A Friendly Visit

My friend Tiffany Wacaser, her husband Brent, and their two youngest children, Jonathan and Winter, came to Texas for their Spring Break and were able to stop by and visit with us.  They came to church with us on Palm Sunday, which was our Easter program, since Easter would be on General Conference.  I played the piano for the ward choir singing "This is the Christ" and I played the cello with Corey singing "I Know That My Redeemer Lives".  Then they came to dinner with us at our house.  It was so great to see her and to catch up.  We were roommates at BYU during my sophomore year when I lived in the Belmont Apartments.

Easter "Walk With Christ"

 

Our stake put on an amazing event for Easter, a "Walk With Christ", where each room had different pieces of the life of Jesus.  You walked through and contemplated his life and sacrifice.  They had beautiful music piped in from the chapel, which Annmarie and Eliza had signed up to sing (while I played) a few good Easter songs.  It was set up to run for two nights and took up the whole church building.  It was really amazing and so well done.  

Wrestling Banquet and A Honor Roll

While Eliza and I were in Utah and Idaho, Jonah had his wrestling banquet.  Corey was on a work trip the same week, so sadly he wasn't able to go to the banquet either.  Jonah was given the award for the Rookie of the Year.  He had a fantastic year in wrestling and we look forward to great things to come for him.

That Friday, I went to Nathan's award ceremony for the third term of school.  He made it back to the A Honor Roll, rather than AB, and was happy about that, although he was disappointed that he was one 94 shy of getting in the Principal's club.  Overall, he has done very well academically in elementary school and hopefully he can continue to do well that way through the rest of school.  

BYU-Provo or Idaho?

Eliza got accepted to both BYU Provo and BYU-Idaho, and I wanted her to make an informed decision, so she and I flew up to Utah the Monday after Spring Break so we could take campus tours of both schools.  We were able to meet up with Maggie and Westley for lunch at the BYU Creamery while in Provo and then took the campus tour.  After that, we went up to  Westley and Alejandra's apartment in Lehi for dinner and then on to Aunt Amy's where we were staying the night.  

The next day, we drove the 3 hours up to Rexburg Idaho.  We stopped over to see Jordan's daughter Leah Tenney (she got married last April) and chat with her for a bit before heading up to campus to go to the devotional with Caleb and his girlfriend Mika.  We bumped into a few people from our stake here in Texas, including Sarah Rigby and Ella Denny, Lydia Shumard, Camden Blacker, and Bradley Fastnaught, and our tour guide happened to be Megan LaMarche.  After our tour of campus, we went back to North Salt Lake and had dinner with Aunt Amy.

On Wednesday, we drove down and around our old neighborhood and then on down to Orem to have lunch with Westley at a Village Baker there before heading back to the airport and home.  It was a quick trip, but it was a great trip.  Eliza decided on BYU Provo and is very excited for her next chapter.

Paris and Permit

 

It is hard to get appointments for a driver's license or permit at the DPS stations close by for the date you want unless you log on months in advance, so when I went to make Jonah's appointment, I decided to pick a place a little farther away and make a little trip out of it during our Spring Break.  So we chose Paris, Texas.  

We drove up in the afternoon and walked around the downtown,  We stopped at a little ice cream shop called "Sundae in Paris" and had some delicious ice cream floats.  After that, we went back to the hotel to go swimming.  The pool was closed at our hotel, so we had to use the pool at the hotel next door.  We ate dinner at a little diner across the highway from the hotel.  Then we hung out in the room and watched TV and fell asleep.  The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and then we went and visited the Eiffel tower with the cowboy hat on it and the Jesus in cowboy boots statue/grave marker in the cemetery.  Then we went to the Veteran's Memorial, which was pretty cool.  After that we toured an old historic home.  The next stop on our agenda was the DPS for Jonah's permit, which he got.  After that, we drove home, stopping at Braum's for lunch on the way.  It was a  nice little trip and now Jonah can work on getting his license!  

Another Teenager!

Annmarie had her 13th birthday on Saturday when Spring Break started.  She chose to have crepes for her birthday breakfast and they were delicious!  She also chose to sing at the Wylie Opry on her birthday and did fantastic as usual.  She just keeps getting better and better.  Here's to another teenager!
 

Jonah's Birthday

Jonah turned fifteen on the last day of school before Spring Break.  I was subbing that day so Corey took him lunch.  He has a quick wit and sharpness about him and has lots of friends at school and church.  He keeps super busy with sports and band.  Happy birthday to Jonah!

 

Wylie ISD at the Meyerson

Eliza and Annmarie were both involved in Wylie ISD at the Meyerson this year--Eliza with A'Cappella and Annmarie with Choraliers.

Jonah was not in the highest level band so he was not involved.  I was happy this year to be able to go since I missed out last year due to a gymnastics meet for Annmarie.