Hike, Driving, New Job, Meets, Soccer, Bike, Missionary, Ice Bucket Challenge, Temple, Travel, Band

Here is what our family has been up to in the last two weeks. Josh finished his finals.  He tries to make it a goal to run/hike the Waterfall Canyon trail after each final. He talked Noah into going with him again this round. They had fun. Here’s a few pictures:

Josh must have a guardian angel watching out for him....There was still snow on parts of the trail which made it slick.  He slipped and his ear bud fell out of his ear.  Amazingly enough instead of dropping into the creek, it got caught around some branches and was saved from a watery grave. 

Josh gave a huge sigh of relief when he spotted it stuck in the branches:

Aaron has been trying to adjust the temperature of the fridge in the garage to make sure it stays cold enough to store food out there. He turned it up a few notches too high and how we found out is Noah got this bulging can of soda from the fridge. I am shocked it didn’t already explode in the fridge, however, Noah brought it in the kitchen and then decided to open it there. That is when it exploded and sprayed EVERYWHERE in the kitchen.  Wouldn’t you know it, the kitchen had just been cleaned from top to bottom right before that happened. DOH!!  Good thing I love him...

I promptly went and turned down the temperature in the fridge and checked the remaining sodas out there.  

Noah got his Learner’s Permit and we have not taken him driving yet.  He keeps asking to go, but we have been busy and not had time.  Besides Aaron and I are having a side argument oh I mean discussion about whose turn it is to teach him to drive. Aaron has been gracious enough to have been the one to mostly teach the other kids how to drive. He is trying to tell me it is my turn with Noah to teach him fully how to drive. I am not liking his opinion even though I really should take one for the team in this instance--haha!  I just have major control issues when it comes to operating the car.  It is really anxiety inducing to try and teach a kid how to drive.  However, I did bite the bullet and take him out in the church parking lot a few Saturdays ago. Noah has a friend who lives on about an acre of property.  Occasionally Noah’s friend’s dad will let him drive their truck around on their property in 20 feet stretches when he is helping them with whatever chores they occasionally need done.  Since Noah considers himself an ‘experienced driver’ after driving a truck in 20 feet stretches at two different times he thought driving a regular car in the church parking lot would be easy.  He occasionally can be a bit all knowing/stubborn as well (aren’t we all that way sometimes?!) so I knew driving with him might prove to be a bit difficult since I would need to correct/teach him at times.  Anyway, we got started.  Noah was a bit humbled because it wasn’t as easy as he thought for ‘an experienced driver’ haha!  I had him drive around the parking lot and practice parking, quick stops/starts, and using turn signals for almost two hours and he still doesn’t have it down quite yet.  I had to take a funny selfie as we got started--haha!

Noah had a track meet last week.  He got to try high jump for the first time.

There was a steep learning curve for him as he had never done this before.  I had done high jump way back when I was in junior high.  I tried to tell him the technique for it, but it is hard to explain without showing it. Even though he never got the jump quite down, I am proud of him for at least trying something new.

He also got to run the 4x200 meter race. Here is the baton handoff on Noah’s leg of the race:

Noah also got to run the 800 meter run:

Noah has still been doing soccer.  Here he is throwing the ball into the game:

Matthew has been working hard and saving his money.  Since he is receiving DSPD and SSI benefits he can only have a max of $2,000 in his account at any time before it starts affecting his benefits. When his total starts creeping up toward that $2,000 he has to do a ’spend down’. This next spend down he chose to use his money to buy a bike and a helmet.  He was so proud.  His house manager sent us this picture of his new bike. Matthew is pretty excited:

Matthew’s last day of work before he gets done for the summer is next week.  He is really sad he has to wait until the fall to start up work again.  I am so glad he loves his job so much!

Daniel had District Council recently. Here’s a picture from that with the Mission President’s wife who visited their meeting:

He has also been doing some Facebook live segments.  Here’s a few pictures from his most recent one yesterday:

They played Spiritual Jenga.  He continues to do well on his mission.  We got to chat with him Monday evening. We love the P-day calls.

Sarah got nominated to participate in the Ice Bucket challenge for mental health.  She nominated a few people to do it as well before she got dunked:

It was time for Sarah to get some lab work done to check her liver levels.  Amazingly enough her liver enzyme levels were the lowest they have ever been. Don’t get me wrong they were still high/out of range compared to the normal range, but they were lower than they ever have been. The ursodiol medication seems to be working which is awesome.  However, her hematocrit and hemoglobin were quite low.  I think she lost a lot of blood with her Wisdom teeth in addition to other female issues.  She has been pale, dizzy and lightheaded a lot lately and I guess that explains why.  The doctor said to get her on some high dose iron and he wants to redo labs in two months.  Sarah really felt terrible the last time she went to dance.  It was a grueling practice and she was struggling to keep up and not pass out. Hopefully she can feel better soon!! I was just really excited that her liver levels were lower than last time!  Wahoo!

It is almost the end of the school year which means lots of end of year projects.  Sarah has been working on this project for the last two weeks.  That means that this project has lived on my kitchen table for the last two weeks.  We move it to eat dinner then it get moved back.  I will be glad when it gets turned in Friday!  I will be able to get my table back again--haha! Here’s the poster board she is using:

The Syracuse temple is getting ready to open which is exciting.  Aaron will be transferring as a temple worker from Ogden to Syracuse.  He has been asked to be a Baptistry Lead which means some extra training.  He has had two different trainings inside the Syracuse temple.  At the end of each training he has had a chance to take a tour.  I am jealous because I haven’t been able to see the inside yet.  Aaron assures me it is beautiful.  He took a selfie at his last training:

The first day of the Syracuse Temple open house will be this Saturday.  That means it will be open for the public to tour inside.  Our Stake was asked to provide all the volunteers for this Saturday.  Our family was lucky enough to get some slots as ushers from 3-6pm.  Since we will be ushering we got to get some training this past Sunday at our Stake Center.  I am excited to get to volunteer. Sarah even got a speaking part for the baptistry. The rest of us are supposed to just help usher and not talk.  I am sure this will be a difficult task for Matthew since he is a pretty social guy. I am planning on standing next to Matthew to try and remind him to keep quiet....I think this will be interesting....

They opened up reservations to do temple ordinances for Syracuse.  Aaron signed us up to do an endowment session the first week.  I am excited to have a temple so close!

Noah had a Jazz Band performance a few weeks ago at the high school to help with a fundraiser.  Since it was such a relaxed atmosphere it was hard to get a picture of the whole band and Noah playing the piano, but I tried.  Noah got a chance to do 5 different short solos during the whole time they performed.  That was pretty cool.

Noah and another girl switched back and forth from the piano and the keyboard for each song the band played. 

Speaking of Noah he got to play a musical number in Sacrament Meeting a few weeks ago.  He did a beautiful rendition of I Know My Redeemer Lives.  It was so pretty. I am glad he loves to play the piano.

Last week I got to go do an endowment session with my friend Erin.  Afterward we got to go out to lunch. It was a nice way to spend a morning/afternoon.  It is great to catch up and hang out for a few hours.

Aaron got to go on a business trip two weeks ago. He spent a day in Atlanta, Georgia then he flew up and spent the rest of the week in Washington D.C. While he was in D.C. he had an evening that was free and got to watch a Washington Nationals baseball game with another coworker:

He also got to see the Lincoln Memorial:

White House:

Library of Congress:

Capitol Building:

Arlington Cemetery:

Changing of the Guard:

Eternal Flame:

During that week he was gone was extremely busy for me.  I had two work trips down to the prison in Gunnison, Utah that week. I ended up putting over 900 miles on the car that week--it was a lot! Anyway,  that meant both of those days were very long.  I also had to single parent it to all the kids’ activities that week as well. I was glad when he got back into town again!!

I have been looking for a job since December/January.  Since I needed to keep my schedule open just in case I decided a few months ago not to go to Women’s Conference down at BYU this year.  I was sad about it, but what can you do?! As I waited and applied to many jobs, I finally got one two weeks ago.  I was so relieved! However, they didn’t need me to start until May 5th.  So last minute I had a friend reach out to me to say that had an opening in their group if I wanted to go to Women’s Conference. Since things lined up nicely I agreed.  I was able to attend the Thursday and Friday sessions which was really nice.  I didn’t think it would happen this year so a last minute invitation was awesome. I don’t have many pictures, but I do have one of the vent Aaron and I liked to sit on and talk while we were dating at BYU such a long time ago:

Here’s one quote I loved from the Conference:

As I said earlier I started my new job this past Monday.  I am a triage nurse at an OB/GYNs office.  I have a lot to learn/relearn as it is with any new job. The first day was overwhelming, but it will be great.  I will be working three days a week which will be more regular and consistent than what I am currently doing.  Aaron insisted on taking a first day of work picture before I left Monday morning. Hopefully this old dog can learn a few new tricks--keep your fingers crossed for me!!

When I got home from my first day Aaron had dinner prepared for me which was so sweet. He gets home before I do on the days I will be working.  Anyway, it was Cinco de Mayo so he made one of my favorites--street tacos. YUM!! We had enough time to scarf a few down before we went to Noah’s soccer game and then back home to talk to Daniel for his P-Day call.  It was a whirlwind of a day.