Our Day Out with Tatum 2025

On Saturday, March 29, we trekked up to Roy High School to see our niece Kieralee perform with her Grantsville school's color guard at a multi-school competition. (Had you never heard of color guard before? Neither had I.) They did a great job, and in the process I learned a lot about what color guards are and what they do.

We were joined by the rest of the Moodbuckles: Kieralee's parents, Danielle and Tyson, and her brother, Tatum.

Afterward, we congregated at the nearby Burger Bar in Roy for lunch. Because when you're in or near Roy, it is required (for us) to stop there to enjoy a good meal.

Since we had 11-year-old Tatum with us, and we had previously postponed his birthday outing from last fall, we then took him over to Cherry Hill for some mini-golf. His parents came with us, too. It turns out that Tatum is a pretty good little golfer!

Plowman Family Dinner/March 2025

We got to celebrate JB's birthday a second time in March, this time at monthly family dinner on the Plowman side. Steve and Summer hosted everyone at their home, which is now conveniently just a short walk away—one block west of us in North Salt Lake.

The other March birthdays included Jake's 13th and Katy's 10th. (These kids are growing up too fast!) Here is Katy, blowing out the candles:

As "cake," we used Kirkland cheesecake—one of Mom's favorites.

Meanwhile, sleepy Sam took a nap on Uncle Mike's chest:

Improvables: Sixteenth Anniversary Show

The Improvables' annual reunion show was held on Friday, March 7, 2025, at Bountiful Davis Art Center. Formerly regular troupe members Biz, Brianne, Bryan, and Steve joined Keenan, Parker, Richard, Scott, and myself on stage for another fantastic show, filled with many chortles and giggles. Keenan, Parker, and I shared MC duties throughout the night.

Among the highlights were Biz spit-cleaning Parker's glasses and Bryan's hair in "Advice Panel," featuring the return of Janice, one of my favorite characters:

... Biz, Bryan, Keenan, and Scott in an ice cream store-based scene of "Director":

... Biz roaming the aisles, talking to random people and objects, while Steve gave a "Press Conference":

... old coot humor and puns in "Back in My Day":

... and an old skool game of "Don't Make Me Heckle" to conclude the evening:

The rest of our game list was rounded out with "Top That," "Novelist," "Mumbling Movie Murder Mystery," "Pieces of Shakespeare," and "Dueling Plays."

It's always good to take the stage with these guys—and it doesn't hurt that two of them are my siblings. It blows my mind that we're now in our 17th year overall of performing for Davis County audiences.

One of these days, they're going to find out that I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.

JB's Birthday

JB celebrated her most recent birthday two Fridays ago, on March 7. In spite of having celebrated numerous birthdays over her lifetime, she somehow remains 20 ... something ... years old.

The Plowbuckles celebrated her day together first with a reflexology massage, covering both craniums and feet. Then our palates relaxed with some delicious sushi and edamame at Sushi Monster, one of our favorite sushi places.

If that wasn't fun enough for one day, we ended the evening with that night's Improvables show, which also happened to be the annual reunion show. (More on that in my next post.)

Christmas 2024 (and Beyond), Part 2

The family festivities continued with the Plowman side on Thursday, December 19, when we hosted Steve's and Summer's clan at our house for a holiday dessert night. The kids enjoyed baking and making treats with JB.

I aided the cause by watching the Broncos game on TV nearby.

As we are wont to do, the rest of the family joined with us for Christmas dinner at Biz's and Jeff's home in West Bountiful on Christmas Eve. The fixings included Dutch oven mac and cheese, meatballs, chili, veggies, and other fun stuff. Biz also came up with and led most of the games, including movie trivia and a scavenger hunt for the kids.

Our annual Christmas pageant followed, including narration of chapter 2 of the gospel of Luke by Dad (the audio recording that keeps on giving, year after year). Sadie played Mary, Ike was one of the cattle, and so forth.

Next came to the gift exchange: niblings giving gifts to their cousins, and siblings giving gifts to siblings. Always my favorite part is seeing the glee on the kids' faces as this process enfolds, both in the giving and the getting.

As for JB and myself, we especially loved the socks Biz and Jeff (and kids) gifted us that featured our two pups' faces printed on them:

We behaved mostly pretty well this year, and therefore Santa did visit our home. We got even more stocking stuffers, and I got ... more socks! Some of the best socks I've ever been given, in fact. JB gets me the coolest things.

I'm also quite fond of my new Spatula City t-shirt:

Later in the week, JB and I joined Steve and Summer and kids (now practically our next door neighbors here in North Salt Lake) to watch BYU play Colorado in the Alamo Bowl, a game that the Cougars won decisively by a score of 36-14. Some of the best entertainment of the night, however, came from two-year-old Sam, who played Peek-a-boo with us:

And so, that's how we celebrated the holidays. In a matter of hours after I type this, 2025 will be upon us. Stay tuned for whatever the new year might bring.

Not-pictured-but-still-memorable events from this Christmas season: Our ward's Christmas program featured no speakers and just music, music, music. New neighbors as well as old friends brought over candy and other treats. Getting to know the new ministering families via chocolate oranges. And so much more!

Christmas 2024, Part 1

The holidays brought with them a number of fun family get-togethers and parties, including gathering with JB's side on Saturday, December 21, at Jeremy's and Alice's home in Centerville. We were treated to delicious breakfast foods, and of course eight-month-old William was everyone's favorite kid to spend time with.

The return of new Reindeer Games were once again a highlight. They were particularly notable this time around in that I finally won one! Finishing first in a game of Christmas trivia won me (and us, meaning JB and me) this awesome cookie skillet, or "skookie":

I learned a new word today and hope that you did, too. We're gonna have a lot of fun with that.

Pie Night

Though it wasn't March 14, we got together as a family this week on Tuesday night for Pie Night. Why? you ask?

Tuesday, the 19th, marked the first anniversary of Mom's passing. Also, the last time many of us saw her before she passed was at a Pie Night held at the rest home where she resided, which was a warm-up to all of the great pies coming up on Thanksgiving Day at that time. Ergo, Pie Night in Mom's honor was a no-brainer.

The pies (including Costco cheesecake, Mom's favorite) were plentiful and delicious:

I caught this pic of our nieces Katy and Sadie rocking around the Christmas tree:

It's honestly wonderful to do things like this to remember beloved family members who have crossed the veil into the Spirit World. For Mom's birthday this past summer, we gathered for ice cream (another favorite of hers) in her memory. For Dad's birthday each year, we have concretes at Nielsen's frozen custard (one of his favorites).

Family and food are always a winning combination.