April 1: We went camping for the first time this year! We drove up to the Williams Lake Campground--it's become our annual first-camping-trip-of-the-year spot. The twins opted to ride their motorbikes up, and Ammon had to work and came up later, so Josh, Kanyon, and I rode up in the truck pulling the trailer. The weather was great, and the boys were antsy after a while, so we decided to go hiking on a trail around the west side of the lake late that afternoon. It was beautiful!
April 2: We came home from camping (after our usual 24 hours round trip), and watched the afternoon session of General Conference. We were so excited to learn that a new temple in Pocatello had been announced that morning!
April 3: This was our first day back to school after Spring Break, and my first day back to my regular job working in the kindergarten and developmental preschools after having a 3-month hiatus from it while I was student teaching in a 2/3 split grade class. It was also the 100th day of school! We usually celebrate that day in March, but with all the snow days and the elementary days off for parent teacher conference this year, it happened much later! It was a fun day to get back in the groove of things! Monday night was the Championship game for college basketball. Our family filled out brackets once again to compete with each other for the best score. Each successive round of play earns one higher point, so the more teams you choose that make it further on, the higher the gain! For the second year in a row, I picked BOTH final teams that competed in the championship game! However, last year, I had North Carolina pegged to win, but they lost, so this year, I had Gonzaga beating North Carolina, and North Carolina pulled out the win! It's exciting to me that I did so well in the past two years of brackets because I'm not interested in, nor do I watch any of, the college basketball games in the regular season! I won the family contest this year with 82 points--Micah got second place 2nd with 73. He did the best picking the winners from the first round of games, and he picked NC as one of the final teams, and he also picked NC to win--he's the only one in our family to pick the actual overall winner! Josh came in 3rd with 70--he'd also picked Gonzaga as a finalist, followed by Ammon (63 pts), Kanyon (60 pts), and Jonah (54 pts). It's fun to be involved with the NCAA tournament through this friendly competition!
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| No April Fools--we received more snowfall! |
April 4: Ammon had his first golf tournament of the season. It was scheduled to be in Rigby, but they'd received several inches of snowfall the previous night, so the tournament was moved to a course in Rexburg. Josh drove the bus for the HS team, and when they stopped for breakfast at McDonald's outside of Rexburg, the bus quit! So, they waited for another team's bus to come pick them up and take them to the course. The bus got towed to an auto shop, and another bus driver came down from Salmon to pick them up after the meet ended. Ammon did EXTREMELY well at the tournament! He shot a 77! His best score yet in a HS tournament! He got 2nd place overall and was so excited! What a great way to kick off his season!
April 5: Jonah and Micah both ran track this year on the middle school team. Their first meet was in Challis, on the newly installed track there. They both ran the 800m and the 1600m this season. Thankfully, the 800 isn't until about halfway during the meet, and the 1600 is near the end, so I was able to leave school a little early (Josh took the afternoon off from bus driving) and we still made it in time to watch both of their races. In fact, we had plenty of time to spare, so I ran a resume over to their district office while we waited for their first race! In the 800, Micah finished 3rd with a time of 2:42, and Jonah finished 4th right behind him with a time of 2:43! In the mile, Micah got 5th place with a time of 5:44. One of his goals for this year was to be able to run the mile in under 6 minutes, and he did it on his very first race of the season! Jonah's time was 6:10 to receive 8th place. For his very first track meet, Jonah ran terrifically! It was a beautiful day, and I'm so glad that Josh and I were able to go watch the boys--we were so proud of them!
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| We ate at Challis Lanes afterward, and I ordered a "Viking Burger"--it had the biggest onion ring on it I've ever seen! |
April 7: I received two awesome gifts on this day! 1: I got an email from my college saying that I was officially finished with my Bachelor's program and I'd earned my degree! After all my years of work, it was an anti-climatic ending, but a wave of relief came over me and I was filled with gratitude! 2: In the mail, a package came from our friend Sam from England. She'd sent me a beautiful wall hanging that she quilted by hand. It was a gorgeous, thoughtful gift, and the timing was impeccable! I immediately rearranged wall hangings in the family room and hung it up. It goes perfectly with the room! I love it so much!
April 10: Ammon had another golf tournament at Jefferson Hills in Rigby--except this time there wasn't any snow (it was just really cold) so they got to actually play there! Unfortunately, Ammon didn't play as well as he had the previous week. This is always a special date: it was mine and Josh's 19th anniversary. He was gone all day driving the bus for the golf team, however, so we didn't actually celebrate on this day. We'd already taken our anniversary trip at the end of March, but I surprised him with a few small gifts after he arrived home that night.
April 11: Josh signed up to participate in the Beaverhead Endurance 55K run in July, so we began training over Spring Break in March. We discovered that I could bike about the same pace as he could run/jog, so we started exercising together on a 3 mile loop near our home, then we increased it to 4 miles in April. One night, Josh wanted to get some practice hiking rather than jogging, so we rode our bikes together to a spot on Williams Lake Road, and then we stopped and he hiked up to the top of the mountain and waved down at me, where I was gladly waiting (since he hikes so much faster than me, and it hurts my knees to walk downhill after the hike). I observed the pretty scenery around me until I knew he reached the top, then I slowly rode my bike back home, and he arrived about 15 minutes after me! I enjoy exercising with him!
April 13: Jonah and Micah had a track meet at West J. I took the afternoon off, and Josh came with me again, too. He had to pick up a piece of equipment for his golf course at a company in Idaho Falls, so we took the truck and flatbed trailer, and drove there first to pick it up. On the way back to Terreton, though, one of the tie-downs snapped and the equipment started moving on the trailer, so we pulled over and fixed it. I was so worried that we would miss their races, but we didn't! And once again, I still had time to drop off a resume at the district office! This was the biggest race the boys went to all season long--there were a LOT of schools there! Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating, and the longer we were there, the colder and windier it got. It was hard for the boys to run against such strong winds! They said it helped them down one side of the track, but fought with them as they ran on the opposite side! In the 800, Micah was 9th with a time of 2:43, and Jonah was 14th with a time of 2:48. In the mile, Micah battled head-to-head with Nathan at the finish line. It was an exciting finish! He barely lost by two tenths of a second. He got 8th place with a time of 5:54. Jonah's time was once again 6:10, and he received 16th place. On the drive home, we continued through the storm front, driving in a snow storm until we passed Gilmore Summit.
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| Battling it out to the finish line! |
April 15: The Rotary Easter Egg Hunt was handed over to the Eagles this year, so the Hunt was at a different location and run differently than in years past. Kanyon is the only one young enough to participate in our family (and only for one more year). I took him to Railroad Park, adjacent to Saveway, pretty early. We found the roped off location for his age group, and realized it was the smallest area of the whole egg hunt, had the least amount of eggs of all the different age group areas, and as we waited, it quickly became the most populated hunt, too, because so many teenagers showed up to participate, although it's supposed to be for ages 12 and under! That was frustrating! When the whistle blew, his age group was totally done in about 30 seconds flat! Thankfully, he still came away with some eggs, so it wasn't a complete disaster. After the egg hunt, we drove home, packed up the car, picked up the rest of the family, and drove to Tremonton for the Perkins Annual Easter get-together. Josh and Ammon took their golf clubs and went golfing as the other boys dyed eggs at Grandma's house. Then my dad offered to take me out to dinner to wherever I wanted as a reward for graduating college, and I chose to go to Tandoori Oven in Logan because I'd never had Indian cuisine before, but had always wanted to. I got some Taco Time food for the boys for dinner, then they came with us to Logan and we dropped them off at the movie theater to watch Lego Batman as my parents and Josh and I went out to eat. The meal was SUPER delicious! I was a bit sketchy at first because the restaurant is inside a gas station, but I was very happily surprised. I loved it! I ordered the chicken coconut sauce with rice, the Naan bread was very light, and the frozen Mango drink was sublime. It was a nice meal! Afterwards, we visited Katrina and Dan and saw some of the renovations they're doing on their home before picking up the boys from the theater and heading back to Tremonton. It was a lovely evening!
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| Guess who's?! |
April 16: Easter Sunday began with Easter baskets. All the boys received their favorite chocolates and new clothing. The boys and I went to Sacrament meeting with my parents, then we walked home early with Grandma to get ready for the festivities. Josh drove to SLC that morning to pick up our friend Eve from the SLC airport--she'd gone home to England to visit during spring break at BYU-I, and was just returning back to the states. My siblings and their families began showing up and when everyone arrived, dad opened a birthday gift from Tabbi, mom gave the annual rules, and we started with the egg hunts--adults in the backyard first, then the kids in the front yard. Mick was triumphant with the silver egg, and Tawna was victorious with the gold egg. After the egg hunts, and the tallying was over, we ate our traditional ham and potatoes lunch, followed by naps and games. We played Telestrations with Eve and Tabbi's young Iraqi Refugee friend Zhara. It was the most interesting Telestrations game I've ever played before--as there was some language barriers involved and the results were diverse! We also played the chubby bunny marshmallow game--Ammon and Tabbi were the winners!, and the saran wrap game. My mom improved the saran wrap game by cutting the saran wrap into shorter sections, so it made it harder to peel! Then it was time for dessert, and farewells. We had such a fun trip to Utah, and Easter was very pleasant with my family! I'm so grateful for the effort my parents put in for memorable trips such as these!
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| Bryce loves to photo bomb! |
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| Eve's first American Easter |
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| Dan and Bryce had a two minute head start because neither one of them has won the silver or gold eggs before. |
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| The kids watching the grownups act like children! |
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| I love this photograph! |
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| We're pretty serious about the egg hunt! When one of the eggs rolled under the fence into the neighbor's yard, we worked to do whatever necessary to retrieve it! |
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| Waiting for the kids hunt to begin |
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| I always find it funny to have a room full of people all on their electronic devices simultaneously! |
April 17: My diploma arrived! I was so ecstatic! For Family Home Evening, we finished coloring the eggs we dyed at Grandma's house, but hadn't decorated yet. We all made our own minions (just like last year!).
April 19: Ammon had a golf tournament at Pinecrest in Idaho Falls. He is such a suave dresser! Thankfully, Josh drove the bus for it, and let me know how it went as I was unable to go. Ammon played very well, scoring an 82, and tying for first with teammate Creed! They had a playoff at home to determine the champion, as the prize was one sleeve of nice golf balls and they didn't want to split it! Thankfully, Ammon won the play off and won his first golf tournament of the season! Yay! The tournament had started fairly early in the morning, so they arrived home early that evening. Josh went to work when they got back to Salmon, so I went on a walk around a 1.5 mile loop by our home and enjoyed sitting the hammock for the first time this season until he got home!
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| I loved the variety of colors in our tulip bed! |
April 21: The boys had another track meet in Challis--but this time it was on a Friday, so I didn't have to worry about taking time off for it! I drove up to Darby that morning to drop off another resume, before coming back to Salmon and meeting up with Josh to go to Challis together. Kanyon was planning on coming, too, but he backed out at the last minute. Little stinker. Sometimes he gets too stuck in his zone at home and doesn't want to venture out, becoming more like a hermit every day. In comparison to the previous week's meet at West J, this was the smallest meet the boys competed in all season. In the 800 race, there were 10 runners competing, and they were ALL from Salmon! It was quite the sight! Micah got 4th place with a time of 2:37--his new PR! And Jonah was right behind him with a time of 2:42--also a PR! In the mile, Micah was 6th with a time of 5:47. Jonah cut 5 seconds off his previous time, and ran it in 6:05 to receive 8th place. Both boys had exciting finishes, battling it out with other runners: Micah barely lost by five tenths of a second to a runner from Mackay, and Jonah just barely beat fellow teammate Eli at the finish line by three tenths of a second! Ammon went on a date with Hannah, and they doubled with Eli and Victoria, as a day-early prom date because Ammon had a golf team commitment all day the following day and they wouldn't have been able to go on a day date prior to prom. They went shooting guns at clay pigeons and targets up near the top of the Old Dump Hill. They made sure to shoot where nobody was, but it was near a cliff, and the echos scared some people who were playing frisbee golf a little ways away below them, and they called the cops on the kids. As the kids were leaving, the cops came and pulled them over and gave them a good talking to. Then some friends of the people also came and pulled the kids over a little further down the hill, and scared them to death. They came home all shaking and told us the whole story. Josh and I had gone to the Jackson's house to play games, so we were all there when they arrived. I'm glad everyone was okay. What a night I'm sure they'll never forget!
April 22: Ammon's Junior Prom! He went with Hannah, and Eli & Victoria. Before the dance, they had dinner at Eli's house because Darcy & Phil made a nice meal of steak and twice baked potato for them. He had a fabulous time!
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| Josh went on his first dirtbike ride of season up the mountain where we'd gone bike riding/hiking to a few weeks earlier. |
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| What a handsome couple. Hannah picked out Ammon's tie. |
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| This photo cracks me up! |
April 23: Momentous night: Phil FINALLY won at playing Ticket to Ride (AKA the train game)!!! And look how close we were to each other at the end--closest game EVER! (Our colors are always the same: Phil is black, Josh is red, I'm blue, and Darcy is yellow). We just love playing games with these guys! We have the funnest times, just sitting around the table talking, laughing, singing, eating, and playing together! We are so blessed by Phil and Darcy's friendship.
April 25: Jonah and Micah's track meet was on home turf in Salmon! In the 800m, both boys got new PR's: Micah ran it in 2:31, and Jonah in 2:37! Amazing! Micah was just eight tenths of a second behind Nathan. He's been wanting to beat him in a race all season! In the mile, Micah got 6th place with 5:45 and Jonah came in 8th place with his time of 5:59. He made it in under 6 minutes for the first time this year! Woo-hoo!! Afterwards, I had to teach a piano lesson, so the twins went home with the Oliverson's. When I came back to town to pick them up and take them to the Community Dinner , we saw the biggest rainbow after a big storm blew through. It was breathtaking! The pictures don't do it justice!
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| R-L: Nathan, Micah, Eli, Jonah |
April 26: Ammon had a golf tournament at Teton Lakes in Rexburg.
April 27: It snowed AGAIN! It happened while I was outside at recess with the kids at school. Josh captured it nicely at the golf course. He had just mowed a strip on the fairways when it started falling, and you can tell exactly where he mowed because it stood out on the short grass (it's in the shape of a C in the distance):
April 28: I went on music tour to Utah with the high school choir and band kids. Even though none of my kids are currently in high school music groups, I asked to be a chaperone because I love going with them so much! Darcy was my chaperone buddy. We were roommates, as well as the only two adults on the bus with 26 students--the other 6 chaperones were on the bus with 12 students. A little unequally divided, you think? Anyways, we drove to Utah the first day, ate dinner at a nice Italian restaurant called Brio Tuscan Grille, walked around City Creek mall, and saw the Utah Symphony at Abravenal Hall. I loved the bus ride, the food, the symphony, and being with one of my besties!
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| A Chihuly piece inside of Abravenal Hall |
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| The guest violinist--she was simply amazing |
April 29: The band and the choirs each had competitions that morning at schools in Davis County. They each performed 3 songs and did an outstanding job. Then we headed to Lagoon for the day. It was sunny, and beautiful! I spent the day with Darcy. We went on Wicked twice--my favorite ride! We also went on the new ride Cannibal twice--and it made me a little queasy. I may have sworn on the ride when I went on it the first time--with children present. Whoops. I panicked. It was a fun day. And to top it off--our choir received first place in their category which was so, so exciting! My favorite parts of the day were playing Heads Up while waiting in line, spotting kids in the park throughout the day, riding my favorite rides with Darcy, and sitting on lawn furniture at Target afterwards to relax my hot, tired feet!
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| I love this jump shot of the choir men! |
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| Waiting to ride the Cannibal! |
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| There we are--screaming our heads off! |
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| First place choir member seniors and Mr. A |
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| This was my favorite picture from the trip! Priceless! |
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| Riding the Mouse with Dawn and Darcy |
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| Sweet foot rest! (literally and figuratively!) |
April 30: We began the day heading back to SLC (our hotel was in Bountiful) for the Music & The Spoken Word at the Tabernacle on Temple Square. I was surprised to see my friend Chris, and we sat together for the program. Unfortunately (just like last year) a person in the section right next to me passed out (due to the heat--we were in the high section), and the EMT's had to come and take her away on a stretcher. It's amazing how the program, which airs live, just moved on without a hitch! I saw my friend Jackie in the choir--which is why I sat where I did, so I could have a better view of her. She saw me and waved after the program. It was a beautiful service. We walked around the grounds for a bit, taking in all the natural beauty, before heading back to the bus, and beginning our long, hot drive back to Salmon! It was a fun trip, and I enjoyed the time with the fabulous youth and my buddy Darcy, but I was glad to be back home again!!!
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| I just couldn't get enough of the blooming tulips! |
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| I've never seen tree blossoms like this! |
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