March Madness

I've been home for four days in March. Time flies when you're having fun! From conducting a family retreat in Toronto to the exciting missionary experiences and fun parenting seminars with Chris and Hedy  in Canada to the momentous events in Boston there wasn’t a moment of “unfunness”!

 

You know the fun I've had with Peter James Eyre Shumway.  I’ll never forget that amazing experience. It was hard to say goodbye to those cute kids and Jeff…

 

 

And especially to this darling daughter whose love for pregnancy, labor and giving birth is sheer inspiration! What precious hours and days we had together with actual time to really communicate and revel in the cuteness of that little flock! It’s always so fun to “in the world” of our children. To know their friends, to learn to drive to the store, schools, the zoo, the church and most importantly…Trader Joe’s!

 

Saydi is holding the camera at arm’s length. That is not her hat…it’s a balloon in the background.

After Saydi dropped me off at the airport just after 4 p.m. on Monday, I ran into one of my best serendipties of late!  It was snowing and the plane out of Boston was two hours late, and I was going to miss my connection in NY. I first thought I could spend the night with Tal and Anita if they could get me out early the next morning. I HAD to be in SL by 11:00 the next morning to meet my high school friends for a special occasion at the temple. No flights home from NY would get there in time.

 

So they said they could get me into Long Beach and I could catch a plane from there to SL arriving at 10:50 the next morning.  I thought maybe N & K might be able to pick me up and take me back so I got excited about that, but they sold the last ticket on that flight  to the guy in front of me. Later I found that the Long Beach airport is about an hour from Ladera Ranch so we dodged a bullet on that one N&K. 

 

SO I asked them to check SF. Sure enough! There was a flight there arriving about 11 p.m. and then I could get a 6 a.m. flight to that same Long Beach flight to SL at 8:30, getting me into SL at 10:50.  I snapped it up and couldn’t believe my good fortune!  Charity was in need of a good talk! She picked me up at the SF airport which is 15 minutes from her house and the we had a really good chat until about 1:30 a.m.. That girl is “amazing”!

 

I got to sleep about 2 a.m. and got up at 4:45 when Charity (bless her heart because she had lots on her plate that day and had taken a guy to the airport the morning before at 5 a.m.) took me back to the airport where I caught the flight to Long Beach and then home. I caught a cab at the airport and got to the temple just in time to go through with my high school “gang” to do “the work” for our friend Marsha who had died of cancer two years ago. It was a joyful experience complete with lunch at the Blue Lemon afterward.

 

I unpacked, packed again and left the next morning for Palm Springs. It was fun to meet and speak to many of the people involved in a new company we’ve been writing for called Melaleuca. Good products. Good people committed to leaving a legacy of values for their kids as well as in their business.

After a little time drinking in the sun, flowers and the smell of new-mown grass, we headed back home to mountains of snow, unpacked, packed again, caught up on a million things, gave our lessons at church and met the Looslis at the visitor’s center at Temple Square on Sunday afternoon. The church museum across the street was packed with fun things for kids!

Here’s Eliza creating her own Quilt pattern:

And Isaac arranging geometric shapes.

After that we had the fun chance to speak to a group of single adults at the JSMB. That building is an inspiration in itself! Such a good audience. President Omer was presiding. FUN! He is being released on May 1st and going to his new assignment presiding over the mission in Johannesburg, South Africa on July 1st.

We left at 5 a.m. this morning for NYC where we are so excited to see Tal and Anita for two days and a night. Then we’re off to Ireland until Sunday and then Manchester to watch conference and another fun speech and then on to London.

While I was gone, Dad/Rick was hosting the Pothier family who came out to Utah for Spring Break. I was sad to miss them but here are a couple of pictures from Shawni’s blog to prove they were there…with their cousins the Looslis too! 

 

March Madness indeed!