April 2014

Where did April go?  This month just seemed to fly by!!  Here’s a look at some of the stuff we did:

Seth ran track some more and continued doing well in the 800m and mile races, even winning the 800m race for all boys 7th, 8th and 9th grades at one of his meets. He qualified for the region wide meet that was held the last 2 days in April and did well, especially considering the super high winds those days.  He is now officially done with another season of track.

We spent the first half of Spring Break hiking and playing around Moab and had an awesome time!  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect and we found some new hikes we had never done before that were gorgeous.  We took Sasha with us this time and she loved hiking around with us.  We also did a ziplining adventure on top of the red rocks around Moab that was gorgeous!!  We drove the really long way home and stopped at Capital Reef National Park for the first time, mostly just to cross it off of Seth’s bucket list to visit all 5 National Parks in Utah.  Ours was mostly just a drive through with a few quick stops, but Bryce spent more time in Capital Reef later in the month doing all sorts of adventurous stuff. More on that later…

Devin spent the second half of Spring Break on choir tour in Anaheim, California and had a great time visiting amusement parks with his friends and then attending a music festival and performing in an “awesome” concert with a bunch of other choirs from around the country.  He didn’t take any pictures, so the only one I have is one that his friend, Shea texted me when they were in Disneyland. :)  Devin was also thrilled to find out that he made Chamber Choir for next year and will get to follow in Megan’s footsteps when he performs in Carnegie Hall in NYC next Spring.

Autumn performed with a bunch of other 5th graders from all over the State in Provo Freedom Festival’s “Hope of America” at BYU’s Marriott Center.  It was an awesome patriotic musical program that Autumn’s class has worked on all year, so she was super excited to finally get to perform it.  Autumn was on the very front row of students on the Marriott Center floor, right in the center, so the day after the performance, she was so excited to see a picture of herself in the newspaper covering the story.  Below are pictures of all of the kids in their red, white and blue and yellow t-shirts to create the American flag and the picture that was in the newspaper of Autumn.

Seth went on a mountain biking campout with his scout troop and had an awesome time mountain biking, even when he took a major wipe out that left him skinned up pretty good.  He told me, “I always say, if you’re going to crash, crash big.” :)

Devin went to Prom with his good friend Shea and they had a great time!  Here’s a couple of pictures.

Autumn had more dance competitions and continued to improve and do well.  She is now getting ready for her final competition, all of her recitals and tryouts for next year.  Busy girl!

Bryce spent a weekend hiking and rappelling in Capital Reef area with a group of friends.  He had an awesome time doing some really cool rappels over arches and down deep canyons.  Unfortunately the weather turned super rainy on their last day when they were supposed to hike through a slot canyon, and since everyone knows a slot canyon is not a place you want to be in a rainstorm, they did a couple of shorter hikes instead and came home a little early.

Megan had another great month being a missionary.  I LOVE that nearly all of her letters home contain “I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY” somewhere in the letter.  We are waiting to hear if she will be transferred this next week and CAN’T WAIT to talk to her on Mother’s Day!

We had a fun end to our month when our soon to be niece (marrying my nephew Ben) came to stay with us for a week before heading to Idaho to finish wedding plans.  Jessica fits right in with our family and we have been having a lot of fun.  We’re looking forward to going to Ben and Jess’s wedding at the end of May.

I guess that’s it for April – happy Spring everyone!!

March 2014

Here’s a look at our marvelous March…

Devin continued with his fencing tournaments.  He now loves when people ask him what he does for fun to answer, “Stab people”.

Seth had his first 2 track meets and set new personal bests in all of his races.  His favorite race is the mile, with the 800m being a close second.  We love cheering him on at meets – he loves to stay at the front of the pack, which makes for some pretty exciting finishes!

Autumn only had one dance competition this month, and only for her solo piece.  She was nervous after her experience forgetting her dance on stage last month, but danced so beautifully with no mistakes, which has really helped to restore her confidence moving forward.  She has 3 more competitions in April before the season ends for the year.

Devin and I attended a State Youth Council Leadership conference for three days at Utah State in Logan with the Highland Youth council and had a lot of fun. The classes were really good and the evening entertainment lots of fun. A highlight was watching Devin get hypnotized on stage with a group of kids and see his fun antics. It was pretty hysterical and Devin didn’t remember most of it.

Seth attended the Scout Pow wow at BYU on 2 separate Saturdays so he could earn more merit badges and thus help him progress towards his goal of getting more Eagle palms than Devin.  He also went with his troop on a campout to Antelope Island and had a great time hiking around the island and seeing buffalo (check one out in the background of the first picture below), antelope and all sorts of birds.

Devin also attended the State HOSA competition where his parli-pro team was slightly disappointed to win 2nd place, meaning they don’t get to compete at the National tournament in June, but is still great considering they were competing against lots of teams from all over the state.  Devin has decided to try again next year. 

My nephew Erik Jensen married Brianna Benson on March 22 in the Draper temple and it was a great weekend spent with family celebrating the newest eternal family on my side of the family.

Autumn became the first person in our family to finish a triathlon when she did the kids Icebreaker triathlon with her friend, Halle.  Unfortunately, she and Devin spent most of the month sick with colds and she was still not feeling 100% the day of the triathlon, but she really wanted to do it anyway, so she pushed through and did great!!

We officially finished our interior remodeling by getting new carpet throughout the main floor and upstairs. Since we had to move everything out of the way for the carpet layers, it was pretty much like moving, which was a huge pain, but so great once the carpet was done and we moved stuff back in, all fresh and uncluttered. Our kids would say that I have since become the clean room Nazi since I make them clean their bedrooms every day, but I don’t care – it looks and feels awesome!

Autumn and I loved going to the General Women’s meeting at the end of March together. As we were singing the opening hymn, I had the thought that Megan was sitting in a church building in Texas singing that same hymn at that same time and it made me smile. When I shared that with Megan, she wrote me that she had been thinking the exact same thing about Autumn and me while she was singing the opening hymn.  It’s so great to feel close to her even though she is so far away.  She is loving her time serving as a missionary!  She will hit the halfway mark on April 3. Yay!!

Have an awesome April!!

February 2014

February was pretty awesome around here.  The weather was warm enough that we kept the windows open some days (I can’t remember that ever happening in February here) but it was still cold enough in the mountains to snow there when it rained here, plus we had plenty to keep us busy.  Take a look:

Autumn stayed busy with dance conventions and competitions.  This is her favorite time of year when she gets to dance on stage A LOT and compete her solo, trio and team numbers.  She is doing great so far.  She had a terrifying experience during one of her solo competitions this month when she forgot part of her dance on stage.  I thought for sure she was about to run off the stage crying, but was so proud of her for picking it back up and finishing the dance beautifully, smiling all the while.  She did cry once she was offstage because she was so disappointed in herself, but I was so impressed at her poise and ability to handle the embarrassment with grace.  She bounced right back and nailed her trio later that same night and took first place with her trio, which helped restore her confidence a little.

Seth finished up the basketball season and started back at track.  I had to laugh when he came home from his first track practice, flopped on the couch and declared, “I am SO out of shape!”  He is working hard and will be back in track shape in no time, I’m sure. 

Our kitchen cabinets are finally finished and we love the end result!  We also decided to have our entry way railing re-toned to match our new front door.  Here are some pictures…

The railing before..

and after…

My mom got some bad news when a CAT scan showed that her brain tumor is growing again, so she started 6 weeks of daily radiation treatments to hopefully shrink it back down.  She is doing okay so far, though the radiation has definitely left her very tired.  She is almost halfway done with radiation and is really looking forward to not having to go to the cancer treatment center every day. 

Seth had another fun winter campout with his troop where they stayed in a cabin and went sledding.  He also went with his troop for one of their activities to the Food and Care Coalition and made and served dinner to the homeless.  Here’s a picture Bryce took of his troop after that activity. I love that they are almost camouflaged against the brown grass. 

Devin has been busy practicing with the HOSA club’s Parli-pro (short for parliamentary procedure) team, getting ready for the State competition coming up in March.  He thinks they have a good chance of winning state, (Lone Peak has won State the last two years in a row) which would earn them an all expenses paid trip to Orlando for the National tournament in June.  We’ll see how State goes.

Devin and I took a trip to SLC with the Highland City Youth Council to tour the State Capital at the invitation of our House of Representatives rep, Mike Kennedy.  Not only did we get to tour the capital building, but we also watched part of a session of the House, met with Rep. Kennedy for a Q & A and then a few of the council were able to go sit with Rep. Kennedy on the House floor for a few minutes while the bills were debated.  Devin was one of the kids randomly chosen, and he thought it was pretty cool to see the House of Representatives in action from the perspective of the politician.

Megan is still loving her mission!  We love to hear from her each week and to get pictures to see how she is doing.  She has been gone 8 months now and I would love to say that it has gone by so fast, but that would be a lie, so I’ll just say that we love that she is serving as a missionary and learning and growing so much. She inspires us!!

Hope you all have a great month!!