I have enjoyed my twice a month visits to the temple. It’s been such a good thing for me to come to the temple more often. | Madeline loved going to the Olympic Training Center for Activity Days and watching the girl wrestlers. They put on a fun match for the girls and even gave the girls some one-on-one attention. | I love General Conference for the talks that I get to study for the many months after. I do struggle to stay focused for all of the sessions so taking notes does help me. | Everyone had fun looking at the solar eclipse. Mike’s staff took the funniest photo of him and then made that photo into a sticker and gave it to him. It He put it on his water bottle, and I just chuckle every time I see it. | Emma’s t-shirt quilt finally got quilted. I love the way it turned out. | Someone took a photo of me and Emma after church one Sunday. Our outfits were fitting for the spring weather. | I volunteered to take group photos of Emma and some of the other girls in our ward who were also graduating and heading to BYU. Since they would all be doing a grad party together we thought it would be fun to have a group photo of the girls. | Madeline made a charm bracelet at Activity Days with all of her friends. They turned out so well. | Madeline loves going on walks after dinner and now that the weather has been warmer, she loves eating ice-cream on those walks. | Mike is so good at what he does. In and out of the operating room he shines! | Madeline went to a gymnastics gym for a birthday party and had so much fun swinging from the ropes. | Abby played in the Acoustic Café at the high school and performed Vienna by Billy Joel. She is so incredibly talented. | The tulips at the temple were in full bloom this month. I wish I could get tulips to grow like that at my house. | Madeline has really improved in the cello this year. She finally moved to the next size cello. | Our view of Pikes Peak from our house is always amazing. On this particular afternoon the moon was right above the tip of Pike’s Peak. | There was a big snow storm coming in as we left one of Emma’s track meets in Parker. By the time we got home Mike’s car looked like it had been through a blizzard. | Andrew sent me a box of Japanese treats for my birthday. It was a nice addition to the fun things Mike got for me at Evereve. | Abby has been getting in her hours for driving and has taken advantage of some of the snowier days to get in experience driving in the snow. | Madeline is still taking private swim lessons, and she loves her instructor Ms. Natalia. She has rapidly improved so far this year.

​I loved running at Garden of the Gods with the Sunrise Striders running group this month. We switched over to this location at the beginning of the month. The beauty of this place never ceases to amaze me. I took advantage of warmer days and started biking more this month. I tried to couple my temple days with biking up in Denver since the weather is usually a bit warmer up there. I continued to lift weights when I could but really focused on biking fast and running fast in preparation for the duathlon in June. I did a few runs off the bike to get used to that tired leg feeling. I even purchased a Tri suit for the race that I trained in. I also purchased some Nike Vaporfly shoes and started doing some short tempo training runs in them to get used to how they felt. Probably one of the scariest moments this month was when I was running in the Garden, and I tripped while running downhill on the outer trails. I tore my tights and cut my knee pretty good. It took quite a bit of time for that to heal fully. The lesson to be learned was to put my phone away when heading down. Sometimes it’s so hard to not take photos on the warm up, but after that spill, I have to be more careful and stop running when taking photos. Silly me!

​I was very excited to volunteer during this field trip to Cave of the Winds. I still remember vividly volunteering for Emma’s class when she went on this field trip in third grade. Madeline’s teacher gave me the best little group with two of Madeline’s good friends, Sydney and Sailor. Those three girls were so cute together and super easy to handle. The kids loved panning for gemstones but the real winner during this field trip was exploring inside the caves. The kids did remarkably well even though there were a few darker sections in the cave. I can’t wait to bring Madeline back here so we can do the Wind Walker Challenge Course and the Bat-a-pult ride. 

​After not having very good luck with weather during Emma’s senior photo shoot with a photographer that I hired in the summer time, we decided to head back to the same spot with various outfits plus her cap and gown and college sweatshirt and retake her senior photos. I don’t really know why I hired someone else to do her photos in the first place when I am capable of doing them myself. That is a mistake I will not make with Abby. We had so much fun together and it is an experience I will never forget! Emma is just so beautiful inside and out!

​Abby tried out for the school musical again this year, even though the theatre director was new and not very good. It was kind of shocking when she was only cast in the ensemble as an Oompa Loompa since most everyone thought she was going to secure the role of Charlie. However, she had a great attitude about it and tried to enjoy the experience. We loved watching Abby on stage and the other Oompa Loompas. It was a bit of a shock, though, that many of the main cast were not great at singing. In fact, most of the singing and acting was very mediocre. I guess that is what happens when the high school admin fire the experienced and talented theatre director and hires someone with no experience at all. The high school program definitely has taken a downturn and so this will probably be Abby’s last musical at the high school. In some ways that is sad, but it could open doors for different opportunities and experiences elsewhere!