Embarrassing!, Driver’s Ed, Field Trip, Marathon, Mesquite, Kings Canyon, Batman, Vacation Days 1,2,3

The last two weeks have just flown by.  Here’s a few highlights.  

Now that we are back to in person church, Matthew has been so excited to see everyone.  Matthew is one of the most social people I know.  I still can’t fathom how he is my kid looking at his social-ness since I am the exact opposite, but what can you do?!  He loves to invite people to come and visit him at his group home.  One couple took him up on his offer and stopped by to see him two weeks ago.  Matthew was beyond elated!!  Craig and Kim Read stopped by to see him and brought some treats for him and his housemates.  They visited for a bit and Matthew gave them a tour of his home.  I am so grateful for everyone who goes out of their way for Matthew.  That visit totally made his day!!

I had a hugely embarrassing moment two weeks ago.  Our family likes to tease each other a lot.  The kids always get grossed out when Aaron and I kiss or hug in front of them so that just makes Aaron want to kiss me in front of the kids that much more since he gets that ‘Ewwww Gross!!’ reaction.  We will be in the kitchen and Aaron will yell out, “Hey kids!” to get their attention and then give me a big kiss just to hear them say ‘Ewwwww!'  Anyway, Daniel had a daily summer’s Driver’s Ed class at the high school that I had to drive him to and from every day.  One day two weeks ago I got a call from a neighbor friend (who happens to be our ward Relief Society President) whose daughter is in Daniel’s Driver’s Ed class.  She said she had something come up and asked if I could pick up her daughter with Daniel and drive them home after class.  I said that wasn’t a problem.  I went to pick up Daniel and Phoebe from Driver’s Ed.  As I was driving them home Aaron called me.  We have the hands free set up in the van so the call immediately went over the speaker so everyone could hear what we were saying which usually isn’t a big deal.  I just told Aaron as soon as I answered the call that he was on speaker.  He talked to me for a few minutes and then jokingly said to Daniel (to elicit that ‘Ewwwww Gross’ reaction), “Hey Daniel, Cover your ears I am going to talk dirty to your mom!”  He said it to tease Daniel, but not really meaning to follow through with it.  However, he had no idea that Phoebe was in the car with us.  DOH!!  I just about died from embarrassment.  I don’t know who turned more red me, Daniel or Phoebe!!  I then yelled,”Oh my goodness Aaron, Phoebe is in the car with us!!!”  Aaron then got super embarrassed since he didn’t mean it and had just said it to tease Daniel.  However, how do you explain that without digging yourself into a deeper hole--haha!  Aaron just started laughing because he still thought it was super funny.  All of us were embarrassing laughing through the rest of the drive home.  Poor Phoebe!  She jumped out of the car and I hoped that we didn’t scar her for life--haha!  Phoebe must have said something to her mom because I got this text shortly afterward--haha! 

I am glad she had a good attitude about what happened--haha!  Even typing this experience up I am still turning red from embarrassment, shaking my head, but laughing about it, too...haha!

At the end of the two week Driver’s Ed class, Daniel took his written test and also his driving test.  I am happy to report he passed both of them.  Wahoo!  That means when he turns 16 in September he can get his license.  It still scares me a bit, but such is life.

Sarah had her first Weber State Prep field trip.  They all met up on campus and toured the Botany Lab. Sarah loved being with her cohort (group) in person and all the things they learned on the tour.  She also had in person group learning activities at the park the next two afternoons as well.  I am glad they are getting a few more in person experiences with WSPrep this year.

We are still finishing up getting Josh’s mission stuff.  While we were out and about we did swing by Zeppe’s for some Italian ice which was yummy! 

Daniel is finishing up his baseball season.  He did really well in this game which makes it fun to watch.  Here he is up to bat:

Josh’s Cross country coach all through high school had a rule that you could not run a marathon while you were doing Cross Country or track.  The reason was because marathons were hard on your body and you didn’t run as well if you were training for a marathon.  Josh has wanted to run a full marathon for the past few years, but listened to his coach and never did it.  However, once he graduated high school all bets were off.  He had a goal to run one before he went on his mission.  There weren’t too many to choose from before July so he took what he could get and signed up for the Valkyrie Marathon up in Midway/Soldier Hollow.  He was supposed to run this marathon with a friend, but the friend got injured the week before and had to drop out.  Josh was a bit bummed about that, but was still determined to run it. The marathon packet pick up was down and in Salt Lake.  I was able to pick it up for him after work since I was already down in Salt Lake, anyway.  Josh had to check in and be on the bus by 5:45 am Saturday morning.  I didn’t want him driving himself out there so that meant Aaron got to get up and drive him out there at 3:30 am since Midway was over 90 minutes away.  I stayed behind because we were getting ready to go on a vacation and I needed to pack and organize everything for everyone back at home.  Here’s Josh excitedly waiting for the bus ride to the start of the race:

The race started at 7 am. However, the actual course was a bit confusing and not well marked.  Good thing Aaron had downloaded the course map and could track Josh to see where he was.  There were a few times Josh got off course since it wasn’t marked well and had to be rerouted.  There were aid stations every two miles along the course, but at one aid station they told Josh to go the wrong way--DOH!!  Aaron followed the course to cheer Josh on, but could only see him at road intersections since a lot of the course was on trails that cars couldn’t access.  Aaron ended up helping a few other runners that had gotten off course as well since the trail wasn’t clearly marked.  Anyway, Josh got to run a few extra miles since he got off course a few times, but he still finished!  Here he is about 8 miles in to the race:

About mile 18 he was struggling, but persevered.  Here he is crossing the finish line:

He got a wooden finisher medal at the end of the race.  However, it was not well made and broke 10 minutes after Josh got it--DOH!!  Oh well, at least he finished the race.  Wahoo!

We wanted to go on a nice family vacation before Josh left on his mission.  We had originally planned to leave on a Friday afternoon, however, we had to reschedule around Josh’s marathon.  There were very few marathons to choose from and the Valkyrie Marathon was the only one that would fit best with our existing plans.  We ended up leaving after Josh finished his marathon.  We drove down and spent the night in Mesquite, Nevada at the Virgin River Hotel/Casino.  We had stayed here previously a few years ago and it wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst either so we opted to spend the night here on our way to California.  However, when we checked in the rooms we got smelled so strong of cigarette smoke that we went back to see if we could get different rooms.  We did, but the new rooms we got weren’t much better.  I always inspect the rooms cleanliness--the bedding, bathroom to make sure it is clean before we even bring in our suitcases.  These were the very last two rooms they had available so we didn’t have much choice.  They were gross.  In turning down the sheets we found a broken off long red fingernail under the top sheet.  Ewwww!!  They came back and changed the bedding while we waited.  Even with the new bedding we still felt gross and didn’t even bring our suitcases inside.  We just brought the toothbrushes and slept in our day clothes.  The next morning we left bright and early and made it to our Air BnB in Fresno, California.  We then all showered and went to bed to get an early start the next morning.  We were going to visit Yosemite, however, we were unable to get any tickets which was dumb.  So instead we spent the day at the National Park Kings Canyon which is right next to Sequoia National Park.

I had never been to Kings Canyon before so it was all new for me, but still very beautiful.  Some of the road was a bit scary either with no shoulder right next to a wall of rock or a sheer drop off.  However, it was still a pretty place.

Matthew didn’t come with us on this trip because he had just started his day/summer program, he HATES hiking and he HATES going to the beach which meant he would have HATED this whole entire trip!!  He had much more fun at his day program instead.  

For some reason Blogger posted my pictures in reverse order so I will start with what we did in the afternoon.  We visited the Sequoia tree named General Grant. It was HUGE!! 

There were a lot of trails around the Grant Grove that we walked along.  We ran into A LOT of HUGE Sequoia trees either still standing or ones that had fallen over.  Either way they were quite impressive in their size!  Here’s one that had fallen years ago, but the center was hollowed out so you could see down the middle of the tree:

We got to walk down the middle of a few trees that had fallen.  The pictures don’t even sho how big the trees were!

Inside another fallen tree:

The roots of another fallen tree:

We stopped by and checked out Gamlin Cabin which was built in 1872:

General Grant Sequoia tree which is the second largest tree in the world:

Another tree roots that were very big:

To get an idea of how big these trees are you can see that even 5 of us holding hands don’t even make it around half the circumference of the tree:

One tree we could go inside and it fit five of us even if we only got a picture of four of us looking up to the top of the tree:

There was a tree split down the middle where you could walk through it.  It was still alive and quite tall.

That morning we hiked a 5.4 mile trail that went by Zumwalt Meadow and Roaring River Falls.  There was so much to see along this trail!  Here’s a few of our favorites:

Roaring River Falls:

We got to cross a few bridges.  I have a moderate fear of heights and bridges so my family thinks it is hilarious to jump along the bridge as we walk over it.  That way it swings and sways and I don’t like it much which is the reaction they are usually going for--the PUNKS!!  Good thing I love them!!

There were a few turn offs on the trail that were closed, but we had some rebels in our group that went just beyond the sign to be funny:

The pinecones were HUGE!!

Poor Josh was hurting quite a bit from being post marathon.  He actually was a slow hiker because his legs hurt so much.  He didn’t complain, though.  Good thing for ibuprofen!!

Aaron was getting ready to cross the bridge when he said, “Oh my goodness it is the California Fault Line!” as he showed us his Plumber’s Crack.  You can insert eye roll here--haha!

By the end of the day we were worn out, but enjoyed our day.  We stopped by a taco stand on our way home and ate some of the best street tacos. However, this was not in the best area of town.  It ended up being right next to a homeless camp.  There was no eat in area at the taco stand so we were eating in the van.  We had to cut our meal short because a homeless man started walking toward us carrying a baseball bat.  We decided we better not stick around to see what ‘Batman' was going to do when he got up to our van so we drove back to our AirB&B.  

When we got back to our Air B&B we took off our shoes and my feet were definitely dirty!!

The temperature in Fresno, California was 115 degrees.  It was so hot!!  We didn’t mind being up in the mountains where it was only in the 80s.  

Kayaking, Anniversary, Pre MTC, Birthday, Baseball, Meetings, Dance Recital, Covid Shot #2, Graduation!, Awards, Senior Trip

Summer is in full swing now that school is out.  Here’s some highlights of the last two weeks.  Daniel is doing baseball.  Daniel had previously had the same coach for the last few years, but this year his old coach didn’t volunteer to coach so Daniel was put with a different coach.  Aaron was a bit sad because he always got to help out as an assistant coach, but since it would be a different coach that wasn’t going to be the case.  However, things worked out.  Daniel really likes this new coach and Aaron gets to help out as an assistant coach because they needed the help.  Here’s Daniel up to bat:

Daniel has even gotten a few chances to try out pitching.  Here is Daniel getting ready to steal third base:

Aaron served his mission in Canada.  However, in his area there was a big Filipino population so Aaron really learned to like Filipino food.  He has wanted to kids to try some Filipino food.  Lucky for us the Yum Yum food truck happened to be at a local high school to celebrate graduation.  We took Noah, Daniel and Sarah over to try it out.  Josh was at work so he wasn’t with us.  We got to try out some Pancit, Adobo chicken, Lumpia, and pork BBQ.  It was pretty good and the kids seemed to like it.   Aaron was in heaven.

Speaking of Aaron he had a birthday two weeks ago.  His real birthday was on a Monday, but we did a mini celebration Sunday afternoon so Matthew could participate.  I made Aaron his favorite dinner Firecracker chicken.  He then requested a cheesecake for his birthday cake.  That is a lot of candles--haha!

The next morning we got up early and headed out to Pineview Reservoir to spend the day kayaking and playing on the beach.

Noah preferred swimming out to the buoy multiple times over kayaking.

Josh, Daniel and Noah raced out to the buoy.

Josh and I attempted to kayak across the reservoir.  We made it over half way, but then came back.

Noah LOVES digging in the sand.  He would have been happy just to have a shovel all day and do nothing else.  What a crazy kid!!

Josh fell asleep.  He can fall asleep within seconds if he actually sits still which is what happened here.  You can tell he is truly asleep from the huge drool line coming from his mouth and pooling on his belly--haha!

The kids even had a few ‘Oar Wars’:

It was a fun day in a beautiful place!!

Later that evening we did s’mores around our outdoor fire pit with G&G T.  It was fun and tasty!!

Aaron and I celebrated our wedding anniversary last week.  The funny thing is, we weren’t able to be together.  I had a Young women’s activity and he went to Daniel’s baseball game.  We still do love each other, but that’s what happens when you’ve been married 21 years---you have to divide and conquer--haha!

We got a new Primary Presidency and they have been spotlighting each class.  A few weeks ago they spotlighted Noah’s Class.  He got to say what his FAVORITE activity (playing the piano), Thing about Jesus Christ (that He died for us), Primary Song (A Child’s Prayer).  

 Matthew’s regular summer program that he has been with the last few years has had a really hard time hiring staff for this summer.  Unfortunately, they couldn’t provide the service for Matthew this year so we had to interview other providers to find a program for Matthew.  Matthew was pretty stressed out about it. He would call every day sometimes twice a day to see if we had made any progress in finding a summer program for him.  With DSPD it takes awhile to make changes to services.  Aaron and I had interviewed two different companies and had decided on one, when his group home provider suddenly had an opening in their day program.  That is the spot we originally wanted, but they told us they were full so we jumped at the chance for Matthew to stay with the Chrysalis company.  He completed his first week of summer program and has absolutely loved it!!  

Matthew also had his annual goal setting meeting with all his service providers and care coordinator to set new yearly goals.  Unfortunately, I had to work during this meeting, but Aaron was able to attend.  This is one meeting that I ALWAYS go to so this was Aaron’s first time.  Luckily, they did it over Zoom so Aaron just went out to his car at work and did the meeting from his car.  Matthew, Aaron, Ally (his care coordinator), Garrett (from Chrysalis), Kyle (Chrysalis), Courtney (behaviorist) were in attendance.  They try and let the client participate as much as they can in setting their own goals.  However, Matthew took that to the extreme.  He had a captive audience and really likes to talk.  So this meeting was only supposed to be around 30-45 minutes and it ended up being over an hour plus.  Oh well,  they got some good goals set for Matthew and he sounds like he loves his independence which I am grateful for!

Matthew’s Shop Vacuum died a few weeks ago.  He called us in a panic to let us know. This was quite concerning for Matthew since he LOVES shredding papers so much and uses his Shop Vac to clean up the mess.  Aaron picked it up from Matthew’s group home to see if he could fix it.  Luckily it was just the switch that was broken.  Aaron went to Lowe’s to pick up a new switch, but the switch he got didn’t fit.  He had to order a switch off of Amazon.  It was supposed to come in two days, so that is what we told Matthew.  That was the wrong thing to do because when it got delayed in shipping by a week, Matthew freaked out.  Then when it did finally come in, things were so crazy busy Aaron couldn’t get to fixing the vacuum for a few days.  Luckily, Aaron was able to switch out the on/off switch and get it going again.  Matthew was so excited to get his vacuum back.  I am sure his house staff was excited, too--haha!!

Sarah had her dance recital last week.  We also got a copy of her and her team’s dance pictures.  Here’s my cute girl:

Here’s her team.  Sarah is front and center on the front row:

Here’s her head shot from the dance recital program:

Here she is in some of her dances:

WE were glad Grandma T could come.  Grandpa T wasn’t feeling the best so he couldn’t make it.  We missed him.

Friday was our appointment to get Sarah and Daniel’s second Pfizer Covid shot.  Daniel did better with this shot than the last one which was good.

Sarah was hamming it up for the camera before her shot:

The kids did great and now everyone but Noah has been fully vaccinated in our family.

The first week of summer we did a few projects.  I had the kids help me clean out one of the basement bedrooms and set up an office for Josh to do his Home MTC from next month.  We then cleaned out Matthew’s room.  He is a bit of a hoarder and we had to wait  to make sure he had everything he needed before we started cleaning everything out of his room.  We did leave the bed, bedside table and a desk in his room, but everything else either got organized or tossed.  We then tackled Noah’s closet.  He is a bit of a hoarder as well.  OH well, I am just glad we got so much done.  While we were cleaning stuff out Daniel came across a HUGE stash of rubber bracelets.  He thought it would be funny to put them all on and wear them around to see how many strange looks he got--haha!

Speaking of Daniel he started Summer Driver’s Education last week.  He started range driving today.

He even had to do some homework today.  He was asking me all about the driving/parking rules.  I must say I didn’t know a lot of them.  Guesstimation has always worked for me--haha!!

He also started Cross Country last week as well.  Hopefully, this season will return back to pre Covid normal soon!!

Wouldn’t you know it, Friday evening the garbage disposal died under the sink.  DOH!!  Aaron spent Saturday morning replacing it after a few trips to Lowe’s.  You can never get everything you need with only ONE trip to Lowe’s right?!  Oh well I am happy to say we have a working disposal (that was not leaking anymore) and sink again.  YAY!!

Josh didn’t have to go to school that last week of school.  That meant it was just him and me.  One afternoon after I got off of work and before the kids got out of school we went and played some Pickle Ball which was fun!

Josh graduated on June 1st at 5 pm.  Since everyone was still in school.  It was Noah’s field day and Sarah had homework so we decided to do a small lunch with Josh.  Daniel found out our plans and begged to come along.  I caved and checked him out of school to tag along.  We had a fun lunch with our graduate:

After lunch Aaron went back to work and Daniel back to school.  I then went around and took some graduation pictures of Josh at Syracuse High School.

While we were at the high school and taking this picture.  The high school Principal, Jed Johansen, and Vice Principal, Jim Hansen, came out to photo bomb Josh’s picture.  They both know Josh because he hung out with their daughters.  They seemed to like Josh so I will take that as a good sign that Josh was a good friend--haha!

Wahoo Graduation time!!

Josh got to wear some bling with his graduation gown.  The green medal is a College and Career Pathways medallion.  To earn that you had to take a bunch of college and AP courses in addition to being involved in many extracurricular activities.  The white stole shows he was a member of the National Honor’s Society.  You had to maintain at least a 3.5 GPA and do 20+ hours of service every year.  The silver cords showed he had a GPA above 3.5.  He ended up with a cumulative GPA 3.67.  Wahoo!!

Josh’s turn to walk across the stage after his name got called to get his diploma:

Before he went to sit down he took a big bow in front of the camera--haha!  I caught him mid bow:

Due to Covid they only allowed two spectators in person at graduation.  Aaron and I were in person while everyone else watched the graduation via a video link.

After graduation he went to the all night graduation bash at Fat Cats in Ogden.  He ended up getting home about 4:30 am.

I like to take the kids’ last day of school pictures.  I was not able to get Matthew’s last day of school picture since he doesn’t live here, but I included a recent picture of him.  Here’s everyone else last day of school pictures:

I then compared the last day of school pictures to their first day of school pictures this year.  First day is the top row, last day is the bottom row:

Daniel is still going strong with baseball.  They finally got their uniforms last week:

One of the first week of summer projects we tackled was cleaning out the craft room and turning it into an office.  Sarah would need to use it when Weber State Prep started the next day.  Weber State Prep is a three year summer program.  It is an academic program for students who are high achieving students between the grades 6-8.  It helps prepare them for careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields.  It is usually an in person program up on Weber State Campus, but they had to go virtual last year and will continue virtually this year as well.  Sarah is in her second year of Prep.  We picked up Sarah’s supplies last week and she got started.  She has 4 classes every morning M-Th.  Her classes are Algebraic Structures, Problem Solving 2, Career Awareness, and Physics.  Then they will have a few field trips and STEM activities in the park in the afternoons.  Here is Sarah doing her Weber State Prep Zoom classes in our new office space downstairs:

Prep ends the same day Josh is supposed to start the Home MTC so that seemed to work out--haha!

Daniel showed me some awards he got in seminary.  The Warrior of Light shows he did all his assigned homework in seminary.

He also got this pin, too:

He did receive a class award from his seminary class, too.  The whole class of 30+ kids voted on two people to get this award and Daniel was one of them.  Wahoo!!

Daniel also got some good grades this term, too:

Josh got some end of year awards, too.  He Lettered in Track and Field again this year:

He also Academic All Region since he got good grades in addition with doing sports.

Josh started the pre-MTC today.  It is where Josh meets via Zoom with a returned Spanish speaker returned missionary and the missionary helps Josh with his Spanish.  They have this one on one class for 30 minutes.  They then join up with some future missionaries from Josh’s soon to be Home MTC mission district for another 30 minute group Spanish session.  This is all happening so FAST!!  I did sneak a picture of Josh on his Zoom meeting, though:

What you can’t hear in the picture is all the crazy, chaos that is going on upstairs. With all the kids home for the summer....let’s just say it definitely isn’t QUIET!!  Here’s a small sample of the chaos.  The kids were playing around in the front room. In the video you can’t see them, but you can definitely HEAR them!!

I found this meme and thought it was pretty funny because it is so true for Josh, Matthew and probably pretty soon for Daniel, too:

Josh wanted to run a full marathon before he left on his mission.  He signed up for one out at Soldier Hollow in a week.  In preparation he consulted with his Cross Country coach who helped him form a training plan.  Part of that training plan included a 20 mile long run to prepare his body for the full marathon.  He chose to run that last week with a friend.  He even talked his friend, Nate Bingham, into running the marathon with him, too.  For the 20 mile training run last week they decided to start at Fernwood campground.  They ran 3 miles up the trail, 3 miles back and then ran all the way down Antelope Drive until they hit the causeway.  Here’s the view from Fernwood, their starting point.  The straight line down the middle of the picture is Antelope Drive and you can see Antelope Island in the distance.

It took them roughly 4 hours to complete 19 miles.  They were completely exhausted, but did all but one mile.  Hopefully, they will do okay for the full marathon next week!!

Last week the City Youth Council had a get together.  They did a fun escape room and then went out to lunch at Pizza Pie.  

They were able to escape!

Josh and Daniel were home together one night which doesn’t happen very often.  They decided to grab some dinner and go see a movie.  They saw A Quiet Place 2.

While they were waiting for the movie to start they tried to shock each other and get it on video.  They finally did capture it after quite a few tries.  They were so impressed with themselves they texted the video to Aaron and me--haha!

Josh went on a Senior Trip last week.  Him and a group of 24 other freshly graduated seniors went up and spent a week at a cabin in Island Park, Idaho.  They had a great time.  However, I had to laugh when Josh texted me this picture--haha:

During that week they spent a day in Yellowstone, rode ATVs and Side by Sides, tubed the Snake River, visited Jackson Hole, Wyoming, etc.  They stayed busy, but had lots of fun.  He even brought us back some Huckleberry fudge, marshmallow caramel fudge, and white chocolate fudge for all of us to try Sunday evening.  YUM!  Here’s some pictures from his trip:

Things are fun, but chaotic at times.  However, we love life. Until next time!