In and Around the Apartment in April

 The apartment gets a post today, too!

Cozy!

There was some snowfall one morning at the beginning of the month:

And then it stopped, and the sun came out:

And then by lunchtime, it was all gone. The vagaries of spring!

Pretty!

I'd rather be in the townhouse and I still miss it, but apartment living isn't so bad.

Sam in April 2026

 It's the boys' lucky day; they each get their own post on the blog today!
(Not to toot my own horn, because I really am bewildered by it, but the blog has been averaging between 6000-7000 hits a day recently!).

At a priests' quorum breakfast

He got his braces off in April, and his teeth look great! Now he just has to wear his clear retainers to keep everything in place until the next phase of work gets done.

Before removal:

After removal!

His girlfriend got him this dinosaur Lego set, which he promptly put together like the good boyfriend that he is. 😄

John's Mission Pics from April 2026

 John comes home from his mission TOMORROW!! 😀 I'm so excited to see him again!
In the meantime, I'll post these few pictures he sent from the April/spring timeframe. 

This guy was so much fun. I talked with him on FaceTime a few times, and I really liked his personality and his interesting background. (He grew up in a sheltered polygamous community in Utah, his father died, he met the missionaries, joined the Church, left the community, and is now out on his own, making his way in the world. Amazing!).

A big herd of elk(?).

This guy requested that John be his companion when he found out that John has done American Ninja Warrior competitions in the past, which he thought was so cool—apparently, he's a big fan of the show! 

April Vacation 2026: Cape Cod

 For Sam's April vacation this year, we went to our tried-and-true favorite, our loyal standby: Cape Cod. We had planned to go on an amusement park road trip to Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, but Sam hadn't been feeling well, so we canceled that trip and went to the Cape instead.

We had dinner at The Knack, which has fantastic hamburgers, onion rings, and milkshakes. And lemonade. 😋

An ode to freshly made onion rings galore...

Sam and I went out to breakfast together one morning. I had blueberry French Toast. 

Don't let his expression fool you; his breakfast was good, too. 😆

We went to the mall, where I bought him some new kicks. (Is it cool or dorky that I called them "kicks"? 😄)

My planner, my son, my bed, my room

LOL

We played a chilly, slightly damp game of mini-golf, which David won and Sam lost.

David and Mom

Sam was being "special." Look at his face in these pictures. 😂

Then he had a more normal expression, but David wasn't smiling as much. Argh!

We had brunch at a longtime favorite, The Keltic Kitchen. My omelet was delicious!

The four of us (David, me, Mom, and Sam) did a big spring yard clean-up that week. Look at all the brush we collected!

And look at how nice and clean the yard looked:

We went for a walk at Sea Gull Beach. Sam did his special face again on the lifeguard stand.

He took some nice pictures of David and me at the end of the rock jetty.

These guys were boating a dock in to shore. I'd never seen that done before.

We had a delicious dinner at one of our most favorite restaurants of all, Brazilian Grill.

I did some shopping at Lemon Tree Village Shops in Brewster, where I spotted some cu-hoot owl things.

I love this—owls and meditation go together well!

I ended up buying this beautiful handmade leather journal.

It was a nice five days at the Cape; I'm thankful that we always have it as an option!