Spring is here ! ! !

After a VERY long and cold winter it is so good to see signs of spring everywhere.  The dogwood and flowering cherry trees are just gorgeous and as we drive and walk in the parks for exercise it is wonderful to see all the 'newness' begin again.

We had our second "Senior Conference" on April 11th and it was a real treat to meet with all of the other couples and President and Sister Johnson.

At the end of the conference President Johnson suggested that we all drive to the West End overlook and take some pictures.  It was a bright beautiful day and we had never been to this city
overlook before.  We really enjoyed our time there as we all admired the city again and again. We just don't get tired of the beautiful views.

L to R:  The Hansen's-Johnstown(brand new), Glover's-Phillipsburg (leaving soon), Johnson's, Swingholm's-mental health, us-Oakland, Barney's-Somerset, Clarkson's-office, Elcock's-office and Sister Castler (new to the office)

The only drawback of the day was that President Johnson gave us the assignment of planning the upcoming conferences while we are here. So much for sitting back and enjoying!  It really should be a fun way to get to know the other couples though.  President Johnson is all about us working hard, but also having fun and enjoying our missions too.  He is encouraging us to plan conferences where we can get together and visit church sites.

We were driving down the street the other day and lo and behold!

We saw a rival to our previous "dream vehicle".

Couldn't quite believe that we would run into something even more spectacular than the last one, but we keep picturing ourselves driving back home in this sweet little thing!!!

Guess that means we are turning into real Pittsburgher's or something.  We will keep everyone guessing anyway.

News from home is always wonderful and we loved this picture of Baylee losing her first tooth.  She is sure a cutie and we will miss her so much this summer in the raspberry patch!  

She loved being at our house and yard where she would swing in the big swing, pick raspberries for awhile, do jobs for Grandma Pat like picking rocks out of the garden and gathering snails.  She still takes dance lessons and also will take on the soccer field this next fall.

Baylee will be in second grade next year and will probably be queen of the ball park again this summer during her three brother's ball games!

Jenna has also been in the spotlight lately with her cello.  For awhile it seemed that the cello was even taller than she was. The picture shows that she is starting to sprout up and is finally taller than it is!

Jenna played in a duet with her friend at the Southern Utah Performing Arts Festival a couple of months ago.  They won the Judge's Choice Award.

We got a text message with a recording of her winning performance recently and it was great!

She is enjoying soccer and golf and is finishing a year in school of straight A's so far!



We have been busy teaching temple classes and visiting members each week.  We had an interesting Sunday this last week also.  Besides all of the meetings for two wards on Sunday and teaching two temple classes, we now attend two ward councils each week.  Jim was asked to take most of the time in the 1st Ward to present information on welfare and delegation.  He was also asked to present a 5 minute presentation to the 7th Ward on a section of the Handbook.  Anyway, we got an email Saturday night that a General Authority would be coming to attend both ward council meetings!  He ended up presenting in front of Elder Milan Kunz, an Area Seventy. Sure glad it was him and not me!!  Jim did a great job and it was nice to meet and talk with Elder Kunz.  Elder Kunz was here to present information later that evening about the BYU Idaho Pathways Program. The Pathways program is a lo-cost online educational opportunity that can lead to professional certificates and degrees and it will be such a blessing to many members of the church here in Pittsburgh.  We also attended that meeting so it had to be one of the longest Sundays we've spent yet.  We were pretty exhausted today and spent most of our P-day trying to recover!