It's Supposed to Be Spring!

 Angelica, as I might have mentioned before, loves to dance.  She takes several lessons, all from one studio in Boise.  She's on a dance team now, which involves traveling, sometimes out of state.  The traveling is on our dime and it is our job to get our dancer to wherever she is supposed to be for team competitions.  Our first one was February 18th, in Provo, Utah.  I planned to drive Angelica there and stay with Bob and Maryanne.  But Angelica had the sniffles.  We were uninvited at that point, so I reserved a motel in Provo.  It turned out to be a good thing, as we were close to her performance location, near the center of Provo.  She danced in two routines.  I went to the auditorium Friday morning to see them.  I was amazed at how many dancing groups there were!  I watched tens and tens of them before Angelica's group appeared.  Loving dancing as I do, I was excited to see the routines.  Let me just say that much of dancing is different these days.  There was lots of hip hop routines where the girls dress like guys and move like them too.  The beat is strong and fun to move to but I don't like it.  Hip hop seems to be to be a guy's kind of dance.  Let them do it, I say.  Other routines were more graceful, but often pretty suggestive in movements.  Call me a critic, but I long to see the graceful movements of traditional dance.  Here's Angelica with her team after one of their dances.  She's the one in yellow.

Speaking of Angelica, she invited a friend to a Sweetheart's Ball soon after our return home.  Here she is with the group of girls she and her date hung with.  Following that is Angelica and her date.  These are fun, wholesome times, as this group of kids are inclusive and trade around dates for various dances.  Nothing heavy here; just friendships.  These pictures were taken by a nearby lake and it was COLD!  Hence, the picture taking didn't take long.

Scott and Jessica (#3) moved from California to our area for a new job.  Happily they moved in with Reed and Dorothy for awhile, until they get more settled and ready for a home of their own.  So we get to see plenty of their first baby boy, born just weeks ago; our new little Thomas.  He is full of dimples and very engaging.  Audrey and Jessica visited one weekend shortly after their move.  We got plenty of Thomas time in during their visit! Here are my girls with him.  First Audrey, then Jessica (#1).

My Jessica is working for Alaska Airlines now, so she has stand-by privileges.  When I told her Audrey was coming for the weekend, she caught a flight on stand-by and joined us.  So fun to have my girls.  Here they are with Reed.  

So much of my time has been taken up with a group of neighbors who are trying to keep a developer from inserting higher density housing in our development.  We live in a country development, with acre properties.  It is lovely and rural.  But our area is exploding with growth.  New housing developments are popping up everywhere, filling our country fields with lots and lots of new homes.  "People have to have a place to live," Layne often tells me.  But why not have a plan for growth that offers all sorts of densities in different places.  Surely we can plan for high density places and lower density, without them being on top of each other.  We are so hoping to influence the city of Star's powers that be to direct a match to our current density.  We are caught up in our cause!

Audrey and I planned on a visit to Indiana to see Allegra a couple of weeks ago.  I planned to meet up with her in San Francisco and fly a red-eye to Indiana together.  My arrival day just happened to be on Ben's birthday--March 21--so I arranged to fly to SFO early on that Thursday, to spend the day with him.  But it was not to be.  He had to go to New York to help Jacqueline at NYU, so I missed him completely.  But I spent the day with his Jessica (#2) and the kids.  Jessica was so good to me. She filled the morning with an exercise class at a local park, then followed it up with a body massage.  It was so good!  There was time to visit with the kids too.  It was a lovely day even without Ben.  Here is the morning exercise gang; Jessica and me with two of her very warm and friendly friends (Pave and Abby, I think).

Ben's Jessica was recently interviewed for a friend's blog on her feelings about being the mother of eight.  It was a great interview!  Here is a promotion of it.

Audrey and I caught a late flight out of SFO to Indiana that night as planned, and arrived there at 6 AM or so.  We went right to our motel and slept for awhile, then met up with Allegra.  She is on an archival internship for a company there that makes diesel engines, and loves the job!  Saturday we walked through the charming town of Colombus, where she lives with a roommate, and then took in a movie.  We all feasted on popcorn as we watched.  I paid for that over-indulgence that night, as I had diarrhea for the whole of it and into the next day.  So that was two nights in a row without sleep.  By Sunday I wasn't feeling all that well.  I headed for home on Monday, arriving in the afternoon, so happy to be home.  But I spent the next two weeks feeling a bit less well than normal.  Here is a snapshot of Allegra and Audrey.  Was the trip worth it?  I'm not sure.

We have had a number of foster daughters over the years.  Our first one is very dear to us.  Laura White got a chance to drive here from her home in Rexburg to visit with us.  She is the mother of 6 and grandmother now too.  It was a joy to have her for a few days.  We spent just about the whole of it talking and talking and...talking.  Here she is.

The first weekend of April was General Conference.  That is always a treat.  Grandson Isaiah and his Avery drove here from Rexburg to spend that weekend with us.  Their baby girl, Mercedes, is just a few weeks old.  What a joy it was to spend time with that beautiful little girl!  Avery was so happy to share her.  Oh, and we loved being with Isaiah and Avery too!

We got together with Reed and Dorothy and Scott and his Jessica and baby Thomas too.  It'll be so fun to see these little ones together when they are a bit older and can play together.  Here are both families with their new little babes. Isaiah and Avery with Mercedes are on the left; Scott and his Jessica with Thomas are on the right.  By November we will have two more new babies; Chase and Morgan are having a boy in July and Rayne is due in November.  What an exciting year this is turning out to be.

The local family gathered on General Conference Sunday to watch together.  Here is a snap of them with varying levels of attention given.

We had a lovely weekend with Isaiah and Avery.  They left us on Monday morning.  Isaiah has a scholarship to Cornell University in the Fall.  Soon they will move to CA, so spend the summer with Audrey and Cliff, then off to New York and a whole new adventure.

This coming Sunday is Easter.  I'm in charge of the Sacrament program--music and narration.  How I hope it all turns out as I see it in my mind.  I have been directing a choir for the first time in my life for this program.  I did my best, considering I have no musical training.  The ward members are very supportive, so it makes my efforts worth it. 

One of the local Stakes here organized an amazing presentation on Easter at a local Church building, complete with displays and live scenes from Christ's life.  It was a beautiful celebration of the Savior.  The whole community is invited.  Our local family attended it Sunday night.  Here we are after it was over.   L to R:  Timothy, Reed, Bruce, Scott, Jessica, Angelica and Layne.

 

Spring is supposed to be here.  I have Easter memories from childhood of wearing new spring dresses, shoes and hat to Church on Easter.  It was just about the only time we went to Church, and the denominations varied from year to year.  It was usually warm by then and our dresses spoke to that.  But here in Idaho, this year, it is snowing at present.  What a strange, snowy spring this has turned out to be!  But it IS spring and we plan to celebrate that.  

                                                                    HAPPY EASTER!