Last Day of Real Life

I dropped Mike off at work today.  We stopped at the UPS store to mail back some things.  One is our dish network.  One less bill a month, which will be nice.  The other was Maysen's new crocs.  We ordered them from Amazon, but they were a bit small.  We ordered the size up a few days ago.  They came today, except they were the wrong size.  I looked up my order.  Yep.  They sent the wrong size. Frustrating!  The rest of the day was spent working on my primary lesson, watching Olympics, taking Jorja school shopping for binders, signing Stockton up for the ACT, having a scout swim party pack meeting, packing up Maysen and trying to stop my heart from breaking.

Today was the last day we could sign up for the ACT in September.  I decided I wanted him to have as many chances to take the ACT as he can.  October's test is over fall break.  Diving will also be starting, so I don't know if we will have any conflicts.  It will be good to have a test under his belt this early.  It took forever to sign up.  We skipped most of the questions.  Here is the picture we uploaded to his profile.

Stockton

The scout pack meeting was here at my house.  It was funny to see the boys who earned their wolf.  They were given their awards in the pool, then they came out dripping wet to pin their moms.  So cute!

Luke & Ashley

Lots of people had to leave early for football and other things.  All of the leaders left an hour early.  That was kind of weird.  I don't know if they realized that they planned the party and no one was able to be there.  I just sat out there by myself while the last of the scouts finished up swimming.

Stockton and Jorja went to the high school football game today. Stockton went with Mason, a boy who moved into our ward not quite a year ago.  He didn't come back until close to midnight.  Jorja went with Hailey and Katlyn.  I dropped them off and Mike picked Jorja and Hailey up.  He picked them up early and took them to 7-11 for bring your own cup slurpee day.  The promotion was over, but the guy was nice and charged them for a refill or something like that.

Jorja & Hailey

Maysen wanted to watch Looney Toons Back in Action before she left. We watched it while Stockton and Jorja were at the football game. Then we started packing and loading the car.  We had gathered all her things in one area, just needed to box them up.  Mike started playing Suzy Bogguss "Letting Go".  That made me cry and I left.  Mike said I left before the verse about me.  The first verse was sad enough!

I tucked Maysen in for the very last time.  I'm sure I will tuck her in when she is home, but this is the last time when she is 100% mine.  I don't have to share her with anybody (except our little family), I don't have to share her with any place.  I laid in bed trying to fall asleep thinking about how tomorrow everything changes.  I am not good with change.  Even if it is a good thing, like this is.  I feel like my heart is breaking.  I can't imagine not seeing Maysen every day.  It doesn't seem like that long ago when she was happy to talk to my feet.  I have loved, loved, loved this part of my life.  Having all of my children with me. Teaching them.  Playing with them.  Vacationing with them.  It has been amazing.  Now it is done.  I know I can't stay in this part of my life forever, but it hurts to leave it.  I hope I love this new phase of my life. It will be hard to top this one though.

Mom's 69th Birthday

My mom would have celebrated her 69th birthday today.  We celebrated by going to Lagoon.  Jorja got home from her WEB meetings around 3:00.  I took the kids to Iceburg, picked up Mike at work then headed to Lagoon.  My cousin, Rozie, came and said hi to me while the kids were on their first ride.  That was very cool.  We ran into the Couch's a couple of times.  Once Travis said hi to me as a group was running past.  I'm pretty sure it was Travis, it was so fast.  That was the only time I saw any of the Roes.

Maysen, Preston, Stockton

(I'm talking to Rozie right now)

 Jorja & Stockton

Stockton said Anne was a lot more fun to go on this ride with.  She would laugh at every turn.  Jorja did not.

We hit every ride Maysen wanted to go on.  I didn't expect the lines to be this long on a Thursday.  We finished the day with Air Race.  I decided to go on it with Maysen since it is her favorite ride.  The last time I rode it was a couple of years ago and I was sick for two hours afterwords.  I'm glad it was the last ride, because I didn't feel well after. It was not nearly as bad as it was last time.  Maybe because this time I was concentrating on not being sick.  Last time I was concentrating on Jorja freaking out!  Stockton didn't ride this ride.  Jorja gave him her purse to hold.  Stockton was wearing it.  He said, "This is the first phase of my transformation."  I wish I got a picture.  He looked ridiculous.

Our plan was to stop at Mike's work and pick up his jeep.  We missed the I-215 exit, so we decided I would take Mike to work in the morning. Mike was a little nervous about it.  He doesn't like being without his computer.  Because we missed the exit we were able to stop at Matt & Sam's.  Sam had made my mom's carrot cookies and texted me that we could stop by.  It was short, fun and delicious.  Jorja says that Anne is so cute when she is tired.  She was in bed, but came out and cuddled with the kids.  Matt and Sam are troupers.

Maysen's Tree

Maysen is leaving for college in three days.  She wanted to plant a tree before she left.  She wants to be able to show her kids the tree that was planted for her before she starts the next phase of her life.  She wanted a climbing tree, I'm not sure if the one she picked will be a climbing tree, but it will have red leaves at some times.  I love that!  I just hope Mike and I don't accidentally kill it.  Neither of us have green thumbs.

Maysen & Mike

 Preston & Maysen

 Maysen and her tree

 Maysen's tree

Jorja spent all day at school in the WEB program.  The WEB leaders are going to help the new sixth graders get adjusted to school.  She has been pretty excited about this and had a fun day.  Her schedule was also released today.  They split the Chinese class this year, so that will be interesting.  She also has a new Chinese teacher.  I hope she loves her!  Jorja got the math teacher she didn't want and the English teacher she didn't want.  I asked her if she wanted me to try and change her classes.  She doesn't.  She is going to stick it out.  The fact that Katlyn has math and English with her might have something to do with it.

I tried to get tickets to the Cabin Temple open house today.  I was four minutes late because I wanted to watch the gold medal steeplechase race that was on.  I didn't think it would be a problem, but it was!  I couldn't get tickets for the Saturday session.  I did get them for 7:15 on Friday.  Maysen finishes her Friday class at 4:20.  That's not leaving us with a lot of time.  I did manage to get two tickets for Saturday.  I'll have to keep looking.

Pete's Dragon

Mike took an extended lunch break and met us at the movie theater to see Pete's Dragon.  I love $5 Tuesdays.  Usually we can't take advantage of it because of YM/YW and school.  We also had the swim banquet tonight.  Mike thought it started at 6:00, so he stopped by on the way home.  He was able to pick up their awards, which made it tempting to not even go.  Mike and I ended up taking Jorja, Katlyn and Preston. We had dinner there and then took Preston to Brian's house for his birthday party.  Preston had a lot of fun.  I'm hoping Brian will be in Preston's class this year.  We will find out on Monday.

Swimming with the Smiths

Mike's family came over for dinner and swimming.  It was great as always.  I love being around Mike's family.  I wish we could get together more often.  Sherry was a trouper.  She came right after her back-to-school night and she starts school tomorrow.  She teaches chemistry.  I bet she is an amazing teacher.  Shannon came pretty late, right as Sherry was leaving.  Her mom had a heart attack early this morning. She had surgery and two stents put in.  That is scary.  I hope she recovers completely.  Mike made tacos.  That worked out well.  He had the meat in a crockpot and people could just eat when they wanted to. He bought way too much, so my family might be having tacos for the rest of the week!  We also had the olympics on.  We watch Biles struggle on the beam.  At least she managed to hang onto the bronze. It was a nice day for me.

Preston annoyingly hiding from the camera, Jorja

 Really Preston!

 Finally Preston, but now I can't get Jorja

 Stockton

 Nova

 Family!

 Taylor & Erica

 Xander & Miah

 Leo & Melissa

 Miah & Taylor

 Stockton

 Stockton 'Bolt'

Yesterday we watched Usain Bolt win his 3rd gold in the 100 meter dash.  Stockton loved his pose.  Below is a picture of Maysen and Taylor.  I know Maysen will have a great time at USU, but I would have loved to have her at BYU with Taylor.  And Erica.  That would have been so much fun for her!

Maysen & Taylor

Connor's Homecoming

I went to our sacrament meeting so I could hear Indy give his farewell talk.  Mike and the kids picked me up after and we went straight to listen to Connor give his homecoming talk.  Connor did great!  The difference between his farewell and homecoming talks were huge.  He has grown up a lot.  I wish I had a better memory so I could write about it, but I remember being impressed with him.  Listening to him give his testimony in whatever language he spoke was crazy!  He spoke so fast! Connor served in the Philippines, but I'm not positive what language he was speaking.  Matt was so proud of him.  Matt went to the Philippines to pick up Connor and was able to travel around and meet the people Connor served.  I heard Matt say, "You should have seen the people interacting with Connor.  It was amazing!"  After the meeting we went to Matt and Sherry's house for waffles.  I ended up cooking the waffles the entire time.  Sherry had the batter already made, I just refilled the waffle iron.  Connor was only able to be there for about thirty minutes. He and Tage had to leave for the University of Utah. Sherry thought they needed to be there on Tuesday, but yesterday found out it was today.  Crazy to send your kids off to college with a house full of people still there to enjoy waffles.  I got to say hello to Connor real quick, I don't think Maysen even saw him.  It was crazy! Connor and Tage are at their adventure/orientation thing until Thursday.  Thursday is also the day they move in.  They are not coming home, but Sherry and Matt are meeting them with there stuff.  So, Sherry's two oldest kids just left for college for the first time with all the commotion going around them. I would be a wreck!  Good thing Sherry can handle things like that!

Fish

Fish are gross, but my kids seem to love them.  They came back from Bridger Lake super happy.  They said it was colder than expected, but they still had a lot of fun.

Preston

 Stockton

 Jorja, Preston, Weston on the dock

Mike's toes

 Jorja

 Mike

 Bridger Lake

 Preston & Jorja

 Preston

Ummm.....yuck.  Preston loves fishing if you can't tell.  Jorja has been eating fish a lot lately.  She will get some fish that they have caught out of the freezer and cook it in the steamer oven to eat.  I'm glad she doesn't make me touch it.  I am glad that Mike and the kids are home safe and sound.

Stockton has been reading old editions of the Parry Post out loud. While we were at the cabin he specifically looked for information about my brother John's accident when he was hit by the car.  This is what he found, "Ron thinks I should retell the story of John's accident because somebody who gets this newsletter might not know about it.  I told him he was crazy and that anyone who gets this newsletter knows about it." Stockton thought that was funny because he wanted to know what my mom said about it, but couldn't.  Luckily a few pages later was the copy of the letter my mom wrote to everyone about what happened.  I'll need to show that to Stockton, because I don't think he saw that.  I think I'll write that on here one day.....

The other thing Stockton read from the Parry Post was when I wrote about Maysen going to Kindergarten.  I wrote, "Maysen has had so much change in her life since the last Parry Post.  The biggest change has been that she has started school.  She now goes to Kindergarten! She's going to go away to college next week!  It seems like her life is moving so fast."  I'm going to cry.  She really is going to college next week.  One week from today.  We are down to single digits.  I know this needs to happen, but I'm not ready for this part of my life to end.  I have loved it.  I don't like change. I'm going to miss having all of my children with me every day.  I know it isn't right to want them to live with me forever, because they would miss so much joy that will come into their life by having their own family . . . it's just that I'm going to miss this part of my life so much.  Raising them has been amazing.  It is so hard to let go, my heart feels like it is constantly breaking.  I am confident Maysen has picked the perfect school for her, and I know I am going to love watching her grow in ways she wouldn't be able to if she was still with me.  I'm just a bit selfish.  I love having her with me all the time.  She is wonderful.

Books

I was planning on taking Maysen to Park City to shop today.  She has wanted some new crocs.  She got her last pair before she started high school and has worn them almost every day.  Before we left I searched online to see if Park City was the only place with a croc outlet.  To my surprise, I found out that the shop at Park City was gone.  It mentioned Crocs were sold at Kohls and DWS, so we thought we would give that a try.  No luck.  Only weird stuff.  We also went to Office Depot for a specific folder.  No luck there either.  Frustrating.  After taking a shopping break, because neither Maysen or I enjoy it, we started Internet shopping.  That's more like it!  Specifically we got Maysen's books online.  We were able to buy or rent her books all from Amazon. We ended up spending $200.  If we rented them from the bookstore it would have been over $500.  I hope this works out well.  We were very careful.  We triple checked the ISBN number, author and edition.  Plus, all of the books were on prime, so they should get here before she leaves.  It will be a pain to send them back at the end of the semester, but for $300 it will be worth it.

I have no idea how Mike and the kids are doing.  They are out of cell phone range.  It is weird being home without them.    

Skipping Fishing

Mike took Stockton, Jorja, Preston and Weston to Bridger Lake.  They have loved fishing here for the last few years.  Last year, Maysen and I were in Alaska, so we missed it.  We were planning on going this year, but Maysen can't be in the sunlight because of the laser hair treatment she had done yesterday.  Mike asked her if she would rather stay home. She would.  Especially since there are no hook ups at Bridger Lake.  If it gets hot in the motorhome, it would be miserable.  I stayed home with Maysen.  What a sacrifice on my part.  Just kidding.  Fishing isn't my favorite thing, so I was okay to miss it.  Maysen spent most of the day working on her homework.  She has an essay due the first day of class. We were also able to go to the Liu's wedding reception.  (The Liu's boy, Lawrence's wedding) I didn't want to miss it.  I now team teach with Sister Liu in primary.  Mike used to team teach with Brother Liu in primary.  I was glad one of us could make it.  It was great because I didn't need to come up with dinner. There was so much food!  I talked to Lisa Riddle for awhile.  I sure miss the Riddles.  Lisa was one of my beehive advisors.  Now she is Young Womens president in her new ward.  Yikes!

Before Pictures

So, the last time I took these girls in to get a haircut was right before our trip to Hawaii . . . over two years ago.  I took them to the same salon we went to before.  The place where we got a free haircut for a hair donation.  Maysen decided to donate her hair this time around. Jorja still wanted long hair. She has donated hers twice and both times her hair was cut super short.  Much shorter than she expected.  She didn't want to chance it this time.  The salon has changed their policy and now they give 50% off haircuts if you donate your hair.  Not as cool as free, but oh well.  I guess when you only get your hair cut once every two years it all works out.  Here are the girls before pictures:

Maysen & Jorja

Here are the after pictures . . . oh wait . . . I forgot to take them.  I'm lame like that.  The girls and I went to Zupas after the haircuts and we dropped Jorja off at Katlyn's house.  She was there most of the day. Maysen and I went shopping this morning before the cuts, right after her laser appointment.  Wow!  Two trips to the salon for Maysen in one day.  What a record!  We were shopping for things for college.  I hate this.  I am excited for Maysen, but I can't stop my heart from breaking. I'm pretty sure she is going to love college much more than high school though, so that is what is holding me together.  That and food.  Lots and lots of food.  I've been eating my feelings for several months now. I'm going to have to get back on track soon, but I'm not worrying about it until after she moves out in ten days.  This is coming way too fast. I'm sure going to miss her.

I Hate Shopping

Jorja had an orthodontist appointment this morning.  Afterwords I took her shopping.  And shopping. And shopping.  We gathered school supplies.  Bought shoes and make up at JC Penney, which used the last of our gift cards.  Then we went to Old Navy.  After being there for what seemed like forever I laid my head down on the clothes table and said, "I can't take this anymore!"  I wonder where most of my kids get their shopping habits from?  Jorja is the only one who likes to shop.  I decided to leave Jorja at Old Navy and run next door to the bookstore. She wasn't too thrilled about the idea, but I knew it was the only way I wasn't going to go insane.  When I came back, Jorja had two different pants and a shirt she liked.  She said if the pants were too expensive, just get the darker ones.  Turns out, the darker ones were the most expensive.  $30.  The other ones were a lot cheaper.  Kind of a shame to not get the cheep ones.  Jorja and I discussed this when I asked, "If I get you both these pants today, does that mean I don't have to go shopping for a long, long time?"  She agreed.  Totally worth it.

Dive Tackle

Most of the day was spent doing laundry and taking Maysen and Stockton to the dentist.  We stopped by Iceburg on the way home.  Very exciting.

I was thinking about our river trip.  I forgot to write about one of my favorite memories.  Apparently on the trip down the river with Rachel's family, Mike pulled Brett into the water.  Mike was in the ducky and did a pirate sneak attack on Brett.  The first time down the river today both Mike and Brett were in the raft.  Brett (after getting the okay from Sharon) tried to push Mike in.  Mike was able to resist for awhile. Wrestling training coming in handy.  Eventually Brett got Mike over, but Mike held on and Brett followed him into the water.  Brett got pulled back into the raft first and was telling Mike that now they are even.  Brett was sitting next to me as Mike got pulled into the front of the boat.  Mike barely touched the raft when he launched himself across the boat and dive tackled Brett out and back into the water.  It was so funny!  Mike told Brett that the count reset every night, so now they were even.  Mike brought up our GoPro to Idaho, but we forgot to bring it on the river.  I would have loved to see that tackle from Mike's perspective.

Chocolate River

We are finally home!  We arrived around 9:00 at night.  It took us longer to get home than we anticipated.  We didn't even make it to church this time.  The enormous hail storm kept slowing us down.  It was hailing crazy hard!  The pictures definitely don't do it justice.

Brett texted us this picture from their way home.  This is the exact same river we were at yesterday.  Yesterday it was beautiful.  Today it is more like chocolate milk.  The storm sure turned up that dirt!  I'm glad the weather was perfect for us!  Look at all those rafts still on the river!

John and Cassie made it home before us.  They left at 5:00 this morning.  Their car was giving them problems, especially the last hour or so.  I am incredibly grateful they made it home and Cassie is safe!  It wouldn't be fun to have a baby on the side of the road!  Bubs & Ange and Matt & Sam also made it home before us.  We had my dad with us, so he made it just fine.  We got a text from Mike & Christen around midnight saying they had made it.  Yay!  Now we just have to worry about Brett & Rachel.  They have a several day drive ahead of them.  I don't envy them one bit right now.