Henry! Snow! More Snow!

First off, photos of Henry:

he's crawling!

love the hair

so sweet

with cousin Stockton

such a happy boy

totally precious

We woke up to a winter wonderland on Saturday morning. Zumba was cancelled, so I went for a walk. The wind wasn't blowing and it felt quite nice (well, I was really bundled). Just the quiet crunching of the snow and the sound of a few birds. Peaceful. Soothing. Gorgeous.

looking behind me down Perazzo Lane towards my house

this is what there is at the end of the lane

So, much of the snow melted Saturday afternoon, but since we got more snow on Sunday, there was plenty for snowman building. Alex, Thomas, and Ben had a blast. Apparently they weren't feeling the cold too much as Alex and Thomas were wearing shorts (don't let that fool you as it was FREEZING outside with it still snowing and the wind blowing).

Thomas, Alex, and Ben just getting started

stopping for a selfie

final product

School is on a 2 hour delay for tomorrow...unless they cancel it all together because the roads are still too slippery in the morning. Hannah might still have to drive to Reno as there has been no word of TMCC canceling or delaying classes.

We had Stake Conference this weekend at church. Some really inspiring talks on keeping the Sabbath Day holy, the sacrament, and small and simple things that build a testimony.

Awesome weekend.

our 27th anniversary

Wednesday was the 28th anniversary of Glen and me meeting (we met at a church activity). Thursday was our 27th wedding anniversary (we married in the St. George Utah temple). In a way, that seems like a long time. But then I think of our parents, mine just celebrated their 59th anniversary in December and Glen's will be celebrating their 58th this April, and 27 doesn't seem like a lot any more.

Happy Anniversary Glen! Thanks for the flowers and the past 27 years!

 

It was a slow week for pictures and post-worthy news. 

I subbed for the high school's music and band teacher this week while he judged All-State auditions and I had a blast. I did a little leading, but mainly it was the students or the accompanists who took charge. 

I love listening to the bands rehearse. Besides their "regular" songs, they ran through their pep band songs that they have been/would be playing at the basketball games. Wish I had been in a pep band. The Minor Details choir is a joy to listen to. Wow. Great fun.

For family history I'm mainly adding cousins and adding sources to my database on familysearch.org. It's addicting when you fill in missing pieces of info. Love it.

Hannah has not found an apartment in Reno yet, so she will commute to Reno Monday through Thursdays. She has to leave here at 6:20 am, which isn't too bad as long as the weather is good and the roads are clear, and they are supposed to be that this week, so I'm off the hook for worrying--for now. She will still be working at the movie theater but now has shifts just on Fridays and Saturdays. She loves her job, so she is glad they were able to adjust her schedule to accommodate school.

Alex did a great job with his DNA molecule project. I forgot to take a photo at home, so I had to go to his science class to take one. Due to the lighting, it's not the best, but it's good enough, I guess. It's made of blue and green licorice, red and green gummy life savers, and red, yellow, green, and orange sour gummy worms. It is very colorful and delicious looking.

theatre conference in Utah and Glen's new calling

It was time for our annual trip to Utah for the Utah Theatre Association's conference. This year it was at the University of Utah in Salt Lake. We had 18 students, plus 3 other chaperons.

Our hotel was 2 1/2 blocks from the family history library (fhl) and a few miles from U of U. While Glen and the students were attending workshops Friday and Saturday, I was doing family history research. I only found one new piece of info (my 3rd great-aunt Serena A. Miller, daughter of John Miller and Hannah Van Velsor, married William A. Williams...). I was a bit disappointed, but maybe I was expecting too much.

I joined them for the plays. Thursday night we saw "Hello, Dolly!" put on by the University. It was fantastic, of course. Friday night we saw "Big Fish" which was a musical (based on the movie, I guess, but I've never seen the movie). Pretty good. Saturday afternoon we saw "Holes" which was excellent.

When "Holes" was over, Glen, Hannah (who was with us as one of the chaperons), and most of the others boarded the bus and headed for home, hoping to arrive around 2 am or so. I was in my friend's car--she was one of the other chaperons--and we didn't leave till 3:30 am Nevada time. My body just can't take all night drives in a school bus anymore. Especially in the winter. It turns out that the bus sprung a diesel leak at about 10 pm just outside of Wells. Luckily the Elko County School District lent them a bus and they were able to arrive back home around 4:30 am. I arrived home about 10:45 am, which was plenty of time to get ready for church.

At church, our Bishopric was released today after serving for over 7 years. We love them and their families and appreciate all that they have done over the years. And of course when an old Bishopric is released, that means that a new one was put in.

Glen is the new second counselor in our new Bishopric. I know they will all do a great job. I'm so glad that Glen will get to work with such wonderful men, and their wives are the best. We've been wondering for months who the new Bishopric would be and Jake and Greg were at the top of the list. We thought the 3rd member would be my brother-in-law Gary, though. Glen was certainly surprised by the call, but of course is willing to serve and do his best. I'm excited for this opportunity for him to serve in this way.

woke to snow Friday morning--this was my view of the temple on my way to the fhl

photo doesn't do it justice but the snowflakes were perfect 6 and 12 pointed flakes

most of the group just before walking down to East High to see "Holes"

the snowy mountains were all around us on our drive home this morning

school, snow, and family history

School started up again for, well, everybody but me, Hannah, and Henry, with Glen and Andrew being teachers and the rest are students. Hannah starts on the 25th.

The report from the first week in Rexburg is good. Sounds like Eric and Ryan are off to a great start. Eric was able to add another religion class, so he has 3 art classes and 2 religion classes. Ryan has a variety of classes: religion, English, physics and a lab, and calculus.

Andrew's school, The American Preparatory Academy, is currently having their "Winterim," which is a 3 week period in-between semesters where the choices of classes are fun--Andrew is co-teaching a game making class and also helping with a debate class. Heather is taking a multi-cultural education class this semester at BYU.  "So... teaching students who have have a variety of background cultures, beliefs, traditions, and so forth." Sounds like fun. Henry, who will be 9 months old on Tuesday, is now crawling! He loves bananas and green beans. It's weird being a grandma. I just look at pictures of Henry and think "That's my boy!" Weird, huh?

Alex, who made straight A's his first semester at high school (which included 4 honors classes), has one change to his schedule this semester. He's done with his health class, so now is in PE. Congratulations Alex. Not to leave Ryan and Hannah out, they also made straight A's last semester. Way to go everyone!

So, weather.com said that there was 0% chance of precipitation in Fallon Thursday morning. Here is a photo of "0%." The strange thing is, while weather.com (The Weather Channel's website) gave 0% chance, The Weather Channel's app on a friend's phone gave us an 80% chance of snow that morning...

about 5:30 am

yep, 0% precipitation

I went for a walk later that morning. I love the quiet countryside with just the sound of my boots crunching in the snow, the birds chirping...and the sound of a distant chain saw that was presumably cutting firewood.

our yard

Perazzo Ln.

Of course, by the afternoon, most of it had melted. It was beautiful while it lasted. We woke up to snow again this morning, but not as deep, and it took even less time to disappear.

I had a breakthrough in my family history research this past week! I am preparing for my trip to Salt Lake this next week with Glen and his theatre students (I do my own thing during the day and join them for plays at night). I was doing some leg work so I will be able to make good use of my time in the family history library when I found the maiden name, Van Velsor, of my 3rd great-grandmother, Hannah (she is one of the reasons our Hannah is named Hannah). I just need to prove her relationship to the couple that I "know" are her parents and I will have a ton of new names for our pedigree chart. There is nothing like the thrill of finding something you've been searching for for years.

Have a great week, everyone!

Henry pictures, boys off to college, and ...

Our family spent New Year's Eve in various places. Andrew and his family were in Arizona, Alex was at a friend's, Hannah went to the church dance, and the rest of us were across the street celebrating with family. We played games (I lost every one to Becky) and ate and all managed to stay awake until midnight. I don't have photographic evidence, but we had a blast!

Facebook is great for stealing pictures of events that happened hundreds of miles from where we are. As I mentioned, Andrew, Heather, and Henry spend the holidays with Heather's family in Arizona. One of the things they did while they were there was travel 2 hours to go and play in the snow.

with his other grandma...("Randy lay there like a slug..." doesn't it look like he can't move?)

Henry with his cousins

Eric and Ryan headed to Rexburg this morning. And then there were two...and when Hannah moves to Reno this month as she is hoping, it'll just be Alex... wow.

Ryan's eyes are closed

sigh, now Eric's eyes are closed. I just can't win.

and they're off...

A few hours after posting this, I read Eric's blog posting from last night where he talks about heading off to school and, as usual, he cracks me up, so I thought I'd put a link here.

And I might as well post the link to a blog post of his from a few days ago where he gives reviews on some items he received in his Christmas stocking. Yes, Santa does know him a bit. Link here.

We had a great Christmas break and are sad to see it end. The semester starts for Eric and Ryan on Wednesday the 6th and goes until April 8th when they will have one week until they start up again. Glen and Alex go January 6th-May 27th. Hannah's doesn't start until January 25th and goes until May 13th. And of course, no one's spring breaks match up...

Looking forward to a new semester and the New Year!