MAYNES FAMILY GAME NIGHT
We all met up at the Call Tower (Chris and Mark and Jaxson's breakroom) for a fun night. The only place I could find to get food (we were bringing our own dinners) was Astro Burger. It was actually REALLY yummy! And I got a lettuce wrap! Their fries are still the best. We all had a really good time. Even Sadie did pretty well until she got tired. We didn't have Nate, Charity, Kelly or Jack with us which was a bummer, but we had fun. I liked playing ping pong and Tetris with Erika. Around the world attempt with everyone was almost fun :). Kinda tricky with not enough paddles. The boys played everything! Erika played everything- decided she's not good at golf. Molly rode the scooter around most of the time- that was actually kind of funny. She was our name tag writer as well. She and Erika were the only ones to fill out their whole grid for the getting to know you game. Sadie tried to play with everyone- there isn't really anything geared to her, but we did play Tetris a little together and she tried to play ping pong with me and Erika, she was our ball girl too. We played cornhole too which was a lot of fun and she loved that. She loved the popcorn and drinks and kept begging me to make her some cotton candy even though we weren't using the cotton candy machine. The tv was REALLY LOUD the entire time, with Moana first and then Avatar (until I complained to Nate and he complained to his mom via text and it was immediately turned off- oops). Just SO LOUD!! We were all very overstimulated when we left. The funniest moment for me was when we were getting in the car and Luke had taken the towel and hoodie to Eli and then came back and told Brad he had just left it at the door and Brad kind of tattled on him and then I looked at Luke who was out of Brad's sight and he had his cute little trickster three year old smile on and quietly said, "I tricked him", just BEAMING!!! It was SO FUNNY!!! I laughed SO HARD!! They were funny the first half hour of the ride home, teasing each other, fighting over the charger. But good times! It was a fun night! We got home in time to drop Noah off at Brooks house and pick up Jack from Ross's birthday party. Then walked in to our beautifully sparkling house that Charity and Kora had cleaned while we were gone!! That was awesomme! I seriously almost cried. They did a LOT!! Even organized the pantry a little, cleaned the garbage can and the microwave! Above and beyond! So that was nice. And it was time for bed. 7-1-23
TEMPLE PREP WITH BRADLEY
I got to sit in on Brad's Zoom Temple Prep class after church. We both just went up and sat on my bed. It was great! Parker and the Caldwells are doing a great job! I can't wait to take Brad to the temple! So cool! I loved thinking about and bearing my testimony of the temple and the blessings we receive there. 7-2-23
PROVO FREEDOM FESTIVAL- FINE ARTS DISPLAY- ANNIE COLE
When I saw that Annie had been one of the 20ish artists invited to display art at the Freedom Festival I knew I just had to go down and see her! I was glad a bunch of the kids wanted to come with me and even Kelly and Kora were able to come. Parking was interesting and then I was looking at the map backwards so we went the wrong way at first, but then made it over there. Annie was almost the first artist as you walk in. It was SO COOL to see her sitting there with a giant print of her amazing picture of the boy talking to Christ. I love that one. We surprised her a little and got hugs, talked, took a picture, bought (or actually stole- don't worry I venmoed her after I realized I'd walked off without paying) two prints- baby Jesus and the Moose. It was SO FUN for me to see her in that setting and get to brag about her to my kids. She's so awesome. I just wish I could hang out with her more. She has incredible talent as well. It was a quick little visit and then we walked back to the car. Stopping to sign a petition about the new Utah flag... but I'm so glad we got to go! 7-3-23
JUMPING OFF THE BRIDGE AND THE "SHORT WALK"
On Saturday night Enoch had randomly spouted off an invitation to got jump off some bridge with everyone on Monday at 2:00. We thought it sounded fun, so we planned on doing so on our way home from Provo. I had timed it just right and we were able to make it. Unfortunately, we were not entirely prepared for this event. Nobody had mentioned the mile walk to the bridge. Meg was just as surprised as we were, but we trudged on. Not really knowing where we were going at all. It was SO HOT too. Probably made the cold water more bearable. I felt bad that Kora wasn't jumping and just had to sit there and watch like I did. But it was fun! We had a really good time. I wish I'd had better walking shoes and some water with me, but we survived. Poor Sadie wasn't the funnest to carry all the way back. But really. I think it was mostly my fault for not feeding my kids before we went. Poor kids! They had a lot of fun jumping off the bridge. Luke, Noah, Erika and Jack all did it. Brad wasn't able to come because he was working. Kelly climbed in the water from the side along with Molly. The Taylors are fun, it was nice to spend some time with them. 7-3-23
THE HATCHES- MOVIE IN THE PARK
Luckily, we made it back in time to clean the church and then host the Hatches and the rest of my family. This was a lot of fun. It's always good to see them. Nate grilled up some burgers and we all just played and talked. Lots of fun. It was cute to see how much Sadie and Aria got along. They were adorable. After we ate we rushed off to go see the movies in the park. They were playing Top Gun on one side of the field and Puss in Boots on the other side. This got a little tricky becuase I had mostly big kids with me (I was able to leave Sadie home with Nate because he needed to get to sleep for work in the morning) and everyone else had lots of littles. I took my kids and Charlie and Alvin over to Top Gun and Sarah and Heidi and their kids all went to Puss in Boots. Molly was with me and wanted to go over to the other one, but nobody wanted to go with her. She seemed to have fun with Kelly, Charity and their friends though. Brad was there with his friends too. It was a lot of fun until the wind and rain picked up. We sat pretty contently through the rain, but the wind was messing up the screen so we packed up and came home to watch it. Kinda of a bummer, but also I was tired :). Charlie and Alvin decided to go home with their mom. We watched most of the movie when we got here, but finished it the next day. Such a full day!! So much fun! 7-3-23
4TH OF JULY
We had the best 4th of July! It felt like everything went really well. I was happy. Brad and I took Luke, Erika and Molly over to Davis for the 5K. Erika was nervous and excited and trying to convince herself that she didn't need to win and Molly luckily found her tennis shoes to run. Luke was generously going to be Molly's running buddy! This was a fun time- Brad walking around talking to all his friends and their parents, I got to talk to Emily and Travis and see my kiddos racing their hearts out. So fun! Erika came in in 5th place for her age group which was pretty awesome considering she's now at the bottom of the age range. Molly came in 4th for hers but they recorded her time wrong for some reason and put her down as 8th place. Kind of annoying. But it was all good. They both did great! I was really proud of them. Luke looked like he had enjoyed it a little, not too tired even! I was glad they had the opportunity. We ran home, grabbed our snacks, chairs, squirt bottle and bags to collect candy and headed off to the Buddha Belly for the parade! I love that we can just show up and get a spot- unfortunately, the Maughans sort of drown out this excitement by putting their chairs up early and marking their spot. We almost went to a different place- if Luke hadn't been talking with Josh. It's fine! I just like our old way of doing things and that it still works :). While we waited, some of the kids went down to the Creamery to get ice cream, then Kelly and Kora got some popcorn- pretty fun, new addition to the tradition. The parade was fun. I loved that they recognized Macie Hill from last year. That sweet little girl will be forever in our hearts. It was a very somber feeling as they carried the banner with her picture on it. It hit me that they won't have to update that banner- she will not be growing up more than that picture. So sad for her parents. I hope they feel support from our community and know that we all have a special place in our hearts for their cute little girl. The rest of the parade was pretty normal, although it felt much shorter. There was plenty of candy thrown out- and I think they did a good thing having people throw candy on the edges- duh! Makes so much sense to have them do it that way instead of throwing things from the middle. Kept everyone on the sides. Brad loved the weird guy that came up to him thinking he was scanning his QR code instead of taking a selfie- he was taking a selfie- HA! Made me laugh. Charity was adorable and stood up with the kids- so fun! Sadie had a blast, everyone loved giving her extra attention and helping her to grab candy and stuff. Sunglasses, frisbees, bead necklaces (boo!), otter pops. Everyone had fun. It's really so fun that the big kids get into this with the little guys. Makes me happy. We had everyone there minus Nate, plus Kora. So it was a decent turnout. Everyone knows we'd rather have Nate with us. This was a bummer year with his work schedule- missed all the fun stuff. I loved the weather for this parade- cloudy for a lot of it, sprinkled, just not as hot as usual! I loved it! After the parade we came home to crash. Everyone likes to take a little nap after the parade. We all kind of rested and watched movies which was cool. I was trying to clean up the house a little for the Hatches to come over. We noticed that our new park was already in and open so we walked over there to have some new fun. It's a pretty great playground- got Sadie, Molly, Jack and Erika's approval. We got to visit with Emily a little til they left. It was a nice relaxing day. Around about 4:00 the Hatches showed up, then Heidi. We all kind of bummed around together waiting to go over to Barnes Park for Fireworks. It was kind of chaotic so I felt bad that it wasn't meeting some of the kids' expectations. I know this was a challenging time for Brad being his last one here for a while. But we ate our leftover pulled pork and sucked it up and had a good time :). I think the best part of the day was hanging out at Barnes for Fireworks. This ended up being so much fun! Everyone was there (Nate came for the first hour), we all played cross net, Spike ball (my first time actually playing) frisbee, threw the football around, some cards, took trips to the concessions for cotton candy and ice cream, sat and talked. I LOVED this!! It was so fun to have everyone together. The Hatches, Grandma Hatch and Simon, Heidi and kids, Grandpa Hatch showed up at the end, even some extra friends with us (Marco, Victor, Pierce, Whitney, Jaxx, Maddie, I can't think of everyone). About every 15 minutes another group of friends would walk by and stand and talk with Bradley. That was fun. Like a little reunion for him :). I loved how everyone was getting along for the most part. Sadie was having fun. We had plenty to eat thanks to Charity and her shopping crew and plenty to do. I loved it!! The fireworks were amazing as well. Always a good show! I noticed this year that they were letting off fireworks for a half hour! Seems crazy that you could do it that long and still keep attention, but they do! Sadie was hilarious to watch with. She laid next to me and marveled at the colors and sounds (once she got past how loud they are) for about five minutes and then she was ready to do something else and was making the rounds visiting people :). She was adorable. I loved having that time with her. Everyone seemed to like the show. We sat there on our blankets afterwards, watching the pile up of cars- hearing about a possible accident- and really the cars sat there in line, not moving for a very long time. I think we were there another hour before they cleared out. This was a new strategy to avoid the grumpy car sit and I think I liked it. We got home pretty late, but we would have anyway. Charity had parked closer to the main road and was only home about 10 minutes before us and she left right when the fireworks were over. So pretty cool day! We are so grateful for our freedoms- I hope we have them for a while longer- and grateful for the men who earned them for us. This is a great country and I'm proud I'm an American. 7-4-23
BONE SCAN, MISSION SHOPPING, RECOVERY DAY, YOUTH ACTIVITIES
Kelly and I got up bright and early (after staying up late- ugh) to head down to Salt Lake for her bone scan. She was so brave, laid in the "tanning bed" like a pro. This was quick and painless, which was nice. Then later, Nate, Bradley, Kelly, Erika and I all went shopping for Brad's mission stuff! So fun!! This actually felt like a huge relief. We finally bought the blessed shoes! Dropped about $500 on two pairs of Cole Hauns and 1 pair of Doc Martins. I hope three pair is enough to last him the whole two years. I spent a lot of time ordering all the little stuff online as well and we found a few other things he needed. So that was great! We're getting there!! Which feels really good. The rest of the day we kind of bummed around. It was really nice actually and much needed. The littles and I went over to the park to pass the time while everyone was at Youth Activities. They played pickle ball and they all met up with us after at the park. Along with Brooke Desmond and her kids and Julie Shaw and hers. Pretty good day. 7-5-23
THIS IS THE PLACE STATE PARK
Grandma and Simon invited us all to the This Is The Place State Park for Thursday. Everyone came except Noah. Sarah and her kids were there, along with Heidi and her kids. We had so much fun! We got to browse the gift shop for a little bit while we waited for Heidi. Everyone loves the gift shop, some kids think it's torture to go in and not buy anything. We got to see how to see how to wash clothes in a bucket which suddenly means so much more to us. We got to experience the barber shop/medicine guy/dentist. Simon was so brave to sit in the seat for a shave. We saw the bank, blacksmith shop, printing press. This was a highlight for Jack- his quiet, "I need one of those!" about the printing of the Declaration of Independence was my favorite. I'm glad Simon gave him a dollar for it. We played in the splash pad, another gift shop, the train ride! Then we stopped for some lunch, then to the playground and pony rides. This was a highlight for Molly and Sadie. They got to ride the ponies. Kelly got to check out a cute guy that we assumed was way older than her, then when she talked to him found out he's not only younger, but a service missionary... oops. Fun though :). After we rode the ponies and were walking to the playground, Sadie twisted or in her words "buckled" her knee and it was no longer working. She wouldn't even try to walk on it. It started to swell and was all red. I was really worried, but she's had this before and it went away, so I hoped it would pass. I had to carry her the rest of the day. We had so much fun with the Hatches and Heidi and her kids all day. It was super hot, but we actually survived. I had sent Brad off with Luke so that Luke could go to his friend's thing and then Brad was able to go for his interview with the Bishop for his temple recommend. Pretty awesome!! So we stopped in the gift shop at the end of our day to wait for Nate and Brad to pick us up. We were exhausted! Spent the rests of the day resting! Thankfully! 7-6-23
PRIESTHOOD BLESSING FOR THE THREE YEAR OLD
Sadie's knee was really bugging her all evening Thursday and then into the night. I was laying next to her, trying to comfort her and said, "I'm so sorry your knee hurts, I wish I could fix it for ya." And immediately she said, "What about that talking sing that made me feel better last time?" Took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about. She meant, talking THING, and I figured out it was the Priesthood Blessing she had last time her knee hurt. So I said, "Oh, you mean the blessing?" and she excitedly answered back, "Yeah! Wis Bwad!" I was SO IMPRESSED to hear a three year old asking for a blessing!! I said, "Sure, we could do that- do you want to have Daddy or Brad (since she has had both)" And she answered, "Brad!" Which by then I realized I'd offered something she couldn't have, Brad was out with friends, so I said, "Well, we have to wait if you want to have Brad do it or you could have daddy do it right now?" She wanted to feel better sooner I think and said, "Okay, Dad." So I went and got Nate and had him give her a blessing. It was so cute!! Right after the blessing she rolls over and quietly whispers, "I feel a little better." and went right to sleep. Talk about a core memory for the Priesthood! Made me so happy. 7-6-23
TEMPLE BAPTISMS
I had stayed up so late with Sadie the night before, I asked Nate to take the kids in the morning to the temple. He was so nice to do that. Brad and Erika were the only ones to go. But sounded like they had a great time. We had invited the Hatches, but it was too early for them too. 7-7-23
ERIKA DERMATOLOGIST
Erika had her follow up for her warts on Friday. This appointment was a little disappointing for us both. Not much progress has been made, and they just wanted to do some more of the same stuff. So hopefully it works, but I'm kind of hoping we can just do something more substantial. 7-7-23
DATE NIGHT
Nate and I made it out for our date this week! I was so glad!! I needed it so bad! We went up to Ogden for Biscuits and Hog for dinner and then The Sound of Freedom. The movie was sold out everywhere else! Such a well done movie. I wish it didn't have to be so sad, but I also think it's important to bring awareness to the problem. They did a really good job with it. I hope they do more of them. 7-7-23
BLOWN UP MAILBOX
Friday night 12:39ish (arguable), about an hour after I got Sadie to sleep and I had just fallen asleep. We heard FOUR (this is also an arguable number) loud booms! Like SO LOUD! And it is firework season so we weren't sure what we had heard, Nate and I. So we kind of laid there. Right after the booms I heard sirens so I figured the problem was being taken care of. Then I started to hear people stirring downstairs. That was when Nate got up. I was glad, I was tired. Then a few seconds later he came back up and quietly announced someone had blown up our mailbox! while pulling some shorts on. This woke me all the way up and I grabbed my sweats and ran outside. Lisa, Corbin, Sophie, and Kelly were all out there. Kelly was trying to dampen out the smouldering from the mail on the lawn, also burned her fingers. My very first thought had been what if Brad's passport was in there?!! So I went through the charred mail real quickly before anything else. No passport thank goodness. Nate was filling up a bucket of water and made it out right then, so we put the mail in it. Then I surveyed the scene a little. The whole top of the mailbox had completely blown off and was very mangled. There was a firework stump laying on the ground. Lisa informed us of the cloud of smoke and that Todd Worthington had been out there and he was going to check his camera but then he said it wasn't the right angle. We were very anxious to get our hands on some footage that would tell us who did it. Kelly got on the phone and called the police. They came. Most of the neighbors scattered once they got there and got our statements. They were very nice and tried to help. There really wasn't anything they could do. They did go around looking for anyone suspicious and found Nate and Brad who had taken it upon themselves to scout out the neighborhood also. Kinda funny to see two people with barefeet walking around at 1:00 in the morning. I was so relieved that Sadie hadn't woken up. Noah and Luke had heard it and watched a lot of the happenings from their window but never came out. Nobody else in the house had seen or heard anything. Poor Kelly and Brad thought it was gun shots and had chosen to lock the door rather than go outside until they saw Lisa out there. Thankfully, Lisa was still packing for their trip and was right out there the minute it happened. I can't believe how lucky we were, having just imipact our mailbox. It really could have been so much worse!! That as a really dangerous stunt. In the morning, Nate took off to go find a mailbox, I made a post on the Ponds Park page, then texted around looking for camera footage. Richelle Pearce had "three souls walking toward our house" and then the explosions which was crazy you could see from her house- her cameras don't get a wide enough angle to go past Danaluk's boat. She also noticed a clip of some fireworks going off up the street which Brad brought up with Pres. Larsen at his interview and HE was able to send over some footage of the three souls walking past his house and tossing fireworks into the storm drain up there. Kinda nuts. Not good enough footage unfortunately. But so crazy! We have our suspicions and we go back and forth between thinking we know and not. Felt really unsettling and left us wishing we could punish someone :). But we are safe, our cars are safe, all the houses are safe, the light pole is safe. So many things DIDN'T go wrong. So we are grateful for that. 7-8-23
WEST BOUNTIFUL PARK
We got together with the Sarah and her kids, Grandpa Hatch brought Heidi's kids and Jo, Grandma Hatch and Simon at the WB. This is kind of a tradition with our families and ended up being a lot of fun. We were all excited for Brent to be flying in that evening and Sarah had to take off for that later in the evening. But we spent the time chatting, the kids played crossnet again, they played on the playground, but it was REALLY hot so they spent a lot of time in the shade with us. Brad, Noah and Erika were trying some back flips on the grass- kinda cool! Nate had a catering job that night, so he and Charity were working on delivering wings and mac and cheese to West Point. Kelly was in Logan and Luke was hanging out with friends, but we had everyone else. Grandpa was a lot of fun on the playground. He brought two pizzas and some fruit salad for everyone. That was nice. Oh also a half eaten cake for everyone to celebrate Alyssa's birthday that day! It was a fun time. I was glad we were there to see Brent's kids SO EXCITED to see him! That was really cute actually. He got there pretty late and there wasn't a ton of time left to visit, but it was fun to talk with him a little. I miss him. Brad got a little hungry as the night went on and took off for some Little Caesars and I am still in awe at how quickly we put away those two Little Ccaesar's pizzas. In fact, I had sent Jack to fill up my water bottle (because he was parched and grumpy and needed some water) and he MISSED THE PIZZA!! It was like a minute. Maybe not even a whole minute. Kinda nuts. But glad everyone got more food. I think we ended up going home at about 9:30, so it was a late night. Fun and late. 7-8-23
HATCHES AT CHURCH WITH US TO HEAR ERIKA'S TALK AND SADIE'S FIRST TALK
Erika was giving a talk this week and I had told the Hatches they could come see her :). So they did! Kinda fun! They were there for all of church. Erika did an awesome job on her talk! I was SO proud of her!! She got to speak on girls camp and the girls camp theme- Light in the Darkness. I loved hearing her thoughts and testimony. I was a little bummed Sarah had to stay in the nursery with Aria, but I did have Kelly with me in RS so that was good. It was a fun, different, Sunday. We also got to go see Sadie give her first talk in Primary! She did so good! I was so proud of her. Before we left for church she had evolved from not really understanding what we were doing to "I don't need any help talking". It wasn't until seconds before her talk that she turned around from her seat in Primary and said, "Can you come up with me!?" she's so funny. She had helped me write her talk, I gave her little prompts and she filled in the blanks. Our favorite part was that she can help by "cracking eggs for mom" or "telling my friends they are funny" HA! Funny girl. She was adorable and did awesome. After church it was a free for all with the frozen foods and leftovers- kinda lame now that I look back, but oh well. Then we all just kind of bummed around and talked until about 5:45 when Charity fed us all her amazing shrimp tacos! So yummy! She had slaved all afternoon on these. So nice of her to offer to cook. 7-9-23
CHARLIE'S RECITAL
After dinner it was time for Charlie's recital. This was one of the few Sundays Nate would be able to go to the family meeting since this is his time off, so he opted to go up there. He took Charity, Kelly and Sadie with him. Brad, Luke, Noah, Erika, Jack and Molly all came with me to listen to Charlie play. It was a huge bummer that we had to divide and conquer, but I did enjoy listening to Charlie and watching Brent glow with pride over his son's amazing talent. He did awesome! I wish I knew more about that music, but it was cool to hear him play. Sarah's dad quizzed Brad a little on his Spanish, we grabbed some sugary Swedish fish, and then we were off! The rest of the evening we just relaxed. It was kinda nice. It's been an exhausting week/weekend, so this was nice. We still had a full week ahead as well. 7-9-23
PINEVIEW WITH THE HATCHES
This was a really fun day! We caravanned up to the lake with Brent and his family behind. We were shocked at how high the lake was! Our usual spot was basically non-existent and had the maximum of five people already on there- tiny little piece of beach- so crazy!! Last year it was like 100 yards of beach from the water to the trees! So we drove on. Made our way through the "swamp" and up to another little "beach". It was tiny and I knew it was going to fill up with people, but it was kind of our only option. The nice thing was that it was right next to the car- so no long trips hauling gear! We set up the canopy and chairs, got our food out and going. Nate and Brent filled up the paddle boards and canoe- it was going to be a fun day!! Heidi showed up with her kids. My mom and Simon showed up. We all sat and talked, watched the kids out on the paddle boards, ate yummy cotton candy grapes that I love! It was pretty windy really early on and that did put a damper on the fun, but we managed to enjoy ourselves. We ended up taking down our canopy a couple hours before we left because it was getting busted from the wind. Sadie had fun playing in the sand. She wasn't all that interested in the water. Kelly and Erika had tried to take her out on the canoe and when it almost tipped over she decided she was done. She was happy with Aria that day and they had a lot of fun together. It was fun to get pictures of the three three year olds who were only all three for three days :). Moms. We're weird. Molly was out in the water the entire time- I hardly saw her! She had a blast! Paddle boarding, canoeing... you name it. Same with Jack. He really had a lot of fun with Savannah out on the paddleboard. That was fun to watch. Erika spent some time under the canopy, then a lot of time out on the water. I was glad she was having so much fun with Alvin again. They had gotten along so much last time the Hatches were here and not as much this year. Noah was funny- spent a lot of time in the water and then a LOT of time sleeping in the sun on his chair. Ended up with some pretty funny tan lines. One across his face and then arms down the front of his chest. Funny boy. Actually everyone ended up pretty burnt to a crisp- including Kelly! Which I felt really bad about!! She was FRIED. I tried to tell her not to sit in the sun but alas. She was in so much pain the next day she needed a blessing. I hate when she does that. But she did spend a little time out on the lake with the canoe and paddleboards- it's always fun to see Kelly having some fun. Luke had been invited to Bear Lake with Jaxx and friends so he wasn't with us. Brad was working on Oliekan's park strip- he texted me that they had dumped off 13,000 pounds of dirt total! Holy moly! He's been making a lot of money working for the neighborhood. We missed them both, but glad they were having fun and making money. Nate spent most of the time playing bushing with Brent. I think Brent taught him how to do a friction fire. They looked like they were having fun. I spent a lot of the time tied to my chair, to keep the canopy down. Then just sitting in my chair because I was loving being able to relax a little. I think we stayed til about 3:00 and then started making our way home. Nate needed to go to Cabellas and the groceyr store and then he provided us with Pulled pork sandwiches and his famous mac and cheese. Both were amazing. Brent even confirmed it. Brent was acting like he'd never had Nate's pulled pork and coleslaw. Kinda funny. And everyone loved his mac and cheese. It's nice that Nate likes to cook for people. I've hardly cooked all summer. We played a little that evening after dinner. Charlie had a piano lesson that Sarah and Charlie left for and then we all met back up with them at the Hokulia for some late night snow cones. That was fun. It was a great day!! 7-10-23
SADIE'S FOURTH BIRTHDAY!
Erika and Molly moslty and I did a little- slaved over Sadie's birthday sign the night before. They did such a good job! Sadie slept in and woke up pretty late, but LOVED her sign. Wanted to show it to everyone :). So cute. She was very happy about her birthday. We had dippy eggs for breakfast- Sadie's favorite. Then we played a few games, made her cupcakes together. For the past year she has wanted rainbow cupcakes and then at the last minute changed her mind and picked some rainbowish unicorn ones. So funny. but they turned out super cute! I was really surprised at how easy the swirly look was! We also made some princess ones for Alyssa. Thanks to Nate we had toppers :). Nate had been getting ready for his backpacking trip all day. So we snuck that in to his errands. Then at 2:00 it was time to go swimming! We loaded everyone (except Charity, Kelly and Noah) up in the car and headed down to the Lindon Aquatic Center. We met up at the pavillion outside the pool and sang to our birthday girls, ate cupcakes, opened presents and then hustled over to the pool. This pool was pretty awesome! I was so glad I found it. It was only $5 a person and was really nice! Two big slides, some little kid ones, rock wall, obstacle course, lazy river... so much fun!! Erika took off with Sadie at first and then once I got out there she was pretty much my buddy the entire time. We had a lot of fun. Lazy river a few times around. Then the yellow slide about 20 times, then some more lazy river. It was fun to talk with everyone. We went around the river with grandpa a few times. Then the little kid area at the very end. She was finally brave enough to go on the little slides and relaly loved them! I need to get the pics from Nate's phone- so cute! It was a pretty fun time! I was glad the Hatches were here to enjoy it with us. Also Grandpa Hatch had made a huge effort to be there. I wonder how much longer we can do the combined birthday parties for Alyssa and Sadie :). On the way home we stopped at a couple 7-11's for slurpees- the first one was out, the second one had a grumpy lady dishing them up for everyone... she sort of sucked the fun out of the whole thing, but hey, we got free slurpees. Beggars can't be choosers. The tradition continues. We got home in time to open a few more presents. She loved her gifts and had such a fun spoiled day! She's been the first kid to not get completely overstimulated on their birthday at this age. Kinda nice. 7-11-23
BACKPACKING
Nate, Bradley, Luke, Noah, Erika, Jack and Molly all went backpacking again this year. It was a lot of work Wednesday morning, getting ready and with Erika's basketball camp, they didn't leave until almost 2:00, but they were all very excited! I'm praying for Jack's shoulders to hold up. He got so fried at Pineview and then I made the dumb decision to tell him to wear his BLACK shirt to the pool where he ended up NOT ever cooling them off in the water so the sunburns blistered. So carrying a backpack was out and thankfully Nate and the older kids were okay dispersing his stuff throughout their packs so that he could still come. I was glad they made that happen- he would have hated staying home. I hope they had fun!! 7-12-23
DATE WITH CHARITY
Wednesday was the perfect night for Charity and I to finally go out. She chose to go see Sound of Freedom. So after work, she met up with me at Costa Vida for our grilled chicken salads and then we walked over to the theater. The movie was great again, Charity loved it. It was a great time together. I loved talking with her. My favorite part was the fruit fly that's following her around everywhere she goes. HAHA!! She's funny. Thanks to my mom for tending Sadie for me. 7-12-23
SADIE AND MOMMY AND SOMETIMES KELLY AND CHARITY
We had a good four days, just the two and sometimes three of us! Didn't do too much, but kept it exciting enough that Sadie was happy! I got the toy room, game room and crawl space mostly cleaned up. We met up with Grandpa for some Olive Garden. Shopping and getting toys or treats for Sadie. Ran lots of my errands I've been putting off- taking back stuff that didn't fit Brad for his mission. Stopped at the hoodie place to hear about the hoodie options. Broke my sewing machine. The park! We watched lots of tv, movies and played mancala more times than I thought I could. We had easy food the entire time, and tried really hard to keep up on the laundry and cleaning up the house. It was not near as productive as I had hoped it would be. I'm not sure why. I have been completely lacking motivation and when Sadie puts up a fight on something I already don't want to do- it's just not going to happen. So we were lazy and had fun. It has been really nice though. I miss everyone. It's so weird to now have more people in the house. It was good on the last night because Sadie's knee was hurting again. This was so sad, she kept crying for "the talk" and knew herself she couldn't have it because Nate and Brad weren't there. Kinda cute that she knows what a Priesthood blessing is, but I was really sad I couldn't help her with that. It was 3:00-5:00 in the morning though and I really hesitated to call the ministers or anyone else. I think it was okay because she did eventually fall asleep. Tough stuff. But she wasn't waking up anyone else all night, and that seemed to be a bit of a relief. Can't wait to have them all back home though!! 7-12-23--7-15-23
PARK WITH KIRSTIN BILLINGSLY
While Sadie and I were at the park, Sis. Billingsly showed up and started a conversatin with me about how NPS has sewing machines! I felt like she was totally inspired to tell me that. I had just been fretting over my now broken sewing machine- thanks to Sadie tripping on the cord stretched in the wrong place and pulled the whole machine down on the ground, plummeting to its death. So I thought she was totally inspired to say something! Kinda funny. She was interesting. She doesn't love the ward. Hates testimony meeting. Feels like everyone is judging her. Kinda sad. I am going to try to reach out and be friendly. Let's see if I can. 7-14-23
FASTING FOR THE PASSPORT
I decided it was time to fast for Brad's passport to finally come. I couldn't wait any longer and it's all out of my hands basically, so this was the least I could do. I think Kelly was fasting with me. Cool girl. 7-14-23
SUNDAY SCHOOL
I really loved our lesson on Sunday and then Cameron's comment about how she just felt the spirit the whole time she was in the class, just solidified it. I loved hearing the kids' thoughts on why they choose to believe in Christ. I really think that was the question that started it. I was glad it was a good class since it was my last one with Bradley. Tears. I can't believe we're getting so close. Anyway- I wanted to remember that we had a good one :). Sometimes I second guess things. 7-16-23
NOAH SETTING APART- KEYS
Noah was set apart and given keys to lead the Teacher's quorum as President. Very cool. I am really proud of him and know he will do a great job. He shared a lot of the attention as we all talked about Brad's mission/farewell for a few minutes before. Apparently, Bishop and Jay will not be there. But I really wanted things to be about Noah right then, so luckily we moved on to that :). Such a cool thing to actually be receiving keys. I hope he knows how important that is. 7-16-23
MUELLER PARK WITH THE HATCH SIDE
My dad invited us all up to Mueller Park for a bbq as kind of a last hurrah with the Hatches. We had such a great time and it was so fun to see the kids hanging out and having fun together one last time. We had everyone there, they were playing Bunny Bunny and Big Bootie, little kids were running around squirting everyone, Kelly got stung by a bee! Grandpa was grilling up hot dogs and hamburgers. It was a really good time. I loved that Brad was brave enough to ask our "neighbors" if we could have some plastic ware. Two separate neighbors donated to our cause :). Sadie initiated the fellowshipping of the little kids next to us- that was adorable. They all ran around together most of the time we were there. She's such a good little friend. I love that she is so outgoing sometimes. We loved hearing Brent, Grandpa and Nate play She's a 10, but...-- HA! Good times. We gave our hugs goodbye- hopefully we see them sooner than later. 7-16-23
FAMILY CAMPING TRIP- LOST LAKE
We had a long, casual morning of getting ready to go camping. We didn't want to feel rushed, so while we said we were going to leave around noon, we really didn't expect to get out til much later. And we didn't. But it was nice that it was fairly relaxed. Nate did all the work on the packing up the trailer, I did all the work on the food and packing kids stuff (which I failed miserably at). I like getting most of the food prep out of the way. Makes things so much nicer when we're camping. We got up to our beautiful campsite complete with yurt around dinner time. We quickly got things set up- it was different with a new tent and new canopy, both very nice! I was so relieved Kelly was going to have a yurt with a full on bed inside. Two beds actually, so Erika and Molly slept in there as well. So cool! We were right off the lake, so we had our own access and really everyone came and went as they pleased. The boys were constantly off fishing and the rest of us played games, made bracelets, laughed. It wasn't until Nate drove home the first night to get the life jackets we left home that we were able to swim, but once we had them there, we were all over that. Well, except for when it rained. Which it did do quite a bit. Tuesday we said goodbye to Bradley so he could go to the Salt Flats with his friends for one last time. He may not see Kenzie again before he leaves. I'm not sure. He made it back dinnertime Wednesday and wowed us all with all the responsible things he had done- vaccines, going to the health department for some more vaccines, keeping typhoid pills cold, then planning out another shot for rabies... he just sounded like he was on top of all that, then he unloaded all the things we'd asked him to bring. He did great! So proud of him. We got to spend Wednesday out on the lake a little. Molly, Sadie and I went out on the paddle board. Kelly, Jack and Erika did as well, while Luke and Noah and Nate fished. That was a lot of fun. Wednesday night was the big storm. The boys were all out trying out the Provo river while the littles and I were hunkered down, Played some Nertz and Palace. Then made woofums. We had seen the dark clouds and knew it was probably going to rain, but I don't think we were quite prepared for this. In fact we found out we weren't prepared at all. The rain came quickly and brought some crazy CRAZY wind with it!! It was raining sideways and the tent was sideways!! The first thing to blow was the canopy- luckily Kelly, Erika and Jack were on it. I got up from cooking Sadie's woofum and tried to keep the tent from blowing away. Poor little Molly had already built up enough anxiety about lightning that this came as a huge scare and she was crying which made Sadie cry as well. So I asked Kelly to run them over to the yurt and keep them safe. Meanwhile, Erika, Jack and I were torn between wanting to hold down the tent, the canopy, and now a new threat- the FIRE!! Kelly had just added a bunch of cardboard to the flames Jack had so willingly started for us and now the wind was blowing flaming pieces of cardboard all over the place!! This was terrifying if I'm being honest. Once Erika got my attention away from cleaning up the food, I was off stomping out flames, pouring water on them, and then dumping a bunch on our nice fire. I was back at the tent, holding the pole, trying to figure out how I could secure the tie down when Nate and the older boys showed up. That was a relief! They had totally missed the hail and sideways rain and things were mostly under control when they got there, but man! It was nice they were there. The "women's pull" was over. Brad was cute- I think he was feeling like he'd missed out and he suddenly was on the hunt for tree trunks to burn so that we could keep warm and get a little dry. He was funny. We all settled down and got to tell all the funny things like Erika completely predicting this weather with her, "Mom, what would you do if it started raining and hailing and our tent blew away?..." Then reminiscing about Jack in his short sleeves nad shorts clinging to the canopy pole, hoping he didn't blow away with it and gladly volunteering to go into the yurt to trade Kelly. Kinda nuts! I'm glad it was short lived, but man, it was a big mess!! Something bad like that always happens when the boys go off fishing. So tradition continues. It was hard to get dry that night, but luckily our tent had stayed almost completely dry inside. There was a huge puddle under the tent right as you walk in, which was pretty funny to feel from the tent, but very cool how waterproofed our tent is! I was pleasantly surprised. The yurt did good too. But it was a cold night. Especially if you're Kelly and you don't have a SLEEPING BAG!!! Silly girl didn't tell us that she didn't have one. We did have a really cool little miracle, while it was raining, but after emotions had calmed, we stood in a huddle and said a prayer asking for the rain to let up and that we would be able to stay dry. Pretty cool when only a little while later, it was completely stopped. We had to say a prayer of thanks. I love those moments that we get to have together witnessing Heavenly Father's mercy and love. Thursday was our hiking day. We hiked up to the top of bald mountain. That was a pretty rigorous hike, basically straight up the rocky mountain. I was so proud of myself making it to the top and then crinched with each step going down- my poor little knee! I did enjoy the hike though, which is saying a lot. Beautiful view and good company. I loved how nervous Luke was about the edge on the top. He takes after me :). Everyone commented on how cool it was that Sadie made it up there. Then on the way down, they commented on how tough Nate was for carrying her on his shoulders. That was nerve wracking, but he did it! We had a lot of fun. When we got back to camp the boys all went fishing and the rest of us rested up! We watched Molly and Sadie play in the water on the paddle board for a while, Noah, Kelly and I talking on the shore- that was super memorable. I was exhausted so I didn't do much else. Then to boost all of our energy back up, Charity showed up! We weren't sure if we were going to get to see her, but she made it! With Sierra. It was fun to tell her all the stuff we had done and hear all of her fun stories about work and house-sitting her ASL teacher's house/mother-in-law/pets/plants. Fun stuff. She always brings so much energy to the group. We all got to feel the Spirit together while Charity got a Priesthood Blessing and we talked. We wished her a safe drive home and said goodbye. Friday morning we got all packed up and drove home. It was sad to say goodbye to our beautiful spot and we were a little bummed it was over, but we were all looking forward to showers at home!! We stopped for some Arby's on the way home. Noah drove Brad, Kelly and I in the Prius while Nate drove the rest in the van with the trailer. It was a fun drive home. I just love my family. We have the best kids and the best time with them. Showers all around when we got home and everyone just chilled- literally- since it was so stinking hot outside!!- in the air conditioned house. 7-17-23--7-21-23
BRAD'S PASSPORT
Before we left camping I had checked the status of Brad's passport because I was hoping for a miracle and sure enough- it was done and on it's way!! I was anticipating it coming while we were gone. Pretty awesome!! And sure enough, there it was, in the mailbox, when we got home Friday. I was beyond relieved!! We can finally start the visa process!! We got it scanned and emailed to the mission office as soon as we could. So happy!! 7-21-23
SATURDAY SHOPPING DAY
This was the longest shopping trip I've had in a long time. First thing was the distribution center for Brad's garments and temple clothing- that was cool and hard :). They weren't near as helpful as they have been in the past, but it was okay- lots of men helped us. We got a bunch of stuff for Brad, hopefully the last of it, for his mission. Got some shoes, snacks and clothes for Erika for FSY. Noah needed some sunday shoes and white shirt... we got so much stuff!! Never found the tortilla blanket for Khloe though. Kind of a bummer. 7-22-23
BRANDON GECKLER'S FAREWELL
Charity, Kelly, Bradley, Luke, Noah and I all went to Brandon's farewell together. Brandon did such a great job on his farewell talk. We were all happy to be there and see him in that humble position. He seemed very serious and nervous for his mission, but I loved hearing his talk. Especially the part about Bradley suggesting that they pray on the cross country run at camp when the kid had the seizure. I have been really thankful for Brad's choice in friends these past few years. They were pivotal I think in helping him keep making good choices. Then after Brandon's talk we got to hear Elder Devan Brenchley speak about his mission. He did a great job as well. I felt like I saw him in a different light and was more impressed with him. He did the cutest thing at the end of his talk he pulled out a picture of Christ that someone had given him before he left and said that he had kept it with him and looked at it everyday and how special it was to him and then said he was going to give it to Brandon to take on his mission to Brazil. As he ended he turned around and handed it to Brandon and Brandon stood up and they hugged and then they both grabbed tissues- it was really so sweet! Precious little moment. 7-23-23
PIONEER DAY
This was an extremely uneventful holiday this year. We didn't do anything remotely pioneer-ish and hardly celebrated. I felt kind of weird about that, but life has been so hectic, we needed to keep it chill. We did drive out to Riverton for a pizza dinner with Grandma Ruthie, The Harrises and Becky and Adam. We went to Via 313 Pizza. It was really yummy. I just got a salad. I sat by Ruth, Becky, Adam, Charity and Molly. I enjoyed the conversation the whole time and felt good after. On the way out we learned that Will (who had come with us) didn't tell his parents we were GOING to pizza, he just asked if he could eat pizza with us. HA! Kind of a funny conversation followed. 7-24-23
ERIKA'S WARTS
We did another follow-up for Erika, this time they injected some "poison used in chemotherapy" into her warts to try to kill them. Hopefully this does the trick. 7-25-23
BRADLEY'S ENDOWMENT SESSION
I was so happy that we kept this day pretty chill. It went by so fast, but it wasn't stressy at all. I loved that. Nate, Brad, Kelly and I all headed up to the temple a little before 3:00 and snapped a few pictures before Nate and Brad headed in. Kinda weird not being the one to go be the escort. I got my turns and now I will wait again til Erika :). But Kelly and I were able to help with Becky and Ruth when they got there. We all went in (pretty slowly) and got dressed and into the chapel where they gave us the special treatment and took us into the endowment room way early. That was pretty cool. We just sat there and talked. Probably too loud, but it was nice. I loved being there with Kelly and then having Charity come in and sit by me as well. Then seeing my cute Bradley walk in. He looked a little nervous, but also just so ready. I'm so proud of him and his decision to go to the temple. I hope he can grasp the beauty of it all and magnify that blessing in his life. It was a beautiful session. I loved being in the temple. We had so much family there and so much support for Brad- that was cool. After the session we went to a place called Koconut Island Grill. It was a lot like Mo Bettas, not quite as tender and juicy of chicken though. But still so yummy and it was fun to have the family all there to sing happy birthday to Nate and eat "grill" cupcakes. We ate and then said goodbye to Nate for the mid. 7-25-23
NATE'S 44th BIRTHDAY
We didn't do a ton to celebrate Nate's birthday. He did take the day off which was nice, but I wish we'd made some big plans or something. We gave him his Cabellas gifts- a hat and hoodie and bug repellent thing. And we told him about his pizza oven (which so annoyingly won't be here for another month or so) and Charity showed him the shirt she bought him which also wasn't here yet. And then he did get to go to the Temple with Brad for the first time to celebrate also- which is just so cool. I wish I could go to the temple on my birthday! I made him grill cupcakes as well and we had Luke bring them with the rest of the kids to celebrate him at the Kokonut Isalnd Grill after the temple. We sang to him and then kissed him goodbye as he went to work the mid. 7-25-23
M&M CAMP
We had yet another successful camping trip with the Maughans! This year we finally did hoodies with a cute little M&M camp logo that Rachel made. I was glad my hoodie guy was able to get them done just in time! Kelly picked them up for us while I was getting packed and preparing food. We did really good getting ready to go, didn't feel too stressful. I didn't lose it on everyone. We got our hoodies and took over the Maughans and then headed out! We had to go to Beehive Clothing first to get Brad another round of garments. He went in with Nate this time and had a better idea of what he wanted, but they got the wrong sizes so we did make yet another trip after camping to get some more :). They're so tricky to shop for- I wish it was a little easier. Then we were on our way to Marsh Lake! This is our second year at Marsh Lake. I was nervous that we were going to be rained on the whole time again, but we really didn't get much rain the entire time. We also brought Brad's friend Victor with us, so that was different too. It took some convincing to get the go ahead from the Maughans, but he ended up being a really fun addition. I loved our spot this year. We were pretty close to the water and bathroom and it was a really pleasant time. The first day we just roasted our hotdogs and sat around the fire. I loved that night, playing Smurf with everyone in the dark. The guys all went fishing every chance they got and it was easier and quicker because we were right on the lake. Minus the second day when they were gone for a good five or six hours. That was kind of annoying, just not knowing how long they were going to be at the river. But we made do. We had fun playing games that day as well. Lots of Never Have I Ever. Once the guys got back we got out on the lake. We had the Maughan's Taco Salad that night for dinner and some more talk around the fire. Friday was probably my favorite day there. Brad had invited me to go fishing while we were up there. I bought my fishing license on the way up and was anticipating it the whole time. We got out on the kayak around 10:00 and fished on the lake for a good three or four hours! It was so much fun! I loved that time with him. He helped me know where to cast and how fast to reel it in. We saw the people hitting golf balls into the lake and talked with Erika and played around with whoever came by us. We talked the entire time. It was so great. I only wish we had been able to catch something. Poor Brad lost his cool dragon fly lure too. But I will never forget that time on the lake with him. When we got back we were both super tired! Nate was out with Sadie so I just took a little nap! Actually most of the kids were out on the water on something. We had our Shepherds pie that night and then after dinner we all went down to the lake for some more fishing. I was happy I got to try again and then even happier as I reeled in my THREE FISH!! So cool! Pretty much made the day! Brad was so cute getting excited with me and helping me to reel it in. I didn't know how to do that yet. Everybody was reeling them in right and left and we were all having so much fun celebrating each other's little victories. We had a good night's sleep and then spent the morning packing up to go home. We got it all ready to go in time to have our marshmallow war which we did in a different spot this year. It ended up being really fun. I think my favorite round was adults vs. kids. Pretty fun. We're so glad we have such good friends who are so fun to be with and make time to camp with us. Always a fun time. 7-26-23--7-29-23
BRAD'S FAREWELL
We spent the rest of the day speed cleaning up the house for the Open House, which because we cleaned up so well before camping. I felt like things were pretty relaxed for most of the evening. We were all very anxious and excited for this day! I like that we were able to get everything done that morning and with a lot of peace in our home. Brad did a great job on his talk. I'll post it here after. I loved his talk and especially loved how much he talked aabout loving his family. We do have an awesome family. Nate had to teach the second hour for the youth, so Nate and I and a bunch of the kids stayed at church and when we got home we found that Kelly and Brad had started the food (with a lot of it still in the fridge) without us!! I was shocked and a little bugged, but changed my tune when I heard Kelly's side of things. Still strange, but I think it went okay. Brad had a lot of people come. I think we had close to 200 people there. Awesome that Nate was able to make pulled pork and that he had the catering order for the same day, for someone else and their order ended up paying for all of our food :). Pretty sweet. It was fun that Brad's friends stayed and talked with him and hung out all evening. 7-30-23
BRAD AND JACK'S ROOM
I finally got Jack and Brad to work on their room a little. They did so good, made lots of progress. 7-31-23
ERIKA FSY
I got to drive Erika down to FSY at BYU Monday. This was a nice time. We had to stop at Nate's work to get my card I'd left in his car, but we were happy we'd found the solution to the no card problem. We got down there and had some lunch at Costa Vida, then went to get checked in. Kinda fun to run into Morgan and her mom right when we got there. The lines were so long compared to Luke's session there. But we were fine waiting in line and then dragging all the luggage and stuff up to Heritage Halls. Erika was in building 6. We found their room and said goodbye! She had an awesome week. She loved her counselors, loved the classes. I loved hearing about all the cool things she learned. So on Saturday when I picked up her and Morgan, I wanted to do something fun for breakfast so we went to Kneaders. When we got there, we all needed to use the bathroom and then we ordered and sat down. Then seconds into that, Morgan needed to go to the bathroom again and was not feeling great. So she went back to the bathroom. Erika and I just sat there talking and eating and waiting for Morgan. It was actually the perfect amount of time to hear all the fun and funny stuff that happened at FSY. We felt so bad for Morgan when we realized she had been in the bathroom for an hour. After talking with her mom and reassuring her that we would not leave without her, she was finally done. It was a quick drive home. I am so happy that Erika got to go to FSY. She'll get a few more chances I think, so that's awesome. 7-31-23--8-6-23
