Double Decker

Mike took all the kids jet skiing. Maysen even went. Mike said she loved it. Yay! Mike has been anxious to take his boat out on the lake. Usually he tows the boat with the pilot. I needed the pilot this weekend, so he tried towing it with the van. He took the boat on a test run down to the road and back. Test run failed. The van and boat got stuck on the way up the hill. Looks like he will need a 4 wheel drive to tow the boat. Mike called Terry to see if he was around. He was in Kansas City, but Taylor was up at the cabin. Taylor was able to pull the boat up to the top. Yay!

Stuck boat

Taylor to the rescue

Boat is back, safe and sound

Weston ran a marathon today and Shannon ran a half marathon. Weston won his age group while setting a course record. He also qualified for the Boston marathon, although he will be on his mission when that takes place. I don't know much about running, but I'm guessing he did pretty good. I took this screenshot from Jacob's account.

Meanwhile back in Jorja land, she has continued to have fun at Lake Powell. She was so excited that she was able to do a trick with Riley. She climbed on his shoulders while he was wake surfing. Pretty impressive, especially considering she rarely has had practice behind a boat!

Lily, another girl, Jorja

Lily & Jorja

Jorja & Riley double decker surfing

Jorja needs to be at Utah State tomorrow at 6:00. I drove down to Lake Powell tonight. I left around 6:30. I almost made it the entire way down, but I pulled into a motel parking lot. Mike did not want me sleeping in the car. I walked around the motel but I could not figure out where the check in was. I used the bathroom and looked around again. I found a sign that said the check in was in a different building. I did not want to find it. I had brought a blanket and pillow with me and decided to climb in the back and take a little nap. I slept under a street light because I felt the area was a little sketchy and had no desire to be in a dark parking lot behind a cheep motel. I slept a bit and then finished my drive. I got to Antelope Point about three in the morning. The good thing was no one was taking money at the parking spot so I got to ride on through. I found a spot and slept until a loud noise woke me up around 7. I startled awake thinking someone was pounding on my door. It took me awhile to figure it out, but it was a bird pecking at the top of the car. Thanks bird.

Amongus Sussus

Jorja left early this morning to say goodbye to Dawson. He was a student body officer with her. He is entering the military on Sunday, which is also his birthday. Crazy way to spend a birthday!

Dawson & Jorja

Jorja and her friends met at Alta to caravan down to Lake Powell. Jorja forgot a few things so I swung by and snapped this picture of her and her friends.

 Lily, Jorja, Sami, Layla

Stockton had a meeting with his academic advisor over zoom. It went well. She cleared him to go into calculus. She told him he could go into calculus 2 if he wanted. Stockton hasn't done calculus in about five years so he is going to stick with calculus 1. Too bad the classes are all full. I helped him get on the waiting list of every class. Hopefully one will open up. He is registered for an online class, but some things are better in person. Stockton was surprised to see him zoom name was still the same thing it was set to for Preston's Among Us activity. So, when Stockton met with his advisor he had the name "Amongus Sussus" Hahaha

Bear

When Jorja got to Lake Powell she asked me to order her some more graduation announcements. She hadn't ordered enough. Well, she didn't save them either so I had to recreate them. I did this while watching the Jazz win game 5 against the Memphis Grizzlies. Jazz are moving on to round 2!

Mario Kart Marathon

This morning was spent cleaning the houseboat. Mike and I took off a little before Steve and Shannon did. We had Erica, Jacob and Weston with us. Preston and Weston played every level of Mario Kart on the way home. I think they played for seven hours. That is one way to kill time. Jacob and I listened to the BYU game. This year has been awful for BYU football. At least the Astros won today.

I signed up Jorja for EFY. I hope she loves it this coming year as much as she loved it before. I texted Sherry to find out if Miah still wanted to go with her. She does. That makes me happy. I would love for Jorja and Miah to become closer. I hope this will be awesome for them.

Cliff Diving

Jorja still wasn't feeling well today, so I decided to stay back with her on the houseboat while everyone took the boat out for the day. Jorja worked on her homework and we watched Wonder Years. Shannon checked out Season 4 of Wonder Years from the library and everyone has loved watching it. It is funny because Season 4, Kevin is 14 and a 9th grader. Jorja and Weston are in that stage right now. Most of the people on the boat are on Team Madeline. That is because they missed seasons 1-3 and have yet to appreciate how awesome Winnie is. Anyway, it was funny to watch this show we watched as kids and to listen to everyone cheering and giving Kevin advice. Good times.

I asked Mike to take pictures if anyone went cliff diving. Here are a few he sent me.

Hayden, Kyle, Weston, Stockton, Brandon, Preston

Stockton

Preston

Shannon and I tied in a marathon game of Ticket to Ride. Too bad I had to use all my tunnels. We didn't play many games this trip. That usually doesn't happen.

Post of Vagueness

Shannon likes to give people money if they do random things. Usually Jorja is all over that, which is why she eats bugs. She wasn't feeling it today. Shannon told Brandon's friends she would give them $10 if they touched a duck. They never did.

Hayden trying to reach the duck

We spent most of the day on the lake. This was the only picture I could get of Jorja.

 Steve driving, Mike on the wakeboard

 Preston. He looks so tiny!

 Preston on the knee board. He looked like he was playing Mario Kart.

 He loved it out there.

 Stockton & Preston

 Weston, Stockton, Preston

 This is the one that finally dumped them.

 Kind of hard to stay on through that.

Steve and Shannon decided to leave the house boat in the dock and take day trips with the boat. This meant we had cell service. I was hoping we would be without cell service for a few days. I think it would have been better for Jorja if we were. Jorja was not herself today. She was sad, but she also didn't feel well either. After boating Jorja and I went in our room while I had her listen to the talk "Turn to the Lord" given by Bishop Waddell this last General Conference. (Thanks for reminding me about this one Shannon.) Here are a few of my favorite parts. "Although each 'change' may be unique to our individual circumstances, there is a common element in the resulting trial or challenge --hope and peace are always available through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ." "We cannot control all that happens to us, but we have absolute control over how we respond to the changes in our lives. This does not imply that the challenges and trials we face are of no consequence and easily handled or dealt with. It does not imply that we will be free from pain or heartache. But it does mean that there is cause for hope and that due to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can move forward and find better days." "Whatever change in life's circumstance may come our way, and whatever unexpected path we may have to travel, how we respond is a choice. Turning to the Savior and grasping His outstretched arm is always our best option." Bishop Waddell also talked about resources that are available to us. The obvious ones like scriptures, prayer, fasting, sacrament, temple, priesthood were all listed. He also added wise counseling through trained professionals and even medication, when properly prescribed and used as authorized. I don't think Jorja will need any medication, but I was glad that the counseling was mentioned. It helps take the stigma away. I hope I can find the perfect therapist for Jorja. Not for dealing with her break up with Isaac, but to help with her panic attacks. Hopefully if we deal with them now, they will go away and she won't suffer with them much longer. Jorja and I talked for a long time. She is going to be okay, she'll just be sad for a bit.

I am once again really behind on my blog. This time was because I didn't know exactly what to write on this post. I have thought and thought about what to say, and I have talked to one of the players involved in the incident about what would be appropriate to write. This is the reason the post is titled the 'Post of Vagueness'. Something that really bothered me happened tonight. This has nothing to do with Jorja. I wanted to add that since I have been talking a lot about her lately. I also want to note that I am not upset with any of the people on the boat. I am extremely upset with some strangers we met. I decided not to write any details about the incident. It is not my story to tell. I just want to note that there is a definite double standard when it comes to boys and girls. It is not right, it is not fair, and it is not okay.

Broken Heart

Jorja got her first broken heart today. She texted me this morning and said, "Isaac likes someone else now." I asked her if he told her that. She said yes. I texted Stockton and asked for him to look out for Jorja today. He said Jorja didn't seem in a bad mood. Student government sounded really fun. They went in the entrance chamber and did all these cheers and dances. That made me feel better and I was hoping for the best.

I went to Gavin's house for the exercising class, then I hurried to the temple. I have been able to go to the temple once a week for this entire year. I didn't want to mess up my streak. The temple was crowded today, so it put me a bit behind schedule.

When Stockton and Jorja walked in from school Jorja looked so sad. Stockton asked if he could talk to me first. He got a speeding ticket on the way home from school. This day just keeps getting better and better. The jeep's speedometer is broken, so whoops. We will have to deal with that when we get back in town. I am excited that we are going away. This will be good for Jorja to get out of the house. Especially to be with Weston. The bad thing about it is there was a lot of driving today. We took the motorhome and added Jacob, Weston and Erica to it. Jorja was able to sleep for a bit, but had a hard time again after dinner. I climbed up into the bunk with her and held her while she talked to me. I don't want to write what she talked about. I did tell her it was okay to be sad today, but tomorrow she needs to not let this get to her. She can have sad moments, but not a sad everything. Crossing my fingers with that one.

There was one point on the drive where traffic was bad. It put us behind by an hour. We got to Lake Powell pretty late. Jorja wanted to sleep with us, so we set up Stockton and Preston in one room and Mike, Jorja and I in the other. I had my arm around her all night. I could feel her crying a lot, but she didn't have one panic attack. That's progress!

Lake Powell Day 6

We had to leave Lake Powell today.  Boo!  We were secretly hoping that the weather would be too bad, but I do need to teach tomorrow so I'm glad that didn't happen.  Shannon took a family picture for me.  The first picture she took turned out great.  The rest . . . not so much.  When Shannon was done she said, "Sorry about your boys."  Or something like that.  That's okay, we got one good one.  I'm happy with that!

Preston, Jorja, Mike, Maysen, Stockton, Stephanie

 Preston and Stockton....really?

 Who are we kidding, it is Preston that is going wacko.

 Stockton just didn't like how I was hugging his shoulder.

 Preston, why do you do this?

 Luckily I got one good picture, so I can just laugh.

 I'm not sure what Mike was doing here.

Shannon took Erica and Michael on the boat.  The rest of us rode the houseboat and 'cleaned'.  Lisa was a cleaning machine!  I cleaned one bathroom.  I do everything slow.  Lisa got to the second bathroom before I did!  Mike had to crawl on the outside of the boat to do some things for Steve a few times.  At least in the picture below he has a life jacket on!  I did catch him doing it without a life jacket when he thought I wasn't looking.  I would have been so mad at him if he fell over and drowned!

Mike

 My boy.

We cleaned the outside of the boat when we arrived.  I did some windows, but not nearly as much as the others did.  I took my kids over to the bathrooms and found ice cream.  I walked up to the cars with Maysen and Jorja.  I ran back for something and was behind them. The others had taken a tram thing up.  Anyway, when I got to the top I had no idea where to look for them.  I kept calling and texting Mike, but or phones weren't working.  I shouted for him, nothing.  I walked and walked and walked.  I was starting to get nervous, so I headed back.  I saw Steve's boat and knew they would be nearby.  I was so relieved!  My feet were sore!  As we were driving back home, I was looking through a weeks worth of Instagram.  I saw this picture and my heart about broke.  My sweet, amazing, fearless, strong grandpa was in the hospital.  The caption read, "I took grandma to see grandpa today. They were so cute together.  You can't see it but they were holding hands and would not let go."

I was able to talk to my grandpa for a bit.  I really hope he gets better soon.  I love him so much.  We ended up getting home about an hour after midnight.  Lake Powell was fun, but it is good to sleep in our own beds!

Lake Powell Day 5

Nathan & Lisa

 Derek & Naked Nova

Preston decided to try wake boarding again.  He was able to stay up longer this time than his first time.  Sometimes I couldn't believe he could hold on!  After a bit he decided he didn't like crashing, so he would let go of his rope.  Maysen also wake boarded, but I took too many pictures of Preston I couldn't take any of her.  She was very disappointed.

Preston and Mike

 Preston

When we got back I played in the water with the kids for a long time. We went down the slides all sorts of silly ways.  We played a game where someone would yell an animal out to you while you were going down the slide and you would have to make the sound before you hit the water.  I wasn't very good at that game.  We jumped off the houseboat.  I didn't like climbing over the railing.  It was a really, really fun time.  This week has been great!  I wish it wasn't over already!