We opened the month of April - as always with Tiffani's birthday. We are grateful she is cancer free and is returning to health, with the exception of her knees that are still giving her trouble. She is a devoted wife and mother and is about to be an empty nester. She's not very excited about that.
Friday, April 3, Dave came to look for a house to buy. They are going to buy a house for Cameron to live in and Kolton will be his roommate. It will be great for the cousins to live together. It will also give the twins a place to do laundry and provide an excuse for Tiffani to visit more often (see empty nest reference above).
That same day while Grandad was working in the temple, a group of Navajo and Anglo youth came from New Mexico. The temple was reserved especially for them that morning. It reminded him of his time in Blanding and brought back so many good memories.
Saturday and Sunday were filled with conference. It's so nice when Easter falls on Conference Sunday. It was wonderful to hear from a living prophet of God, Dallin H. Oaks.
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| Top: Grandad, Me, Asher, friend, Shanelle, Erik, Kolton, friend, Camden, friend Bottom: Camden, me, Camden's friend |
On April 6 we were surprised to get a message from Tiffani telling us Lauryn had already received her mission call. She had only submitted her papers the week before! We all made our guesses and then tuned in for the big reveal. She will be serving in the Mexico City Northwest Mission. She enters the MTC on August 26. She didn't want to speak Spanish or eat Mexican food. Perfect! Her mission is known as the Beverly Hills of Mexico. It is very small, but sounds like an interesting place. She is very excited and we are happy for her.
We had a fun surprise visit from Angela Ouzts and Ruth Miller from our Caswell mission. They were temple hopping and made time to stop and see us. We sure love those people. 
That afternoon, Grandad and I mowed the lawn all by ourselves. We're trying to figure out who is going to pay us an allowance for all that hard work. We celebrated with Cold Stone afterwards. We earned it!
The next week followed our standard routine: Sunday, church; Monday, welding date; Tuesday, temple; etc., etc.
We went to the Payson temple on Thursday the 9th and were able to seal seven sons in the same family. What a special experience. If we can find their wives, it will be Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Saturday, April 11, was a big day because Simon Johns, Ashley's second child, was baptized. It's hard to believe so much time has passed. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we were at Ashley's baptism. Simon was baptized by his father, Tyler.
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| Johns Family - Will, Simon, Bea, Tyler, Rosie, Ashley |
He got to share his special day with his Aunt Lily and Uncle Jonny on their missions. Technology can be such a blessing.
After the baptism, they celebrated with a family trip to Lagoon. They are such a fun little family.
We were interested to see the church's announcement about the change in the meeting schedule starting in September. We look forward to seeing how it works.
Tuesday April 14th was Kolton's birthday. We couldn't find a current picture of him so we pulled out this treasure. He is such a good young man. He's doing well at BYU and seems to always be on one adventure or another.
After that, we returned to the Seamons for more welding. This time Grandad is working on a goat. (Old McDonald has nothing on our welded farm.)
Every Tuesday and Thursday we go to the temple and every Friday morning Grandad works at the Orem Temple. We are grateful that we have the time and health to do this so often. (We nag our children to do the same, forgetting that they still have work and school and go way more than we did when we were their age.)
Thursday we had a bit of a tax scare so we skipped the temple to try and figure it all out. It's hard for us oligarchs in the highest tax bracket. We hid our assets in an offshore account in the Cayman Islands and now all is well.
Tiffani flew in on Friday April 17 for a quick visit. Clark and Di invited us, Tiff, and Cameron over for dinner on Sunday. Yummy food, great company, and family. 5 Stars. Two thumbs up. Highly recommend.
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| Cameron, Grandad, me, Clark, Di, Hailey |
On Monday the 20th we were back at the Seamons for our 4-H club on welding. (How do you know when you've crossed over from an activity to an addiction? Asking for a friend.)
That evening Riley and Bailey came for a long visit. It was such a pleasure spending time with them. Bailey brought yummy cinnamon rolls. It brings us joy seeing them so happy together. They have moved out of her mom's house back into a place of their own.
Tuesday Tiffani was back in surgery. Her knees felt like they weren't getting enough attention so they decided to make some noise. Everything went well and she is back to being busy. She has had 10 surgeries in the past two years. Too many.
Wednesday the 22nd I made breakfast all by myself for the first time in about six years. Hope I'm not starting a trend with that.
Simon and Will admire us so much, they decided to dress up like us. Simon even nicked his bald head!
Saturday the 25th was bee keeping day. Clark came over with new bees to replace those that had frozen over the winter.
Grandad subbed in the temple for Bob Martin. He was feeling guilty because he just doesn't spend enough time at the temple.
Sunday the 26th the windows of heaven were open and it rained and rained and rained. (Perhaps it was the naked rain dance we had performed in the backyard under the full moon the night before.0)
On Monday, April 27, we paused for a moment of silence in recognition of our beloved first born's birthday. We like to measure time as BK and AK. So Monday was 58AK. She is the light of our lives and honestly the reason we keep on living. It rained that day as well.
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| Kristin, Baylie, and Jalen on a recent trip to Puerto Rico. |
On Wednesday, we had a lovely French toast breakfast. Life in the fast lane. Grandad painted some of his crafts and did some family history.
Missionaries
Lily will be returning from her mission on May 8! We are excited to see her and hear about her adventures. (Grandad is getting extra security for his truck.)
Jonny is involved in the social media programs in his mission. This is a video they posted on their Facebook page.
