Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

(I thought that I had posted this a couple of months ago, but apparently I forgot to hit the publish button.  Oops!)

Our ward youth participated in the Surprise Stake Roadshows.  Each ward had 12 minutes to present their show.  They did an amazing job.  Their leaders, writer, director, choreographers... etc, did an awesome job coaching and teaching them.  The theme was Arise and Shine Forth.  The premise of their show was a young man deciding whether or not to serve a mission for the church. You can watch their show  here.  It's 11 minutes long.

In the opening Josh was the star, doing a mock up of this Old Spice commercial.  I was surprised, when I heard him practicing, at how low his voice has gotten.  I thought he did a great job being the cool return missionary or RM.  It was also funny that Josh played the older version of Sam, the Preemie (pre-missionary).

I don't have a picture of it, but if you watch the video you can see after the scene of Sam waking up, Tim rolls across the stage to remove his bedding from the stage.  They told all the prop guys that they were Stage Ninjas.  Tim had fun going along with that idea.

This scene was awesome.  It was cleverly written and the choreography was great.  I loved how well the kids played their Mario characters.

I loved the slow motion to the Chariots of Fire music.  It was a great way to start the scene.  Tim cracks me up again in this scene when he is kissing his muscles and showing off.  The boys all did a great job with their mad swimming skills.

   

I don't have a picture of the angel jumping on Sam's back, but that part is muffled a bit and you can hear the angel explain that he is a "shoulder angel".  You know the kind that sits on your shoulder and tells you what to do.  So he is not attacking Sam, just trying to take his proper place on his shoulder.

 I love that Sam is holding Tim up there by his pants.  Tim kept leaning forward so Sam had to grab on to the back of his shorts.  Sam's cheer training really helped out in this show with his jumps and with lifting Tim.

I could not have been more proud.  They put a lot of hours into this in a short amount of time.  They had to squeeze practices in between Sam's cheer (they are getting ready to go to Nationals at the end of the month) and tennis schedule, Josh's track schedule and a big physics project (he along with another boy in the roadshow and a girl from school have had to build a car out of cardboard that Josh will be driving through a course at school.  BIG PROJECT!) and Tim has been being the school mascot at his school sports events.  They have been running ragged, but they have had a good time and the results were great!

Daniel's Baptism

My sweetie pie, Daniel, chose to get baptized.  We are so proud of him and his commitment to the Lord.   He truly is a great example of kindness and obedience.   He loves his new scriptures and has been using them lots.  He glowed with happiness that day, he was so excited! 

Since Sam is 16 and a priest, he was able to baptize Daniel.  I tell you, it does not get better than this as a mother, to have two worthy and Christlike boys who are choosing to do such wonderful things.

(Sam is looking might tan from all the tennis he has been playing.)

 Since it was the day before Easter, we let the girls wear their Easter dresses.  They were little rays of sunshine!

 Madi was just baptized recently too.  Gram and Papa had a gift for each of them.

 Daniel with Grandma and Grandpa Alger

 Lucky me to be in a picture with these two handsome fellas!

 Gram asked Sara to show her stuff, while the rest of us were getting ready for a family photo.

 Amazingly we did get one picture with everyone looking and smiling!

 We had to get a family photo with our tenth child Victor as well.  He really is one of the brothers.

 Gram and Papa Ely with Danny boy

 The girls were so cute lovin' on Papa.

 I love these pictures of the girls with Papa.  It is funny, but sometimes I forget that I have a decent amount of girls, they are just scattered amongst so many boys.

 Daniel got his own little hymn book from Grandma and Grandpa Alger.  He loves it!

 Love the twirling!

We were luck to have our dear friends, Elvis, Mary and Olivia here for the baptism, from New Mexico.

It was a beautiful day, full of family and friends.  

Flowers!!!!

I know I get a little crazy about my flowers every spring, but they make me so happy.  It is so wonderful to have our back yard put together and just enjoy it.  It finally feels like home here.  

I got some different kinds of daffodils this year.  It has been a long time since I had daffodils.  I love them!

I love my irises.  I have yellow white and purple.  For some reason the purple haven't come out as much this year, but the yellow and white are blooming like crazy!

I have lots of amaryllis blooming.  I love the splash of red in with my irises.

I planted freesia for the first time this year.  They are SO pretty!  I have pink, yellow, orange, lavender and purple in the flower bed along our back fence with the daffodils.  It makes me smile every time I see them!

I love the orange blossoms and tomato blossoms too!  It is exciting to think of the yummy fruit to come!

17 Years and a Wonderful Get-Away

Richard and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary in March.  As we were driving together out of town, we figured out that it had been 11 years since we had a get away, just the two of us.  We drove to St. George, UT and spent the night, to split up the long drive.  The next morning we headed off to Provo to stay with his sweet Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Randy.  We settled in and visited a bit.  Marilyn and Randy are wonderful people.  They are lots of fun and welcoming.  

That evening we drove to Salt Lake City to go out to dinner and a play with our dear friends John and Kim.  Kim's parents joined us for dinner.  Her mom is loving and warm and her dad is hilarious.  There was lots of great food and conversation.  After dinner we went to the Hale Center to see "Zorro The Musical".  I know, I know, "Zorro The Musical"?  But it was so much fun and the music has been addictive.  I bought the sound track when we got home and my kids love it!  It was full of real fire, flamenco dancing and amazing voices.  The Hale Center did a great job.  We had a wonderful time and loved every minute with John and Kim.

 

The next morning was a beautiful one.  Cool and clear weather.  We went out to  breakfast with Emily and Steve Craig.  Emily and I have been friends since childhood.  I love her!  Richard and I love talking with them.   We went to a very hip place in Provo for breakfast, Communal.  It was delicious! 

And BEAUTIFUL!

The mountains in Utah Valley are incredible.  There really is something magical and fairy tale like about them.  I get swept away every time I am there.

That afternoon, we went back to Salt Lake.  I went out with Kim and her sisters plus a couple of their friends for my first ever pedicure.  I can't believe I have lived this long and never known the joy of pedicures. You can't go wrong with massage chairs, foot and leg massages, pretty nail polish and wonderful friends. Her sister Tiffany and I talked almost the whole time.  It was wonderful to spend time with her.  Tiffany is an amazing lady and so inspiring, as are all the Loveridge ladies.  I always feel like one of the sisters when I am with them.

We took our beautiful feet over to a yummy bakery and ate fruit tarts and cheesecakes and chocolates and fresh bread to our hearts content.  We made sure to bring home a couple of goodies for Richard and John.  They had spent their time at basketball practice and cleaning the church.  They deserved a treat too.

We left before dinner and headed back for a quiet evening of rest.  We thought we were going to go to bed early, but I introduced Richard to Downton Abbey and we spent several hours watching episodes on Netflix. It was very relaxing even though at first it felt weird and indulgent to have so much time alone to just snuggle and watch a fun show together.  It was a wonderful treat!

Sunday we slept in and had a nice quiet morning.  We went to church with John and Kim.  They have a great ward.  Sunday School especially was fabulous.  They have an incredible instructor.  He taught a beautiful lesson about pressing forward with a steadfastness in Christ.  

We had dinner afterwards, at Kim's parents house.  They had a bottle of sparkling grape juice for us as an anniversary gift and an amazing layout of desserts to celebrate; chocolate mousse pie, banana cream pie and freshly baked cinnamon rolls.  The chocolate pie stole my heart!  The crust was divine, with walnuts and coconut in it!  Sister Loveridge is certainly a wiz in the kitchen.  We felt fussed over and loved on our special day.

That evening we attended their ward fireside.  The speaker was David A. Christensen, a member of the Oquirrh Mountain temple presidency.  His message of love touched me deeply.  He said that nothing really matters life, but love.  If we have the pure love of Christ, we will be filled with joy in our lives and in our families.  We will be what the Lord needs us to be and we will be able to serve and lift those in need.  I felt renewed in my efforts to live a more loving and Christlike life.  He was also hilarious, but sincere and inspiring.  I felt God's love through his words.

We knew it was going to be a late night, since it was our last night with the Bytheways.  We love being together and can hardly gather the strength to leave when we are there.  John went to bed after a while, he had had a long busy day as bishop and was exhausted.  Kim is the night owl.  Richard stayed awake for most of the night, dozing a bit here and there.  Kim is truly a sister friend.  I can't help but smile when I am near her.  We could talk forever about everything and nothing.  Time flies when we are together.  We didn't get back to Provo and in bed until about 5:30 am.  (I love you Kim!  Thanks for a wonderful weekend.  I wish there wasn't 11 hours of driving between us.)

Monday was a day of recovery.  We took it easy and watched some more Downton Abbey.  We also did some 2nd hand shopping and visited my sweet friend and hairdresser, Crystal.  She used to be our neighbor until about a year ago.  This is the second long distance hair cut I have squeezed into a vacation in less than a year.  She is so kind to fit me into her schedule when we are in town.  She always makes me feel so pretty!  

We went out with Randy and Marilyn to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  They are such delightful hosts.  We enjoyed our steaks while laughing and having fun being together.  They are both spunky and full of life.  It gives me a little skip in my step just being around them. 

We can't thank you both enough for allowing us to stay with you.  We love you both mucho!

Tuesday we did more shopping.  We got several different pieces of art, my favorite being "Christ Walking on Water" by  Julius von Klever.  Aunt Marilyn gave us a couple of paintings as well.  One was a giant painting that Richard's grandfather had painted of the Grand Canyon (we could barely fit it in the car) and one that his Aunt Ellen Afton painted of a forest scene.  The kids think it is cool to have a piece that their great-grandfather painted. 

 We visited more with Marilyn and Randy that night and tried to get to bed at a decent time so we could head for home early the next morning.  We also packed the car that night.  It was hilarious because both of us were dreading packing up, it is always such a big job.  As we finished in about 15 minutes we laughed because normally we are packing up 11 people not 2.  BIG DIFFERENCE!  Our early bed time didn't work out so well, we got sucked back into Downton Abbey for a couple more episodes.  

The drive home went by quickly, especially because I slept for several hours.  Thanks Sweetie!  It is great to be in a car for so long together and be able to talk for hours and hours.  We never get tired of talking about our kids or the gospel, and we had some meaningful conversations with out any interruptions.  That alone made the whole trip worth while.  There is nothing I love more than to spend hour after hour with my hubby.  He is my heart and soul.  Thank you dearest, for our dream get away together.  Let's not wait another 11 years to do it again!