April 2015

Next week is our 5 year anniversary.  I am feeling extra grateful for TJ and for our marriage.  Sure, there have been hard times, but there have been so many wonderful times too.  I really can't imagine life without him - as I travel I miss him terribly, and feel so much more complete when I'm by his side. 

I'm trying to do a better job of recording our life.  I wish I had more records and pictures of our past 5 years together, so I'm trying to do a better job moving forward.  In that vein, a few records of our April:

GENERAL CONFERENCE
First, General Conference.  Oh, how I love the opportunity to hear from our church leaders.  I cherish the opportunity every 6 months to hear from them. 

We had Nora, Evan and Alice over during one session.  Here they are with TJ, coloring a giant picture:

General Conference fell over Easter this year.  Per tradition, we did our Morris family Easter egg hunt outside after dark.  What a fabulous tradition - I love how fun TJ's mom and dad have made this!  Everyone has an assigned color of eggs they have to look for, using flashlights and headlights.  Then there are gold eggs to find that have BIG MONEY in them.  :)  Then there are real eggs to find, so that we don't find them rotting later.  ;)

 

Ah, yes, there I am - the most excited of all.  Can you tell?

 

Our baskets and eggs after the hunt:

We went to the Milar house between sessions and this is the only bit of proof we have: a picture of Brock before he learned what "cheeeeese" means. :)  Oh, and I hope this is Brock.  I think I see the scar on his forehead?

Also, we had our first four square competition with the Morris family.  We used one of Austin's soccer balls (sorry again, Mom and Dad!) and we had a blast.  I haven't played four square since the old Jordan Ridge days, so this was a learning experience too.  But man, we had a great time of it!  Again, sadly, I have just one picture.  And, for the record, I think Austin was surprised at how good everyone was, most especially Mom.

TJ and I went to Hale Center Theater, where we saw Ghost: The Musical.  I...pretty much hated it.  TJ was not so harsh.  :)  It's always good to get out together, and I absolutely love that we both enjoy the arts!

Also, we were able to go down to Spanish Fork for Darius' baby blessing.  I am so glad that Britta and I blindly ended up as roommates all those years ago (has it already been 10 years??) and glad that she has landed so near us for now.  It's always fun to see her and I'm so glad we were in town for the baby blessing.  She and Jarom are definitely going places, so I will cherish their proximity while it lasts!

As one of the highlights during the month, I was able to practice for the annual duet recital that Elaine does at South Towne.  I am so glad that I didn't have a work event this year (for the first time in four years), especially since it was her last year to do it (pictures of the actual event coming in the May review).  Tiny and I were able to go to a big practice at her house, where I found these old "All About Me" pages that took me right back to Memory Lane.  I sent pictures of both Holly and Ben's to them and we died laughing.  Holly's pose.  My awkwardness.  Ben writing "?Weird? !I'd say!" beneath the picture of us.  Hilarious. 

I especially loved finding the one about Elaine.  I love that woman, especially since hearing more about her when her son (in my ward) spoke about her on Mother's Day.  Holy smokes, that woman is a marvel.

I spent a LOT of April traveling...maybe more than half the month, in fact.  I spent a lot of time touring tropical places like this, looking for future event venues:

Those resorts in Punta Cana were absolutely unbelievable - right down to the peacocks on one property that chased people around!  The properties were massive, the grounds filled with so much beauty.  I was in awe at every location.  So, so beautiful.

Finally, after five days of jam-packed working, I finally had time to put on my swimsuit.  You can tell I feel a little happy about that.

At the end of one day I was able to go sit on the beach while the sun set.  I have NEVER seen the ocean that calm not a single wave out there.  It was really beautiful, but I think I would've been bored had I been swimming in it.  :)

We rode out to a private island one day and, on the way, drove past Jay Z and Beyonce's house (no clue if those are even spelled right).  That's it, below.  On the far left you can see a golf cart - that's a man whose job is just to watch for people that come and take pictures: he calls and the cops come immediately.  Kind of crazy.

Not pictured: the real Gilligan's Island.  It's for sale for a paltry $1,000,000.  Which I really feel is a pretty minimal price.

Oh, I saw this sign there and it cracked me up enough to make me stop the people I was with so I could take a picture.

I got home from a week away in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas and look who else was in the airport.  We were tired and I was grumpy.  I'm sure you can't tell...

Okay, one more. 

We are in love with our neighbors, the Merkleys.  Graysen and Mylee make our hearts sing with love.  We adore the fact that they wait for us to come home, chase our cars into the garage, and talk our ears off about life, what's new, and how we're doing.  Oh, how we love them.

I took this picture of the cardboard box Mylee spent all day working on one day - we made her "important people" list.  Melted my heart.

I am so burned out from traveling (writing this from Disneyland, ha!) but overall I think April was quite good to us!