February 2015 Recap

My Pop is standing on a cinderblock with his five brothers. There were eight children in all!  

One of the projects that has kept me the busiest is a family history project I've been working on with my Dad.  We realized we had a lot of personal histories of Pop, and my Dad's high school memoirs, but not so much was known about the generation before - of Pop's siblings and parents who lived in Star Valley, WY.  That generation is almost all gone, along with their memories, so we all felt it was important to record.  Dad felt an acute urgency to get this history compiled and organized, so we gathered several journals and books and scanned pictures and interviewed Pop's brothers Kay and Al at their homes in St. George over Thanksgiving.  Uncle Kay's two children had been after him for years to write his personal history, so he spent several hours talking about his life and answering questions.  Little did we know that three short months later, he would pass away suddenly and unexpectedly!  We were so grateful Dad followed that prompting to gather this history, as it is the only memories his children have of them.  What a gift!  KEEP A JOURNAL!  RECORD YOUR MEMORIES AND TESTIMONY!

We kicked off February with a Joint Activity.  I get so anxious when planning activities.  I'd much rather present a lesson or give a talk than try to plan an activity that will please a large group of youth with varying ages and interest.  This group of youth are amazing, though.  Really.  They are so awesome and positive and kind to eachother.  I can't imagine a better group anywhere. 

Our Ward Youth

A cute sister in our ward majored in Theater education.  She is the Primary Chorister, and it is a BLAST to watch her teach those kids!  So much fun.  She teaches an after school drama class at the Elementary school, and I had the inspiration one day to see if she would be willing to teach improv to the big kids.  She readily agreed and did SUCH an amazing job!  The kids did so great in getting up there and just acting silly.  It was such a fun activity!  

Diddles has had a "wiggly tooth" for several weeks, and she finally went to Dad to pull it out.  I think it was so shocking to her that it was really gone!  She looks a bit rough in this picture, but it captures her utter shock that her tooth was really out!  These milestones never get old, even the third time around.  So exciting! 

We had a long President's Day Weekend this month, so we took off a couple days early and headed down to UT to visit family.  It was a quick trip, and our first time driving down in one day - we drove straight from noon to midnight.  We had a bit of car trouble to start off the trip with a dead battery, and once that got sorted out, we discovered a defect in our make/model van that if the tank is topped off, it sputters and sometimes stalls once you start driving again!  Terrifying.   Josh found a page with hundreds of car owners who have the similar issue on their vans, so until the part is recalled, we can't top off the van all the way.  Good times!

We had several fun days with Nana and Papa - decorating cookies, going to the Science Center, and enjoying the spring-like weather outside!  It was fun to see cousins and aunts and uncles and new baby "D". 

The 60-degree weather was "too hot" for these cool weather-loving kids!  Yaks said, "Can we turn on the sprinklers?"

Baby "D" - we just can't get enough of her squishy smiley self!

Trying to build a tower to the ceiling!

We took a little trip down Josh's memory lane and took a tour of the house that Papa built and they enjoyed many of their childhood years.  The home was being put on the market, so Angie called and made an appointment to view it.  It was fun to see the adults recalling where things were placed, and what they would do in the various corners of the home.  Always fun to realize how much BIGGER things look when you are a child!  

A favorite feature for all the kids was this gatekeeper window in the front door that allowed you to talk to someone on the porch w/o opening the door all the way.  Diddles thought that was magical.  

We spent a couple days up in Logan with my Parents, and Cath and her family came up as well.  We made sure to grab a Glaus Bakery cake for Mom before we left Salt Lake.  We all attended church together and made a big Sunday Spaghetti dinner before hitting the road for home.  

 The kids missed their class Valentine's Party at school, so it was fun to return Monday with a bag of goodies and notes from friends.  Diddles said in response to the notes from classmates:  "Oh, that was so friendly!  I just love these Valentines!"

A few days later we celebrated Josh's birthday with fish tacos, cream soda, and a chocolate cake.  These kids sure like to make birthdays special, and we all love our Dad (Josh).  We got Josh a new church shirt and an Ironman backpack for his workout clothes.