with a lot of personal thoughts, and other small things in it. After getting his phone at the hotel, he and a policeman tracked down the thief using the ipad finder function, but when heading up the stairs of the apartment building the ipad was turned off and they weren't sure which of the 10 floors/apartments it was in. He had to make his flight and leave his belongings in Rio. He made it safely to Argentina, though.

On to April!