Nashville TN to Visit Megan and Lucas

To afford 7 plane tickets, we flew in the middle of the night. Our flight left around midnight out of Vegas.

 

We arrived at Megan and Lucas's house at around 6 a.m. and crashed for quite a few hours. When we woke up, we decided to go see downtown Nashville.

Since we're not huge country music fans, we didn't even go inside the hall of fame.

Broadway was extra.

We ended up getting BBQ that night. The next morning we went to the Loveless cafe, home of biscuits, jam and fried chicken. 

This bridge is the Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge.

We stopped to admire the bridge. Then we noticed Jack had climbed it. Um, I don't think you're supposed to climb it.

We drove to Franklin to see some Civil War history sites.

Then we went to the temple in Nashville. It's a baby temple but we were able to do baptisms for the dead.

And more BBQ.

Later that night, Merril, Maxine, and Lucas went back to downtown to listen to music. Most of the bands were rock instead of country. 

The next day, we went to Fall Creek Falls State Park to see the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi River.

We got brave and hiked down to it! Jack carried Madeline.

It was straight down and with Merril and I still recovering from knee injuries, we went slow.

Early the next day, we flew home. We left Megan's house around 4:30 a.m. They were wonderful hosts. I enjoyed our time there.

Ah Yes, A Warm Day

Sometimes it's nice to hang out in the backyard when it's one of the first warm days of the year. Sorry if you wanted to be alone Maxine. This picture feels warm. 

 

Jack's Mission Call

Why is it so hard to put in mission papers? The church changed how early you could put in your papers from 120 days to 150 days before your date of availability. It was Christmas so I didn't really push to get anything done with Jack's papers. By mid January, when we were about ready to submit, Bishop Werrett had hip surgery. He wasn't holding interviews for 2 weeks. Noooo. We finally got them submitted and Jack's call came two weeks later in an email! So fast!

We gathered together and said a prayer.

Jack got ready to read his call.

He is called to serve for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Philippines, Quezon City Mission-Tagolog speaking! He starts home MTC July 22nd and reports to the Provo MTC July 31st.

Um, I was shocked! Jack said he wanted to go anywhere the Lord needed him and he'd learn whatever he needed to learn. I was afraid that he would still be sent English speaking because he didn't take any languages in high school. The Lord need him to learn Tagalog! Yay! I feel peace. I'm excited for him. Pray for him!

Orchestra Field Trip

I chaperoned a field trip for Mikayla's orchestra class. We went to the high school to some sort of music competition. 

The intermediate school did a great job! I thought they were better than the middle school. I was in charge of 21 kids but they were good. Just a little chatty during the competition. It was good.

Rhino Rally 2024 and Ellen Returned Home

Merril's skiing crash prevented him from riding the Rhino Rally. He still went out but was parked in a chair for the day. Mark and I believe Jack still raced. Jack helped Mark in the pits.

Maxine's been waiting for Ellen to finish her mission to say hello! That face is happiness! Welcome home Ellen!

Juliet and Nathan Preference 2024

I was asked to take pictures for Preference. They're okay. Everything was still pretty dead.

Jack went with Leighna and I'm sure there were nice pictures but this was the only one he had on his phone. Leighna looks lovely as ever.

Brianhead Night Ski

Maxine came down for the weekend and we met her in Parowan to all go to Brianhead for the night ski. Mikayla and I skied. We started very slow. On my second run I wrecked and twisted my knee. I think it'll be okay.

Maxine and Juliet snowboarded. Jack snowboarded, Mark and Merril skied. Maxine's snowboarding class is turning her into a pro! Jack and Juliet got some pointers from her.

Mark skied with Jack mostly. They did pretty good. 

Mikayla and I were twinning. I forgot what hard work that is. My knees were tired afterwards.

Merril did 2 runs and got going too fast and wrecked hard. He heard and felt his knee pop. His knee started to swell and it hurt to walk. He went to the ER to get checked out. They did some x rays and said it wasn't broken.

He had an MRI later that week and found he dislocated his knee, tore his ACL and messed up his MCL and LCL as well. The doctor said he could probably rehab it and not have surgery. He's going to get a few opinions before he decides what to do. 

Here's to being 44!

I like my birthdays to be chill. I just wanted to go for a little hike, eat pie, and clean up the backyard with help. It's just what I wanted. We hiked to the old sandstone quarry for the St. George Temple and Tabernacle. Yay!

This is the only picture I took and we are staring straight into the sun. Agh! My eyeballs!

 

Snowbiking!

 There was some snow early in the season and then a dry spell. The storms are back and some great snowbiking!

They found the deep powder and got stuck.

A lot.

Part of the adventure! Merril loves it so much!

Speaking of love, it was Valentine's Day and we made the traditional fondue and the girls and I wore pink to church on Sunday.

Mikayla's Birthday Weekend!

Mikayla is now 12! She's been attending young women's since the first of the year, so weird for me. She opened presents before school.

She really wanted a cotton candy machine. That's so Mikayla.

It actually churns out cotton candy. It's small but that's okay. If it was a big one, they'd be eating twice as much cotton candy.

She started putting all sorts of things in it. She even cotton candied a cough drop. That wasn't so great!

We went to the grip to play.

Maxine was here to help with a robotics competition and it was nice to have her here. The weekend wasn't long enough.

The next day we went to the Red Cliffs Temple open house! Love, love, love it! Happy Birthday K!