Grandma J in Bloom

Grandma Johnson celebrates her birthday in April, as do Dad, Bruder Aaron, and I. She shares her birthday with Shakespeare. Grandpa Hooper shared his with Einstein, which we celebrate every year as Pi Day (3.14). Grandpa Johnson passed away a few years ago, so Grandma claims she'd rather not live that many more years, but I have insisted for almost a decade that she has to reach 100. She was the only grandparent I had living when I married Zak and inherited four more. Here is my audacious Grandma J.

Easter with Kids

My cousin let us stay at their house over Easter weekend. I haven't been around little kids as they got up for Easter baskets since my teenage brother was little, so this was a real treat. Her son was so excited, and kept asking if the Easter bunny had come. He did a great job of finding all of the marshmallow-filled, football-shaped, colorful eggs the Easter Bunny artfully hid around the room.

Birthday Watercolor

For my birthday Zak painted a watercolor for me, reminiscent of our travels in Switzerland. He even included a few black cows on the side. I loved watching him paint while listening to all of the Apostles speaking for Conference. It does make it a little harder to do anything homemade, because he's set the standards pretty high, but I'm so grateful to have my very own painter.

Family Toes and Eyes

In school I remember tracking genetic features like attached and unattached earlobes. In my family we have some special features. Mom and her sister have small fourth toes on both feet. I think they're adorable. She said the fourth toe was like any other toe until she as a preteen or so.

My brother likes to give the scientific name for his multi-colored eye, like the one Great-grandpa  Chesley Austin Johnson had: partial heterochromia iridum.

Cohen Returns

 Zak's brother, Cohen, left on his mission shortly after we started dating. His other brother came home from his mission just before Zak and I married, and he recently married Carrie. So, last month Cohen returned from his mission, seeing the family and meeting his two new sisters.

We stayed for a few days, in order to see the rest of the family and listen to Cohen's talk in church. Niki took me to get my hair chopped off, and we had a lot of fun catching up on all the action movies from the last two years. We also got to meet some of Cohen's new friends.

In celebration of his return, Niki made a sign to post at a particular corner. Family legend goes that Cohen wanted Mom to make a fun rocket blast noise as they turned the corner. She didn't know exactly what to do, so she just said, "Rocket, rocket." Niki kept up the tradition, and for the last two years or so has shouted, "Rocket, rocket," every time she drove around the turn.