April and Early May, 2018 --Tree

Desi and the kids miniature golfing during the teacher strike. 

 Mike, Desi, and Joey competed in the Spartan again this year!  What a great way to keep in shape. 

Two-year-old Milly thinks she should do everything the big kids do. 

Milly at Easter 

Bubbles.  She just turned two-years-old. 

Milly loves her purse. 

Mordecai, Desi, and Emily

Ruby and Ivy

Anna with her new glasses

John and Kathryn Ann at the Training Zone

Amelia performing in their original opera.  She is a wasp. 

Lillian is a scientist in the opera. 

The children created the story line, made their own costumes, painted their scenery, and sang every word of the 10 minute original opera.  The person in front is putting up the sub-titles and the children have the whole thing memorized. 

James in fifth grade has been on the "I Can Do" Team sponsored by Ballet West.  During this school year every Saturday for two hours a few children from selected elementary schools meet to learn dynamic dance steps.  Once a week a teacher comes to each school to teach all the fifth graders a dance.  At the end of the year in this area there are three performances.  The I Can Do Team performs in three dances in all the performances and the various schools each perform their dance the night they are invited to perform. 

James is watching the other dances. 

The finale with all of the dancers on the floor.  Each team has a their own identifying t-shirt but every child is unique as they dance to the high energy music with lots of leaps and jumps. 

James has two t-shirts--one for the "I Can Do" team and the blue one for his elementary school.  Grant danced on another night so we didn't get to see him perform.  Amelia, John, and Lillian were there to watch the performances with their parents and grandparents. 



This shows our tree.  You can see how the one on the right has been pruned back significantly.  The big picture shows the problems the big tree in the park strip has caused.  Notice the raised sidewalk  and gutter which caused the water to back up . 

This is the repair on the cable after the cable was accidentally cut when the gutter was removed.  The line was not marked or even buried well. 

The area has been blocked off for  a couple of weeks now. 

Half the tree is down. 

 The crew worked until late in the evening some nights.

See the lines that guide the limbs to a designated spot after they are cut.  Apo did all the cutting in the tree and was very skillful. 

  Timber!

The tallest limb supported the guidelines. 

Some firewood was sawed up and stored behind our house. 

The locust tree was very healthy and it took the bobcat to finally knock it down. 

Grinding out the stump is a big process.  A truck load of wood chips was hauled away. 

The process isn't over yet.  Friday, the unmarked electrical line to the street lights was hit and the live wire began to spark.  The city came and made those repairs because they are responsible, but there are still parts of the stump which need to be ground away before the cement for the sidewalk and gutters can be poured which will be at least late next week. 

  The red X near the fence post marks the place where the electrical line is temporarily buried. 

John dug out and chopped off two large roots .  You can see the roots that still need to be ground down.  The orangish cable in the foreground near the sidewalk is the internet line. 

The ZL decorated John's desk.  Elder Hodges comes to wish him happy birthday.  (Minutes later John was on his was back home to take care of the sparking electrical line.)

Lillis and Frank Byers

Birthday celebration for John's and Lillis' birthday with John, Kathie, Frank, and Lillis. 

Kathryn Ann and John

Siblings--Kathie, John, and Lillis

Julie, Lydia, and Ethan at the Cincinnati Zoo. 

Melody and Julie at Julie's home.

Lydia with her Aunt Melody. 

Melody, Julie, Lydia, and Ethan

Kim, Keith, Kira and Talisa at the Jordan River Temple Open House.