I'm Still Here, Are You?

I'm still here, just never at my computer.  With email and Internet on my iPhone I don't find myself at the computer much, unless I'm printing documents for Primary!

There have been lots I have wanted to blog about, if only I made the time to sit down and type it out.  So here is a condensed version of happenings around here that I wanted to share since my last post but never got around to it:

1.  Junior Festival - We switched Taylor to a new piano teacher at the end of last year and it's amazing the progress she's made in just 4 short months.  She was a very good pianist before, but now it's on a whole other level.  We love her new teacher and she participated in her first Junior Music Festival in March at UNLV.  She performed 2 memorized pieces in a quiet room of 2 judges and they gave her a Superior rating.  We are so proud of her and her accomplishments.  Like I mentioned in my last post - she is a renaissance girl, always wanting to try new things and has multiple interests that seem to change on a weekly basis.  She started playing basketball this week in a Spring League at the YMCA, she signed up to play the Viola in beginning Orchestra for middle school this fall, and wants to try out for cheerleading.  I can't keep up!   Taylor also mentioned a few days ago how she would like to sign up to be a Girl Scout, but I told her her plate is full enough at the moment!!

2.  San Diego trip - We finally made it back to our favorite place at the end of March.  It's been over a year and a half since our last trip there and that ocean air felt so good.  We spent a day at Sea World and went right before all the Spring Break crowds so the place wasn't busy at all - it was so nice and the weather was great.  We had lunch with the Dolphins and Andrew took the older two kids on the Atlantis ride.  We have the most hilarious picture they took on the ride of Taylor and Zach with their eyes shut tight and mouths wide open screaming!!  We spent the next day at Coronado beach collecting lots of seashells and taking a harbor cruise and wishing we had the millions of dollars we would need to buy a house and live there on Coronado island permanently.  Such a picturesque place.

3.  Spring Break - Since we went to San Diego before break, we had no plans for the week off of school.  Andrew was going to be busy at work prepping for his first jury trial and unable to go anywhere.  Unfortunately the day we got back from our trip we got word that my sweet Grandma Welling passed away........so I unpacked our shorts and swimsuits, did some laundry, packed our long sleeves and jackets and headed up to Utah with the kids for her funeral.  We were very sad to say goodbye to our wonderful Grandma but at the same time we were happy to know she was no longer suffering and reunited with her husband and loved ones.  She was my last surviving grandparent.  It turned into a great trip though because we had the chance to spend so much time with family and cousins.  Andrew's trial ended up being postponed, so we were happy when he flew up and spent the weekend with us.  He took Taylor to a session of Conference in the Conference Center and she loved being able to see the prophet in person.    

I have hundreds of photos on my camera that I haven't downloaded yet to my computer, so when I do hopefully I can share some great pictures to go along with my stories.  But we are moving in the next few weeks so any free time I have might be spent packing a box instead of sitting at the computer!  We're not going anywhere too far - we just bought a bigger house in the same neighborhood area.  But like my brother said, sometimes the short distance moves are worse than the long distance ones!  We're happy to be in our same ward and schools.  The kids reactions have been funny though.  Zachary thought it meant we were leaving all our belongings behind and he didn't want to say goodbye to his bunkbed and toys!  Funny kid.....