Miriam Beth Lyman Christiansen

My grandma Christiansen passed away on March 21 and we went to her funeral on Thursday, March 26. She was a wonderful grandmother. I lived with her and my grandpa for a couple of summers and I feel like it was a great opportunity to get to know her better. I also learned a few new things at her funeral. She will be greatly missed. Funerals are sad but they can also be happy. It's a wonderful time to see family that you never get to see and I enjoyed talking to all of my cousins/aunts/uncles. All of my cousins on that side of the family were there.



















Here is a picture of my grandma with my mom, Rose and me at a Utah State mother/daughter activity.















The great grandkids (and youngest grandchildren) sang "Grandmother" from the Primary songbook. Here they are practicing. It's funny how half of them are not singing and just looking around.
















After the viewing on Wed night my siblings (that were there so far), their spouses and my parents went out to dinner. I love hanging out with my adult brothers and sisters and parents, especially without little kids to interupt us.















It was very cold at the cemetary. There was a tent set up with a heater in the middle. I already had a spot with my kids right by the heater and I was too afraid to lose my spot. That's why this picture is taken from this direction even though I would have gotten a much better picture from the front. But then I saw Darren with his much better camera and skills in front taking pictures and I felt okay about staying in my kind of warm spot.
















The church felt so nice again all warm and cozy, especially with delicous smells coming from the kitchen. Here is my cute hubby.















Heather was going around with the camera taking pictures.















This is my cousin, Rebecca's, little girl, Gracie, jumping over the broom while Ben was trying to sweep. He was very patient and let her keep doing it over and over again, sometimes landing on the broom.
















My cousin, April, is working on becoming an EMT/paramedic. She had all the kids lined up as test subjects. She knows how to make good use of her time.
















Another dinner photo.

Saturday at the park

Everyone is talking about how great the weather has been and the past two days in Rexburg are no exception. We have made it all the way to 60 degrees. Yesterday I even went outside and raked the front lawn and cleared out one of the flower beds. I went running outside for the first time this year and it was so much more enjoyable than running on a treadmill. Today Darren helped Kevin get his bike tires pumped up so I followed the boys to the park so they could ride.
















Here is Kevin being a little bored. He wanted someone older to play with than just his little brothers.



















And here's Ethan being a little grumpy. He was mad that his friend and brothers didn't want to do what he wanted to do. He also fell on his scooter, scraped up his elbow and got a goose egg on his forehead so that didn't make him any happier. Especially when he had to walk home because we didn't bring the car. Darren and I both tried to get a picture of his injuries but he was in no mood by then to cooperate.



















Jacob had a wonderful time. Darren stayed longer with him at the park after I took the injured home because he wasn't ready to leave.

Grandparent trip

I finally figured out how to get cute blog backgrounds like everyone else. I know, I'm slow. I chose a spring background because I am optimistic that spring will eventually come to Rexburg. It was nine degrees when we woke up this morning - not the best spring weather. But the weekend forecast goes up into the 40's. I guess we'll see what happens.

Anyway, back to the reason for my post. This past weekend Darren was out of town again with a student trip. My kids were out of school half a day Thursday and all day Friday because of the end of the trimester. So I decided the kids and I could take a trip of our own. I am very fortunate to still have both sets of my grandparents around. My Grandpa Bartholomew has cancer and my Grandma Christiansen's health has been declining quickly. We decided to take a "visit my grandparents trip". Thursday we drove all the way to Fayette (that's a long drive with kids and only one adult). Friday we spent the day hanging out with my dad and also spent a couple of hours visiting my Grandma and Grandpa Bartholomew. There was a lot of talk about sheep -- I learned a few new things about my Grandpa. My mom had to work on Friday so she didn't get to hang with us until late afternoon. The boys had fun with four wheeler rides, carving with grandpa and pretending to not be afraid of the cat. (It's sad that my kids have so little exposure to animals that they are nervous around a cat.)




















The boys at Grandma and Grandpa Bartholomew's house. Why didn't I have my grandma and grandpa get in the picture, too? I wasn't thinking.




















My dad has some new carving tools. He let Kevin and Ethan each pick out a picture they wanted him to carve. He cut it out and then let Kevin do some of the carving on his. Ethan just watched my dad do his. The picture I had of my dad and Ethan wouldn't load for some reason.


















After 4 wheeler rides, carving, and lots of tickling my dad needed a nap.

Saturday morning it was my mom's turn to clean her parents house in Salt Lake City. So we drove up there and spent several hours cleaning, trying to get rid of ants and visiting. Rose, MaryAnn and Ryan also came to help so it made it more fun. When we got there my grandpa was sitting by my grandma's bed with a bottle of 409 trying to keep the ants off of her because she can't do it herself. It was hard to see my grandma like that because she has such a fiery personality - she can keep right up with my dad's brothers and that's saying something. It was very touching, however, to see how much my grandpa cares for her. We spent the night at Rose's house, went to church with them and then headed back to Rexburg. We hit a snowstorm around Pocatello and Kevin said he could tell we were in Idaho because the weather was bad.

Flowers and Pack Meeting

When I went out of the house this morning, I noticed a little splotch of yellow by the front door. Our first crocus was out and looks so pretty when everything else is so brown around it. But Rexburg still has a lot of old, dirty snow to get rid of as you can see from the other pictures.














































Thursday was our first pack meeting we were in charge of and it was also the Blue and Gold Banquet. Here is Darren overseeing a game called the ABC's of America.















Darren giving Kevin his awards. I should have gotten up from my seat and went in front of them to take the picture.





















A skit the Webelos put on.