My Girls' Choirs

Maxine sings in the Utah Tech Institute Choir and Juliet sings in the Hurricane High School Seminary Choir. They united to perform in Hildale. It was fun to see they both performing! Their seminary teachers do a really nice job! They were never able to be in high school choir together because of the age difference so this was great!

Merril's wearing his new tie that his parents gave him for his birthday. It's from Ghana!

 

Friends and Weddings

I was able to help at Millie Scholzen's wedding reception and luncheon. Valerie and I were there to help with the luncheon. Laurie gave us aprons as a thank you. I love aprons and I'm excited to have a new one.

We all came back in the evening to help with the reception. We were able to snag a cute picture of all of us. I'm grateful for these wonderful ladies!

Sushi a Trip to Walmart

Merril and I went to Vegas for a birthday overnighter and stopped first to get sushi. We locked the Tahoe because my laptop and our bag was in it. It was about 2:30 p.m. when we got to the sushi place. When we came out an hour later, our car had a smashed window and our overnight bag was gone. Nothing of value was taken, just annoying things. My prescription glasses! Our favorite swimsuits.

They took our bag with nothing of value and left my laptop on the floor. So annoying. We went to Walmart to get some deodorant, toothbrushes, and contact solution and cases. Merril got some gorilla tape and a cardboard box to cut down to cover the window.

We made it to the hotel and ordered a drink by the pool but didn't have any swimsuits so we didn't swim.

Even though it was a bummer start to a trip, we still had a good time. There's no one else I'd rather go through hard things with than Merril. 

World's Robotics Houston TX

I went to chaperone a robotics trip with Juliet. The world's robotics competition was held in Houston, TX. First item was to get all the kids on the plane! Drive to Vegas!

Plane ride!

Once we got there, it was crazy busy!

Alicen, Kate, Juliet, and Nicole.

We had to walk a few blocks from our hotel to the convention center.

Pretty nerds.

General shenanigans were going on. Juliet did NOT get proposed to.

One of the nights, most of the team went to a baseball game. Juliet and the girls weren't interested so we got an Uber to an ice cream place. It was an epic Uber! Lights and music! After the ride to the ice cream place, the driver asked if he could put us on his Instagram! His Instagram name is Chorizogonewild. It was a goofy night. Moms were Natalie Bennett, Kerry Dorius, me and Lisa Rober.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DInCH9Bp5v9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

It was all a blast except for trying to keep the kids fed. There was nothing close to the conference center to feed big groups. We ended up getting pretty creative and getting Walmart deliveries and getting Ubers to pick up food farther away from the conference center and bringing it back. Nobody died. All is good! What a fun trip!

April Rock Climbing Adventures

Maxine, Fei, and Bree are always at the gym.

They also planned a trip to Red Rocks in Vegas. Maxine loaded up her Subaru with as much camping stuff as she could!

I think this photo is sick!

They even found a ward for Sunday.

Family Brunch

The Stangers were down and we gathered for brunch by the Dixie rock. Everyone pitched in and made some delicious breakfast foods. Brooks is a chef and was great!

We brought a chair for Gramps.

I brought a lot of sun protection. My hat is trying to take out Jo Anna.

Juliet Senior Prom

Nathan asked Juliet to Senior Prom. We rented a dress from Suzie's Closet. They took pictures by the tech ridge stairs.

Juliet said that dinner was at a fancy restaurant in St. George. It's called Aragosta but it's not there anymore. Too bad because the food looks so good!

The dance was outside the community center where they have peach days and there are great string lights and trees.

Cello Duet

Mikayla is in her second year learning the cello. Sister Lynnette Frost has recently been called as the music leader/coordinator for our ward. She's been recruiting everyone with musical talent that's willing. She found a cello piece for Mikayla and Milo F. to play. They did great! 

I say that. I assume they did great. I was not there when she played. We were flying in from the Robotics trip and Maxine took Mikayla and Mark to church. It's fun to watch her practice and she's getting better! 

 

What's up Jacky?

This is what Jack shared in his email. Exchanges:

During this week, I hosted my very first exchanges as a Young Missionary Leader. That was pretty fun. I went with Elder Mukwizwa again which is always a good time. He has a really cool story, and on our exchanges he mentioned that he had just hit his anniversary of being baptized, the end of March 2023. That was one really cool fact about him. We had a great exchange and I was able to learn a lot and also share quite a bit. When we were all done I asked him to summarize it in 1 word and he said "uplifting." That made me feel pretty good about it because I sure was nervous that it would turn out to be a crap shoot.

Anniversary of the Church/Birthday of Christ:

April 6 is a great day. 2 great things happen that day. The anniversary if the Restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Its not official Church doctrine that Christ was born on April 6, but it mentions in D and C 20:1 and in James Talmage's "Jesus the Christ" that Christ was born April 6, so I believe that one. It was just a special day and I took some time to contemplate how the Restored Gospel has blessed my life. Highly recommend that one.

Juliet's Grad Pics

I took these grad pics at white rocks by Snow Canyon State Park. They turned out so cute! The place was crawling with other grads. I kept having to move a little to crop someone out of my shot. 

She's so grown up!

I love them!

 

Sterling Scholar

Juliet applied to be the General Sterling Scholar for Hurricane High School and won! Maxine won while she was at Hurricane too! The high school makes these Sterling Scholar pictures and they go back to the 80s. They never take them down and now Juliet is immortalized for eternity. I love going back to the school and seeing their pictures on the wall.

So now were on to region. When Maxine won General Sterling Scholar, I was amazed at the competition at region. These kids are 17-18 and have really impressive resumes! Juliet didn't win region but so did well.

She had a good day with Nicole (music) and Alicen (math). They didn't win region either. All good. They've accomplished a lot.