Easter at the Dewey's

Easter seemed like it crept up on us this year. It was sandwiched between the Provo Temple Dedication and General Conference. Easter Sunday was also the missionary farewells for Alison Davis and McKenna Davies, best friends. It was a wonderful, beautiful day! 

After church, we went to my parents for dinner and an egg hunt. Look at these cute cousins all lined up. And proud grandpa in the background.

How many easter egg hunts have I done in this backyard. Pretty much all of them since my parents have lived here since I was two!

Geoff and Mike hid the eggs and were pretty creative with the eggs for the older kids. Each grandchild had a specific color or pattern to look for. Sydney's was yellow. They found the perfect hiding spot!

She found it!

Zion's Park

After a delightful night with the Turner's, we headed for a day of hiking in Zion's National Park. We started off at the Weeping Rock and continued to Observation point. This was listed as an 8-mile strenuous hike. Perfect!

Hiking in the red rocks was beautiful. A totally different beauty than the forested Wasatch mountains. We drank it in, it was so beautiful and awesome.

Parker is pointing to the the peak, the observation point, where we are headed. It was a long 4+ miles up. But fun. I heard not one complaint!

But getting to the top of that mountain was not enough for this crew. On the way down the trail, we passed a trail head for Hidden Canyon. Our feet hurt and we were really getting tired by now. (Eight miles will do that to you). But as soon as we started on our way to Hidden Canyon and saw the chains we would need to use to stay on the trail, we felt a burst of energy and excitement to meet this new challenging course.

Look for the chain we are holding on to in this picture. There was a sheer drop-off right next to us. It was crazy and you'd better believe I had the back of Hashbrown's shirt in my fist the whole time and he had a death grip on that chain. So did I.

The best part of road-tripping and hiking as a family is seeing the kids spend time together, walking and talking. Its good for the soul.

GORGEOUS!

St. George

What does the family do when they haven't seen the man of the house for a while? The legislature has taken his time for many weeks and now his schedule is full of trips across the state to touch base with the grass roots. So what's a family to do?

We tag along. That's what we do. We checked the kids out of school early on Friday and headed to St. George. Our first stop was a quick look at the St. George temple!

We dropped Sterling off at his meeting and then went to get the kids dinner in Hurricane. Then I dropped the kids off at a park and went to join Sterling for the dinner portion of his meeting. By the time I retrieved the children, the sun was setting and it was time for bed. 

But to bed we did not go. We went to the Turner's house (turf growers) in Washington city and amused ourselves in their indoor pool. It was pretty amazing.

Thank you Turners! We had fun in the pool. We sleep peacefully and woke to a delicious breakfast and awesome conversation. The perfect way to begin a day in Zion's National Park!

Spanish-Arts-Choir

The kids have really had the opportunity to show off some of their talents lately. Rachel had her Spanish Immersion program called La Fiesta. Each grade performed a song and Rachel's grade did a song about the different animals on the farm. She was a cat.

And in the end, is a tractor!

Rachel did a great job. I am so glad she is involved in this program. It introduces a great deal of cultural diversity to our lives, which is sometimes missing in our wasatch front life. 

Parker has been hard at work in his art class at school. This was the cover to his portfolio. I'm not sure what the chicken drumstick is about. I'll have to ask. Maybe he's just hungry all the time?

This is a drawing of his dream room.

And also, he loves drawing dragons!

When he isn't carving or showing off what he made in his wood working lathe club after school.

Sydney had the opportunity to show off the songs her choir, the Hawkapellas, learned and competed with in the Music Festival this year. 

Her favorite song was "Loch Lomond" and for good reason. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good shot of her face. She is at the end of the top row. Also unfortunately, I missed the first part of the song and missed the last note. Duh. I'm not sure what happened there, darn it.

This was the choir's best performance ever. Seriously, it was.