Wrapping up the School Year

 

So Matt and I had been planning and preparing for a 7-day cruise to Alaska to celebrate our 15th anniversary. We were all set to leave May 10th. On the 9th, I was about to jump in the car to pick up Matt's Aunt Sharon from the airport who had lovingly agreed to come stay with the kids while we were away for 10 days. Instead, I got a call from my mom asking me to come over right away. Something was not right! Matt ended up picking up Sharon while I rushed my mom to the nearest hospital. After lots of tests and a transfer to a larger hospital, they found that she had bleeding in the brain due to a small aneurysm from an AVM near her brain stem. After two weeks in the hospital, she was finally able to come home. The increased pressure on the brain had lots of negative side effects, but thankfully nothing permanent. Miraculously, she's had no motor, memory, or cognitive loss. They will be treating the AVM with radiation to try to shrink the extra blood vessels, but she has to be extremely careful with her blood pressure from now on.

Aunt Sharon was amazing with the kids, and the kids grew to love her so much! Matt and I had to post-pone our cruise, but Heavenly Father really arranged things the best way possible so she could be here while I spent most of my time down at the hospital. What a blessing!

After a rough two weeks at the hospital and an additional rough few weeks at home, Nana was able to celebrate her birthday. We were so grateful to have Nana recovering!

Annie's 6th birthday was also a big deal. She had a huge princess cake and a pinata and lots of friends to celebrate with her.

Joseph just wanted to do something, so toothpicks and gumdrops sounded like a good project.

Ada made this beauty to celebrate CAKE (Celebrate the Acquisition of Knowledge Exhibition) Day with our friends, the Litherlands.

Alison and my mom joined us for a girls day out to see the opera version of Romeo and Juliet. Beautiful!

We grew purple carrots in our garden this spring. This guy was declared our friendly garden gnome. 

Sadie played the part of Phoebe in our homeschool group's version of Shakespeare's As You Like It. She did a great job!

And I made a solar system cake to auction off that night as a fundraiser.  I think it turned out pretty cool.

Back to the Museum of Fine Arts for a special exhibit of M.C. Escher. So cool!

Michael got awards at an end-of-the-year ceremony for being on the Honor Roll and for Excellence in Mathematics.

So proud. He did the puzzle all by himself.

We found the perfect place for picking dewberries at a park near our home. We went back every weekend for a month and got tons of berries...half of them went straight into hungry mouths, the other half got frozen for dewberry cobblers.

One of Michael's pictures selected for the art show at school.

Fun day exploring at Mercer Botanical Gardens

A perfect place to ponder the balance of the universe....

We had a lovely time celebrating Easter at my cousin, Tina's, ranch out near Brenham. It was great getting to see so many family members for the first time since covid hit.

Michael had an awesome time at Trek. So did Matt as a leader. Hard, but totally worth it!

Fun at the Interactive Zoo.

What bath toys do when they think no one is looking...

End of year performance for Ada's singing class and Annie's dance class. They both did beautifully.

Sadie and her friends heading off to a fun week at Girl's Camp.

Spring Break in Missouri

We did a little Church-History tour for spring break this year. We headed up to my parent's place in the Ozarks, then drove to Independence, Adam-ondi-Ahman, and Nauvoo where we met up with my brother Jeremy's family. It was fabulous to see them and seeing all the church history really brought it to life after studying it last year.  I still can't believe we packed so much into one week!

The Independence visitor's center was a hit. 

Where the original Cornerstone lay.

The "other temple."

Liberty jail was sobering.

It was so cold driving up to Nauvoo that we just stopped at Adam-ondi-Ahman long enough to snap a picture. Even so, you could tell it is a beautiful, peaceful place. I'd love to go back sometime when it's warmer!

Nauvoo was wonderful. The temple is beautiful and the historical houses and activities were fabulous. The missionaries who serve there have such a wonderful spirit about them. (Matt and I agreed we'd love to serve there someday.)

Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith's burial place.

Loading a covered wagon.

About to wagon ride.

On the way back to my parent's place in southern Missouri, we stopped at Carthage --another very sobering experience. I stand in such awe of these men --and all the early saints whose faith was tried so severely. I so hope I can prove as faithful!

Back down south, we visited Springfield, including, of course, the Bass Pro shop. We also toured the Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium. Wow! It was so much bigger and more impressive than I thought going in. So glad we did it!

We also toured a small farm in Springfield. So fun!

And of course we roasted lots of marshmallows at my folk's place. 

Another highlight was having my mom's cousins visit from Oklahoma, Kelley and Roger Sample. Kelley presented my mom with a huge roll of paper printed with our family tree. It meant so much to her!

Just a beautiful overlook on the way home.