Final Art

 Jorja had me get her up super early this morning for another early morning hike. This girl has gotten no sleep. Step 2 the U ends this week, so hopefully she will be able to use that time to sleep. Also, school has been pushed back one week. That is great news for Jorja! It will give the SBOs more time to work on their video and Jorja will get two full weeks of stress free summer. Also, they announced that they aren't going to make up those days, so even better!

Sweatshirt girl, Dessa, Giselle, Puppy girl, Ella, Sammi, Jorja, Kate

Dessa, Sweatshirt girl, Kate, Jorja, Bode, Ella, Lucas, green shirt girl, glasses boy, Sammi, Luke, Hat boy, Giselle, shorts boy

Jorja finished an art project and then went to school to glue it to a giant collage. All done with art now! Woohoo! Jorja, Dessa and Kate went on a triple date. It was a blind date for Jorja. They went hiking and she had a great time.

Whoops, this is from the morning, not the date... oh well... Kate, Dessa, Jorja

This one if from the date.... Dessa, Jorja, Kate

Dessa, Kate, three boys I don't know

Our nephew, Jacob, entered home MTC today. He was called to serve in the Columbia, Cali mission. He has been reassigned to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I hope Mike and Christen and their family get to meet him! Mike and I went to the cabin today. We brought Bear with us. We wanted to finish painting the cabin before Jorja comes up with her friends this weekend. Luckily Maysen is feeling a lot better and doesn't need me to bandage her anymore. I wouldn't have been able to leave her a few days ago. These telfa pads we got from the doctors are amazing. Super hard to find in the stores, but Amazon had a pack of 50 of them for $10. I would recommend every house having some. When you need them you don't want to wait for 2 day shipping. Non-stick pads, even Bandaid brand, just didn't cut it.

Red Couch

Welp, school is officially cancelled for the rest of the year. Online will still continue. This is sad. Jorja had the best junior year. It was her favorite year by far. Sad it has to end this way. Preston and I actually had a reason to leave the house today. We drove to Indian Hills to pick up his math books for the rest of the year. Jorja had PLT interviews for several hours again today. She wrote notes to her senior friends and then went hiking with Riley. The place they were planning on going didn't work out. There was an ambulance there and they were looking for an injured hiker. They decided to hike at a random place. Jorja pulled off the side of the road and they headed up. Too bad she got a ticket for parking where she did. Hopefully it won't be too expensive. They seemed to have a lot of fun. They found old foundations of a building, a red couch and a rope swing. Jorja sent me two pictures, but I took screenshots of videos that she had taken. It was a lot colder today than it had been last week. Both of these two knuckleheads are wearing shorts. Not a wise move.

Riley

 Riley & Jorja

Jorja

Once Jorja got home we hurried to Crumbl. She wanted to drop off a cookie and a note to her senior friends. Also she had a gift for her friend Sophie, whose birthday is today. Jorja dropped me off then picked up Madison who went with her to drop off her gifts. Long day for her, but she seemed to have a good day.

Good Friday

Today we moved the giant beanbag we got from Lisa down to Preston's room. It wasn't the easiest thing to move, it is huge! Preston helped us push it all the way there. Getting through the doors was tricky. Preston is so happy with it in his room though.

Preston, Bear, Jorja

 Preston & Jorja

 Bear

 Preston & Bear

 Bear & Mike

Jorja went on a hike today with Riley, one of the few people she is allowed to hang out with. They work together all the time. They tried to take Bear with them, but the signs said no dogs allowed. They thought about taking him anyway, but ran into someone who said a lot of rangers are out and the fine is $1,500. Yikes! They brought Bear back and went on a hike to Lisa Falls. They had a great time. After they got some frozen yogurt. They are going to try and do this once a week.

Riley & Jorja

 Jorja & Riley

Riley & Jorja

Jorja had a drive-in movie night with the new student body officers. Mike set up our movie screen in the church parking lot. They brought their cars to watch a James Bond movie. The idea was this would be okay because everyone would be in their own cars. But.... the kids were not good at social distancing. I talked to Jorja about it. She said, "We'll get in our cars when the movie starts." It won't matter then! Uggggg. At least they were in a group of less than ten. As Mike and I left we drove around with our windows down to see if the sound was too loud. It seemed fine to us. Apparently it wasn't fine for someone. A police officer was sent to investigate a noise complaint. He was nice to them though. He watched the movie for a bit and said it was a great idea. They turned the sound down two clicks and all was well.

While I was going through some old papers, I found this one. Mike made this list while I was in the hospital with baby Stockton. We were planning on naming Stockton 'Maxwell Joseph Smith' for the last part of my pregnancy. Once he was born, I just couldn't do it. Max Smith sounded weird to me. Then a pediatrician came in and said, "I have five Max Smiths in my practice." Welp. I didn't like that. Sometimes it is super annoying to have such a common name. Like when we buy a house Mike has to sign pages and pages of papers saying he doesn't owe alimony to tons of people. We changed Stockton's name four times in the hospital. I remember a nurse saying, "What are you calling him today?" I said, "Today his name is Greg." She rolled her eyes at me and said, "You guys are driving me crazy!" Hahaha. Anyway, Mike made this list and said, "Okay, we are only going to choose a name from this list." Stockton isn't even on there. Hahahaha. I really wanted Stockton's middle name to be Michael. Mike wouldn't put it on the list. He said, "If he has the middle name Michael, then he will want to go by Mike and I don't want to have a 'big Mike' 'little Mike' situation." I asked why he would go by Mike. He said, "Wouldn't everyone if they could?" Hahahahahaha. When we decided on Stockton, Mike thought he would like that more than Michael, so I got to use that for his middle name.

The Lodge

We were in charge of breakfast this morning along with Matt and Sam's family. Sharen had bought all of the food, which was amazing. Maysen and Preston helped. They had egg wars when they made breakfast. They took two eggs and hit them together to see which one would crack. They had to crack 120 eggs. They looked like they were having a great time doing it. We had pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, orange juice and hot chocolate. It was delicious. After breakfast we went on a hike. Maysen was asleep when we left. Preston was annoyed that I caught him before he made it back to the duck cabin. Haha! It was a simple hike and was really nice.

Preston over looking the area where Grandma Parry grew up

 Paisley and Rennie ~ born on the same day

I went on a walk with a lot of my family to the feeding gate. Lots of irrigation pipes sent to different directions. It was a nice walk and I'm glad I didn't have any babies with me. Don't want to fall in the water there! Anyway, when I came back Maysen and Preston were in the paddleboat. Maysen had her laptop and Preston had his clipboard. He was drawing the lake. They were so cute! They were out there forever! Anne and Irie kept trying to get them to come to them. Maysen and Preston kept paddling away. Yikes! It was only later that Maysen told me that anytime they came near Anne and Irie they would try to hit them with sticks and throw mud at them. So....now I get it.

Maysen & Preston

I played a game of Canadian Salad with John, Renee, Jackie, Mark and Paul. I was winning the entire game until the last hand. I came in second to last. Luckily Mark had more points than me. Later, I was playing croquet with Matt, Paul and Devin when Mike and Jorja arrived. I heard Mike singsonging 'Stephanie!' I turned around, jumped and yelled, "Mike's here!" Renee laughed and said, "Now that is a nice reaction." It was nice to have them both up with us. Mike was pretty upset when he told me about finding Nala, the neighbor's dog, in our duck pen again. She was sitting right where Quackletta sat on her nest. He said, "Maybe it's a tender mercy Quackletta died like she did. I would have been furious if the dog killed her."

After dinner we had a program/talent show. Steve had people tell stories of Grandma/Grandpa, Sue, my mom or Kris. It was nice to hear about them. Steve told about my mom making my dad lunch every day when they were first married. She would always ask my dad what kind of sandwich he wanted. He would always say he didn't care. She got annoyed with that. So, one day my dad was at lunch. The other teacher didn't like his sandwich and asked if my dad would switch him. He did. Turns out my mom made my dad a popcorn sandwich that day. Haha. My mom is awesome. I miss her. Jorja got up for the talent show. She did her fake sneeze, her elephant noise and then had Maysen and I come up and sing the ABCs backwards with her. My grandma would always say the ABCs backwards and then end with "And what's so hard about that?" Really nothing, my kids all do it without even thinking about it. Except Preston. Looks like I failed to teach him. Whoops.

Uncle Steve

Stephanie, Jorja, Maysen ~ ABCs backwards

The three remaining kids ~ John, Jackie, Steve

Mike and the kids went back to the duck cabin. I stayed and talked with my family. It was me, Courtney, Steve & Sharon, John & Renee, Kendra & Derek, Heather & Josh, Paul & Amanda. After awhile I said, "So, Josh..." and everyone laughed. Josh is Heather's boyfriend. I asked them lots of questions. Courtney whispered that I needed to ask Amanda questions. Paul and Amanda have been dating for five years or so. Paul is my brother Matt's age. I knew they were really serious. Paul had asked her twin daughters if he could marry her, so I knew that. Anyway, Amanda is really shy, so there was no way I was going to interrogate her. After I couldn't think of any more questions to ask Josh I turned my head and said, "So, Paul..." I started asking him questions. Then I said something like, "So...is there a day that I need to clear my schedule for?" He said he didn't know. I said, "Well, I live in Utah. Is there a day I should make sure I can make it up here." He said, "I don't know... you could always come up July 13th." I asked if there was any reason I should come up that date. He said if I wanted to come up that seemed like as good of a date to do it. Finally I said, "Okay, so what I want to know is, are you getting married that day?" Paul said yes and my Aunt Renee about died. Her jaw just dropped. I raised my hands in victory, then gave Courtney a high five. It was awesome.

Jorja's Hard Day

So....Jorja had a hard day today. She sent Isaac a text last night, then immediately regretted it. I can't remember what she said exactly, but something about just being friends for now and hopefully having a future later. I think. I can't really remember and she has her phone with her at school so I can't spy on her messages right now. Anyway, I think it caught Isaac off guard. Jorja cried most of the day today. She said she ruined things with Isaac. Evan calmed her down enough for her to go to church. Jorja said she was worried Isaac would never talk to her again. Evan assured her that there was no way Isaac would stop talking to her. Jorja did great during church, but cried a lot when she came home. I was just making her angry because I was getting kind of frustrated with her. Mike had her make lasagna with him and was able to talk to her and get her to calm down. She only started hyperventilating once, and Mike was able to get her to calm down right away.

I talked my family into going on a hike this afternoon. I wanted to be in the mountains with the pretty leaves. Jorja got upset because the hike starts by Isaac's church, which is near his house. I kind of mocked her for that because that was weird. Am I never going to be allowed to turn right when I leave my neighborhood? Anyway, I was hoping to make it to the suspension bridge. Except I messed up. I wasn't paying too much attention when I went there with Jacqui. I saw a sign that said Bonneville Trail, or something like that. It looked familiar, so we went that way. That was the wrong way. I think I see that name so much on the different Bradley instagram accounts that it seemed what I was looking for. So, we hiked along a bike path. I ran along it, which felt amazing. We were able to eventually find the right path and the first little bridge, but it was getting dark and Mike didn't want to be in the mountains with no light when it was dark for some reason. We will have to try again soon. It is so pretty up there. It was nice to get out of the house.

Isaac ended up calling Jorja tonight. I'm not sure what they talked about, but Jorja was a lot happier when she went to bed. I'm so glad he called her. I think she feels things are going to be okay. At least she isn't scared of him ignoring her. I hope they can get back to being the best of friends. Fourteen is so young to like someone so much. Jorja is A LOT different than Maysen.

One quick memory from today. We had the primary program practice, so everyone was just finding a seat in the chapel at the beginning of primary. I grabbed Dane's hand and was looking for others in my class. I saw a row stuffed with girls. Alex was against the wall and was crying. I sat Dane somewhere and then held out my arms to her. She came toward me and let me pick her up. I squeezed her so hard and she squeezed me right back. I stood there holding her, rocking her back and forth for a long time, both of us squeezing the guts out of each other. I never did ask her why she was crying, but I was just so full of love for that little girl. Ron Henderson walked by while I was holding Alex and said, "Rough gig you have there." He could tell I was loving every second of it.

Easter Waterfall

Happy Easter! Preston and Mike made crepes this morning. Preston is stinking adorable. The kids had small Easter baskets and a present from us. The present wasn't well received. We expected that. I have been thinking and thinking about a way to get the cell phones out of the kids rooms at night. The problem is they listen to certain music and audible books on their phones. Jorja used to listen to the Friend every night, but I don't think she does that anymore. Mike came up with a brilliant idea to use Alexia. Mike and Christen gave us Alexia for Christmas. We have had fun playing with her, but knew we weren't using her to her full potential. The idea of having Alexia as an alarm and playing their music was much more appealing then having them continue to use their cell phones. The Alexia Mike and Christen gave us we put in the boys' room. We found an Alexia for a great price to put in Jorja's room. She changed her name to Echo. Preston was surprisingly sad about this. He has been sleeping up in the guest room lately. He listens to video game music at night. Mike found a way for him to continue to listen to video game music, so he is happy again. Half of the time Stockton leaves his phone by his computer, so it is no big deal for him. Jorja on the other hand is a different story, also the reason for this change. I told her that if Maysen had been as social as she was this policy would have happened a long time ago. I don't want to have her friends texting her after I send her to bed. Especially since some of her friends have not been the nicest to her lately. I don't want to worry that my child is getting mean things thrown at them when they should be safe at home. Plus, I read a study somewhere that said kids who sleep with cell phones in their rooms don't sleep as well because subconsciously they are listening for texts, worried they are missing something. I could see that being the case with Jorja. Mike and I got a charging dock for the kids to put their phones in before they go to bed. Hopefully this will be great, even though Jorja will resent it.

After church Mike, Preston and I went on a hike to Mike's favorite place - the Bell Canyon Waterfall. He spent a lot of time here while he was growing up. Stockton and Jorja didn't come. They both had a lot of homework to do. Stockton has been working hours and hours on homework. He has eight pages left of a giant review sheet due on Tuesday. Stockton gave me a compelling argument to stay. Jorja didn't do a great job on her argument. She has an essay due tonight. I hate how teachers can have things due after school. I wanted Jorja to lay out her case like Stockton did, but she didn't understand what I was asking and basically said she would have a horrible attitude if I made her go. Hmmmm. That argument sounds familiar. Maysen used that one a time or two. Jorja started crying and said that her church lesson was on friendship and that made her sad. I let her stay with Stockton and she ended up getting 30 out of 30 on a Utah Compose essay. That's not an easy thing to do. She wrote about kudzu. I asked her if she remembered kudzu from Georgia. She did not. Anyways, at least she did well and we had a great time with Preston.

Preston needed to go on a three mile hike for scouts. They did this on Thursday. They changed the date of scouts and I didn't realize it. Preston's piano teacher had asked if he could move his piano lessons to Thursday that week. If I had known about scouts I wouldn't have done that. We had a great time with Preston, so it worked out just fine. Preston loved taking pictures, so some of these are from him. I tried not to double any pictures, but it got a little confusing taking them from different phones.

Stephanie

 Preston

 Mike & Preston ~ Preston really wanted to find this rock he remembered climbing with Stockton

 Stephanie ~ didn't want to climb that rock

It was a long way up but we made it to the waterfall. We told Preston we could turn back early because we had gone more than three miles, but he wanted to stick it out. It is so pretty up there! We also saw Dan's signs he helped put up last fall. It makes it a lot easier to find the waterfall, especially the last turn. I missed the turn when I went with Maysen. Mike didn't like the signs because he liked the waterfall feeling more like a secret. Later he said that at least with the signs his kids and grandkids can find the waterfall after he is gone.

Mike took Preston to stand next to the waterfall. I felt like I was close enough. Plus I was able to get a few cute pictures of them.

Preston & Mike

 Preston

 Preston

 Preston & Mike

 Stephanie, Preston, Mike

 Stephanie & Preston

Preston was supposed to make trail mix and bring his first aid kit he made in scouts. We sent these pictures to his scout leader.

Preston

Mike loves to drink from the water and to stick his head in the stream. Like father, like son.

Preston

 Mike & Preston

 Preston

Mike and Preston got ahead of me on the way down. I always think down is going to be easier, but my knees hate going down! Preston and Mike were waiting for me on this rock. They wanted to scare me, but I knew they would be here. I know my boys.

Mike & Preston

One of my favorite pictures. I love watching these two together. Preston is so much like Mike. This is right after Preston fell. He did great the entire way, and fell here. Mike asked him if he wanted a piggy back ride to the car, but Preston wanted to walk the entire way. He has grown up! It wasn't too long ago when he wouldn't be able to stop crying over a fall like that.

Mike & Preston

We made it to our car right as the sun was setting. This was the first time Mike has gone on this hike where he hasn't left from his house. It was weird to him, and a bit sad. He is happy that there is still a way to get up to the waterfall though. That would have been really sad if all access had been cut off. My feet are tired. I kept thinking on the hike, "I hope tomorrow isn't leg day." Well, I have now checked. Tomorrow is leg day. Oh boy....