More April Events

Another Year Older

April celebrated yet another birthday and ate chocolate cake. Yum!

Cousin Carrie's Visit

Carrie came to Logan for 3 days for a visit and to help us out. She was soooo much fun! She helped April with cooking, cleaning, and childcare. She entertained the children and taught them some cute Korean games. We loved having her and wondered where she had been the past 8 months while April played single parent. (Oh, yeah, she was serving a mission in Korea the past 18 months.)

We attempted to have a picnic in Sardine Canyon along the Rattlesnake Trail, but April momentarily forgot that spring in Logan means snowy and muddy canyon trails.

So we ended up eating at a park instead, in Brigham City.
Thanks for coming, Carrie! We loved having you!

Sewing Projects

Megan wanted to sew a new outfit for a Personal Progress goal for her Young Women's Program. So she and April browsed around the internet for a pattern and then they went fabric shopping. Megan had a good time choosing her colors and then cutting and sewing. Here is the finished product:

Also, notice Megan's new glasses! Now she can see distances,
but she doesn't need them for reading books.

April liked Megan's pattern so much that she made a similar (but obviously smaller) outfit for Erin from some fabric that has been sitting in a sewing box for years.

Then April got bitten by some odd quilting bug and decided to make a spiderweb quilt to use up fabric scraps. Plus, after 17 years of marriage, we could use a new bedspread. It may not be completed until our 20th anniversary, however, but here is the first block. Only 41 more blocks to go!

39th Annual Piano Festival

Megan and Ian participated again in the Piano Festival sponsored by USU. They both did a fantastic job, having spent months practicing and memorizing their music.

They pooled the tickets they earned from theory games to trade in for an iTunes gift card prize and are looking forward to downloading some fun music. Megan also received an Honorable Mention award in the "Baroque/Classical Division, Ages 14 and Under," for her performance of Allegro from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1. Congratulations again, Megan!!!

New Family Artist

Action shot of sidewalk artist, Dallin

Job Update

Much to everyone's surprise, Kevin did not get offered the full-time position teaching at Snow College. If anyone cares to hear more details, you may email us privately. So he is now looking for other employment options and he will be coming back to live at home in May once he completes his teaching commitments for the semester.

Sage-grouse Lek Observation

After our introduction to sage-grouse over Spring Break, we were looking forward to visiting Dave's study site again to observe a lek, where the males congregate to perform their fancy displays in the hopes of winning the most females for breeding purposes. Kevin wasn't able to go with us this trip, but Dave's wife Lacey was there this time and offered to tend Erin and Dallin at the field station while the rest of us went out. So we drove back to the DLL on a Thursday evening and had this great view of a striped skunk. We also saw a huge herd of pronghorn.

We took some games to play.
Somehow we missed taking any photos of Dallin and Maylee,
Dave and Lacey's adorable 10-month-old.

In order to observe a lek, you must be in position in the blind an hour BEFORE sunrise. This meant we had to wake up around 4:00 a.m. to have time to get ready, eat, and get out to the study site. We bundled up because it was really cold.

Dave drove us out to the lek, and we hiked to the blind in the dark using headlamps. Then we sat, and waited, and waited, and waited in the cold. There was a small propane heater in the blind.

We could hear the grouse making noises before we could see them. As it got lighter, we were able to watch their bizarre displays. Every so often, Dave would scan the lek and take a count of the males and females present.

Here are two hormone-pumped males trying to impress the hens.

A male and a hen

Another male

It was evident that the females had definite preferences. Why? The researchers don't really know all the cues are that distinguish one from another. This morning was a good morning, however, and at one point there were 20 males on the lek.

Here is our attempt at getting some video of their displays:

This is the blind in the light.
Once the grouse had left the lek, we could emerge and
work on restoring feeling to our cold appendages.

Back at the apartment we found all well with the little ones. Erin was helping "babysit" Dallin and Maylee (with Lacey's help). We ate some more, packed up, and ventured home.

View of Bear Lake from a rest stop;
For some reason, April was very tired on the drive.

Blogging Update

If we still have any readers left after our major blogging lag, we just wanted to let you know that we are slowly catching up on past blog posts, so periodically check back in the archives (left sidebar) for fun bear denning trips, birthday celebrations, and spring break adventures. April wants to keep them chronological by date, so they won't appear as new posts.

Gem and Mineral Show

Following Megan's award program, we drove south to the Weber County Fairgrounds to attend the Gemstone Junction 2010 Show hosted by the Golden Spike Gem and Mineral Society. It was a rockhounder's paradise with the entire building filled with tables of rocks, minerals, gems, fossils, and rockhounding equipment.

Ian chose a flint knife as a souvenir,

with instructions to keep it out of Dallin's reach.

We found out where to go fossil hunting near Kemmerer, WY, and watched
this vendor carefully grinding away the stone from the fossils with a Dremel tool.

The children also got to paint some shale.


And Erin especially loved "Dr. Bones" who had made
these dinosaur skeletons that he wore around entertaining children.

2010 Jr. Duck Stamp Contest Winner!

In February, Megan chose to paint this redhead
for her entry in the Jr. Duck Stamp Contest.

Her art instructor suggested she do an oil painting,
and here is the result.

Three weeks later, Megan was notified that she had won 2nd place in her age division (7th-9th graders)! She and her family were invited to a lunch and awards ceremony at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge Visitors' Center.

Here are her very nice prizes, donated by Ogden Blue.

CONGRATULATIONS, MEGAN!!!

April Fool's Day

Nope, Spring is not yet in the air. We awakened to more snow. It was very wet and heavy and broke our tree branch. In fact, there were broken tree branches all over the city.

It was deeper by our windows.