AAAAHHH APRIL

General Conference and Easter started us off great (if cold!) this month and then it turned into an all our sprint as spring sort of started with wind and rain and some sunshine. Enough to show the first blooms of our daffodils. No one is more surprised that I grew flowers than me. 

Speaking of spring....holy Rhododendron batman! Look what our rhody did? Just popped out in purple this year. Sadly it all dropped off two weeks later but stunning while it was here. 

Our swingset arrived last month but rain set back our huge project until finally one weekend it could wait no more. We borrowed a super old truck and very nice rotatiller from Ruth and Phil to make the job of ripping up the sod soooooo much easier. Honestly, I think we would have given up halfway without it. We worked all morning raking and hauling grass. And then the afternoon was a hilarious hillbilly family trip in Phil's classic (read "old") truck up to the dump. Sure we someone broke off the spare tire rod and dragged it for a bit before Dana could Maguiver it back one. And sure Charlotte found a little spider web in the back and we spent the rest of the drive looking for the spider. And yeah we missed the right turn off to the dump site and ended up going all the way to a super creepy, depressing part of the landfill where we realized we forgot shovels and instead just used our hands to push 800 pounds of grass and other items off the back of the truck. Never have I felt so very white trash. Our kids had their eyes opened and we have a story for sure:)

The next weekend Dana borrowed the heaviest tamper ever from Jorge and spent the afternoon making the ground level...ish. Close enough right? 

And the next weekend, Dana took a day off work and somehow conned his brother into joining him on a hot dusty day for the big build. Nothing but grit and male pride could have pulled it off but they did it and it's amazing. 

What else was taking up our time? Soccer! Coach Blair let both kiddos join his team which is awesome. We've had a rainy month so some of the practices have been rained out (one quite hilariously when the storm just rolled in and sent our kiddos scrambling for the pavilion). 

Charlotte is happy to be with the bigger kids but to be fair gets a bit bored most games. She so subs in occassionally but is mostly happy to cheer and watch. Clark, on the other hand, has found his groove and quickly become a star on the team. One game he scored 6 goals, which Coach Blair informed us is a double hat trick! The funniest thing is watching his post score celebrations (the gritty, chest bumps, strong man arms). Honestly, it's so fun to watch his really excel. And in their soccer socks they look like real little athletes. 

I spent one Friday night up at Camp Z with the young women at our retreat. It was tons of fun and no one slept. And yes some girls cut their hair super short without us noticing. And one barfed. And we tried to hike in the snow in sandals. And we ate too much yummy food and got super silly. So basically, every day with the young women. Also we made cairns and this adorable tile Christ drawing which is going to hang in our YW room. Our president is so crafty. 

It's also been a month of lounging...and passing out on the couch when we wear ourselves out. 

And conquering the world. Miss Charlotte is one determined lady. She made a goal of mastering the monkey bars and it's been her singular purpose at the park. She's gotten blisters and scrapes but finally the last week of April she managed the whole thing by herself. Watch out world, this little miss is coming for ya!