Rose bushes and dreams

Several years ago when Chantel, Becca and I were living in Portland, Oregon one of my favorite activities was to go to the rose gardens. I would walk down the aisles and admire the beautiful and fragrant roses. I even started a list of the roses that I hoped to own someday. The very first rose on the list was an orange beauty called Octoberfest. After moving to Provo I took up rose gardening and had a small rose garden (3 roses). When we moved to Springville I increased the size of my rose garden and now have 18 roses growing. One of the roses has significant meaning to me--it is Octoberfest and it is also my newest rose. While we were in Boise Chantel, Mom and I started talking about roses and I told Mom how I had always wanted to have Octoberfest. She said that she had just been at Edwards and that they had several there. We headed down to Camels Back park to let the kids play and Mom insisted that we stop at Edwards and she bought to Octoberfests--one for me and one for her. I got to plant her rose when we got home from the park. Last night I planted the rose she bought for me and am hopeful that it will bring beautiful blossoms to our backyard. In some ways it is ironic that I rose garden. I used to hate weeding and working in the yard. Now I find it therapeutic. In fact this morning I spent several hours out weeding the roses and other plants in the yard. What does all of this have to do with dreams? Everything. Mom has always known how to encourage me to pursue my dreams and to find true happiness in what I do as a father and a professional. She has never once reminded me of how much I disliked working in the yard but always compliments my efforts at growing things. Sometimes I am amazed that my roses survive my attempts to care for them. Octoberfest is an example of how Mom helps me with my dreams. Rose bushes and dreams do go together because they are both things that I learned from Mom.

Spring Break

We had a tremendously fun spring break. Last Friday we headed up to Twin Falls to see Chantel's brother McKay and his family. The kids had an absolute blast playing with their cousins. They jumped on the trampoline, watched a movie, danced, played with trains, and other fun activities. The adults played Ticket to Ride--a truly fun game--and enjoyed visiting. Saturday we went hiking down by the Shoshone Falls and then had a bbq at McKay and Jill's. Saturday evening we drove to Eagle to see Grandma Susan and Grandpa Pete. We enjoyed being with them. We went down to Camel's Back Park and the kids played on the playground. We also hiked to the top of the hill and then raced down. Emily laughed the whole way down. Grandma found these great balloons that we spent an afternoon blowing up and then releasing into the sky. They made a great noise and the kids loved launching them. Grandpa even got involved in the action. We had a birthday party for Becca and Emily and Becca got a monkey bedspread that she thinks is the best thing in the world. Emily was not too keen on blowing out her own candle but loved the cupcake. Becca blew right over the top of the candles on her first try but got them out on the second try. We came home Wednesday and the kids and Chantel enjoyed having nothing to do and played while I went back to work. Today we went to BYU to watch a baseball and a softball game. It was fun but we are all a little windburned.