I’m determined to catch up with my “little things” posts (except I’ll probably never get to those months deep in covid where I didn’t do any). But hey, here we are getting closer with March!

And I’ll warn you right here and now, lots happened in March. I mean, Grace got home from her mission for one, so of course we were bound to have all kinds of hoopla in conjunction with that.

But let’s get started.

Lucy had a choir concert.

I love to watch her up there singing with precision with those other precise singers taught by their precise teachers. It makes for some pretty beautiful music.

Of course, we had to take her to her very favorite place for dinner.

(Dave and I keep trying to talk her out of that one, but she’s not budging:)

We had a floral arranging class for Relief Society:

Loved being in that gym, filled up with the most beautiful floral scent, piles of gorgeous flowers, and surrounded by those wonderful women I love so much:

I kept plugging away at the cello:

Claire and I played tennis and she turned her hair pink real quick:)

We got to sneak out to a little dinner with our neighbors who live across the lawn from us but who we feel like “ships passing in the night sometimes” with how much seems to be going on with our families:

Sure do love them!

I did the “Come Follow Me” devotional again….

(All about that “devotional” back HERE.)

Claire got asked to a prom from a different school:

(How that turned out back HERE.)

Dropping off Lucy from something or other:

When I drop her off I usually get teary. Either from sorrow that she is sorrowful, for from bursting with joy that she is mine.

Sometimes I am a rollercoaster right along with her.

Some happy things with Lu…one of Claire’s friends working at the dentist for her check-up and our neighbor’s dog Charlie, who she claims is now her favorite dog:

(Yep, I think Charlie has moved up the ranks ahead of Bo Jangles, don’t tell Bo.:)

CLaire’s spot:

Yep, on the counter.

And I’d tell her to get her bootie right off of there except for the fact that when she scoots on up there it means she’s ready to tell me stuff.

So I just listen.

Mother Earth in all her glory:

Dave and I headed up to Utah for our niece’s wedding:

This was one of the “quad squad” cousins who have grown up together so Elle came all the way from Florida to be there as a bridesmaid with these girls she loves so very much:

I love that weddings are such a fun way to gather with Dave’s family.

These kids are starting to get married like wildfire, I hope we can continue to be there to support and love these kids and their new spouses. It is pretty fun.

And pretty fun to be with our Florida girl:

The reception was a pretty big party.

Backing up a tad, Dave and I happened to be on the same flight with his brother and his wife, and happened to have enough time to grab breakfast quick before the big wedding:

Dave and I stayed overnight downtown and got to see the construction on the temple (they are redoing the whole foundation), and see the conference center where General Conference is held:

My growing-up city (SLC) is pretty cool. Love this picture of how it looked in the “olden days” on the left below, and that teeny old building between the new ones in the pic on the right:

Then we got to be home for a few days before heading off for spring break….

…still with our Wellesley girl since she was staying for spring break where we’d meet up with Carson.

We sure soaked her up while she was here:

She helped make “cane quest” more “ok” for Lucy since Lu adores that cheerleader big sister of hers:

(More about that “cane quest” back HERE.)

Played a little tennis:

Got to work out together:

I love that when our kids come home they want to work out with us. Makes me happy.

Lucy got to work on one of her goals of “independence,” which for some reason includes learning to braid. This was one of the first tries:

…and this is how it ended up:

Pretty impressive if you ask me!

A Sunday walk:

Cousins/friends:

Bo Jangles shenanigans:

Grace was in the midst of finishing off her 18 months as a missionary with people she loves so much:

(So fun to look at her pictures now after having visited and we know and love so many of these people! All about that visit HERE)

She was so close to coming home we could almost TASTE it.

So we worked on the possibility of getting her home one week early so she could join us for spring break, and so we could have the WHOLE family together.

But she didn’t want to miss out on any mission time, and it turned out Max and Abby weren’t able to come after all, so she finished out that great mission of hers…

…while we headed to Cancun to celebrate Claire’s last spring break together with Elle and Carson in tow (it was spring break for his podiatry school as well and Elle works freelance so it was so fun to have them with us.

I wrote all about that trying-to-get-the-whole-family-together-for-spring-break business back HERE, and there are lots of spring break pictures there, but here are a few for this post:

We had a pretty grand time.

And then it was back to prep for the big return of our missionary girl!

One of Elle’s best high school friends came over and played the piano and sang for us…

…and agreed to play the piano at Grace’s homecoming.

SHE IS SO GOOD! I wrote more about her HERE.

Then we lined up at the airport, smiles all around:

AND WE GOT OUR GIRL BACK!!!

So much more about that happy reunion over HERE.

We got right to the temple while my parents were still in town for the big return:

And then we whisked Grace right off to California since Claire had a big volleyball tournament there that weekend.

Love that Max and Abby were able to join us for all that hoopla.

And loved getting to spend time with these awesome teammates of Claires:

All about that trip to California back HERE.

We came right back for Grace’s homecoming talk at church.

But first, a little pizza celebration night with some of our favorite people:

Grace did such a beautiful job reporting on her mission at church for her homecoming talk:

(All kinds of details about that talk back HERE.)

Lucy got a very special blessing (we call it a “patriarchal blessing” in our church.)

More about that back HERE.

Volleyball and editing English papers with Claire:

Dave’s Dad turned 80.

So many pictures and thoughts about that celebration back HERE.

Lucy worked her tail off learning her favorite song on the piano. And I worked my tail off writing the notes big enough so she could see them.

More about how Lu learns the piano back HERE.

Some of our very best friends got called to be mission presidents.

I will have to delve way more into that little fact and all that goes with it before they leave in July (Dave’s sister and her husband got called to serve as well).

But for now, let’s just talk about the lunch we had for our friend before she left (moved to be closer to family for a few months before they leave in July).

She and her husband are going to be so amazing as mission presidents.

I was so happy to get my hairdresser Grace back to cover my gray hair…and Lucy is on top of it as far as school credits go (we were trying to figure out whether she had to do summer school):

A boy’s volleyball game, love that gym and all the goodness it holds:

Nana and Papa took Grace to a special post-mission lunch, and we got Grace as our workout partner…woohoo!

And THAT is a wrap for March.

Phew.

Posts with more information from March happenings:

The “Cane Quest” at Foundation for Blind Children

2022 “Snapshot”

Spring break and some thoughts on “the most important work we’ll ever do”

Grace’s Last Missionary Email

A very happy reunion with our missionary Grace Jam

A homecoming talk

Volleyball, polar plunges, and some girl time in Newport

Dave’s Dad’s 80th birthday celebration

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7 Comments

  1. Wow, that is a full month! Couple of questions if you don’t mind.

    I LOVE Claire’s pink hair. I wondered if your church frowns on things like that, though? It’s kind of trendy/worldly…could she go in the temple with it dyed pink?

    Also, is it normal to ask to stop your mission with a week to go, just to go on a vacation? Seems like your family asks for and expects to have lots of rules bent to accommodate you.

    1. She won’t really go ‘through the temple’ until she marries or goes on a mission and she isn’t old for the second yet. It’s public schools that do not like people coloring hair besides the normal hair colors. Like a kid could be a blond cause it’s a natural hair color but pink would be a distraction so not allowed. It’s seems just the thing a high school graduate would do. Kind of like men who leave BYU Idaho growing beards cause not allowed while in school but perfectly fine for temple. Funny you didn’t ask Shawni if she could go to temple and she also had her hair colored. LOL.

      1. Is this true for every high school in america?
        Why are college students at byu not allowed to grow a beard??

        1. There are thousands of high schools I certainly haven’t read the dress and hair codes at all of them. There are news articles that pop up talking about a student unable to return to class until their meant to be red hair stops looking magenta fairly often and from more than one state. And the ones my family has attended where I read or was told about the code. It seems to be common. BYU Utah and Hawaii can grow a beard. BYU Idaho can’t. Those that are in power decided as much.

  2. So in March you were in Utah, Mexico, Texas and California? This much travel is very unique and expensive.

  3. I love that you are able to put your time to such good use. I would love to know a little bit about how you jump so quickly from one thing to another. I feel like I would need days in between to clean house and do laundry. Do you have help or are you very super organized? I would really love to know! I know no one really does it all, but you seem to be able to do so much and I would love to hear about some of your tips!

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