May Misc / End of School

 The youth went on a temple trip to tour the Yorba Linda Temple in May.  

One of the youth activities was a beach bonfire.

Savannah enjoyed hanging out with friends, a bike to the beach with me, shopping, and Chick-Fil-A.

Almost all of us got to chat with Jared on Memorial Day.

Savannah likes taking selfies.  Alex made a short trip to visit and help his parents. The only picture I saw from that was him mowing.  Weston found and carried out a lizard that made it into the house.

Nathan took a hike with friends in Utah.

We wandered around and enjoyed the chalk art.

Weston's cross country buddies convinced him to get a buzz cut (and they did the hair cut at school).  We went to graduation to support our friend Becca (and a few other friends).  Owen sang the National Anthem with the choir.  Weston started practicing driving - scary!!  He enjoyed hanging out with friends doing a nerf war.  I got one dinner outing with friends.

I enjoyed reading the yearbook entries.  Owen had a nice note from one of his teachers, which said, "I'm so impressed with how you live according to your convictions.  Many others could learn from your example.  Continue to be a bright star and shine brightly!"  The seminary teachers had good things to say as well.  Weston had 100% attendance.  He was described as quiet, humble, and knowing the scriptures.  His comments are deep and meaningful, and he was good at expressing gratitude.  Owen got the selfless service award for always being willing to help.  He (and Weston) set up the tables and chairs for the seminary rooms on Sunday.  

We went out for lunch on the last day of school.  

April Activities

We had a lot of stuff going on in April. The kids had spring break the first week, followed by Easter. The second weekend was Brad Wilcox events - one night for the young single adults (18-35) and the next night for the youth (11-18).  I helped plan and advertise the YSA night, since part of my job involves that age group.  I made several cookies to contribute towards dessert for both nights.  I helped with clean up on both nights, picking up tiny pieces of popped balloons from the youth dance that followed the devotional.  Alex and Owen put up and took down all the lights for the dance.

Brad Wilcox is a religion professor at BYU and a well-known motivational speaker for our church. He was also in the Young Men's General presidency for 2 years (2023-2025).  Nathan took one of his classes last semester and loved it.  I loved his messages about grace, merits, and mercy (same message both nights).  He also was very personable - he greeted and talked to as many people as possible.  Owen was the chorister for the youth night.  After the closing song, Owen headed over to give Brother Wilcox a hug.  It was the biggest bear hug I've seen.  He grabbed Owen and held on tight!  This was the weekend that Weston was in New Orleans, so he missed out.

We had swimming, volleyball, and track meets (later posts). I also had my first Activity Days night, which involves activities twice a month for girls 8-11 years old.  I got called as an Activity Days leader in March, but I didn't have my first activity until April because of track and Spring Break. (I'm also still a youth Sunday School teacher - doubling up on callings.)  It was a little bit of a rough introduction. I thought our activity was already planned and organized - a pinewood derby.  They had made cars at a previous activity.  I checked in with the other girl's activity day leader the day before the pinewood derby to see if there was anything I could help with.  She said, "I'm not in charge of it. Check with the Primary president."  When I did that, I got the same response, except it was "I'm not in charge of it. Check with the other activity days leaders."  There are 4 leaders - 2 for the boys and 2 for the girls.  When I mentioned that I had already checked in with an activity day leader and directed to her, she sent out a group chat, asking how everything was going for the pinewood derby.  No one had done ANYTHING except announce that it was happening (with dinner before the pinewood derby).  No one arranged for the cars track to be set up, for the computer program to be organized, for tables and chairs to be set up, for plates and utensils, etc.  It was the day before and no one had organized anything.  When I asked about awards, I got the response, "Good idea!"   Oh boy... what's a race without any prizes or awards?  Guess who made awards??  I put together some certificates that I could fill in and attached Kit Kat bars to them.  I found some printable paper ribbons online that I could make to attach to some soda bottles.  I had things that day before all the way until 9:30pm, so I didn't get started until about 9:45pm on making the awards.  Owen and I helped set up the track, tables, and chairs after volleyball that night with one of the boys' leaders.  Luckily, it was a potluck dinner, so everyone brought food to share.  The other girl's activity leader took care of the tablecloths, plates, and utensils. It actually turned out to be a successful activity, but I wasn't sure if we were going to pull it off. 

Guess what stopped working in March and April?  The used washer and used fridge that we bought back in September last year... The dryer still worked, but we couldn't get an installment for a new washer without also replacing the dryer, so we bought a new set at Home Depot.  The fridge also wasn't working well, so we bought a new fridge too.  Sigh... We got through 6 months on the cheap used appliances.  The fridge is nothing fancy, because we were limited to options due to the space. We do have functional appliances again. 

There were lots of baby showers in April and May.  I made it to 4 of the 5 baby showers. One of the pregnant moms was not in this photo of 4 moms (the one in the pink dress in another photo).  She actually had her baby 3 days after this photo was taken of the other ladies.  Four baby girls and 1 baby boy on the way!  Savannah came with me to 2 of the showers to see all the cute stuff. 

Just some other random photos - a nice walk one evening, Kai, a date night, the temple, Savannah biking during her spring break since she was bored, Savannah's friends, and a youth activity.  They did a fun night where the youth chatted and got to know the older folks in our ward.  They only had a couple minutes with each person and then moved to the next seat, until they had chatted with everyone.

I don't have any pictures, but Alex, Savannah, and Weston went to a service project - an annual project packing meals that go to Ecuador and Uganda.

The fourth weekend in April, we got a visit from Nathan!  He was in between terms, so he and his roommate made the drive home.  His roommate Devan stayed with us a couple nights and then joined his family later in the week when they got into town.  Most of us were still busy with work, school, and all the normal stuff, so we didn't get to hang out with Nathan very much.  We did watch Owen's volleyball game, played 4-person volleyball, went out to eat, played some games, watched a Thunder basketball game on TV, had some good food and apple pie, watched a movie, planned Jared's BYU classes for the fall, went to an event to celebrate our friend Julie, and went to church. Nathan sang in our ward choir without having practiced (we were short on singers).  He also replaced our broken screen doors while he was here.  He visited me at work a couple days (coming for "waffle Wednesday"), did a little shopping on his own, took the dog for a walk, and went to the beach. Hopefully he had a decent week.  The highlight may have been playing Ticket to Ride Asia, which is played in teams. Nathan and Weston finally beat Owen and me (previously unbeaten in our team Asia games).  They had a depressing first game but then had sweet redemption when they smoked us in the second game!  Savannah and Alex are usually teammates for this game and should have won the first game, if not for one mistake at the end.  It's a pretty fun game, but the challenge is you can't communicate with your teammate during the game.  Some people (ahem... Weston!) are not the most observant players as to what's going on!  Ha ha.  They still won by a lot the second round.

February

Alex got home from New Zealand just in time for dinner on Valentine's Day.  We had roast, potatoes, carrots, rolls, jello with strawberries and whipped cream, lemonade raspberry sherbet drinks, and chocolate pie.  I gave the kids some of their favorite candy.  Alex brought back a pearl necklace that he gave to me.  

I taught youth Sunday School on the 15th, which was on Noah's ark.  I thought it would be nice to take treats that also coordinated with the lesson theme.  I found some cool looking rainbow jello cookies online and thought they'd be fun.  However... they didn't turn out anything like the online photos!  We had a good laugh about it.  Nailed it... I made some other cookies but let them try the rainbow ones if they wanted to.  The jello gave them a tangy flavor, which reminded me of Nerds candy or those sugar straws.  

I went to an activity with the church ladies, a "Galentines" dinner, which was fun.

Owen, Weston, and Savannah went to a church dance on the 7th of February.  It was Savannah's first dance (since she needed to be turning 14 this year to go).  She had her brothers watching her closely.  They snapped a couple pictures of her.    

The random photos:  Savannah made pie and Weston had "a little bit" of ice cream with it.  He also was being silly with his glasses.  I made cinnamon rolls, eggs, and bacon for a birthday breakfast for one of our friends, Becca, who comes over on Tuesday and Thursday mornings after seminary.  Owen did "valograms" one day at school, singing in small groups with other members of the choir.  They sang to people who had been gifted a song and treat, paid for by family or friends.  In this photo, they sang to one of the teachers.

Alex and I got our monthly temple visit in.  I helped decorate and make a cake for an Institute night celebrating 100 years of the program.  We had pizza and salad, along with cake, and listened to a broadcast of Elder Kearon (Quorum of the 12) and his wife.

I've been enjoying my Saturday morning jogs along the coast. I've been jogging about 4-5 miles (walking a little bit).  I took a few pics one morning.

Nathan has been having fun, enjoying sports and a little more social this semester.  His roommate Devan posted an Instagram photo with them and a group of girls.  I don't know what a Roblox Meet up is... I think they were just going out for dinner / ice cream though. We spotted Nathan at a BYU volleyball game and a basketball game.  He had pretty good seats for a couple games, thanks to one of his friends inviting him to use one of their "VIP" seats.

October Misc

It hasn't rained much this year, but one day we got a random hail storm.  The little ice pellets looked like snow on the ground as they piled in one spot as they fell off the roof.  

Owen and Weston had their first choir concert.  

Savannah painted some poster boards for one of the booths at a youth activity.  Our friend Nathan came home from his 2-year mission to Columbia.  We got to help welcome him home.  

We went to a Halloween party at a friend's house.  At the last minute, we decided to wear simple M&M costumes.  Owen taped the M's on different colored shirts.  

September Misc

 Alex went on a couple of work trips in September.  

Weston had a fun friend birthday party, which was steam punk murder mystery.  Weston had to go in costume as a steam punk adventurer. 

I cut my own hair the beginning of September and then cut it shorter again the next month.  I didn't really want a short hair cut unless I could maintain it on my own.  I didn't want to keep paying for maintenance cuts every few months.  Savannah looked cute for her school picture day.  She did a new painting of Kai.  She loves the dog!

A highlight for the month was having the missionaries over for dinner.  Elder Parks had just started his mission, with his home ward being my sister's ward in TX where her husband is the Bishop.  I got to show him the video Audrey had recently posted of the choir singing.  He recognized the soloist and got a little piece of home.  Owen's seminary class had fun making a pyramid one morning.  We discovered Weston's plastic spoon collection (from school), which he was carrying around in his backpack.  So weird.  It was pretty cool to see the dew drops on the spider webs.  It wasn't cool walking head on into one of those webs another day (when I didn't see the web).  When I discovered that I also had the giant SPIDER from the web on my hat, I flung my hat off pretty quick!  Blah. 

About the middle of September, our clothes washer broke.  We did some loads by hand before we got a new used washer.  The dryer still works.  Shortly after the washer broke, our fridge also stopped working, so we also had to buy a new used fridge.  We're not sure how long these used appliances will last, but we didn't really have money to buy anything (with our Utah housing woes). It was funny that we immediately covered the whole fridge with chore charts, reading charts, and magnets again - also a little weird.  

Anyway, Weston's mini fridge came in handy during the transition.  This was a little amusing, because we picked up the mini fridge a couple months earlier off the side of the road.  It said "free" and even though I said we didn't need it, Weston insisted that he needed it and wanted to bring it home and put it in his room.  I guess it turns out we did need that mini fridge for a bit - another of Weston's "prophecies."  He's had a few other times when he said or had some random little prophecy.  He asked for toilet paper for Christmas 2019 (right before the 2020 toilet paper shortage).  He said he wanted to visit Ukraine "while it still lasts".  A couple months later, Russia invaded Ukraine.  He wanted to buy Ford stock with his "Covid money" but Alex didn't let him.  And then Ford's stock prices went way up (should have listened to Weston on that one).  We say he has the gift of prophecy, but it just comes out at random times.  He can't predict the future or the stock market, but sometimes he says or does something that has us marveling.  

I did a lot of yard work, cleaning, organizing, and decluttering in September.  I made a lot of progress, but it also felt like I was just doing manual labor all month - which was tiring.

September wasn't a great month, but I also enjoyed Owen practicing singing for his solo for his choir class.  He doesn't like the way he sounds, but I enjoyed hearing him practice. 

July Misc

 Over spring break, we saw this artwork of Gandalf at a shop.  Our friend Jack really liked it, but it was horribly expensive.  I snapped a photo of it because Savannah said she could paint it.  She did that this summer and gave it to Jack, sort of as a graduation gift, since he just graduated high school.  I think she did a really good job on it. 

Owen and I have still been playing volleyball at the church once a week.  It's pretty fun, but I do get bruised up sometimes.  This one was pretty bad, but not enough to keep from getting back out there the next week.  

I saw a butterfly on my bedroom window one night, and I was surprised to see it still there in the morning.  I always think of my grandma when I see butterflies now, so maybe it was a sign she was near.  We did a lot of fruit harvesting this summer.  The random lemon picked for lemonade was just funny.  We actually got several plums this year, along with peaches, apricots, and grapes.  

The kids were pretty bored this summer.  They didn't really do many fun things.  They had to just hang out for 2 weeks at home while Alex and I were on our trip.  They did a couple of camps and sports.  Other than that, they were mostly at home.  Savannah hung out with friends one day and got free slurpees.  We did a beach day with friends.  The kids mostly played the board games, but we did a family Ticket to Ride one evening that was pretty fun.  Savannah continued with twice a week swimming, which was summer conditioning.  Weston ran with the school cross country team this summer, as he decided to join the cross country team in the fall.  

Along with summer league basketball, Owen did a couple weeks of volunteer work, helping kindergarteners learn safety skills.  They actually had a film crew there during the 1st week, filming for a documentary, so maybe Owen will show up in that.  Owen enjoyed singing songs and helping the kids.  He met a little kid named Billy who just liked to laugh a lot.  One of the girls the second week really liked Owen.  Apparently the girl went home talking to her mom about "the boy".  The mom was curious what boy she had met, but she realized who that was the next morning as her daughter ran up and hugged Owen's leg.  "Oh, you're the BOY she was talking about." This little girl clung to Owen all week. Owen discovered that he really enjoys working with kids.  Owen also started a part-time job towards the end of the summer.  He plans to continue doing that throughout the school year, working Saturdays when he can. 

We went to a pioneer day celebration.  We had great food, hanging out, and activities for the kids.  They had a little obstacle course race, which was hilarious to see Weston and Owen doing with their friends.  I guess I cut the video off too early, but Owen did pull out the win in the end. He was really flying with his friend Aubree in the cart!

Alex spent a week in Oklahoma with his parents, helping out as his dad went in for knee surgery.  Alex did some yardwork and chores around the house.  He sent one picture of him all sweaty from working outside.  It's a little bit hotter there in the summer than here in CA...  His parents got to briefly chat with Jared on his weekly mission call, and I snapped a screenshot. 

Here are a few of the youth activities for the summer - the girls sewed their own purses.  There was a combined activity night with minute-to-win-it games.  Owen and Jack were determined to finish this puzzle they started in one of the challenges.  The youth did a sunset hike one night. 

It was nice to have Nathan home for the summer.  He got a full-time job (8am-4pm) so we didn't see a lot of him.  He didn't necessarily like the manual labor that he was doing, but he did learn some maintenance skills and enjoyed doing things with his hands.  He now wants to find a job that isn't just behind a computer all day.  Nathan was also involved this summer in all the singles ward activities and scripture study nights, so he kept pretty busy.  He bought a car this summer too, a 2013 Honda Civic.  He's pretty excited to have his own car to drive around.  He went on a hike before he left and snapped a few pictures.  I think he liked being home for a few months.

Alex and I did our monthly temple visit.  Savannah and I sang a duet in church, which was a little nerve-wracking, but we did it.  We sang "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need".  Savannah sang the alto part and did a good job. We had a special day one Sunday when Weston received his patriarchal blessing.  Savannah wasn't able to attend with us, so we dropped her off at our friend's house.  Our good friends just moved to the same town as the Stake Patriarch so it worked out pretty well to have dinner with them and then go to Weston's blessing.  Alex, Nathan, Owen, and I had a very spiritual experience being there with Weston.  Some amazing promises and gifts were mentioned depending on his faithfulness.  Some things were similar to his brothers, with a mission, family, and leadership in his future.  Gifts of kindness and love were mentioned, with the ability to develop many gifts through service.  It was just really spirit-filled experience and we felt close to family that had already passed on to the other side.  

The last picture was actually after the blessing.  On the way back to pick up Savannah, we saw someone having car trouble.  Our boys jumped out, along with some other guys, to help push the car into the gas station.  I liked how it didn't matter that they were in the church clothes.  They were quick to lend a hand regardless, and I like to think that it's those small acts of service that help these kids develop the attributes they need to succeed in life. 

October Misc

Nathan participated in some Halloween festivities at BYU too.  They had a church party where most of the guys dressed as minions.  One of the activities was bobbing for apples... good thing we don't have Covid restrictions anymore.  I'm pretty sure there's quite a bit of germs being exchanged for that activity!  

Nathan got to meet Kirby Heyborne, an actor and musician who has been in some of the LDS church movies such as the RM, Singles Ward, and Best Two Years (among others).  He's been loving going to the football games, especially since BYU is undefeated.  There have been some really miraculous wins, where they came from behind in the last couple of minutes to win the game.  

Savannah went on a camp-out with the young women.  She had a great time - hanging out, painting rocks, dipping in the ocean, and all the fun campfire things.  

We helped a family from church do an in-town move.  We're glad they didn't move out of our ward at church.  

Owen and Weston went to a church dance and apparently collected most of the glow sticks by the end.

I took the boys out for lunch on one of their days off.  I was hoping McDonald's would be a cheap lunch outing, but we spent over $42 for the four of us (and I just got a Happy Meal).  The prices have really gone up! We hadn't been to McDonald's for quite a while.

Savannah did a couple months of hip-hop dance this fall, but then she just wasn't into it that much anymore.  We had hoped for her to do one last performance, but with some problems having a regular teacher for the class, they never learned a dance for the performance.  I think part of why she loved dance in previous years was her teacher, and she wasn't teaching there anymore.  

Savannah is definitely into that pre-teen phase.  I can tell by the amount of selfies she wants to take on my phone!  

We dropped by our friend Grace's house on her birthday to drop off a treat and ended up staying for cake!  We had to snap a picture to send Jared to make him jealous.  Ha-ha. 

We enjoyed watching General Conference at home the beginning of October.  We had our traditional crumb cake.  Alex particularly enjoys conference weekend because he doesn't have all his normal Bishop responsibilities at church.  He's been really busy right now doing tithing declarations with all the members.  One Sunday this month, he was gone from about 7:45am-5:30pm - we don't see him much on Sundays.