21 April 2019

Happy Easter!  We know Gibson has his eyes closed in the photo, but this one looks better than the ones of him scowling into the sun.  

For our Easter countdown this year we read scriptures about the events at the end of Jesus' life beginning with him riding into Jerusalem and ending with him ascending into heaven.  Inspired by a similar map in the New Era, we created this poster to help us visualize the events and remember what we read.

Helen's dream is to play the organ in sacrament meeting.  She plays the piano quite well and we felt she was ready to find an organ teacher.  It turns out there is currently one person teaching organ lessons in our valley, a woman named Peg, who is retired faculty at SOU and a nationally recognized organist.  So while there might only be one teacher, she is well qualified.  Peg asked Helen to get some organ shoes before her first lesson.  The shoes have soft soles so the organist can feel the pedals through the soles and a heel to allow the organist to play thirds and fourths on the pedals.

Helen had her first lesson on Saturday.  This is the practice pipe organ at the university.  The university has a bigger organ in their recital hall.  Helen loved learning about the organ and getting to play it.  Peg emphasized that while an organ looks like a piano, it's a different instrument.  Pianos are percussion instruments.  Organs are woodwind instruments.  Helen has to learn new keyboard techniques, as well as getting used to playing with both hands and both feet all at the same time.

Peg designed this room while a faculty member at SOU.  Besides providing a space for practicing, the room has space for about 50 people to attend recitals.  When Peg retired, the university didn't replace her.   Now the practice room is mainly used by the university to store percussion instruments.  Peg uses the pipe organ for teaching lessons and makes sure it is kept in tip top shape.  We don't have an organ at home, but Helen can practice the organ at the church in between lessons.  Peg is standing next to the organ in this photo.  

It was pouring rain Saturday morning and we though we might have to have our annual Easter egg hunt inside, but the sun came out and the afternoon was beautiful.  Abe hid the eggs for us.

We invited our neighbors to join in.  From the left are Gibson, Ike, Helen, Addi, Seth, Kate and Abe.  Abe is explaining the rules.  There really is only one rule: all the eggs were hidden in the backyard.

 Here's Gibson.

 Abe hid the eggs in more challenging locations than Brandan and Becky typically do.  Helen climbed the fence to get this egg out of a tree.

Here's another egg, in plain sight, but out of reach.

After all the kids found all of the eggs, we divided up the candy evenly and put the plastic eggs away for next year.  We will probably never outgrow Easter egg hunts-- such a simple and joyful activity!