Senior Snapshots

This beautiful young woman graduates from high school tomorrow.

The years have flown by too fast.

She is off to BYU for summer term, 

then home for just a week and then 

back for fall and winter terms.  

I am so happy for her, but I'm sad for me.I will miss her greatly.

In Relief Society last week I had the chance to introduce her to the sisters.  These are a few of the things I shared:

Bailey is a light and a delight in our home.

 

 She is positive, loving, and without guile.

From the time Bailey was very young she exhibited a strong sensitivity to the needs of others. She is very attuned to others' emotions and loves to help people, especially those with extra challenges. She has shown a true talent for dealing with children and special needs individuals.

Bailey has the best sense of humor.  She owes this entirely to her Dad, as I am not funny at all. I'm glad that I live with funny people so I can laugh all my days!  

I admire the way that Bailey has worked to overcome some challenges in her life.  She pushes herself to do things which are hard for her and confront fears, and this has helped her become a kind and  empathetic young woman. 

Bailey loves to read and learn, and has developed fantastic cooking and baking skills. She happily offers to help us cook meals. 
For years she has tried new recipes and compiled the "winners" into her own personal cookbook. This will be really helpful now that she is cooking on her own every day.

Bailey's testimony is evident in the way she lives her life. She loves the scriptures and finds great joy in the "music" of the gospel.

The future is so bright for our oldest daughter. I know that great things lie ahead, and also some hard times. I hope she knows that we will always be her greatest supporters and her safe harbor.

I love you, Bailey!

Natural Beauty and other spring break happenings

This year's Spring Break coincided with General Conference. We decided to spend Conference at a beach house in Yachats, which is a spot on the coast further south than we had previously traveled. We loved quaint Yachats town and and want to visit it again someday when it is warm enough to really play on the beach.

I cooked up a storm prior to our trip and we packed a week's worth of food, Easter candy, and other assorted goodies into bags and two coolers.  That way, we only had to heat up food rather than cook from scratch in unfamiliar kitchens.  We feasted on broccoli soup, guiltless alfredo pasta, crepes, apple crisp, and jalapeno sourdough bread.

We arrived at a rented beach house Friday night and set ourselves up for some relaxed Conference viewing. We loved every minute of Conference!

Between Conference sessions on Saturday we explored nearby Cape Perpetua, my new favorite spot along the coast.

We also walked along the beautiful wide beach and took some chilly sunset pictures.

 Monday morning we packed up the car and headed to the redwood forest.  I had miscalculated the distance to our rental cabin in Orick, CA, and that's probably good.  What I thought was a 3 hour drive was actually a 5 1/2 hour drive.  Good thing it was beautiful!

Soon, however, it started to pour rain. It continued to rain all night, but stopped just in time for us to tour the beautiful redwoods.

We stayed in a converted logging cabin which overlooks a meadow filled with elk in the heart of the redwoods.


We spent a peaceful day touring some beautiful spots in the forest. Some of our favorites: Lady Bird Johnson grove, the Newton Drury Scenic Parkway (we explored lots of the trails off the scenic drive), and a spot near Klamath which overlooked the ocean.

 The Lady Bird Johnson Grove was especially picturesque right after a rainstorm.

 We thought it was funny that this was the famous "big tree" when we saw lots of bigger trees!

 Like this one

 Overlooking the ocean. Before visiting the Redwoods, I did not know that the forest runs right to the ocean.

We weren't as impressed by the touristy Trees of Mystery in Klamath, even though the view from the top of the Skytram was impressive.

We did the obligatory and touristy "drive through a tree"

Mostly we loved walking through the serene and peaceful woods, away from the crowds. We were so lucky to enjoy beautiful weather all day.

Wednesday morning we packed up again and drove 7 hours home, stopping in Portland for some Sweet Tomatoes.  We took Grants Pass across the mountains, and we thought the sight of the river sparkling next to the trees and mountain peaks was just splendid.  Sadly, we were whizzing by too fast to get any pictures.

After arriving home late on Wednesday, we prepared for a busy end to our spring break.  Early the next morning Bailey got her wisdom teeth out, Aubrey flew to Utah to visit Brandon and Angela and Grandma and Grandpa for a few days, and all four Kartchners came to our house to stay until Sunday night. It was a whirlwind!

Bailey was such a funny wisdom teeth patient.  She got pretty loopy from the anaesthesia and other medication they gave her, and she was HILARIOUS on the drive home. She was so SAD about everything and cried about many things, including her belief that her lips had fallen off and she couldn't enjoy her first kiss, the presence of trees outside which meant that she wasn't in Utah, and her certainty that the doctor hadn't taken out her wisdom teeth at all and she would have to go through the surgery again.

Somehow I managed to video her with my iphone while driving home on the freeway.  She continued to be loopy and funny until the drugs wore off.  She healed pretty well over the next week, with lots of swelling and one incident of infection in one of the surgical sites.  She watched straight Disney movies while healing over the next few days.

All in all, a great spring break. Bailey chose the location this year, as this was her last spring break at home. She wanted to see somewhere she had never been. Hopefully the beautiful sights we saw made up for the pain at the end of the week!

And now I have updated spring break . . . 2 months late!