Birthday-Birthday-Prom-Birthday

April has been a big month. Rob celebrated his birthday on April 6th. Melanie followed with her birthday on April 19th. Christy had a fun time at the Mountain View Prom last weekend and today, Clark turned two!

Arizona Winter

Having spent a lot of time in places with four seasons, it's still hard to imagine spending one day of a winter weekend hiking around the zoo in shirt sleeves, and spending the next day a little over an hour away in the snow. We'll enjoy it while we can. With temps in the high 80's--the hundreds can't be too far behind.

Sweet Sixteen

Christy turns 16 today. She has been a joy and a perfect bridge between our younger and older kids. We sure love her!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

End of a Year and Era

Sometimes, there just seems to be too much happening to update these blogs with any frequency--at least that's our excuse. Halloween was the last time we posted anything, but (at the risk of too much brevity) it suffices to say that Thanksgiving was fun with the family and Christmas was enjoyed by all--even though we missed Mike who was in New Mexico with Melissa.

On a bittersweet note, Dave's mother passed away on Christmas Eve after a full and wonderful life--struggling during the last few years with dementia. We made a quick trip to Utah for a glorious reunion with family and friends and to celebrate the remarkable life of Chloe Weed. Hers was a life filled with love, devotion, dedication, consecration, and the development and sharing of her extraordinary talents. After reflecting on and considering her life over the past several days, we all came away determined to be better people.

On a lighter note, we were able to visit with a number of relatives and friends in Utah and go ice skating (during which Katie fell on the ice; splitting her lip in a manner that occasioned a visit to a Provo urgent care facility--they are quite nice). A highlight for our desert dwelling youngest was experiencing falling snow for the first time in their lives.

A Little Bit of This...

Here's a mish mash of pictures from the past several weeks. Try to match the description with the picture: Chloe with some (but not all of her cousins at Hermosa Vista Elementary; Grandpa Ray at a recent Sims and Nellie Ray Reunion--Grandpa is the oldest of this family gathering; our kids in various Halloween get ups; and Carly's 18th birthday and getaway to the cabin with a couple of her friends from school.

Conference Weekend

Last weekend we went up to Pine and enjoyed general conference with other family members. Before we left, Carly informed us that she was invited to ride the Best Buddies float in the Mountain View Homecoming Parade. She had a great time tossing out candy--also along the parade route we saw Rissa riding the Senior Class of 2009 float (even though she's only a


Junior--it must have been for her birthday).






In between conference sessions, we enjoyed visiting with extended family members and the kids loved playing with cousins on the new trampoline and beautiful water feature the Bagleys and Stapleys put in behind their cabin.

The Donahue Trail

Last weekend we traveled to Pine--determined to hike up to the steep rim far above the cabin. A deep gorge separates the cabin from the rim so we researched some of the public trails in the area to determine the best way to get to the top. The Highline Trail passes a few miles to the south of us and the map indicates a spur called the Donahue Trail that leads up to Milk Ranch Point on the Rim that appears to overlook the cabin. We headed off on the 10 plus mile hike in the morning. The trail is seldom used and has some serious switchbacks up to the top. Weather was warm, but a cooling thunderstorm with light sprinkles chased us down the last few miles of the trail. The elk were bugling near the top and we saw a fairly large herd of them. Unfortunately, the summit did not afford us a glimpse of the cabin--but we enjoyed a beautiful view of the surrounding area anyway.