2 events to be documented

Hope of America Student Showcase - This is a huge chorus of students from all over Utah County that sing and do actions to patriotic songs. It is the vision of a lady named Kathy Macdonald and somehow I got to be her assistant director 14 years ago when it started. I did that for 6 years and then turned it over to Natalie when I went into administration. She did it for 7 years.
This year we came together and the two of us led this huge chorus. We did a great job I must admit. Here we are waiting for the show to begin...
In between some of the songs they have other performances. Jean's Golden Girls is a group of ladies over 50 years old that dance. At the very end, they have their oldest dancer do a solo - she's 92 and she can do a high kick and the splits! You gotta watch it.


St. George trip - We took Jake with us for a short trip to St. George. The main reason for the trip was to see Brian Regan at the Tuacahn. Click here if you don't know who he is. Super funny, clean humor. We love him. Here we are waiting for the show to begin...
The next day John & I did a 30 mile bike ride in the morning. John & Jake did a mountain bike ride in the afternoon. Here's Jake dropping off Clavicle Hill - a four foot drop. Very impressive.

We ended the evening at one of our favorite places in St. George. Short, fun trip.

Girls Get-together

Everyone should have a girls day out at least once a year. My mom, my sisters Jill & Tanya, and I joined thousands of other women at BYU Women's Conference. We've attended several times and I always enjoy it. We really missed Alicia and hope she can join us next year.They came to my house Thursday night and we had a sleep-over - lots of late night chatting! Friday morning we headed to BYU for a great day of inspiration and bonding. We went to dinner at Mimi's afterwards. Mom and Tanya stayed over Friday night as well. Great fun!One of the sessions we attended was called "All Things Done in Order." Two women shared ideas for getting your house/life in order. One suggestion I really need to incorporate in my life: "Make the wastebasket your best friend."

As many of you know, this will be my first summer off in six years and I can't wait. John asked me what I'm going to do with all my time. I say there's not enough summer for all of my projects. After hearing the women talk about order, that's priority #1 - dejunk! Good luck to me.

The Good Life (that's what we live)

King of his castle...A day at the nearby park with Jyson (self-portrait)15 seconds of pure joy (& self confidence)

The Life Cycle of Roses

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I'm a lucky girl. Johnny loves to give me roses and I love to get them. This is the life cycle of roses at my house. They live, they die, they get hung, they dry, they're put in a vase, and eventually, their petals join the millions that have gone before them. It's a beautiful thing.
P.S. I just have to mention that I have found a new website with super cute backgrounds. It's my new favorite - thatblogplace.com. Check it out.

Our door is always open...

A few months ago my friend Kelly invited me to join her on a bike ride on June 6. It's called The Little Red Riding Hood. You can read about it here. I'm not sure how many miles I'll ride but I'm excited to get back into riding. Last Monday John & I rode about 14 miles up Provo Canyon. It was beautiful. (Then came the snow - see below.) By Saturday it was beautiful again, so John and I drove a little south to ride. We parked the truck, unloaded the bikes, and hit the road riding towards my sister Tanya's house. It was 12.6 miles from the truck, a perfect halfway rest stop. I parked my bike and walked up to the house to find the door open. I walked in fully expecting to find my sister and her family, but the house was empty. I used their house phone and called her cell phone. My brother-in-law seemed a little confused when he answered. They had left their house that morning and been gone all day and weren't too happy to hear their door was open - still not sure how that happened. They were only a few minutes from the house so we waited and said hi to them before getting back on the road. 25 miles on the bike. It was a good start to bike season.
So, I REALLY enjoyed Spring Break. I didn't, however, enjoy the heavy snowfall in the middle of Spring Break, which made it seem more like Christmas Break. (Check out the poor trees bent in half under the weight of the snow.)Another highlight of Spring Break - the basement is one step closer to completion. Here are John and Jake painting the trim: Next step, paint the walls & ceiling and then carpet. I'm so excited about that.

Also this week, we finally got all our initial adoption paperwork turned in (more wait time now) and we refinanced our house. Very excited about both of those items as well.

And finally, a game of Scrabble with Jake to wrap up the week. (Beautiful weather and green grass - a welcome site after the snow.)Just a little taste of summer - bring it on!

Is the Easter Bunny real?

I want to start by saying how grateful I am for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the real reason for the Easter celebration. It gives me great comfort to know that I will live again. My families will live again. I loved hearing John explain this to Jyson. We are blessed to have the Gospel in our lives. Eternal perspective and my faith in Christ give me hope and peace for which I am very thankful.

Saturday we had an Easter Egg Hunt, organized by some fun families in our ward. Each participating family provided 14 eggs filled with candy and one egg that was empty on which we wrote our last name. While hunting, each child found one egg with a family's name on it. The child took it to that family who provided a prize for them.This is Jyson and his friend Scott, eager to start the hunt. Notice the lovely wet weather in the background.This is Jyson with his stash, and his prize from the Liggett family. Fun idea.

As for the Easter Bunny...

I don't remember the Easter Bunny coming to visit me when I was little. We always got chocolate Easter bunnies and such, but it was just from Mom & Dad. That said, we decided to have the Easter Bunny visit this year. And to make it a little more exciting we decided to make it a hunt. After a late Saturday night scramble, Jyson woke up Sunday morning and found this note: He looked a little confused but after he found the second note directing him to our room, he was off and running. From there he was sent back downstairs, then under his bed. Here's that note:

After John's police car, he went to the piano room and finally found the basket.He told me later he knew I wrote the notes because I have a purple pen (the notes were in purple), but the Easter Bunny brought the basket. Sounds good to me.

After that it was time for dying Easter eggs.After Stake Conference, Jake came over and started on his Easter egg hunt. His clues were a little harder and took some thought. He's in deep think here (with Jyson checking his every move):He was happy to finally find his basket:Next year we're going for a trickier, longer hunt. We'll see how that goes. We were sad McKelle wasn't with us for Easter, but aside from that it was a beautiful day.

Just because...

These beautiful roses are from my sweet husband. Just because...It doesn't get much better than that. I am a lucky girl!