Last Monday was gorgeous so we took the kids to Nielsen's Grove for Family Home Evening. Check out these tulips! If only mine could look that good. Nielsen's Grove is the site of the oldest formal gardens in Utah County - established by a Danish Convert to the Church in the 1870's or so. They've recently been restored to their original status after some years of neglect.
What blows me away, actually, is that David is now as old (if not as big) as Spencer was back then. I felt like Spencer was so grown-up when David was born. It's all about comparison and perspective, I guess.
Our David is 2! We all love this cute little guy who has turned into a real little boy over the past few weeks. He talks so cute-ly in full sentences, but still in his sweet little boy voice. He LOVES books -every night there are about 20 in his bed, and when he wakes-up early he reads them for a while before yelling, "Mommy! Mommy! I soaked!"
He also loves animals, trains and Dora the Explorer and her cousin, Diego the animal rescuer. He is starting to exhibit more 2-year-old behavior, saying things like "I want it!" and "I do it by myself!" At his birthday-time I always think about how worried we were about him at his birth - how scrawny and sickly he was - and I am so grateful that he is now so happy, and smart, and busy, and cheerful.
A birthday book from Grandma Rosie. He loved the ducks!
To kick-off the craziness that was March this year, Michael made his first trans-Pacific flight to Tokyo. He went to train the Asian PR folks for the Four Seasons Hotels. I don't want to steal his thunder, but since he may never do this himself, I'll at least post some of the pictures.
Here is Michael hard at work.
I think this was Michael's favorite 'cultural' experience in Tokyo - going to the early-morning Tuna auction. Those giant grey things behind him? Those are the tuna. Huge.
Here is another sampling of the fine sea-produce. Check out those giant prawns! I think his VERY favorite part of the trip was the food. He became a sushi-convert. 
new birthdays to celebrate in March: Our new brother-in-law Bret, and our new niece, Lily (Matt and Jenni's baby.) It is kind of surreal to be almost half-way through my 30's! The girls gave me seeds to plant in our garden. Spencer gave me a pair of tongs -which we actually needed. His orriginal idea was to give me a pot, but Michael talked him into the tongs. Michael gave me tickets to the Police Concert at the USANA ampitheater in July! Woohoo!
Here we are celebrating Michael, Bret and Jenni's birthdays, oh and Easter all on the same day. It was a little too much for everyone, especially Jenni's girls who had had it by the time we got to cake, so Jenni wasn't even there anymore. We are glad Easter won't fall that early again - at least not for a LONG TIME. To many things to celebrate at once!
Here is my cute Grandpa Sabine's 99th birthday celebration! (Frankly, I hope I'm not still around for my 99th birthday.) But we had a fun time celebrating Grandpa's birthday with a good majority of his posterity. When President Hinckley passed away, my Grandpa asked my mom, "Just what do you think President Hinckley died of?" (That young whipper-snapper, only 97-years old! Grandpa was only a year ahead of P. Hinckley at LDS High School.) My mom said, "OLD AGE. People die of that!"
Our cute new niece, Lily Catherine. Our Catherine is very excited about her new cousin's name. Not only because she shares one of the same names, but Lily is Catherine's favorite name. IT was also the name of Cath's fairy-alter-ego that she was for Halloween.
Laura and her awesome husband, Bret, took good care of our kids while we were in Newport. Look at these handsome guys. Bret even brought his own firetruck sleepers to be like our boys. Way to go, Uncle Bret.Michael and I had a great, quick trip to Newport Beach, CA last weekend. Many thanks again to our various sisters for watching our kids. We stayed in a great little hotel called the Bay Shores Peninsula right at Newport Beach. Friday we went to Fashion Island (a fancy outdoor mall) and ate at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!), drove down to Laguna Beach, climbed on the rocks and looked at the tide pools, drove a little farther down the coast and explored the Ritz hotel, and stopped at Wahoo's Fish Tacos in Laguna on the way back to our hotel. That night I slept 10 hours! I couldn't believe it! Sat was so nice - just a lazy day. After sleeping in we walked from our hotel down the beachfront to Balboa pier and then walked back again. This worked up a great appetite for the local Crab Cooker restaurant. (yum again. Can you tell that food was one of the highlights of our trip?) That afternoon we thought we'd sit on the beach and read in the warm sunny weather, but the wind made things a little cooler than we'd hoped. Oh well, at least there wasn't any snow. That night we went to a wedding dinner at a nice cliff-side restaurant in Orange County - the main reason for our trip. We went home early Sunday. It was so nice to have a warm-weather getaway in the middle of February. Also nice to just have time to hang-out together. It's invaluable time!
