Mother's Day video call....last one!!

Mother's Day with a child on a mission is extra special because it is one of the 2 days each year that your child calls!  It's an amazing hour...always so good to hear their voice and see their face!  This year was no different.  We started off with some technical difficulties which meant we had to wait 1 hour to get things working, but after that we had a great connection and were able to have Dave and Austin in Virginia and Evan, McKinley and I here in Utah and Ethan in Brazil all on a google hangouts video call.  We had a great time chatting and catching up with each other.  This call seemed to be a little different knowing that it was our last and that Ethan would be home in a couple months...it didn't have the dread of it ending feeling to it.  It was happy, upbeat, and fun!  We ended with Elder Smith's testimony (in Portuguese) and a family prayer by David.  Then it cut off without being able to say goodbye, so I guess it's "see you later!!"....

Evalyn Marie Smith is here!

Andrew and Brittany welcomed their first little one...on my birthday!!  They are over the moon happy and everyone is doing well.  She's beautiful!

Facebook pictures from Brazil

Soccer injury...ouch!!

Knock on wood we have had very few injuries considering all the years our kids have been playing soccer.  But Evan can now say he's had an injury while playing in highschool soccer.  He went up for a header and was sandwhich between two players and one of the players shoulder rammed him right in the nose.  He immediately fell to the turf and left a huge pool of blood (the nose really bleeds!!).  After a few minutes he was helped to the sideline and the coach asked me if his nose looked crooked to me?  Um...yes.

Luckily there was a trainer there at the game and he took us to the athletic room and told Evan to bite on some tape and he would be able to reset the nose back into place.  Evan asked what the tape to bite on was for and the trainer said, you'll see...and boy did he.  It was the most aweful loud sound I can imagine and Evan said it hurt way more going back in that getting hit and broken/dislocated in the first place.  But amazingly, he only got two very small black eyes in the corner of his eye and after the swelling went down everything looks pretty good.  He even went back in the game after half time, although he admits he probably shouldn't have....

Way to be tough!  We're so glad everything is ok and the games can go on!  Go Evan!!

SAHS Junior Prom 2018

Evan and Sidney had a great junior prom day(s)!  Since some of the people had commitments during the day of the dance they did a hike the day before prom with a picnic in the mountains.  Then the night of the dance they had a great dinner at Lincoln Augenstein's house, pictures at Gardner Village and the dance itself at Rice Eccles stadium.  It was a super fun night with a big group of friends.  Evan had a great time and looked so handsome as well.

Evan's recruitment trip to the Air Force Academy!

After being contacted by the assistant coach from the Air Force Academy and spending a couple hours on the phone and email with questions about the program and the school, Evan decided that the AFA might be one of the schools he would like to go to and to play soccer there.  So we hopped on a plane and headed out to visit the school and meet the coaches and team.  It was a very quick flight, which included us missing our flight out because of traffic and spending a little over 24 hours at the AFA.  It was an amazing school and a great opportunity if Evan decides that is where he wants to go.  I'm so proud of his hard work over the years that has led him to having these opportunities.  Oh the places you'll go!!

Spring Break to Capital Reef

We were lucky enough to be able to go down with lots of family to JB's property near Capital Reef National Park again for Spring Break this year.  We took our new truck with the camper and everything went really well.  We enjoyed a couple days of riding on the motorcyles, e-bikes, four wheelers and dirtbikes at the camp and doing some great exploring in the park again.  This time we hiked the longer slot canyon nearby, Burro Wash.  It was a 7 mile hike with some good slots and tight spots.  The weather was perfect and we had a very enjoyable time exploring and camping with everyone.