Spring Sports

 

Pace had an amazing season and soccer coach!  Maddie held practices every week and was better at communicating with the parents than any coach we've ever had.  And even with soccer over, she still meets with Pace once a week and works with him on his soccer skills.  Pace really looks forward to this time with her and asks and reminds me about it all week long. 

 

Isabelle had an incredible track season and worked so hard! I was impressed with how disciplined she was about her eating, bedtime, and the way she pushed herself in workouts.  It payed off with  PR's in the mile and 800M. She was often the fastest girl on her team and was told that she'd have a good chance of going to state, but then she got plantar fasciitis the last two weeks of the season.  Hopefully next year she can keep from getting injured!

She sure loves these track friends:

l-r: Emily, Esther and Ruby

Soccer isn't  quite over for Nolan and Abram because they still have the Yellowstone cup tournament coming up, but here are a few pics from the season:

I LOVE everything about Abram's team.  Every single boy, a great coach, amazing players.  This was taken after they won a tournament in Pocatello:

We took Abram's friend, Malachi Bishop to this tournament and he caught this picture of Abram in action"

And this one of Nolan:

I need to try to do better about getting pictures of the boys during their last tournament.

Anni kept going with her gymnastics and got good at her handstands and backbends:

My exercise partner, Ruth, that I lift with every morning:

Her muscles are amazing!  We sure have a good time every day.

Snowball and Napoleon

At the beginning of May, our farmer Nolan started mentioning that he wanted some pigs.  Nolan has been so responsible about taking care of the animals and said he wanted to be the only one that had anything to do with the pigs.  Sounded good to us! Also, a week or so before, we had weaned Barney from Rosie and were getting 4 gallons a milk per day, which was WAY too much milk for us to keep up with.  Shawn and I decided that pigs could be a good way to go - we could feed them our extra milk and produce all summer and be simultaneously growing meat for the fall.  

A day or two after we brought the piglets home, one of them got seriously ill.  It appeared to be having constant seizures. I called Matt and he told me to give it a shot of antibiotics in the neck once per day for one week.  I did that for three days and Shawn fed it milk two or three times per day, but after three days, its neck suddenly got so tight that I couldn't give it a shot.  Matt said the antibiotic was causing the problem and told me to stop.  Snowball lived for a full week, sick and miserable, and we hoped that it was a good sign that she was hanging on for so long, but on the last day I went out to check on her and found that she had died.  Now Napoleon seems really lonely, but is doing well other than that.

 

Eli and Allie's wedding day

 Yesterday Eli and Allie were sealed in the Rexburg temple for time and all eternity! With Coronavirus, this was an interesting time to be married and we worried that one of us siblings wouldn't get to go in for the sealing because only 16 people could attend.  In the end, one of Allie's in-laws stayed out so that all 10 of us siblings were allowed to attend because they felt that it was important for all siblings to be there.  It was so great to be in the temple with some of my favorite people! No spouses were able to come though. 

All of the siblings with our new Sister-in-law!:

Allie had her reception at her parent's cabin.  It was a little crowded because the weather turned really windy and they couldn't use their outside tents because of it, but it was a nice get-together. Lots of great food and entertainment.

I'm so happy that Eli found his perfect match! We really like Allie.

Oregon Coast for spring break

 Shawn surprised me for my birthday this year and told me that he thought we should go to the Oregon coast and get an Air B and B, watch conference, celebrate my birthday and relax for spring break. We had such a great time! 

We got a late start on Thursday evening because we couldn't leave until after Isabelle ran in her track meet.  We drove to my parent's house the first evening and then left as soon as Caden took a test for his biological engineering class the next morning.  Kami and Maddie came a day behind us because Kami just started a new job in University relations and was getting trained for her job and Maddie had end of semester projects to do before she could come.

We did lots of walks and runs on the beach and tide pooling and found lots of agates, a couple of hermit crabs and these sea anemone, orange and purple starfish:

In between activities we watched conference in our comfortable Air B and B:

We visited neighboring towns because we love Depoe Bay and all the fun shops and especially the salt water taffy store with it's machine. We love to watch the taffy being made! 

Walking in Depoe Bay with a good capture of how Anni runs through life without a foot on the ground:

The kids saying up late into the night to play the game of life:

The whole crew at Depoe Bay:

The girls hang on to Caden everywhere he goes:

Our place was right on the beach!  It was such a beautiful view and so convenient for getting out and exploring every chance we got:

At the harbor in Newport to see the Sea Lions:

It's so hard to get everyone together for a trip now that we have so many older kids that have work schedules and school to work around. We left on Monday ( after Kami did a presentation for school) and drove all day and got home at midnight.  Poor Caden still had to drive on to Logan and didn't get home until 3 am.  But we all got to go and it was so wonderful to be together!

I'm so grateful that everyone was able to come on this little trip!

Odds and ends

 Anni doing awesome backbends at gymnastics:

My two nephews that come to dinner most Sundays:

Aren't these eggs beautiful?!??  I had an excess of them for awhile after we got home from a trip:

Isabelle and her track friends:  Ruby, Esther, Ellie, (Isabelle) Emily and Rachel

New hair! 💗

Temple!

It was way too long since we went to the temple and it was so wonderful that we were able to have a great reason to go!  Allie received her endowment March 27th and Shawn, Kami and I were able to be there with she and Eli.  

Some day, Corona Virus will end and we will be able to attend the temple regularly once again.  I can't wait.  I have missed it so much!!