March Monopoly

Dad and I have been richly blessed by participating in, helping with, or watching the arts. I've ushered shows from local dance groups and a ballet, and Dale's preformed with the American Festival Chorus' An Evening with Jay Richards.  Then we both attended the performance of Sound of Music at the Old Barn Theatre.  Our valley has talent.

We've had winter off and on this month. One day we had all four seasons it seemed. Welcome to Cache Valley in the spring!

Dale had a USABO conference in St. George, so I tagged along.  We met up with Danica and took her out to eat a couple of times as well as took her with us to go see Dale's sister and brother-in-law, Doug and Donna Brady, that live in Logandale, NV. We had a great visit with them and it was great spending some time with Danica. She looks great.

Doug and Donna's only grandson, Brady, is sure wrapped around their finger! We were quite entertained by their antics. There was never a dull moment between all of them.

The Mallory clan celebrated Jaxson's birthday a little early back home by having a nerf gun war party with friends.  Then they came for the weekend to celebrate Jaxson's real 10th birthday and Easter with us.

We went to a bounce house and they spent some time with Andrew, Lindsay and their kids at The Sports Academy. Cousin bonding time and sibling catch up times are great. 

We hosted the annual Hansen Family Easter Egg Hunt and dinner at our house and the weather didn't disappoint. It was a beautiful sunny day and fun to see the kids go home with their baskets full of treats and smiles on their faces.

I was able to get together with all of my siblings, except my oldest brother, Craig, who is serving a mission in Cape Town, Africa. We met at Café Sabor for dinner, visiting and planning. It was great seeing my two sisters, DeAnn and Tanya and their husbands, that live out of the valley. They truly let their love of family shine by driving here from Blackfoot, ID and Bozeman, MT.  We ate and did some visiting and then they turned around and drove home. I am blessed to be in a pretty great family.

We also colored Easter Eggs and made some "Twinkie Bunnies" later in the day to add to the weekend fun. The kids woke up to find the eggs that  had been hidden around the house and then got in their Easter Sunday outfits to go to church. Some pretty cute grandkids we have, huh?

The school district had their Spring Break so Dale and I drove to Windsor, CA with our friends, Floyd and Alison Griffiths. We stopped in Reno, NV the first night and woke up to at least 4 inches of snow on the ground!! Crazy weather.

After getting on the road again, we stopped in Truckee, CA where Alison's brother, Eldon lives with his wife and their cute little girl. We had lunch with them and visited for a bit and while we were eating it snowed about 6 inches!

We got on the road again and were glad we had our Subaru Outback to maneuver through the Donner Pass. It was wet snow and chains, AWD, or 4-wheel drive were required to go on. Dale had the skills behind the wheel and we made it through the storm.

Driving into Windsor, the Sonoma Valley of California, was so pretty. Green hills, beautiful vineyards, blue sky! Now this is what we were coming for!! The Griffiths have a membership with WorldMark, so we stayed in a nice roomy place to call home for the week.

Day 1 in California: Floyd made us all his famous French toast for breakfast and then we headed toward Santa Rosa and stopped at the Charles Schultz Museum. It was a fun, informative stop, and neat to learn more about how The Peanuts gang got their start.

Then we took in more sights and stopped to visit the Jack London State Park. Jack London was an author and had a love for travel and beauty.

We saw where he lived and learned about his life and where he got his inspiration. It was a beautiful area. The house that he was building burned down two weeks before he was to move in. It would of been quite the house, but they never rebuilt because his health got bad. Driving around the area was something out of a picture book. So pretty!!

Day 2 in California: I did up my famous smoothies and some toast for breakfast and then we headed to the beach area. Along a stretch of road they had some cool Trash Art and we stopped in Sebastopol and checked out some shops in a fun outdoor shopping area. Pretty cool.

We drove along Highway 1, taking in all the sights. We stopped at Bodega Bay and walked along a trail that had the ocean waves crashing in below us. Dale and Floyd saw some whales and at Sonoma Beach State Park we saw a ton of Sea Lions basking in the sun. Again, it was just soooo pretty! Dale was a great chauffer for all of us.

We drove to Guerneville and saw the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve. It was so pretty and we couldn't of asked for a better day to be out enjoying mother nature's beauty.

We saw huge Redwood trees! The park has the tallest Redwood as well as the oldest Redwood in it. I could of spent the whole day hiking the different trails, it was just so pretty.

Day 3 in California: We went to see California's Old Faithful in Calistoga.  It wasn't anything like Yellowstone's Old Faithful, but it was still neat. It would erupt about every 10 minutes, but wasn't near as big as Yellowstone's Old Faithful.

Back on the road we headed to Healdsburg and went to the Francis Ford Coppola Winery. He is a famous movie producer for shows like The Godfather, Tucker,  Apocolypus,  and Dracula just to name a few. He had quite a place with a real nice pool and grounds. I definitely felt out of place in my flip flops and t-shirt!

We got back to our place and played some ping pong and pool and then played games. It's been a great trip. Floyd and Alison have been great company. We'll have more of our adventures in next month's post.

Nate and Kim have been crazy busy. We were going to go visit them in Washington over Spring Break, but Nate was in Tennessee at a Limb Restoration Conference. 

He got to see some of the sights in Memphis, TN as well.

He also had another conference in Spokane, WA and Kim went to that one with him.

Nate's trying to train for a 50 kilometer race next month and Kim's been trying to get a new women's gym up and going. They stay busy!

Andrew made the most of his time at home and he got his basement family room all finished. Dale and I helped them with some of the painting, but he and Lindsay did ALOT of the work. It looks great. They got the carpet in, an electric fireplace installed and some furniture put in place and now I hope they can relax for a bit!

They did get away for some fun. They went to Las Vegas and met up with some of the guys he went to helicopter school with and then hit some of the more family friendly areas on the strip and checked out Hoover Dam.

They also decided that they want to adopt a child and have been working on getting things ready for that to happen. They know when the time is right, it will happen. I wish them the best.
A photographer came to their house and took pictures for them to use to get the word out. Pretty cute family, huh?

Garrett and Zandra flew to Seattle, WA to spend some time with Zandra's family. Jorie got to meet her Uncle Johnny (Zandra's brother) for the first time. 
Garrett and Zandra also performed at the Miss Whatcom County pageant together while they were there. It was a quick trip, but Jorie did great on the plane and was a big hit with family and friends.

They  had a day date and went to the Utah Natural History Museum, and then dinner in Salt Lake. Jorie loved the museum!

Garrett went with his buddies on a quick biking trip to Moab, UT. They explored some new trails on the Klondike Trail System and had a great time.

At just 5 months, that little one is getting around and seeing some sights. They also came for our Easter festivities and she met some of her distant aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Danica went to Denver, CO with her friend Jhani Williams. Jhani was checking out a college that she had gotten a scholarship to go to. They made it into a little trip and saw some sights as well.

Schools still on and she's learning more artistic skills on the computer. Here's a self portrait.

She's also been getting into some rock climbing. Living near all that Red Rock is too tempting I guess.

                    I guess you could say March was a monopoly, because we all owned it!