Saint George and Easter

There are very few kindred spirits in this world.  I have several and they all live away from me; some quite far away.  Trudy Ostler is one of my kindreds.  She now lives in St. George.  I spent much of last week visiting her.  Her husband was gone so we had girl time, all the time.  When I have the chance of it, I can be quite a gabber.  Trudy is one of those safe people for me, so I gabbed.  It felt good to be able to talk about all sorts of things, unbridled and unlimited by time.  Time did pass quickly, as it always does, but it was filled with all sorts of nourishment.

Trudy and I in her house in St. George

Here I am on the red hills of St. George.  I love those climbing
ridges that the hills provide.  

Grandson Timothy was too young for the night hunt, but he gathered
all the glow bracelets after the hunt and models them here.

Here is grandson Scott, after the hunt.

Here is my tired boy tolerating a glow halo.

I've decided that I like St. George.  At least I like the red earth that surrounds it.  We hiked all through the red hills near Trudy's home one day.  I can't quite explain the euphoric feeling I had being there, in the middle of all that red dirt.  We were in the presence of an ancient volcano.  Remains of it were everywhere:  blackened rocks, volcanic rock and, most interesting, red mounds that looked like solid pudding.  They must have been hot at some time in the ancient past.  There they stand, pudding-like, with their layers offering steps up to their tops.  We had such fun climbing them and winding our way down to the various paths that fill the area.  What a beautiful place.  But of course I was not there in the summer.  I'm imagining that my enthusiasm might be a bit compromised at that time of year, with Saint George temperatures in the hundreds.

Our home is now officially for sale.  We had an open house for brokers on Friday.  Several couples showed up as well.  Both loved the home but one man especially liked it.  He WANTS it.  But he has to convince his wife.  Who would have thought that there would be interested parties the very first day?!  It makes me both sad and glad.  I will be sad to leave here.  There is much to love and a few things to bug.  I was thinking it would take a long time to sell the house, but maybe not.  If it sells soon, I'll need to focus on the bugs.

I got home just in time for our annual Easter Egg hunts.  Friday night the older kids gathered for a night hunt.  I read about making eggs glow by putting glow-in-the-dark bracelets inside.  So I decided to try it.  Each person had a different color egg and each person had 10 eggs to find.  Dorothy and I hid them just before dark so the glow would last.  We hid them in our budding orchard.  We place glow sticks all along the path to the orchard and then placed the eggs throughout.  The kids LOVED it.  I was so pleased that they liked it as much as they did.  The night was clear and cool, with a full moon giving the sky a slight glow.  It was perfect.

The next day the rest of the kids came for a daytime hunt.  It was tons of fun too.  I can't say why, but I love to hide Easter Eggs and love to watch the kids find them.  What a happy time.  We also had a lesson on Christ and the resurrection using scriptures hidden in eggs.  The kids picked an egg and read a numbered scripture, which unfolded the story.  Our pre-reader, Abigail, held up pictures to illustrate the scriptures.  It also went well.  Or so it seemed to me.

Today is Easter.  Son Ben and his family came, with food.  We ate a fondue dinner and dessert.  Wow, what a feast.  As the day closes, it seems a good time to express gratitude for the all-important gift of the Atonement.  l'm so happy to know that Christ both lived and lives, and has given to all of us in the world the means to overcome every dark thing.  Priceless.