The Grand Canyon

Since Alexander is a 4th grader this year he has a National Parks Pass.  We decided to take advantage of that and visit the Grand Canyon.  Sunday afternoon we drove the family down to Parks, AZ.  We stayed the night in a cozy little house in the woods.  After dinner we had a fun time playing in the woods.

Alex jumped into some mud and Rich was nice enough to thoroughly clean them out.  It was so cozy with the fire going.  We had our Come Follow Me lesson, played games, watched a little movie and rested up for our big day at the Grand Canyon.

We woke up early and drove the rest of the way to the Grand Canyon.  Right as we drove into the park we saw some Elk!

We decided to hike the South Rim.  The views were just amazing!

We packed in a lunch and enjoyed the scenery while we ate.

It was amazing to take it all in--it was just so vast!

We found this cool tree to climb along the trail.

And adorable tiny pinecones.

We had such a great day experiencing the the Grand Canyon together as a family.  We hope that we can make it back again someday!

March 2019

Our school held a fun run fundraiser on the first day of March.  The boys had a fun time.  (This is Alex's class.)

James, Lydia and Alex built a "Seussville" for Dr. Seuss's birthday.

Lydia snapped some awesome selfies on my phone.

We had a special meeting which discussed ward boundary changes.  Our neighborhood was carved out of Lynbrook ward and placed into Steeplechase ward.  It was emotionally exhausting... Lydia fell asleep on me when we got home.

Lydia must've been going through a growth spurt because I found her napping several times.

Henry continued to work hard at reading the entire Book of Mormon before his 8th birthday.

James tagged along on a campout with the Lynbrook Ward.  He had a great time!

Lydia loves to play photographer.

Lydia and I made a chocolate pie for Pi Day.

For a service auction in our new ward I put together a General Conference basket.  Sue Graff ended up with it and said her grandkids loved it!

I was called as Primary President in our new ward (somewhere I'm not totally comfortable... and I'm mourning the fact that I'm not in Young Women anymore).  Since I had already planned on attending Youth Conference I still got to go.  It was really fun to be there with William.

In the evening we let off lanterns in the desert.  It was beautiful!

Then we had an enormous bonfire!

For our Come Follow Me lesson we talked about more parables.  For the parable of the Pearl of Great Price we opened oysters and pulled out our own real pearls!

On St. Patrick's Day we had dinner at Floyd Lamb Park (with our rainbow fruit salad).   Then we took the kid's school pictures for the year.

I love discovering my kids all comfy and curled up with books.

I got thrown right into the action as Primary President when we had our ward Pinewood Derby right off the bat.

For a quick minute during March Madness William had a perfect bracket.

On Rich's birthday we went to the local Bluegrass festival.  It was a lot of fun!  There was an instrument petting zoo, a craft tent, and great live music!

Rich, William and James went on a campout and Alex had Cub Scout Day camp.  Since it was just the little ones and myself we went to Cafe Rio for dinner and watched a movie.

One Sunday we had perfect weather!  We set up croquet in the backyard and everyone was getting ready to play.  All of a sudden out walks Lydia with her spoon and a big bowl of cookie dough.  She just made herself comfy on the hammock--ready to watch the game. She's a funny girl!