Yearbook Pictures

Jorja had PLT interviews for several hours today. Her English teacher asked them to send selfies of themselves for the yearbook. The English teacher is also in charge of the yearbook. So... this is what Jorja came up with.

Jorja

 This one was my favorite

 This is the one she sent

I'm still going through pictures from our filing cabinet. Found pictures of Matt before his mission and this picture I sent to my friend Cheri. It is from Maysen and Raigan's 4th birthday party. (Their birthdays are one day apart.) This was a few weeks before me moved from Washington to Georgia. Two of Cheri's kids are in the picture. Emily and Carter.

I can't remember the names of the first two kids. Whoops.

Raigan, Maysen, Emily, Carter

 Missionary Matt

Bear gets so excited when Jorja comes home from work. Maybe it is because she smells like chicken? Jorja loves cuddling with him when she comes home.

Jorja and Bear, Preston, Maysen, Mike

Too Many Teeth

Preston had a dentist appointment this morning. He will need several teeth pulled. His baby teeth don't want to come out, so his permanent teeth are coming in crooked. He will need braces for sure, probably starting this summer. That is to fix his jaw. Sounds fun.

Preston

Maysen got to meet her new roommate. She seems nice. Hopefully they will get along and hopefully Maysen will love her dog. She didn't get to meet her dog today. Maysen did come home today! Yay! We get her for a few weeks! She finished her last essay after she arrived home. All done now.

Maysen and Me'lani

I went and watched Bubs ref a basketball game at Brighton High School. It was between Brighton and Riverton. At the beginning of the game, Brighton was hitting threes and Riverton was hitting nothing, not even foul shots....well, they got one of those. The score was 13-1 at one point. That's tough to overcome. Riverton didn't overcome it....

When I got there Bubs waved me over. Jana and Jeri Miller were there! Well, they aren't Miller's anymore. Jeri's son is on the Riverton sophomore team. Or whichever team played before the game Bubs reffed. That was fun to see them.

Bubs with his hands on his hips

I got a Christmas card from Cheri Bennett today. Glad it made it to me! It actually came in the mail like this! Haha. Glad that Aiden's face survived the trip!

Aloha! My Family is Back!

Today was a great day. Mike and I drove up to Logan early this morning. We helped Stockton move out of his apartment. That's it. No more school for him for about two and a half years. He is going to miss his roommate Nathanael. I think Nathanael is going to miss Stockton. After we got Stockton completely checked out we went to Pizza Pie Cafe and stuffed ourselves silly. Maysen didn't want to come. We drove to her apartment after though. Maysen was easier because she is coming back in a few weeks. We helped her with a few odds and ends before we headed out. Mike and Maysen drove the van home. Stockton and I drove the Pilot home. We talked all the way home. That was my favorite thing about diving. When we would drive up to Provo, Stockton would talk to me. It was the best. We were all quite exhausted when we got home. Jorja was getting ready for a date. The Christmas dance was tonight. I am so glad she was healthy enough to go. She had to be really careful about her spleen. The doctors had warned her she couldn't do any physical activity for six weeks after her symptoms went away or her spleen could rupture, and she wouldn't want that. I told her she couldn't go in the mosh pit, especially the student government one at the end. Luckily their group was planning on leaving the dance early, so Jorja wouldn't be tempted with that.

Maysen & Stockton

 Jorja

Jorja's date is named Lucas. Hopefully he didn't mind all the suitcases in our front room. Jorja had a great time. They went miniature golfing, Costa Vita, Draper Park, the dance, the watched Elf at Movies 9. Jorja said she behaved herself for the most part with the physical activity. One time she jumped on Drew's back (Hailey's date) to surprise him and he took off into the mosh pit. I think she got him to get her out of there pretty quickly though. Jorja said they had to leave the dance right as it was getting good, so that was too bad. Although, I'm thinking it was a good thing. In Jorja's mind the dance getting good means it is getting crazier. That wouldn't be a good thing for her right now.

Lucas & Jorja

 The dance was Hawaiian themed, they changed into their Hawaiian clothes after dinner.

Stockton, Jorja and I stayed up late, late, late. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I am so excited to have my entire family with me for the next few weeks! My friend Cheri had a very happy day too. Her daughter returned from serving a mission in Taiwan. Cheri is my friend in Washington, the one that each of our kids have a match. Emily is Maysen's match, and now she is home! Cheri sent me this picture and it made this awesome day even better. I can't wait until this is me!

Chris, Carter on FaceTime (he still has finals at BYU), Cheri, Emily, Lily, Aiden

Perfect Match

Mike and I met the kids in their bedroom, then we all went up to breakfast. I messed up. I was planning on having Stockton wear his pants from yesterday again. I just neglected to tell Mike or Stockton that. Stockton took a shower in our room and Mike packed his pants after Stockton got in jammies. So, Stockton spent today with polar bear pants. I had a nice shirt picked out for him, so it looks kind of strange. Haha! He is such a good sport! Sad that this trip is at an end. It has been so much fun. Cheri picked us up at the cruise terminal. She had a perfect pickup. We walked outside as she was about to turn the corner. We had to wait a total of two minutes before we were in her car. Now that is timing! Especially with Seattle traffic! Cheri brought us back to her house. We had stored our van and a few suitcases here. Mike got everything ready to go. My friend Cindy came over to say hi. They were camping when we were here last week. It was so much fun to see her! It's been years! I love these girls!

Stephanie, Cheri, Cindy

Cheri and I have almost the exact same family. It is so funny. Our kids are the same age. We were always pregnant at the same time. I didn't know her when I had Maysen though. The hardest thing about moving from Washington was leaving her family. I kept telling the kids that if we still lived there, these would be their very best friends. I forgot to take a picture with their match before I left, but as I was heading out the door for the cruise I asked Cheri if we could do one when we got back. Carter got his wisdom teeth out while we were gone. They said he was swollen, but I can't see it!

Lily & Preston ~ 6 months apart

 Aidan & Jorja ~ 10 days apart

 I think Aidan was born on Jorja's due date. She just came a few days early.

 Jorja told me to take multiple angles, I had no idea what she meant. They are laughing at me.

 Carter & Stockton ~ two weeks apart

 Carter with his "swollen" cheeks and Stockton's polar bear jammies.

 These guys weren't supposed to be born so close together, but Stockton missed his due date by over a month.

 Emily & Maysen ~ two months apart

 Emily is serving a mission in Taiwan right now.

 Carter, Stockton, Aidan, Jorja

Maysen & Emily, Lily, Preston

 Stephanie & Cheri ~ I love her!

 Lily & Jorja ~ these girls got along great!

 Gardenias ~ this was the flower at our wedding

We left Cheri's house and drove to a Bank of America. Mike has been wanting to cancel our account for years, but you have to do it in person. While we were up here he wanted to do it. He came back with over a thousand dollars cash. I can't remember how much. At least that is finally done. He found a branch in Kirkland. It was weird driving down streets that we used to frequent often so many years ago. I remember being with Mike's parents when Maysen was a baby and using the paddleboat in Lake Washington. We drove right past the spot. It was fun to come back here. I wish I could have taken the kids to the Space Needle and the fountain. Mostly the fountain, but we ran out of time. We drove to Coeur d'Alene today to see Brooke! Yay! Yay! Yay! We met them at Lake Coeur d'Alene. The boys got into their swimsuits. We couldn't find where Stockton's was stashed, so he wore Mike's. Brooke was on the lake with her family, so we waited on the dock for them. We were only there for five minutes, but the kids loved it because they got to play with dogs. Well, three of the kids loved that.

Preston, Maysen, Jorja

 Brooke, Len, Miranda, Shylee, Timberlyn

Len took the little girls out while Brooke let us have a ride. Stockton and Preston both rode the tube. We didn't stay long because the sun was almost down. It was beautiful. Brooke is a fantastic tube boat driver.

Preston, Stockton

Stockton

Preston

The kids watched the RavenTale movie. They are so weird. I stayed up until two in the morning talking to Brooke. When I finally went down to sleep I laughed when I saw Jorja. Jorja HATES feet. I mean she HATES them. They gross her out so much. Just look how she is sleeping! Hahahahahahaha!

Jorja & Preston's foot

What a long, fun day. Lots of driving, but I got to see many people who I love so much that I rarely see anymore. I'm so glad we can just pick up where we left off like no time has past. So lucky!

Ivars

Mike and I took the kids into Seattle today. We knew we wouldn't have time to do a whole lot, but our number one thing we wanted to do was to go to Ivars. We found a parking garage and walked down some steep hills. It dropped us right out at Ivars.

The kids LOVED it! It was just as good and as fun as I remembered. The kids had so much fun feeding the seagulls. Preston put a french fry over Jorja's head in the hopes that a seagull would fly right there. It worked! Although Jorja had realized what he was doing before it actually happened so it didn't freak her out as much as he had hoped. The kids asked Mike to get more food when we finished. They weren't done playing with the birds. We saw Mike come down the stairs and then saw him getting attacked by a seagull! Hahahahaha! We laughed so hard! The bird came and stole one of his fish sticks.

Preston

 Maysen

 Preston & Jorja

After Ivars we walked along the pier for a bit. Marijuana is now legal in Washington, so there is marijuana adds and souvenirs everywhere. We saw this saying on a shirt, then again on whatever this is.

We stopped at the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, which has moved and confused me for a bit. We then walked up to Pike Place Market. It was really crowded, but I did see some flying fish. We didn't have a ton of time there, but Maysen helped me pick out some flowers to bring to Cheri. We walked back up super steep hills to our car. We only spent a few hours in Seattle and thought our parking bill would be about $12. Nope. It was $22. Man, it has become so expensive up here!

Mike, Jorja, Preston, Maysen, Stockton

 Jorja with flowers for Cheri.

We got back to Cheri's on time. I was proud of us. Cheri invited some people over for dinner. The Knopfs and the Jensens. The Peays were out of town. It was fun to see some people that I hadn't seen for years and years. Although Facebook is nice since I'm able to still have contact with them. Jorja, Aidan, Carter and Lily were watching this weird pimple popper show. I had fun watching their reactions. I tried to video them, but I was too slow for the best one. Oh well.

Winnie & Jorja

 Carter, Lily, Aidan, Winnie, Jorja, Chris behind them all

I had a great night. We ended up staying up late in Cheri's bedroom. Cheri was trying to teach Jorja how to put waves in her hair with a flat iron. After they finished that we stayed up late laughing our heads off. Mike got Cheri laughing as he told the story of one of their church experiences in Wyoming. There is no way I could even attempt to describe it, but just imagine Mike imitating a stereotypical valley girl voice. "So, Joseph went to the Sacred Grove and he started like praying and stuff and skip forward a bit and Moroni pops up." Other classic lines were "here goes that" and "Joseph was in prison for like crimes and stuff", "In Nauvoo they have the trail of hope, but it was a kind of a trashy time so I would have called it the trail of trash." Needless to say, we were laughing so hr it hurt. Aidan made us laugh even more with some of his impressions too. Poor Chris was trying to sleep because he has to work tomorrow. This night was so fun. It reminded me of staying up until 2:00 in the morning with Cheri and Cindy at our primary presidency meetings. We had so much fun together!