Fun In April

 We had a fun and eventful month of April!  It started out with a cold Spring Break and us going to the Lindon Temple Open House.  It was beautiful! (The temple, not the weather)

Avery enjoyed her last few weeks of her London study abroad.  They traveled to England and Wales and she did more fun things in London before coming home.

General Conference was the first week of April, and also Easter.  Avery watched from a bus in London.

While we watched from our cozy basement.

Maren had a recently baptized friend from her mission come to General Conference.  We were able to pick him up from the Conference Center and feed him and show him around the area.  It was fun!

On Easter Sunday we hosted a dinner with friends and family and missionaries.  It was a great week and weekend, focusing more on Jesus Christ's resurrection!  We are so grateful for Him!

March Madness came and went and this year, I bought the winner's a prize!  Maren won the overall bracket, and Dustin won the mascot bracket for our family.

We spent time with Dustin's mom.  Poor Lana!  Her teeth have been really bothering her this month!  Dustin is a good son and tries to take good care of her and show her love, even with his busy church and work schedule.

Grant had a birthday!  He is 17!  Whaaaat???  Maren was on a trip with her mission friends during his birthday, and Avery hadn't gotten home yet from England, so we got him some gifts and he gathered friends and we went to the BYU Volleyball game to celebrate.  We celebrated with family a week later.

It is hard to believe our youngest is 17!  Grant is such a light in our family!  It has been lonely for him to have all his siblings gone this year, but he is positive and makes the best of it.  He is a good friend.  He is a good leader.  He is a good student and loves school and loves to challenge himself in school.  We love watching him grow up and become such a great young man!

A couple of days later, Avery got home from London!!!  It was only Dustin and I at the airport because Maren was still on her trip, and Grant had his day date for Prom.  We had kept Maren's signs from when she came home from her mission and we were able to utilize them again...  Waste not, want not, as Grandma Losee always said!

Maren got home the next day and her and Avery were finally reunited, after 20 months!

Avery brought lots of gifts for us from England.

We ran into friends at our favorite lunch place.

Avery taught us how to make a yummy English treat.

Lots of choir concerts for Grant this month (region and state choir for both Concert Choir and Madrigals in April and May).

Grant and his friends decided to do bouquets for their Prom dates instead of corsages.  We enlisted the help of Gramma Lana and bought a bunch of flowers at Trader Joes, and then the boys came over and she helped them make the girls their bouquets for Prom the next day.

They did a great job! (not all the boys could come, so they made a few extras for the rest of their group)

For Christmas, Dustin bought me a curry cooking class.  Jen and my mom also received this gift from their husbands and the day finally arrived in April!  It was fun to learn more about cooking curry!

Prom was that night.  Handsome boy.

The next day, we finally celebrated Grant's birthday with family!  Lots of family came to support and show him love.  

We have had SO much fun having our girls home!!  We laugh, play games, go on walks and hikes, and just generally enjoy each other's company!  The girls even surprised Grant with a trip to the symphony for his birthday gift.  So fun!

We also spent the month of April looking for a car for Maren.  After much searching, she finally found the car she wanted (and could afford!).

Mondays are still our favorite days because we get to talk to Ryan.  He is doing great in Colombia!  He moved from Barranquilla back to his original city, Valledupar.  He and his companion are teaching and working hard.  We love hearing about what he is doing and who he is teaching.  The language is getting better all the time.  We love seeing his face each week!

(In this picture, Maren told Ryan to show us how much joy he is feeling, with his teeth, haha!)