First half of May: BYU women's conference, hiking Lower Falls Bell Canyon, Mother's Day photo

Women's Conference 2023! Our group of service volunteers was supposed to run the "Autsim Caterpillars" (filled with beans, these weighted caterpillars provide comfort) service project in 2020, but then Covid turned out world upside down and we had to store the 700 caterpillars we'd sewn...until this week when we were able to bring them out and finish them off with the help of thousands of women who came to help for a couple of hours! There was such a beautiful energy in the room. It was nice to spend the day soaking in the uplifting messages from teh speakers (my friend Jackie Barron did amazing speaking on mental health) and then to spend the evening serving with friends (several of the service volunteers hiked Grand Canyon with me) surrounded by women who were there to give of their time and love. 

Elisa Ludwig and I randomly came across our name engraved on the sidewalk on BYU campus and ahd to get documented proof...our name is not all that common in the USA. 

We were delighted when Elder Brad Wilcox dropped by to express his love and gratitude. He fills the room with love and light. 

Shauna Eccles was our leader in this project(and she's a dear friend) and she is amazing! 

Kim and I still like to run together on the weekends. Our runs aren't as long as they have been in the past because of my hip, but we still manage to go for 6-8 miles and we've been doing more trail runs as we signed up for a trail race this summer. 

Lani messaged me while i was at work saying Spencer had his end of year program so I ran in from recess and got to watch him perform for a little bit. They're all so cute. 

Our hiking group has started up again! Our first for the season was Lower Falls Bell Canyon which was around 5 miles. 

Elisabeth is home from BYU since she finished finals the last week of april and I was happy to have her along! 

Mother's Day I wanted pictures together with the kids. We tried going to the 'color wall' in bluffdale, but we went in the afternoon and it was way too sunny for photos. So we decided to go out again after dinner just before sunset, but this time around Daybreak lake. 

Not sure about Jane's face in this picture :)

I am so grateful to be a mom to these kiddos. I love them with all my heart. Being a mother is one of the hardest and most rewarding things I've ever done. It is definitely my most important work.  

I am also so grateful to have Scott as my husband, eternal companion and father of our children. He makes life beautiful and I love spending time with him, no matter what we're doing. 

This is how I feel whenever I'm out in nature! In awe and wonder of all God's beautiful creations! 

Charles brought his fishing pole to our photo shoot so she could get some fishing time in while we took turns taking photos :). He didn't catch anything this time, but he did the next week! 

 

2nd half of April: California for gymnastics, Nora's 11th Birthday

March 8th Lani and Spencer moved out as lani got engaged to her boyfriend from WA and he moved  down here and they got an apartment together. April 11th Lani and spencer moved back in but then a few days later they moved out again, back with Sky. The next week, Thursday April 20th Lani and Spencer moved back in again and this time I told her if she moved out  again, she wouldn't be able to move back in again as it's disruptive to our schedules.  They left again Sunday April 24th. It seems things are working out okay for them. 

 I got Spencer to make his own sandwich! He didn't want what we were having so I told him he could make a sandwich; I told him how and he followed instructions and it turned out great!

Wednesday April 26th Jane and I drove to St George and stayed the night  at Elisa L's new house. Thursday morning we woke up, I went for a jog (and let some workers into the house who had showed up hoping to put in screens etc on the house; I stayed until they were done which wasn't long) and drove to Long Beach California  where we stayed the next three nights for her gymnastics regional tournament. 

Thursday - we stayed at the Inn at 50  hotel which was walking distance to the convention center where they would be performing and also from the hotel where most of the team stayed (ours was cheaper by half which is why we went with this one).  

We had fun exploring the area together, trying some new foods and just spending time together. 

Friday was when Jane competed. 

We did some cute bubble braids. 

Jane did well. She placed in one of the four events and scored great on everything, but because there's so many more people and many scored high, it was tough competition. 

Later that night we met up with some of the team and their parents for dinner and to take some pictures along the beach. 

Saturday morning we drove out to the LA temple and did baptisms. We also drove around Beverly Hills; it was fun to see all the cute houses and lines of palm trees. 

I ran along this boardwalk a couple of times while we were here. 

Every day we were there, I easily got over 20,000 steps since we walked nearly everywhere. 

While we were away Nora had her 11th birthday. We opened gifts before we left though. 

On her actual birthday she had a soccer game and Scott took her and Aly out to dinner after. 

 Nora got to hold this cute puppy while she was at a friends house.