May

I always love visiting the cemetary on Memorial Day. When we lived in Oregon I was always a little homesick on Memorial Day. I couldn't just go to the cemetary to take flowers to strangers. I have great memories of going to the cemetary with my Grandma Frampton. She was busy the whole week before cleaning the head stones and making sure she had the perfect flower arrangements, always fresh cut from her gardens of course. Grandma always had stories to tell about all the family and her memories growing up. I wish I remembered more of them to tell my own boys. It is a great time to remember my great heritage and a time to be thankful for the family that I have with me today.
Lukey loved being out in the sunshine after all the rain we have had. He can be such a snuggle little boy sometimes.

Luke is such a poser here with Great Grandma and Grandpa Money. He loved practicing walking in the grass and those headstones were just his height to hold on to.

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In May we went to the Zoo on our way up to spend some time in Park City. Liz and Grandam Nancy came with us. We had perfect weather and we all had a great day.

Then we headed up to Park City to stay for a couple of days. The pool was still pretty cold, but we still had fun swimming, shopping, and playing.

Liz and Sam had fun pretending to be groundhogs.

Sam and I loved the Merry-go-round. Instead of horses, the carousel was filled with all types of zoo animals. It was beautiful.

We watched a show all about birds that was really amazing. They showed off the talents of talking parrots, dancing chickens, and diving falcolns and eagles. What a show!
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We are working on finishing our basement, which has provided hours of entertainment for Sam. He loved sitting out on the deck watching this big truck deliver our sheet rock one afternoon. He gathers all his tools in his tool belt, puts on his hard hat and goggles, and is ready to help any worker who comes by. I have had to explain to him that even though I know he is a very good fixer and builder, that not everyone needs as much help as his dad does. It is very hard for him to not be right in there helping.

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This was one of Sam's best days ever when his pre-school went on a field trip to the SF Fire department. He loves firetrucks and says he wants to be a Fireman when he grows up. He really wanted to drive one of the trucks, but the tour was still pretty cool.

This is Sam at the Fathers and Sons campout. He and Dave had a great time camping out in the tent. Plus, Sam got to check out this really cool Jeep. He is thinking of changing his number from 3 to 16 just so he can be big enough to drive. I told him it's not quite that simple.

This is a great example of the outfits Sam puts together. He likes to dress himself, and he is very opinionated about what he wears. I am just glad he can do it himself and try not to interfere too much. (Yes, he is wearing Dave's white socks, because Sam said they look like soccer ball socks, and you just never know when you might be called upon to play.)

Sam has loved riding his bike all around the cul-de-sac. He is getting really fast and he doesn't even lean on his training wheels much. We are so happy to have some sunny weather to finally be able to play outside. Sam has lots of little girl friends in the neighborhood to keep him entertained. They spend lots of time riding bikes, and playing at the neighbors fun backyard with a trampoline and more playground equipment than the park.

Sam also loves to go do his "visiting". He has to go over and visit our adult neighbors just to see what they are up to and make sure they are doing okay. I think he is the best home teacher in the ward. We are lucky to live by such good neighbors who take such good care of us!

St. George trip and Sam's Mothers' Day program

Sam's preschool had a special Mothers' Day program this year. Sam memorized a part, and then the kids all sang 3 songs. They even learned sign language for the last song that I just loved. I recorded most of it on my camera, but then I ran out of Memory. I think it is time for a real video camera now that I have moments longer than 7 minutes to capture. I was so proud of Sam. It was also a little crazy for me to watch him perform something that he learned without any help from me. My little Sam is growing up!


Sam and I made cookies to take for the program. Sam was very proud of our oatmeal M&M cookies. He kept telling me not to eat them because they were for his class. He is such a good little helper in the kitchen.

Luke still just LOVES his tubs. He is getting tall enough that he can almost climb into the BIG tub all by himself. He is just so happy to be tubbin'.

We went down to St. George for the UPhA meeting in April. Mom and I spent a lot of time in meetings (and some time shopping) and the boys got to have lots of fun in the sun swimming, biking, playing in the park, and even playing croquet.

I bought the cutest little frog hat for Luke, but of course he wouldn't keep it on. Dave's hat is the only one he would wear, and I think he makes that hat look good.

I think Sam would stay in the pool 24/7 if he could. He has been spoiled with our access to the St. George pool and especially McPhee's pool. He is getting to be a pretty good swimmer (with his life jacket of course). He loved this new alligator and Luke also got a new little floaty with a palm tree shade to keep his poor little blonde head from getting burned.

I love Dave's enthusiasm if this picture. I think he was really just trying not to faint from all that blowing. What a good dad!

Yes, he is eating rocks. He loves to eat rocks and dirt. What can I say, he's a boy.

Easter

These pictures of my boys were actually a week after Easter when the sun finally shining. I don't know why it is so impossible to get even 1 picture of the boys all holding still and smiling. I guess if I did have a perfect picture it wouldn't even look like them, since my boys are always on the move. At least I tried.

Oh how they LOVE their Aunt "Wiz". Don't we all.

Ava and Aunt Marie at our Esplin Family Easter Egg hunt at Melanie's. Thanks to Mel and Marie for helping the Easter Bunny.

Sam wrote his name on this egg all by himself. We were all pretty impressed when he lifted it out of the dye and we saw what a good job he did. I think it is pretty good for a 3year old. (Luke had a little bit of help with his name.)

Sam loved dying the eggs this year. We had about 4 dozen, and it wasn't nearly enough for him.

Dave loaded the boys in our bike trailer for the trek to the ballpark for the Easter Egg Hunt. They were snug as bugs in rugs in the drizzley weather.

I love this pictue of Sam because it shows just how cold it really was. Sam didn't let the cold, wet weather slow him down. I think he got about 9 eggs, and at the end he started getting selective and only picking up the green eggs. Green is his favorite you know.

Dave and Luke hunkered down in the dugout to keep dry and watch the madness of the hunt.

Grandpa Robert brought William along with us since his mom was pretty busy taking care of new Baby Milo.

I really enjoyed this Easter season, since I spent last Easter in the hospital with Luke, and Sam was home sick with a croupy cough. I don't think I will ever find a better Easter Egg than my Luke, but I also was happy to be out hunting Easter Eggs with my boys this year.

General Conference

We had lots of good helpers with our painting project. I think my boys could sniff out a ladder from 50 miles. They just are addicted to climbing.
Hurray for when we finally finished. I love the blue and white and it actually makes our room look a lot brighter. Now we just need to get some pictures hung, and mayber someday we'll even have a real bed.

Mary and Baby Milo made an appearance

Avery and Lidnsey were in town and Avery and Luke had a very fun time playing together.

We had a very nice conference weekend. The weather was horrible, but I guess that just made it an even better day to stay inside and watch conference. I think this was the first year since we have been married that we have had a T.V. in our own home that actually has reception for Conference. It was a real treat to stay home and get to hear and SEE the speakers. Luke was very good to nap through almost all of the sessions, and I decided to just let Sam watch his own DVD's on the other TV. I felt a little guilty about just plugging Sam in, but I don't think a 3 year old could possibly watch all of conference. So, Saturday, I shut myself in our room to watch conference while finishing painting. I always listen best when I have a little project to keep me busy and awake.

I had all the family from both sides over to our house in between sessions on Sunday for dinner. We had quite a house full, and I loved it. We had a tasty dinner and then most people stayed to finish watching the afternoon session. Our family room was full of people, but I think our bedroom was almost as full. I was surprised just how many people could fit on our bed. I can't blame them, it really is the most comfy spot. John and Brady especially seemed to make themselves comfortable.

Overall, I felt like the talks centered around Easter themes, getting through tough times, and the importance of temple work. Elder Holland's talk on the atonement was especially moving. He made me think of the atonement in a whole new way. I don't think we can ever truly understand fully just how amazing the gift of the atonement really is. I think it is a talk that will long be remembered. I also appreciated the talks that reminded us that sometimes life gets rough, but we just need to have faith to keep moving forward, and we will receive all the help that we need as we work hard ourselves. Whenever I listen to conference, I just am overwhelmed at how TRUE everything that is spoken is. I don't know how you could listen to these talks and not know that what they are saying is true. I'm grateful for this boost to my testimony that I am given.

Eternal families

The other day I was going in to the bathroom and I had the nerve to try to shut the door behind me. Sam was quite offended.

Sam: Mom, what are you doing?
Kate: I'm shutting the door so I can go to the bathroom.
Sam: But Mom, we are a FAMILY, and families are always together.

I sure hope there are still some locking doors in heaven, even though we are an eternal family.

Moab

This is outside our room at the Red Cliffs Lodge.

This is the view from off our patio. That is the river in the back at the base of the red rocks. It was so beautiful

This is what our drive home through Spanish Fork Canyon looked like.

this was on our hike to Sandy Arch

That tiny little person under Delicate Arch is me. Proof that I was really there. It is amazing how BIG the arch really is.

I thought this big sloping bowl was kind of scary to walk across. I could just picture myself tripping and tumbling all the way down. It reminded me of one of the coin funnels that makes the coins go round and round. Dave is looking very cool here though. You'd never guess he's the one aftraid of heights. And for the record, he never went all the way over to the Arch.

Dave again looking very cool. I love the little bit of snow you can see on the tops of the mountains far in the background.

For Dave's birthday, I surprised him with a little weekend getaway to Moab. It was very quick, but still a great escape. We drove down on Saturday and spent most of the day hiking around Arches National Park. We couldn't have picked a better day for hiking. It was about 60 degrees, but the sun was shining down and there was a little cool breeze. Dave had never been there before, and I hadn't been for a very long time. I think that even if you had seen Delicate Arch a hundred times, it would still be impressive. The sky was a perfect blue, and the La Sal mountains were still snowcapped in the background, which made the Arch even more stunning.

After spending the day at Arches, we went out for a wonderful steak dinner. We stayed at the Red Cliffs Lodge right on the edge of the Colorado River. It was such a beautiful place, kind of tucked away from most of the business of Moab. The stars were especially bright and thick away from all the city lights. I wish I could get a picture that would capture how beautiful they were.

We left Sunday morning, and we hit a major snow storm once just after we passed Price. We ended up being totally stopped in SF Canyon for over an hour because of accidents. I'm so glad we had perfect weather while we were in Moab, even if our drive home was a bit scary.