In like a lion...

March came roaring in like a lion this year with the continuation of cold and dreary February-like weather. There were some lovely spring days during the month, but several days of "below average" temperatures as well. Although we've enjoyed times to open the windows to cool down the warm afternoon air in the house, we still have not converted from the heater to the air-conditioner yet.

Now that our kids are all educated, we don't have to schedule our lives around the school calendar anymore, including spring break. However, I did "break" away for one day to join Amy & Ben and their girls in Galveston. Rather than joining the throngs of spring-breakers, the Cosbys have planned their Disneyland vacation for May, but they took a fun local break for a few days on Galveston Island. I drove down for a day and had a great time checking out the resort pool and the beach. We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe, and all 5 of us together pedaled one of those bicycle carriage things along the seawall!

March is rodeo time in Houston, and thanks to Amy (who had been smart enough to snatch up a bunch of tickets) we met Alex & Nicholas for the quarter-finals of the rodeo, plus the Blake Shelton concert.  Lee and I made it a total rodeo experience by taking the metro park&ride, and sharing a funnel cake at the carnival!

We have celebrated the birthday of one of our grandchildren in four of the last five months, and this month it was Isabelle, who turned 7 on the 23rd. She hosted an American Girl Pajama Party for her friends in her backyard the evening before, with assignments for all of us (including Tara, who came over for the birthday weekend)! The 12 girls, plus Leo, Livi, and another little sister,  put the final pieces together (and painted!) beds for their American Girl dolls, played games, had dinner, jumped on the trampoline, and made their own ice cream sundaes - thus the need for all of the assignments! Belle's family birthday party was held in our backyard, and included our traditional Easter egg hunt since I was going to be in Utah for Easter weekend. Once again, Alex made an amazing birthday cake, this time each of the 4 layers of the egg-shaped cake a different color!

One of our nephews, Justin Thorpe, planned a wedding for March 30th in Utah, so Gloria and I decided to make the trip together to join in the celebration. First I flew to Mesa and spent a couple of days with Gloria & Kent and their family. Gloria & I had some fun sister time together - shopping, lunch, mani/pedi's, sharing & strategizing projects, etc. - then we flew to Provo for the wedding and Easter weekend. We took Mom and her two sisters, Vivian & Pearl, to the sealing in the beautiful, new Draper Temple, then met Dad and the rest of the family for the wedding luncheon in the Skyroom at BYU. The reception was held that evening in Spanish Fork. Gloria had the great idea of getting ALL of the family together for dinner on Easter Sunday, and it was such a wonderful chance to visit with everyone. The weather was so warm we could eat outside, and thus March went out like a lamb (in Salem, Utah at least!).

Some "sister time" together is like getting a huge booster shot for me, so now I'm ready for April ... and spring ... and endless yardwork ... and new projects ... and