April 2017

April was pretty busy around here. The weather was typical spring in Utah - sunny and warm one minute and snowing the next, but at least we aren't enduring the 100 degree heat Devin is in Arizona!

Speaking of Elder Ririe, he is doing really well in his area in Phoenix. He is working hard, teaching lots of people and finding ways to survive the heat on a bike in Phoenix.  I love getting his letters each week and hearing his stories - he gives us great details on what he is doing and we love to hear them all.



We started April with Seth and Autumn's spring break from school.  We spent the first couple of days doing college tours at USU, where we had fun spending some time with Megan, Johnny and Crystal and going to lunch with Megan and her boyfriend, Brad...





We also did a tour at BYU, but neglected to take any pictures...

We spent the last few days of the break with a trip to warm St. George.  We had a great time exploring the outdoors around the area and doing a lot of hiking through the red rocks.  It was beautiful weather, which we all enjoyed.














Bryce took us on an adventure to find some petroglyphs and let's just say that we took the most scenic route possible to get there.  We had fun along the way and loved getting to see the petroglyphs at the end and then hiking the much shorter way out.  It was a fun adventure.









We celebrated Easter with the traditional egg dying with some friends along for fun and then Megan brought Brad home for the weekend and we had fun enjoying some Easter festivities as a family, minus our missionary, of course. :)





Seth took some time off of studying for AP tests to play with sidewalk chalk with Autumn and his friends, Grace and Sophia.



Autumn finished off the dance competition season with a major sweep of awards at her final competition with her team.  It was a bittersweet day because everyone from her competitive dance team is either moving up to the Senior team or moving on to dancing with high school teams or doing something besides dance, so it's the end of an era for Autumn and her amazing team.  They are a great group of girls and Autumn has loved dancing with them!







She also finished up competing her duo with an overall high point win in the teen/senior advanced category - awesome job!!



Bryce and I went to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point - so beautiful!  Seth took Grace for a date on a different day and Autumn was too busy to make it this year.







Megan is just finishing up finals at USU and will be moving home for the summer soon.  She has had a great semester and has already lined up 3 jobs (2 TA positions and 1 tutoring at the writing lab) and a position in an aural rehabilitation research lab for next year, so it looks like a promising Senior year for her!!

After MONTHS of searching, Bryce and I finally found all 13 of the hidden gnomes at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.  It sounds ridiculous, but these gnomes are impossible to find.  Bryce loves looking for them when we have some spare time on a date before a movie, and I HATE looking for the tricky little buggers, but I do it because I love him so.  It was a big deal to find all 13 and we did get our reward of dinosaur shaped chalk, but the manager wasn't there when we finished, so we didn't get our picture on the wall of fame, which is kind of lame, but whatever. See if you can find 3 of the hidden gnomes in the pictures below - I promise they are there. :)








Our reward for all our searching...

That's it for our month - have a great May!!

March 2017

March was filled with all kinds of fun. Take a look:

Seth was busy with school and track this month.  He is focusing on the 800m for the track season and is improving every time he competes.  Bryce and I really need to get some pictures of his meets - we are too busy cheering and timing him. :)  He is also volunteering each week at Special Needs Mutual and loves going and working with his buddy there.  He is also still taking voice lessons and after competing at the school and region level, was one of only 12 solos/ensembles to make it to the State solo and ensemble that will be later in April.

Seth also took his best friend, Grace, to prom and they had a really fun time together.  They make a pretty great looking couple. :)





Megan stayed busy with college life and is doing so well at USU.  She found out this month that a paper she wrote and was invited to present to a group of professors was chosen to be published in a textbook for all English students at USU as an example of exemplary writing, which is awesome!  She is doing well in all of her classes and works hard at school.  She and her friends Crystal and Johnny took their spring break to travel to San Diego and spend the week based at my sister Kim's house while exploring all the fun things in that part of SoCal.  They went to the San Diego Zoo, the beach and spent a couple of days in Disneyland.  Looks like they had a blast!!




Lunch at the Blue Bayou in Disneyland



Devin is working hard as a missionary in Northern Phoenix, loves his area and his companion, is having amazing experiences and somehow surviving the heat on a bike in Arizona.  It will be interesting to see how he does once summer actually hits. :)  We love and miss him very much and are so happy that he is so happy!


With his companion, Elder Velasco, at the Mesa temple



Autumn had another busy month with school and dance.  She not only competed with her competition dance team twice, winning top awards at both competitions as a team and also being personally chosen to dance with a select group of dancers at the closing show of one competition, but she also had her jr. high dance team concert, where we got to see her show off her first ever dance that was choreographed by her for her team.  It was awesome!!  The theme for the concert was "The Beatles", and Autumn choreographed this number set to the Beatles song "Yesterday" - check it out:

Here are some photos of her competition team:

Here are the videos for my 2 favorite team dances:

"Show you how" - jazz

"Heartbeat" - contemporary

Bryce and I had one final ski day before the weather got too warm.  It's been a good year for skiing for our family.

That's about it for March - see you all next month!