MARCH AND APRIL 2017

It was a sweet and very busy March and April for us!  Not a day with out something going on!

We had some sealings to go to...(Caleb and Elizabeth Leonhardt)

We had a APM Dinner to host.

Scott went a day ahead of me to see the placing of the Moroni Statue on the Rome Italy Temple.

I joined him later that day and we stayed at the Rome Mission Home with our friends the Pickerds who we served with in Phoenix. He was Area Seventy at the time.

It was fun for us because we knew all of the missionaries serving in their ward since they came through our branch at the MTC.
We even saw two of our most recent that we had been in church with in Provo the previous Sunday!




We spent the next couple of days touring around Rome...and eating gelato.

The
--> Coliseum in Rome.

The Duomo in Florence.

Near the Ponte in Florence.

At night in Venice.

On a gondola in Venice.

At the Duomo in Milan.

On the roof of the Duomo in Milan on a Sunday.

That same Sunday at the Allens in Milan.  They are Mission President and wife there.  We watched conference with them and met 4 of our former MTC missionaries again!




Then we spent about 5 days in the beautiful Cinque Terre area hiking and enjoying the 5 quaint villages along the coast.

 We stayed in Monterosso and went out from there each day hiking to different towns.

This is on our way to Vernazza from Monterosso.

Here is Scott above Vernazza.

We stayed in a cute little bed and breakfast high up in the town with over 100 steps to get up to it but a great view.

We really did not get souvenirs on our trip, but when we saw these ceramic houses, we could not resist!  Someday they will be the focal point in a room!

When I got back from Italy, the yard was so pretty!  Everything was in bloom!

And I got to be with LOVE IN BLOOM with Breanna and Elliot for their engagement photos!

Then we went back to France the next weekend for another week so Scott could cover the Open House for the new Paris Temple.

This lovely window is in the Visitor Center there.

The Temple is in Versailles, which is a huge palace with a more huge garden area full of fountains and on special days with water shows and music piped in.

We were lucky to go after church on Sunday when it was one of those days!
We spent all afternoon there!!  Incredible!!

Then we went to stay in Paris for a few days.  We walked up the Champ Elyees to the Arc de Triomphe.  Sporting our BYU jerseys for a photo op.

We went to the Eiffel Tower in the evening and decided first to go up the elevators to the top, and then after, to get a photo with the lights on.

We met up with one of our Returned Missionaries from Paris and she suggested we go on a boat tour of the Seine to see everything from the river.

Here we are with Christie Mejia on our boat.  It was us and a bunch of Chinese tourists.

We spent the next day at Notre Dame with the gargoyles...

And the Louvre.  Huge.

Yes, we saw the Mona Lisa picture from 100 yards away.  :)

Yup, that is it behind the crowd.

It was not very big, but it was lovely.

We had gone to about 6 other museums including the SEWER MUSEUM.

 Yes, they have an interesting tour underground about how they built the first sewer system and such.  Stinky but interesting. (That big ball was used to clean out pipes)

One of our favorite places was the little Hamlet Marie Antoinette had built in her area at Versailles.  It was so adorable!!

Back in Utah it was back to work and school and more weddings!

Andy Marble and Rachel.



And back to our branch we had neglected.  Almost ready to go to Italy and Romania!!

FEBRUARY 2017

That's it!  We need to make sure to take a photo at our family get-togethers to prove that we get together...and my blog posts would be more interesting!  February brought lots of getting together with people that are important to us, but I do not have photos to prove it!

We went up to help Carole and John unpack in their new home a couple of times and had such a rewarding time getting lots done!

We celebrated birthdays with James family too and had a lovely dinner together!

We had the Janulis over for a week while they were attending Rootstech in SLC.  Here we are with one of our RM's at the Saturday Family event. The speakers were great and it was fun to see some of the booths at the expo center.
And...I have spent hours this month working on Family History just checking things out and trying to attach records through Ancestry to some of our ancestors.  I need lots more practice to really find some of the missing dates though...it is completely addicting!!

February we also hosted our monthly RM Dinner on a Sunday evening.  We love those times to catch up with them and see how they are doing.  Lots more couples are attending as they are finding companions to stay with a lot longer!

Monthly we also host a FHE group for older ward members...we call it "Wheezin Geezers"  You will never guess who made up the name for our group... Hmmm.

Anyways, it was at our home again this month and such a fun group!

I think you know that I serve on Prove Energy Board.  I was able to help out on an additional committee December and into January to help decide what to do with solar charges and how to support that type of energy while still making it fair for non-solar customers.  We were able to make recommendations to the City Council that they have adopted and we will see how it goes!  In February we also had a house bill that would have been really tough for Provo if it passed...regarding using Energy funds to help pay city services through a transfer to the city budget each year.  With Provo being about 50% tax exempt properties, they cannot fund city services like police and fire and street lights etc through property tax alone because the 50% who are not tax exempt...like us...would be paying for big tax exempt groups like BYU and City, County and State Government buildings to have those services too.  Luckily, many city leaders met with the proposer of the bill ahead of time to express those concerns and it was shot down.  Whew!

February has been more WEDDING PLANNING around here.  These are the ADORABLE dresses I found for the little girls Brooklyn and Mackenzie for the weddings.  I will put flowers or a sash to make them look good for both color combinations.

We are enjoying very much having Braden live back at home and this means we get to see McKenna a bunch more too!
And we love the phone calls from Breanna with wedding detail updates!  A beautiful dress is the latest acquisition!

So...we thought we were done with snow...


And this week, Wednesday it came down so fast that it shut down Provo roads.  It took Braden 45 minutes to get to campus and me 25 minutes to get back from home to the Rec Center making me miss a class.  I kept thinking that maybe another northbound road would be better, but they were ALL like snails.  An hour later, it was all under control!  Crazy!

But, there is hope.  Our brave little crocuses have been blooming throughout the snow and all.  I know Spring is truly on the way.

Faith is sort of like that dormant bulb in the ground.  I know the crocus is there, and that it will come up when it is time.  I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father that I know is there too.  I see the evidence blooming in all the good things around me like YOU in our family and so much more.

I know there are tough things.  There are really bad things. And I will try to do my part to make a difference for GOOD to help out.  I'm trying to focus on the positive, look for the bright side.  I'm not always successful, but have found a real connection to being positive and "turning outward" and the level of joy in my life.  Just a thought.

And, to finish up my month...(actually to start off March)  I had time to go to our beautiful temple and it was the most cold and lovely day outside too, I just had to snap a shot!
Wish you all could have been there to just sit and visit!
Love you all!!

JANUARY 2017

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL MY PHOTOS OF FAMILY EVENTS

I was just getting used to it being January and now it is February...
It seems like forever ago that we celebrated NEW YEARS 2017 but yes, we partied a bit!








We have a tradition of making crowns that we started with the grandkids, so we kept it up this year and all were very beautiful...and Scott's was well, EDIBLE!  (I ate the chocolate later!)

We can only hope that it really is "The Year of Chocolate!"

We love our assignment at the MTC in our Branch there.  This month we met one of Dad and Carolyn's friends, Sister Lehr, from their ward.  She is in the center next to me pointing to ROMANIA where she will serve!

She is one of the NICEST young ladies we have known at the MTC!

We loved going to Cody's EAGLE COURT OF HONOR this month!  We are proud of him for this accomplishment and just for who he is and who he is becoming!

It was an honor for Scott to get to introduce him and then to see how much other ward members admire him as well!

This month cousin Corby Gardiner invited us to attend his daughter Michele's violin concert at BYU.  This girl is AMAZING!  She is professional beyond measure in my book!
Fun also to see Frank and Lillian Gardiner there as well as Corby's wife Melissa (not pictured).

We still hold our monthly RM dinners and this month we had a lovely group of our returned missionaries over.  We are having more and more that bring a spouse, or fiance, so it is fun meeting new friends too!
Sharp group of wonderful friends!

We were glad Susan let us know that Marty would be in town for the SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL and that it worked out for us to get together with him one night.


Cute picture of the twins enjoying seeing something with him.

We enjoyed seeing his film and just visiting with Marty.
It was cool to see some of his puppets too.

This month in preschool we have studied pets.  Well, our betta fish had died during the year so I bought a couple of goldfish for the kids to look at, but the real fan is Addie!  She gets up on the table all the time now just to check them out and hover around them, sometimes getting pretty animated!

This past week when I ran, it was super foggy outside and when I stopped at my neighbor's  house, they said "Your hair is all frosted!"  Well, by the time my phone was "unfogged" enough to take a photo, most had melted...but you can see a bit of how it must have looked!  Natural frost job!!

I realize I have not done a good job of photo-documenting our month.  We spent a few days up helping Carole and John move into their new home in South Jordan and that was fun and a lot of work.  Spent about a week helping neighbors move out and clean...and now we don't want to ever think about moving!  At least not this month!!