Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! Mike got no special breakfast because I'm lame. Jack Murphy spoke in church today. That was cool. He was in my ward growing up, except he was not a member of the church. I was shocked when we moved back here and he was in the high council. Pretty awesome. I took this picture and sent it to my dad.

Stockton and Jorja went to Nate Brown's mission farewell today. I was surprised he was having his farewell this early. I know he leaves sometime in July. But, you never know with lots of missionaries leaving in the summer. The kids came to sacrament meeting with us, then went to Nate's ward at 11:00. Only to find out that it really wasn't his farewell. They discovered that when Nate's mom came and said hi to them and asked them why they were there. Jorja was excited to see Sister Argo though. The two of them decided to come home. They cleaned the kitchen and made Mike snickerdoodles. This is what we came home from church to.

 And on the back . . .

I gave Mike blackout curtains and a curtain rod for our bedroom. He is always complaining that he can't sleep because it gets bright so early. Also the party house has lights on their house, kind of like Christmas lights. They get in the cracks of our blinds at just the right angle to shine on Mike's face. Hopefully he likes the blinds. Hopefully I picked up the right size.

The kids gave Mike a blow up movie screen for the backyard. That will be fun watching movies while swimming in the pool.

Jorja, Mike, Stockton, Preston

 Maysen is here too!

Jorja made dinner all by herself. She made chicken fingers and cooked them in the air fryer. They were quite delicious.

Jorja

 Dinner

We played Betrayal at the House on the Hill. This was the first time I wasn't the traitor. Although it was a secret traitor, so I didn't get to see what it was like to be a normal person. Jorja took this video of Mike while we were playing.

Jorja has to leave early for Leadership Camp tomorrow. She is so dang excited. She wanted to experience this so bad. She had to keep leaving the game to get her packing done. I'm getting her up at 4:45 in the morning. She is going to have fun this week. I'm excited for her.

Hank Smith

Jorja loves Hank Smith. She has listened to all his CDs several times. She has read his books. She has watched his videos. I love it. I love that she looks up to someone like this instead of a random celebrity who might not have good values. Sam knows how much Jorja likes Hank Smith. She is also his editor. Sam got the ball rolling on a Hank Smith fireside for our stake. It was recorded and might become a CD. How cool would that be if Jorja could own a CD of his and know he was there when it was recorded? Sam says sometimes Hank likes to do them a couple of times before they are made into a CD though. The title announced in all the wards for the fireside was Guiding Principles for Teen Relationships. When we got there we saw that Hank Smith changed the title to 10 Tips for a Successful Teenage Social Life. That does sound more exciting! His tips were super funny too. Our entire family went to the fireside, plus Hailey. Jorja's friend Jaren sat by them as well.

Hank Smith and Julie Valentine (Julie is the stake YW president and did a lot to set up the fireside.)

Here are the 10 tips that were talked about. I will just write the tips, but there was lots of humor and explanation in between.

1. Personal Hygiene

2. Smile

3. Remember Names

4. Give Genuine Compliments

5. Be Grateful and Say Thank-You

6. Be Aware of Digital Facades

7. Know the Difference Between Casual Dating and Steady Dating

8. Have Boundaries

9. Pray for Friends (by name)

10. Develop a Friendship with the Savior

The fireside was a huge success. People all around me were laughing. It was funny to hear the McHenry's laughing, especially Andrew. Olivia Bradley was laughing so hard/loud. The Stake Presidency was laughing through most of the fireside. I think everyone was pleased. Yay!

We went up afterwords to meet him. Julie Valentine introduced me as Sam's sister-in-law. She actually pointed me out to him before the meeting began, but I was in the process of wrestling my phone away from Jorja. I gave a quick wave. Jorja was oblivious to that interaction and was quite embarrassed when I told her. She had grabbed my phone because I went to take a picture of her. She was positively beaming when he walked in. Anyway, we got to meet him afterwords. Mike said, "This is Jorja and she has a huge crush on you." Jorja did not appreciate that. He also told him that we would be going on the cruise with him. I asked him if he was doing seminars on the ship. (I already knew the answer though.) I told him that Jorja wants to be a public speaker and I asked if he could do public speaking workshops on the ship. He said that was a great idea. I just don't know if he will remember, but at least I asked when I had the chance.

Hank Smith and Jorja Smith

They had a lot of brownies for dessert. We grabbed some extra as we were leaving. Stockton made a plate for his friend Nate and brought it over to his house. Nate's is having girl problems and has been sad. I thought that was kind of Stockton to do.

Macbeth's Last Day

There were a ton of deer running across our front lawn today. I think Dash on his skateboard coming down the street freaked them out. I wasn't fast enough to get really cool pictures.

We got to Macbeth early. I wanted to get great seats. Turns out that for some reason the entire front row was reserved. Our seats were not great at all, despite arriving an hour early. Oh well. I called Ange and asked if she wanted my dad's ticket. She wanted to go with Bubs. We were able to get them a standby ticket. That was so nice of them to come! I was glad I told the boys what the story was. It is pretty hard to follow along without knowing. I think Preston would have had a really hard time sitting through it if we didn't have that conversation. He was great today. Stockton hung out with Gavin and some other diving friends for most of the day. They went hiking and then played games at Gavin's house. I told him to meet us at the school at 6:45. He did. I was waiting for him with his ticket. He barely looked at me as he grabbed the ticket because he saw Acea waiting for a standby ticket. Acea is his good friend from last year. He was the math sterling scholar last year. He is up at Utah State right now. Stockton loved seeing him!

Acea, Stockton, Nate (Macduff)

 And Mike trying to photobomb

 Mike, Jorja, Stephanie

 Jorja & Drew ~ Jorja was SO EXCITED Drew came!

 Ange, Jorja, Bubs

Mike, Preston and I headed home. Stockton stayed to talk with his friends and wait for Jorja. Jorja convinced them to go get ice-cream. Stockton, Acea, Nate and Jorja went to McDonalds. They had an ice-cream cone that lasted two minutes, then sat and talked for an hour. I asked Jorja if she felt like a third wheel. She said, "Only when they talked nerd." Hahaha! Stockton, Acea and Nate are the biggest nerds in the best way. Both Stockton and Jorja had a fantastic day.

Jorja's on the Snake!

I can not believe I did not take one picture today!  What a blog fail! Especially since today was amazing!  I was a bit worried because it was projected to rain all day.  It drizzled a little, but for the most part the weather was perfect.  Sharon took us river rafting down the Snake River today.  We started at West Table and we ended at Sheep Gulch.  I always forget which one is which, so I thought I would write it down. This was Jorja's first time river rafting.  She got to be the hood ornament.  That means she was the front of the boat crouched down, no paddling.  Some of the raft companies have them sit on the edge. That is just crazy!  Maysen and Stockton also came.  It was the first time paddling for both of them.  Maysen was really worried.  She thought the paddle would be ripped out of her hand.  She told Mike that if she was depended on for paddling the boat was going to go over for sure!  As we pushed off I turned to look at her.  She had tears in her eyes.  Jorja was also really scared.  She didn't know what to expect.  I told her she didn't have to go, but she would probably regret it if she didn't go.  Turns out all three of my kids loved it.  Maysen was surprised you don't get as wet paddling as you do a hood ornament. She stayed toasty warm in her wet suit.  Jorja hit the first wave and turned around with a giant grin on her face.  The grin stayed in place for the next two hours!  Jorja's hands were pretty cold when the ride was over.  Maysen, Stockton and Jorja all went belly whomping. Stockton was the best at it.  Jen and Becky also came the first run down.  Mike had his go-pro, so he got lots of film.  I'm just not sure how to get it on here.

Maysen, Stockton and Jorja went back to the cabin for the second run. They watched Jack and Preston.  Nate watched the little ones for the first run.  The second run down was just as fun as the first.  Jen pushed Nate in once she got the go-ahead from Sharon.  Sharon had us pull over at Lunch Counter.  There Mike, Nate and Jen all got in as a swimmer and floated through it.  Wow.  I didn't have any desire to get in the freezing cold water, so I was in charge of the raft.  Worked out well for me!

What a beautiful, exciting day!  Thank you Sharon for giving so much of your time to letting us have this experience!  Awesome.  Once we were back at the cabin Mike made a ton of spaghetti and Texas toast. We played Telestrations for awhile.  Sharon stayed with us because there was no room for her at her cabin.  She is so generous.  We went to bed pretty early by cabin standards.  It was about 10:00, so past my regular bedtime.  I was exhausted.  Having fun is sure a lot of work!

Parrydise

One of my favorite places in the entire world is our family cabin in Idaho.  Years ago it was named Parrydise.  What a perfect name.  Mike was curious to see if the motorhome could make it up the road.  Not a problem.  What a beautiful view!

Motorhome at Parrydise

Our family packed up after sacrament meeting and headed to Idaho. We went through Wyoming and arrived at the cabin around dinner time.  Mike's friend Nate, his wife Jen and their 5 year old boy Jack stayed with us.  Becky, Mike's other friend from work also came.  Mike made taco salad bowls for dinner.  Preston was excited to roast marshmallows.  The rain didn't even stop him.

Preston

It's going to be a great few days!

Flags for the Fourth

Happy 4th of July!  We started today bright and early by putting flags on our street.  As a fund raiser for the youth people can buy flags to have on their yard during patriotic holidays.  I know a lot of wards do this.  We have never been asked to help with the flags before, so I was kind of excited.  More excited than the kids were.  We were assigned our street, that was great!  We had 20 flags to put up.  Mike let the kids ride in the back of the car with their legs hanging out.  Preston LOVED that!

Jorja, Stockton, Preston, Maysen

 Stockton, Preston & Mike at our house

 Preston & Mike

 Jorja, Stockton, Preston, Mike

 Jorja, Stockton

 Preston & Mike

Looks like Maysen dodged the camera, but she put plenty of flags in herself.  This afternoon we went to Mike's friend Nate's housewarming party.  It's actually Mike's boss.  Well, actually Mike's boss's boss.  Try to keep that straight!  Anyway, the kids had a great time playing Mario Party 8 (I think) and playing on this giant slide.  The slide had water going down it and the kids stayed on it for hours!

Preston

 Stockton & Jorja

Common sense was not always used.  We got home around 8:00.  Our plan was to watch fireworks from our pool.  That was fun a few years ago.  This year it didn't work out as well.  We couldn't see much.  That's okay.  It's nice not worrying about them landing in our yard and burning up our trees!  Preston really wanted to see the fireworks.  I guess he hasn't really experienced them like the other kids.  One of the disadvantages of being the youngest.  Oh well, he has plenty of perks!