I enjoy reading the blogs of our family members and learning about their activities. It was great to see Jenny's update with her class and then visit on Saturday. We were a part of Lindsey's blog as they spent time here yesterday--Trevor is very creative and will probably become a professional traveler. All his games revolve around planes and theme parks. Erin's having fun in Melbourne now so it will be fun to learn about her travels there. It's been helpful to read about Megan's thoughts since we don't get to have too many conversations . . . So these are a useful means to keep in touch with one another!

Mom's made her reservations for May to Iowa and Pennsylvania. I need to finalize my schedule and make my reservations as well; she'll leave a little earlier so she can get to Iowa and then return earlier while I go to Chicago. She's also made reservations for both of us to visit Australia the end of July. Aunty Betty will "housesit" while we're gone and looks forward to some vacation time after a brutal Iowa winter.

My dad seems to be showing some signs of improvement but still very dependent on his health care, particularly the regular diabetes checks 3-4 times each day.

We enjoyed our dinner with Keith and Judy Roberts at Turtle Bay last night; they'll be leaving on April 8 so it was great to spend some time with them before they leave. Our days and evenings are always full, it seems. For example, this week during the evenings:

Monday - President Arnold Wunder from Maui and his wife came for dinner; mom prepared a great meal (chicken rollups!). He was the devotional speaker on Tuesday
Tuesday - I participated in ministering visits for the BYUH 9th Ward, which had its ward conference today
Wednesday - I attended a Planning Advisory Committee meeting (6:30-9:30 p.m.) for the sustainability plan for Koolauloa. Keith has been the BYUH representative and now I'll be filling in for him.
Thursday - We did the temple sealings that Dianna wrote about in her blog--certainly a highlight and particularly to have Lindsey and John assist us.
Friday - We relaxed at home!

In conclusion, my highlights for the week were our two temple experiences; first, we attended the usual 5:30 a.m. session yesterday. Second, I always enjoy completing our family names for temple baptisms, endowments, etc., but I had a feeling of real rejoicing in doing the sealings. I felt like those who were on the other side were truly rejoicing that their work had been truly completed, they were sealed as couples and families forever, and could finally reap the full benefit of the gospel. It will be fun to visit with them some day and learn about what they were experiencing on their side of the veil.

Now that we completed our last of five ward conferences today for this academic year, we are now preparing for our stake conference which will be held next Sunday with Elder Sheldon Child as our visiting general authority. I've been working on my talk today!