The Leake's Week-April 24, 2022

 Hello All!  

A Monday edition of this email, and I am going to try hard to pound it out!  Even though I wrote just last week, I am going to go person by person...maybe that will be faster!  Ha!

Gretchen:  Gretchen was much better at going to school last week, so she has finally fully recovered from Spring Break.  I got an email last week saying that someone in her class had just tested positive for Covid.  My jaw honestly dropped when I read that email...I had all but forgotten about Covid!  So far, she continues to appear perfectly healthy.  Last Friday they planted some seeds with the kids at school and this morning when I dropped her off, she could not wait to show me where they planted the seeds.  On Tuesday Gretchen played at Genevieve's and had so much fun.  It is a bummer they will not be going to the same elementary school, they have become such good little buddies.  On Wednesday evening Bridget, Gretchen and I took Ziggy on a walk at the Centerville Park while we waited for Marshall to finish soccer practice.  Gretchen was the cutest little runner.  After we were done walking, Bridget started a game with Gretchen running from tree to tree, and about five minutes later, Bridget was regretting this game because Gretchen was non-stop!  A few currently cute things about Gretchen...she has started listening to Queen on our Google.  It started with asking Google to play a song from a movie, and then one time Google pulled up the original song by Queen and Gretchen is hooked.  The other day Richard came home from work and heard Queen playing in the loft and he looked at me so confused, and then realized it was the five year old up there jamming out to Queen.  :)  One day last week, Gretchen went into the living room to do her running and I asked her if I could play the piano while she ran.  She looked completely offended and in such a serious voice said to me, "But then I cannot hear the voices."  I have always wondered what is going through her mind as she is running back and forth!  And speaking of imagination...last week I was going through a massive art bin that holds all sorts of creations from our kids and I found a picture of Carla.  Carla was one of Rachel's imaginary friends between ages 3 and 5.  I am so glad I found it...priceless!  I took a picture and sent it to Richard and then later that night Gretchen heard us talking about it.  She asked who Carla was and I told her that Rachel used to have an imaginary friend named Carla just like she has an imaginary friend named Little Rosa.  Instant offense again!  She quickly told us that Little Rosa is not imaginary and spent the next day drawing all sorts of imaginary people, and each time pointing out that not one of them was Little Rosa, who is very much real.  :)  And lastly, I took my girls to the library Saturday afternoon and Gretchen whispered the entire time and it just about killed me. She was so cute.  I could have stayed there all day with her.  

Rachel:  Rachel had dance pictures on Tuesday and regular dance class on Wednesday.  We waved her hair for her dance pictures and it aged her about five years.  On Thursday, she had music class, and I was not able to go with her, and my Mom was so kind to take her and stay because it was a parent day.  Rachel was sad not to have me there, but I also know she had a great time with my Mom and loved showing her all the things she knows.  Her Let's Play Music program is about finished and on Saturday morning she and I went and met with a piano teacher.  She comes highly recommended and we have been on the waitlist for months.  It was a true payday, for me, and especially for Rachel, as the teacher went through the book she uses for the first two levels and Rachel knew almost every single thing in there.  Rachel spoke with confidence and answered all the questions about notes, rhythm, the staff, scales, chords, intervals, dynamics, etc.  The teacher was so impressed and we found the perfect level for Rachel to start with in June.  This has been such a good program and I am so excited for Gretchen to start it in the fall!  Rachel had a late night at Sara's on Friday night and had a great time there, as always.  Rachel had her second dance competition on Saturday afternoon and did a good job.  It was just at Farmington High School, so I brought Bridget and Gretchen too and I know she felt so loved being cheered on by her sisters.  One funny thing about Rachel...back in October while Richard and I were in New York, Rachel cut some of her hair, right in the front.  LIke completely cut it down to her forehead.  It is slowly growing back.  :)  A couple of weeks ago, I was pulling her hair back in a bun for ballet and there was a section by her ear that was a few inches shorter than the rest of her hair.  I kindly asked her if she had cut her hair again and she exclaimed, "I just can't stop!"  Oh, it was hilarious!  Impulse control is clearly tricky for her.  But, sometimes it comes in handy as she literally ripped a barely loose tooth out of her mouth last night.  :)  

Bridget:  Sweet Bridget had a very traumatic Wednesday.  That girl is so calm, brave and composed in every instance of her life, except when it comes to medical procedures.  On Wednesday morning she had to have two baby teeth pulled.  They were not loose at all, but instead were sinking!  We tried giving her laughing gas, but she did not at all like how that was making her feel.  She completely refused to open her mouth up for the numbing jelly, so we opted to just go right to the numbing shots!  She was pretty much ballistic at this point and it took the dentist, hygienist and myself to hold her down and keep her still.  She was clinging to any part of my body she could get a hold of, all while I was trying to keep her down!  Our dentist though, that man is a saint and I actually wrote him a thank you letter the next morning because I was just so impressed.  He was SO patient with her.  He was calm, but firm, but not in a mean way at all.  Empowering is probably a better way to describe it.  He just kept telling her, "Look at my nose.  You are brave.  You are safe.  We love you.  You can do this.  Keep breathing.  Feel your breath.  Stay with yourself.  Feel the air in and out.  You can do hard things."  Bridget got the two shots in her gums and did not pass out, nothing short of a miracle for her.  The hygienist and I spent the next 10 minutes with her keeping her calm and slowing down her breath before the dentist came back in to pull the teeth.  Our dentist is a great comedian and came in and got her laughing before he had a serious talk with her about fear and bravery.  He told her to let her brave voice be loud in her head, even though her fear voice wanted to be loudest.  Can this guy be my therapist???  I was so happy her two teeth came out so quickly, shocked actually,  And in the process, he popped out another baby tooth.  Bridget, unlike Rachel, hates wiggly teeth and refuses to touch them, so who knows, that extra tooth very well could have saved us another traumatic tooth extraction at the dentist!  While he was getting her teeth out, he was saying the exact same things to her as before and she once again made it through without fainting.  They were so kind and let us hang out in the room for awhile, gave Bridget an otter pop, and then moved us to a room with a big bean bag where Bridget could lay down and relax until she felt like she could walk to the car.  It was an ordeal!  But I am SO glad she never fainted, and I really did write the dentist a thank you note, and the next day I had a good follow-up conversation with Bridget about it all.  Here's hoping these things can become less scary for her!  The happy highlights from Bridget's week included milking at the farm on Thursday with Cambria and a late night at Cambria''s house on Friday.  

Marshall:  Marshall had a soccer game with his coach's other team last Monday.  He played great and after trailing 0-1 most the game, our team finally scored and then won 4-1.  Very nice.  :)  Marshall was supposed to have two games Saturday, but with the near constant rain of the weekend (yay!!!) the first game was cancelled in order to preserve the field!  His later game was in Logan, so he and Richard were gone for quite awhile, but came home with a victory.  On Sunday morning, Marshall finally learned how to tie a tie!  He still needs to perfect it, but hopefully this means he can stop wearing his little boy tie to church every Sunday!  

Richard:  Richard seems pretty much settled into life with his new job.  He was able to work from home on Wednesday and that was really nice.  He presented at a conference on Thursday morning and felt good about that.  And other than that, he has been my partner in crime as we drive these kids all over the place and figure out who is picking up who when!  He did have to work on Sunday too, but he was home as well, so it is always nice to not have that commute!

Me :)  I actually had an amazing week last week!  One of my highlights, though not the most important one, is that I have been on a mission to de-junk and organize our house in 2022.  I have been tackling our big storage room for the month of April and I made so much progress last week!  Confession so that you might know how crazy I am...sometimes last week I would just go stand down there and take in all my hard work.  Talk about satisfying!  It just might be my favorite room now!  Ha!  Anyway, aside from organizing and taking things to the DI I judged the dance company auditions at the junior high on Thursday and loved it.  It took a whole lot of work making sure my kids all got to where they needed to be while I was gone, but I pulled it off and loved stepping back into the dance world for a few hours.  On Friday night I went to my Foxboro Book Club and had a great time.  We had Toney FHE at my parents' last night and had a great time.  It was their 41st wedding anniversary!  We had a delicious dinner and while we ate dessert, my parents answered questions from all of us about their dating days and wedding.  It was delightful!  We also had a photographer come and take an updated grandchild picture.  It was chaos, but good things should come of it!  

Oh, before I end, one more thing about Bridget.  As I mentioned I was gone for a few hours in the afternoon and evening at the junior high on Thursday.  I left my kids a list of things they needed to be sure to get done.  One thing Bridget needed to do was study for her spelling test the next day.  Since she had no parents at home, she decided to make a video of herself on the Gabb phone saying each word with a few seconds of pause in between so she would have time to write the word!  Genius!  Bless her soul.  

That's it!  Crazy that it is the last week of April!!!

Love,

Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel, and Gretchen :)

P.S.  With the grandkid picture, just zoom in on Cal and Gretchen and your heart will melt.  

The Leake's Week-April 17, 2022

 Happy Easter!  I have really loved taking time this week to talk to my kids about Easter and Jesus Christ.  I hope their personal testimonies have grown a bit this week and that they have felt divine love.  We had a wonderful sacrament meeting today full of beautiful music.  We had a short visit from my parents this afternoon, and loved that.  The rest of our day has been very low-key, and that has been much needed!  Richard only had one meeting before church and nothing after!  Yay!  Here's a recap of the rest of our week...

Monday was the return to real life with Richard back to work and the kids back to school after Spring Break.  For the most part, everyone was happy to return.  Gretchen was the trickiest and it took a fair amount of coaxing to help her decide preschool would be a good idea that day.  We were ten minutes late, but she did it, and of course, had a great time.  That evening, Marshall had the first spring season game with his coach's higher level team.  The weather was supposed to turn bad during the game, so I left all the girls at home, and Marshall and I went.  Initially, the weather was windy and we just had sprinkles of rain.  I was wearing my goat and gloves and standing under our massive umbrella.  By halftime, it was raining, and soon after that it was pouring rain/sleet and it was so windy!  Richard got to the game with 10 minutes left when it was an all out downpour, and I said see you later!  My shoes and pants were soaking wet!  The team won 1-0 and Marshall had the assist for their only goal!  He really played so, so well and it was so much fun for me to watch him, despite the weather!  Marshall, was of course, soaked to the bone and freezing.  When he and Richard got home, he went straight to the shower and enjoyed hot chocolate afterward.  After I got home, I put on dry clothes and left again to go to a dance meeting for Rachel.  These kids, they keep us busy!

Tuesday was a day at home for me and Gretchen.  We made a double batch of snickerdoodles together and she was a delightful little sous chef.  Bridget had a primary activity right after school and had a lot of fun there.  I took dinner to a family in our neighborhood and Rachel had dance.  Thankfully, Sara, her friend who broke her leg, still has her brace on, but went to watch dance class on Tuesday night...praise the heavens for a portion of the carpool returning!  That night I had a primary meeting, which was very long, but very good and very needed!  One funny thing to note from Tuesday is that Gretchen had had a cold for a few days prior.  Her cold started when she was in Vernal and she didn't have her nose chargers.  :)  So of course she resorted to using toilet paper and this trend continued upon her return home.  Tuesday afternoon, I realized she had had the same toilet paper stuffed up her nose all night and all morning, and one of them was getting higher in her little nostril!  I convinced her to remove the toilet paper, and she eventually agreed, except she had some stuck up her nose that had broken off the piece she had pulled out.  I tried not to worry, and told her that we would give it a day or two and just hope that it would make its way down and come out on its own.  She was so obedient and didn't stick anything up her nose the rest of the day.  When she was getting ready for bed, I took a quick peek at it and could tell it was working its way down.  I decided to mention it to Richard before I left, just so he was aware and knew that I was aware.  Well, he immediately convinced Gretchen to let him try to get it out.  She was SO cooperative and just laid on our couch while he used a light and tweezers to pull out a substantial amount of toilet paper covered in mucus!  It was crazy!!!  We were shocked how much was actually up there!  We now have a new rule, no sticking toilet paper up one's nose!  Ha! 

Wednesday was a pretty chill day for most of us, and it was a welcome change!  Marshall and Bridget just had piano lessons and Rachel had dance class.  We ended the evening watching Cougarette videos and Cosmo videos.  It was just a nice relaxing way to end the day.  

Richard had the day off on Thursday and that was glorious!  It has been quite a while since he has had a week-day off and it was the best.  We have been planning to get a swingset for the yard since 2019, and finally in April of 2022, we did it.  :)  I told Richard I could not live with myself as a parent if we did not fulfill this want, and with the ages of our kids, we could not wait any longer!  We took Gretchen and drove up to the Lifetime store and looked at everything they had.  Gretchen was in heaven.  There was also another family there looking at swing sets, and just by looking at them, I am pretty sure they were a good 10-15 years younger than us.  They were there with their two year old and a baby and I could not help feeling very OLD as we were there with our youngest child looking for a swingset!  Haha!  But, we found a great one and it will be installed on May 11th, so we have to wait awhile, but the kids cannot wait.  That afternoon, we went down to the elementary school to see Rachel present her biography report on Michelle Obama.  She did a stellar job!  She has been working on this for weeks, and we are so proud of her.  She was the only one to have her presentation memorized and spoke with such confidence!  After school, I picked Mara up from the airport, Richard took Rachel to music class, Marshall had soccer practice, and Bridget, Cambria, and myself worked on the farm.  Let me just once again reiterate how disgusting chicken water is.  Gag!  

Friday morning after I got all the kids off to school, I drove to Salt Lake and met a dear friend for breakfast at Eggs in the City.  Delicious!  It was a great way to start my day, and so lovely, because the rest of the day was busy!  On my way home, I stopped at Target to get some last minute things for Easter, I ran into plenty of moms who were doing the exact same thing as me and we all lamented the traditions we began when our kids were little and now we are sick of them!  After the girls got home from school, Rachel went to her primary activity.  While she was gone, I left for the stake center to help set up for a stake primary activity.  Each ward primary presidency was in charge of a station for the kids about an event from the last week of Christ's life.  My neighbor was so kind to bring Bridget and Rachel and Marshall baby-sat Gretchen.  This activity was poorly planned and communicated by the stake primary presidency, so it left wards scrambling the last few days, but I think everyone pulled it off.  And while I came home completely exhausted, I do think each child walked away with a better understanding of the stories and the reality of what happened so long ago.  As soon as the activity was done, I took Rachel to Ellie's for a late night with a bunch of her friends and Bridget had Cambria and Avery at our house for a late night.  Those three girls dressed up and sang and danced and laughed and had so much fun together.  

Saturday morning we slept in, which was heavenly.  The kids found their Easter baskets in the morning.  At 10:00 am Richard left with all the big kids and picked up Cambria and they all went to see the third Fantastic Beasts movie.  They all loved it and had a great time.  It was just me and Gretchen at home.  She and I played with her new Frozen Legos, I worked on some organization in the storage room while she did her running and playing and then we took Ziggy on a walk.  Once everyone returned home, we hid the eggs in our yard and had our egg hunt.  We gave Gretchen a head start with three eggs, and instead of just picking up the first three she saw, she was zig-zagging all over and was really drawing it out for the big kids.  We thought we got all the eggs, but as luck would have it, Ziggy found an egg in the yard today and definitely consumed some of its contents, so we are just waiting for the aftermath of that!  Richard and I left the kids to fend for themselves last night and we went to dinner at Nordstrom Grill and to the symphony.  The symphony played four pieces, one of which featured a clarinet soloist who is the principal clarinetist for the New York Philharmonic.  He was so amazing and Richard loved it, as did I.  The kids had a good night here at home, and the only tears that were shed was Rachel because Gretchen decided to sleep in Bridget's bed, and Rachel, who begs for her own room, did not want to sleep alone.  Bless her.  I thought for sure we would have some nighttime visitors in our bed due to all of this, but not so!  

We hope each of you has a wonderful week!  I am so grateful for all the rain and snow last week, but very much looking forward to warmer temperatures, and dare I say yard work!

Love each of you.

Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel, and Gretchen :)

The Leake's Week-April 10, 2022

 Hello!

Two weeks have zoomed by me, so I have much to catch up on.  I started writing this on Sunday and am just barely getting it out today, on Wednesday!  Sheesh!  I am going to start with this most recent week because it was our spring break and it was grand.  

It actually didn't start too grand.  At 4:00 am last Sunday morning, April  3, Marshall came into my room saying he had just thrown up, and he actually didn't quite make it to the toilet, so that was a wonderful mess to clean up in the wee hours of the morning.  After I got things cleaned up, I went back to my bed a nervous wreck.  Richard, Marshall and I had a flight the next morning and in just a few short hours the girls would be off to Vernal.  I hoped against all hope that this was Marshall's nervous stomach rearing its ugly head before a trip.  But, the next several hours made it very apparent he was actually sick.  4:00 am to 11:00 am was no good for him, which meant it was no good for me either!  I said about one hundred prayers throughout the morning and hugged the girls goodbye at 11:00 am and tried not to cry.  Richard left with the girls at 11:00 and met his parents in Fruitland at 12:30.  He tells me the girls were great travelers and they finished listening to the morning session of General Conference while they drove.  He said when they met his parents, the girls just hopped out of our van and into their van and didn't even hug Richard good-bye, they were just ready to go!  Thankfully, they made it to Vernal safely that afternoon and Richard made it back home to us safe and sound.  By 4:00 pm, life had started to creep back into Marshall.  I was able to calm myself a bit knowing that it was relatively short lived for him, so if anyone else got it, we could handle it.  I am SO happy to report that no one else in our family got sick the entire week and I count it as nothing short of a miracle.  

The girls had the time of their life in Vernal Sunday through Thursday afternoon, which we knew they would.  We are so thankful to Bob and Becky for taking such excellent care of them and giving them such a fun spring break.  Bob and Becky were so great to send a video or two each day, along with some texts, and each one just made my heart soar.  The girls loved meeting the Leake's new cat, who goes by many names.  They are still talking about her, three days later.  Of course, the cat was the main highlight for Gretchen, the cat and the Barbies...that is all she needs!  Bridget was in heaven with the horses.  She rode Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday-and Thursday was a trail ride.  She loved it.  She loved trotting and cantering on Fred around the yard, and she told me he started into a gallop on the trail on Thursday!  She is far braver than me!  The girls also had fun flying kites, playing in the yard, playing with cousins, playing Barbies and watching Ella Enchanted several times and The Princess Diaries.  They are obsessed!  Bob and Becky were so kind to bring them all the way home to us on Thursday.  They arrived about 5:00, and we were so happy to be reunited.  

During all of this fun, Ziggy was being taken care of by our friends, the Dances.  They have a dog, just a bit older than Ziggy.  We actually took care of their dog Thursday to Sunday the week prior.  They picked up Leo last Sunday afternoon and then two hours later we took Ziggy to their house!  I think Ziggy was equal parts happy about having another doggy playmate around and exhausted from all the playing!  We picked Ziggy up on Thursday at 4:00 and he was beside himself with joy..and Leo was too!  Haha!  I've said it before, and I will say it again, there is absolutely nothing better than a dog greeting.  Talk about love and exuberance.  

Okay, onto our trip with Marshall!  A few years ago, Richard and I decided that the year when our kids turn 12, they get to pick a trip to go on with Richard and I, anywhere in the 48 states.  Marshall's year was 2020, and he picked Boston, which we had booked for June 2020.  He loves history and was so excited to go visit that city.  Well, obviously, due to Covid, that trip did not happen.  Marshall has been SO patient as we have waited out this pandemic and Richard changing jobs and schedule changes.  He changed his mind on location a few times at the beginning of this year before settling on San Antonio in order to see the Alamo.  Once he settled on San Antonio, we booked a hotel and plane tickets and told him we were doing it!  Monday morning finally came!  Marshall did most the research for this trip.  None of us had ever been there before, so he took it upon himself to research and figure out what he wanted to do!  I was so proud of him.  Richard and I just made the reservations for things and looked up some restaurants-he planned the rest!  

We left our house at 7:30 am on Monday morning and had a nice, calm, uneventful direct flight to San Antonio.  We got our suitcases, and took a Lyft to our hotel, just a 15 minute drive, right on the Riverwalk.  We grabbed a very light and late lunch from the hotel and just relaxed in our room for a bit.  We were on the 25th floor.  Sadly, the view right below us was a parking lot, but we did have a nice view looking out over San Antonio, including a bit of the river.  One funny thing I don't want to forget, while we were eating lunch in our hotel room, Marshall kept talking about how fancy the hotel was and was asking why it was so fancy and why we hadn't ever stayed in such a nice hotel.  I kept looking around our hotel room so confused because it looked like a pretty basic hotel room to me.  Two queen beds, a small bathroom, a desk, tv, windows, etc.  After a few minutes, we realized he was actually talking about the hotel lobby!  The lobby was huge, and all week long there was a convention there so it was always full of people and the restaurants and bar were always hopping.  There were fancy chandeliers and lots of cool chairs.  Apparently, the lobby really made an impression!  At 5:30, we changed into nicer clothes and walked to our first meal, and the one Marshall was most excited about.  We ate at Chart House, which is at the top of The Tower of the Americas, 750 feet high!  Once Marshall saw the tower in person, he became way more nervous than he thought he would be!  The elevator is on the outside, so you have a great view for 750 feet up and 750 feet down!  Both he and Richard did a great job.  :)  The restaurant slowly rotates, so you get an incredible view and we had an awesome booth.  It was perfect for us.  It was a u-shaped booth, facing out towards the windows, but there was one row of tables in front of ours and also down a step.  So, we had an amazing view while not sitting right next to the windows.  It was fun to take in so much of San Antonio from all the way up there.  Marshall had his first filet mignon and loved it.  It was a true success and such a fun, calm, quiet dinner with the three of us.  We made our way back to our hotel along the Riverwalk and it was beautiful and so fun to see.  Despite it being later in the day, it was still pretty hot and very humid.  The air on Monday just about killed Marshall.  It was hilarious.  He kept saying that he couldn't breathe and that the air was so oppressive!  It was cracking us up.  We kept trying to remind him he used to live in a humid place for almost eight years of his life, but I will say, the heat was next level!  He finally seemed to adjust to the humidity by Wednesday, but up until then, he had many comments on the humidity in the air!  We got back to our hotel just in time to watch the NCAA championship game.  Marshall had picked Kansas to win on his bracket and could not wait for the game.  The game did not disappoint, and Kansas emerged victorious!  It was actually a whole lot of fun to watch it with him.  After the game ended, Marshall got on ESPN to check his bracket and exclaimed, "No way!  I'm in the top 1 million in the world!"  His reaction was priceless, just full of sheer exuberance!  It was so fun.  To be more exact, he placed 646,000 and is in the 96%.  He is beyond impressed with his success and is already counting down to next year!  After celebrating with Marshall, and then subsequently calming him down, we all fell asleep, and slept great!  

Tuesday morning we were up and out of the hotel at 8:00 am.  We walked for a few short blocks to get breakfast at La Panaderia-a Mexican bakery that had a line out the door.  Always a good sign!  We stuffed ourselves silly with pastries and other breakfast foods.  I would have loved to make it back there, but alas!  We ate as much as we possibly could and practically rolled ourselves away from breakfast!  At 9:30 we did a tour of the Alamo.  It was fascinating.  Our tour guide was great and we learned so much of the history of the area leading up to the battle at The Alamo.  We were able to go into the church and see original architecture, painting and carving on the walls.  After the guided tour was over, we walked around the grounds, the museum, and of course, the gift shop.  We also sat by a fountain under the shade of an amazing tree and Richard and Marshall gave me a history lesson on questions I had!  Those two, their minds absorb so much information, I can't keep up!  After spending the entire morning at The Alamo, we decided to try Whataburger, and were sadly disappointed!  But, it did offer us a cool reprieve as the temperatures that day were in the 90s!  It was nuts!  After lunch, we decided to keep braving the heat, because the day was only going to keep getting hotter and we went and did a boat tour on the river.  It was so fun, despite the heat!  One perk of doing the boat tour that day, is that the boat was not that full!  It was about 45 minutes, and there were some good shaded areas, so we had bits of cooler air.  Our tour guide was so fun and it was just great to take in the beautiful scenery of the Riverwalk while continuing to learn about the history of San Antonio.  After that, we went back to our hotel for cool air and we forced Marshall to take a nap!  This kid!  When will he learn that naps are one of the highlights of a day?!  Haha!  We closed the drapes in our room, put on a sleep story, and he honestly fell asleep telling us he didn't want to take a nap!  Haha!  It reminded me completely of his toddler years.  It was so funny.  But, just as we expected, he fell asleep, and woke up completely refreshed!  If only this proved to him he should listen to us more often.  :)  For dinner, we walked to Pinkerton's Barbecue and had quite possibly my favorite meal of the trip.  We got ribs, prime rib, and pulled pork, along with coleslaw, smoked mac and cheese, beans, and smoked bread pudding.  My word.  It was divine.  Everything was delicious.  The meat was so tender.  We almost didn't have to chew it!  And that bread pudding.  Yum.  After dinner, the temperature finally dropped.  There was a big grass area with tables and chairs outside the restaurant and we sat and enjoyed the evening Texas air and dreamed about what it would be like to live in Texas.  It was so lovely.  We went back to our hotel for just a bit before leaving for our ghost tour at 8:00 pm.  Marshall found this tour and could not wait.  A 2 1/2 hour bus tour that talks all about ghosts.  Marshall has believed in ghosts his entire life, and I have never believed in them until this tour, and now I am convinced.  It was actually so fun, and never really scary, but fascinating!  It was basically 2 1/2 hours of continuing to learn about the history of San Antonio, and ghosts!  Our first stop was the Manger Hotel, right downtown, the most haunted hotel in San Antonio with 38 ghosts!  Our tour guide was so fun and had great stories and just a great way of telling them.  We also visited a huge cemetery where we heard ghost stories as well as historical stories and saw the gravestone of the man who designed Mount Rushmore and his grave marker is a slab of stone from Mount Rushmore!  We made two other stops along the way, including a Sheraton Hotel with quite a story.  The whole thing was fascinating.  I was very nervous leading up to it, but it was so well done, I would recommend it to anyone!  Marshall also loved it.  Before we booked this weeks ago, we made him promise us he would sleep in his bedroom upon our return home.  Shockingly, he has kept his word!  So while it solidified his belief in ghosts, he is handling it well!  

Wednesday morning we let ourselves sleep in after our very late evening, and sleep in we did!  I woke up at 8:45!  It was glorious.  We quickly got ready, grabbed a quick breakfast from the hotel, and then walked 1.5 miles to pick up some rental bikes.  Fortunately, the weather was cooler, and windy, and it sure felt nice.  We walked through some real charming neighborhoods in the city and Marshall also saw a Google car drive by us and he has checked Google Maps daily at the intersection we were at to see if we pop up on there.  :)  He has been real committed to this!  We got our bikes and headed to the Mission Trail right about 11:00.  There are four more missions in San Antonio and you can reach each one by walking/biking this trail.  We went into the day with high hopes that we would make it to all four, but we only made it to two, but we had a really, really wonderful time.  We biked through all sorts of scenery, over bridges, almost always close to the San Antonio River, what felt like a jungle, and it was all just so beautiful.  There were some downhills and uphills, but all totally doable, and it really was just so fun.  The first mission was about 3 miles away and is called Mission Concepcion and it is the most intact of all the missions.  It was big and beautiful and mass is still held there on a regular basis!  It was fun to walk around and see it all.  After that mission, we rode about 4 more miles and came to Mission San Jose.  It was another beautiful church and the fort itself was huge.  The walls all looked completely intact and took up so much area!  Mass is also still held at this church and the chapel was lovely.  We spent quite a while there and just enjoyed the setting.  By this point, it was almost 2:00 in the afternoon and we were getting pretty tired and hungry, we had packed zero snacks!  We each grabbed a small snack and cold drink from the gift shop and Marshall said he wanted to try and make it to the last two missions, but by the time we walked back to our bikes, he said he just wanted to bike back to the bike shop.  All in all, we biked 14 miles, and it really was so much fun.  Quite possibly the highlight for me.  We decided to take a Lyft to a restaurant on the Riverwalk close to our hotel.  That driver, who made me nervous on two occasions during that very short drive, managed to get us in an accident right in front of our hotel!  Fortunately, we are all just fine, and so were both drivers.  We were just driving down the city street and a car on our right tried to change lanes, but we were right there.  We were in a Honda Odyssey and the passenger side, where I was sitting, took the impact.  It was loud more than anything, but definitely jarring.  The other car lost his entire bumper.  We are just so thankful we walked away from that uninjured, although a bit shaken up.  Fortunately though, we had a wonderful lunch at Casa Rio.  We ate outside, right on the river and it was delightful and delicious.  I think that was Marshall's favorite meal.  He and I both got delicious tacos  and we shared sopapillas for dessert.  After our very late lunch, we made our way back to the Alamo.  We walked around some more and made one last stop in the gift shop.  When we walked back to our hotel, our Lyft driver and the other driver were still pulled over and on their phones figuring things out, so nuts!  The accident had happened two hours earlier.  What a crummy way to spend an afternoon for those guys.  Back at our hotel, we took short naps, and played games.  That evening, we walked to a movie theater close by and watched a movie and ate popcorn and candy for dinner.  :)  We were the only ones in the theater, and while that is not at all something unique to San Antonio, it is something we have never done with just Marshall, and in that way it was definitely memorable.  When we got back to the hotel, we played more games, even though it was late.  You can do things like this when you are just traveling with a 13 year old!  

Thursday morning we got to sleep in a bit.  We had a quick breakfast at the hotel, and then took a Lyft (accident free this time!) to the airport.  We had another uneventful flight home.  Marshall loved every minute of this trip, and I am so, so glad.  He is begging for all of us to go to San Antonio now!  I know he loved the one-on-one attention, and so did we.  We did a lot, but also relaxed a lot.  We took card games, and spent time doing that in the hotel room.  We talked and laughed and made wonderful. memories.  Marshall called a lot of the shots, and it was fun to let him do that.  

One other memory I want to record is after dinner on Tuesday, when we were walking back to the hotel, I saw some snapdragon flowers.  Those flowers remind me of my Grandma Yancey because she had them in her yard when they lived in Bountiful when I was very young.  I noticed them and immediately had Marshall come see what this flower called a snapdragon does.  I pinched it just so, the exact same way my Grandma Yancey would do, and told him to put his finger in.  He was legitimately scared and incredibly hesitant to do this!  He asked me if it was going to hurt and I kindly pointed out that the flower does not have teeth.  :)  After inspecting it closer, he timidly put his finger in and I let go of the flower and it closed on his finger.  He didn't quite get the thrill out of it that I did as a four year old, but it was such a happy memory for me to relive.  :)  

Okay well this is a novel already, but I do want to get down just a few more memories...

*Gretchen is becoming a little social butterfly and it is so fun to see.  The last week of March she had Harper and Genevieve over to play, at the same time, and she was in heaven.  I loved just watching her interact with those two girls.  As soon as they left, she was begging for them to come over another day.  Last Saturday she also went to her first friend birthday party.  It was for a girl in her primary class who is already in kindergarten (all the girls in her primary class are a year ahead of her in school).  It was just at a park, so I decided to stay for the whole time.  I honestly thought Gretchen would stick pretty close to me, especially since outside of church, she does not know Maddie well.  I could not have been more wrong!  Gretchen was so excited!  We got out of the car, with Gretchen carrying the present, and as soon as we got out of the parking lot, Maddie and another girl in our ward ran to Gretchen, Gretchen handed me the present, and never looked back.  I was so proud of her!  She seemed so grown up as I watched her move from activity to activity and also sitting at a picnic table having lunch with a bunch of kids.  My little bear cub!

On Friday, April 1st I had a most delightful evening.  Months ago my Mom and I bought tickets to go to Ballet West that evening.  We decided to get dinner from Cubby's and my Dad also joined us for dinner.  It was so fun to share a meal with them, without being interrupted by my kids!  It was wonderful to catch up with them.  After dinner, my Dad drove home and my Mom and I drove to the Capitol Theater.  Ballet West was performing Carmina Burana and Glass Pieces.  Glass Pieces was first, and though it was different than I was expecting, it was truly beautiful.  During intermission, before Carmina Burana, my Mom said she thought we saw them perform Carmina Burana in 2018...as soon as the dance started, I realized she was right!  Haha!  It is an athletic and stunning masterpiece though, and we very much enjoyed it.  Now we just have to try and remember to choose a different ballet next time!  

Alright, that is all I am writing today!  Thanks for reading another novel by Jenny!  

Love,

Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel, and Gretchen :)