Progress

Note: can't get this underline to go away... frustrating Jorja is back! She had a great time hiking with Janelle and now has a new friend Anna. She got back in time to go to dinner with us. Preston has wanted to go to one of those Brazillian barbecue places for a long time. Welp, he had five teeth removed, but we neglected to get them for the tooth fairy, so Mike thought taking him to this restaurant would work. Preston loved it. Too bad I didn't get any pictures. Maysen stayed home. Restaurant full of meat? Not her favorite.Anna, Jorja, Janelle

Jorja & Janelle

Mike spent the day in the duck pond. It's looking so good!

19th Anniversary

I was all set to go to an Insanity class after I got the kids out the door for school.  On my way I checked my phone.  Becky sent me a text asking me if I wanted to hike to the waterfall.  Immediately I thought that sounded like more fun.  I did not think I would be able to handle both.  It worked out great because I was able to get some final things set for our Beehive activity tomorrow.  The hike was great!  I love being with these girls.  They are so much fun.  The weather was perfect for hiking.  So much fun!

Stephanie

 One of Mike's favorite places on earth

Four of us made it to the waterfall.  Stephanie did not.  She was so close, but we were told the rocks were super slippery.  She was carrying her one year old on her back and he was getting fussy.  She let him out to play and waited for a bit.  It seemed to do the trick, Wally was happy the entire way down. Wally's real name is Lincoln, but no one calls him that.

 Camee, Jacqui, Stephanie, Becky

Today is my 19th anniversary.  I am so lucky!  Mike is the best person on the planet.  No idea how I convinced him to stick around with me!

Mike & Stephanie

Mike gave me a soft-serve ice-cream machine for our anniversary.  This will go great with Jorja's cookies!  He has a fancy one coming later. The kids were pretty excited about this one.  I gave Mike stale peeps.  I saved them for months.  He has always said he loves the stale ones.  I open the packages as soon as I buy them, but he loves peeps so much he never waits for them to get as stale as he likes them.  Turns out he doesn't like them super stale like I thought he did.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

Mike and I went to the Church History Museum.  It was nice to be able to look at things and go at our own pace without worrying about anything.  (I have taken the Young Women here twice.)  We went to dinner at Blue Lemon and walked around the Salt Lake Temple grounds.  It was a wonderful stress-free evening.  

 This one is Mike's favorite

Chinese Camp

Jorja and Preston have spent the week at Chinese camp.  They each had a play to put on.  Preston was a black snail and Jorja was a pigeon.  The e-mail said to come at 11:30 to see the play.  Maysen and I arrived at 11:25.  People were already leaving.  I looked at the e-mail again.  It said to arrive at 11:00.  Whoops.  I felt pretty bad.  We tried to find the kids and found Preston lined up in the hall with his class.  They hadn't preformed yet!  Yay!  Preston was super happy in the hall, but did not look happy once he was in the room.  He said he was nervous and didn't want to do it.  I recorded his part, but you can't really hear him. Oh well.

Preston's class

Jazzie was supposed to be a fox, but Ava couldn't come today.  Ava was pigeon #3.  Jazzie took her spot.  Jorja loved that!  I asked Jazzie if she volunteered or if they told her to do it.  She said she volunteered because she wanted to be next to Jorja.  So sweet!  Jorja is sure going to miss her next year!

Jorja's class

Jazzie & Jorja

 Jazzie, Jorja & Preston

We stopped by 7-11 on the way home for a free slurpee.  The electricians came early this morning.  They worked until around 2:00. We now can turn on lights in the kitchen....and we have outlets!  Yay!  I also asked about the electrician if he could switch the outlet from a 220 v to a 110 30Amp outlet.  (I looked up those numbers from Mike's text, I have no idea what they mean.)  Anyway, he did it.  He told me everything is pretty Mickey Mouse out there.  Mike had used those exact words to describe it earlier.  He doesn't have a breaker yet, but he will bring it later.  Now we will be able to use the air conditioner out there.  That will be nice.

A little after 3:00 I took Maysen hiking.  I wanted to hike Bells Canyon and go to the waterfall.  Maysen wasn't too excited about the idea.  She did good though.  The only problem was, I got distracted talking to her that I didn't notice the turnoff.  Things started looking unfamiliar.  I had Maysen wait while I ran on ahead.  I texted Mike pictures and asked him if he knew where I was.

He recognized the scenery and let me know I had gone WAY too far! We eventually found the waterfall, but I extended our hike by at least an hour.  It was perfect hiking weather though, so no harm done.

Maysen at Bells Canyon Waterfall

 Stephanie

 Where's Maysen?

 Stephanie

 Utah - just as beautiful as Hawaii!

 Maysen

I also missed the turnoff on the way back down.  We ended up cutting through the yard of a house that was being built.  The guy there didn't look too happy to see us.  We wandered through the neighborhood until we found our car.  We made it back to our house sometime after 8.  I had fun, but my feet are tired!

I took the kids to Sonic for dinner.  Mike is pulling an all nighter at work.  He is more excited about the project they are working on then he was last night.  He seems to be having a lot of fun.  That's good.  Nice job when you can be excited about working all night!

May 20th

I have spent quite a long time trying to get a video of Preston's show-and-tell working.  I'll have to try later, because I can't figure it out.  I was able to go to Preston's Chinese class today and watch his show-and-tell.  He brought 'Shiver' and 'Spare Shiver'.  Although Preston calls Spare Shiver 'Iceburg'.  Technically Iceburg is his name, but Mike and I think it is so funny to call him 'Spare Shiver'.  Anyway, Preston was so cute.  It was adorable to hear him speak Chinese.  Jorja translated the video for Mike.  Loved that!

I went to my mom's grave this morning.  She died 18 years ago today. My life would be so different if she were still alive.  There are so many things I miss.  It was like my family died when she did.  I hate that.  I hate that my kids don't have a grandma.  My mom would have been amazing.

Sometimes I really have a hard time on May 20th.  Today I kept myself super busy and did great.  My friends and I met to go hiking to Bells Canyon waterfall.  Jacqui, Camee, Becky (Bingham) and Heidi went.  It was such a perfect day for a hike.  We were so close to the waterfall when they decided to turn around.  They had to be back by 2:30 to pick up their kids.  I didn't want to turn around and told the others I would finish the hike by myself.  Jacqui and Camee decided to stay with me. We were only about fifteen minutes from the waterfall.  Neither of them had been there before.  There was so much water!  I don't think I had ever been here in May before.  That must make a difference.  Both Jacqui and Camee couldn't believe how big the waterfall was. Definitely worth the trip.  I am so glad I found it.  This is my first time hiking up here without Mike.  There were three different places where you could get lost.  I made all the right decisions!  Yay!

 Stephanie at the waterfall

 Jacqui, Camee, Stephanie ~ the waterfall is behind us...promise...

 Camee & Jacqui singing 'The hills are alive!'

 Stephanie

Mike, Maysen and I had our scuba class tonight.  We took our final test. We all passed, but I should have reviewed the dive tables more.  I messed up on one simple thing.  Still good enough to pass, but bad enough to annoy myself.  When we were in the water we did the out of air skill.  It was scared for that one, but it was no big deal.  I was so tired by the time class was over.  We got home after 10:30.  We checked on the kids and then collapsed into bed.

Our house is so torn up now.  The counters are gone.  The sink is out. Dishwasher gone.  Wow.  We do have a laundry room door and the downstairs toilet is hooked up now.  Little by little it is getting put back together.  Jorja is cute.  She told me that Stockton had them roll a dice for dinner and then he set up a little store.  Jorja made noodles using the sink in the bathroom and the microwave.  I'm glad our kids are so good at rolling with the punches!

 Old laundry room

 Laundry door!

 Downstairs toilet

 The rest of our downstairs looks like this.

Stockton is 14

Yep.  He got old on me.  Traitor.  I hope Stockton had a good day today. He did have to go to school, so that wasn't his favorite.  He had math today.  I had carpool today, so I brought a Little Caesars pizza with me. Stockton and Josh were able to have that for lunch.  Stockton's favorite.

Stockton ~ 14 years old

Once I dropped the boys off at their middle school I headed out to meet my friends.  It is my friend, Camee's birthday today as well.  I wasn't able to make it to lunch, but I was able to make it to the hike afterward. We went up the path to the waterfall by Mike's house.  I have never been here in the winter, so I didn't really know what to expect.  I brought some old shoes because I didn't want my new ones to get ruined.  I also had boots in the car just in case.  I ended up using my old shoes, but had absolutely no traction on them.  The path didn't look bad at the beginning, but it wasn't long before we were walking on ice! Most of my friends had little spiky things they put over their shoes. Three of us did not.

I had so much fun!  We went as fast as we could, but with the ice there were several spots I had to crawl up.  Half of the group tuned back after awhile.  Four of us went almost all the way to the waterfall.  Suzanne really wanted to get there.  We finally had to turn back in order to pick up our kids.  I was worried Maysen would need me to pick her up from school.  She mentioned she might stay after.  I did get ahold of my dad and he said he could get her if she did.  Luckily she came home on the bus.

The way down the mountain was SO ICY!  I finally just slid down the mountain like I was sledding.  (I am extremely thankful I brought my good winter gloves!)  Sledding down that mountain was so fun!  I was going so fast!  My friends couldn't believe it.  They were laughing so hard.  They said they would be scared out of their mind doing that.  I thought it was a lot safer than trying to walk down the mountain.  I did have to steer around rocks constantly, but it was really nothing.  Just so much fun.  Camee thought it was so funny because I would be talking and then all of a sudden drop and go to sledding mode like it wasn't any big deal.  She said it was the funniest thing she has seen.  Glad to make her laugh on her birthday, but I had a blast!  Makes me excited for the cabin!

Camee, Stephanie, Megan, Suzanne

 Stephanie, Camee, Suzanne, Megan

 Stephanie, Jaime, Becky, Becky

Stockton wanted a Chick-Fil-A nugget platter for dinner.  Easy enough. For his cake I made him the 'brownie cake' that he loves.  I did run out of peppermint extract, so I used peppermint oil.  (The kind you use for suckers.)  I wasn't sure how much to put in.  I guess I put too much because Stockton said it was too pepperminty.  I also couldn't find my '1' candle.  Whoops.  We let Stockton pick two numbers that added to 14.  He picked 9 and 5.

Stockton's birthday cake

 Mike let Stockton light his own cake this year.  He loved that!

Stockton and Mike

Stockton got a new computer for his birthday.  Preston also gave him a lego Toad on a bike.  He also got a Tiki Topple game.  He played this at the cousins' and really liked it, only problem was their game didn't come with an orange.  Mike sent this picture to them.

Stockton

Maysen went to Young Womens' and made an infinity scarf.  It is really cute.  I went to Young Womens' and worked on things for New Beginnings with my Beehives.  My advisor, Jacqui, is amazing!  She has so many ideas.  It is going to be so cute!  I'm very thankful I have her to work with.  If it was just left up to me it would be a disaster!  We let Stockton skip Young Mens' tonight.  He could have chosen Deacons or Teachers.  Well, the Deacons moved their activity to Wednesday to work on the Family History merit badge.  The Teachers were going to watch a basketball game that one of the youth was playing in.  We decided to let Stockton stay and enjoy his birthday at home.  I hope he loved it!  I sure do love that boy.