Road Trip!

 When it came time to pick Brayden up from school, we decided it would be easiest if I went on the drive so Kevin could work.  I invited Emmitt along with me for company.  He agreed to the 18 hour trip because he got to miss school- and see Brayden of course ;). We actually had a really fun time driving together.  He did great.  We both had audiobooks to listen to and lots of snacks so we just cruised along.  We stopped halfway in Laramie to break up the drive.  Then when we finally arrived in Utah, we loved having Brayden show us around campus.  I was shocked when Emmitt told me on the drive that he had never been to BYU.  I think he has but was too young to remember so it was really good that I brought him so he got a taste of the BYU experience.  We ate the first night at the Canon Center which is the cafeteria on campus that Brayden ate most of his college meals.  Unlimited food, delicious chocolate milk and BYU mint brownies so Emmitt loved it!  We stayed with our friends, the Hema family so we really enjoyed catching up with them while Brayden spent some last treasured times with his BYU buddies.  It was relatively painless getting him all packed up and two days later we were back on the road.  This time though I had an extra driver so I let Brayden do some driving and we had a great time rocking out to country music the whole way home.  It was some good times.  Heres some photos.

As we were driving through Utah we were in awe of the scenery.  At one point Emmitt said to me "I can't stand it anymore -I have to get out and climb something."  So luckily we shortly came to this great climb and rest spot where we could get it out of our system and really take in the beauty!

Our dinner at the Canon Center

Brayden showing us some of his favorite spots on campus

Emmitt was eager to "Hike the Y" so we took along a Nathan, Will and Cooper and trekked up the mountain.  I managed to get us a little lost at first but once we found the trail it was smooth sailing.  The views at sunset were amazing!

We made it!

Goodbyes were hard.  Lots of hugs and lots of tears.  Brayden was blessed to have the Hemas and make so many good friends in Utah.

Driving home.  Brayden is a great driver.

Happy Easter

 We had a lovely Easter weekend though it was our first without Brayden and that made us miss him but he was well taken care of by the Hema's Easter Bunny in Utah.  For some reason I only have a picture of Emmitt with his Easter basket although the girls did get one too... maybe they are too old now for pictures.  Anyways it was Conference weekend which always makes Easter better.  We had a yummy brunch with the Scott family and then enjoyed watching Conference.  A great day.

General Conference watchers

Annual Egg Roll

This year we had our friends the Corbridges join us for our annual Easter Egg Dying and Rolling.  It was a fun tradition as always that we loved sharing with our friends who had never rolled eggs before ...what!!! hahaha!  We did our new preferred version where you have to roll it down the hill as close to the pond without going in is the winner!  

Taeya was the Egg Rolling Champion this year!

The Corbridges brought these cute neckerchiefs for the dogs so I thought I would include that too ;)

Sipapu: The Tradition Continues...

I didn't think it would be possible but-  timing plus online school made it so that Brayden could join us one last time for our families favorite Spring Break vacay tradition- Sipapu!  Snow and family fun in our cozy little cabin.  We flew Brayden home for his mission call and then he stayed with us the following week when we went to New Mexico.  He just had to slip off the slopes from time to time to attend an online class.  It worked out okay I think ;)

Because of Covid they didn't open up  some of the Mountain so that was a bummer and some of the lift operators made you wear a mask on the lift (so silly).  But we still had a good time- the boys got some lego at Walmart so that kept them busy in the down times and we ate at our favorite Guadalajara Grill.  Priceless family moments.

Brayden's Mission Call

We heard Braydens mission call was coming March 2nd, which was just a couple days before our Spring Break trip to New Mexico.  So instead of having him fly to see us in New Mexico we flew him home so we could all be together for his mission call- along with many close and wonderful friends.  We had a little get-together and excitedly watched as Brayden opened his mission call.  It was a pretty shocking call- that he was speaking French in Louisville Kentucky.  That was a mystery to us until the next morning on Facebook we learned that there is a significant population of African refugees there that speak French.  So we think that is who he will be teaching.  It sounds it will be a great mission and we know that Brayden will be a wonderful missionary!  What a exciting (and yes nerve racking) time!

Snowmagedon

 So this February we had a huge snow storm and cold snap.  The kind of which only happens in Texas about once every hundred years.  It was a crazy amount of snow and freezing temperatures which lasted five days.  On top of that, our power grid was overrun or not prepared or whatever and most of the state experienced rolling power outages.  We were very fortunate that our home never lost power but many friends in our ward did and as a result experienced broken pipes and other disasters.  It was a hectic week. School was cancelled so the kids were home and they were living their best life- playing in the snow with friends (as long as they could walk to them).  But for Kevin it was non stop bishoping and worrying about our pool and we had a frozen pipe in our kitchen that I spent one morning blowdrying from the outside (luckily that worked).  Each morning we had to go out and break up the ice on our pool and Kevin was so worried about the pool that he slept on the couch (mostly didn't sleep) so that he could keep an eye on it.  The worry was that it would freeze and stop running and the motor would bust and various pipes.  Thanks to his diligence our pool only suffered very minor damage.  Others were not so lucky.  It is a week we will never forget.

This is me using the dog hair dryer to blow into a hole in the exterior brick of our house.  I spent a long time trying to blow dry it under the sink but once I tried outside it worked fairly quickly.

This is Emmitt on the first day at the Schaack's backyard finding icicles.

This is me early in the morning breaking up the ice

This is Brielle and her friends at the sledding hill.  

Emmitt got a bit creative in the kitchen.

Emmitt and his friends eating "yellow snow"

We got to babysit our baby neighbor Judson when his parents' dental office flooded. 

Superbowl Sunday

 For the second year in a row we spent the Super Bowl with the Scotts.  They made us delicious tacos and had a new puppy for us to play with so it was a pretty good time!  I couldn't tell you who was playing or who won but the food was good and the puppy was cute (sadly I dont have a puppy pic).