Millar Moments: BUSY MONTH OF MAY - TRIPS TO BRANSON AND CALIFORNIA, A GRADUATION, A BIRTHDAY, MOTHER'S DAY, AND GREAT GRANDSON BORN!!!!!

The biggest news of the month.......We are great grandparents!!!! On May 29th, Maggie and Kacey had their baby boy. He was induced early so he was quite small at only 5 lbs.1oz.. His name is Arthur Edward Lightheart and he has won everyone's hearts. We can't wait for Maggie and Kacey to come back to school at the end of the summer so we can snuggle this new little one.

In the hospital waiting to be induced

Baby finally came late in the afternoon on Thursday

Happy parents

Baby Arthur

The month started out with Katie coming to watch Julia run her hurdles at the BYU Invitational Track Meet held in Provo. We met her at the track on Friday and watched Julia run. She didn't place but made a personal best record for her 100 meter hurdles. This is quite an accomplishment as she has only been doing the hurdles this track season. Later in the month, she qualified for State in both the 100 and 300 hurdles. We were gone when she competed at State, also held at BYU, but she ran another PR (personal record) for both her events.

On Saturday, Ryan brought the rest of the family to our home. Ryan had meetings on Monday and Tuesday in Salt Lake and Katie and Grace had tickets to see Les Miserables on Saturday night. For dinner that night, we went to our neighborhood park for a ward May Day barbecue of hamburgers and hot dogs. We didn't stay for all the activities as Katie and Grace left for the theater and the rest of us went home to watch a pro basketball game. Nathan's favorite team was playing. Later that night, Ryan took Nathan to Provo where he had reserved a hotel room for Katie, Grace and Nathan. They needed to get an early start on Sunday morning so Katie could make it to primary in St. George. Ryan came back here and stayed till Tuesday. We enjoyed having him in our home for those extra two days.

At the ward activity

On Sunday, we celebrated Avery's birthday. She requested Parmesan chicken with angel hair for dinner so that's what she got. I made her a cougar cake as she has been in love with Paul's Cosmo cougar that he has in his office. Every Sunday she would play with it, hence the Cosmo Cougar cake. For her presents, we bought her two High Rainbow dolls. She and Aria enjoyed coloring the hair of one of the dolls.

Mother's Day was the following week. I enjoyed receiving phone calls from all our children as well as 2 beautiful bouquets of flowers. Todd and Kailee gave me bath bombs and bath salts as well as a water color step by step book. I need to get back into water colors as I once really enjoyed painting. For Sunday dinner, I made teriyaki chicken as that was something Paul could cook on the barbecue.

From the Westovers

From Ryan's and Todd's families

Loved this

We left for Branson, Missouri on Monday, after Mother's day. Since I wouldn't be around to enjoy the Mother's Day flower bouquets, I gave one to our neighbor, Joyce, and the other to a single sister, Susan, to whom we minister. Susan told me later that the flowers cheered her up each time she looked at them especially when she was having a bad day. I'm so glad we took them to her.

We flew to Branson with the Fullers to enjoy 4 days of relaxing and seeing seven shows - Beach Boys, Preseley's Country Jubilee, New Jersey Knights, SIX, the Irish Tenors, Haygoods, and the musical David. Our favorite, of course, was the magnificent show of David at the Sights and Sounds theater. We couldn't believe the sets and the 22 foot Goliath. An amazing production. Mindy arranged for us to see Preseley's Country Jubilee and SIX as her best friend performs in one and her friend's husband in the other. We thoroughly enjoyed all the shows we saw as well as just being away from reality for a few days.

One of three pools where we were staying

At the Club Wyndam where we stayed

Mindi's friend, Becka

Outside the Sights and Sounds Theater before
enjoying the productions of David

We got a kick out of this sign

And you can see why they needed that sign.
These are people waiting for a show to begin

We drove to Kansas City on Friday, where we boarded a flight home to Salt Lake. Paul and I got our bags and immediately checked back in to another flight to Oakland, California. We needed to get to California for Paul's brother's funeral which was scheduled at 10 on Saturday morning. We landed in Oakland around midnight, picked up our luggage, and boarded a transfer bus to the car rental agency. We had reserved a car with Hertz rental because they were to be opened till 1 am. When we arrived, all the agencies were closed including Hertz. Evidently, they had run out of cars so they just closed up leaving 3 couples out of luck for cars. We had all previously reserved cars so the company had over rented. The other two couples got Ubers to take them to their hotels. We couldn't do that as our hotel was in Concord, 45 minutes away. There was no way we could Uber to Concord to sleep for a few hours and them make it back to Oakland the next morning to get a car so we drive the 45 minutes and be at the 10 am funeral. We ended up going back to the airport where we spent the night!!! Of course, sleep was out of the question as there was no comfortable place to really relax. Paul worked on the computer and I watched people. At about 4:30 am, Paul shaved in the men's restroom and changed into his suit. When he finished, I went to the women's restroom to restore my make up, repair the hair, and change into a skirt and blouse.

The lounge chairs were too hard
for any comfortable way to sleep

At about 5:45, we boarded the transfer bus to take us back to the car rental place. We wanted to be the first in line for any agency that opened, hoping to get a car. When Hertz opened, we talked to the lady and she couldn't do anything for us as they were, indeed, out of cars. Luckily Avis also opened at 6:00 and had a car for us to rent. We were in Concord by 7:30, got breakfast and made it to the church by 9:00. Irene and family arrived soon after we did so we had time to visit with them before the funeral services started. We were impressed when most of the Ashdown nieces and nephews came from Oregon and southern California. It was fun to catch up with them, too. The funeral service was wonderful with Derrill's three children all speaking and giving us insights into Derrill we were not aware of. We traveled to the burial site where Paul dedicated the grave (or should we say the crypt). After saying good bye to everyone, we got some lunch and returned to Oakland to turn in the car and board a plane back to Salt Lake. The Fullers picked us up at the airport and brought us home to Heber. Yes, we were very glad to be back home after a harrowing experience in Oakland and going 48 hours without sleep.

Irene and her grandchildren

Two days after returning home from Oakland, we got in our car and drove to St. George for Julia's graduation on Wednesday, May 20th. We met Ryan and Katie and Aubrey at Rumbi Island for dinner and then went back to our Worldmark condo. We had been upgraded to a 3 bedroom at the Estancia so we were staying in comfort. Julia's graduation was at 8 in the morning because it gets so hot in St. George. The graduation was held on the football field and was the shortest graduation we have ever attended. Two speakers, the presentation of the graduates to the superintendent and then the handing out of the diplomas. It took only an hour and 20 minutes which was good because it was, indeed, getting very hot.

Julia in her cap and gown

After the graduation, we all met at Katie's parent's home for breakfast. We enjoyed visiting with the Thompsons and the rest of the family who came. When all the women left to get pedicures and manicures, Paul and I returned to our condo and later found a Jersey Mike's for lunch. Around 4 in the afternoon, we met Katie at the place she had rented to have a special dinner for Julia. We helped her with displays of Julia's accomplishments and getting the table ready. Dinner was catered by Olive Garden. After dinner, Katie had prepared a slide show of Julia throughout her life. It was a special time to celebrate Julia. She will be attending BYU in the fall so we will get to see her often.

Sports

Dance

All set for dinner

The last activity of the month was placing flowers on Paul's parent's graves for Memorial Day. This has been a yearly tradition since we moved to Utah. We are glad we are here to honor them on each Memorial Day.