Ah, Utah

A few things we did and loved before leaving Utah.

 Zina reading with our neighbor Darryl Nield in his front yard before the neighborhood social.

We loved having Darryl as our neighbor.  You could not find a sweeter, kinder neighbor anywhere.  We loved to visit with him and he was always giving the kids candy and homemade fudge and bringing us his freshly bottled goods like strawberry jam, pickles, and salsa.  He also shared his garden with us the summer we moved in.  He just adored the kids and the kids loved him.  

 Mark slept outside on the tramp with Zina and Wilson before we left.  They LOVED it.

 Moving Day!

This day was actually a huge bummer.  Mark didn't ask anyone but our Elder's Quorum to come and help us move (thinking that would be enough) and then only the EQ president showed up for 1hr.   An inactive neighbor ended up seeing Mark, his pregnant wife, and his 65yr old mother hauling everything into our moving truck and came over to see if he could help. He and Mark ended up hauling ALL of our heavy stuff out (despite his asthma and artificial knee).  We were so grateful he came to offer his help.  We took him cookies and visited with him that weekend.  Sad to us that no one showed up to help and that the first time we had ever met this neighbor was the day we were moving out. 

Lessons learned by all I think. 

And lets just say that if Mark is available I don't think he will ever miss out on helping people move. Ever.

 I was grateful I had my mother-in-law and sister-in-law Marilyn around to help clean and scrub and Angela watched my kids I think every single day that week.  

I don't even want to think about our impending move in 1yr.

Sharing a bed at Grandma's for the weekend. So sweet. 

 Mark found time to take the 2 older kids up to Timpanogas caves and they loved it.  The whole time they were hiking there they were drinking water like crazy so before they went into the caves he made them pee (except Zina refused saying she didn't need to).  Unfortunately Wilson has the smallest bladder on the planet (as we've found out many times on our road trips) and about 7 minutes into the cave tour Mark could see that Wilson was dancing again so he interrupted the tour guide and told him.  The tour guide said "oh no problem we have little bags for emergency's just like this" and then proceeded with the tour.  Poor Wilson started dancing faster and faster and kept looking up at Mark with his big eyes. Mark was waiting for the guy to finish his speech when Wilson looked up with the saddest face and said, "Papa, papa I can't...." and then the pee went running everywhere.  Poor Wilson.  He tried so hard and it really wasn't his fault. And he was really very sorry.  Mark just gave him a hug and said it was ok and then they filled up the pee bag part way with what was left in his bladder and walked away from that little puddle and continued the tour....

Wilson forgot about it and had a great time regardless.

 By the time they got out of the caves Zina was really dancing.  But the way the entrance is set up there is no bathroom when you come out so she took off down the trail as fast as she could.  Mark said all of a sudden he and Wilson see Zina barreling back up the trail towards them all out of breath, jumping up and down saying, "Papa I can't hold it any longer!"  So Zina they pulled out the trusty pee bag and she got to pee in the baggy that Wilson peed in (boy was it full) and they all had a great laugh about their "pee" adventures of the day.

And for the record, I heard all of this from a little birdy because it was all supposed to be hush hush (according to the kids)

 Mark also organized a little hiking trip to the top of Timpanogas with his nephews Ryan Lane, and Addison Marlor.

Apparently May is a little early for that kind of a venture though. 

They got rained on, hailed on and snowed on and never did make it to the top because of the snow pack but they still had a fun adventure.

 We celeberated Memorial day at Grandma Judy's and said goodbye to Uncle Travis who was on his way to training before he leaves for Afganistan.  

This is the only picture I have of the day's festivities.

We are praying for you Uncle Travis!