Well, we have had another packed weekend... On Wednesday night Taylor came home for a short visit. He has been finishing up his training in California for the last 4 weeks and has a little time off so he came by here on his way back to Virginia. Bradley finished up the Winter term at BYU-Hawaii and has been home since April 12th. We went to the movies, had dinner out a couple of times and had the family over for dinner at the house on Sunday night. On Friday, Taylor bought a new truck and he will be renting out his other truck to Bradley while he is in the Baltimore area. Taylor and Bradley also spent some time at Larry & Melanie's house.














On Saturday, Robert and I went up to St. John's in North Eastern Arizona to speak at a Stake Conference. Robert is serving as a counselor in the Tempe Mission Presidency and we are occasionally assigned to speak at Stake Conferences in our mission. This was the first time I had been to this area of Arizona, so it was a fun weekend. Because it is so far away (4 hours driving), we stayed in the Stake President's home Saturday night and were able to visit with his family and get to know them a little better. Their Stake Conference was wonderful and there were several new converts and investigators in the new member meeting on Sunday morning. There was a good spirit there and we enjoyed the conference very much. On Sunday morning we woke up to find it was snowing! It was snowing lightly when we left for Conference, but by the time we were ready to head for home, it was snowing pretty well...


As you can see, it was quite windy! I was so excited to be eating new fallen snow I slipped as I was getting into the car and almost fell!












The drive was long but beautiful, especially this gorge that we had to drive down into and then back out again.












Monday morning brought goodbyes from Bradley and Taylor. They are heading up to Utah today and will visit friends and family for a few days and then head for the East Coast where Taylor will be stationed for a year and Bradley will be working for 4 months. It's been a fun weekend but we will miss you both!



tough guys!

bunnies and turtles and kitties, oh my!

Okay, so most of you know that I tend to have a lot of animals at my house! Well, my friend called a couple of weeks ago and asked me if I'd be interested in opening up my home to an orphaned baby bunny, and of course I said yes... "Buttons" was being bottle fed up until I took him/her and is still very tiny. In this picture you can see how he basically fits in the palm of Brian's hand. At first he was very calm and shy and would sit very still in my hand, but after a few days, he has gotten very aggressive in a small bunny way. He tries to scare me by batting at me with his front paws, but I just giggle. Once I catch him, he cuddles right up to me and loves me to scratch his cheeks. Once he gets big enough he'll go outside in my back yard and be happy as can be!



Our box turtles have also been enjoying being back in the backyard in their habitat. This is Harry, Ron, Ginny and Neville. Hermione is one of the moms in the regular backyard... We also have Franklin (the dad) and Rose (the other mom). These are babies that were born 2 years ago and we keep them in a kiddie pool in the backyard when it's warmer. During the winter I bring them indoors so they don't freeze! I feed them worms, pill bugs and meal-worms, but I'm trying to get the worms to establish themselves in the habitat so they will provide food for the turtles on their own. The turtles are about 2-3 inches long and they definitely like being outside better than inside!









And, not to be left out, these are the Sulcata Tortoises that we also have in the backyard. The big one is Tiny, then the smaller ones are Charlie, Fred & Barney. Barney is the one that got in a fight with a dog last year and has healed up very nicely. He's a little longer than Fred (his brother) because of the bandages that we had on him for 6 months. He still carries scars from the loss of his shell, but I think he will actually look pretty good in another couple of years...












These are our two cats, Allie (on the left) and Zoe (on the right), but I've been thinking lately of changing Zoe's name to Sheeba because I think she thinks she IS the "Queen of Sheeba". They mostly live in our bedroom because they don't like our dogs chasing them. Allie is 12 or 13 years old ( I can't remember exactly which year we got her...) and I'm not sure how old Zoe is because she was a lost kitty that we adopted. Allie is slowing down a bit, so I wanted to get a picture just in case she's not with us too much longer.

16, here I come...

We celebrated Brian's 16th birthday last night with the family, but today is his actual birthday. He was very excited to turn 16 and has been counting down the days for weeks now. We went to the DMV so he could take his driving test and he did great on it, so now he's driving and able to date... how did this happen? My youngest child has grown into a young man while I wasn't watching! But he's a wonderful young man and he is a joy to be around. He's also a good sport to be the last one at home and put up with being seen with Mom & Dad occasionally.

For Spring Vacation, Robert and I went to Sedona for the day. It was a beautiful day and the drive was very pretty. We took Dakota and Max and I think they had a good time. Mostly they were just in the car, but we did take them out a couple of times and they got to sniff totally new smells! They loved it! We will be going to Sedona for a family reunion in July and we wanted to see where we would be staying. It's beautiful and we're looking forward to the trip.

Lindsay is in town this weekend for Amy Miles' wedding and I'm so excited to see her. It seems that it has worked out that she comes down to visit every month or so. Perfect! I will post pictures later... after we take some!
She just recently passed her Basic test for school. She is now officially an Esthetician, which means she can do facials, waxing, pedicures, manicures, etc. I think I'm going to get a good return on her education :)

Well, it has been a little bit of a scary day for our family. I was on my way out to Larry and Melanie's to watch my grandkids, Noah, Ethan and Catherine for the morning, when Robert called me and told me about the earthquake in Chile. Ben just got to Chile 6 weeks ago and is serving in Renaico which is very close to the epicenter of the quake. I spent the next eight hours being very worried about him, because we didn't know if he was okay. All the regular phones, internet and cell phones were knocked out and we didn't have any word. I would keep checking the Church website and the news releases to find out any information, but that didn't really help because all I saw on the news were pictures of burning buildings... Then around noon, we started hearing about the Tsunami warnings for Hawaii! Our son, Bradley, is in Hawaii attending Brigham Young University and so now I had another reason to worry! We feel we were blessed so much. Neither Ben nor Bradley were harmed during this whole event. We even found out later on when we talked to Ben that his companion actually had to WAKE HIM UP during the earthquake! I really wasn't too surprised, thinking about all the times I had to wake him for school. He is a very heavy sleeper. I am grateful that he is being watched over and being blessed. Very grateful.



This is the outside wall of the church. There wasn't much damage in the city where he's at.














This is a recent baptism that he had and a picture of the city where he is serving. I think it's beautiful!

Graduation!

This past weekend (Jan. 22-26) Robert & I traveled to Florida with Ryan & Kimber and Lindsay & Brian to attend Taylor's graduation from EOD school at Fort Walton, Florida. Larry also came out for the graduation and he took pictures for all of the graduates. Taylor was also promoted to Petty Officer, along with five other men. Again, just as I was when he graduated from boot camp, I was very impressed with the ceremony, the precision and the military-ness of the whole thing (I know that's not a word...but this is my blog and I can do what I want :) ). Florida is beautiful and we got to spend 4 days with Taylor, off and on, visiting different places, seeing where he lived and where he trained, eating at great restaurants and doing a little shopping. It was a very cold time of year and it rained a couple of times while we were there, but it was wonderful seeing what Taylor has been involved in for the past year. He will go through some more training and then will be stationed in Virginia later this year. Next on his calendar he gets to learn how to jump out of planes! How fun for him! We are very grateful for the opportunity we had to be there with him during this very important stage of his life.





Before the graduation, we did some sightseeing near our hotel









the beaches are beautiful in Florida! The sand is very white and fine. I couldn't wait to take off my shoes and wiggle my toes in it!

This is outside the Crab Trap

where we ate lunch

I had to get a bird picture in here somewhere...

This is where the ceremony was held. This is the wall of the names of EOD personnel from each of the different branches of the military who have died in action

These are the men who are being promoted. Taylor is on the right.

This is Taylor being given his certificate...

Taylor's graduating class

Taylor receiving his certificate

Taylor's pin that signifies him as an EOD technician




We are very happy for Taylor that he's been able to achieve this. It is quite a milestone for him.













...and it wouldn't be a trip to the beach without a surfing trip! The water was very cold, but Ryan and Taylor donned their wetsuits and braved the chilly Florida waters to do what they love to do...

So, Ben flew to Chile today! It seems very strange to have him going to a country that I've never been to and is so far away. I know he will have a great experience and that he will grow in ways that he never could if he stayed here, so I'm grateful that he has this opportunity. Below are some pictures from the MTC... Who says the MTC isn't fun??

For an after Christmas gift for our family (Robert & Me…), we purchased a new cage for our cockatoo. After escaping from her cage twice in one week and flying uncontrolled around the neighborhood, we decided we had to increase the security for our little “jailbird”. We have also moved her cage inside to prevent anymore high flying antics. Our good friend, Fran, suggested that we give her a new name in honor of her actually returning to us, escaping from the hawk that was chasing her and us being able to find her and get her back in her cage. Her new name is “Mila” which is a shortened version of the Spanish word “Milagros”, which means “Miracle”. She really is our miracle bird and we plan to enjoy her a lot more now that she’s home for good!














Update... on January 9th we realized that Mila is actually a boy... so now we'll have to get used to calling "her" him. He has been so much fun to have in the house now. We take him out and he is so funny to watch and talk to. One thing that we noticed is that when the phone rings, he'll say "hello" and he likes to fly to Brian from across the room.
woo hoo!




















Mila and Brian playing...


















and thank you Lindsay for helping with the new look for my blog!