Easter in Iowa

Happy Easter!

Easter fell on the first weekend of Spring Break in 2026, and we decided to take a road trip. Dad took a half day on Saturday, and we rolled out of Lehi about noon headed for Iowa. The plan was to spend Easter with Gary's family, and then continue on to Nauvoo. Finally, we'd spend a day with Tyler's family in Kansas City where he is finishing up his internship, and then we'd return home.

We chose a good stop over site to stay the night in Nebraska called Ogalala. We'd arrive about 10 o'clock with a stop for dinner, and then finish the drive on Saturday. We were moving along I-80 pretty well until we started to get close to Laramie. Dad was driving, and snow was blowing across the road so thickly in places that visibility would drop to zero for a second or two. One lane was covered in blown snow, but our progress was still okay. We decided to stop in Laramie for dinner in hopes that it would blow over. 

This was the start of the snow.

Dinner was delicious!

It was a good stop!

After dinner at Perkins, Mom noticed that the map app was sending her back west on I-80, so she hopped on going east, assuming it was a mistake. Within a quarter mile, we noticed that traffic was backed up, the freeway was indefinitely closed, and no one was getting through. She made a crazy decision to flip the van around right in the middle of the freeway and drive backwards up the ramp. Miraculously, we didn't pass a single car, and we got on I-80 going back the way we'd come. Maps rerouted us south toward Fort Collins, which looped down into Colorado. It was nearly dark, and it added about 75 minutes to our drive. Worse, the road was iced over and really treacherous. But it turned out to be the right decision, because after we crossed into Colorado, we didn't see another bit of ice or snow. Soon we joined 1-80 back at Cheyenne and made it to the hotel around 11 'clock. 

On the road again!

We listened to General Conference on the drive into Gilbert where Gary lives, and things went much better. We arrived before 4 o'clock, and it was good to see family. John had come into town for Easter eve. We dyed Easter eggs, and had a few contests. Gary gave away $10 to the winner of each game. Mom won the ring toss game (of course), and Seth won the card game. Shelley, Emiko, and John won the egg dyeing contests. Then we settled in for the night. (Well, Dad and Gary talked until 3am.)

The ring toss game was similar to ours, but way tougher.

We love dying eggs!

Seth made some great eggs.

Randy tried to sway the judge by dying an egg that said, "I love Gary."

Mom went for pretty.

Dax was super creative.

The egg judging!

On Easter morning after breakfast, Matt showed up. We had a few more contests, including egg spinning, which Matt won. The idea was to spin your egg for as long as possible. Then we crashed the spinning eggs into one another, preparing them for deviled eggs later. We also had an egg hunt. Ten eggs were hidden for each person to find, and they were timed as they found them. Then the eggs were replaced for the next person. Dax won this contest easily. 

Dax ended up being the fastest.

Mom was not fast.

All morning Emiko worked on ramen. She let us knead the home made noodles with our feet, walking them flat. Then she made us each a piping hot bowl with corn, carrots, cabbage, sausage, and a boiled egg. It was easily the best ramen we'd ever eaten. 

We all took a turn making the ramen noodles.

Dad, too!

Dax soon became the noodle maker.

Emiko put him in charge of the ramen noodle maker.

The yummiest ramen ever.

Even Seth ate it!

After lunch we played a few more games. Then we went for a walk down at the local park. Finally, Gary took us down to ISU and showed us his office and walked us around campus. Dax even acted as if he might be recruited to come out to Iowa for school!

There was a lovely sunset on our park walk.

The lunch room at ISU.

The bell tower.

On Monday morning we woke up and fielded Mark's call. Matt and John had gone on Sunday night, and Shelley was at school, but Mark had fun talking to Gary and Emiko. It was a really amazing Easter that will stand out as one we'll always remember.

We played with the dog Chewy a lot.

He loved the attention.

Basketball

Wow! It was weird to have Dad only coaching 2 basketball teams. With Mark in Argentina, though, there were only Seth's and Dax's teams. Since Dax didn't have practices, life was much simpler.

Finally, we got Seth's friends together and made a team. This meant that his close friends Ryker and Tyler were both playing with him. He also had a bunch of return players that we'd played with, and we picked up 2 new guys. These new guys were HUGE, with one topping 6 feet. We had a really great season, even though we didn't finish with a great record. Seth enjoyed playing with his friends and helped everyone score throughout the season. For the first time, they even had an end of season tournament. We made a deep run, and finally met a team that had handed us our worst defeat (20 points) in the semifinal. We played really well, and Seth had a long shot to win it at the very end, but he was closely guarded and the 30-footer fell short. It was a hard, but good ending to a really fun season.

Seth was good at taking it right to the hoop.

We are so grateful that Dad coaches his boys.

Seth was a great point guard for his team.

Such a great team and great coaches.

Dax changed about half his team this year. He and his best friend Carter really carried the squad. Carter played underneath, and he is so tall and long that he'd block a lot of shots each game. He'd also rack up the rebounds and score on putbacks. Dax played his usual game, scoring with a range of jumpers and three-pointers. He was mostly unstoppable, and played really well all season. Unfortunately, his team wasn't very good at handling the defense on the outside, so their tournament run was cut short, too. Still, we had a lot of fun and only missed Mark's team (now on 6 different continents) a little bit!

Oops, Mom only took a team picture of Dax's season. She'll be better next year.

Mild March Weather

Every time I go to write a post about our happenings for the month, I think, "We didn't really do much." Then I start to pull pictures and I realize that we did MUCH! March was a long month and it was full of lots of family fun. It was nice to have such amazing weather! 

The Get Out Pass had a party and we got to go bowling!

Pebble killed another mouse. She is a great chicken.

And Chocolate still loves to sit on our shoulders. 

Dax thought he could win a wrestling match with Dad. 

The kids had a day off in March, so we went to the butterfly biosphere at Thanksgiving Point. We hadn't been in awhile. The butterflies all loved landing on Dax, and we had a great time looking at the other bugs. 

Seth had to stay since he got caught in the bug jar.

The butterflies also loved Seth's hat.

Mom LOVES the butterfly biosphere.

We were able to hold a lot of different butterflies. 

This one was so cool.

The butterflies seriously loved this blue sweatshirt.

Determined to push more than a dung beetle can.

It was a fun day!

Mom and Dad enjoyed a warm March day and walked down by the lake.

We also had fun at the Hale!

Went to see Project Hail Mary and WOW! New favorite movie!

The monthly Seth Selfie.

Dad won a prize at the Holiday gas station! All that Dr. Pepper drinking finally paid off.

Mom and Dad got to stay at the Hines Mansion which has a gargoyle on top!

Then we walked downtown Provo and found many of the murals. 

This one was beautiful!

And this one was cute!

We also got some ice cream. Look at this crazy shake!

We took a trip out to Oakley and Rockport State Park. We ate at the Oakley Diner.

Rockport was a bust for Dax's fishing, but we are trying to fish all the lakes in Utah.

Mom went to lunch with some old friends.

Mom and Dad went to the temple and came out to this beautuful sunset.

Seth is getting so good at the piano. 

His friend's mom is his teacher now.

I think it might be official...

We went on a hike in the middle of nowhere and this is how the kids felt about it.

It was really cool though.

The rocks look like chopped logs.

Dax gave up, but Seth came with us to the logs.

The views at the top were nice!

Randy climbed down to see the arch.

Palm Sunday since Easter was on Conference Weekend.

One day we all met after school at a new indoor playground. We got a tour from the owner and got to check it out. It was fun and the boys had a blast even though they are a little bit for places like this.

Dad is the biggest kid around.

We played cops and robbers.

Spending a little time in jail.

Mom liked the castle.

Then we had to grab In N Out afterward.

Mom also went on the last day of March to the tulip festival with Melanie and Esther since it was their spring break. The tulips were already blooming because the weather had been so warm. 

It was a little cloudy, but the flowers were lovely. 

Mom loves tulips.

We even spotted an owl. 

I always love to see what they create at the Tulip Festival.

Meanwhile in Argentina, Mark is thriving! He loves the missionaries he serves with and had a baptism this month. He is also learning to cook, which will serve him well in his life. We are so proud of him and love our weekly calls. 

Mark found this young man and was so excited to see him get baptized.

Mark and Elder Zamora--he loves having him in his district every time. 

Mark's buddy Nestor!

Mark made this soup!