Friends, Sand, Family

We have not been as diligent with our Come, Follow Me studies this year with the Doctrine and Covenants as we were last year with The Book of Mormon. However, we do manage to sneak a few lessons in here and there. Eli will often volunteer to take over lesson planning and he does such a great job. This night he made paper dolls for the boys to dress their doll with The Armor of God. Smiles all around. 

Any casual reader of the blog here (and anybody in our neighborhood) knows Lincoln and Jonah LOVE the garbage man. We are loyal fans and admirers of the friendly, big trucked community worker. One afternoon we had just gotten home from school and got a knock on the door. We were surprised to see the garbage man himself standing there with a toy truck for Lincoln and a Republic Services hat for Lincoln. It was so sweet and thoughtful and only further secured our love and dedication to our weekly sanitation superheroes. 

Covid restrictions have begun lifting for youth activities. We dove right into getting back together with a stake Youth Conference to the sand dunes. The weather was lovely, the kids were cheery and fun, and the event was adventurous with dune buggy rides and a homemade zipline. 

I went straight from the sand dunes to sandy St. George with Jeff and the kids. Jeff's dad told us about a dreamy little escape along the Virgin River called Babylon Brook maybe? It was a perfect beach-like spot along the Virgin River that allowed for fish observing, river wading, owl hunting, and sunbathing. 

We went back to Jeff's parents' house to enjoy an evening walk on a path that followed our familiar friend, The Virgin River. 

We got to a bridge where Jonah fell down pretty hard and ended up with some splinters in his hands. The whole way home he kept saying, "WHY DID THEY MAKE THAT BRIDGE OUT OF SPLINTERS?!?" 

The real reason St. George was calling our names is because the Bess Bunch was there for spring break! It's too short of a drive not to squeeze in some time with them while we could. 

This is three for three on sandy locations for me in one weekend. We met at Snow Canyon to play in the sand dunes there. I didn't mind. It's one of my favorite places and it was a touch chilly so we had the place practically to ourselves. 

After grabbing lunch, we went on a hike that I absolutely loved! Maybe one of my favorite hikes ever. There were so many cool things to climb on and over and different types of things to see all along the way. Perfect for this crowd!

We came home to welcome The Wrights to Las Vegas. They had come to town for spring break and stopped by to see our house and have dinner with us. We loved catching up and appreciated the excitement of having company after a year of solitude!