Cameron's Married!

Today was such a fun day! The kids had online school, but I worked today. It is weird working there with no students, but also kind of fun. When I got home Matt and Sam and their family was here. Matt called me yesterday and asked if they could stay for a few days. Mike had them playing with wand stations that he had set up. They loved it. They also had so much fun with the cauldron.

Jeff & Greg

Cameron Molen got married today. Cameron and Maysen were best friends when we lived in Georgia. They were together every day. Their imaginations were awesome and they had so many adventures. It was so fun to have them together. Every week Alisha would watch my kids one day and I would watch her kids one day while we did date night. The rest of the week Alisha and I were almost always together, either at my house or hers. When we were at church Maysen would often leave us and go and sit with Cameron and his family. I had the best time living close to them. It was so sad when they moved back to Washington. I was crushed. We have seen them a couple of times since then. Maysen and I flew back to Washington for different things twice when she was in Kindergarten and 2nd grade. When Matt and Alisha moved to Arizona they stopped at our house on the way and we got to have a swimming party with them. That was the last time Maysen had seen Cameron. I'm guessing that was 8 years ago.

Cameron & Maysen

Anyway, Cameron got married today. He got married in the Timpanogos Temple and had his reception in Provo! Yay! It was soooooo fun to see Alisha! I was so excited! We were talking and we looked over and saw Cameron and Maysen talking to each other. I hurried to get a picture. I heard Cameron tell Maysen that he recognized her but didn't know where he knew her from. Maysen said, "I'm glad you remembered when I said Maysen." Cameron said, "Of course I remember you! You were my childhood best friend!" It was so sweet. I loved it. I'm glad I was able to come and I'm glad Maysen was able to too. 

Cameron (Rachel) and Maysen

Maysen & Cameron

Alisha & Stephanie

Matt, Mike, Alisha, Stephanie

Rachel & Cameron

Alisha

Cameron & Rachel

Alisha & Cameron

It was awesome to be with Alisha again. It's like no time has passed. Sure wish she lived closer, but glad Cameron got married near us! Mike, Maysen, Preston and I stopped to get food on the way home and then got to play with Matt! (My brother, not Cameron's dad) We had Matt try the oculus and he was a fan. Such a great day.

Carlsbad, California

That is where Cameron has been called to. I put in my two guesses (international and national) as Sydney, Australia and San Jose, California. I got really close!

State Diving

Stockton had his state diving competition today. The person who was supposed to do the snack table had not arrived so I volunteered Jorja to run it. She had joked with Mike before we came asking if she could run a booth. The lady eventually showed up, but Jorja told her she was fine doing it. I think Jorja enjoyed it.

Jorja & Preston

There were a lot of divers at this meet. More than at most of the meets this year, not surprising though. What was surprising was that there was more boy divers than girl divers.

Stockton during warmups

Stockton did great on three dives and okay on three dives. I picked one picture of each dive for this blog. Mike also had a couple of videos that I was able to get.

Stockton ~ Front 1 1/2 pike

 Inward 1 1/2 tuck

Back 1 1/2 tuck

 Reverse 1 1/2 tuck

 Twist ~ I can't remember which one, but he hates them all. :)

 Front 2 1/2 tuck

Stockton ended up sixth place. At least he was able to get a medal. He was .5 points away from Camden. Matt actually failed his last dive, but the judges didn't catch it. The divers all did and were laughing when he got fives on the dive. He only did a half twist when he was supposed to do a full twist. Not only was he supposed to get a zero on that dive, but the degree of difficulty was higher on the dive he was supposed to compete than the dive he actually did. This put him in fourth place and ahead of Stockton. That was a little disappointing for Stockton. Matt did tell someone that he did the wrong dive, but if the judges don't catch it it doesn't matter. He just lucked out. Stockton said, "How do they not catch that but they catch me if I turn my feet even a little bit?" Stockton has this habit of twisting his feet on entry, especially on his inwards. The judges are ruthless on that. Dives that could be given sevens have been dropped to threes. That is a huge point difference. Well, the judges know these divers pretty well and I think all of them look for Stockton to twist. They kind of expect him to do it and nail him on it. I don't think they were expecting Matt to do the wrong dive. One of the girls did a back flip instead of a back dive. That is a lot easier to catch though.

Stockton, Matt, Christopher, Mickey, Gavin, Camden

 Stockton & Gavin

 Cougar Club Divers

Christopher, Stockton, Matt, Mickey

We went to Pizza Pie Cafe after the meet. I just had salad. Boo! One more month of no sugar, no dairy, no grain. On the way home I saw this on my phone. My eyes about popped out of my head. I can not believe that little Cameron has his mission call! What has happened?

Mike and I went to the temple tonight. Mike had signed us up to do sealings over a month ago. I was so tired when I got home I went to bed early. I can not believe I forgot about the BYU/Gonzaga game! I remembered before we left to the temple, but just forgot when we got home. I woke up to texts from my brothers about it. Oh man! I would have loved to watch that one! (BYU won 79-71. Gonzaga was ranked number one and would have finished the season undefeated if they won this game.) Anyways, I have now watched several recaps and hopefully will watch the entire game soon. Boo on me!

Cactus Kickoff Classic

I didn't set an alarm, but I think I was on the road by 5:30.  I drove for four hours before Mike took over.  He drove the rest of the way.  We decided to park in the stadium RV parking.  It was expensive, but then we didn't have to worry about the RV getting towed while we were watching the game.  We arrived one hour before the parking lot opened.  We met Mike in the Cabelas parking lot.  He drove us to Johnny Rockets for lunch.  Isn't Mike's family adorable?  After eating Mike dropped his car at the hotel and we all piled in the motorhome. We were there about an hour before the gates opened.  The kids and I played Tiki Topple while we waited.

Skye, Blake, Mike, Larkin

Of course they were missing Christen and Parker, but I didn't mind . . . because we got their tickets!  And what amazing tickets they were! Mike doesn't mess around with his sports!  Mike also got Mike and I BYU shirts.  He almost got the first BYU drop box in Arizona.  He was there in five minutes.  Fast enough to get shirts, but not the first one there.

Stephanie & Mike

When Mike texted me about coming to the game he told me that his tickets were in section 134 row 1.  I assumed 134 would be up one level. Section 34 would be ground level.  Still, I thought the tickets would be amazing.  They were much better than I anticipated.  It was so much fun!

Skye, Blake, Larkin

 Skye, Blake, Larkin, Mike

We had cup holders and were given little pom poms to wave.  We had each brought in our own 'unopened' bottle of water, so the cup holders came in handy.

 Blake loved the pom pons

 Skye's thinking her siblings are weirdos

There were security guards like this guy in the blue shirt that stayed looking at us the entire game.  Skye asked me about them.  I explained to her what streaking was.  She looked at me weird.  Mike (my Mike) said, "Think about it like a sport.  It makes as much sense as the rest of this does."  Haha!  Mike makes me laugh.  It was so nice of him to drive ten hours down and ten hours back to sit through a game that he would rather not watch anyway.

Security guard, Skye, Blake, Larkin

Our seats looked straight at the goal line.  We were on the Arizona side and got to watch them warm up.

Blake had to go to the bathroom several times during the game.  The first time was before the game started.  Cosmo started coming to give high fives to the girls.  I saw Blake walking down the stairs.  I called to him to hurry.  Glad he did because we got the cutest picture of him and Cosmo!

Cosmo & Skye

 Cosmo, Larkin, Blake & Skye

 Mike's view of Blake & Cosmo

 My view

 This one is my favorite

My texts weren't coming through the stadium very well.  That made it extremely difficult to find my friend Alisha who was at the game with her family.  I also missed out on a lot of hilarious texts that were going back and forth between my brothers.  Here is an example. . . 

Bubs: Did they score?  My internet connection just blanked out.

Matt: Yes and missed the extra point.

Bubs: So kicking issues this year again eh?

Brett: The kicker is obviously embarrassingly terrible.

Bubs: One day it would be nice to have one of those kickers who can kick 55 yard field goals like Utah always seems to have.

Matt: Did I just see Mike and kids cheering with Cosmo?

Brett: Yes.

Matt: Nice.  He had the passion.

John: Bummer, I missed it.  Who am I, the kicker?

Brett then texted this picture

I don't know why I thought it was so funny, but I did.  Plus, it was awesome how Brett texted us the picture.  Christen's brother also saw Mike on TV and texted this one to Christen.

Those pictures were taken when there was one second left in the half. Arizona was going for a field goal and Cosmo was trying to get the crowd going crazy to stress out the kicker.  He ended up missing the field goal which was very good for us.

I called my friend Alisha a couple of times because my texts weren't getting through.  It did not work well at all.  Neither of us could hear anything!  Luckily I managed to get a text through before the half and they came down to find us.  I think it's been about five years since I have seen them.  I have definitely aged.  Alisha has not!  It was such a short visit, but so amazing to see her!

Matt, Stephanie, Alisha

I miss the days when we would spend all day every day together. Maysen and Cameron would play and Alisha and I would just talk.  I was so sad when they moved away from Georgia.

Stephanie & Alisha

 Cassidy, Cameron, Alisha, Kennedy, Matt

There was a contest in the second half where the jumbotron asked everyone to look like a cactus.  The jumbotron did a close up of me. They liked my cactus!  My friend Jacqui was at the game.  She texted me, "NICE CACTUS!!  The best.  You won hands down!"  Haha!  The trick of a good cactus was to have one hand crooked and then dance like a weirdo.  I wish they would have shown Blake.  He was hilarious. He had his hands in a touchdown sign and his face was so serious. That made me laugh!

Of course the game was amazing at the end. . . Luckily.  Blake had to go to the bathroom again with just over a minute left in the game.  Mike looked at me and said, "I'm not taking him.  No way am I leaving." Luckily we had a lot of empty water bottles by us.  I was on one side, Mike the other and a giant ledge was in front of Blake.  No one could have seen what was going on if they wanted to.  Skye and I kept talking about how BYU wasn't listening to our advice.  Take the ball from the other team and score a touchdown!  Luckily a crazy young kicker has nerves of steal and was able to win the game.  They kicked it right by us, but we couldn't tell if it went in from our angle.  We watched the crowd behind the goal posts.  Most of them were BYU fans, then there was the Arizona band.  Luckily it was the BYU fans that went nuts.  We were more than happy to join along!  Again I laughed at my brothers' texts. . . 

Matt: Good thing missed extra points never come back to hurt you.

Matt: Good job team.  I never doubted.

John: Me neither.  I was pure composure the whole time.

Haha!  I can just imagine John's pure composure!  We stayed for awhile after the game to give high fives to the players as they ran around.  Larkin had two shirts on, so she took her top shirt off and had it hanging over trying to get signatures.  She didn't get many, but she got some good ones!

Larkin, Mike & Blake, Skye

 Micah Hannemann

 Kalani Satake

 Jamaal Williams

 Taysom Hill

Some obnoxious kid kept asking Williams for things.  "Can I have your gloves?"  "I need these"  "Your headband, can I have your headband?" "I bought this one!"  "Your wristband"  No reply, he moved on.  "A picture, can I have a picture?"  Should have started with that one first kid.  Taysom signed Larkin's shirt and then came back a minute later and asked if he could borrow her sharpie so he could sign a football for someone else.  Nice!

Larkin & her shirt

Larkin was not happy with her shirt at the beginning because it is gigantic.  Now I think she loves it.  It was much nicer driving home with a win.  First step was getting to the motorhome, next step was dropping off Mike and his kids, last step was heading down the road. We drove until two in the morning.  After we had gone an hour we decided we would try and make it to Flagstaff and park in their Walmart.  I asked my phone for directions to Flagstaffs Walmart.  We were going the wrong way.  Whoops.  Mike had asked his phone to drive home.  It took us through Las Vegas, which added an extra hour to our trip.  By the time we found out about it, it was too late.  Oh well. We found a nice rest stop to park though.  Mike loved it because it was dark and quiet.  We ended the night by reading Maysen's blog.  She has it set to publish at midnight.  Usually I don't make it that long.  Not tonight!  Today was such a long, fun day!  I'm so glad Mike gave us tickets and Mike drove me down!  Hopefully BYU can win next week against Utah!