Brief Update

In an open act of rebellion against the continually cold weather, we have been enjoying "fresh" strawberries the past couple of weeks (not locally-grown, sorry Amanda, but we just couldn't wait a couple more months!). Upon checking the jam supply in our pantry, we discovered we were down to only 2 jars of strawberry jam. Since we can't stomach the Smucker's variety, we made another batch of homemade. Unfortunately we were out of bread, so we had to bake a new batch of bread as well. It was a busy day in the kitchen. Note to Janell: the jam is also delicious mixed in with steel cut oatmeal cereal!

General Conference was last weekend. After the fiasco with trying to get in last October so that Ian could see the prophet in person (we won't go into details), we tried again and requested tickets early. Kevin, Megan, and Ian drove downtown early Saturday morning, but not early enough--by the time they got to the Conference Center the lines were out to the sidewalk. After waiting 40 minutes in the line for their designated door (#6), Kevin could see there was no way they would make it in. An usher said he heard there was no waiting at door 15, so away they ran (literally). The line at door 15 was short and they were about to walk through the metal detectors when they were stopped and told, "sorry, we are out of seats." They explained that more tickets are issued than there are seats since not everyone with a ticket actually comes. They just waited, not certain what to do, when a couple minutes later, a man said they had seats for 5 more people! They ended up sitting on different rows, but were close to the front and had a nice time. The children had great views of the General Authorities and speakers.

It was exciting for them to participate in sustaining President Thomas S. Monson as our new prophet. They enjoyed all the speakers and had a memorable experience. The last memory was going to the 7th floor of the parking garage and not even starting the car for half an hour due to the non-moving line of cars trying to exit the garage.

Sunday afternoon following Conference we got together with extended family for a dinner at the Gold's, and we volunteered to bake rolls. They were a delicious accompaniment to the wonderful soup Clytee made. For dessert, we helped consume the leftover gelati from last week's wedding.










It was a little depressing to wake up on April's birthday to find the ground covered in snow, albeit a thin layer. It melted by noon, when Kevin took her out to her favorite restaurant for lunch while Megan tended. We later enjoyed a homemade lemon poppy seed cake that Kevin stayed up late baking the night before. We finished off the celebrations by staying up late again, this time doing our taxes. We would like to thank our children for the number of exemptions they add. Our frustration with the tax code reminded us again why we would love to see Ron Paul as U.S. President.

Remember our Budding Artist? Here she is posing by her winning entry in the Jr. Duck Stamp Contest. Megan won 1st prize in her age category and she and her parents attended a lovely luncheon and awards ceremony at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. It was pretty exciting for all of us, and she (along with all the other winners) received some very nice prizes from the Ogden Blue art store.






























Here are Kevin and Megan looking for the first returning migrants at the Bird Refuge. The marsh was fairly quiet, with the chorus frogs barely waking up, and the birds just starting to think about nesting. Most of the migrants have yet to return.

And since we've been including videos lately, here is one of Ian's favorite songs. We would like to thank Amelia for introducing him to it (NOT!). We hear him singing it at least 10 times a day. The boy should really lip-sync sometime for a talent show.