First week of April: General Conference, J cheer tryouts, Prom for A

 

 I loved General Conference weekend. I particularly liked, elder Renlunds talk on spiritual momentum(he said, 'the savior's job is to heal, our job is to love), elder rasbands talk on how words matter (say I love you, I'm sorry and thank you often), Elder Uchtdorfs talk on happiness, Elder Oaks' talk on covenant relationships and President Nelson's talk on temples. President Nelson said, "Time in the temple will help you to think celestial and to catch a vision of who you really are, who you can become, and the kind of life you can have forever...we are promised that in the temple we may 'receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost'. Imagine what that promise means in terms of having the heavens open for each earnest seeker of eternal truth...Here is my promise. Nothing will help you more to hold fast to the iron rod than worshiping in the temple as regularly as your circumstances permit. Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world's mists of darkness. Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement or help you understand God's magnificient plan more. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain. Nothing will open the heavens more.

Just after the Saturday afternoon conference session, Scott and I were deciding what to do that night. We remembered we had one more evening conference session, so I suggested we run to home depot and get stuff to put shelves in our linen closet, which we'd talked about doing for awhile. So we did that, came home and he cut the wood while I cleared out the closet and took down the three old wire shelves, and then during the last session of conference we listened to it while we installed the shelves and then organized the linens. It looks SO much better! I hope we can keep it this way. 

 

Charles is still going strong with his piano lessons and enjoying that. He even moved the keyboard to his bedroom. 

Annabelle got asked to another Prom 4 days before said Prom. She borrowed a dress from Sariah to wear for that one. Sariah and her friend Becca Fielding were in that prom group which was nice. 

Jane had tryouts on Saturday and made high school cheer! She's pretty excited! I'm excited for her, although I'm not looking forward to the 630am practices a few times a week that we'll have to drive her to. Families make sacrifices for each other and this is one of ours. 

Spring Break- Jane's 14th Bday and St George/Zions

I write an email to Elisabeth each week; I decided that rather than writing up two seperate updates, one for her and one for the blog, sometimes I'll just copy and paste those emails to this blog. Here's last week's email to Elisabeth:  "Hey Elisabeth! We sang I believe in Christ at church on Easter Sunday, one of my favorite Hymns, and Grandpa Garnica's too. 

We had a nice spring break but I wish it were longer! I'm very much so looking forward to summer break and having more time off. I loved this week of hanging out with everyone. We celebrated jane's birthday on Tuesday with some krispy kreme donuts and french toast for breakfast. She wanted ham and cheese sliders for dinner, but not until Friday in  St George so that everyone would be there (charles worked on her birthday and Annabelle had gone up to st george early with sariah. ).

 We brought drew with us so Charles could have another guy there to hang out with since he didnt really want to go. We went to Zions on the way in and did the Scout Overlook hike. Drew and Charles continued on to do angels landing. You're supposed to have a permit to do that portion, but no one was there to check so they went. I wish I would have because i've been wanting to for some time and I actually tried to get chosen to do it the past two times we were down there and never was selected (and you have to pay to try to get selected and you don't get your money back). I'm still hoping to do it sometime. We'll see. I didn't because they still had the sign up there at the beginning of that portion that said permit only. and I was nervous about the steep sides that I'd heard about. Although once they were back, Charles and Drew said it wasn't that bad. Next time. 

Friday morning we rented ebikes at the base of snow canyon and had those for 4 hours. So we rode around the canyon and got off a couple of times to do short hikes to the lava tubes and the sand dunes. We had one accident; Jane crashed while going down a gravel trail, trying to keep up with the boys. But she was tough and got back up and they rode down to the car and got her bandaged up (that was after we'd been riding for about 3.5 hours so they just finished up then). That was the most fun I've ever had in snow canyon! We'll have to go again once you're back and do ebikes. 

We went to Wing Stop for dinner. Saturday morning after trail run with dad, dad went to Bishop's Grill and got one of their giant cinnamon rolls for $5...the Drake family told us about them. It was bigger than Nora's head!  Even with 6 people eating, we didn't finish the entire thing.  We took off back for home but we stopped at the cedar city temple to do baptisms (i made an appt beforehand which was good because they were busy). Overall it was a nice trip. We love you so much! "

Youth Hike, Fiddler on the Roof, spring soccer begins

I love the church's youth group program and that they get to do activities together each week. This particular week they went for a hike in draper. Jane couldn't make it because she had a mandatory cheer tryout meeting (Scott and I were at that too). Jane does not like hiking so she was not sad about that. We usually don't even use the word 'hike' in the house anymore if it's involving the kids because it's become a sort of trigger word for Jane; so we prefer 'nature walk'. :)

Scott and I like to go see a musical at Hale Center theater every year. Sometimes we'll do a couple in a year. This year the one we wanted to see the most was Fiddler on the Roof. Hale always does such a beautiful job, and all the seats are good which I love. 

I jog a few times a week, a couple of those times with Penny, and on this particular Wednesday morning I went out with Penny and starting running down my driveway while trying to put on my gloves and hold Penny's leash, and I tripped on the curb and fell. I was wearing long pants and although they didn't get ripped in anyway, I noticed a little blood from underneath. It didn't look too bad after the first day, but by the 3rd day it got darker and started scabbing over. Falling when you're older seems to hurt more than when you were younger. I've gotta try not to do that; but it seems I still take a fall almost every year. 

Spring Soccer is in full swing. Both girls have had games. The weather is still not the greatest yet, but some days are better than others. I just always try to come prepared with not only chairs in my trunk, but also blankets and umbrellas because you never know what you'll need. 

Mid March Winter Hikes

We're planning another trip to Grand Canyon in the Fall, this time with couples, and we're just starting to get back into it. There's still snow on the ground in the mountains, but it's mostly packed enough that we can hike with our spikes. We went to Salt Lake Overlook/Desolation Lake which was 5 miles roundtrip, and took less than 2 hours. It started out cold, but we warmed up fast as we always do when we're hiking.

Nora couldn't make it to one of her youth activities last month when they were painting copies of the Book of Mormon. So they let her take one home with some paints and she was able to do it on her own time. We looked up some ideas on Pinterest and she found one she liked. Beautiful job Nora!

This picture shows a glimpse in our life. Nora rushing to get ready before her carpool picked her up, making a quick breakfast (or was it for lunch?) on the front room table while she watches the window for her ride. They came and she left this here all day. 

In Ecuador, Elisabeth wanted to make our cookie recipe with some of the members there so I sent her the recipe. They've made it a couple of times now. 

A week after our last hike, Scott and I hiked Horsetail Falls. It was 4.2 miles roundtrip, and took about 2 hours. It was a beautiful sunny day and not too cold! I was worried we wouldn't have snow and we had packed spikes and sleds. But after a short while we hit snow and hiked with it the rest of the way. 

I got some new crampons off amazon and they work great! We borrowed sleds from our friends the Campbells and took them up. Unfortunately after our first attempt down they broke! So we carried them and ran down. We ordered them new ones off amazon as we drove home. I love amazon!

Nora felt like decorating a cake one Sunday afternoon, and she decided she wanted to make it look like Elisabeth. 

Since Scott's birthday in January, when he got an Olympic bar and bench/rack, we've been exercising together at least twice a week, lifting weights, which has been nice. Sometimes we'll hike together on Saturdays too.  

Sadi responded to Charles' prom invitation in a fun way! Post it notes everywhere.