GENERAL CONFERENCE IN ST. GEORGE WITH RYAN AND KATIE AND FAMILY STARTS OUR MONTH OF APRIL

 On the last day of March, we traveled to St. George after our temple session. We wanted to spend conference weekend with Ryan and Katie and their family and see their new home. It was a wonderful weekend with yummy food and inspiring talks by our general authorities. Of course, the time we spent listening to the messages highlighted the weekend but it was also fun to be a part of the Millar traditions surrounding general conference and April Fools Day. It was breakfast burritos for breakfast on Saturday and scrambled eggs with ham and cinnamon rolls for Sunday breakfast. Saturday night, after the evening session, Katie and Ryan treated the family, a couple of Julia's friends, and us to an April Fools dinner. It was one of those crazy mixed up dinners where we order our food and utensils off a menu with strange names and then laughed when we got each course. The first course was supposed to be a drink and salad but Paul got the main course, served in a cup, with no utensils to eat it with. We got a kick out of that but we all laughed at each others' choices. I had to eat my salad from a cup and that wasn't easy either. It was a fun way to have dinner that night.

Snuggled up listening to the talks

Paul and I trying to
figure out what to order from the crazy menu.

Paul's main course in a cup

We also loved being in Ryan and Katie's new home. It is beautiful and so functional. Katie and Ryan thought of almost everything to make it their dream home including an extremely organized kitchen/pantry as well as a backyard that is to die for - sport court, swimming pool with a swim up bar, an outdoor kitchen, and eventually a television that will swivel out enough to watch TV in the pool. Upstairs is an area with a big screen TV, a small kitchen area, a basketball arcade type game, and so much more. It's an ideal hangout for teenagers in this amazing home.

The entry way

The pool isn't quite done but it will be amazing when it is

Our weekend was cut short due to threats of a major winter storm hitting northern Utah. It was to be one of the biggest of the year. On one weather app it was reported that Heber would get up to 3 feet. With that warning, we left St. George right after the morning session of conference, listened to the afternoon session as we traveled, and got home before the storm hit. We were glad we left early as there were reports of the road between Beaver and Fillmore being closed for several hours on Monday. We would have been right in the middle of that if we had waited to leave Monday afternoon as we had originally planned. As it is, Heber only got about 5 inches but Park City and the other side of the mountain got upward to a foot or more....and this is in April!!! 

We have been praying for this kind of moisture to alleviate the drought situation in Utah so we can't complain. This is all an answer to prayer or as Katie said, 'The Lord heard our prayers and opened the 'Windows of Heaven.' By the middle of April, the temperature began to warm up and the snow started to melt. This brought about a huge amount of flooding. Our Crossings neighborhood was not spared. Neighbors were threatened with large amounts of water coming into their homes, so the call went out to the ward for help sandbagging people's yards. Of course, Paul responded and went to help. He was gone a couple of hours and was amazed at the number of ward member that came out to help. He came home with soaked shoes and pants but was glad he could help. The next day the waters had receded a bit but by that evening the flooding was even worse. The call went out again for help and the people placed even more sandbags to keep homes safe. It has been estimated that between 6,000 and 7,000 bags were used.

Taken down at the pond in our neighborhood
on the first day of flooding.

The creek just couldn't hold all the water
so it was flowing onto the road.

This was taken the next day at the pond,
A little scary when you think of all the snow 
that has yet to melt in the mountains.

With the warmer weather, we could finally see part of our
lawn in the backyard. At one time it was covered
 with about 2 1/2 to 3 feet of snow.

This picture was taken on the 29th of April
and shows the very last of the snow to melt. It was
gone by the time we got home that evening.
Welcome Spring!!!!

For Easter, we had the college grandkids up for dinner. It was the typical Easter spread of ham and all the trimmings. Of course, they loved all the food, especially the cream puffs we had for dessert. Todd and Kailee opted to have Easter at their home so they could do an Easter eggs hunt. When Todd suggested they would bring Easter up to Heber, I had to remind him that we still had major amounts of snow in our backyard so the egg hunt would have had to be in the snow. We were sad they couldn't come to celebrate with us but it was much more fun for the children to be with their cousins at Todd and Kailee's home.

The Cream Puffs

This is always the month of birthdays - 6 to be exact. Jon, Gavin, Clark, Braydon, Avery, and me all have birthdays in April. We sent cards and money to Jon and his boys to wish them a happy birthday. For Avery, we celebrated her birthday on the last Sunday of the month. She requested a dinner of broccoli, peas, carrots, potatoes, and chicken. (She loves vegetables.) Of course, I had to make her a cake also. Avery wanted her birthday to be everything unicorns so I decided to make a unicorn cake. I found a picture on line that I thought would make a cute cut out cake. I drew up a pattern and when I showed it to Paul he doubted that I could make such a cake. I proved him wrong.

This was the finished cake

I asked Kailee to send me some ideas for what Avery would like for her birthday. We buy toys for their children that they leave at our home so they have things to play with when they come up on Sundays for dinner. She sent me some ideas that we could order on Amazon so that's what we did. We bought her a unicorn tea set. I also was able to find a book, 'How to Catch a Unicorn,' and unicorn cards with which they can play three different games. Her birthday truly was 'all things unicorn.'

The tea set we ordered for Avery.
She and Aria played with it all afternoon until
it was time to have birthday cake.

Anxious to open her presents

Playing with the tea set. Note all the my little ponies
lined up along the hearth and the Elsa and Anna dolls
who were all invited to the tea party.

Playing Go Fish with the unicorn cards

Ready to blow out the candles and eat cake!!!

My brother Sam also had a birthday in April. We went to Deon's home for dinner with Sam and Kathy, and Kathy and Curt. For dessert, Kathy Bulkeley made mother's famous cake roll. She served it with ice cream and, for Sam, a candle in his cake. The last time we were together as a family was also around Sam's birthday. We all couldn't believe it had been a full year since we had had dinner as a family group. It's our turn to host the next dinner so I'll do something in July. It's always fun to get together and visit and laugh with each other.

At Deon and Gary's dinner table where we enjoyed
Gary's famous tri tip.

For my birthday, we decided to go to dinner on Thursday night instead of on my actual birthday on Friday. (We are so exhausted after working our shift in the temple on Fridays.) We also had to take Jillian's car to Provo and park it in Maggie's parking space at her apartment, so we thought Thursday was the perfect time to do that and celebrate my birthday. After dropping the car off, we went to PF Chang's and had a delicious dinner. On Friday, when we got home from the temple, we found a box of Crumbl Cookies on our doorstep from Todd and Kailee. They were the perfect treat for that evening. I received lots of wishes for a happy birthday, the most important ones being from our children. I loved talking to them all.

On the 29th, we traveled down to Provo and met Todd and Kailee and their family at The Piano Gallery where we were anticipating hearing Aria play the piano at a recital. The teacher had rented the Recital Hall at the Piano Gallery and had asked the children to dress in costumes and even act silly playing their piano pieces.  Aria was to play a duet with her teacher and one by herself. One of the songs was 'Sleeping Beauty' so she had brought a Sleeping Beauty costume. Todd was to take her up to the piano and kiss her to wake her up before she was to start to play. All that day, she had said she didn't want to perform but Todd and Kailee thought maybe she would change her mind after seeing everyone else perform. Well, that didn't happen. She wouldn't even put on her costume let alone play her songs. We think it was just too much for her to be in a big recital hall and having to dress up to play the piano. Maybe when she gets older it won't be such a traumatic thing for  her. Hopefully, we can hear her play sometime. After the recital we all went to Costa Vida for dinner.

The stage on to which Aria refused to go to play her
piano pieces. We were grateful that her piano teacher
understood and didn't make a big deal about her not
performing. The husband of the teacher even followed
us out to the car to give us cookies and to encourage Aria.
Maybe next time.

We've had an interesting month getting ready for our big cruise in May. We are cruising the British Isles and France starting in London. We wanted to spend some time in London before our cruise so we have had to find a hotel and transportation for those three days. We found a hotel and then started researching how to get from the airport to the hotel and how to get around to see the things we wanted to see in London. It turns out there is a hop on hop off bus that will take us to everything on our list of things to visit so we bought a two day pass for that bus. It will also allow us to cruise the Thames river which should be fun. We ordered a large taxi to get us to the hotel from the airport which should be waiting for us when we arrive. We'll have the hotel arrange to get us back to the airport to catch the ship's transfer to the port. We are excited for this vacation as we haven't cruised since before COVID.

As reported earlier, our big trip to three temples in Europe was canceled for which we never received a refund. Interestingly, we got a call from the cruise line which was supposed to be a part of this trip package and they told us that the cruise had already been paid for by the travel agency. They said if we could get to one of the ports we could take an 8 day cruise at no extra cost, except on board expenses. We kept trying to figure out how we could do this as we were already going to be in Europe. We found a cruise that left out of Rome on June 2. We booked the ship which was to take us to Marseille and Barcelona. When we got our booking information the paper had all the charges on it that were supposed to be free. We canceled the next day as we didn't want to give them a credit card number with the possibility of being charged for the cruise. We are too skeptical of 'good deals', especially after being burned for a tune of $8100. 

Andrea and Casey came to pick up their girls from BYU at the end of the month. They only stayed a couple of days but it is always good to see them. They had to get back to Springfield for a Thursday night performance by Lydia in the school musical. The school was putting on "The Little Mermaid" and Lydia was playing Ursala, the wicked sister of Neptune. With her alto voice the casting was perfect. Andrea sent us a video of one of her songs and she played the part amazingly well.  

Lydia in her element

One last note about this month: We have been working in the temple as ordinance workers since we moved here in 2006, except for when we were on our missions and, of course, during COVID. At the end of last month, our temple presidency announced that all our posts would be standing posts. We were only to sit when there were no patrons in the area. In the Provo temple, there are people coming and going continually. That means we could be standing for up to 3 1/2 hours. On the first Friday of the month, I had such a line and by the end of the day my back was hurting terribly. The next week my line assignment was even worse as I was standing during the whole shift except for the first half hour where I worked in the office recording ordinances. By the end of that shift I was almost in tear because I hurt so badly. The coordinator came and talked to me and I told her I didn't think I could continue working at the temple with all the standing. I had to admit to her that for the first time in all the time I have worked in the temple, I dreaded coming. I didn't quit right then and when I got the temple the next week, they had adjusted by schedule so it was workable with my back. I hate to be a pain to anyone but I also would love to continue working in the temple. When I left the temple after they changed by schedule I passed my coordinators and thanked them for looking out for me.

With what is happening in America these days, I just had to post these memes:

Enough said!!!!