May 2019

Here's a look at our May:

Seth celebrated his 19th birthday with the Osmond family in Las Vegas.  Sister Osmond was nice enough to text me the week before and find out what he likes to eat and if we have any special traditions as a family that they could do for Seth. We always tell the birthday person something we love about them on his or her birthday, so we texted our love to Sister Osmond who surprised Seth by reading those messages from home on his birthday - it was awesome and he felt very loved. He is doing great and continues to LOVE missionary life.







Autumn finished her Sophomore year of high school amidst dance concerts, end of year finals, stress, tears (both because of tests, papers and finals and because of friends who are graduating) and lots of late nights.  But she managed to survive it all and we enjoyed watching her dance at her end of year concerts.  She also tried out for and made the high school team for another year and has decided to take a few technique classes at the studio she first started dancing at when she was just 2 years old.  Coming full circle, I guess.


Her dance concert was Mother's day weekend, so the dancers gave roses to all of the mothers in attendance



Megan and Devin made a special trip home to see their sister dance

I had an awesome Mothers day with Megan and Devin both coming home for the weekend and a special video chat with Seth who kept us all laughing the whole conversation. He is still so Seth and we miss his fun personality at home!


Dinner and a movie on Saturday night (Megan had just come from going to the temple with Mitch so she was extra dressy :))


Mothers day


Talking to our favorite Elder




Bryce and Autumn enjoying the lilacs :):)

Devin was hired to work at the MTC and is LOVING his job there!! He is working afternoons at the MTC and mornings doing custodial at the dorms, so he is keeping plenty busy.

I watch my neighbors 2 kids for a couple of hours every week and they are so much fun!  Ford and Monroe have become an extended part of our family and we love having them come play at our house.  I spoke in sacrament meeting this past month and as I sat down at the end of my talk, Ford (who is 4) whisper shouted from the back of the chapel, "MICHELLE!!" and then waved furiously.  It was adorable and almost made speaking in church worth it. ;)  They love the pets and always try to love them a little too much. :) Frankie is totally patient, but these pictures of him hiding from them and then trying to see if the coast is clear crack me up...

Near the end of the month, Megan and 2 of her roommates left Utah for a 3 day road trip to Washington DC.  Megan will be spending the rest of the summer living in Falls Church, Virginia while she does an externship there.  But before she starts working, Megan, Crystal and Rachel flew to Germany for a 10 day trip there.  They are having the BEST time!! Rachel grew up in Germany, so she is an awesome tour guide and they are staying with Rachel's aunt outside of Munich.  Here are a few pics of their adventures so far:


They spent a couple of days seeing the sights in DC before flying to Germany and got to hear the vice president speak on Memorial day in Arlington National Cemetery







The highlight of our month was taking a quick weekend trip over Memorial Day to visit Devin's mission in Arizona. Rob and Kim were kind enough to host us at their house for home base and we really enjoyed some warm Arizona sunshine for a few days and loved getting to see where Devin served and getting to meet some of the people he loves and that love him back.  It was really an awesome couple of days! We got to spend time with his mission president, meet with some of the amazing people he taught and served and on Sunday, we attended 3 of the wards he served in, 2 of which were in Spanish.  It was quick, but awesome!!!! Here are a few pics:


We had to start the morning with a hike up Camelback mountain since Devin says every missionary hikes Camelback at least once. Thanks Rob, for coming with us and taking the photo! ;)


President and Sister Robinson - they are amazing!!!


Lunch at Two Hippies - YUM!!


We were driving by Devin's first apartment so he could show us just how sketchy the area was and we ran into Elder Macy, one of Devin's absolute favorite missionaries.  It was a surprising and sweet reunion for these two!




At the Phoenix temple


We stopped at the Hoover Dam on the way home and discovered that going through Vegas is definitely the LONG way home. But it was also a fun adventure!



That's it for our May...

April 2019

April was pretty busy around here. Take a look:

Seth continues to serve in the Anthem area of his mission and he's super happy there.  He is working hard and still loves serving as a missionary.  Elder Holland and 3 members of the Seventy came to his mission this month, so he was pretty well spiritually fed, too.  He's doing great and we love him!


A blurry pic of Seth and his new companion, Elder Ahlstrom






With the rest of the Liberty Heights district

Megan continues to do well in her grad studies at USU and after finishing all of her finals at the end of April, she is now halfway done with her Master's program. She is happy and doing well. :)



Devin is also doing well in his schooling at BYU. We traveled down to Provo at the beginning of April to see him perform with his buddy at the Adaptive Show Choir's recital.  He and Alyse sang and danced together each week all semester and it was so awesome to see this group perform together - they were awesome!!


Devin and Alyse


Performing "I'll make a man out of you" from Mulan

Devin also finished his first semester back at BYU with all A's, continued to work part time doing custodial work at the dorms, spend time with his friends and also started working as an ordinance worker in the Provo temple.


Devin and his friend Beth at the color fest. :):)

Bryce, Autumn and I started our month with a Spring break vacation that was just awesome!  We drove to my sister's house in Temecula, CA where we enjoyed some warm sunshine - hooray!!



We spent one day riding bikes around Mission Bay and then playing at Mission Beach on what must have been the perfect beach day!









We spent a day hiking to potato chip rock, enjoying some pretty scenery along the way:







The three of us then drove back to Utah, stopping in Captiol Reef National Park where we met up with our good friend, Ron Davis and a couple of his friends.  We spent the next 2 days hiking and rappelling.  We did a total of 15 different rappels - some of them through arches or narrow slow canyons or into deep pools of water and others down a sheer 150 foot cliff.  They were all amazing and we had some pretty exciting moments (like when I accidentally flipped upside down on one of the rappels - thank heavens Bryce was belaying from the bottom and stopped my descent - or when Autumn ripped a huge hole in the seat of her pants) and also had so so much fun!!


Michelle rappelling by Cassidy Arch


Autumn through a narrow slot canyon









We got home from our Spring break fun just in time to welcome Devin and Megan home for General Conference.  We had such a great weekend participating in General Conference together!





The next weekend Autumn went to prom with her good friend since she was a baby, Jonah Heimuli. Autumn said it was by far her favorite date dance of the year - it was fun to see them all grown up compared to their preschool selves and still good friends. ;):) My favorite part was when Jonah's mom told me that Jonah really wanted to take Autumn to prom because, in part, he knew she would be beautiful and modest.  I told Autumn that and she was pretty proud of her reputation of being modest - she's worked hard for it. :)




Autumn and Jonah, 2006


Autumn and Jonah, 2019

Bryce and I went to the tulip festival and to visit the new butterfly biosphere at Thanksgiving Point





Megan, Mitch, Devin and Beth all came to spend Easter weekend with us (Mitch stayed at his parents home in Orem, but spent a lot of the weekend with us) and we had so much fun having a crowd around for all of the fun and festivities.



















Autumn had her ballet showcase for Hi lights dance academy. She also had her final competition until Nationals in July.  We love watching her dance gracefully on stage!



We ended the month by getting a much needed new roof on our house.  Hooray!!









That's it for April! ;)