Car Troubles, Camp K, YM Camp, FSY, Father's Day, Running

In the last two weeks here is some of the things we have done. We were able to go to a local Farmer's Market. At that market they had a permanent jewelry booth. Sarah and I decided to get permanent matching anklets. Wahoo! All they do is get a length of chain with whatever design you choose, get an o-ring and solder it on permanently. 

Crazy enough Aaron, Josh, Noah, Matthew and me are planning on running the local 4th of July 5k. Everyone else will do fine. As for me I am just hoping to finish and not die. That is always a good goal to have--haha! That is why I am wearing running clothes. I have been trying to build up some endurance. Wish me luck next week--I am sure I will need it.

With it being summer and the kids out of school, they have been doing a few things together while Aaron and I are at work. They went out for breakfast one morning:

Another day they went to Classic Waterslides for fun:

Sarah and Josh even did some baptisms at the temple:

The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square did a worldwide broadcast. They made a big deal of it in Omaha and invited all the surrounding members and friends to the broadcast outside. Daniel has been serving in Omaha for almost two year (he comes home next month Wahoo!) and has never served in Aaron's cousin's area. They were finally able to meet up at this gathering to say hi.

Daniel and his companion also had a baptism this past week. Daniel is in his last transfer and looking forward to coming home and starting school in the fall. It is crazy that his mission is almost over!

Two Sundays ago it was Father's Day. Josh had left to go to work at FSY the day before, but the kids all worked together to put together something for Father's Day while he was here. Sarah and Noah got up early to make breakfast in bed and then gave Aaron a cool Hydrojug and Maverik gift card. 

I'm grateful for the amazing examples of Father's I have had in my life--from my own Dad and husband to others. They truly do make a difference.

Later that day for dinner Daniel called because of Father's Day. Grandma T was here and was able to talk with Daniel:

Matthew has sworn off soda because that is not healthy for athletes. He only drinks water or gatorade/powerade. We also had Matthew's annual meeting with all his service coordinating staff a few weeks ago. We set some good goals for him to work on throughout the next year. 

Josh has been busy as an Assistant Area Coordinator for FSY.  He did two weeks in Provo and Texas and then came home for a week. The past two weeks he spent one week in Missouri and then flew to Provo   (BYU) again.  Sarah actually is attending FSY this week at BYU, too. They will both come home Friday night so we can be together for the 4th of July the next day. He will be home for next week then leave again to go to Arizona for a few weeks then back up to Provo and Orem for a few weeks. Here are some pictures he shared of his adventures so far:

While Josh was in Missouri he found they have Casey's gas station. That seems to be a favorite of Daniel's in Omaha so Josh had to take a picture of one to show Daniel that Josh has been to Casey's too. They say it is the equivalent of Maverik here in Utah.

While in Missouri he found some Blue Bell Ice cream and bought some to eat. That is only a southern thing so he was excited to see it:

Getting some sweet tan lines:

Josh has always wanted to be the DJ for the FSY dances and he finally got a chance this past week. Hopefully it went okay. I think the sunglasses make everything cooler--haha!

With all the crazy schedules Josh is exhausted. He was flying from Missouri to Salt Lake airport. He then had to catch transit down to Provo. Unfortunately, Josh accidentally left his carry on bag at the airport gate and realized his mistake as the plane was making its way over to the runway. DOH!  He let the flight attendant know and they were able to locate the bag. He is now trying to see if they will ship his bag to him. I hope they will because it contained all his electronic stuff. 

The airlines have been pretty accommodating for Josh. He will let them know that he is 6'6" and most of the time they have put him on an aisle and occasionally up in business class to help accommodate his ginormica size. 

Sarah is going to FSY alone without a roommate this week. She was a bit nervous, but glad that Josh will be there even if they are not in the same group especially since she is an attendee and Josh is an employee.

Matthew got to attend his second week at Camp K this summer. I dropped him off last Monday morning. He always looks forward to that every summer. He is lucky enough to attend in person came three different weeks from Monday through Saturday. He has his last week next month.

Last week Noah and Aaron had Young Men's Camp. They went out to Currant Creek over by Strawberry Reservoir. They had a rough few days because they had some crazy thunder/rainstorms go through their area while they were there. When it wasn't raining they had a good time. Here's some pictures:

They got to see a double rainbow after one of the storms:

Aaron is not a camper, but as a YM leader he got to go. It was nice to be there with Noah, though:

The YM camp went from Tuesday to Friday. Aaron and Noah left Friday morning so Aaron could make his Temple volunteer shift Friday afternoon. So Friday afternoon Sarah was at work, Aaron was at the temple, Grandma T was at the temple, and Josh was in Missouri and I was at work. Noah took the car to over to the park to go running. So it really stunk when I got a call at work saying he couldn't get the car started and was stranded. We are really short staffed at work so it was really looked down upon if I had to leave early, but there were no other options. Aaron and Grandma could not be reached while they were at the temple. I felt terrible, but I had to leave work early to pick up Noah because he had to get home and then be taken to his work. After I took Noah to work I went over to see what I could do with the car. I took the battery out and took it over to get it checked. It was bad so I got a new battery and drove back over and installed it in the car. Unfortunately, it still didn't start. So when Aaron got home we went to tow the car home. The towing strap broke. That is when we found out towing is part of our car insurance benefits. They will tow for free up to 15 miles. We got it towed home and Aaron is now working on seeing what the issue is. Boo! I guess that is what happens when you let your kids drive cars that are 24+ years old--haha! Wish him luck!

Noah is continuing with Cross Country this summer. They all did a night run with headlamps and glow sticks Saturday night:

Chaos, Disneyland, Special Olympics, Play Ball, FSY, Storms, Camp K, Band, Planetarium

Wow it has been a crazy few weeks. Here are some updates. Sarah's dance has been in full swing the last few weeks of May. She had a dress rehearsal. Since all these events are Sarah's last dance experiences we went to all of them. So there are a few pictures--haha!

Dress Rehearsal:

The next morning Sarah's dance team left to go to Disneyland since they got the opportunity to perform there. It was bright and early!!

The same weekend Matthew had his State Special Olympics competition down in Cedar City. He has been so excited to go and compete. Since we were pulled in all different directions his house manager was able to go with him and sent us pictures from his competition.

Matthew ended up getting a gold, silver and bronze medal in his events. He competed in the 1 mile, shot put and long jump Wahoo Matthew!! Here's the medal ceremony:

My niece, Annika, got married/sealed Friday morning. It was nice to be able to attend that ceremony at the Ogden temple:

Sarah and her dance team set out for a fun day at Disneyland Friday morning. Here's some pictures she sent me:

Aaron and I decided to go out to Disneyland since Sarah was performing her last time at Disneyland. We flew out Friday afternoon and got up bright and early to be at rope drop Saturday morning. We even got a picture with the sign to prove we were there--haha!

While we were waiting for the rope to drop, these geese came over and hung out right by us. Aaron was not happy about that.

Sarah performed. Here's some pictures from that performance:

Sarah even got to do a solo:

Aaron and I have been to Disneyland for over 10 years. We loved checking out the new Star Wars area. They were in the middle of building it last time we were here. 

We made sure to ride Autopia. This ride was Matthew's favorite and Grandpa T took one for the team and rode it over and over again with Matthew so we rode it just because:

We also did Tom Sawyer's canoes. When I was little and my family went to Disneyland, we rode these. My dad, Grandpa T, got really into paddling. It wasn't until after we were done that we realized that he had soaked the poor little boy that was sitting behind him on the canoe. That was fun to remember.

The next morning Sarah's dance team was leaving to drive back home. We decided to stay a few more days. We went and picked Sarah up at 6 am and brought all of her stuff back to our hotel room. Then we made in time for rope drop at California Adventure. We spent the day together.

We did California Screaming coaster:

Radiator Springs Racers--we are all sitting in the back seat:

Haunted Mansion where we took home a hitchhiking ghost:

Hyperspace Mountain:

It was a fun and tiring day. We did hit Guardian's of the Galaxy a few times. We love that ride! We are on the front row on the right side in this picture:

We tried to ride all the rides:

We were exhausted by the end of the day. However, we got up bright and early and made it to rope drop again the next morning at Disneyland. This day was also Aaron's birthday. We made sure to try some yummy treats this day, too:

We made it to Ride of the Resistance for the first ride. We took some pictures with the Storm Troopers afterward:

We did go ride Autopia again. Aaron rode with Sarah and I rode alone behind them and got to critique them on their driving skills--haha!

Crazy thing was that this was their license plate:

We did go over to Toon Town and recreated a picture from the last time we were there. If I can find the original picture I will try to add it:

We rode Guardian's again and did our best thumbs up 'Matthew' pose for the camera:

Haunted Mansion with another hitchhiking ghost:

We made it almost until park closing that night. Let me just say we were all exhausted, but it was so fun!  

The next morning we got up bright and early and picked up a rental car. We were 45 minutes away from Sarah's Mission of Carlsbad, California so we decided to spend the day checking it out. We got to walk along the beach:

We stopped by the San Diego temple. It is still closed. We missed the open house by a week--DOH! It opened for the open house the week after we left. It was still pretty to see the outside, though:

Took a picture by the Carlsbad sign:

We even stopped by a local restaurant and had Sarah try some real and fresh seafood. She was resistant at first, but ended up loving it. We ordered a fish quesadilla, but they accidentally brought out some ceviche. It was so good and they even brought out the quesadilla, too. It was all yummy!

We flew home that evening. The next day was Sarah's last dance concert. Here's some pictures:

It makes me sad it is now over, but it has been fun watching Sarah dance at the same studio for almost 15 years! Grandma T was able to make it to the concert:

Matthew got a special opportunity through Special Olympics. Every home game they ask a special guest to open the baseball game for the whole stadium by saying/yelling 'PLAY BALL'. At this particular home game they asked Utah Special Olympics to have one of their athletes to do this. They immediately thought of Matthew. Matthew was beyond excited of course. They gave us 4 tickets so we could come and watch Matthew do this and the game. Here is Matthew when we were waiting to meet the lady that was going to take Matthew on the field:

Matthew and the mascot both waving to the crowd:

Here's a clip of Matthew on the Jumbotron:

Afterward they brought Matthew over to our seats so we could watch the game together:

Since we were out of town for Aaron's birthday I grabbed some birthday cheesecake and we all got together one evening to sing happy birthday. I bought candles, but they got misplaced so Aaron got off easy since I didn't have all 48 candles to put on his cake:

Daniel has been doing okay. He did video one of the worst storms he has ever seen. He even said the skies were green. Oh my!! He sent us the video after the storm was over, but we let him know that green skies usually mean tornadoes. He already knew, but that was a bit nerve-racking!

Daniel is starting his last transfer this week. He only has 6 weeks left until he comes home. This will be his last companion:

Matthew started his first week of Camp K last week. He was so excited to go. The camp staff that have worked there in the past all remembered 'GPS' since that is his nickname. He was bouncing off the walls when we dropped him off, however, the staff did well with him. I only got three calls from Camp K that week which was doable.

The morning we dropped off Matthew at Camp K also happened to be our 26th wedding anniversary. Aaron took the day off of work and we spent it together. We went to check out the new Salt Lake Temple Visitor's Center. It was really awesome.

We grabbed lunch at the Spaghetti Factory since that was a favorite restaurant when we were dating 26+ years ago. 

Josh has done a few weeks of FSY Assistant Area Coordinator. He has gone to the U of U in Salt Lake and Sherman, Texas. Here's some pictures he shared:

While in Texas he got to visit Bucee's:

He got home late Saturday night and will be here this week before he leaves again. His next area is Missouri. He is enjoying it so far.

Sarah had her 6 month ABCD study visit this past Tuesday. This 4 hour visit at the U of U involved a brain MRI. They do one every other year. After the visit we grabbed some street tacos for lunch.

We had to go back down to Primary's on Thursday since she had her liver doctor appt. They did the Fibroscan at this appointment. This is the last appt before she leaves on her mission which is crazy. She will need to do labs around her birthday and again next year around her birthday, but other than taking daily medication for her liver, she does not have any other restrictions unless any issues arise. Noah came along and talked me into stopping at Moochie's for lunch.

Saturday was the city parade. Noah was taking the ACT so he wasn't able to participate. Sarah got to hand out candy as part of the city youth council. They helped out with the 5 k race before the parade, then went over to walk in the parade. Here's the youth council before the parade started:

We went to watch her in the parade.

After she walked by us, we had to leave, because we had to drive down to Camp K to pick up Matthew.

Later that day we were able to squeeze in a temple visit:

Noah got to attend FSY the last week of May down at BYU. He had a good time with his friend Nathaniel.  Here's some pictures he shared with me from his week there:

Noah and I started band practice last week. There is a local marching band that only performs in the 4th of July parade every year. Noah and I have done this for three years and we wanted to do it together again this year. Noah will be playing the bass drum and I will do the flute again. 

The practices are once a week for an hour so it is doable. We only have two more practices before the parade so I better be practicing!!

Josh, Sarah, Noah and I had the day off today so we decided to go spend the day down in Salt Lake. We stopped by the new Salt Lake Temple Visitor's Center:

We then walked around City Creek Mall. Then we rode Trax over to the Clark Planetarium. It was fun to go there again. It has been a while since we have been there. They had fun playing with the exhibits. They did find out if you kick the wall by the seismograph instead of just jumping by it you get a bigger 'earthquake'. I told them to not do that again because you are only supposed to jump on the floor...

Tornados and how they form. I think Daniel could teach us about these after living in Nebraska/South Dakota the last two years!

Noah did remember from his siblings that if you keep one hand on this orb/plasma ball and touch other people you can shock them. I think he was trying to get them back from all the times they got him when he was younger...

Playing with the green screen:

Mars landscape:

Trying to 'land' the Mars rover:

It was a fun day and I am glad we got to spend it together. We did miss Aaron, though.

Sophie is doing well. She loves bringing you her toys, but she won't let you touch them, though. Crazy dog!!