One Homecoming and Two Farewells

I saw Mr. Packer at church today. He sat right behind us. He is here for Darby's mission homecoming. I totally forgot it was Darby's homecoming or I might have tried to get Jorja here. She was exhausted though and sound asleep when we left. I asked him what his mission tag was for. He said it is because he plays the organ in the Jordan River Temple and has done so for the last 15 years. Wow. I did not know that.

Stephanie & Mr. Packer

Jorja got plenty of church today. She went to Bode's farewell first. He is going to Riverside California, Mandarin speaking. Bode was in Jorja's Chinese immersion class for years. He stopped with the Chinese program for the last three years of high school. They were in student government together all four years. He has been such a great friend to Jorja.

Jorja & Bode

Jorja also went to Ben Fairborn's farewell. Ben went to Jordan High School and did the Spanish immersion program there. Ben and Jorja did drivers ed together at Corner Canyon. That wasn't planned, but random and they loved it.

Jorja & Ben

We made dinner in a pumpkin today. While Jorja was at all the farewells we also made her a birthday cake. I know we gave her her present yesterday, but just in case she doesn't get a cake on her actual birthday, at least she will have one this year. It wasn't fancy, but it still tasted good.

Jorja's cake

Jorja helped Mike clean out her frog's tank. Enjoy these random pictures.

Jorja

Jorja took the pilot back to Utah State. The engine light came on in her bug so we wanted to get it checked out. She will be coming back next Sunday and will be able to pick up her car then. It was great to have her here! Sure love that girl!

First Day on the Job

Today was Maysen's first day with her new job, wish I had gotten a picture. She was able to drive down to Salt Lake by herself and just had a great first day. This week she drives down to Salt Lake on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for training. The rest of the time she will work from home and drive up only on Fridays. I'm pretty excited for her.

Jorja took advantage of still being home and went to breakfast with Bode. I took advantage of Jorja still being home and took Jorja's car to get the emissions test done and get her new sticker. I was so glad I was able to do that! Jorja did her online class from home this morning before heading back to Logan. It was so nice having her here! Also nice to see her feeling better.

Jorja & Bode

Stephanie trying to take a selfie to send to Jorja.

Random pictures Jorja sent me.

Shenanigans

This first picture is blurry, but it was Jorja's last Hawk Flight School. She has gone to this four years in a row. The first year as a freshman and the other years in student government. Crazy this will be a year of lasts. I hope she gets to experience them though! Jorja texted me while she was at school and said she had an appointment to tour the Make-A-Wish facility on Tuesday. She is pretty excited about that! She also talked to the counselors and got a different email for Jose. She sent him another question asking him why he gave her a zero. Hopefully he answers from this address.

Ella & Jorja

Jorja went to lunch with some boys in student government. The boys decided they wanted to play some Black Opps video game at Jake's house. Jorja invited herself along. This now becomes a story. Every year the senior class public relations gets passed down a toilet. Yep, a toilet. I think Isaac Johnson started this, but I'm not sure. (Isaac came home from his mission to Canada today.) Anyway, last year the senior senators stole the toilet from Josh Bingham's house. When the old seniors took the new seniors out to lunch they were handed down a few things. Josh said to Jordy Robs, "You were supposed to get the toilet, but I don't have it anymore." Jordy was not happy about that and has been telling everyone he is going to steal it back. When the SBOs were meeting here Sadler talked about stealing the toilet first. Last weekend Jorja took some friends to the cabin. Jake was one of them. He is a senior senator now. He was talking about the toilet and thought it was hilarious they had it. Jorja causally asked him where the toilet was. He said it was in his garage. Well.... now Jorja just invited herself to Jake's house. Jorja drove there with JJ and on the way called Sadler and asked if he wanted to steal the toilet. He was all in. So, Jorja is at Jake's house while the boys are all playing this video game they are super into. Jorja asked Jake if she could go play with his dog. He said yes. Jorja leaves the basement and goes into the garage. She opens the garage door. Sadler is outside waiting with someone. I can't remember, but I think he is a junior in student government. Anyway, they pick up the toilet and take it to Jake's neighbor's barn. Jorja goes back to watching the boys play the game. She said it was so scary because the way Jake's house is set up, the basement window faces the garage. The garage isn't attached to the house. They could have easily seen what was going on, but luckily they were too involved with their game. Jorja was also nervous because Jake's mom called him to come help her with something in the garage and she was worried he would notice the toilet is missing. He didn't. Anyway, she was quite proud of her slyness.

Jake, Riley, Luke, Jorja, JJ

Jorja and Joe had to film their part for the SBO video. I think it was something about Joe swimming in our pool. Jorja pushes him in and he never comes up. They are going to have it look like Dallen kidnapped him. Dallen is supposed to kidnap all the SBOs. Jorja later gets a bag over her head while she is looking for Joe. Anyway, they filmed that part today. Mike was working on the boat and Bear was looking for rats while they were filming.

Bear

Jorja & Joe

Joe, Dawson & Jorja

Mike

Today would have been Alta's first home football game. Well, it still was. The students were not allowed to watch it in person though. The game was streamed. Bode had tons of people over to his house to watch the game. Bode has dreamed for years of being Attorney General. I remember Jorja telling me her sophomore year that was what Bode wanted to do. The main thing the Attorney General does is the pep rally and get people hyped for games. Mostly football. It is so sad that the thing Bode has dreamed about for years is not going to happen. He still had people over to his house, but it was not the same. It is also crazy that they aren't letting students go to games to protect them from corona, but all it is making them do is meeting in closer quarters, indoors...which is more dangerous. Anyway, Jorja showed up to Bode's house with the doom stick she got last year wearing an Alta cape that Luke passed down to her. When Bode saw Jorja's cape he got excited and ran upstairs because he was passed down a cape as well. 

Jorja & Bode

Jorja is still covered in paint hahaha

After the football game they went to classic. They were there until it closed. Jorja had a great time, but this is the only picture she got. I don't like that it is of her and Riley. I know she is trying to become friends with him again, but I do not like seeing them together. Sometimes I wish Jorja wasn't so forgiving. I'm not worried about her liking him again, I just think it is better if she stays far away from him. Too bad he is in student government this year. Not ideal.

Riley & Jorja

Jake sent a message to Jorja when she got home saying the toilet was stolen. He was not happy. He sent her screen shots between him and Jordy Robs. That is who he thinks stole the toilet. They were not getting along. Jorja felt so bad that she started beef between them, so that's a bit awkward. Jorja thought stealing the toilet would become a game where everyone would try and steal the toilet, but these guys are mad. Yikes.

Luke and Bode

Maysen and I took a walk tonight up to the Pepperwood pool. They have redone it and it is beautiful. Although it turns out that I only took pictures of the diving board. Hahaha. I sent these to Stockton because they changed the fulcrum. They also got better boards. This is so much better!

Maysen and I saw Yolanda walking her dogs and talked to her for awhile. She is so nice! We also saw Jacqui. The weather was perfect and it was so nice to be out there with Maysen. Hopefully the world will open up soon! I guess open up more....

Jorja had a hard day today. She worked from noon to nine. Student government was getting together at noon to work on their dance that needs to be recorded tomorrow. Jorja had to miss that. Hopefully she can pick it up quickly. Jorja hung out with Hailey after work for just a bit. She was waiting until 10:00 because that was when Riley was off. Hailey kept her company. Jorja has been wanting to talk to Riley for awhile. She could tell something was off. She was right. Riley met someone else in Lake Powell. Jorja wasn't surprised at all. She was hurt that he didn't talk to her about it. Hurt that he kissed her after he came home. She couldn't understand why he would do that if he liked someone else. Hurt that she was lied to. He told her he never kissed the girl, just caught feelings for her. The next day Jorja found out that he had kissed her and once again she was lied to. Jorja was hurt because Riley tried over and over to kiss her and she swerved him so many times. One time Riley flat out asked her if he could kiss her. She said that she was scared of kissing boys. She hadn't kissed anyone for seven months and in her experience once a boy kissed her he didn't want to be her friend anymore. Still, Riley was persistent. Right before he left for Lake Powell they decided they were more than friends, but not quite dating. Later Jorja found out that Riley had been talking to this girl the entire time he had been talking to her. She felt like he played her, and she was right. I'm frustrated with Riley because he made all of Jorja's insecurities a reality. Jorja was extremely honest with him and it still blew up in her face. I know she is going to be stronger because of this. She knows it too, but today she is sad.

Jorja was proud of herself for not crying when she was talking with Riley. Once she drove away she broke down. She was driving home about 11:30 and was bawling. She was on Draper Parkway by Walmart when she could tell people in a truck next to her were waving trying to get her attention. She looked over and it was Bode and Luke Hillstead. Once she looked they could tell she was crying and Bode motioned for her to pull over. She parked in the Walmart parking lot and Bode and Luke talked with her for an hour. They were so nice and kind to her. Jorja has known Bode since 2nd grade and they have always been in student government together. They are really great friends. Luke is Jorja's co-captain in PLT and has always been super nice to Jorja. I know Heavenly Father sent them to Jorja today. They were just what she needed. They took this picture to replace the screensaver Jorja had of her and Riley.

Luke, Jorja, Bode

Jorja came home around 12:30 and talked to me for a bit. Bode and Luke were going to sleep at Alta and had invited Jorja. She asked if she could go. I told her she could. Even though Jorja was the only girl, I felt like these boys would take care of her and keep her safe. I felt that it would be better for her to be with them then home tonight. What started out as a super sad night ended up being so fun. Thank goodness for good friends. These boys were so kind.

Luke, Jake, Aiden, Bode

 This is where they set up their hammocks

 Luke

 Jorja and Bode

Amazing Race Sweethearts Edition Season Two

Stockton! I apologize! We have been 'all hands on deck' the last few weeks getting ready for the Amazing Race. Mike has taken four full days off of work to work on this. On sad consequence is I am super behind on the blog. So.... I'm skipping some days. Hopefully I'll be able to go back, but until then.... we finished! Last year the teams in the Amazing Race finished one hour faster than we thought. So, this year we added more challenges and made it harder. It took FOUR hours to finish! Ahhhh! I think the kids loved it. One team didn't seem to enjoy it, but the rest seemed very happy. We had several people tell us it was their favorite day activity they have been on. Marshall told me that he would never forget this. One big thing I didn't anticipate was a giant line for the Ferris wheel at Scheels! They had to wait in that line for twenty plus minutes. Whoops. I have some random pictures of the race. Mike is working on a video now. He hoped to have it done to show at the after activity, but that didn't happen. He worked on it nonstop, but just couldn't pull it off. With the longer activity and more challenges, he had a lot more footage to go through. Also, he is a perfectionist. He would rather have a video that he was proud of done in a few days than rush through one that wasn't as great. Anyway......

The kids met at our house. Chloe brought her cousin Mia because her date had a soccer scrimmage he couldn't miss. Parker's date got sick and wasn't able to come. The girls were able to convince Parker to come anyway. She brought her little sister Reese. Mike had each of them pick a character. The race started with them being given ten minutes to build a vegetable car to race down a track Mike made. Kind of pinewood derby style, but with vegetables. Mike had a timer programed in the track. The kids were sent to their next locations based on the order they finished that race. Jorja and Bode got ninth place. There are eleven teams.

Jorja & Bode's team picture

They ran to the Okerlund's house where they had a fashion show. Megan had gathered sooo many different clothes. The kids had a set amount of time to put together an ensemble, then walk the catwalk. They had to do a hair flip, turn, blow a kiss, wink and a few more things before they were given their next clue. That sent them to the church. It was a detour. We had sticker by number books set up and Just Dance. We estimated the stickers would take about eight minutes and Just Dance about four. But most people chose the stickers. I think because they came to it first.

Reece & Parker, Bode & Jorja, Kate & Race

We had a quadruple U-Turn station. Autumn, Chloe, Aysha and Jorja were all U-turned. I'm glad I did four though so there were more people in the same boat.

They then ran back to our house where they had a bomb challenge. Mike and Preston designed a digital bomb. There were about six colored wires and codes to know which wires to cut. They wrote the bomb defusing manual in very bad English. (Green wires do not cut) Also, there were corrections made after the printing. (Green should say white) If the serial number on the bomb was even you had to cut the wires when the light was off, odd and cut when the light was on. There was a button that had to be pushed down when you cut the white wire. It was super confusing, but also really cool. And I don't have any pictures..... Mike has them all on his phone. Mike and Preston made four different bombs. (When it 'exploded' it just made a sound and the bomb would need to be rewired.)

This is a picture from a few weeks ago before Mike got the wires in.

The teams next went to Ellie's mom's house for a Tetris puzzle. Ellie's mom was so nice. She was throwing a baby shower a few hours after the kids came. Nice that she was willing to host the kids. The answer to the Tetris puzzle was a combination for a lock that they were going to use later in the game.

Mia & Chloe, Helam & Autumn, Bode & Jorja

The next place was Gavin's house to do a silks challenge. They did a 'candy cane roll' on the silks. Some teams hated it. Most teams LOVED it. Bode said it was his favorite challenge. Gage said that too. I know others did as well, just can't remember. Shannon had Nate taking pictures to send to us. Zoe was helping her mom as well. They were soooo great. Shannon was throwing a birthday party for Sammy, her little girl, after we left. So nice of her to do this for us!

Shannon helping Jorja, Zoe helping Bode, Nate getting ready for the pictures

The teams then went to a park where the combination locks were. Mike had 3D printed some cases that had tokens for them to ride the Ferris wheel at Scheels. Megan Okerlund was there to give them their next clue.

Bode & Jorja, Kate & Race, Guy in black that got super mad at Bode & Jorja

Which was to take a selfie with Abraham Lincoln and text it to a number. That number happened to be Maggie's number. She won the Amazing Race last year and is now at Utah State. Once she got a picture from them, she texted back a picture of herself that gave them the next clue.

Bode, Abraham, Jorja

I was waiting at Chick-Fil-A to give them their next puzzle (and $5 so they could buy something and we didn't feel bad by using their tables) This puzzle was a LINE puzzle that was super hard to make and quite confusing; but once you understood it, it was pretty cool. Ella & Devin didn't like the puzzle at all! Ellie & Jorja both said that was their favorite challenge. Anyways, once you put the papers in order, they spelled out ALTAFH. They had to figure out to go to the Alta Field House. We had a sign on a gate telling them to look for an old man wearing Alta swag. Teach him how to video on their cell phone and have him video them singing the school song. Here is Jorja & Bode's version. They kind of speed through it - haha

The next challenge sent them to Chloe's house where they learned to make sushi! Chloe's mom was so amazing! They finished the tile to the entry way to their house the night before. She was super nice and just perfect for this challenge.

Jorja & Bode

The next stop was the Okerlund's to play Operation. Mike had made a giant size operation board and 3D printed the pieces. He put metallic tape around the edges and wired a salad prong to it. He had a sensor that would beep like a heart rate monitor. If the edges were touched it would go faster. If they were touched too many times it would say DEAD. (When they were touched it would say OUCH) Megan got lab coats, face masks and gloves for the kids to wear. If they messed up they went to the back of the line. I think Jorja & Bode and Aysha and Abram were the only ones to get it on their first try, but I'm not sure about that.

Bode & Jorja

Jorja and Bode ended the race in 4th place. That was pretty great considering they started in 9th, got U-turned, and there were 11 teams.

Jorja & Bode

 4th place

Once the race was over, Mike worked non stop on the video. I ran down to the flower store to pick up Jorja's boutonnière. I had given them a piece of ribbon and told them a white flower with some sparkles. It turned out soooo pretty! I hurried home and started sewing Jorja's dress. I had already sewn the ribbon down the middle of her dress vertically, but Jorja decided she wanted it around her waist too. It did look much better that way. I took the dress with me when we went to Camee's to get her hair done, and I finished the dress about five minutes before she needed to leave. Cutting it close, but she looked great.

 Jorja at Camee's

I wanted a picture of Jorja before she left, but was only able to stop her in the hall. Haha. It's hard to tell how beautiful she looked in these pictures, but the ones later will make up for it.

Jorja

 Bode & Jorja at Bode's house

 Jorja & Bode

Mia took the pictures of the kids. She takes amazing pictures and is also Chloe's cousin. They took pictures at the same place they had dinner. I think it was above some store Parker used to work at. The lady made the food for them and had it all decorated.

Bode & Jorja

 Bode & Jorja doing the robot ~ I bet it was Jorja's idea Haha

 Autumn, Parker, Chloe, Aysha, Seurette, Annie, Kate, Ellie, Jessie, Ella, Jorja

 Autumn & Helam, Parker & Gabe, Kate & Race, Aysha & Abram, Ella & Devin

 Ellie & Carson, Annie & Marshall, Chloe & Joe, Jorja & Bode, Seurette & Gage, Jessie & Jack

Next stop....dance. It was in the gym and then there was clean up after it. Then they went to a gym that Aysha's parents own and played around there for a few hours. Jessie drove Jorja and Seurette and their dates. They stopped at In and Out on the way home. Jorja was tired when she got home, but she had a lot of fun. I couldn't stay awake. I started to feel sick after she left. My throat hurt very bad. Glad I made it through the race before I got knocked down! Glad the race is over. It was so much fun to work on and put together though. I'm happy the kids loved it and appreciated it. I'm thankful for all the help of the other mom's. And Gavin's mom who just did it to be nice! People are awesome.