April 2023

April was a little crazy here, but here are some of the good highlights:

Megan, Mitch, Evan, Devin, Levi and Devin and Levi's friends Adalene and Nelson all came and stayed with us for General Conference weekend at the beginning of the month.  We had a really great time enjoying all of the sessions of Conference together and basking in the warmth of the gospel of Jesus Christ together and playing games and eating really good food in between sessions.  Seth and Delaney also joined us for food and games.  I love time with our family!!

We also took Evan to the aquarium the day before General Conference began - so fun!

We had a winter storm blow in on Monday that made it impossible for Megan, Mitch and Evan to travel back to Boise as we received more than a foot of new snow, so they had to stay for an extra few days. (darn. More time with the adorable grandbaby.)  My sister Kim and her husband Tim also came to town to visit their grand children for those few days, so we got to have playtime with Evan and his second cousins, though I failed to take any pictures of the fun.

Autumn had a great beginning of April serving as an STL with Sister ZoBell in the Waverly ward in Winnipeg.  Then she had a really rough week when both Sister ZoBell and her trainer (and other best friend on her mission), Sister Dilling, both went home.  She struggled with some very real sorrow and was able to work through that and is now back to tearing it up as an STL in the Waverly ward with her new companion, Sister Sorenson. We are proud of her hard work and her dedication to her Heavenly Father as she serves through the good times and the bad. Love her!!

After having the whole family home for Conference weekend (except Autumn, of course), Bryce and I celebrated Easter Sunday alone for the first time since we started having children.  It was a good day and we loved spending the week before studying the last week of Jesus Christ's life so we could be ready to truly celebrate the JOY and HOPE that are at the heart of Easter.  Megan and Mitch and Evan spent Easter Sunday with Finch relatives living in Idaho and Devin and Levi spent Easter with Levi's family in Pocatello.

The weather finally started to warm a little, so Bryce and I took a Saturday walk around the pond at Highland Glen park.  I also went for a walk with Autumn's bestie, Whitney.  And Bryce and I attended the temple and continue to love working with the YSAs in our YSA ward in Provo, one of whom (Maggie), gave me this beautiful dandelion boquet.

Bryce and I also went to BYU to see Seth present his capstone project research at a poster fair that included student research from all areas of study at the university.  We are proud of Seth and the diligent student he is and his desire to make the world a better place.

Bryce and I decided to try to go to the tulip festival at the gardens at Thanksgiving Point once a week so we could see the different flowers blooming.  It has been an extra cold and extra long winter, so the flowers have been slow in blooming this year, but we have enjoyed going twice so far and look forward to seeing more tulips in coming weeks!

We went to Boise for a few days at the end of the month to spend time with Megan, Mitch and Evan on their home turf and loved having time with them.  I went to storytime at the library and to Evan's swimming lesson to take some pictures, and we also just spent time playing with Evan and loving on them all.

That's it for April!