Rick and Janell's News: March 2016

Easter 2016

Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt out at the pavilion for the children in our neighborhood. We had great success with about 25-30 children from around here including our grandkids. We had plenty of eggs to hide (thanks to Trent and Rick for doing the hiding) and then had a hot dog roast with potluck salads afterwards. It was a little chilly outside but thankfully we were spared any rain or snow. I got a picture of each of the kids except for Haivyn. She was having too much fun on the playground and I couldn't get her to stay still:(

Later on that afternoon we had our family Easter dinner. Here is my ham. I found a recipe from Pioneer Woman that had a root beer glaze. It sounded interesting so I tried it. It wasn't bad but I don't think I will be doing that one again. We also had twice baked potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and raspberry jello salad.

While the girls headed off to the General Women's Conference the boys cleaned up the dishes. The conference was nice and I got to visit with Ruth afterwards for about 20 minutes. That was great! Her and Brad are leaving tomorrow for their 6 weeks in Denmark:)

After the conference the young adults from our neighborhood got together for our Night Easter Egg Hunt. This here is a GREAT group of kids!! B&K were here too. They just weren't in the picture:(

The girls showing off some of their prizes.

I had to get a picture of this.......Dalton brought this giant garbage sack for his Easter bag. I will say it must have brought him good luck because he found the most eggs AND the most money!!

Good Times!!

Spring Pictures

A few weeks ago we did a little photo shoot with the grandkids in their Easter clothes. While it was fun I must say it was CRAZY!! We added a bunny which added to the chaos but all's well that ends well. With all of those pictures we took you would think that we could get all of them looking up at the same time but....nope. Still Jenni got some nice shots and I am pleased with the results.

These are in order of age....

Rafe (3 1/2 years)

Haivyn (22 months)

Henry (19 months)

Scout (17 months)

Aren't they all so precious! I love them all so much!!

IFLY and Flowrider

The first part of March we drove up to Ogden to experience IFLY with the Bomans and Phelpses. We bought tickets for Christmas for the boys to do the indoor skydiving thing so we made a day of it. Rick and I started out with a session at the Ogden Temple. I haven't ever been in this temple and they say it is very different from since the remodel. It was very nice. Afterwards we met the others at IFLY and began the day's excitement! I must say they all did a nice job of staying afloat in the wind tunnel.

I can't tell but I think this is Rick.

A picture of the flyers.

We had a little time before our scheduled Flowrider appointment so we stopped at Fat Cats arcade for some fun. You can tell from this picture that Rafe was super excited about all of the tickets he "won" to get prizes with.

I'm not sure why I only have two pictures of this and just of Brach but there you have it! The guys had a great time learning to "surf" or maybe wakeboard is more like it. I got some good video and it is super funny!!

While the boys were in the water we took the kids outside for some play time.

After our experience we stopped at Famous Dave's for some seriously good BBQ!

Released

Valentines Day was a big day for us. After eight years of service our Stake Presidency was released. We had a beautiful conference with Elders Larry Y. Wilson and Peter F. Evans presided over the conference. With the news of President Collings' missionary calling announced in October we knew that this day was coming. I believe it created some difficult feelings in Rick, knowing that he would be released as 2nd Counselor but he has done very well since then. We are now planning a mission, hopefully leaving in the fall and Rick has a new calling as a ward missionary. I know he will miss the association of these good brethren but it is all well and good. We are looking forward to a bright future of continued service in the work of the Lord!

President Lawrence, President Collings, and President Phelps

Brother Joe Tripp and Brother Allen were not released. They are serving with the new presidency which consists of Jason Killion as President. Troy May as 1st Councilor, and Ryan McBride as 2nd Counselor.

St. George and the Parade of Homes

Rick and I got to spend a whole week in St. George in February. We took the Beamer out of storage and luckily had wonderful weather so we could drop the top. It was fun riding all around St. George with the top down! We felt very free! We thoroughly enjoyed the Parade of Homes. Every year I find an idea I want to take home to make a change in my house. This year was no different. I have been wanting to change one of my bedrooms and get rid of the dark colors and make it bright. In one bathroom I saw the colors of bright yellow and teal and those are the colors I decided to use as accents. I came home and within a couple of weeks had our back guest room painted and redecorated! It is super cute! Out with the dark and in with the light!

Marie Osmond's home was my favorite! This is the pool area.

We got to visit my parents and extended family over the weekend which was very nice. We attended their Stake Conference and then had dinner with Pete and Terri. Lots of catching up there.

Monday we took in a game of golf at Red Hills Golf Course. One of our favorites! This trip was just a really nice laid back trip. We love St. George!

Valentines Day Date

This year's Valentines Date was great! We decided to travel down to Provo for the Open House of the new Provo City Center Temple. It was absolutely gorgeous! Loved all of the wood and stained glass windows! Can't wait to go through a session sometime soon.

After the open house we traveled back to the downtown SL area to go through the newly remodeled (well in the last 9 months anyway) Church History Museum. When we first walked into the Museum a picture in the gift shop was glaring at us saying "Come and buy me!" So we did:) It was a jaclay (I am spelling this phonetically because I have no idea how to spell this French word) of Karl Bloch's picture of the Savior and the little boy holding a palm frond. I have loved seeing this painting in the temple for many years and is one of my favorites. Rick's too, so we bought it and had it framed. It is hanging in our family room:) I also found another painting that I have loved through the years. It is "The Girl in the Hollyhocks" by John Hafen. He is a distant relative of mine so I thought it would be a nice addition to my bedroom over the fireplace.....and it is! Because of so much time spent in the gift shop we had to hurry through the museum because we had dinner reservations to get to:) My favorite part was upstairs seeing pictures and sculptures of Christ submitted by members of the church from around the world.

Dinner was at Carver's! Rick had his favorite, the rib plate while I had the chicken cordon bleu.

After dinner we went over to our night's stay in the French Connection Room at Anniversary Inn. It was very nice and comfortable. (Except for the road noise that we could hear from our room starting at 6 in the morning.) It was nice already being downtown for our temple shift that afternoon:)

Delicious Desserts!

Catching Up

Hello blogging world!! I have missed you! It has officially been over two months since I posted anything on my blog so I have some serious catching up to do:(

The first week of February the Phelps sisters took our annual trip to the Oregon Coast. While all of these trips are basically the same...... they are always different as well. This year Karen reserved a house that we had never been to. When we got to it we were all disappointed because of the size and room accommodations. Plus, it was quite old and needed some serious updating. Someone got on the phone and checked to see if anything else was available. Fortunaltely, the rental company had a house that was available right down the street. After seeing how much more spacious and new it was we booked it and moved our stuff over. What a blessing that was for us. We had wonderful living conditions (which included Kathy and I not having to sleep in a tiny bedroom with bunk beds)!

We were wonderfully situated (and I even got my own room which is important to me....because I snore and I don't like to keep other people awake) and especially more so since we had a lot of rain and we were homebound for much of the time. I posted these pictures in random order. We had an enjoyable time visiting, sightseeing and watching movies! A wonderful girls' getaway!

The Beautiful Oregon Coast