Chicken Chuckers

Jorja was out of the house by the time I got up, and I get up really early. I met her at her eye therapy appointment. I brought her laundry and a few other things. She didn't have time to come home, she had to get back to class. I'm glad she was able to fit her therapy in. I really hope this fixes her vision problems.

Mike went to work today. They had an egg dropping contest. The Chicken Chuckers survived. Mike also found out that Overstock is planning on doing Lagoon day next year during this event. Sad they didn't do Lagoon the last three years, especially since our kids are growing up. It will be fun to do it next year though.

Chicken Chuckers 

Pizza and Minecraft

I talked to Stockton this morning about how I couldn't figure out how to register him for his classes. He said he would look at it after he was finished with his classes for the day. I called the number that was on the email that gave him the early access code and left a message. Around 11:00 I decided to try again. Low and behold there was a place to put his early access code in and it worked like a charm. Later I got a call back from the honors college and I talked to her for a bit. She said that the registrar's office decided to change the registration time to 8:00 am and didn't let the honors college know. No harm done, just I'm very tired today.

Mike had a required office work day. They only have to go in the office twice a year for two days. This was the first one. Of course it was during Preston's spring break. Although I don't think Preston has minded staying at home. He does love the cabin though. It sounds like they didn't really do official work, more like team building stuff. Mike brought some stuff to play jackbox and he brought the bombs he made for Jorja's Amazing Race activity her junior year. Sounds like they had a great time. Mike came home with a fancy pizza oven. A guy he works with won it and didn't want it. Mike said he would take it off of his hands. They guy agreed. Talk about great luck! Mike made pizza in it today and it was pretty good. We just used store bought dough and stuff we had around the house. We will have to play with that more.

Mike

Preston and I made a Minecraft brownie cake. We were planning on making this when Matt and Sam were here, but Preston got sick and we didn't think that would be a good idea. Preston did a great job and it looked so cute. Man, I love that kid!

Preston

Jorja got here late tonight. We were watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Well, I kept falling asleep. I know that is a shocker. Jorja pretty much went straight to bed. She is getting up early and going to the American Fork Temple with Nathan, who she met at the cabin last week. Haha - she sure keeps herself busy!

10 Years

Today marked Mike's 10 year anniversary at Overstock. I know because these delicious cookies were delivered today. Too bad Mike is at the cabin and can't enjoy them. The cookies were warm, so Mike said we could eat them... and we did.

Mike started working on the bunkbeds today. He tried a few different layouts, but I think this is the one he is going to stick with.

I called the school nurse today and asked about the quarantine order with Jorja's negative test. She is still quarantined. All the way. I thought she just wouldn't be able to go back to school for a bit, but nope, she can't do anything. Jorja is sad. Ella had invited a group of people to her cabin. She will miss that. Mostly she is sad she is missing the lantern festival again. She was so excited about it and not happy about missing it. She's not mad at me, but just sad about the situation...really the situation for her entire senior year and the last part of her junior year.

I went to order lunch for the girls. That is when I realized I left my credit card and drivers license in the pilot. The car Mike drove up to the cabin. Jorja's card number got stolen and a new debit card is on the way, just not here yet. We will be going a few days without money. I did have my credit card memorized, I just couldn't remember the expiration date. I was off on the year. I did remember the three numbers on the back though. At least I was able to get the food, it just took an hour longer than anticipated.

Parent teacher conference was today. We signed up online and did it through google meets, or something like that. It worked okay except Packer never showed up for my conference. I wrote him an email, but never got a reply. Jorja's volleyball teacher didn't show up either, but sent an email during the conference saying he was having technical trouble and he put an assignment for Jorja to do on canvas while she is quarantined. That worked out well. 

Stockton called and we got to talk to him. I would pass the phone to one of the girls when one of my conferences was starting. Haha. Seemed to work okay. I sure do miss that boy!

F to A

Jorja was sick this morning. Ever since she had mono last year she has a hard time recovering from viruses. She sounded horrible when I tried to wake her up. I gave her medicine and let her sleep through first period, then took her to school. She was feeling much better by that time. She didn't want to miss math again. She has missed so many math classes! Her teacher told her that if she did well enough on the test she would use the same score for the quiz and then not make her turn in her homework. (Jorja hadn't done any of her math homework. She got soooo far behind!) Well, Jorja scored 100% on her test. Well done Jorja! Her math grade went from an F to an A just like that. I am thankful her teachers are willing to work with her! She has had a rough road the last few years.

Mike didn't think he would get to see Lisa, even though he was only ten minutes away from her house. Luckily he was able to skip the last meeting and hang out with her. Also lucky that Lisa was on Spring Break. She picked him up and took him to her house. He was only able to be there for about forty-five minutes, but that is better than nothing! Lisa made chocolates for Mike and he was able to take some home. They were amazing! We haven't had Lisa's chocolates in a long time! Lisa was even nice enough to take Mike to the airport. I picked him up by myself. When we got home, Preston had put himself to bed. Haha. Jorja was still at work. It is nice to have him home!

Chase Center

Preston and I dropped Mike off at the airport this morning. I then dropped Preston off at school. Mike had a work thing at Google headquarters. He was busy most of the day, but was able to go to the Warriors/Rockets game in Google's box. I can't believe how close to the court it is! Good thing they weren't playing the Jazz or I would have been jealous.

Jorja went to see Our Town with Carter today. That was the play Alta put on. She went to McDonalds after with Carter, Bronson and Sam I think. Jorja wanted to talk to Carter about Chief of Activities. Jorja is trying to decide what position she wants to run for and several people have gotten frustrated with her for not giving a definite answer. The job she wants to do the most is Financial Chair, but she just can't shake wondering if she is supposed to go for Chief of Activities. Carter and Jorja stopped at a park and talked about it for awhile. I think it helped Jorja feel like Financial Chair is what she wants to go for. It is such a scary time for her. Fingers crossed!

What Would be Sick?

Jorja was sick today. I was sick today. Jorja slept until noon. I cancelled her exercise with Kerity and I called Chick-Fil-A and told them she wouldn't be able to come in. Jorja found out Joe was planning on asking her to prom at work. She was so disappointed that she was sick. She said she always wanted to be asked to a dance at work. Joe ended up asking her today anyways. She was happy about that. Joe is the junior secretary. The junior class officers are in charge of junior prom. They have to be there at the beginning. Jorja is the only girl. She said she would be the only one not to be able to have control over when to show up and she didn't want to get in trouble. With Joe asking her she doesn't need to worry about that because he has to be there at the beginning too. Plus Joe is her friend. He has been nice to her for years. She's pretty happy to be going to prom with him.

Joe

 Joe & Jorja

I got to talk to Stockton today. It's so good to be able to talk to him. He has been having an interesting time. He is trying so hard with his companion. He overheard his companion today talking to his family about how he doesn't like Stockton and he hopes he finishes his training with someone else. Stockton was kind of sad, annoyed and frustrated with that. Stockton told me his companion loves to talk about magic and musicals and gets his feelings hurt if Stockton doesn't want to talk about that. Stockton says it is exhausting trying to pay attention. He has tried to explain how he knows literally nothing about those subjects... This transfer has been hard.

Mike was not happy when he came home from work. His bosses bosses boss, or something like that got fired today. Nate. Mike LOVES Nate. He has said many times that he is happy working there because of Nate. Mike isn't satisfied about the reason they gave at the company meeting. Mike is not happy about the person who is now going to take over being in charge of the non-software tech side. Hopefully things go okay, but it is kind of scary at the moment. It's sad to watch someone put so much time and energy into a company, be so respected by his employees and to be blindsided and out of a job in about fifteen minutes. Wow.

Overstock Lagoon Day

Yesterday Mike, Maysen and Preston drove up to Lagoon to camp. Jorja and I weren't able to come until today. I dropped Jorja off at school early so she could take her math test. She did that and then did her Chinese presentation, which was also her final. I checked her out after Chinese. Instead of going home, she finished her math test during the rest of advisory. I picked her up when she finished, stopped and got her a bagel and then headed home. We were home for about five minutes before we headed to Jack's house. Preston asked if Jack could come with us. Preston has never, ever, ever asked for a friend to come over. I called Jack's mom a few weeks ago. I see her at the gym often, so we have been able to get things figured out. Jack was great and it was so cute to see Preston with him. They are a lot alike. Jorja kept whispering to me, "Why doesn't he play with him more often? You need to make sure they get together." They had a great time. Lagoon was a bit rainy, but it wasn't bad. We were still able to go on everything we wanted. The only bummer was Maysen got sick. Luckily we had the motorhome that she was able to go back to. We stopped by there a couple of times to recharge. Maysen stayed there after dinner. She felt awful. That was no fun for her. I didn't get many pictures. My favorite picture from Lagoon was taken by Jorja. She put it on her snap story. I went to take a screen shot of it later, but I was too slow and it had disappeared. Boo. It was a really cute picture of her holding hands with Preston.

Jack and Preston with random girls

The girls followed the boys onto three rides. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but it was funny. Jorja ran into two different people she new. Ethan from her Chinese class who did the presentation with her this morning. Haha! And one of her friends in her Chemistry class. Jack really wanted to play a game. He bought this hat of rings and had Preston help him throw the rings. They didn't win a prize, but got to keep the hat.

Jack & Preston

 Jorja & Maysen, Jack & Preston

 Mike & Stephanie

 Jack & Jorja

This peacock was funny. We always see peacocks walking around Lagoon. This one was in the car area. I thought he was going to get hit! But he jumped over the fence and then hurried and jumped over the fence into the kid helicopter area. No one was on that ride, but it was crazy to see the peacock move that fast.

 Jorja & Preston

 Jorja, Preston, Jack

 Jorja took my phone and posted this picture ~ Stephanie & Jorja

We got Bear Claws to share and were eating them when Jack's parents walked up! That was funny. They let them in because the park was about to close. Things are a lot more relaxed on Overstock Lagoon day. We talked to them for a bit and they walked back with us to the motorhome. We gave them a tour before they headed back to their car with Jack. Today was a success. Except for Maysen's sickness. Other than that it was really fun.

Overstock Lagoon Day

We went later to Lagoon day than we usually do. Preston had a class party that he really wanted to go to. Stockton had some big projects to work on, especially in statistic, so that worked out well. I checked Jorja out after second period. She came with me to Preston's class and helped. Jorja helped Mrs. Chung and I helped Mrs. Mickelsen. I bet Mrs. Chung loved having someone helping who could speak Chinese! When I finished with putting Mrs. Mickelsen's folders together, we checked Preston out and headed to Alta. Debbie Romrell was working at the attendance desk. I told her I needed to check out Stockton Smith, etc. etc. After she had called for him I asked her, "Do you recognize me?" She said, "You look familiar, did I know you at Challenger?" I told her no and that my name is Stephanie Millburn. Her hands flew to her face as her chair jerked back. It was pretty funny. She said, "You are old enough to have a high schooler?" I told her I had a child in college too. Later when I was telling this story Stockton said, "Maysen always has to one-up me." Ha!

Anyways, we finally headed to Lagoon in the afternoon. We stopped at Mike's work on the way and picked up Mike's friend Harish. He is from India and has been in the United States for about three years. He wasn't going to go to Lagoon because he didn't have a way to get there. We took care of that. Our first stop was to buy season passes. It's great because Mike was able to get some extra Overstock passes from friends who decided not to go. (Overstock gives two free passes to each employee. Any extra is $50.) We only had to buy one pass this year. Because we are already at Lagoon, season passes are cheaper. They were $60 this year. We already know we will be going in two weeks for my family reunion. Then we only have to go one more time to make this worth it. Jorja is going to 8th grade Lagoon day next week, so hers for sure is paying for itself.

We then went and got the free lunch. Jorja and Preston were so full from the pizza (from Preston's school party) that looking at hamburgers made them sick. We went to Cannibal for our first ride. Jeff wanted to ride it with his boy, so he asked Mike if he would hang out with his daughter. Mike was more than happy to do that. Preston decided to wait with him. As we were about to get on we saw Harish finishing the ride. He had checked it out on Youtube and wanted to ride it, but it scared him.

I love that all of my kids are old enough to ride all the rides. They don't like them all, but it's nice to not have to separate unless we want to.

Preston, Stockton, Jorja, Maysen

We pressured Preston to ride Bulgy the Whale. He is almost too tall to ride this ride. The kids kept saying, "You won't ever be able to ride it again!" Perfect time to ride it because he wouldn't have wanted to wait in a line just to ride this one.

Preston

I might have climbed a fence to get this picture.

This day went by so fast. Because we went late it threw off our entire system. We were walking to the swings when Mike realized Bingo was almost over. Jorja and Mike hurried over to play the last few games. I went with the kids on the swings and I tried to ride the Ladybug ride with them. I was annoyed because I was let in and went to get a seat with Stockton. A little kid behind me in line ran in and took my seat! What was super annoying was, he left his little brother waiting in line. He took my seat so he could ride with strangers. I couldn't believe it. I looked at the worker and she said, "You can ride it next time." What? All of my kids are on it now, like I'm going to ride the Ladybug ride by myself and make my kids wait. What an annoying boy. I was even more irritated because while we were waiting in line Mike texted me that Jason Parry was at Bingo. I was hoping I would see him today. I wanted to hurry over, but I knew this is one of Maysen's favorite rides. I should have just caught up with the kids later and tried to find Jason. I never did see him.

Mike found Harish at bingo and he hung out with us for the rest of the day. We got him to go on Wicked. Hahahaha! He did not like that! He screamed so loud! Secretly he liked it though. Although not enough to go on the Spider next. Mike and Harish both sat out on that one. We went to Air Race. Only Maysen and Preston are crazy enough to go on that one.

Jorja & Stockton sitting out Air Race

Mike wanted to get Beavertails. Harish though it was a ride. He pointed out that there is a ride named Spider, so why wouldn't there be a ride named Beavertails? We each had a beavertail partner. Mike & Preston, Stephanie & Jorja, Maysen & Stockton. Maysen got powdered sugar over her face because she kept laughing.

Stockton & Maysen

Maysen has wanted to ride the ferris wheel for awhile because then she will have ridden every ride at Lagoon. Only this year they added two more kiddie rides. Luckily adults could ride them both. One was a simple airplane ride, the other was a flying jeep ride. The jeep ride was so fun! At least as far as kiddie rides go.

Stockton & Jorja (and Preston's back)

 Mike

 Harish & Mike

Overstock Lagoon day is a perfect day to ride the ferris wheel. We were able to walk right on and didn't have to wait for lots of cars to load. We divided the cars up into 'spin and not spin'. The kids all went in spin. Stockton said he would go in spin because there was no way Preston would be able to spin it fast enough to make him sick. Harish, Mike and I went in the non-spin car. Mike hates heights. He is a good sport. He even went on both Rocket rides with me. Those are my favorite.

Harish & Mike

 Mike

 Mike & Stephanie

We went on Cannibal one last time. Harish decided to sit that one out. Then for our very last ride we went back to the flying jeeps. Preston really wanted to ride that one again. It was a good ride to end on.

Maysen

 Jorja, Preston, Stockton

We dropped Harish off at his house. He was funny because he told Mike he could just drop him off at the freeway exit. Ha! Harish was really fun and super nice. He kept saying thank you for letting him hang around and he had a lot of fun. He said he was kind of bored at the beginning and we got him to try more rides than he ever would have. That was nice. The kids liked him, so it made it easy for us to have him around. What a great day.

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

Mike and I had a meeting with Brother Tanner before church.  We were called as ward missionaries.  He said this is in addition to our other callings.  We will have one meeting a month and we need to be nice to the people on our street.  Then we went to the stake center with Stockton and had a meeting with a high councilor.  Stockton was called to be on the Stake Youth Council.  Mike left for the airport after sacrament meeting.  My dad took him because I didn't want to leave early.  The primary was practicing for their program next week.  I'm not going to be there so the primary president asked if I would hang out with the kids not participating.  It turned out just to be Preston and Burke Staker.  He is Preston's age.  I asked if they wanted to leave, but they did not.  So, we just sang along with everyone else.  I am so glad I'm not in charge.  The primary program is always so stressful.

Stockton had his first youth council meeting after church and did not like it at all.  He said he didn't know why they needed that many youth. I guess there were about 30.  Five from our ward.  The others are Johny, Jordan, Zoe, and Rachael.

Stockton, Jorja and I went to a fireside tonight.  Royal Skousen spoke. He is a professor at BYU and was talking about a critical text of the Book of Mormon.  I found the fireside fascinating.  Stockton and Jorja were bored out of their minds.  My dad would have loved it.  I wish I thought of mentioning it to him.  I didn't take notes, so I can't remember what was said.  I did text one thing to my dad.  Zenock is supposed to be Zenoch.  Oliver kept messing up.  Haha!

Mike made it to his dinner cruise.  He didn't think he would get in on time, but he got there with ten minutes to spare.  These are the pictures he sent me.

His room he is staying in is . . . interesting.  These are the pictures he sent me from there.

His first class isn't until 11:00, and he is now in Pacific Time.  I'm pretty sure he is going to love sleeping in!

Overstock Lagoon Day

Today is Overstock Lagoon day!  One of our favorite days of the year. We decided to get season passports, so we did that first off.  Once that was taken care of we headed to Cannibal.  It broke down while we were in line, but we waited anyway.  If we were ever going to ride this thing it was going to be today!  We ended up riding it four times total.  Our first and last ride.  The weather was perfect.  We had been worried because all week it said it was going to rain today.  Nope.  Not a drop.  Today was similar to other Lagoon days.  We looked for the sad clown, rode tons of rides, played bingo, ate food, made ourselves sick.  We love that there are small lines for all the rides, the only problem is your body doesn't get time to recover between rides.  Especially now that Mike and I are older.  The kids don't seem to have a problem with it.  It is worth it though!

Sad Clown

Mike took Preston on The Dishwasher for the first time.  He loved it, but they sure got soaked!  Technically this ride is called Cliffhanger, but my brothers have always called it The Dishwasher.  Much better name.

 Preston & Mike

Stockton and Jorja were off on their own for awhile.  Maysen and Preston went on a lot of rides together.  They were so cute!  Preston is sure going to miss Maysen when she goes to college.  When ever he talks about it to me his eyes always tear up.  I keep telling him Maysen will come back often, but I agree with him.  I'm sad this part of my life is ending.  It has been wonderful.

Preston & Maysen

 Maysen & Preston

It looks like the rest of the pictures I took of today were behind my kids.  I just love seeing them together and I love that they get along so well.

Maysen, Stockton and Jorja were walking together.  Preston was walking with Mike and I.  I got my phone to take a picture and Preston decided to stop that.  Ha!  He makes me laugh.  When we were leaving for Lagoon Mike said, "Last chance to get anything!" as he was shutting the door.  Preston said, "I forgot my pillow and blankey."  (We are heading to Idaho for the weekend.)  I said, "I'm sure you'll be okay without them."  Preston sadly said, "Thanks for getting my hopes up."  I don't know how to explain it, but it made me laugh.  We let him go get his stuff.

Maysen, Jorja, Stockton, Preston

We are walking towards Samurai.  Another ride I used to be able to go on.  I don't think I could handle it now.  Maysen and Preston went on it for the first time.  Maysen said it was intense.  They both had big smiles when it was over.  I swear one of my cousins told me about Grandma Parry riding this when she was 88 years old.  I can't remember if that was the exact number, but it makes me smile every time I think about it.  I sure do miss her!  Mike's friend, Jeff, met us while we were here. He had done little kid rids with his children for most of the day.  He came back after he brought them home and rode some of the bigger rides with us.  Colossus, Wicked, Spider, Cannibal.....  Maysen and Preston went to ride Spider again.  Stockton and Jorja headed off to Wicked with Jeff.  Mike and I watched as Stockton, Jorja and Jeff had their arms around each others shoulders and skipped through the park. That was funny.

One of my favorite rides is the Rocket.  I love being blasted straight into the sky.  This year Preston was tall enough to ride it.  He rode both Blast Off and Re-Entry with me.  (One blasts you off and one takes you slowly to the top and drops you.)  He was cute.  He wanted me to hold his hand really tight.  He said it was terrifying, but fun.

Our last ride of the day was Cannibal.  We wanted to go when it was night time as well.  The girl worker pushed so hard on my seatbelt that my circulation was cut off the entire ride.  I did not enjoy that at all! We left the park a little before 10:00.  Stockton needs to get some night hours in, so he started the drive.  I slept in the back with Maysen.  We got to the cabin around two o'clock in the morning.  What a day!