Louie

This is Louie.  Afton picked him out just before Easter.  He is adorable!  He loves eating dandilions which we happen to have a large supply of.

About Me

I've been doing a few "art journal" layouts over the past few weeks.  I very rarely do any about myself, but I have definitely put a lot of myself into these latest ones.

Springbreak Phase 1

On Wednesday we took a little trip to Springdale, Utah.  I really like our visits there.  It's a nice little shot of spring for our winter blues.  When we left our house there was snow on the ground.  Yep, this was just what we needed.  When we got as far as LaVerkin the kids got really excited.  They really like that area and thought it was just so beautiful.

Dennis was going to a Planning Conference there and was asked to speak this time.   While we were there we found out that the Zion 100 was taking place that weekend.  Runners going 100 miles around Zion's park. Kind of an impressive feat. We stayed at a hotel walking distance from the conference building.  We saw some fun turkeys on our walk back and forth. There was a really fun park next to the building so I could listen to Dennis' class while the kids played outside.  We spent so much time outside while we were there! It was wonderful.

We had a fun time walking around working on the picture scavenger hunt that Afton and I put together. There were several "rock collections" that we visited.  Some pretty amazing geods.  We also made it out to visit the pioneer ghost town of Grafton - "that wasn't very scary" Khora told Dennis. We spent quite a bit of time at the park next to the conference. I got some reading done and the kids had a blast playing around. Bonnie was up high on the play ground at one point and she was singing "I'm on top of the world, I can see everything!" and it the next breath she said, "But mom, I can't get down." Comic timing right there!!  They recruited a couple kids there to play a game of "infection", which is like tag but everyone is it.

We were also able to see the movie Mr. Peabody and Sherman on the Zion Canyon giant screen. It's six stories high.  Dennis got our family tickets from the conference!  We all enjoyed this movie in 3D. I think Bonnie sat through the entire movie with the glasses on.  This was an especially good treat because in April we have been taking an Entertainment diet.  

15th Anniversary Activities

The Utah County Women's Legislative Council asked Dennis to speak about Urban sprawl at their monthly meeting. Since it was on our anniversary I went with. He was one of 4 people on the panel and had only 10 minutes for his presentation, but had lots of questions afterwards.  He had a very nice power point put together and it was very popular. Someone asked me if I was his girlfriend.  I smiled and said "Why yes I am!" She said she thought we were so cute together!

They held it at Chuck O-Rama and we came a little early planning to eat before the meeting. It didn't really work out the way we planned though. We ended up paying $19 and eating just salads.  Yippy! :)   Dennis made it up to me by taking me to Gloria's in downtown Provo for some Italian cake! I don't remember what it was called, something Italian sounding, but it reminded me of warm Hostess cupcakes only more. . . Italian.   We walked across the street to check out this quaint little flower shop and he surprised me with a big beautiful bouquet of 15 roses that he had pre-ordered.  He doesn't surprise me often, but he's done it a couple times this month!

Little side note on this woman's group, because I found them very interesting.  It had the feel of DUP, with the same demographics - well maybe a bit more "affluent" than our local DUP camp members, but the rest is spot on.  Their purpose is to educate women on what is going on at our local government. Every month they invited two sides to speak about a specific issue. They are very educated and active women.  They immediately started "recruiting me".  One women told me that "Dennis needs to run for office".  I told her I don't know when he'd have the time."  I could literally see the light go on when she realized that he was supporting a very young family still, and in a very different place in life than she was.  I think I may or may not now be a member of the group since they have my email address. . . they are very . . . persistent, and excited about politics. I was invited to a meeting next month where "All the big wigs are going to be speaking". The governor and senators etc. . .  and I was told "and they come because they know that we will show respect."  I think that was a warning??!!  Understood.  ?! I kind of laughed at that.  I'm such a threat!!  hahaha

Local Politics

Dennis got out of school Thursday night so we could go to our local caucus meeting.  It was an excused absence. We were read a letter at church, (I actually heard it 3x's),  from the Church leaders urging us to be active in what ever political party we belong to. There were a couple people who wanted to nominate Dennis for different seats, but because of his job he didn't feel comfortable with it. I don't think there is anything illegal, just his personal preference.  As a city employee, as well as assistant city manager, he felt like it was his duty to represent all of Santaquin City and not just our part of it, also the state meetings were during our trip to Atlanta. So they nominated me instead, for a county delegate seat.  HUGE surprise there! I think it might have been the first popularity vote I have actually won too! I definitely didn't seek it out, not at all in my comfort zone, but I said OK anyway when I was nominated. Our meetings are not at all like you see in SLC or even Provo for that matter. It's very Santaquin style, laid back and enjoyable. There was one point where I whispered to Dennis that we need some women up there though. There ended up being 3 of us, yay!  I was chosen to be one of 7 county delegates for our precinct SQ01. (There are three precincts in Santaquin). I'm not big into politics, but I think this will be a good experience and very educational.  I'll put in my time. 

4H

Feb 10 - We registered Afton for 4H.  A young couple from our old 5th ward is doing a class on raising farm animals and gardening.  She set a goal this year to learn more about gardening so this class was perfect.  She is also excited because I think they are having the kids each raise a lamb that they can show at the fair if they want to.  I was excited because I was hoping that this meant that we could finally get chickens.  She starts that class this week.

March 13 - Afton has been getting ready for her rabbit project. It's going to be Mini Rex rabbits.  She is making plans to build a hutch with her dad.  The kids are keeping him working in the garage!  There is a lot of sawdust building up out there.

March 24 - Afton loves, loves, loves 4H.  She looks forward to playing with the sheep every week.  Dennis took the girls out Friday night and bought materials for a rabbit hutch. All day Saturday we were working on this hutch.  It turned out so nice!!  I think every one did something to help. I have attached two pictures that Dennis took when it was done.   She has made two very good friends with girls in our ward that go to 4H. She is a very friendly and accepting person. One of the moms said to me, I'm so glad that Afton came over to play.  I think the ice is broken with these two quiet girls.  It's been fun having her in our home laughing and playing.

The door latches and tar on the legs were finally finished on Tuesday.  So now we just need bunnies.  Harder than I thought.  I've been trying to find information about raising for show and 4H and you need to buy from a breeder, because it's not just a pet.

While we were working on the hutch, Bonnie found a nice pile of mud to play in.  She was having a blast!

Last Saturday Afton and a friend of hers went out to the animal care facility to practice with their animals.  It was actually very funny to watch. Afton got peed on and McKinzie got bumped in the nose and knocked on her bumb.  They had a blast though, lots of laughing and smiles!  While we were there the local sister missionaries stopped by. One of the sisters is from Africa (I think she said Africa) and had never seen sheep before.  She really wanted to pet one so the girls held one still for her.  It was enjoyable to watch! Lots of good experiences in 4H!  

Watermelon Baby!

Bonnie has been asking for watermelon for a couple weeks now.  I kept telling her that we can eat watermelon when it gets really hot outside in the summer.  We went to Costco the other day and what did they have?  These big beautiful seedless watermelons. I'm cautious of out of season fruit, but because she wanted it so bad, I decided to pick one up. You know what, it was actually very yummy!  I think Bonnie ate 1/3 of it all by herself. What do you know, you can have watermelon in March.