April 2015 - Easter chicks, Granny turns 99, and losing Jade

April was a wild and crazy month.  We started off with a great Easter surrounded by family.  We stayed with the Lunas all weekend for General Conference and had the wonderful opportunity to go to a mission reunion with President Callister on Friday night.  There were tons of people there—way more so than our other reunions in past years.  It was fun to see people from our time in Canada who we haven’t seen in years.  Marmie flew out a couple days before Easter and Sara hosted a Swingle family gathering.  The cousins loved hunting for eggs together and doing fun crafts with their Marmie. 

Later in April, we went to Cirque de Soleil with Sara and Jason in Salt Lake.  It was an incredible show—those performers can do some amazing things.

We celebrated Granny’s 99^th birthday (!!) on April 6.  What a woman.  I think we’ve convinced her that if she’s made it this far, she might as well go on to 100.  I feel so very blessed to have her so close, to get to see her so often, and to have our kids grow up with her in their lives.  I went to lunch with my cousin, Hope, a few weeks ago and most of the time was spent talking about how much we love Grandma and all that we’ve learned from her, as well as how we both hope to grow up and be just like her.

Our birthday present to Granny was to take her to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival.  It was beautiful.

The week after Easter we got some baby chicks.  We’re excited to have yummy eggs this Fall and to see if they survive sharing the yard with Roxy.  We got 7 girls and 1 boy (accident), 2 of which will go to Sara and Jason.  The kids love them and Roxy was scared to death of them at first.  If they so much as touched her she jumped back, but now she is much more curious and wants to get too close to them and see if they’ll play with her.

We’re so excited that the Balles have moved back to Utah!  We celebrated by meeting them at Hee Haw Farms to play together with all the baby animals.

We had a very sad and unexpected loss in the middle of April when Jade passed away.  She was our temporary doggy family member for 6 months while we dogsat for my cousin, Meggan, and her husband, Jon.  They are out here for work training until July or August, so we were excited to welcome sweet, mellow Jade into our home as a buddy for Roxy pups until then.  She’s about 3 times the size of Roxy and our kids immediately fell in love with her.  Alexa would try to put flower headbands on her and call her beautiful.  She and Tyler even made up a song about Jade and Roxy that they would sing all the time.  She has been with us since the beginning of January and Kyle was working with her to run more and catch the ball with Roxy at the park.  She was a little heavier and sluggish at first, but has really gotten fast and was doing so well. 

Kyle and I were jolted awake to a painful cry and ran down to see what was wrong.  Jade was lying on the floor next her bed howling.  Right as Kyle got to her she took her last breath.  It lasted all of 5, maybe 10 seconds before she was gone.  I immediately called Meggan and cried with her over the phone.  The vet thinks it was a heart attack since there were no signs of other issues or poison.

The kids and I went to the Payson Temple Open House with Mom, Dad, and Granny.  It is a magnificent temple—I love all the curves, natural wood, and stained glass.  There was such a feeling of beauty, peace, and holiness.  I loved how they emphasized that everything in the temple points to the Savior.  I went again with the Young Women in May and they all loved the Celestial Room, which is a quiet room on the top floor where you can go to pray and ponder.  There is such power in stepping away from the world and refocusing on what matters most, being reminded that there’s a purpose to life, and also being reminded of a loving Heavenly Father with a plan for each of His children.  It’s a wonderful place to go when you feel weak or stressed—I always feel strengthened, calmed, and uplifted.