March 2024

 We started the month with a visit from the Patricks. They were here in Utah for nearly 3 weeks. Mostly with Mitch's family for the first couple of weeks because Mitch's grandma had passed away and Megan and Mitch were helping Mitch's mom. They did invite us to meet them at the Dinosaur Museum one morning and we had the BEST time watching Evan (who is pretty obsessed with dinosaurs) walk around all of the huge dinosaurs roaring at every one of them. It was so funny!

Devin, Levi, Megan and Mitch spent a day playing at Labyrinth and Airborne while I watched Evan. They had fun jumping on trampolines, solving mazes and puzzles together and I had fun playing with Evan -win for everyone. :)

Sometime in February, I mentioned to Bryce that I wanted to go to the Magnolia silos in Waco, TX. He said that sounded like a trip to take with Megan and Autumn and then jokingly volunteered to watch Evan...A few hours later, I had talked to Megan and Autumn, found a really good deal on flights to Austin and was booking the trip during Autumn's spring break. Bryce took 3 days off of work to play with Evan and we all had a great time! After landing in Austin, we drove to College Station and spent the night with Megan's college roommate, Rachel, her husband Connor and their new baby, Lincoln. We went to church with them on Sunday before driving to Waco.

That evening, we walked along the Brazos River that runs through downtown Waco.

The next day, we took a tour of the castle house that Chip and Joanna Gaines refurbished for their show "Fixer Upper". It was so beautiful and so fun to see their work up close.

After touring the castle, we went to the Dr. Pepper (which was invented in Waco in the early 1900s) Museum. The museum itself was a bit of a disappointment, but we still love Dr. Pepper and enjoyed Dr. Pepper floats. 

That afternoon and the following day, we visited the Magnolia Silos. We had a great time exploring, shopping, enjoying incredible weather, eating yummy food and amazing cupcakes and just being together. We also loved having a delicious breakfast at the Magnolia Table restaurant.

While we were in Waco, we went to a Heritage site nearby where we took a 2 hour class learning how to make pottery on a wheel. It was such a great experience and we are excited to get our finished pieces. Our teacher, Caroline, was amazing!!

For our last day in Texas, we drove back to Austin and did a biking tour of the city. It was so much fun to see so much of the city and to learn a lot about Austin. We all agreed we'd like to come back someday!

Meanwhile back home, Bryce had so much fun playing with Evan. They went to the library, the park, the Dinosaur museum, the Discovery museum and just played at home. Baba is Evan's favorite for sure and their relationship is the cutest!

One of Evan's favorite things to do right now is dump all the Mr. Potato Head pieces out and put the bucket on his head and run around the house. He is pure joy and makes us so happy! We also loved playing at the park (he doesn't care how cold it is - he wants to be outside!) and being with the cat. :)

We had a family dinner at the beginning of March. We are trying to make this an at least once a month thing for everyone local and it has been working out great so far. 

We also attended the BYU-Idaho choir and symphony concert in the Tabernacle since our niece and cousin, Logan Finch, was singing. The concert was so amazing!

The kids wanted to do an Easter Egg hunt this year, so everyone local came over on the Saturday morning before Easter and hunted eggs. Afterwards, we colored eggs. So fun!

On Easter Sunday, we had a beautiful Easter testimony meeting as a family over zoom for all who wanted to participate. I loved the testimonies of Christ and His resurrection that were shared! Then later, after going to church, we had a beautiful family dinner. I failed to take a picture of everyone there, but at least I got Devin and Levi in there. :)

Bryce and I have always loved going to the temple together. A few years ago, we decided to start attending weekly and have grown to love our time in the temple even more. One week this month, we went to the recently dedicated Orem Utah temple and loved it! How we love being in the house of the Lord and learning and worshipping there. 

That’s it for this month!