Wednesday, April 29, 2009
We have managed to fill up our April with so much that it's hard to believe that we're at the end already. Our April started with a wonderful general conference filled with inspiration and encouragement to help us through each day. My favorite quote was from President Monson. He said, "Your future is as bright as your faith." When he said that I was filled with so much peace because I was reminded that even in a world that appears to be falling apart, we have been promised great blessings of prosperity, even into the eternities, if we are faithful to the covenants that we have made with the Lord.
After conference we moved on and celebrated James' birthday. I think his favorite part of the day was taking Thomas golfing with him. They rented a cart and Thomas just went along for the ride. He was apparently a very good cheerleader, even when the ball took a plunge in the lake. Thomas thought that was the best shot of the day. James says he'll never go golfing alone again.
We then moved right along to Easter. After having such cool weather, I was glad to see a warm day when Easter morning arrived. I think the sun was shinning on that first Easter morn. The Easter Bunny visited us on Saturday while we were away at Grandma's having an Easter egg hunt there. The kids were able to find their baskets right away. Next year I'll have to leave a note to the Easter Bunny instructing him to hide the baskets a little better.
After Easter the kids and I packed up and flew out to North Carolina. It was an unplanned trip brought on with the passing of my grandmother. Although it's sad to have her totally gone from this earth, it is truly a blessing to have her move on. She has had Alzheimer's for the past several years and had rapidly deteriorated in her ability to care for herself and even respond to things going on around her in the past several months. I am filled with joy to know that she will now have the opportunity to listen to and accept the gospel that she was so uninterested in here on the earth. While in NC we were able to have several days of just hanging around my parent's house. They were on spring break for the first several days we were there, but everyone had to go back to work and school the next week. Jenny was able to work her schedule a couple of mornings so that she could spend the morning with us. While there we were able to go to the children's museum, visit Duke University gardens (they were beautiful), pick fresh strawberries and make jam, visit the train park and go to a "young child festival" put on by the city, and of course play with all of Grammy's toys. My favorite part was just being at home and not feeling guilty about sitting around reading and soaking up some sun or taking a nap while the kids did.
Pirate Tom at the children's museum.
Hailey and Grammy planting a garden at the children's museum.
Climbing the tree with the "Do Not Climb" sign on it at Duke Gardens. How come grandmas don't have the follow any rules?
Feeding the geese at Duke gardens with Jenny.
Climbing Thomas' "Mountain" at the gardens with Aaron and Alisha. Thomas was hilarious. Somewhere he got the idea that this was his mountain and spent the entire time taking us on a guided walking tour of all that there was to see.
This was the jungle that was on Thomas' Mountain. There were animals like lions and elephants and birds, but no koala bears.
Walking down the strawberry patch. Yum, I love fresh strawberries. It had been so long since I'd had any that I forgot just how delicious they really are.
Hailey and Grammy planting a garden at the children's museum.Climbing the tree with the "Do Not Climb" sign on it at Duke Gardens. How come grandmas don't have the follow any rules?Feeding the geese at Duke gardens with Jenny.Climbing Thomas' "Mountain" at the gardens with Aaron and Alisha. Thomas was hilarious. Somewhere he got the idea that this was his mountain and spent the entire time taking us on a guided walking tour of all that there was to see.This was the jungle that was on Thomas' Mountain. There were animals like lions and elephants and birds, but no koala bears. Walking down the strawberry patch. Yum, I love fresh strawberries. It had been so long since I'd had any that I forgot just how delicious they really are.
Hailey had to find just the right one. She even went as far as taking the leaves off too. She just wanted the juicy berry in that basket.
Jenny was able to come with us. It was nice to have her around in the mornings while everyone else was at work and school.
We happened to be in town during Young Child Week and hence were able to participate in a few activities that they were putting on. This one was a carnival complete with a play about a dragon, an obstacle course, blow up toys and a free lunch. I was able to meet the other stay at home moms from the ward there and had a lot of fun being back in the Sanford atmosphere.Thomas loved the blow up toys, but hated every minute we were in line to wait our turn. He did pretty good reminding me we had to wait our turns. Like I was the one who needed to be reminded.
Up
Over
Down
Through
Our last night there we hung out in my parent's back yard. This is a tree house that was built for my little sister and will soon be condemned and will possibly be replaced by a newer and better one. The kids still thought it was pretty cool.
This is a small tour of my parent's back yard. Kelley and her friend Janice are in front of me.
Aaron was able to break from his never ending studies to come and spend our last night there with us. Thomas quickly put him to work playing boy things with a gun fight and a wrestling match and lastly a sword fight. However, Hailey is usually in on these things too and you will see that she is the one who knocks Aaron down in the end. Tough girl.
You might be wondering what James was up to this whole time, but don't you worry, he kept very busy himself. He spend several nights helping a friend do some finishing touches on his basement. He also helped his dad begin building a new fence in their backyard. He was also able to find time to tear out some of the old sheet rock in our basement and other various junk items down there. Someday our basement will be finished too. I told him that if he missed us too much to just throw some toys around. He never got to that point, so he must have kept himself busy enough.
Now we're on to the beginning of our busy summer. Our main focus right now is training for the Wasatch Back which is in the middle of June. We're also looking forward to lots warmer weather, our garden, several reunions, a trip to California, probably several camping trips and much more!
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3 comments:
Hailey looks just like her mom.
Wow, Aaron is really good at naming those vehicles! Good job!
Oh I love the picture of the kids in the bamboo also, it's like "Hansel and Gretel" in "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon".
It looks like you guys had so much fun in NC. We are glad you are back! It seems like we haven't seen you guys in forever! I love Thomas' and Hailey's easter pictures, they are adorable!
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