Easter Sod

I feel a little silly skipping all the way back to Easter with Mother's Day lurking on the horizon (2 1/2 hours remaining), yet we had some really fantastic April visits that I want to remember.

Justin and Brianna drove all the way from Phoenix to spend a few days with us. (Not quite sure why the only picture I have of the two together is of the back of their heads...)

Here we are picnicking by the white mountains of Snow Canyon. While beautiful, it is a rather bizarre landscape--almost as if you're wandering on another planet.

Walking home with Aunt Brianna after Easter Sunday service.

And here we are enjoying the goregeous homemade marshmallow Easter eggs that Brianna and her Mom made. Don't they look amazing?

Eli, relishing the gooeyness.

Dying Easter eggs in the afternoon. Not quite early enough for the Easter bunny to hide, but we still had a fun time.

Dr. Justin orchestrates the delicate operation.

Brianna looks on with rapt attention.

Talia, perched in her favorite spot: on the table.

Jason works his magic.

And the final creations.

Sunday evening Grandma Susie and Grandpa Charles arrived to share a very special dinner with us--we celebrated not only Easter, but Susie's birthday as well! I forgot to snap a picture with the cheesecake, but here's a fun picture of Susie on the Zion Park shuttle the next morning.

And Susie's handsome fella, Grandpa Charles.

It had been a while since we hiked the Emerald Pools, so we were surprised by how much better the girls handled the climb than a year ago. They sprinted ahead for most of the trail, trying to find rocks to hide behind so they could jump out and surprise us. Mostly cute, except for the moment Talia nearly launched herself over a cliff.

Brianna, looking cute as usual.

Not quite sure why Eli and I seem so perplexed.

Talia, hanging out on a log, because...why not?

Jason, Brooklyn, Justin, and Talia, all resting in their thinking pose.

So have I mentioned that Zion National Park is stunning? Sometimes it's hard to capture its beauty with a lens, but Jason did a pretty great job.

In such a lovely place, one could happily linger all day.

Sadly, most good things must come to an end. Time to go, sweet Talia!

Fortunately, much fun was left to be had back in sunny St. George. Thanks to the new rope and harness Jason got for his birthday, we spent some time rappelling off the Dixie. (By the way, the girls both braved their way down, but more on that later.)

Lookin' good, Tio Queso!

Of course, the Wheeler men know how to work as hard as they play. When Justin came to visit, little did he know that he would put in an entire sprinkler system over his "vacation." (In all fairness, I suspected it even less than he did.)

Grandpa Charles came equipped with an arsenal of sprinkler parts, and before we knew it, the menfolk were all digging trenches, just like the good old days. Do you like the round, rubber buried treasure they unearthed?

The poor souls literally had to dig their way around the entire house, armed with a pickaxe to break through the rock-hard soil.

But oh, look at that beautiful pipe!

With such a gorgeous sprinkler system below foot, it seemed a mighty shame to let it pine away unused. And so, my far-off fantasy of a grassy backyard suddenly leaped to the front of my dreams. We took the plunge and splurged on sod! Here's the before:

And the verdant after:

(We'll spare you the sad story of our one-branch tree.)

We can't give enough thanks to Charles and Justin for working so hard to install a sprinkler system. It's something we never expected and can't really repay, but hope to someday pay forward. Thanks as well to Brianna and Susie for being so patient when their hubbies were stolen away to dig in the dirt! But most of all, thanks to you, Jason, for seeing the entire job through to its conclusion.

Well-done, PB, well-done.