MAY PHOTOS

 

MAY

 TWO BLOCK CHURCH IN PERSON!!

We were so excited this week to get to have the second block at in-person church finally!!  SO FUN!!  The littles were super excited to go to Primary (unfortunately there is no nursery yet... hopefully that can happen soon), I was super excited to go to Sunday School!  Which is saying a lot!  It was a great day.  It went pretty well.  Even Sadie did pretty good in Sunday School.  I was happy about that.  Here's to in-person church for the second block and hopefully we can take these masks off soon!!! 5-2-21

KELLY

Lacrosse practice and team stuff is getting really discouraging for Kelly.  All the jokes about her being crippled and useless are really starting to get to her.  You can see this wearing her down quite a bit.  It's been hard to see.  I wish I had a magic potion to make her all better or change her perspective somehow.  It's hard enough for me to not get to watch her play though, I can't even imagine how she must be feeling.  This has been a pretty rough trial.  5-3-21

BRADLEY

I have to say it's getting to be about the same for Bradley.  I get depressed just watching him sit on the couch looking at his phone.  He is not meant to be cooped up like this and off his feet!  It's so unfair that he has to go through this trial.  I mean, I am sure Heavenly Father knows what he's doing allowing it to happen, but man... I just ache for my kiddos and this down time.  I know they will make it through, I just hate to imagine the long term effects.  I am praying for them so hard.  5-3-21

A NEW FRIEND FOR MOLLY

Emily Shaw came over to be tended today.  Molly really enjoyed playing with her.  She is in Kindergarten so she can't play too much, but we will probably have her over again sometime soon.  5-4-21

LACROSSE MINUS KELLY

Well, I finally went back to watch the team play.  It's been a week since I watched.  I couldn't bear the thought of watching them when Kelly isn't playing.  And I must say it is somewhat painful.  She really was their star player/team player/captain/mentor and they are missing all of that right now.  I watched and they played okay, but it wasn't the same.  We had our meeting to plan Senior night.  I hope so hard that she will get to be part of that.  5-4-21

CHARITY'S HOME!

We got to have Charity home for about a week!  We were all in heaven over it :).  And we even got to have her with us most of the time.  So fun!  We were able to get Heidi's stuff out of the room downstairs just in time for her to be able to use it.  I was very relieved about that.  It's just nice to be able to use that space again.  Thankfully, my dad is able to store her stuff in his basement, so it's not a huge burden on her either.  Charity doesn't love the temperature of that room, but she was fun to have around regardless :).  We could hear her working during the day- kinda freaked us out a few times since we're used to the quiet.  She and I got to go to lunch a few times, spent a lot of time running my errands together and chatting it up over Keva Juices.  It was so nice!!  I miss my Charity so much!!  I hope she knows how much we love her and will come hang out some more.  We took her back on Wednesday to her new place.  I loved that her new place smells like my Grandparents' old house.  Even had the same flooring in the bathroom that they had in their basement :).  So fun.  She seems pretty content with her new place minus that the landlord barges in unannounced... that will need to be fixed.  But super excited for her.  She seemed so happy.  5-5-21--5-12-21

JURASSIC DRIVE THRU

I haven't heard a TON about this fun trip, but I wanted to document it anyway.  Aunt Jen invited Bradley, Erika and Jack (they were the ones who could go) to go to this cool Jurassic Drive Thru with her and Sam Taylor on Saturday.  This ended up being a fun outing.  They enjoyed being with Jen even though she was coming down with COVID symptoms from her vaccination as they were together.  Brad and Erika both expressed that they dinosaurs were pretty cool, but that the fun part was watching and listening to Jack and all his knowledge about dinosaurs :).  I loved that they enjoyed his enjoyment of it.  He is EXTREMELY obsessed with dinosaurs right now.  It's pretty cute.  So fun stuff for them.  Unfortunately, poor Jen was really under the weather by the time they got to our house.  I had been out, but when I came in the living room, she was passed out on the couch.  I'm mad I woke her up, but she was feeling chills and the body aches were starting along with a fever... she looked how I remembered feeling when I had COVID!  So sad!  I really felt bad for her.  She hurried off with Sam so she could go get some rest.  She was so nice to still take everyone even when she wasn't feeling great!  5-8-21

MOTHER'S DAY!

I had a very wonderful Mother's Day this year!  Everyone spoiled me rotten with gifts and treats and even a few cards :).  Breakfast in bed was delicious, we had plenty of time together before Nate had to rush off to meetings (I still can't believe Bishop had meetings that morning when it was Mother's Day and his wife's birthday on the same day!).  The kids and I played some of my new games while we put off getting ready.  I always love it when everyone plays games with me :).  (We organized the cupboards in the "game room" downstairs now that it's vacant and so the games are all really easy to get to.  I'm loving it.  The kids love it too and makes it more fun to play them together)  We got ready and went to church.  It was in person, but we had to leave after sacrament because the gym had accidentally been refinished (or whatever it's called)... such a HUGE bummer on Mother's Day and after only having one week with our second hour in person.  But we survived.   The rest of Mother's day was pretty sweet- we went up to my dad's for a birthday party dinner for my dad and with Steve- that was a lot of fun.  Felt like it had been a while since we'd been there.  I had planned some Monkey Pullapart Bread for his cake and I was just going to bake it in his oven, but of course the whole thing went haywire, spilled all over the inside of his nice, brand new oven, and filled his house with smoke.  So annoying!  And embarrassing.  But it did end up baking finally and tasted pretty good despite the whole annoying process.  But we had a good time.  It was fun to celebrate my dad.  We left to go up to the Family Meeting and to wish Ruth a happy Mother's Day.  That was nice.  Plus when we were done Becky helped me with the Lacrosse flowers/mini sticks.  I say helped, but she actually arranged them for me!  I did the wrapping of the floral tape, but that was seriously all I did.  I was SO grateful for her!  She really saved me and made them look professional.  I would have totally botched that.  I was so happy with how they turned out, I can't believe I never got a picture of the seven of them together.  And the one I got of Kelly holding hers is horrible.  You can barely see it.  I had spray painted small water lacrosse sticks gold and then we attached the cute flowers arranged by Becky to them.  I did that part on Monday before Senior Night.  I was really happy with how they turned out.  Should have taken a picture.  The ride home was really nice I got to chat with my kiddos.  I love spending time with them and feeling their love.  I hope they know how much they mean to me and how much I love them.  My life would be completely meaningless without them.  So grateful for their little (some big now) spirits in my life.  5-9-12

KELLY'S LACROSSE TALK

Probably one of the main highlights on Mother's Day was getting to hear Kelly's talk!  This was a very inspired topic (courtesy of her father) about pressing forward through trials (can't remember the exact wording). but Kelly did an excellent job.  As expected :).  I really loved her talk.  She used Lacrosse as the backbone and posed a lot of cool analogies.  It was cute that she made jokes about having two broken legs and still having to give a talk and then I loved that she said, "If I can't play lacrosse, then I'll give a talk about it".  In true Kelly form, she was able to make the most of her crappy situation and really overcame this trial through this talk!  I was so proud of her.  SO proud!  She did an amazing job.  I would like to get a copy of her "word for word" typed up talk and put it on here.  So many great lessons in there.  We were all a little disappointed to learn that the streaming of it- to most of the ward, since only those involved in the program were invited to the meeting- got disconnected early and the last half of her talk was not heard.  Such a bummer.  Weird that the same thing happened to Nate's talk.  But it's all good.  Another little trial we can all get over :). 5-9-21

APPLEBEE'S

Charity gave me an Applebee's gift card for Mother's day so we decided to use it the next day!!  We know how it goes if we put it off!  I still have the Melting Pot gift card from three years ago.  Embarrassing I know.  She's been a very busy girl.  (can you see my wink- I am not really blaming it all on her)  We did go out, but never made it to the melting pot for some strange reason.  We had a really great time at dinner though and had a lot of fun chatting it up.  5-10-21

SENIOR NIGHT

I will never be able to do this night justice just writing about it so I hope we always have the video clip of Kelly playing that night, but I'm still going to try to record some of the highlights/miracles.  This was a long awaited game.  The first miracle was when the sports medicine office assistant called me to see how Kelly was doing and if I had any questions.  How fitting since we were kind of wishing we had a doctor's note to let Kelly play in this game- Makenzie wasn't going to let her play without one.  I guess I should give the background that back on Friday I had called Brent to see what he thought the possibility of the doctor letting her play would be.  He thought it was a horrible idea.  To play and to ask the doc for a note.  He said that would be insulting and I could see what he meant.  So I had decided to just back off and do what was best for Kelly's legs.  It was difficult, don't get me wrong.  I had already planned out how I could doctor the other notes she'd gotten to say that she could play a few minutes, so don't think it didn't cross my mind.  But I didn't even call the doc.  And how cool that miraculously he called me!!  Or well, his assistant did.  So that was pretty awesome and since I had him on the phone it all just came out in a big blubbery mess that she really wanted to play in this game and that even though she was still in a lot of pain, she just wanted to play for a few minutes of the Senior night game!!!  Surprisingly, and contrary to what Brent had felt, the assistant said that they get these kinds of requests a lot and that they'd be more than happy to give her a note to let her play.  I was shocked!  I was SO HAPPY but I was SHOCKED!!!  And very excited.  Oddly enough the note actually specified that she could only play for two minutes!  HA!  Which was cool, but also a little sad because how much could she really do in two minutes, but whatever.  I wasn't convinced that Makenzie would be sitting there watching the time on it.  So anyway.  I finished the flowers, we headed off to the stadium to set up the balloon arch and move some of the Soccer team's senior night decor (hahaha!!  We're such mooches!), and then it started to sprinkle a little and looked like it was going to pour.  We all prayed it wouldn't lightning!  I didn't even mind sitting in the rain as long as they didn't cancel the game!!  They decided to recognize the seniors BEFORE the game instead of after which was unfortunate because Nate had misheard me when I asked him to bring the flowers, so I had just sent Charity home to get them!  HA!  She showed up just as we were starting!!  Pretty magical.  Another miracle.  Brought to you by a loving big sister who would do anything to help her mom and serve her sister.  Then, since she was standing there we put her and Lindee in charge of handing out the flowers during the big ceremony!  So that was pretty cool!  So they did the big announcing of the seniors, they got to walk through a tunnel of lacrosse sticks and teammates, then through our cool balloon arch, all while their little bios were read.  I LOVED THIS!!!  This was Kelly's big moment.  One she had looked forward to for at least four years.  It was pretty special.  And I was glad she got to at least have that!!  Her crowd was huge!  The cheering for Kelly was the loudest- as always- watch the video, I'm not just saying that- she had major support that night it was awesome!  She was happy too and that was good to see.  She got her cute flowers I made :).  Then the game started!!  This was so thrilling!  I wish I could explain the excitement in the air.  Well, at least in the air around us.  Kelly had several friend groups there, former teammates, the whole family, it was awesome!  Even Steve came!  We all screamed and cheered along with the entire stand when they read Kelly's name and number- everyone had been hanging on pins and needles waiting to hear if she was going to play this game, you could just hear the love for her!!  From the whole stand!!  It was priceless!  So the game started- Kelly was out there on the field.  It had only been two weeks since we last saw her play but it had been an eternity to some of us.  Felt so good to see her out there.  She was in the crease.  They had made up a play just for Kelly but it was a stretch so we weren't sure she would actually get to even have the ball, but we were okay with that.  Surprisingly though, they passed the ball to her and instead of her passing it to Piper which was the play, Piper was not available and she was going to have to find someone else.  She settled the ball for a minute and then noticed that the goal was open, and ran in to shoot it!!  You can imagine the eruption from the crowd!!  The ref blew her whistle before she could let go of the ball and called a shooting space which totally just blew my mind!!!  This was the coolest moment of Kelly's entire lacrosse career :).  She stood their poised to shoot it, the ref blew the whistle, she ran up and shot it AND SCORED!!!!!!!  The stand blew up!!  It was SO AMAZING!!!  I mean we were IN TEARS!!  MEGAN BUNCH was in tears!  PAUL ARNETT was in tears!!!  Even JOHN BUNCH mentioned he'd cried!!  I was crying, Nate was crying!  This was SO HUGE!!!  SO AMAZING!!!!!  Then our cute, tired, tear-filled herself, sweet Kelly, hobbled off the field toward a very excited and screaming team and coaches as her two minutes of playing time were up.  Oh man!!  It was so incredible!!  I know this doesn't do it justice.  But what a sweet moment.  So miraculous.  So magical.  Just a beautiful little tender mercy that I feel Kelly (and the rest of us for that matter :) ) totally deserved!!!  She had earned that moment and I was so happy she got to have it.  All the years of hard work and blood sweat at tears at every single practice and game.  Pushing herself to do better, to listen to her coaches and learn from her mistakes.  All the wall balls and mile runs.  All the drama from the players who weren't in it for the team.  Just all of it!  She totally deserved this moment.  What a huge blessing.  I hope we never forget that excitement and the thrill of what can happen when you put your whole heart into something and push and push yourself until you get it.  Even with stress fractures in both legs and feet.  She just amazes me.  Such an awesome night.  And really that was all that we needed.  It was an intense game and we fought so hard, pretty much neck and neck the entire game.  And as much as I'd like to just forget how it ended, Brighton got ahead by two points and then for the last six (it's been argued that it was 8) minutes of the game they played Monkey in the Middle behind the goal and killed the clock.  We stole the ball a couple times, but couldn't keep control of it for some reason, but ugh.  Such a bummer way to end it.  But like I said, we didn't need it to end a certain way- we were satisfied with that game within the first two minutes.  Heaven shined down on us that day and even through stormy, gray clouds, we could feel the love and watched that miracle.  So fun.  Now we rest up for the next week and get ready for Senior Night!  5-10-21

DAVIS @ SYRACUSE

Charity and I got to go to Kelly's team's game up at Syracuse High for little bit.  It wasn't so much the game that mattered (although we did kill them which was good because this put us first in region), but the time I spent with Charity.  I really enjoyed talking with her and having that time together.  We were in a little bit of a hurry to grab our Chick-fil-a for dinner and then make it to Luke's show in time, but we chatted the whole time and just really made the most of that time.  I loved it.  5-11-21

REGION CHAMPS

As we pulled up to the school drop off- about an hour late for schoo- so I could help Kelly get her wheelchair and go get her COVID test, we saw her whole team congregating around a plaque!  Her team had won Region!!!  It was pretty awesome that she was there and was able to be in all the fun pictures and share in that exciting moment with them as they placed it in the display case at the school.  This was huge!  5-12-21

LUKE IN HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL

Luke was a brainiac in their rendition of High School Musical.  Charity and I met up with Bradley and his friend Brandon to watch it on Tuesday night.  Brad had Prom Friday and Charity was going to be back up at school, so they weren't going to be able to come when the rest of the family was planning to see it, so that was nice that we were able to squeeze it in on Tuesday with them.  I loved that I got to see it early on in the week even though the sound system was having trouble that night.  Luke did such a great job!  I loved watching him have so much fun with it and being able to see all the things he had talked about.  Great job!  I was excited for the rest of the family to see it.  5-11-21

BRAD'S THREE WEEKS

Bradley finally hit his three weeks on Tuesday and was off his crutches immediately (also a little before that, but who's counting).  We went to see Dr. May on Thursday and the x-ray looked like nothing had been broken, so I guess that means he's good to go!  Dr. May seemed to think he needed to be brave to let him just carry on as usual, but we were okay with that!  He has some physical therapy to work on for the next little while, but other than that- he's back!!!  It's been so great to see him back on his feet and going going going the way Bradley does.  Such a relief!!  5-13-21

LUKE'S LEARNER'S!!

Lukey finally got to go take his test (testS- he failed the first one and then took the second and passed :) ) and earned his Learner's permit!  He and I got to go together, but they made sure to kick me out pretty quickly so I waited in the car while he did his test a couple times.  But so exciting!!  He is now able to drive!  We stopped at the usual church parking lot on the way home so he could practice for a minute!  That was really fun.  He's pretty good if I do say so.  Even in the van!  This will be fun to teach him how to drive.  I think he's even a little excited about it!  Very cool!  5-14-21

LUKE'S SHOW

Everyone finally got to see all the fruits of Luke's labor.  It was a fun show.  The kids stayed mostly entertained even.  Sadie wandered a little, but who can be upset about her funny little stomps up the bleachers in the silent moments of the play.  Kinda funny.  But Luke did awesome again.  It was a really cute show!  They did a great job!  He was even a little sad that it was over at the end.  I'm glad he enjoys this stuff so much.  Fun kid.  5-14-21

BRADLEY'S PROM

Brad and his friends were so cute planning their Prom over Nate's smoked food one day at lunch time.  They came up with a lot of fun.  They were using someone's 14 passenger van, they were going to go to Twigs for dinner then the dance, and then the next day for their day date they went horseback riding and then to Crystal Springs where they got kicked out for being naughty on the slides.  It sounded like a lot of fun.  I was really happy for him.  He took Abby- she's a pretty cute girl- I wish I knew more about their friends, but she seems nice and Brad had a really good time.  He was wearing his brand new suit that was magically altered in time.  He looked amazing!  5-14-21

20TH ANNIVERSARY

After Luke's show I was informed that I was being taken on a date!  Not the date we had planned earlier that day, but a date NATE had planned who knows when!  He made me put a blindfold on as he drove around the neighborhood trying to confuse me about where we were :) so cute.  I had to keep the blindfold on as we drove, parked, and then walked through the hotel in Station Park, to the door of our room.  This was so cute!!  As hesitant as I was to keep the blindfold on and be spontaneous, it was so cute and fun!  We got in the room and there were roses EVERYWHERE!!!  So pretty!  And a heart on the bed made out of rose petals.  He had gone to great lengths- it was so cute!  We quickly made plans for me to go home and get a bag of stuff while he went to get the dinner- SUSHI from Sushi Monster!  YAY!  (It was funny that I was able to find the car in the parking lot- I have an innate sense of direction- and then that the kids never even heard me come in the house, pack a bag, and leave... funny kids)  The sushi was amazing.  The night was amazing!  The morning was amazing.  It was a great time.  I'll spare you the details.  But such a nice, relaxing way to spend our 20th (HOLY MOLY has it really been that long!) Anniversary!!  I loved it!  We had to hurry home for Erika's soccer game- last one of the season- at noon, but we had such a nice time.  I hope it's not too long before we do something like that again.  We were glad the kids did well too.  So awesome that we can leave them overnight!  Kinda cool.  5-14-21--5-15-21

KELLY SENIOR PHOTO SHOOT TAKE 1

We weren't sure how this was going to go so  we planned in the back of our minds to go again another time too.  We went to Tunnel Springs Park up on the hill in North Salt Lake- awesome park by the way- and took some really great pictures!  I was super happy with how they turned out.  She was in a lot of pain so I don't think she loved the whole experience, but she did send me like 10 of her "favorites" so I think we scored!  We do still want to go take some on the football field eventually.  Should have done that before one of her games.  5-15-21

BACK TO TWO BLOCKS IN PERSON

We got to have the two blocks again this week- in person.  That was nice.  I still just wish we could do without the masks.  It's painful knowing that we're only doing it to please some grumpy, loud people.  I want Christie May to be able to come.  5-16-21

SIERRA PHOTO SHOOT

We went down to Riverton on Sunday evening to get some pictures of Sierra.  Bradley, Kelly, Erika and I.  This was a really fun night!  I wasn't sure how many good pictures we'd get, but they actually turned out pretty great!  The location wasn't my favorite and I had a  hard time visualizing how it would all turn out, but it worked great.  And it was fun being with Meg and Sierra and Nancy!  Evan was in some of the pictures with Sierra and Kelly so that was a lot of fun too and we loved having Nancy's input on a lot of the pictures.  Fun stuff.  5-16-21

NO MORE CRUTCHES

This was a very blessed day!  Kelly had done her three weeks with the crutches and even a lot of time in the wheelchair and really had done her best to recover her legs.  It was nice to see that they were in the process of healing on the x-rays.  He chatted about lacrosse, gave her some physical therapy exercises and sent us on our way!  Oh, let's not forget the note to play in Friday's game!  That was exciting.  This was a huge relief and even though she's still feeling some pain, it's nice to know she is on the upswing.  5-17-21

THE OLYMPUS GAME

We were very excited for our first playoff game.  We knew Olympus was further down on the list from us and we were prepared to kick their bums.  The coaches had prepared Kelly for her to not play this game because they wanted to keep her well for Friday's game which was going to be against the 4th seeded team.  We were 8th and Olympus was 10th.  So she wasn't planning on playing.  Then during the day sometime I got a text from Kelly saying that she was actually going to play in the game that night.  I gave her my okay (not that she needed it apparently- along with not needing a doctor's note I guess), and then didn't hear much about it until the actual game.  She had her legs all taped up and was all geared up!  I was surprised, but as we sat down (this game was at Barnes Park for some stupid reason- we didn't get to play on the football field), I got this sick feeling that maybe we weren't going to beat this team.  Maybe they had learned something about this team and we were worried about losing and that's why Kelly was playing?  I got a little nervous.  I was excited to watch her play though and tried not to be too nervous.  I LOVED that she started.  She was playing really well, especially for someone who hasn't played, or walked, in three weeks!  She won't agree with me, but I was really proud of her!  She played hard.  Maybe even too hard at some points.  She was in and out of the game, which I was glad she was getting some rest, but also glad she was getting some playing time.  They played hard, but were not in the game as much as they should have been.  It got to be pretty painful with how much ahead Olympus was getting.  My heart was sinking a little every minute.  I texted grandpa during half time when I realized and could come to grips with the fact that this was going to be Kelly's last ever game.  He was so nice to drop everything (literally- he was at Home Depot :) ) and come watch the last half.  She only played a minute or so of the last half and I don't think she got the ball much.  Nobody was used to passing it to her and honestly, the ball spent most of the time on the other side of the field.  Our defense was not ready for this game.  They did not get enough practice this season.  We could not with the draws.  I don't know what it was, but we lost almost every single draw.  Then with how poorly the refs were calling that game- they basically handed Olympus that game- we just didn't have a chance after a while.  It was pretty sad.  Even Kelly's moment where she was able to have a free shot got cut short because the ref had taken too long to blow the whistle and called an early start when she lost her balance.  SO sad.  So robbed.  It was a pretty hard game.  Sad.  Tears.  That was it.  The end of our season.  And what a great season it was!  I'm so proud of Kelly and all that she has done with Lacrosse.  I'm so happy she's had lacrosse and that it has had such an impact- in such a positive way- on her and her future.  It was a great run!!  Couldn't be happier with how it went!  What's next, Kelz?  5-18-21

CECE

After getting home from a fun Young Women activity, poor little Erika found her beloved hedgehog in her box, very limp and not responding.  She burst into tears and with Luke's help we confirmed that Cece had died.  It was so sad!!  I have not seen her this upset before.  Erika was hysterical for a good hour.  I was glad she was getting it all out.  Those kinds of things need a good cry.  It was really sad though.  We were all pretty devastated for her.  I wish I was better at those things.  I think we've decided we will try to get a new one once school is out, and she seems content with that idea, so we are looking forward to that.  Poor Erika though!  5-19-21

AUBREY'S SEALING

Thursday afternoon I got a text from Aubrey saying that the temple had opened her sealing up to no longer limiting it to 16 people, she could now have 50!  So she had thought of me and wanted me to be there!  How cute is that!  I was so flattered and totally went!  It was so neat to 1-be in the temple, and 2- witness the sealing of such a cute couple.  I don't know a ton about either of them or their relationship, but there was a beautiful spirit in that room and I LOVED the way their sealer did things.  He was so cool!  He taught us some really cool insightful things and reminded the couple of their covenants made before their missions in the temple.  I LOVED how he brought Christ into the sealing.  So awesome.  The spirit was incredible!! I loved seeing them come out after and being able to hug Aubrey.  She is such a cool girl and gives me so much hope for my girls :).  It was a really neat experience.  I left my coat in the waiting room, just as I had predicted.  5-21-21

FIRST TIME BACK TO THE TEMPLE FOR THE REST OF THE FAM

Our big temple day finally arrived!!  We were all so thrilled!!  There were a lot of things that tried to get in the way, lacrosse games, orchestra concerts, work and friend things, etc., but we made it!!  Without too much trouble!  It was a little crazy getting Charity home- I had left from Aubrey's sealing to go get her and we got back about 10 minutes after we were supposed to be at our appointed time for baptisms.  Kinda nuts, but the anxiety disapated when we got in the temple.  I just love that place!  It was kind of fun that we ended up inviting not only the Maughans but some of the kids' other friends as well, to use up all 16 available spots for our hour.  We had Brandon, Abby and Jaxx.  I loved it!!  I loved having Brad baptize me for the first time and being there with Erika and everyone... just so cool!  They hurried us through since the appointment time was shorter than before, but I really couldn't have asked for more- it was really beautiful.  As per tradition, we went to Great Harvest, but they were almost out of everything so we went over to Keva too :).  Noah and I left as soon as he had his cinnamon roll- he had a concert to get to!  5-21-21

NOAH'S ORCHESTRA CONCERT

Erika, Jarom and I went to Noah's concert together.  We were happy that Noah's songs were first so we could watch, enjoy his show, and then sneak out ;).  Noah did a great job!  I was actually really impressed with how well they sounded!  For a beginner orchestra especially!  Makes me so proud of Noah.  He looked like he was having a good time.  I love that he had his mask off the entire time and nobody said anything.  Funny stuff.  Rebel.  We got some Fiiz to celebrate.  5-21-21

KELLY'S BANQUET

This year's banquet was a challenge to plan- it was evidence that it's better to have someone in charge in these kinds of situations, but it worked out.  Makenzie wanted to have it at her parents' house with their pool, which was pretty cool- they had a great set up back there.  Kelly and I scrambled beforehand trying to finish printing the rest of the awards.  So we were about 25 minutes late.  Didn't matter.  Shortly after we finished eating they did the captain awards- this was Kelly's second time doing this and she was so cute up there.  She had put so much work into the awards with very little help from the other captains.  I was really proud of her for being so cool about that.  She easily could have announced that she thought of all of them and taken credit, but she didn't.  She had some really fun awards, using a "Most likely to..." theme.  It was really cute.  Her award was the "Most like to come in crutch" award which Sam and Piper had thought of.  I was pleasantly surprised that they even managed to say some really nice things about her and her playing along with the fact that she was on crutches for half of the season.  But it was a cute award.  Then the coaches got up and gave awards.  This year they were kind of lame- not like years past anyway.  Kelly and I both missed the fact that they used to go on and on about the players and brag about them a bunch at the banquet.  That part was missing and that was a bummer.  They really only gave out about 8 awards for playing and they were to the same four girls twice.  Kinda weird.  But whatever.  As they read the other awards I could tell they went strictly off of stats so I knew Kelly wasn't going to get one of those so I was hoping and praying that there was something for Kelly at the end.  I was very relieved when they pulled out the Dart Award (a cute little wooden stick) and started describing that it would go to someone who was an all around good person/player.  They explained it all and as they did you could see all the girls looking and whispering at Kelly... it was obvious it should go to Kelly, but I still sat there in suspense for some reason.  Thankfully! They awarded the Dart award to Kelly!  I was so proud of her!  It really is the best award she could get.  She IS the heart and glue of the team- she DOES make it a nice place for everyone, and she really does give it her all, even when she can't walk.  She was well deserving of that.  I want to get the stick engraved really nicely.  She totally deserves that award.  And I really feel like that's a life award.  One that represents who you are in life, not just in lacrosse, which at this point is way more important.  So proud of her!!   It was the perfect ending to her last season.  We watched the boring video- HA!  I'm a little biased, but when I would make the videos the last couple years Kelly would always say how they don't love the action photos- even though that's what I love :), and this video this year, was ONLY action photos.  Well, that's not true, she put the senior night honoring the seniors part pictures on there and it was pretty cute how everyone got all excited when Kelly's came on and then all quiet when Piper and Sam's did... I shouldn't talk about that, but it was pretty funny and obvious.  These girls loved their captain Kelly.  After that, Nate and I left, Kelly stayed to swim.  It was a great banquet, great way to end the season.  Just really sad that this is over.  I wasn't prepared for how sad it would be!  5-22-21

DAD AND STEVE FOR DINNER

We had my dad and Steve over for Sunday dinner.  Unfortunately I burnt the lasagna so it was good Nate had some chicken wings to go with it.  They were good company though.  Nice to see them once in a while!  5-23-21

KELLY'S SEMINARY GRADUATION

This ended up being a really cool night as well.  It was really fun that Grandpa Hatch invited himself to come to it :).  I was really proud of Kelly and all that she has done in seminary.  Not just graduating, but she has made seminary a priority and has always been the ring-leader of making her classes really fun and memorable places for everyone in them.  She's so good at that.  When she walked across the stage my heart jumped a little with excitement about who she is and what she might accomplish in life!  I am really proud of her.  Nate had to leave before we got pictures which is a bummer, but he was there :).  Good times.  5-23-21

LUKE'S CONCERT

Luke's only in person concert was this Monday!  I was so excited I didn't even mind going all by myself.  Stupid COVID rules.  But it ended up being so much fun!!  It was a boy band themed concert, so all the songs were boy band ones.  Mrs. Tingey had all the choirs sing together all scattered around the auditorium.  They did the colorful lights with the flashlights on their phones, they danced, they looked like they were having so much fun!!  So was the crowd!  I loved it!!  I really love how Mrs. Tingey does concerts.  Choir just looks like so much fun!!  Luke did great!  I was able to see him while he was on the side of the auditorium really well and then when he was on stage as well.  So fun!  Gonna miss this!  5-24-21

SADIE'S SICK

Sadie was a little under the weather all day Tuesday, I could tell she was going downhill.  I wasn't super excited about the night I'd have alone with her, but I was gearing up.  Unfortunately it was even worse than I'd imagined and she and I ended up being up most of the night!  Well, that's not true, she slept in my arms while we rocked til 4:00 in the morning when I had had enough of the rocking chair.  Anytime I got up she would wake up and wasn't happy unless we were rocking.  It was awful.  Well, it didn't start out being awful, I actually loved the snuggles and looking at her sweet little face while she slept, but by about 4:00 I had had enough.  So I put her in bed and let her cry it out for a good half hour.  She woke up half of the house, but it worked, she was totally fine with laying in my bed after that.  She I brought her up to my bed so that I could get at least a couple hours of sleep.  I can usually do okay if I get two hours.  It was a rough morning, getting up and getting kids ready for school, but I did it!  Even did some laundry and dishes and lunches... I was pretty proud of myself.  I was working on song lyrics all night so I was happy to plug those into my book in the morning and then got sucked into the book and ended up working on it ALL DAY.  Which was good because I needed to finish it.  I was glad Sadie's fever broke finally and for most of the day she was pretty enjoyable.  Sleepy, but happy.  She really is a tough little girl.  5-26-21

KELLY'S ANNOUNCEMENTS

We finally got Kelly's pictures done- the field was finally not being used (well, that's not even true, the football team were on it practicing) but we got over there and since she had kept her uniform a little longer to wash it, we were able to get some pictures of her in it on the field!  A highlight for Kelly.  Stupid me- I brought an almost dead battery in my camera, nothing to charge it or replace it with.  So it was a quick little shoot.  But we did get some really awesome photos!  She even liked most of them!  I was happy about that!  We were able to put them on a cute template on Walmart and get the special card stock paper... it was just how we wanted them and then Nate picked them up the next day and they were crap!!  Horrible quality!  Luckily they are really good about returns so we adjusted some of the lighting on the pictures and tried again.  Then we got them the next day and they were perfect!!  I was super happy about how they turned out!  Kelly was too, so that was nice!  Kinda makes this more real... Which is hard, but we'll get through it!  5-25-21

JACK'S BUSINESS DAY

Jack got to do his business day on Thursday!  We were so proud of his hard work.  He had come up with his own plan "Monster Pets", little creatures made out of pompoms and pipe cleaners, and he made them (most of them on his own) with the help of his siblings and even some of the Maughans made a few too :).  It was a group effort.  But really Jack did most of them.  Even had a giant blister from the glue gun to show for it!  He made his own poster- did a great job on that!  The only thing I helped with was making the egg carton look gold :).  He did such a great job on these I can't believe I didn't get a picture!!  Worked so hard and was so creative and did it all.  Just really proud of him!  He sold out of course!  Made lots of money!  5-27-21

KELLY'S BOOK

I was finally able to put some actual time into Kelly's book this week.  That's pretty much all I did.  But it was a lot of fun- I loved going through her pictures and thinking about the girl that she is.  All that she's done.  She really is a special little girl.  I'm so proud of her and the light that she shares with those around her.  I was happy to get little notes from so many of her teammates, friends and family.  And then the crowning moment when Paul's note came in!  That was a work of art and will totally make the book worth it :).  I hope she knows she doesn't need Paul's validation, but it's cool that she got it one last time.  He was a great coach.  I was happy she let me take a few pictures of her in her cap and gown for it as well.  I keep debating whether I should have just waited til after graduation so I could include pictures from that day (and cotillion for that matter), but what's done is done!  I ordered it on Friday morning!  They guarantee it by the 7th, but I'm praying it comes sooner.  Unfortunately it's a holiday weekend, so it will take a miracle.  One of which I know is possible :).  We'll see.  I hope she likes the book. I kinda wish I'd just done a video.  But maybe I can still do that... I don't know.  We'll see how it goes.  Bring on Graduation!  5-27-21

SENIOR DINNER NIGHT

We got to go to the Stake's Senior Dinner on Thursday night.  That was really great!  I loved Pres. Perry's Harry Potter talk, I loved that we were sitting with Kalli and her parents, I loved that we didn't have to wear masks, I loved the food (Apple Spice box dinner Waldorf Salad), and most of all, I loved honoring Kelly and thinking about her and her future.  The slide show was so cute!  I was really happy with the pictures I chose for her :).  They did a great job that night!  So fun!  5-27-21

BRAD'S TRACK BANQUET

Brad also got a swimming banquet- his was for players only so Nate and I didn't get to go.  But it sounded like he had a good time.  Didn't get too sunburnt.  I've been so proud of him this year with his running and with how well he came out of his funk from the broken leg.  He really was hard to keep down, but I'm glad that he just jumped back up when it was over.  I worried about that.  5-27-21

KELLY'S COTILLION

Kelly finally let me talk her into getting a new dress for Cotillion/graduation and we went to Journey 5 again- not a huge selection this time- so we tried Twirl.  She found the cutest light purple, spring-y looking dress!  It's the same style she always picks :) which is fine because she loves that, but it's just so light and spring-y!  I love it!  I keep hoping she didn't get it just because of me.  She looks so cute in it!  Even looks cute with her shoes she wore to Prom :).  She and her group of 18? people went and took pictures, then went to Olive Garden, and then to the dance where she moshed all night!!  They have a funny senior class that didn't want to have them play any slow songs :).  Funny kids.  The sweat in the pictures she has from the night is insane!  I'm glad she had so much fun.  5-28-21

DINNER WITH CLAIRE

Claire and I met up at El Matador in Bountiful and talked for four hours!  Oh and we ate.  It was really nice.  I loved it!  5-29-21

I WILL- CAMP MEETING

We had another meeting for camp- it's really getting close!  We are excited.  Time to think of a hoodie design and other fun things... can't wait!  5-30-21

CHECKING OUT THE BIG ROCK CAMPGROUND

I had found this really cool hammock structure camping ground for Kelly to take her friends to and we'd already reserved it, but we wanted to go check it out so she had a real good idea what it would be like next Friday, so we took a nice little Sunday drive up there.  The drive was pretty pleasant.  I talked with Kelly the whole way there.  It was pretty easy to find, only an hour drive, and looked just as pictured on the website.  We were pleasantly surprised.  Kelly seemed really excited about it and that made me happy.  5-30-21

MEMORIAL DAY

We had a really nice memorial day- busy, but nice!  We started out at the ward breakfast.  This was not my favorite part of the day.  There was a funk there.  Not sure what it was.  Then I turned myself completely off when we were talking about no masks starting this week at school with Gretchen and Terrie.  It wasn't my favorite conversation.  I did love talking with Barbara Farnes though.  Luckily we had the perfect excuse and headed out about an hour into it.  We needed a few things at the store and to wait for Brad and Noah who had been fishing with Nate's pontoon boat up in Layton, but quickly made our way up to Grandma Ruthie's for the family BBQ.  This was a lot of fun.  We especially loved the ice blocking and recognizing this year's graduates- Nancy and Meg (and everyone but me) put together a cute little presentation and surprised the grads with snacks and fun stuff.  That was super cute.  At about 2:30 we started rounding everyone up to go meet up with Grandpa Hatch and Steve at Nana's grave.  This was a highlight.  I love spending that time thinking of Nana.  It always makes me tear up.  I love that my dad gets all into it and spoils her with the flowers and makes it look really nice.  We always bring a bag of M&Ms for everyone to eat.  This was fun.  Steve hung on the cannon for old times' sake.  After that, we drove up to Grandpa's house for another BBQ.  Nate met up with us there and we were there so early that we ended up just talking for a while and then went out back for food.  This was a highlight for the kids- my dad was reminiscing about all of our old water fights and just couldn't help himself, he got his hose out and started squirting everyone!  It started out pretty innocently, but of course escalated to where he was just hosing the kids down!  Kinda fun really.  Molly totally got into this, way more than I would have thought.  It was actually really cool because she didn't cry about getting wet, she just took matters into her own hands and started getting cups of ice water in the house and then coming out to the back door and tossing them at my dad.  It was so funny!  Pretty slick of her actually :).  Brad and Kelly tried to get the hose from Grandpa, but he showed no mercy.  The best part was when Steve came through the garage door with the other hose and totally hosed grandpa down!  That was so fun!  Kelly would tell you watching Grandpa walking around with the hose spraying in his face and his glasses falling off was the best part :).  After everyone got soaked Grandpa passed around shirts and shorts for everyone to change into.  Kelly loved this, wore it again the next day and got lots of compliments :).  Molly also loved it and fought me on taking it off the next morning.  Kinda funny.  So now we know when the last water fight was :).  I've missed those.  After the water fight we came home to get some good sleep for Kelly's graduation the next day!  5-31-21