Jorja had her final missionary interview with the stake president today. He is going to submit her papers in two weeks. Wow! That's crazy! At least to me. Mike, Jorja, Preston and I played Concept. We played one game normally, then we decided to play all 9 choices. No choosing if you didn't know what the name/phrase was. It was kind of funny. Trying to get the kids to guess Lucky Luke, things like that. Jorja and I had "Wait, wait... don't tell me" How is anyone supposed to get that one?
Preston, Mike & Jorja measuring for the Christmas party
Today was so fun! I woke up super early, which is always annoying. I did get some blog posts done and was able to talk with Melissa when she woke up. That was fun. We had zoom church and sacrament. Mike and Preston blessed the sacrament and Michael passed it. Jacob spoke in his ward. I wish we could have watched that! He talked about his mission. He emailed Shannon a copy of his talk and she read it to Mike and I. It was really good. He talked about humility and things that happened on his mission, when he got sick and sent home and how he is doing now. I'm so glad he is better. He is awesome.
We had fun playing inside and outside today. The rest of my kids took a turn on Sherry's oculus. Stockton was instantly good. I failed over and over. My highest was a B. Stockton played his first game on easy and got a perfect score. His second game was on normal and he got an A. His third game was on hard and he looked like he was doing awesome, but the headset ran out of batteries in the middle. That thing is pretty fun.
Stockton
Mike
Jorja
Maysen
Mike and I took Sherry, Connor and Miah around on the sled chairs and pulling behind. We went on the big loop by Steve and Sharon's cabin and to the other entrance (not Chokecherry), went up to the springs and then back to the cabin. Connor and Miah had a great time pulling behind the snowmobile trying to knock each other off. One time they fell and Mike stopped behind us. He didn't do a graceful stop and Sherry ended up being tipped out of the chairs. She was okay though. We decided to do one run to the springs, since we were right by the bottom. Glad we did that because Mike found his goggles on the way up. He had been looking for those. When we got back Mike took Miah on a snowmobile run. She loved it. After she had changed out of her clothes he asked her if she would want to take the snowmobile on the lake bed. She jumped back into her snow stuff and was ready to go. Jorja, Sherry and Derek all went along. They had a great time. The snowmobiles can sure go faster than the 4 wheelers!
Jorja, Derek, Sherry, Mike, Miah
Jorja, Derek, Sherry
Sherry, Jorja, Miah & Mike
Derek, Sherry, Jorja, Miah & Mike
Trying to find a good place to cross the street
Usually the Chokecherry exit is the best
Miah & Jorja
Sherry fell off the back of Miah's snowmobile when she started to to drive away.
It is beautiful up here!
My dad sent some pictures of Bear dog. He asked how he could get him out of the kitchen. Hahaha. I told him to walk away with a plate of food. Mike says I should have told him to throw a ball. Bear dog is a good helper though.
Bear
Sherry and her family left this evening. We had the closing ceremony for the Olympics on and played games the rest of the night. I won Canadian Salad with a great Hail Mary at the end of the game. No tricks on the last round. Pretty proud of that. I went to bed around 11:00. I was so tired. The rest of them stayed up playing games. I'm not sure how long. When Mike came to bed he told me that they had a question about one of the rules in the new Cover Your Assets game. There was a spot in there where you could call Grandpa Beck if you had any questions. So Jorja and Preston did. And he answered. I'm unclear whether they called or sent a text. I'll have to find out when everyone wakes up. (Whatever they did it was late and he responded. Pretty nice of him!)
Shannon, Steve, Jorja, Derek, Preston, Stockton, Mike
We had a game night here with Mike's family. Well, the Hodsons and the Hardys. Steve and Shannon's family couldn't come because Steve got covid. We missed them, but we had a great night playing games. The adults were in one room playing Paranormal. The kids were in the other room playing Bristol and Hues & Cues. We also played 5 Minute Dungeon and finished it off with a massive game of Jackbox downstairs. Jorja really wanted to play Jackbox, but also had a date. We hurried and got a few rounds in before she left. It was such a fun night! Nathan sent me random pictures. Glad he did because I forgot to take any!
Side of Taylor, Mike, Michael, Lisa's head, Stockton, Sherry's shirt, Stephanie Preston
L to R: Taylor, Preston, Stephanie, Jorja, Sherry, Stockton, Lisa, Michael, a bit of Mike
L to R: Mike, Stockton, Derek, Miah, Melissa, Jorja, Taylor, Michael, Sherry, Preston
Today was really fun. Stockton was here and it was awesome. We made waffles this morning. My dad's waffles, which are the best. It was a feast and it was delicious! We watched the three sessions of conference today. The evening session was the best. In between sessions we played Wingspan. It was Maysen and Stockton's first time. We ended up adding four extra rounds to it just for fun. It ended up taking hours and hours. We played it between sessions or the hours and hours might have been annoying if they weren't broken up. It was pretty fun. It is so nice having Stockton home!
Preston's mouth is feeling better, so I was excited to try out the waffle iron. I texted my dad several times during the making of the waffles, just to be sure I didn't mess up. Not about how to make the batter, but how to use the waffle iron. Turns out the light at the top that my dad still uses doesn't work on mine. Three minutes ended up being the perfect amount of time. Took us a bit to get there though.
First batch
Perfect
We invited Riley over for dinner today. Jorja has been upset with me that I haven't embraced Riley like his family has embraced her. So, I was trying to be a good sport and had Jorja invite him over for dinner and games. He ended up not being able to come through. His dad was sent to the hospital around 3:00 in the morning and he was there most of the day. Jorja brought them cookies and talked to Riley's mom for a bit. Jorja's dinner turned out so delicious. Her taquitos reminded me of No Names from Ixtapa in Washington. Delicious. She also made pizookies. Cookies in a dish with ice-cream.
Preston & Bear
Jorja did try and play Pandemic with us. Mike, Preston and I have been playing it a lot. It is kind of complicated to just jump into. She was completely distracted though and while we were playing realized that she had to turn in all her NHS hours and write about her service. At least she kind of tried to play with us. We will take what we can get at this point. Mike, Preston and I had fun though.
I finally got Preston signed up for second quarter math. For some reason I thought that when we signed him up for math it signed him up for the entire year. It did not. I called last week to ask why his math disappeared. So... Preston is really far behind on math right now. This is going to be fun for him to catch up. This has been such a weird year.
I took Maysen and Preston to the dermatologist today. Jorja was supposed to come too, but she found out on Friday that Shay wanted to meet with the student body officers after school. Shay is taking over for Packer. She didn't want to miss the first meeting. I was able to get her appointment rescheduled for next Monday.
Jorja came home from her meeting and worked on statistics for hours. We are trying to do a family activity every Monday. We played a quick game of Cover Your Assets. Mike destroyed all of us in two hands. Worked out nicely because Jorja was able to get back to her statistics quickly. She is so nervous about the test, but she is going to do great. She is studying harder than I have ever seen her study before.
I only got to talk to Stockton super quick today. His reception kept cutting out. He wasn't able to call back, but did send an email. He had a picture with Marveen and Carter! Marveen is Grandma Honey's little sister. She lives in Tucson. Stockton was at a leadership meeting when they pulled him out to meet someone. It was Marveen! She was there putting lunch together for the missionaries. Yay! I'm glad they were able to meet him!
Jorja's head was really hurting her when she woke up. I made her go to church anyway. Mike does the zoom, so we always need to be there. We were also asked to clean the chapel afterwards. One of Jorja's friends took this video/picture and sent it on their friend group chat. I think she's adorable.
Week 20
Jorja's head was still bad when we got home. She was so upset because she couldn't think straight and she wanted to work on her statistics. I talked her into taking a nap and I wouldn't let her take her accutane. That caused her headaches the last round. Sent us to many specialists worrying she would lose her eyesight. Jorja said she wants to just deal with the headaches and get this over with instead of having to stay on it forever. Still, I don't want her to die or to go blind. Anyway, I won this battle. Jorja was able to wake up in not as much pain and do the studying she wanted. Mike, Preston and I played Pandemic. They gave me season 0 for Christmas. It is a lot of fun. Mike, Maysen, Preston and I all played Gloomhaven later. Lots of games today. Except for Jorja who is owned by statistics until Wednesday.
Preston, Maysen, Mike and I have had fun playing Gloomhaven. Preston got this game for Christmas and he loves it. It takes a long time, but is pretty fun. It is a four player game. The times Maysen hasn't wanted to play, we have tried to get Jorja to play. She did not want to. She was a good sport and stayed upstairs with us. She made bracelets while we played. She was also very glad she didn't play, because she does not like long games. Maybe one day we will get her to play.
Happy Father's Day! Even though it is Father's Day, it looks like I failed to get a picture of Mike. Whoops. I got most of these pictures off of Jorja's phone. Mike did send two pictures of Bear to his dad and said something like, "Hope you're having a ball."
Bear
We got to talk to Stockton today. He is doing great. He talked to us about the 'Corn' essay. Brett sent Stockton an essay Marie wrote on corn. Stockton loved it so much he took it to the mission office and had them blow it up. He now has it hanging on his wall. Hahaha. I love that Stockton loved this so much and I love that Brett knew Stockton would love it.
Jorja made a mask for my dad. I brought it to him and a Yellowstone hydroflask we had gotten him. I wasn't able to go until the end of the day though.
Jorja
We got Mike a bacon press, gloves to were when he string trims, and a pez. He also has a plow thing to put onto the lawnmower. That will arrive Wednesday. Today Mike found out that an offer he put on a boat was accepted. He is thrilled. I don't know what to think. It is a motorboat/sailboat. He has been looking at them for five years and decided to pull the trigger. Fingers crossed everything will work out with that.
We had hamburgers outside and then played croquet. The weather was perfect and the sky was beautiful! Preston ended up winning the game. He and Jorja were the last ones standing for awhile.
Stephanie
Jorja's selfies during the game
Jorja and Preston wanted to watch the sunset on the roof
