Megan graduated from BYU this week! What a rock star! She now has a bachelors degree in Experience Design Management. We are all so proud of her! On Thursday, Kevin, Savannah, and I went to Commencement with all the grads and heard great speakers. We took pictures at the carillon bell tower afterward. On Friday, Grandma Gazdik, Kevin, Sarah, Avery, and I went to Convocation where the names of the graduates from the business school were read and they walked across the stage. So exciting! Kevin and I took Megan and Ammon out to eat that evening. It's a big accomplishment and so much fun to celebrate!

Savannah worked at Funfinity this week and finished splitting her bee hives. She watched a movie with Sarah on Friday night. She went bowling with Chance on Saturday night. She went to Commencement with us!

Mariah has been work, work, working at her two recreation jobs. Cub Soccer has started so she's spent several hours outside at the cold, windy soccer fields. Then she comes home and goes for a cold, windy run! On Saturday, in preparation for her upcoming marathon, she ran 18 miles! Kevin was going to run 8 of the miles with her and bike the rest, but instead ended up running 13! Poor guy! Still, Mariah is super grateful for the support. Mariah also got to go to her first McKay Hatch concert on Saturday night. Kevin and I went, too, and it was terrific!

Cheyenne went to St. George for a track meet Thursday through Saturday. She ran both hurdles events but was disappointed in her times for both. Bummer! Otherwise, she is still working and doing homework and practicing piano. She and Cali had all their friends over Saturday night after one of their friends got his mission call. They had a great time "doing nothing."

Calianne had a track meet on Tuesday. She ran the mile in some wicked wind! I got to watch and take pictures! She also worked at Funfinity this week and went to track practices, did homework and practiced piano. She read some books and went out with Richmond, too. On Friday night, she and Mariah went to see the high school's production of Mama Mia. They seemed to have a great time!

Bethany had track practices this week but opted not to run in the meet on Friday. She also had karate practices. On Friday night she, Macie P, Macie N, Jake, Jacob, and Sean watched a movie at Jacob's house. It was a scary movie. They had a fun time. On Saturday the same group met up at a park to hang out in the afternoon. Fun new friends!

Benjamin had running club this week as well as karate. He came with the youth on Wednesday night when we watched UVU's institute choir sing about Christ and His impact on lives. It was super good! He's building fancy things in Minecraft and fighting the Ender Dragon and stuff, too.

Saturday was PROM! I feel like we spent the week getting ready. Cali and Chey are such busy kids that I ended up doing shopping and sewing that needed to get done on a lot of the days this week. I'm glad I have time to help! They wanted to feel beautiful and I think we succeeded. They went in two different groups but saw each other at the dance. They both went out to eat and took pictures and had a great time. Cali's day date was going to the zoo, which she loved. Cheyenne's day date was Thursday night and they did an escape room and had milkshakes. Fun times!

Cheyenne was busy throughout the week with track, piano, homework, and CNA work. She ran in a track meet on Friday where she qualified to run in the 300M hurdles final on Saturday. She took seventh place and missed getting a medal by .01 seconds! She's working super hard and doing great.

Calianne was busy throughout the week with track, piano, homework, and Funfinity work. She ran in a track meet on Wednesday. She ran the mile and did super! We are proud of her hard work!

Bethany ran in her first track meet of the year this week! She ran the 100M hurdles and the 4x400. She looked really good. She's been enjoying going to practices after school and is still doing karate. She and her friends (including boys!) hung out on Friday and Saturday nights. She is growing up so much!

Benjamin did karate and tennis this week and also started running club again. On Friday night, the deacons and teachers had a "campout" in the Koger's backyard. This ended up being a hike followed by a campfire for roasting hot dogs and marshmellows and then sleeping on the trampoline. He had a terrific time!

Savannah's bees swarmed this week! That is a good thing because there are a lot of them, but it is a bad thing because they decide their house is too small and they think they must go find new lodgings. Savannah rushed quickly to get more boxes down to the hive and called her mentor to make sure she was doing it right. Sounds like she will have two hives of bees now instead of one!

Mariah worked at Provo Rec and at Springville Rec and ran lots of miles in between. On Saturday she ran 16 miles! Kevin opted to accompany her on bike instead of foot and it went really well. She also got her temple recommend renewed and wasted no time going for another visit!

Speaking of temples, Ben went for the first time this week! We had a youth temple trip at 6am on Wednesday. Cali, Chey, Beth, Ben, Kevin, and I were all part of the group and it was fabulous! There is such a spirit there and it's so good seeing the youth seeking for and enjoying the things of God. I'm so glad they have a chance for that in today's world!

Easter was on Sunday and because of all the business, we hadn't had time to color eggs. Sarah and Megan both had Easter plans with their husbands' families, but they agreed to come in the early afternoon. So we had the whole family with us to color some eggs this year! Yay! Later we had Easter dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's and it was yummy and super special. We love Easter. The tomb is empty! He is Risen!

 This week was spring break! We tried to find a getaway that worked around everyone's work schedules and we (mostly) made it happen! We left Wednesday in the afternoon and drove to Meadow hot springs. It's a pretty well-known natural hot spring that you can find off a dirt road in the middle of a field. We had good chats with the other people there and enjoyed the hot water and uniqueness of the place.

We drove from there to Richfield which is where we had reserved an airbnb. We had a giant old house, beautifully updated, all to ourselves. It was white with a picket fence, four bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, sitting room, tv room, and beds for eleven! We had pizza for dinner and then played hide and seek and watched Castle.

The next day after a pancake breakfast made by our own breakfast specialist, Dad, we headed to Sevier junction to ride our bikes on the Big Rock Candy Mountain Express bike trail. It was 6.5 miles to the end of the trail at Big Rock Candy Mountain. We took pictures. The kids sang "Do-Re-Mi" just like they do on bikes in Sound of Music. Ben asked 14 times when we were stopping for lunch. We saw the old train tunnel (the bike trail is a paved-over train track from when they used to move coal through Sevier valley). It was so pretty! Probably even prettier with leaves on the trees, BUT probably also much hotter. Riding on a 50 degree day was perfect. When we got to the Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort, which was deserted since it doesn't open until May, we had a picnic lunch by the river. Then Kevin, Mariah, Chey, and Cali rode back to get the van. Savannah, Beth, Ben, and I explored the converted rail cars and walked around the river. It was a fun adventure!

When we got back to the house, Chey had to leave us. She drove back to Springville for a 5 o'clock shift at the assisted living center that no one else could do. We missed her, but were super proud that she is so capable and responsible! The rest of us played games. We had taco salad for dinner and watched Tobey Maguire as Spiderman. The next morning we had another yummy breakfast, cleaned up, packed the car, and headed home. We had a great time!

Saturday was Ben's birthday!!! Megan and Sarah's families couldn't join us for spring break but they all came for lunch at Chuck-a-Rama on Saturday so we could celebrate Ben! Later that day, Kevin and I took Ben to get his first phone. (Don't worry. We have controls on it and have set good rules.) He is loving it. Today at church, the deacon who was supposed to give the lesson wasn't there, so Ben said, "I have my phone so I can look up the lesson. I'll teach it." And he did. I'll take that! He is such a great kid and we are so happy that he was born into our lives 12 whole years ago!

Avery was there, too!

Love that kid!