Birding in Arizona

 Ken loves to go birding in the Tucson, Arizona area in the springtime.  He has gone several times.  We didn't have an assignment in the temple on the weekend of May 6-9th, so he booked flights.  I took him out to the airport early Wednesday morning and picked him up at about midnight on Saturday night.

He had a wonderful time hiking and birding.  He went with a target list of 30 species of birds he hoped to see.  He saw half of them.  Four were new life-listers for him.  Those are distinguished with an asteric*:

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Cassius Kingbird

*Botteri's Sparrow

Scott's Oriole

Bronzed Cowbird

Townsend's Warbler

Hermit Warbler

Mexican Jay

Wester Flycatcher

Lesser Nighthawk

*Mexican Whip-poor-will

*Whiskered Screech Owl

Rivoli's Hummer

Copper-Tailed Trogan

Red-faced Warbler

*Elf Owl

He got pictures of two of them:

Female Costa's Hummingbird

Coppiery-tailed Trogon (this is a highly sought-after bird.  Ken talked to many fellow birders searching for this beautiful bird.)

He keeps a life list and, with these four new ones, his life list now totals 1,192 bird species.

He also had a bear encounter.  He took bear spray with him, but of course it was in the trunk of the car when he saw the bear.  He had hiked up the trail a bit and when he came back down the bear was on the trail coming his way.  Ken stopped, clapped his hands and yelled.  The bear was duly impressed as it ran away from him.  Ken was close enough to it that it could see grass on its haunches where he had been laying in the grass.  EEK!  

I enjoyed the four days, getting a lot done: spring cleaning our bedroom and bathroom and closet (and taking donations to DI), choosing Keynote Christmas music, filing music (not my favorite), reading, thrifting and LFLing for books, working on family history, and blogging of course.   And I even watched a movie!  But I saw no birds . . .or bears!

Books Every Day

 

Singing in a Choir

 

Loving Kindness

 Loving Kindness  

This has been the mantra of our temple since it opened.  Temple ordinance workers are reminded again and again that this is how we treat the patrons- with loving kindness.  

Jay and Debra Ence, Red Cliffs Utah temple president and matron

Loving kindness is what is of most importance as people come to the temple.  And you feel it in our temple.  The workers display this in a powerful way.  This makes a huge difference in the feeling in the temple.

At a recent training for the sealers and wives, President Ence said something powerful, "There will only be kind people in heaven."

"O Lord, I want to be in that number " Help me be kind.

Loving kindness.

How to Achieve Greatness

 

Heath Full of Love

While we were visiting Camerons, we started talking about candy bars.  Everyone was naming their favorite kinds.  Hannah asked me, "Grandma, do you like Heath bars?"  I said I did.  A few minutes later she disappeared into her bedroom and soon came out and presented me with a Heath bar, obviously one she had been saving for herself.  I felt so loved.  Sweet Hannah!

 

DNF

 

A Redbird Christmas

 

My husband and I listened to this delightful book on a road trip.  It is read by the author.  We both thoroughly enjoyed it.  It has a similar feel to Theo of Golden.  I love the sense of community and how they all come together to help a little girl.  5 stars 

The Book of Lost Names

 

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Historical Fiction Physical Book
WWII books are not my favorite. They are so hard to read. But this one presented characters with courage to join the resistance in France and put others before their own safety. That’s inspiring. This book is history and romance with a most satisfying ending. 4 stars.


View all my reviews

What Did the Prophet Ask Us to Do? April, 2026

 What Did the Prophet Ask Us to Do?

April, 2026

Be a Peacemaker!

Strive to follow our Savior in His teachings about how to relate to one another.

Seek to live peaceably and lovingly with other children of God who don’t share our values and do not have covenant obligations.

We should seek fairness for all.

Forgo harsh and hurtful words in all our communications

Choose to be peacemakers now and always

As followers of Christ, let us follow Him by forgoing contention and by using the language and methods of peacemakers.

 

Walk with Jesus Christ

Abide in Him

Follow His example of ministering one by one in charity and love

Demonstrate His pure love in our families, communities, and in all of our interactions.

 

Conference Talks

Study and ponder the conference talks and then act in faith on what was taught.

April Book Club- Sipsworth

 We had another great online book club with our daughters.  We discussed the book Sipsworth.  This is a short, sweet book that deals with depression and loneliness in the elderly.  People need people.

We Need the Holy Ghost-2

 An oft-quoted statement.  We need to memorize it!

Books (Patchett)

 

We Need the Holy Ghost

 

April Trip to Logan

 The morning after my Keynote concert, April 23rd, we drove to Logan.  We had dental appointments the next morning.  

I have had many appointments over the last year, working on getting an implant.  I finally got my new tooth.  Thank you Blake!

We planned the trip around being there for Hannah's dance recital on Friday and Lily's on Saturday night.  Hannah's was so cute.  It is beautiful, creative modern dance company and is always so well done. We have been to several of their recitals over the years.  They are always held in the beautiful  historic Ellen Eccles Theatre in Logan. They build the show around a children's book.  This year the book was The Magic Bowl.  The story is read by an elderly man in a rocking chair. Dances are created illustrating the story.  It is so creative and entertaining.

Hannah in her costume

We celebrated afterward with treats at Culver's.  Blake left right after the concert to drive to Twin Falls to watch Caleb participate in a Ultimate Frisbee competition the next day. Blake and Caleb got back to Logan the next night just in time to attend Lily's dance concert.

We love to take Shonna out to lunch when we visit and have that two on one time with her.

We played games on Saturday.

Saturday evening we attended the high school dance company performance.  Lily is on the team.  I took a million pictures.  She was in several dances.  She choreographed a solo and another dance for three and participated in many others.  Here are a few of the pictures.

Her solo was beautiful.

Between numbers, they had the girls tell about their inspirations for the choreography.  I snapped a picture of hers.

Lily lifted in splits

A few pictures afterward.

How we love this precious girl!

She is so loved!

Lily's support team

We left early Sunday morning to drive down to South Jordan to attend church with the Prince family.  We got to their home in time to be part of their Come Follow Me lesson.  Brian was teaching about the ten commandments.  The spirit was so strong as he conducted this discussion.  Wow!  I felt it as soon as we walked into their home.  
We loved attending their church and Primary to watch Michelle lead the singing.  She does such a great job.
We left right after church for home.

It was such a great weekend with family! 

Grandkids' Prom 2026

 Gabbi and Caleb both went to their proms recently.  Their moms sent pictures.

Gorgeous Gabbi

Look at all of that beautiful hair!

They both had a good time.