Day One

I arrived last night about 8:30pm- we we landed, we were sitting on the runway over an hour almost as long as our flight. There was another plane stranded at the off ramp and we had to wait for another off ramp to exit the plane. I was really tired when I arrive to Stacy’s home. It felt like I had been traveling all day - I played one hour of Pickelball came home to pack for an hour and on the road to drive three hours to our Draper home. Karlee was able to take me to the airport and drop me off by 5pm- I boarded my flight and in the air by 6:15. It is nice to fly beats driving- it is still a full day for me getting here. Stay and Chad left early this morning 7am. I got up fixed Farrah and Enzo scrambled eggs, made them a lunch and drive them to school by 7:30 am. I was hungry and stopped by McDonald for breakfast on my way back. It is so pretty here. I enjoyed sitting in the parking lot looking at the beauty around me. Jude and Yeal do home school. Yael has been up and ready to go for the day- he is being very responsible- already doing his morning chores. Empty the dishwasher, feed their dog Rockie, take him for a walk, make himself a protein shake, such a handsome young grandson. I love his chipper attitude. I have the morning to work on my family history research while they work on their home work. I pick Farrah and Enzo up at 2pm- I would like to take a 2 mile walk once it warms up just a little. It is still cool in the mornings. It is a lovely day with lots of sunshine.

Flying to California

I drove down to our Draper home arriving just I time for Karlee to take me to the airport this afternoon. She is staying here a few days so she can spend time with her boyfriend that she is Dating. It is so pretty here in the Salt Lake valley- all the spring budding flowering trees are popping out - So colorful- I love this time of year. I’m flying to California to baby sit the Towner Grankids while their parents are on a trip this week. It is so nice to take a hopper flight out of Provo- it is only an hour and half flight getting there, beats driving all day in the car 14 hours like we did in March. Going to enjoy the lovely weather there this week. I’ll be back Saturday at noon- Only staying four days.

Beautiful Spring Day

Yeah the sunshine is out today😄feel good after a cloudy week going to enjoy this day- not forecast to last long - I have some more spring clean up outside- need to finish cleaning out my Hollyhock flower beds and the try tackling the raspberry patch- my raspberry didn’t do as well last year so hope to have them to better this year. Craig and I are going to enjoy our time outside- as long as my body will hold up- I fatigue quicker than I would like. Just the couple of hours I worked yesterday kicked my butt-

Easter From Noriega Family

Shar sent me some darling pictures of their family on Easter this year.

Happy Easter

We had a nice Easter sharing time with the Burbidge family in St George. The weather was cool and windy for two days- Easter Sunday was a warmer day we enjoy spending time by their lovey swimming pool and eating a nice brunch. The Easter bunny brought us a giant egg filled with candy- we all took a walk around the block and then got ready for church at 2:30pm. After church Trisha fixed us a yummy chicken dinner. We enjoyed playing Pickelball with Buck and Boston. We played a lot with their indoor court right next to our guest bedroom. We stayed four nights- come Monday we got up and packed up- time to head north. We needed to be home at the lake in time for our YSA activity this Tuesday- Craig and I are hosting a Pickelball activity. We made our 4 hour drive Monday to our Draper home. It was a quick stop over. Fun to come back to my Easter Decor in our Draper home. The weather was nice- I love all the flowering trees this time of year. They are so pretty along our sidewalk walking our two miles to the temple and back to our townhome. Tuesday we both had dentist appointments- Craig had a teeth cleaning and I had a follow up appointment for the Visaline orthodontic- to straighten my teeth. After visiting with the dentist I’m not sure I want to commit to a two year process - I have to wear the teeth trays 24 hours a day- taking out just to eat- I will then have to were a permanent retainer afterwards- it is costing $5300- I would really like straighter teeth just should have done it a lot sooner- Craig says it doesn’t bother him -my crooked teeth- I don’t think I want to bother with the process- I should have done it when my girls were wearing braces- guess I will just try to whiten them for now- we had to stop by Costco for food for our ysa activity - we ate lunch at Zoa one of our new favorite places to eat right by Costco- we then made the drive back to the lake- I made a green salad- we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs- they were yummy. We had a great turn out -we had 20 show up. Everyone had fun playing and learning how to play. It was a cool evening we needed a jacket. It has been a cool week, cloudy and raining most of the week. I have been working on my family history research steady each day for hours. Still finding the lost sheep in my family tree- it is so amazing how the sources are at my finger tips to review and attach to each ancestor. Wednesday I was tired and just rested and worked on my research- Thursday we were up and out the door by 9:15 to drive to the high school a 45 minute drive to watch Brandon Snow our Down syndrome YSA member sing the national anthem. He did a great job. The high school has a new football field- it was a very cool morning only about 43 degrees with a cool breeze. The kids all cheered all the special needs kids attending for a soccer game from three different schools-Brandon was so excited to have us attend and support him-

we then drove to Evanston for lunch and fill all the gas cans Craig has for backup storage- that filled our day - back home by 2:30 pm- the weather cleared a little with some sunshine to were we could get a 2 mile walk in- I was able to tinker in the yard clearing out my flower garden area on the highway side of our lot- I have had to cut down all the hollyhock stocks, gathering up leaves and stocks from last year- it has rained the past few days so the soil is moist a easy to rake - I worked some today too- the morning was cool again so I stayed in Bed to stay warm and worked till 2pm on family history- I found several sealings that need to be completed and added some missing children to family charts- it is brisket day on Friday’s- Craig brought us home lunch- from Mikes- I love their smoke brisket- Craig spent the morning working at my desk in our bedroom so he can be close by me. Both of us working -he paid bills and went through the mail I worked on my family history. The weather had a little break we were able to take our pickelball slinger to the City court and practise hitting balls- working on my backhand returns- we then were able to tinker in the yard a couple of hours- by 7pm I was beat and had to rest. I crawled back into my bed to rest I was out for the night early- it was a lovely day ending with a rainbow across the lake despite the cooler weather this week

our Easter family picture with the Burbidge family this year

Towner Family in California-

Thomas Family-

Craig and I Easter in our matching orange- we had a fun filled Easter weekend - we met up with Michael for lunch while in town Friday afternoon Michael, Jaxon and his girlfriend were in town and stopped by to have dinner with us and celebrate Karlee graduation from beauty school - we all had fun playing Pickelball together. We enjoyed spending time with our Grankids.

Karlee Graduation

We are Celebrating Karlee graduated from her Cosmetology schooling program. She had completed her 1600 hours of requirement to receive her state license. So proud of her hard work. Trisha has prepared a lovely dinner for us all.. there are several of Karlees friends that showed up to surprise her and her boyfriend Rhett. He came home from his mission about four months ago. They are dating now. He is really handsome, they make a darling couple. Karlee clocking out and we all have her a big Cheer !

love the darling snippy purse as a gift.

Easter time

I decorated our Draper home so fun for Easter this year- just haven’t been able to spend much time there to enjoy it. It did turn out so pretty this year. I did enjoy sharing with the Noriega family on Confernce weekend April 6th- we gathered for a yummy Easter dinner. I took pictures of all my creations- Happy Easter 🐣 I decorated a darling Easter tree this year- love putting out all the fun things I have collected over the years-

Heading to St George/ past weekly events

We are on our way to St George for Easter Weekend. Our Saydee Bug has the leading role in play at Utah Tech College where she is attending. She is preforming all this week. We are attending tonight. She changed her major this past fall to theatre. She is really liking it. So it will be fun to see her preform tonight. Saydee is now 23 years old. She performed in a short melodrama She did such a great job acting. She has a lot to memorize and then add all the emotion to her part -She is a natural. Go Saydee a new adventure for her. We enjoyed supporting her. 

Karlee is graduating from beauty school tomorrow. Good for her ! It will be nice to spend time with the Burbidge family this Easter weekend and have some warmer weather. We have had a spring cold front come in. It is cold and rainy on our drive down today. It will be warmer by Saturday. The cold front effecting the entire state with cooler weather the next few days. We do need the rain. We enjoyed our week and half at the lake keeping busy. The weather was warmer last weekend in that 70’s which is very warm for Bear lake this time of year. We had fun playing Pickelball on the outdoor courts all last week and this week. We play on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with our Bear lake Pickelball friends who also like to play. The weather was so nice Friday and Saturday we all had to gather to play more and enjoy the lovely spring weather. We had our last late winter activity on April 8th meeting at Epic rental having dinner and then going snow shoeing. We didn’t have very many show up. Guess their done with winter too- Craig, Brother Mark Smoot, Sister Rasmussen, brother and sister Droesbeke, Brandon snow , Kyle Cazier and Z were the only ones to go. Craig said it was slushy and soft deep snow- it was hard work. I wanted to go but my foot was hurting from playing Pickelball. I didn’t want to strain it any more and limit my time playing Pickelball for the up coming summer season. I must have hurt in playing the day before. Craig said it was a good call that I didn’t go. It is fun to gather and visit with those attending- we had the two Transtrum sisters, Jodi and Jeanalee, Misha Bayley, Jackson Pratt come and share dinner with us. Sister Rasmussen made a yummy pasta salad, with hoagie sandwiches, sister Chris Smoot made yummy peanut butter bars- we spoil our YSA young adults with good food. Craig and I enjoyed walking 2 miles each day in the bike path. We both are trying to loose weight. We are cutting way back on our food intake and getting more exercise. Playing Pickelball three hours a session adds to our activity and trying to walk each day. I did have to take a few days off to let my foot recover. Craig and I have kept busy tinker around the cabin getting g things out of the lower garage setting things out for the up coming summer season. We are excited to have it starting to warm up. I got out all my pots of bulbs I planted last fall. They are sprouting- it will be so fun to see the splash of spring colors bloom. We had a busy Sunday a church. It flet good to fellowship with our members attending. We had a great come follow me lesson time. The Transtrum sister spoke in sacrament and they both did such a great job. The spoke very inspiring messages -about the importance of prayer and keeping our covenants. I enjoyed hearing them speak and learning more about them. Jeanalee works with animals and shared about how taking care them is important to keep stressful situations level down and be calm. Communication is very important and ca. be hard with animals. Learning their body language. She then shared how communication with our Heavenly Father daily helps her to keep her stress levels down. She can share all her stress with him in pray. She shared how this has helped her greatly praying to God for strength in her daily life. I was so impressed with her knowledge about the animals and how she described how animals stress too and like people and learning how to lower the stress levels in a stressful situation. Keeping their cortisol levels down just as people we need to keep our cortisol levels down. Stressful situations can make the cortisol in our bodies rise and cause all kinds of problems in our health.. jody started her talk out, complementing her sister as she works with feral animals. She also works with feral adults in the health industry. We all had a good laugh. Jody works in the health industry and works at the Montpelier Hospital. She also talked about the importance of being calm and helping her patients even when it is even difficult. We enjoyed our linger longer time after our meetings eating the yummy food again. It my turn next month to plan some yummy linger longer meals. Craig had a busy Sunday meeting appointments and later he had a 5pm meeting with the Stake President- while he was gone I worked my family history research. I worked hard this week going thru sources and attaching to each ancestor I have been working on- it is a fun hobby for me- I’m taking the time to go back through family records and finding the lost sheep. Those that have been forgotten from their family tree. Last Thursday we had a Logan temple outing. I really enjoyed my time in the Temple. Craig and I both completed a family endowment name. We had only one YSA attend with us. We call him Z- he has autism but function well- he is a little hard to understand when he talks- he does like to talk and talked the entire time during our drive down Logan canyon. Nice to get to know him better. He served a service mission in Bountiful. He spent a lot of time at the Bountiful temple. He is very smart and working on his degree in criminology. Want to work as a police officer. Since our temple outing I spent the last three days working on James Fowler who married my cousin Josephine Neff Hart in 1904. He needs to be sealed to his parents- Josephine died in 1907 and I thought they might have had at least one child in their short time of marriage- ancestry.com had him linked to another family line. I took the time to go through all the sources which was over 15- very time consuming- come to find out the James Fowler listed is not my James Fowler- there are two different ones with close birth dates and born in West Virginia. They mostly could be related cousins somehow yet it don’t know the link. I felt I had gone down the rabbit hole trying to figure him out and have ended up still not knowing. So this linking family name by marriage is going to be left on the known shelf for now- time to move on. It is a a puzzle piece at a time linking the sources to the correct ancestor. I have to go through the sources to make sure they are linked correctly and this one found he woad not linked to this family branch- moving on to Josephine Neff Hart who is my bloodline and see how her children are linked in family search. I can see there are missing links that need to connected and temple work submitted. Tuesday April 16th we had a great YSA weekly activity. We met at Smoot home for a yummy pancake dinner. We then went to brother and sister Hufer’s who are elderly to rake up leaves. They had a lot of leaves to clean up. It went fast as a group effort. We had JacKson Pratt, Kyle Cazier, Lindsey, Z, brother and sister Droesbeke, along with Brandon, Brother and sister Rasmussen, and brother sister Smoot along with President symes and I. It was Chris Smoot’s 59 birthday- after working we all sang happy birthday 🎈 to her and ate yummy chocolate cake. Sister Huffer made variety of yummy cookies 4 different kinds- I have to get her recipe for the snickdooles I love them! They ate in the 80’s and getting harder to mange their yard. It was our joy to serve them. Wednesday April 17th so exciting we got our boat ramp cement poured. Craig called Chad on Monday the contractor that did all our work last summer to schedule a time to get it done this year. He was here two days later to get it done. So excited to have it done. It looks so nice. This pushed us leaving for st George a day but we will make it there today in time to see our Saydee bug perform. We drove down to our Draper home last night ti break up the long drive. We slept over one night at our Draper home. I spent the time to clean up and out the door we go for another 4 hour drive. It had rained on us all the way and snowed on top on the mountain passes. It will be nice to spend a few days in some warmer weather. I had Craig drive down our road by our Draper home this morning before we leave to see the lane of white flowering pears trees. My favorite this time of year- I wanted to spend more time at our Draper home to enjoy the short time they are in bloom but I was needed at the lake with our YSA calling- I did enjoy my time there this past week. We had a full week.

Saydee such a great job preforming - she is very talented

Conference Weekend

We have tickets to attend the Saturday evening Conference session. I have been so excited to attend and feel the unity spirit from all the saints attending with us. We have not been able to attend a session since 2019, it has been 5 years- since we last attended. It is hard to get tickets- So grateful that Craig was able to receive two tickets for us. We were only given 14 tickets for our entire stake. With Craig serving in the YSA branch presidency we have been blessed to have this opportunity. The church is worldwide and all can’t fit in the conference center.. it has been an inspiring conference. We drive down Wednesday morning for my noon appointment with the dentist, my six’s weeks cleaning- we planned to stay till Tuesday April 8th. We have to head back for our YSA cross country skiing activity and Thursday our temple baptism session at the Logan temple. The days go by all to fast. Thursday morning we played Pickelball at the dimple Dell gym for two hours and then we met Mike and Jodie Farley to play Pickelball with them for two hours- I’m improving on my skills and playing much better. Fun to play with them as couples- we then went to lunch. Trying to stay on our diet and lose weight so we pick a lower calorie place to eat. We went to a Chinese place I have never been Zoa’s it is really good- I was beat after 4 hours of Pickelball- we resting our afternoon nap. I have been working on family history research- I spent the rest of day doing research and tinkering in our Draper home. I decorated for Easter the two days we were here from our return trip to California. It has been fun to have it all decorated to enjoy for the spring months. I love Easter decor. Friday we played Pickelball again for a couple hours. We went to lunch to Leatherby’s and shared a hamburger meal and had a Carmel sundae. I love their Carmel sauce. I have not been there for many years. I think the last time my mother was here for a visit. Over five years. It was yummy!! I spent the afternoon cleaning our three bathrooms and back to my family history research. Saturday I took the time to clean and beautify myself for the day. Craig went to Thanksgiving point to look at hot tubs- he came home and said he bought a new hot tub for the lake we have had out hot tub for 24 years. Craig has been amazing to keep it running and repaired over the years. It still works but leaks- it will be nice to have a new hot tub- I enjoyed the morning session of Confernce. The talks are all so inspiring. After the morning session we stop Thanksgiving point son Craig could show me our new hot tub. We then drive out to see the Chaudhry family. Shannon has been very sick all week with terrible migraines-not doing good- I had invited them to come to dinner this Sunday- Noriega family is the only ones able to come while we are in town. After the after session Saturday we dressed and headed out the door for the evening session at the conference center. The talks were all so wonderful- I so enjoyed our time. Today I have loved all the talks and look forward to reviewing them all- I live feeling the Holy Spirit teach me. Central theme to cleanse our lives and prepare ourselves for that second coming- a a people ready to receive the Savior for his second coming. I have prepared a yummy Sunday dinner. Just waiting for the Noriega family to arrive. They should be here about 5:30pm- it will nice to share some time with them this sabbath day- out prophet 100 years old was able to speak the closing talk and announce another 15 temples to be built. Temple are dotting the 🌍 earth. Such a marvelous thing to witness in my life time.loved our evening session at the church conference center. So inspiring to gather with 1000 of saints