Taylor Turned 3!

Taylor had her 3rd birthday this last weekend, and was so excited to get to go to Grandma's house to celebrate. Luckily, lots of others things happened to be going on at Grandma's house this weekend, too, so the trip was definitely worth it (Of course, now Kortney wants to go there for her birthday, too. We'll see...). I made Taylor a "beautiful" cake to take to Grandma's to celebrate (in my terms, this cake was beatiful, because it wasn't just in a 9x13 pan), and I found the perfect sized box to stick it in for the drive. I set it on the table, and then ran to do something else, and when I came back to the kitchen, there was Emmrie, up on the table, two hands covered in pink, white, and sprinkles, sucking the mess off both fists, nodding her head as if to tell me, "It tastes fine, Mom". So, one half of the cake still looked good, and we took it with us. Taylor had opened all her presents from us that morning, since that's Neil's favorite part, and he never can wait. Then, after he got off work, we loaded into the truck, met up with Neil's 12-year-old scouts and the other leaders and dads, and headed out the Bone Road- the dirt road that goes all the way to Soda Springs. It gets us there about 45 minutes quicker than the highway, but it doesn't get plowed in the winter, so this was our first time driving the Bone Road this spring. And the snow was all melted, so it was perfect. Neil got to take the scouts to his mom's house to do their horseback riding merit badge, and the boys all camped at the barn while the girls and I slept in nice, cushy beds at the house. Then we all joined the boys down at the barn for a few hours the next morning. They had so much fun learning horsemanship, riding, and cleaning the horses (maybe not so much the last part). And Neil's mom loves to teach people about horses, since it's her passion.

After the scouts all left, we got ourselves packed up and headed over the border to Wyoming to go to the "homestead", where Neil's family has some land and a cabin. Most of Neil's siblings and their families were there, too, so it was a fun time. They went to mend the fence from the winter snows, and then we all hung out, ate dinner, and came back. The next morning was Sunday, and we went to Neil's parents' ward for the blessing of Neil's brother, Marc's, little baby girl. It was a great day, and we just hung out with the family until we had to go home.

The Lord's Hand in My Life:

I got to see so many of the Lord's beautiful creations this weekend, and am reminded how blessed we are to live in a free country, to be able to travel and experience the world. I love Spring the best, because of all the green and bright colors, and I got to see so much of that all over as we drove. I'm also reminded that I have wonderful family, and it's great to be able to get together and visit with each other.