March, a campout, youth activities and a funeral

March started out with a last minute movie night for mutual...well more of a hang out night since only one girl actually watched a movie. 

The rest played ping pong, pool...

or sat out at the pool. They all had fun in their own ways. 

Penny and I were lucky enough to get a quick visit with Shawna as she was passing through town.  I love that no matter how far apart we are we always reconnect. 

The girls have just as much fun hanging out as well. 

This month we finally got a mattress that wasn't either a hand-me-down or a cheapy one from Modern Furniture.  

Its soft and comfortable and moves up and down. And now Jeff has been having a lot of back problems :(  Looks like it's going to go back. 

Unfortunately we probably need something that's not so soft and comfortable. 

So sometimes Pinterest overwhelms me and sometimes it sparks a creative streak. I got these ideas off Pinterest and I was happy that it was a good way to use up scrap material and ribbon.

They have some crinkly plastic inside too. 

I guess I'll have some more goodies to give with the blankets I like to make for baby showers. 

One of the highlights of the month so far is our Young Women's campout in the mountains. 

Well we actually stayed in a cabin so it was more of an "overnighter"

We had a lot of fun and there was even some snow still on the ground. 

These two had a lot of fun exploring around the camp and messing with the snow. 

We had a table of games and help yourself nail polish.

Then Brother Vincent held a cooking class and taught us how to make some delicious stuffed chicken. 

Everyone watched and got to make their own. 

He cut the chicken thin and then layered it with prosciutto, swiss, pepperoni, provolone, and ham and then rolled it up. On the top they spread Mayo and sprinkled it with garlic powder, pepper and salt and then sprinkled it with breadcrumbs and Parmesan. 

Then he taught us how to make homemade macaroni and cheese. 

Can't wait to eat our dinner. 

It all turned out great.

After dinner we had smores. 

The girls didn't even have to go outside since there was a giant fireplace in the cabin. 

We turned on Big Hero 6 which we didn't get to watch earlier that week and then we all went to bed...well at least to our rooms that is. 

These guys liked messing with the snow and making sculptures with it. When we went to bed I told them they couldn't come back outside to play in it until it was light the next morning...the earliest was 5:30. Guess how early they were up, right at 5:30 :) 

More snow creations. 

Nina found enough snow to make a decent little snowman. She had him on wheels and brought him to the front of the lodge to put him on display. 

We ate breakfast, 

and then drove a few miles to a sledding place. We told the girls to bundle up because we knew that we would be playing in the snow but we almost all shed our jackets pretty quick because it was actually a pretty warm day. 

Sliding down the hill.

It was fun to be there together. Ashley had no fear, and neither did Jeff. I on the other hand had to work myself up to a couple of those drop-offs. It was a lot of fun though.

The girls even linked arms and 3 or 4 of them at a time zooming down the hill. 

Everyone agreed that it was a highlight of the trip and want to come back next year. 

When we got back to camp it was time to clean up and check out - except some of the girls would rather hang out outside rather than clean.  :)

I found out the next day that these guys hung out in each other's room talking until 2:00 in the morning! No wonder they had a hard time getting up the next day!

Oh well, I'm glad they all had fun. 

Unfortunately a few hours after we got back from the campout we found out that Reuben Jeff's stepdad, and my father in law passed away. He had had a stroke the year before and had never fully recovered. He was declining rapidly the last couple of weeks and we wanted to get up there to see him. We didn't get our chance. He was only on hospice for about a day and 1/2. We were sad but glad that he wasn't suffering any more. 

Jeff drove up to his mom's to be with her the next morning and dropped Jacob off at his Mascot/cheer competition on the way. Ashley, Taylor and I went to go watch Jacob later on. 

Here were our posters of support. 

Jacob did a great job and his group and all the other groups all got first place, won the overall competition and will be going to nationals in Vegas next month. 

Here is Ashley's picture of Jacob as he sits in the stands across from us hanging with the other cheerleaders. 

We took a break and then came back just in time to hear them announce the overall winners. Way to go King! This is one big selfie of the team. 

 Jacob has had a lot of fun being the mascot this year. 

The next weekend was the funeral for Reuben. 

We have many good memories of Reuben and were glad to have him in the family. He is the only grandfather my kids have known on Jeff's side and Jeff and his siblings were grateful for him taking good care of Jeff's mom. They took good care of each other. 

The funeral was bittersweet. 

Our hearts were tender all around. 

Taylor was touched to be able to serve as one of the pallbearers.

It was a time for family to come together on all sides and strengthen relationships and forgive past hurts. 

Since Reuben was a veteran he was given veteran's honors complete with taps and a gun salute. 

A flag was presented to Sharon as well. 

As a final goodbye we dropped roses as we passed by for the last time. 

Till we meet again

February

Since Youth Conference fell on Valentine's Day it was celebrated a week late in our house. 

For mutual Adell Lingenfelter (who works at Albertson's bakery) came and taught a cake decorating class. It was a big hit with the girls!

She had individual decorating kits and they all had their own cakes. 

Even though I didn't have my own cake I helped make roses for a couple of girls that asked for help (as a result I learned how to make them ;)

Here are some of the results.

All the girls enjoyed the activity. 

This is Ashley and Kate on their minimum day. Ashley likes her short day but pretty much when she walks in the door she complains about being bored. This day I took the girls to Sky Zone. I've resigned myself to the fact that I will probably have to always have something in mind for her to do on those short days ;)

Ashley got an award for being in the honor roll lately. I was able to go and cheer her on along with lots of her friends. 

Great job guys!

So Jeff and I celebrated Valentine's Day by going to his work awards dinner and then staying the night in Redlands. This is before the dinner...we meant to ask someone to take our picture but we forgot so all I have is this selfie.

Jeff getting his awards. He was #3 in the office again. Great job honey!

So this was hilarious. The entertainment that night was a hypnotist. I was impressed that the hypnotist was able to hypnotize and entertain us with this group of straight laced, formally dressed participants. Here they are acting like they are chickens. 

The next morning we at breakfast at our hotel (which was also hosting a biker convention) and then headed up to Oak Glen. I used to take the kids up there when they were younger but it had been awhile since I had been up there. 

We went to the little zoo where Jeff made a few new friends. 

For a dollar you could buy a cup of corn and all the animals loved it. 

You can see the goat hoof prints on Jeff's shirt...thats how much they loved it. I laughed when a boy came in with his food and as soon as the goats approached him, he threw the food on the ground. 

We went into a nature center. 

Then we drove down the road and went inside to see the original one room school house that educated the children in Oak Glen. 

I loved the artifacts, rules for teachers and students and old newpaper clippings of the area. I'd love to go back with the kids. 

For lunch we went to Riley's farm and ate in the Hawk's Head public house. Homemade, tasty everything. We shared this pot pie, homemade bread and seasoned green beans. When we were packing up the leftovers it looked like we hadn't even touched it there was so much food!

On our way home we stopped by the A.K. Smiley library. 

I admired the old library when I used to work in Redlands. Our favorite was the stained glass windows in the children's room. We were looking for the Lincoln memorial that we had heard about.

We found out that it was a separate building out behind the library. This library/museum holds the most artifacts on Abraham Lincoln west of the Mississippi river. 

I can't believe I never realized it was even here. There was artwork, old journals and artifacts not only from Lincoln but from the Civil War. We enjoyed it.

We came back to our real life after that. Here is Ashley's picture the next morning of the boys at church.

And her picture of her and the dog.

Last Tuesday we fulfilled our assignment to teach the youth how to index. 

We focused on showing them how to index the names on the graves from the billiongraves.com website where we had uploaded the pictures from the national cemetery during Youth Conference.

Some of the youth were more into it than others but I was proud of all of them for trying hard. (It didn't help that computers would freeze)

We also gave them snacks and they played a bingo game while they were indexing for candy prizes.

The bingo squares had them look out for people that had served in a certain branch of the military, someone who had the same name as their family member, someone with their same birthday and so on.

This last Saturday was Mormal!! Jacob had a new suit and shirt straight from the tailors, he had his matching bow tie, a fresh haircut and fresh flowers. He was ready to go. 

Since Jeff was out of town in Utah (on a business trip he forgot he booked until the day before) and I was taking youth to the temple the Wolslegger family came and picked Jacob up on the way to meet their daughter for pictures.

Her dad told Jacob he had something to show him in the back of the car.

A little reminder for Jacob to remember to treat his daughter right. 

Which of course he did ;)   They had fun going in a big group all together in a stretch Hummer limo.  I'm waiting for Nicole's (his date) family to share their pictures with me so I can see how they looked together. 

While Jacob was at the dance. I was with the youth at the temple. This was Kate's first time going. 

Only two girls could make it  but they had a good time. 

It was a couple of the boy's first time going as well. It helps that we get In-n-Out on the way home ;)

It was a nice evening and I was happy to have Jeff back safe and sound that night.