Goodbye, Elder Perry

Goodbye to Elder Perry who has long been one of my favorite apostles.  I have loved listening to that rich bold voice for decades.  He was a powerful voice for good for many years.  I loved his smile and how he always seemed so joyful.  I am thankful he was so robust until nearly the end.  Just less than two months ago he bore a powerful witness about the blessing of families.  He will be missed.

 Here are a few quotes taken from the DNews........

His testimony of family given last month......

"Let me close by bearing witness (and my nine decades on this earth fully qualify me to say this) that the older I get, the more I realize that family is the center of life and is the key to eternal happiness.

I give thanks for my wife, for my children, for my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren, and for all of the cousins and in-laws and extended family who make my own life so rich and, yes, even eternal."

Swingin' Sweeties

Since we've had such nice weather this week I got the toddler swing cleaned up and ready to use.  The kids really enjoyed it and even though you can't tell in these pictures (except for Henry:) they all smiled, giggled and had a wonderful time:)

Haivyn getting a little push from Emry.

Henry loving the ride.

Scout's first time in the swing:)

FOUR WHEELIN'

Over Memorial Day weekend Rick and I went down to Torrey, UT with some of his family.  On Friday while the others went hiking, we took the 4 wheelers out for a spin.  B&K were with us too!

It started out pretty chilly but we were just happy it was dry:)  We rode for a couple of hours and really enjoyed the beautiful red hills.  

Rafe ready for the party to begin....

He got to ride with us in the ranger and found a sprig of flowers on the trail:)

Brach and Kendra rode the 4 wheeler.

Stopping to enjoy the scenery.

Tailgate lunch 

Rafe got a nice nap on the way back!

and Scout.....she slept in the backseat of the ranger THE. WHOLE. TIME!!

FUN TIMES!!

Savannah Nights

  For Mother's Day Rick gave me a gift certificate for dinner of my choice and a night at Anniversary Inn.  We went out Tuesday night.  We started with dinner at The Cheesecake Factory where we had a fabulous dinner.  We started with the avocado egg rolls.  I seriously want to figure out how to make those.  Well, the egg rolls I can figure out it's that amazing cilantro sauce that I need to find a knockoff recipe for!  Rick had the jambalaya for his main course and I had my fave Chicken Costaletta.  The hard thing about this place is it is just too much food.  I only ate half of my meal because I wanted to save up for some cheesecake (of course)  I feel bad wasting food but I couldn't store it anywhere because I wasn't going home that night.  Anyway, Rick ordered the 30th anniversary cheesecake and I had the Reese's flavor.  Couldn't finish those either!!  Skylar tells us we should just share our meal and dessert but we both have such different tastes when it comes to food.

After diner we went to the b&b.  We have never stayed in this particular Inn.  It is a beautiful old house on S. Temple and 7th E.  It was a beautiful room!  These getaway nights are really fun for us!

A view of the Inn from the front.

The second floor nook is attached to our bedroom.

The nice king sized bed.

The nook where we ate our breakfast.  

It was such a cute room that overlooked S. Temple

Living area

Beautiful and spacious bath

The next morning was our temple shift.  It was just down the road.

Perfect!

Haivyn is ONE

Saturday was Haivyn's first birthday.  We had a few family and friends over to celebrate.  We had a small lunch of sloppy joes, salad, and chips.  Kaitlyn made a cake to serve for dessert.  Haivyn LOVED her smash cake and dug right in after a little coaxing.   She got some fun toys and a couple of new outfits.  She is a sweet baby and we love her baby babble. 

 She is very loved!

5 K in the rain

A few weeks ago we decided to do a 5 K with our kids.  Sarah found the Zion's Children of Haiti foundation that collects school supplies for Haitian children.  The run was held Saturday May 9th at Sugarhouse Park.  I was planning to walk it but in light of the pain in my back and numbness in my leg I decided I better sit this one out.  I got the fun job of helping to watch the babies.  We got there by 8:00 and Rick got checked in while we waited for the others to get there.  Oh, did I mention it was cold and POURING RAIN!  (Didn't stop the Phelps clan though:)  After everyone got there and checked in we sat around under the pavilion (thank goodness there was one) and waited for the starting time.  

After the runners got on their way I did a little visiting with Sharon (who was there to tend Henry) and then found some face painters to decorate Rafe's cheeks.  After a while I asked Sharon to watch the kids while I walked down to the finish line.  As I was walking over I saw Skylar coming down the road.  Talk about good timing!  I got the camera out and started taking pictures and noticed Sarah was not far behind him and then I saw Rick a little ways back.  After he crossed the finish line I saw Kendra getting close.  They were all right there together!....Except for Brach:(  He got a late start because he was in the bathroom and then pulled his calf trying to catch up with everyone! Poor Brach!  He made it to the end though and we were all happy that he made it!

A quick note about Rick's training.  His goal was to run the whole distance, no walking!  He has been slowly increasing his running distance to prepare for the full 3.2 miles.  Last Monday he measured the distance that he needed to run.  It was basically to the church and back via Sun Valley.  He was able to make the run twice during the week and was gaining confidence.  On Friday, the day before the run, he started out and halfway through it he started having negative thoughts which caused him to  lose confidence in himself.  He looked down to see he was walking.  He picked up his pace until he got to the Malmgrens home on Sun Valley and just gave up completely.  He climbed the fence and came home the back way.  It really worried him seeing how the race was the next day AND it was going to be hilly whereas Grantsville is pretty flat.   After showering he sat down for his morning scripture study and focused on scriptures about having faith.  Well, I'm pleased to say that he "Slayed the Beast" and was able to keep his feet running the whole way (Sugarhouse hills and all).  He is my Hero and a great example of accomplishing what he set out to do.  I love my Sweetie!!

Before the race picture

Grandma Sharon and Henry

Grandma Nell and Scout

Rafe's horse cheek.....

and the other side a baseball

Sky Man

She Ra Sarah

Rockin' Rick

Kool (and dripping) Kendra

The Bo Man

Soggy but happy!

Afterwards we went to IHOP with the Bomans and had a wonderful breakfast.

Only after a few minutes were they talking about "the next run."  Probably in a couple of months.  Maybe the Grantsville 4th of July 5 K.  If all goes well I will plan to join them. (Walking, of course)

Brian Regan

Last weekend we made another quick trip to St. George.  For Christmas I bought Rick some tickets to see Brian Regan at the Tuacahn Theatre on May 2nd.  Last Thursday night after Rick's church meetings we left Grantsville for the drive to St. George.  It was late and we didn't arrive until 2:45 AM.  I did not want to travel that late cause umm.....IT'S DANGEROUS but Rick was all for it. He lasted for two hours till we got to Meadow and then he wanted to pull over.  I on the other hand just wanted to get to our destination so I drove for an hour or so while he rested and then he drove the rest of the way.  It felt so good to crawl into bed that night!  On the other hand it was nice waking up and already being there:)  Skylar and Sarah had already gotten there early in the afternoon and had enjoyed the evening.  The guys (including Matt, Sarah's brother) went golfing while Sarah and I stayed behind and just hung out.  We had a nice dinner at The Gun Barrel Restaurant and then drove out to Tuacahn for the show.  I love sitting in that Theatre!  The beautiful red mountain makes quite the backdrop.  Joe Zimmerman opened for Brian and was pretty funny!  Brian came on after that and we had some good laughs.  Some of his stuff I had heard before but we had a fun time laughing at his antics:)  It was a fun night!  We woke up early the next morning to get back for a wedding so it was a quick trip but it is ALWAYS fun to be in St. George!!

The four of us.

A selfie during intermission.

Brian doing his show.

Gary's 22!!

Gary had a birthday!  He turned 22 on the 22nd of April.  We had a get together with the neighbors to celebrate!  We had a fun time telling fun memories of Gary:)  He had requested a Tres Leches Cake so while I was with Rick in town earlier that day we found a fun Mexican market.  It felt like we were in Mexico.  Really.  It even had TWO taco stands!  Anyhoo,  we were able to find Gary a cake which was a relief because I didn't want to spend all afternoon tracking down a Tres Leches.

the birthday boy

Blowing out candles with a little help from a friend:)

Road School 2015

A few weeks ago we went to St. George for this year's Road School.  It was held at the Dixie Center where the guys had a booth.  They made contact with many Public Works Directors from the different cities throughout Utah.  They were able to visit with a few and they felt it will be helpful for future sales:)  On one of the days Kendra, Sarah, the kids and I went to check it out.  There was a lot of road equipment out for people to look at and Rafe LOVED the "big tractors" as he called them.  Of course, there were lots of booths with candy and the little boys each got a hat from the Caterpillar booth.  

The guys in their booth.

Rafe and Henry with their hats.  Just a little big for them:)

A photo op in "the bucket"

The girls and Scout

We all arrived on Sunday night and got to enjoy the whole week of being there.  On Monday, we drove down to Vegas to have lunch and visit with Grandma and Grandpa Hafen.  It was a nice time being together.  We had a feast of rotisserie chicken, macaroni salad, green salad, fruit, rolls, and some carrot cake for dessert!  Mare, Gabby and Scarlett came to visit for a while as well.  We hadn't seen Gabby since she returned from her mission back in February so it was nice to see her.  Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures:(  It was on my mind but in the hubbub of it all I forgot.  Brach did take on with Rafe and Scout on "Blaze" the bouncy horse.  It provided lots of entertainment for Rafe:)

Some other things we did throughout the week were.....

enjoyed time in the pool

went to the temple

ate out at some fun restaurants

played Dominion (a number of times)

found two new dessert places (Swig and The Fractured Prune)

drove around town with the top down:)

....and went hiking!

I don't know if you can call it hiking but we walked around this wonderful red rock park just a few miles from the house.  We climbed rocks, explored, chased lizards, and got to view the city at the overlook.  It is such a beautiful area and the weather was perfect!

There is a little park just a short walk from our house.  It has a natural pond with 'in house' ducks.  We brought some bread for them but they weren't too interested which was disappointing.  The day we left after having breakfast at "The Bear Paw" we drove up to another park that had LOTS of ducks that were VERY hungry.  They were so loud and aggressive that poor Rafe would have nothing to do with them.  Of course, Rick loved it and fed them all we had:)

The Boman kids riding Blaze

(isn't that Scout so adorable biting her lip:)