Logan Temple with Jorja

I woke up super early with my back just killing me. The beds were comfortable when I went to sleep. Story of my life. Anyway, I got up and roamed the hotel. I found out breakfast didn't start until 7:00, so I went to a corner on our floor and watched news reports about Ukraine. Praying hard for all the people there. Anyway, I had a delicious breakfast and then hurried to our room to get ready. I woke everyone else up in the process, but that's okay, it was time for them to get up anyway. I walked over to Jorja's room and waited while she got ready. I spent the time transferring her temple clothes to the bag I brought. While I was doing that it dawned on me that I didn't bring up garments. I asked Jorja is she had any. She said, "You said you were going to bring them up." I did say that. I just didn't follow through. I told her I forgot. I only had the bottoms I randomly bought at Deseret Book yesterday. Jorja thought for a second and she said, "I think I grabbed a top when I was home last time. I don't know why." She did! We were able to have everything she needed! When I bought the bottoms yesterday I had no clue I had forgotten them. It didn't even cross my mind. Same with Jorja. She doesn't know why she brought a top up. Heavenly Father was sure looking out for us on that one. Tender mercy. Anyway, I was worried we were going to be late. Jorja told me the temple was only five minutes away. I didn't think that was accurate. Nope. Jorja was right. We got there exactly on time. My dad was already there when we arrived. That was lucky because he gave me names when we dropped off Bear to be watched last night. I handed them back to him and he was able to give them to Mike and Stockton when he saw them. (I had forgotten to leave them with Mike.) Jorja had five friends come. Sami who came up from Sandy, she is going on a mission to Nauvoo. Clara who lives across the hall. Jorja is going to Seattle with her over spring break. Clara also is going on a mission to Paris. Annika, who we met when we were standing in line when we were waiting for ID cards when Jorja moved up here.... how cool is that! (She also changed her flight home so she could be there for Jorja. Wow!) Jorja's ambassador friend Alexa, who Jorja looks up to so much. And a girl from Jorja's ski class and Chinese class. Pretty awesome. When we came out of the temple it was snowing big flakes and was just beautiful!

Jorja & Stephanie 

Jorja

Sami, Jorja, Clara

Jorja

Stockton, Jorja, Maysen

Sami, Jorja, Clara

I told Jorja I wanted a picture where we did our pose. I kissed her forehead. Later when we were at lunch I looked at her and said, "That wasn't our pose! We were supposed to touch foreheads!" She laughed and said she was wondering what I was doing. Boooooo on me!

Jorja & Stephanie

Mike, Maysen, Jorja, Stockton, Stephanie, Dad

Mike, Maysen, Jorja, Stockton, Stephanie

Clara taking our picture

Mike took Maysen and Stockton back to the hotel to pick up Preston. The rest of us went to Jack's Wood Fired Oven. Then didn't open until 12:00, so we were 15 minutes early. The girls hopped in Clara's car and I got in my dad's. It was perfect because it gave Mike plenty of time to get back with the other kids. The pizza was really good. We had a cheese, a pepperoni, and some fun ones. Birds and the Bees was delicious. Chicken, honey and huckleberries. Jorja loved Cozumel which had shrimp and avocados on it. I only got a picture of Sunnyside which had eggs, bacon and potatoes. That was good.

After stuffing ourselves silly we drove back to Jorja's apartment while she packed. Stockton and Preston worked on Stockton's programming and played Battle Bots. We had to squish to take Stockton home. Then Jorja came back to Sandy with us. She went out with Paige later and I watched BYU lose to San Francisco. That was disappointing. Good thing the rest of the day was so great!

Missed Flight

Mike, Maysen, Preston and I headed to Logan around 3:00. I dropped off Bear at my dad's house right before. So glad he is willing to watch him! We drove to University Inn. It is right smack dab in the middle of campus, right next to the TSC. We had reservations to stay here when Maysen was going to graduate, but covid shut everything down. So, we made it up there today. We even got Aggie Ice-cream with our room. Haha. Jorja came over after we got there. Jorja checked her flight information while she was there. That is when she made a horrible discovery. Jorja is flying to Arizona on Monday, March 7th. She realized today that she booked a flight for Monday, February 7th. Whoops. With that hanging over her head we went to the escape room place. We had an appointment for 6:45. We met Stockton there. He has worked so hard on his million homework projects and was able to find time to come. So happy about that! Sami also met us there. She drove up from Sandy and is going to stay the night with Jorja. We did the 50s diner room and killed it. We did this one in the old building about three and a half years ago. They told us some of the puzzles had changed and it would be new enough for us to do it again. It is true. Many of the puzzles were familiar, but we couldn't remember how to do them. We did great though. We got out in 30 minutes. Last time we didn't make it in the hour time, although some of their things didn't work very well. Preston and I spent forever on this dancing thing, but the sensors wouldn't pick us up. They told us that that was a huge problem in the other building. They had the dancing one this time too. Jorja and Sami did it. It was such a fun night.

Stephanie, Stockton, Preston, Maysen, Mike, Jorja, Sami

We went to a sushi place Jorja likes for dinner. They had a bit of a wait, so Jorja, Sami and I hurried over to Deseret Book and got some temple slippers and a few other things. Mike took the other kids to Walgreens.

Jorja & Sami

Stockton, Jorja and Sami all headed to casino night at Stockton's place. Maysen and I ran to Winco to get some bread she could dip in her soup. We all got sushi, but Maysen had soup. It was soooooo hot that we were finished before she could really even start hers. We brought it to go and thought bread would be tasty to go with it. We headed back to the hotel, watched some cartoons and then fell asleep. We are exciting.

Jorja Visits Alta

Jorja came to school today! I worked today too. Usually I'm just doing computer work, but today Paula (the registrar) was calling down students who hadn't turned in their course request sheet. I was helping them enter them into the computer when they got there. Jorja needed help getting into the field house. That was the room Ms. Astle reserved for her. I found a vice principal to unlock it. I helped Jorja for a bit and then hurried out to go back to what I needed to do. I checked the door as I left and it was locked. Whoops. Jorja came down and put a rock and a chair in the doors to hold them open. Jorja brought down two gigantic things of Aggie Ice Cream. She didn't this ended up being helpful for most of the students, but there were several who it really helped. Jorja has now officially completed all four of her Alta high school visits.

Jorja

Jorja ran the ice cream back to our house and then came back to school to pick me up. We went to lunch at Vessel Kitchen. Jorja talked to Shay for a long time and also took Paige out to Swig during her lunch. She headed back to Logan before I got home from work. That's okay, I'll see her tomorrow.

Maysen & Bear

99

Today was my Grandma Parry's birthday. She would have been 99. Wow! I hope she is happy and having the best time with her husband and three daughters.

I had parent/teacher conference for Preston today. Almost every single teacher immediately said how he is crazy smart. His gym teacher didn't say that. He is doing great. He stayed after school today to retake a math test. PTCs were on zoom. I called in and Mr. VanOrden got on while he was walking down the hall. He said he was sorry he had to leave but he had 20 kids taking a math test in his room, including Preston. Just then Preston walked out. Mr. VanOrden went over his test with him right then. I got to wave to Preston over zoom. Haha. Preston got 100% on the test. Love that!

Preston is also starting work on his AP create task for computer science. We can't help him on it (like I would be any help) but he can talk to us about it. This will be submitted as part of his AP computer science test. Preston told us he is making a trivia game. That will be fun to see how it turns out!

Jorja came home today! She got home at midnight, but it was awesome to give her a hug and talk to her for a bit. Love having my kids home!

Video Game Cabinet

I worked today. One of the things I do is input new students coming to Alta. Checking birth certificates, immunizations, emergency contacts...things like that. I was inputing a student today and the emergency contact was her aunt and uncle, Dora and Diego. Hahahaha. I laughed and laughed. Love it.

Mike and Preston have been working on finishing the video game cabinet. They primed the entire thing on Saturday and it is now painted black. They decided to put tape around the edges to highlight the cabinet. Mike was thinking red or green would be cool. The second he brought it up to Preston he yelled out 'Pink!' Hahaha. So now they have pink tape around the edges. I think pink might be one of the colors of You Don't Know Jack, a game Preston has loved lately.

Preston

Lemon Chicken

I woke up this morning and realized I never put together the note to the senior advisory teachers like I told Jorja I would. I spent all morning doing that and sorting all her invitations. I was a little nervous about how to hand them out, but I asked Ms. Astle and she was excited about them. She had me put them in their box and sent an email to all the teachers to look for them. I did also find out that Mr. Schilling is on medical leave because he had a stroke. WHAT????? Both Stockton and Jorja had him. Stockton really liked him. Jorja had him during covid and things were weird. I think he missed a lot because his dad died. Can't quite remember, but hearing that made me so sad. Jorja's student government teacher also has been in the hospital. She had a medical complication and almost died a few weeks ago. Poor teachers.

I made dinner tonight and was quite proud of it. It was Sheet Pan Lemon Rosemary Chicken. Everyone liked it. Maysen said we should save the recipe. Yay! I made something! It looked pretty too.

Baby James' Blessing

Today was James' baby blessing. Mike, Maysen, Preston and I all went. After the blessing we went to Scoop and Cori's for a 'tea party.' Melissa had made SO MANY treats. They were delicious.

James Orion

Mike and Steve trying to fix their old pinball machine

Preston's picture of 'David Letterman'

Derek drew 'Clown in a Sandwich' I don't know why, but it was funny

We stayed quite awhile playing games. I was able to watch the end of the Jazz game with Scoop. Jazz won, so that was great. Jorja called and we ordered her a temple dress. We are having it ship to Stockton's house. Hopefully it gets there in time. The dress she ordered is called 'Weston.' I thought that was funny.

Wavelength

Totally surprised to see a post on Facebook that Stockton's childhood friend from Georgia got married on Tuesday. Wow! Pretty cool wedding date though. 2-22-2022

Moses and his bride

I texted Chantale a few pictures from high school. I asked if this was her sister. It was! She laughed and laughed. Chantale is ten years younger than her sister.

Danielle & Eric

They were in our homecoming group senior year. No way I can remember everybody. I'll see if I can get Mike to help. Blast from the past for sure.

Back row: Bryce, Teresa, Alex, Sarah, Matt?, Rachel?, Adam, ???, Paul, ???

Middle row: Heather, Seth, Misty, Ben, Kelli, Brandon, Danielle, Eric

Bottom row: Mike, Stephanie, Tami, Aaron 

We met at Steve and Shannon's house to play games. Preston came with us. Brandon came down from Provo. Lisa, Nathan, Melissa and her family, Taylor and Michael were there. Derek's mom and niece also came. (They are in town for James' baby blessing tomorrow.) We played a game called Wavelength. Totally a Michael Hodson game. He loves games you can argue. Haha. After that game we played Herd Mentality. I thought that game was a lot of fun.

Michael & Nova

Preston reading the rules for Wavelength. He LOVES reading rule books. Also he has primer in his hair.

Mike

Mike and Preston have been working on building a video game cabinet, which is why Preston has primer in his hair. They have been having a lot of fun with that. Mike building with one of his kids. Mike's dream come true.

Decade Dance

I worked today. Mike got ready for our next ward activity. We had a decade dance. Mike picked two or three songs from each decade. We had a trivia thing going, hula hoop contest and Chantale and her sister taught the cha-cha. Chantale and her sister Danielle both were on the BYU ballroom team and her sister was a professional dancer. Turns out Mike knew Danielle. She use to date Mike's best friend Eric. That was funny. We were a little bit worried that only the activities committee would show up to the party, but we had lots of people. I wish we had a bit more people, but at least it was enough. The people that were there had a great time. Chantale and Danielle's mom was there. I overheard her telling someone that she never gets to see her daughters dance together. That's cool! My favorite was when Carlee got Sister Mortensen up to dance. Bev had the biggest smile on her face! It was great! Suzanne Heaton couldn't come, but she made this delicious slush and tons of brownies. Kayla Mogenson did awesome with the decorations. Garrett, her husband, also made lots of delicious treats and manned the slush station. Sister Newman had given us lots of record that we hung from the ceiling. Carlee got some awesome prizes from DI and they were just perfect. Brother and Sister Antonelli had awesome costumes! He had an Elvis vibe and she was totally in the 60s. She had the coolest glasses, that also doubled as earrings that were her mom's. Plus, it was their anniversary! And they spent it with us! I was very happy with how everything turned out. Two ward activities done, who knows how many more to go. This one was a good one.

Bloke

Jorja has been in contact with one of the counselors at Alta trying to pull together a Utah State thing. She has made invitations and wants the advisory teachers to hand them out. She asked the counselor if she could get a list of students names who have been accepted to Utah State. They didn't have that information, so Jorja got it from Utah State. She asked if I could look up the advisory teachers, luckily I knew how to do that. She made about 100 invitations. She is going to mail them to me and I need to get them out next week. Hopefully I do a good job.

Matt and Sam are at the cabin. Kaylee left her baby at our house last time they were down here. I brought it up to the cabin and left it on the dresser in the lava room. Matt and Sam found Kaylee like this. On top of the dresser holding her baby. Hahaha. I should have known she would climb up there!

Kaylee

Mike and I went to this candy store in the mall and got some things to use as prices for the dance tomorrow night. We also stopped by Zurchers to get a thing that will make the disco ball turn. Mike spent a lot of time tonight working on a trivia game. Sure will be nice when this dance is over!!!

I was proud of figuring out the Wordle with only having this information

Only a Backpack

I took pictures of these emails I saw at work. The first one was sent on Friday, which was 'Anything but a backpack day' the second was sent yesterday. I thought the kids would get a kick of it. Poor student government. They try to do something fun and it goes out of control. Like the kid that brought a pug to school instead of a backpack. I mean, come on! Haha 

I went to Fred Hodson's funeral during lunch and ate a protein bar on the way home. Nathan spoke and Aimee, Taylor, Michael and a bunch of cousins sang. They all did a great job. The funeral was actually in my dad's church building. Didn't expect that!

Mike and I went shopping for things for the ward party on Friday. That is coming up on us! I got these Pez for myself though. Dwight is my favorite. The rest look kind of creepy, but I still like them.

Both Stockton and Jorja had hard days today. Both called me. I'm glad I was able to talk with them. Hopefully things will calm down for them. They are both working so hard and doing so great. Love those guys. Wish I could take all the hard days away.

Fred Hodson's Viewing

I spent most of the day doing laundry. I was very thankful it was late start. I was tired! I did get a lot of done though. All the laundry from the cabin is already washed. Nice to have that taken care of. I also got the wordle in two tries and was pretty proud of myself.

Preston went to Nicklecade for young mens. Mike and I dropped him off then went to Larkin for Nathan Hodson's dad's viewing. It was nice to see Lisa and Nathan there, even though it wasn't the best reason. Nathan's dad had Parkinson's disease. They knew it was coming, but it still caught them off guard. The siblings gave them a basket of fruit and chocolate. Thought flowers would be hard to take back on the airplane.

Nathan & Lisa

Aimee was even there. She is doing residency in Texas. I asked her how everything was going. She said she got in right before the viewing and is heading back right after the funeral tomorrow. Then the next day she is taking her boards. WHAT? That's awful timing for her. Wow.

Snowboarding on the Lake

Nova and I were the first ones up. I got out my stacking toys for her. Much to my delight, she played with those for hours! Scoop and Cori gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday and this is what I bought with them.

Nova

Melissa, Michael, Nova, Leo

Michael & Nova

James & Leo

Leo's hand, Steve's face

Nova

Melissa, Derek and their family left this morning. We headed out to the Springs when they left. Jorja came with, but the other kids didn't want to come. Maysen had to work. Stockton and Preston were making robots for their robot arena battle. They spent hours doing that and had a great time.

Steve & Mike

Taylor, Steve, Mike, Michael, Stephanie, Jorja

Stephanie & Jorja

We came back to the cabin and Mike took the chairs off the 4 wheeler. I grabbed Preston's head thing. It was pretty cold, so I'm glad I did. We went down to the reservoir bed and rode the toys around. It was so much fun! We brought a sled and a snowboard. We had a great time pulling people on the 4 wheelers with those and riding fast on the snowmobiles. I'm not sure how long we were out there, but it was awhile and we were COLD when we got back.

Stephanie

We only got a few videos of the snowboarding. It was a lot faster than these videos show, but man it is beautiful out here!

We cleaned up when we got back. We were the last ones to leave and I left with the kids before Mike was all the way finished. We stopped at the gas station and I filled both cars up. Then we went to the grocery store and I let the kids pick out snacks and Stockton and Jorja picked out some non-perishables they could take home. I snapped a picture because it's been a long time since I've been at the grocery store with all four kids. I love every second I get to spend with them. They are the best!

Jorja, Stockton, Preston, Maysen

Jorja called me after we had been driving awhile and wondered if I was close. I wasn't. She had gotten her bug stuck. Luckily while I was talking to her someone stopped by and helped them push the bug out. We listened to Harry Potter on the way home. I was so tired by the time I got home. It was about 10:00, but I am NOT a night person. Mike pulled in one minute after us, even though he left an hour after we did. We spent a long time in the store and then I drove very slowly. Plus I made two wrong turns. It was not my best drive. It was nice having Mike home though. We both drove down to my dad's house and picked up Bear. Bear was VERY happy to see Mike. It was so nice of my dad to take care of him while we were gone. Now we are back to normal. Everyone got home safely. Such a great weekend.