APRIL-JUNE 2026

It was a beautiful Spring!  We had some great weather, then some freezes that took all our peaches and damaged other plants, and then it warmed up to higher than normal.

We enjoyed celebrating Easter with the local kids...fun to see Sydney's Easter dress.

We had our own little Egg Hunt that Sydney was proficient at, and Sylvan was happy to participate in as well.

We love seeing the cousins interact!

Scott and I took a trip in April to McAllen, Texas area specifically for birding and it was a great place to be!  We were out every day in different areas.  Lots of new birds for us.

When we got back, we got to take out the Activity Day boys on a birding activity at the Provo River Delta and that was a lot of fun as well.  Getting to use binoculars and use a phone to listen to birds is a win all around!

I took my classes up to BYU for our annual bus field trip and we had fun on a rather cold day exploring campus.

We met the Selfs over at Merril Oyler's home for a visit since he has been on hospice all spring.  He grew up with Perry in California.

Jenna came out to Utah for the Women's Conference and they got some Sylvan and Bree time over at Grandma Carole's.

I did something new this year in school...a MAY POLE!  It was so much fun!  I had been trying to think of something cultural for my kids with European ancestry and this was perfect.

We LOVE the progression on the mat for each month with Sylvan.  He is getting BIG so very FAST!

Austin and Evan joined us in Utah for a Father and Son's Camp at BYU and that was so much fun!  He got to meet Sylvan before the rest of his siblings!

We celebrated our MEMORIAL DAY a bit late since LeAnn was out of town on the real day.

We trimmed around the headstone and placed new flowers on the grave.  Then we went to Palisade Park for a family picnic and splash pad party.  

FIFA WORKD CUP was a big thing this year [artly in the US.  Austin sent Scott the Curacao shirt and he loved it!  We enjoyed watching many games together,

I got to take a week in June to go help Susan out.  She has had so many health issues since she retired.  She literally worked too hard for too many years!  We loved being together and got a LOT done!  This was a yummy Korean BBQ place that we really enjoyed!

Meanwhile, Braden and family got to go visit Austin and family up in Washington.  They had SO MUCH FUN and watched a US soccer game together in which the US won!

While McKenna was at Young Women Camp, I got to play with Sydney a few times.  One day we went to the Butterfly Biosphere and that was really great too!

Late June, Scott and I went to Manti for the sealing of Caleb Brown to Sarae.  We love Caleb and are so happy for them.

At our June family dinner, we got to watch Sylvan choose his Pokemon.  There were 3 stuffed Pokemon and he crawled right to Squirtle!  That's his guy!

We love our family and feel so blessed to be able to see many of them so often and each year!  Let the good times continue!!
 

JANUARY-MARCH 2026

You know it has been busy when it takes 3 months for me to post photos of what we are doing.  Sometimes it means we are just not doing much photo-worthy, but this time it is a busy several months!

We started the year hosting a friend party "White Elephant" tradition with old friends from the neighborhood.  We love these guys!

Sydney is into CATS so we got out ears and got some new cat toys to play with when she comes over.

We went on our first AVIARY outing with Bree, Elliot and Sylvan.  He is not quite into looking at birds yet, but he was a good sport!  We love the Aviary!

We had a trip to visit Austin and family in Washington this spring and enjoyed very much getting together at sporting events like this one where we watched Evan play soccer!  Yes, it was cold!

And here he is after the game!

We also enjoyed our first ever INDOOR soccer match with Brooklyn this time.  Really fun sport, very fast paced!

Sunday we broke out the new game "Cover Your Cookies" that we brought for the family.  It was a lot of fun!  We played while we waited for Austin to finish his meetings after church.

Valentines we celebrated with our family dinner group and our two local VALENTINES!

The next week we took off on our SAFARI ADVENTURE!  It started a little rocky with one day having all our flights get cancelled so we missed the first day of our safari...

...but WE MADE IT! And we had the time of our lives!

We went with our new traveling buddies, Robert and Jenny Nelson!  We were so glad that they asked to come along!  It was meant to be.  We loved sharing this together~

~the early mornings leaving at 5:30 AM were magical and the sunrise and sunsets were spectacular!

Getting to see all this wildlife in their own backyard was just a miracle!

Everywhere we went, we were seeing animals and birds!

We had the most amazing NIGHT DRIVE with a camp tour guide and he did an excellent job finding so many cool animals like this white female lioness.  She is the Queen of the Birmingham Pride.

Rhonos are rare to spot, but we got to see this one a couple times.

And the birds never stopped amazing us.  This little Kingfisher was so colorful and was EVERYWHERE!

Just like this Lilac Breasted Roller was along all the roads like our Starlings...speaking of which, their starlings were colorful and beautiful!

This is us at the end of our tour with our guides Kerry and Josh.  We sure love them and know we were meant to be with them on this adventure of a lifetime!

Scott stayed in Africa for the Zimbabew temple dedication and had a good experience there while I flew home with Nelsons and got back to work.

We love getting together with our grandkids here.  Sydney is at a fun age where bubbles delight you...well, do you ever really grow out of that?

We took their new Stroller Wagon on an outing on the River Delta...

And storytime with Sylvan is ALWAYS a good thing.  Look at his size in this picture because in the couple months since then, he had about doubled!

Carole had told her kids last fall that what she really wanted was for them to all go to the temple with her.  So, in March they made that happen.  I was lucky to get to come along.

It was a lovely spring day at the Jordan River Temple.

Scott enjoys doctoring up any grandkid photo he can...and Sylvan getting to eat big people food has been fun!

SpringBreak we took a little trip to southern Texas to use up a companion fare.  It turned out to be a great little birding area and we loved it!

We have a new traveling buddy...this is FANG from S Africa.  He has joined us on all our big birding outings and we hope he gets to go on many more.  We share them with our safari guides who gave him to us at the end of our safari with them.

 

NOVEMBER and DECEMBER 2025

If you want to see more photos, click here

We had a warm fall.  Fun to look back on some outings.  We took Sydney to the park while babysitting her and she liked the swings.

She was interested in everything at the park and walked all over the place.  

We finally got Carole and Lori over to meet baby Sylvan.  He was so alert and looking at her!

Jenna and Cassidy made a trip out to meet the little addition to our extended family too!

Cssidy LOVED being my helper in school for an entire day!  Wish I had her all the time!

We really had fun going to a BYU Basketball game together with Braden.  

That weekend, we hunted out a bird that was not supposed to be in Utah, but was.  This is a Northern Parula...and came so close to us that this was with my little cell phone, too close for the big camera Scott was packing!  Beautiful and tiny bird.

We headed to Washington for Thanksgiving weekend this year.  Ran errands with Austin on the way home from the airport.

We went on a couple really fun outings together.  This was at the base of Snoqualmie Falls.

It was beautiful, a good hike and we saw a couple cool birds at the bottom.

We were treated to a fun non-traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.  It was an English Tea complete with all the tiers of little sandwiches and scones and crumpets and treats.  

It was all delicious and presented so beautifully!

Back in Utah we got to babysit again and had fun with our new Santa Hat...Sydney just happened to be wearing this cute outfit when we arrived!

We enjoyed our James Family Holiday party at Hunters this year.  This was a guessing game where you had to guess what was written on the crown you were wearing by asking questions.  Fun holiday guessing games in the hallways too.  And good food all around!

Back up to Bree and Elliots for a couple celebrations.  First for Elliot's birthday...

...and then for a new tradition of Christmas Eve morning for eating breakfast together and making sugar cookies for Santa.

Sydney was interested in cutting out cookies and later in putting sprinkles on the frosted ones.  This should continue to be a lot of fun each year with the local grandkids!

Instead of our traditional "Santa Hat Walk" we all wore them at our party.  But I think we will get out on those walks when kiddos are a little bit bigger!

Sydney has learned the actions for when someone says "CHEESE" and hams it up!

We spent Christmas Eve up at Lori's with the local family there and so much good food and company! I need a photo from that night...I think someone took one.

Christmas day snacking tree.  We enjoyed opening gifts with Braden, McKenna and Sydney before taking down one Christmas tree and packing our bags to leave a day early to head to New Jersey.

After a very long flight with delays in Atlanta, we arrived a day early in NJ before the storm arrived which did indeed drop ice on all the roads and driveways.  Our original flight would likely have been cancelled so we felt blessed to have come early.

And happy to help shovel off all that ice.  It was cold though!

Watching the BYU Football bowl game when Braden told us he needed us to make our special sign requesting an interception...and IT WORKED!  Ha!  We scraped off a win in a very exciting game!

We had such a good and relaxing break in NJ...sleeping in each morning and watching several WWII movies and watching the kids in their Star Wars costumes and light sabers.  WE got out once to bird at Manaquan Reservoir and it was a good outing but most days it was just too cold to want to be out at all.

And our little buddy back in Utah was just growing and smiling all the time!  

2025 was a wonderful year!  We look forward to 2026 with many more family times and trips!