Emily's BYU Graduation

What a memorable day for us to be in Provo for Emily's graduation from BYU in the College of Sociology. Commencement was on Thursday, April 21. Emily was among the 6,000 graduates in the 141st Spring Commencement Exercises. We met Emily and Bronson that morning at the new Provo City Center Temple to do sealings before the graduation events later in the day. The temple was just dedicated a month ago. The interior is simply beautiful, typical of the period of the day when it was built by the early pioneers. We had a choice experience being in the sealing room, although very small, and some were standing, but the sunshine was pouring through the beautiful stain glass window and it was truly a heavenly experience. Then to their apartment for lunch, pressing Emily's gown, and heading to campus for Emily to line up for the processional. 

We connected with Durelle (Gimenez) and Jasmin and were able to sit together which made it fun. Alejandra was graduating in Political Science as the Valedictorian. As soon as the organ started playing "Pomp and Circumstance," I was melted to tears. What a graduation time in our lives, too, to see our youngest graduate from college. So many emotions and memories rise to the surface and as a Mom, it is hard to hold it all in. We are so very proud of Emily for reaching this goal and doing so well in her classes. She can do hard things. We're so thankful she is married to such a good husband as Bronson. It's wonderful they were brought together at the right time in their lives. She enjoys the added blessing of having a good job to immediately begin working in at the Stonehenge Care Facility in Orem.

After the Commencement, to avoid the crowds at the restaurants in Provo, we drove to Spanish Fork to Cafe Rio for dinner. It was a beautiful, sunny, clear day. Almost a little hot, but just lovely for graduation day. That evening all the Lewis cousins in the area gather at Emily and Bronson's apartment for a fun get together and ice cream. Durelle organized it and it was great to see so many cousins while we were there. It was so "loud!" Everyone was yelling just to be heard. They were all living up to their name...the "Loud Lewises!" There was an exciting Men's Volleyball game going on, too, as BYU's team is #1 in the nation.

Friday morning the Convocation for the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences was held in the Marriott Center at 11 am. Again, we met up with the Gimenez'. We hadn't seen Oscar in years, so we had fun visiting with them. Alejandra, as the Valedictorian in Political Science, sang "Where Can I Turn for Peace." She did such a beautiful job, and it was a treat to sit next to them during this special event for their daughter, Alejandra. Emily's college was the last group. We were so happy to see her receive her diploma and hear her name announced. We are so very proud of her! 

After pictures and returning her gown, we enjoyed a good lunch at the Olive Garden. We were all tired from the events of the past couple of days, so watching the cute movie, "Zootopia" was relaxing and fun. We headed back to West Jordan to have dinner and be with our cute Johns family. We didn't get a lot of time with them, so we cherished every minute we did get. They are doing well raising their children and it pleases us to see them happy, healthy, and progressing in many good areas. Being with our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren is our favorite time of life! We flew back to Portland the next morning, arriving late in the afternoon as Southwest doesn't fly direct. We appreciate the many times Vivi takes us and picks us up at the airport. She is so good to us.

We had a wonderful weekend of celebration in honor of our beautiful, Emily. The BYU motto is "Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve." She is well prepared to take the next step in her life and she serves and blesses others through her goodness.

This is from Emily's blog:

By the numbers: 

1 Major: Sociology 

1 unofficial minor: Religion

Mrs Degree: August 14, 2015

Apartments: 5 - Heritage, Wyview, Brookview, Belmont, Start-Up Crossing

On campus jobs: MTC Cafeteria, MTC Bookstore, Sports Camp Counselor, Starving Student Card seller, Religion TA, Accounting Clerk - UPB. *determined over 3,000 students Book of Mormon grade (yikes!)

Roommates: around 22

Mission: Argentina Neuquen & Idaho Falls

Hiked the Y: 3 times

Creamery Ice Cream runs: too many 

Lots of sports games with Bronson 

A couple of all-nighters

Freshman 15 gained. 

And LOVED my time at BYU. I didn't want to go anywhere but BYU. 

Our Johns Family in April

We love coming to Utah to see our beautiful Johns family. They take such good care of us. We are always spoiled by their attention, yummy meals (delicious homemade bread), use of their car, and fun times with their cute kids, Kenna, Spencer and Elliot. The newest skill was Elliot learning to ride a bike. He goes so fast and he's still a little small to get on and off the bike, but he is full of life and their is no slowing him down. Spencer and Kenna are doing well on the piano and performed for us, Spencer's fable that he wrote for school was read by the principal over the loud speaker, and Kenna gave us "The Gettysburg Address" by memory. Pretty impressive!

Alice-Anne surprised us with one of the best surprises ever! She announced she was pregnant. I was so excited to hear that great news, I jumped out of my chair to run and hug her. We were concerned about Alice-Anne's health, and we didn't know if she'd be able to have more children, so to hear this great news filled us with joy beyond words. How grateful we are to our Heavenly Father for His generous goodness to our family.

We spent most of our few days from Wed. evening, the 20th - Saturday morning the 23rd in Provo for Emily's graduation. We did enjoy scripture study, story time, and some outdoor fun while we were there. We appreciated Kenna letting us use her new, lovely bedroom downstairs. Such nice accommodations!

Seth visits in April

Seth had meetings in Portland from Thurs., April 14th until Sat. afternoon, the 16th. We were happy to host him, and have some good visiting time with him. He is a world traveler and he'd been in Zurich, Switzerland, Germany, New York and Texas over the last couple of months. He has hardly been home very much as he has had many conferences where he has presented a paper or been involved some way. This conference was hosted by the University of Oregon, so it gave him a chance to mingle with some of the professors he'll be working with when his family moves here later this summer. We had fun celebrating his upcoming 38th birthday on Friday evening after Bryson's basketball game at the Vance's. I made a homemade chocolate cake that had sweet potatoes in the cake and the frosting. It was a fun treat for everyone to enjoy. We missed the Caudle's that night, but they were having a great time at the Paul McCartney Concert. Seth treated us to dinner at the Truffle Hunter Saturday evening. Later he helped me with my tech problems. It's always a delight to have Seth here. We are very excited about his family moving to Oregon!

Dad in Utah for General Conference

Dad flew to SLC on Thursday, March 30th to attend General Conference and spend time with the Johns. It's always a treat for us to be in the Johns home and to enjoy their cute children. He had fun reading to them at night, playing in the park with Elliot, attending the Priesthood Session with Gary, and the Sunday afternoon session with Alice-Anne, Kenna and Spencer. There was a big group from the YSA Branch that were there, too, so he shared his tickets with them. Because of that, Crismon didn't have many tickets for the other sessions. I missed being there with him, but because we were flying down a few weeks later, I chose to stay home as two trips back to back are tiring on me. He was also able to do some Reliv appointments with some of our distributors there.

With not being as busy that weekend preparing meals, etc., I was able to do a few projects that I don't often get to. It was nice to have a few days without the pressures of our business and the demands of Crismon's calling, but I missed my good husband. Crismon had many good discussions with Alice-Anne and Gary late into the night. He had a wonderful weekend with them. He was spoiled by their delicious meals!

 

My 64th Birthday

I can't believe I turned 64! Years ago, I would think of someone in the 60's to be so old. It's amazing how quickly the years speed by and you find yourself at that age, but it no longer seems old to you once you arrive at that age. I'm grateful for my health and strength. Although I struggle with Post Polio, overall, I'm in good health. My birthday usually lands on General Conference weekend, which I love. Sunday afternoon, after the last session I went to the Vance's for dinner and to celebrate Gary's birthday that day, April 3rd, and my birthday on the 4th. Ondalynn prepared a delicious salmon, potatoe, asparagus dinner and I brought over the left over carrot cake that we had from Easter. I just put it in the freezer. It was still so good. I was happy I could be surrounded by these cute grandchildren to celebrate my birthday.

On the morning of my birthday, I enjoyed phone calls and messages from our children. Meredith had set up an appointment for me to have a manicure that morning. Just before I left, Tiffany and the boys FaceTimed and sang Happy Birthday to me. They sounded great! Then Ondalynn & Vivi took me out to lunch. We had so much fun visiting and being together. They gave me a card filled with money from many of the children for my birthday. That was so nice of everyone. Ondalynn & Vivi also said they wanted to come over to my house on a regular basis and help me prepare food for the week or anything they could do to help me. We decided to have them come once a month each and that Dad would help me on the other Monday's. This will be such a blessing to me.

The Vance children were out of school for Spring Break so Sydney watched all the children at our house. Kaeley was at a friend's house. Afterwards Ondalynn took her children in the hot tub. Because they live close, they don't usually use our hot tub, so it was a fun treat for them.

Later that day I visited LaCressa Clardy in the hospital. She had just given birth late the night before to their #5, Kaden. She doesn't have a loving mother in her life, so I've tried to be there for her. She will text me often. He is a beautiful baby. I was also suffering from an infection in my gums from a tooth that had broken off a couple of weeks before. The first round of antibiotics didn't work, so I picked up more antibiotics that evening, hurried to pick up some groceries before leaving to pick up Crismon from the airport from his trip to Utah for conference. We visited with Dallin as we drove home from the hospital about their plans about their move to Virginia coming up in August. I connected with all of my children that day, even Seth in Germany thanks to "FaceTime." Meredith texted me. It's a joy to be their mother. I hope my days on this earth can be long so I can continue to enjoy them, our grandchildren, and to see what's in store for them in their lives ahead. I was so happy to have my good husband home, too.