Birds and Cats

 One of my birthday gifts was a clear birdhouse and birdseed. We put it on the sunroom window and have enjoyed watching the birds on the outside and the cats on the inside.

First, it was lower.

Jason caught this of the cats after Leia turned her interest somewhere else.

Luke was a moment too late, or so he thought!

Then we moved it higher so more birds would come without fear for the cats.

Erik then felt inspired to put on Mark Roberg's squirrel episode, which Leia really loved.

If you can see in this pic, there's a bird in the feeder, Luke sleeping unaware on his post, and Austin unaware on his phone below.

And the rest are just good shots of the cats or my blooming yard.

Second Spring Break

 When Victoria made the dance team at BYUI, we didn't know if we'd see her again until the end of July when she performs right here in Michigan and some other places nearby for their Midwest tour. Happy day for us when she discovered she could come home for spring break, the break between winter semester and spring semester. She didn't have any practice for dance, so we got her a ticket and she came home!

She arrived on the evening of the 11th and it was raining pretty hard, so Erik's soccer practice was canceled and Austin and Kade were already back from their destinations. When we realized that everyone would be home for dinner together and that it was Victoria's half-birthday, Erik decided to make a cake to celebrate! He put in 19 1/2 candles. Guess what? She can still blow out all the candles in one blow! I don't think I've seen anyone blow out that many in one blow.

Everyone was so excited to see her, they ran out onto the wet grass in the rain!

Austin's very proud to be taller than her now. 

Here's how the line-up is now.

She had run out of a lot of her make-up products, so we shopped for those after I returned from work Friday. She has expensive taste. We went to the track meet on Saturday to support Susie and Austin (his first invitational where he ran a medley with 3 other freshmen. They got 7th out of 15th and their opponents were all juniors and seniors- go freshies!)

Look at Austin drafting off that guy!

Saturday evening was our ward fundraiser for youth camps. We invited Susie's family so that they could get more time with Vicky. Kade was represented by an amazing cake he made and donated for the function. I'm still receiving compliments for his delicious and beautiful cake. 

The Bishop's family won it at the auction and shared.

We supported Erik after church at his soccer game as a family. His coach specifically asked us if he could be at a couple of Sunday games if they were after church, so we agreed. After the game, the Kish's come over to play games. I knew Victoria would want to spend as much time with Susie as she could, but I wanted her home, so my plans worked!

Throughout the week, Victoria was able to go to work with me as a sub for a coworker at Red Bell, which was so fun! We watched Gilmore Girls together a few times and went to lunch with Jason. She saw various friends when they were out of school and went to some track and dance practices just for fun. Last night, Victoria, Kade, and I went to see the high school play Anything Goes with friends. It was fantastic!

Downtown Plymouth

Big Moe's Kitchen- delish!

Target shopping!

This morning was very early as we had to leave at 5am to take her to the airport. After her two flights and then a bus ride to Rexburg, she'll make it back tonight to start Spring Sememster and more training for Dance Alliance!

Eclispe 2024

 We didn't plan on going to see this eclipse because we had seen the last one in 2017. Not that it wasn't the most amazing thing and we didn't want to see it again, but the timing wasn't good and Victoria was not with us, so we just figured we'd see the 98.9% here. 

As the time came closer and there was more talk about it, I learned that it was going to be a little longer than the one we saw and maybe a little better because of the solar flares. Then I started to learn about how unprepared our schools were for this amazing natural phenomenon that was to be seen at 100% totality just an hour away from our home.

For instance, our spring break was two weeks earlier, I think they should have changed it for this event, or just given us a half or full day off, regardless. Austin's track coach had made a mandatory indoor meeting for them to be at. The high school was going to be out of school just in time, but they didn't want students who were still at school (including those still at middle school and elementary) to risk looking up and hurting their eyes. Supposedly, if they were still in school, they would have had to have parental permission for the students to go outside and have provided eclipse glasses for every student. Erik's middle school did provide glasses for everyone, but they got out of school just before the eclipse reached totality, so they were excused just in time anyhow. Some families went somewhere and missed school, from what we heard from our friends. A large number of people drove the hour to Toledo, OH. at some point so see 100%. I know at Red Bell, most of my students went somewhere to see it and weren't at school.

I decided that I wanted to drive as far south toward Toledo as I could after work before I hit too much traffic, and just see what I could. I ended up somewhere in the very southern end of Michigan near a river where a bunch of people were looking up at it, so I pulled over to see how much they could see. I was there for about 5 minutes and Jason told me where I was at was 99.77% totality. When I got back in my car to see if I could go further, the traffic was horrific, so I went back to my spot and enjoyed it there. 

Now I can say that truly, 100% is the way to go and is so much better than just 1% less than that.  I enjoyed what I saw still because I could imagine the rest of it. It still got dark enough for the street lights to turn on, the creatures started making their evening noises, and it definitely got cooler. I could see the diamond part of the diamond ring that the eclipse makes, but not the ring. Also, pictures aren't as good without totality.

It turned out that Ausin's coach canceled that meeting and they all got to go home so he could see it, along with Kade, Erik, and Jason who all had the glasses. They all enjoyed it and could imagine the rest of it as well, from when we saw it before. 20 more years til the next one, right?

Easter

 This was our first significant holiday without Victoria here, but it seems like a lot of people were traveling during Easter weekend and weren't at their homes, so it was okay. I know typically college students don't go home for Easter either, but it was still odd not to have her home. We talked to her a couple times and FaceTimed as well. 

Since we had gotten home from our vacation Friday night, Saturday was mostly getting things put away, though we also prepped some food items since we had invited friends to come over for Easter dinner. Our friends, the Remingtons, whom we ate Easter and Thanksgiving dinners with last year, came over as well as two other families, the Farnsworths and Angels. All of them have boys who are Deacons and we have been friends with the Farnsworths for about 17 years now. 

Kade and Erik helped make resurrection rolls.

We colored eggs.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. First, Austin, Jason, and I went to choir practice to prepare for our 1 hour special Easter service. Our music turned out beautifully, as did the other musical numbers during the program. There was one speaker and she gave a meaningful talk. After church, there wasn't a lot of time, but we still got to hold an Easter Come Follow Me lesson and the kids even did a quick Easter egg hunt. They wanted me to hide their baskets, which had nothing special in them besides some favorite candies, and then eggs. I think I hid them in around 10 minutes and they found them in 5 or 10 minutes- 29 eggs each! 

Austin was the speediest.

He was done in 5 minutes!

I forgot we did put Erik's new goalkeeper gloves in his basket, but he was there when we bought them.

Everyone pulled their weight and helped set up the tables, chairs, and set the tables. We served ham, roasted potatoes, peas, raw carrots, and rolls. Our friends brought deviled eggs, roasted asparagus, a fruit plate, and lots of desserts. There were 19 people in total! We had a great time and enjoyed the good company. I took pictures of the kid tables, but of course, I forgot to take one of the adults. I seem to never get pics with my best friends- I'm always having too much fun! Kade said it was the most fun Easter!

A bunch of Deacons, +1.

The high schoolers and the little girls.

I read some touching messages about the Savior and His atonement and am grateful for the knowledge I have regarding His gift to us. 

Happy Easter!