APRIL 2022

April found me still in Washington watching Austin and Laura's kiddos for a couple more days.

I got to take Evan to his first baseball practice!

We watched a TON of General Conference and did all sorts of great BINGO activities and then had FHE about the Last Supper and how it was also during the PASSOVER.  We ate some "unleavened bread" using naan bread and some "bitter" herbs using Spring mix.  It was a good discussion and activity.  (Notice the honey on the table...well, that was good on naan as well!)

Monday was HAT DAY at school during Spirit Week.  Everybody got in on the act!

Dad and Mom got back Monday night...

...and Tuesday Scott arrived to liven things up a bit, or to become a big pillow?

We of course got out to do some BIRDING with whoever would go with us!

This Osprey was really great!

We also saw tons of Great Blue Herons nesting near one of the rivers we walked by.

Austin and Laura and Clara were great birding buddies!

We love some of the unique birds to this area like the Red-breasted Sapsucker.

Clara was our buddy during the day when the other kids were at school and we had lots of good times!

We did get the kids out with us one day...

And they loved seeing things like these Wood Ducks near the river trail.

We also got to take pictures of the family that has grown up with Microsoft...as Austin transitions now to Google mid April.

When they started out, they just had baby Brooklyn.  A lot of great changes for those 10 years!

Back in Utah it was back to business as usual...like more birding?

This is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, which normally does not show red at all, but we have found if I play a recording of a kinglet song, they get sort of excited!

Spring means the return of our migrating water birds like this Black-necked Stilt.  I love their pink legs!

We also love the Sandhill Crane returning to the fields near our home.

And, the return of our very own Say's Phoebe that sleeps on our porch every night.  He's back and we love to hear him sing at night and early in the morning as he comes and goes.

It is not just birds that we see in the spring.  We have seen some foxes out near the lake that are so pretty.

We have gone to temples pretty much each month with our YSA and we love that.  This is at the Provo Temple.

This little guy is a rare Harris's Sparrow that we actually found and ID'ed at the north shore of Utah Lake.  We were pretty excited to get to report him.

A highlight this month was celebrating McKenna's graduation with her Master's Degree in Exercise Science from BYU.

She is such a hard worker and has finished her classwork and is working on her thesis now.

BYU holds only one graduation annually now so we got to celebrate early!

The college of Life Sciences is the largest group of all the graduation ceremonies on campus so it was a long wait, but very good speakers and such.

Seems just like yesterday McKenna was graduating from the U of U and then Braden from BYU.

The next week I got to take my whole Preschool up to BYU via bus.  This is a favorite field trip and so exciting for the kids!

I wear them out walking all over campus and we love the Eyring Science Center to explore.

This is the traditional "Tree of Life" statue photo.

And, the BYU COUGAR photo.

These are really great kids!  I am going to miss them in a few weeks when school is over!

Mid April we took Carole and Lori to TULIP FESTIVAL at Thanksgiving Point.  It was chilly but really a good time to walk somewhere beautiful and talk and be together.

It has been such a cold year that the flowers were slower in blooming but still very pretty!

We have loved seeing some more spring birds like this cute Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

And this Earred Grebe.

Another Temple trip to do baptisms this time in the Provo City Center Temple. It was a sweet experience taking a new member from our Ward.

We love TULIP FESTIVAL and got to take Bree and Elliot and Braden and McKenna later this month.  The tulips were much more open this time...just beautiful!

It was a little cold and windy, but we had a great PICNIC CHARCUTERIE near the gardens that was a lot of fun!