Pruning

This morning Dave and I pruned trees at our Stake Welfare peach orchard. I love going there because I know that the peaches that will be harvested from those trees all go to help people throughout the world. I like to think that maybe the people who have lost their homes recently in Japan will be given cans of peaches from these very trees. It's very possible because I know disaster victims in Haiti's earthquake and Chile's earthquake have received them in the past.

Well, all that pruning got us thinking we ought to spend some time in our yard today as well. So we went a little nuts whacking off limbs from our own trees and shrubs. Actually, Dave did most of the whacking. But we got the yard looking ready for Spring.

It was kind of chilly weather, only 40 degrees, but when you are working hard it doesn't seem so bad.

I can't believe the tiny trees we planted 8 years ago are now big enough to hold swings for the grandkids.

Our vegetable gardens still had dead veggie plants. But we got those cleaned up, too.

Then we hauled all the branches and limbs to the compost dump.

This enormous pile of mulch was made from the piles of clippings out there.

It may have snowed yesterday, but I'm pretty sure Spring is on its way.

Random Thursday photos

Thursday morning I babysat Olivia while Holly went with Lily and Jack on a fieldtrip. I love her little teeth! I worked later that afternoon. Then that evening we had our Relief Society Birthday party. Michael Ballam was the speaker and singer at our program. This is a photo of our Relief Society Presidency with him. It was a great evening.

Dallin gets his call

My adorable nephew, Dallin, got his mission call. He is going to Texas, San Antonio, Spanish speaking. He will be a great missionary!

March is for flying kites.

St Pattys Day

Ok, so I had to go back to the 1600's before I could find that I have Irish ancestor's, but there it is:

As long as I still have a kid at home I thought I would make green eggs and ham for St Patrick's Day. And of course, they have to be served with Lucky Charms. They're magically delicious, you know. :)

Maui - Day 8

Our last day on the island things were returning to normal. People were out on the beach and the harbor and airport were open again. So we knew we had to cram in as much as possible into that last day.

We started the morning with a walk along the beach.

Then we grabbed our snorkeling gear and headed over to Black Rock to take care of our snorkeling obsession.

Look at how clear the water is.

We flew a little turtle kite.

We had lunch at "Cheeseburger in Paradise" in Lahaina.

We had rescheduled our Whale Watchng expedition. It was on this little raft. It was pretty nice because it just had 16 people so we had a great view of the humpbacks.

We had issues with our camera because by the time it took the picture there wasn't much left to see of the whale. We caught the tail of this one.

We took a red-eye flight home. It left Maui at 9:30 pm and we arrived back in Salt Lake at 10:00 am the next morning.

What a great trip. Thank you Dave, for this wonderful anniversary gift. And mostly, for the last 30 amazing years. I love you!

Maui - Day 7

We decided to eat breakfast at the hotel. There was still a tsunami advisory that morning. Since no one wanted to go to the beach the resort pools got pretty crowded. Dave just cannot sit or lay out by the side of a pool. He has to swim in it. I preferred vegging on a lounge chair with my book.

We couldn't resist venturing down to the beach. It was practically deserted.

We walked over to the other side of the golf course to get a shot of our resort. We stayed in the lower cottages. I think it was the third one from the left. I like how you can see the island of Molokai across the water in the background.

We ate lunch at LuLu's in Lahaina. It was the second time there on this trip. The food there is really different, unconventional stuff. I had a chicken curry sandwich. It was strange but good.

We were supposed to go on a whale watching expedition but it had been canceled as the harbor was still closed because of the tsunami. So we drove up the coast to check it out. Gorgeous.

Then we decided to drive back over to Lahaina.

This is a little of some of the damage from the small tsunami that hit early that morning.

That night we went to a movie, "The Adjustment Bureau". It was a pretty good movie.