Lagoon in June

One of the reasons we stayed over in the Lagoon campground was so we could be first ones when Lagoon opened. I knew they opened at 11:00. It has always been that way every family reunion. Mike finally convinced me to look up the park times. I was shocked when I discovered that Lagoon opened at 10:00 today. This is the first time our family reunion has been on a Saturday. It didn't occur to me the time the park opened would be different. I discovered this at 9:50. We hurried as fast as we could, but we weren't the first ones in the park. My dad and Max left to buy tickets. I followed shortly after with Maysen, Stockton and Preston. We headed to Cannibal, because we figured that would have the longest line later in the day. My dad did not want to ride it. He said he would be sick the rest of the day if he did. I do remember that happening to me when I rode Maysen's horrible favorite ride, Air Race. There ended up being five of us riding Cannibal. Maysen decided to go on the single rider line and wait with grandpa. The single rider line was a ton shorter. We ended up getting on the ride faster than Maysen. That was weird. I wonder if that is always the case or if the workers just weren't letting single riders on. Mike and Jorja found my dad waiting for us. This is how Mike found him.

Dad

Maysen got on the ride right as we were getting off, so we didn't need to wait for her long. Stockton, Preston, Max and I rode together. We were in the front seat. Max didn't like it. He said he never wants to be in the front seat again. I had my arms raised the entire time. It was awesome. After Cannibal, we went to the flying jeep kid ride. Jorja was planning on sitting in the front with Stockton. The lady wouldn't let her, but she didn't say anything to me about sitting in the front. I got in the front of Mike's car. The lady didn't like it and said I had to get out. Mike ended up getting out, and then he rode the ride the next time with Preston. At least she let him ride it right away but it was kind of annoying.

Stockton

 Preston & Mike

We found our pavilion which I felt was in a great location. Much better than the last two years. Rozie and her family was there. Jackie came shortly after. I hung out at the pavilion and talked to my family while Mike took the kids on Rattlesnake Rapids. I talked with lots of different people. Heather and her family was there. Jackson and Chelsea. Jake and Jana. I had Jana talk to Sam about dairy allergies. Afton is allergic to dairy, although not as bad as Anne. Tammi and Frank came. It was really fun. I was worried that there wouldn't be very many family members this time, but there were still plenty to fill the pavilion. Mike brought games and the kids played there for awhile.

Mike, Maysen, Stockton & Jorja playing Tiki Topple

Preston had fun hanging out with Max. I let them roam the park together. I kept thinking we would run around with the cousins when we were that age...although there were a ton of us, not just two. They had a great time so it all worked out. Later they came back so they could go in Lagoon-a-beach. My kids ended up going back to the motorhome. I thought they would come back, but they didn't. Except Maysen. I was really glad she did. I hung out with Matt and Sam for a long time. We went to the jeep and not only did they let me be in the front of the jeep, they had me in the front with Anne. My legs were all scrunched up, it was hilarious. We were the last ones to get in, so there was only one jeep left. I told the lady I didn't think we could fit. She said we would be fine. I fit a ton better when I was by myself in the front. Where were you this morning?

Anne, Matt, Stephanie

 Anne & Stephanie, Jeff & Matt ~ Jeff did NOT like the jeeps

 See the guy behind Matt, that is what my legs looked like

 Anne LOVED the teacups. Jeff did not.

I rode the purple teacup (Anne's request) with Sam, Anne and Jeff

Anne then spent a LONG time on the ladybug and dinosaur rides. She rode them with her mom, her dad, and several times with me. Maysen came and met us there, then she rode them with Maysen. Sam took Jeff to the boats during this. The boat ride was more his speed. She said he loved it and rode it over and over. One time he was in the very front and was the only one riding. They started letting him just stay in instead of waking around to get in the ride when he was the only one riding it.

Anne & Sam

 Anne & Matt

 Anne on a spaceship

 Maysen & Anne ~ It was getting dark so my pictures are not very good.

Maysen and I brought Anne to Sam and then headed down to the Spider. We had wanted to ride the Spider earlier, but the line was SO long. Over an hour at least. The line wasn't too bad this late. Maysen asked if there was any ride I wanted to ride. I told her I would love to ride the Rocket with her. She doesn't like that ride, but she agreed to ride it with me anyway. We stopped at the bumper cars and watched for awhile. Anne was there. I don't have many pictures, but it was absolutely hilarious. The worker was falling asleep.

He didn't make sure the kids were buckled and he wouldn't say the traditional 'keep your arms and hands in etc. etc.' One of the mom's watching yelled, "The kid in the blue needs help with his seatbelt." He walked out to a kid in a purple car and buckled him then started the ride. Several kids had their seatbelts dragging. I wish I had a picture of that! Anyways, these two kids pinned the kid in the green car, then they got out while the ride was going and put his seatbelt on him! I couldn't believe it! Luckily no one got hurt. Maysen and I were laughing so hard. We watched about three rounds. In every one there were multiple kids not wearing seatbelts. I guess they don't protect them much on this ride, but it can't be great if they are dragging behind the cars.

Maysen and I then went on Blast-Off at the Rocket. I love that ride. Maysen hated it, but I'm glad she went on it with me. Our last stop was to the pavilion. Matt and Sam met us there. We were obviously the last people, so we cleaned up. I texted Mike and asked him to come help us. He did. Although the first thing he did was to empty my dad's crockpot that had the hotdogs in them. He was pouring the water into the bushes and dropped the crockpot. The crockpot shattered. Mike said, "Well, this is how my weekend is going." It took forever to get things ready to go. Mike and Maysen walked to the campground. The park was closed. A police officer stopped them and asked them where they were going. (There is a special entrance to the campground by some of the rides that is far from the exit.) I helped Matt and Sam out. Sam had a stroller, I pushed the other stroller and held one end of the heavy cooler. Matt had the other end. We were absolutely the last people out of the park. They had started closing all the exits. They closed the stroller exits, so we had to get the strollers through the turney thing. Matt had parked far away and couldn't figure out how to get to his car. Finally he followed some workers right as they were closing the gate and squeezed in. He then had to drive around until he could figure out how to make his way back to us. All the exits were closed out of the parking lot. Finally we saw that we could exit through one of the entrances. Matt and Sam dropped me off at the motorhome. Everyone was in bed and most were asleep when I got back. I was so tired. It was a really fun day.

The Results

I woke up at 6:00 in the morning and found Stockton still going strong. Yep, Stockton who didn't even want to participate in 'Stay Up All Night Night' this year. I think the kids had a great time. They played Mario Party and things like that. Jorja was the only one who didn't participate. Apparently she has decided she likes sleep.

Stockton

 Preston

 Maysen

Stockton said Maysen went in her room to write about fifteen minutes before I woke up. He said Preston fell asleep about a half hour ago. The kids randomly would sleep during the day today. They love it.

I wanted to get some sandals for Stockton. Actually I got him some about a month ago, but Mike has claimed them. I wanted to get the exact ones so he could wear them at Lagoon. I stopped by Payless, but they didn't have them. The Payless near Fort Union did though. I decided we could just stop on our way up to Lagoon. We took the motorhome and camped out. The Payless was in a pretty crowded parking lot. Mike let me out and when I was walking to the store I heard a loud crash. Mike accidentally hit one of the parked cars. Doh! That did not make for a happy rest of the drive. Mike was so worried about it. He left a note, but that is not a good feeling.

My dad and Max came late tonight. Max and Preston slept on the top in Fort Preston. My dad slept on the couch and Stockton slept on the folded down table. The girls had the bunkbeds. Looking forward to tomorrow! Should be a fun day.

Bowling

Mike took the day off work to get things done around the house. He also got the motorhome finally registered. We wanted to find the place where Stockton is going to take his bowling class next week. Bowling is the class Stockton chose for his PE credit at SLCC. They don't have ping pong like Utah State does, so this was his second choice. We dropped Jorja off at softball practice and headed to Taylorsville to find where Stockton's film class will be located. Then we headed to Big City Bowling, which turns out to be the old Junction bowling. Anyways, I had did awful. This is probably the worst I have done since I've been married. I even did better when I was pregnant. What the heck happened? I wish I would have taken a picture of all my splits. Some of them were crazy. One time I had only three pins up. One on each corner. How does that happen? Anyway, Stockton did amazing! His best ever. Then Mike did awesome too. His best ever. I'm glad two out of three had a good game!

Stockton's pretty excited about this class. It will be nice for him to have a fun class during the summer. We picked up food from Moochies and then got Jorja from practice. She is pretty excited because she was named the team captain. I'm not sure if it was this practice or last practice, but recently she was named team captain for her softball team. This will be great for her. She is such a leader. I love watching her and I'm thrilled she has found something she enjoys.

Tonight we are having stay up all night night. Stockton wasn't too excited. Preston is thrilled. Jorja decided to go to bed anyway, but is taking advantage that she can have her phone later than usual. We picked up pizza and breadsticks to leave out on the table. We will see how things play out in the morning.

Preston's Last Day of 4th Grade

I can not even explain how much I have loved this year for Preston. I have probably loved it as much as I hated the year for Stockton. Well, I didn't hate Stockton's entire year - just physics. Anyways, Preston had the two best teachers in the school this year. Mrs. Chung and Mrs. Mickelsen. I am really going to miss both of them. It would be awesome if Mrs. Chung would move up to high school. I doubt that will happen, but it would be so cool! Preston had Mrs. Chung for 2nd grade as well. He is so lucky! Mrs. Chung taught them science in Chinese. She was always doing super fun things to do it.  For example, the melted chocolate to teach about igneous rock, they smashed chips to learn about weathering and erosion and they dug for fossils in chocolate chip cookies. I'm so sad when I think about not having Mrs. Chung for a teacher again. The Chinese program in the elementary school has been fantastic. Middle school, not so much. I have no idea where Jorja stands on Chinese. I guess we'll find out next year. Preston brought home his report card. It was perfect. He didn't miss a day and he had no tardies. He had the highest marks on everything. Actually through the entire year he had the highest marks. It would be impossible to have a better report card. He also brought home the results of his AAPPL test. The target for Chinese 4th graders is N2-N3 (N=novice). Preston was graded as I1, two levels higher than the target. Nicely done!

Mrs. Chung & Preston

Mrs. Mickelsen was Preston's English teacher. How I love her! The kids respect her and listen to her. She reminds me a lot of Mrs. Latham from Georgia. Just absolutely perfect. Preston gave her a mug he got at Universal Studios this summer and saved for her. I should have taken a picture. It was the 'Things' from Dr. Seuss and said, "Teacher of all Things". He knew he would be having Mrs. Mickelsen when we were there and picked out the mug with her in mind. (Mrs. Chung loved the puzzle Preston made for her.)

Mrs. Mickelsen & Preston

Preston had a half day of school. I was at diving with Stockton when he came home. The school year is officially over! We have four days until summer school starts. I'm looking forward to these next four days!

Mike tried to build a deer fence around Maysen's tree. I was a bit confused because it seemed they could get to the tree pretty easily. Anyways, looks like the deer started focusing on the top now. They bent the branches until it was hooked by the fence. I freed the branch after I took this picture. I'm not sure if Maysen's cute little tree will survive these deer.

We let Preston choose what he wanted for dinner. All he would tell us is he wanted smores pizza. Mike came up with this creation. He also made homemade spaghetti. Apparently Preston no longer likes spaghetti or garlic bread. Who knew?

Jorja had some friends come over. Isaac, Shafer, Drew and Evan I think. I'll have to ask Jorja. They played in the batting cage, tree house and hide and seek. Jorja had a blast. These boys have been so good to her. It's nice to see her making friends again. After a couple of hours one of the mom's called to let the boys know she was on their way to pick them up. They had her on speaker phone. They asked why she was coming so early. She said they had spent all day yesterday with girls and didn't need to spend all day today with girls. One of the boys said something like, "Only Shafer is hanging out with a girl, we are just hanging out with Jorja!" Haha! That made me laugh.

We finished the day playing Masterpiece. Both Mike and I played this game with our families growing up, although Mike said he played it mostly by himself. I have no idea how it would be possible to play that game alone. Maysen ended up winning. Stockton ended up with one painting and it was a forgery. He decided paintings were dumb and ended up just focusing on money.

Biking

I was so sad this morning. I was talking to Preston when it dawned on me that I hadn't picked up the pinwheels from my mom's grave. I meant to do that on Sunday, I even wrote it on the calendar. I have no idea why I forgot. So frustrated! After Preston left for school I hurried down there, but all the pinwheels were gone.

Jorja had such a great day today. She was invited to go biking with some of her friends. She has never rode a gear bike, so she was a little nervous. Her friend Isaac lent her a bike and taught her how to ride it. When I dropped Jorja off I asked to speak to Isaac. I told him that I was really nervous about this. They were planning on biking to Wendys. I wasn't nervous about the biking, I was nervous about the cars. For some reason when I agreed to let Jorja do this I pictured them biking around a parking lot or in deserted roads. Anyways, I asked Isaac to make sure he didn't let Jorja go if he didn't think she was ready. Make sure she could bike in a straight line without wobbling. I was worried she would panic and swerve in front of a car. Jorja was quite embarrassed. I told her not to worry, Isaac has a mom; he knows how moms get. I talked to Isaac's mom for a bit afterwords. I found out that Isaac's little brother is in Chinese with Preston. That's fun. They family seemed really nice and it helped me not worry so much. It also helped that I spent the next few hours in the temple. Anyways, a group of seven rode to Wendy's. Jorja, Isaac, Shafer, Drew, Natalie, Evan and Jonah. It turned into a group of eight when Jorja asked if they could stop at Hailey's house on the way. Hailey lives on a corner and they rode right by her house. The kids biked to Wendy's, then Indian Hills. Somehow they took different ways back and four of them ended up at Natalie's house. Jorja, Isaac, Shafer and Hailey ended up at our house. Hailey had to go to soccer practice and didn't stay long. Isaac and Shafer stayed for most of the day, until it was time for Jorja to go to softball practice. I kept going outside and bothering them. I'm sure they loved it.

I did get super confused when my brother Mike texted me asking me what I put up on Instagram. This was the picture he was referring to.

What the heck is that? I have no idea how that got there. I assumed Jorja or one of her friends put it there, but they claim innocence. Shafer said he thought I was hacked. Super weird. I did notice that the last picture I took on my picture roll was this one. I took it of the dirt in front of Indian Hills with the intention of sending it to Bubs. Bubs was looking for dirt a bit ago. Hmmm. Now that I think about it, I took that picture when I picked up Jorja, Isaac and Drew. Looking mighty suspicious that one of them put it up.

Jorja got to play catcher a lot at practice today. She was so tired after biking for several hours this morning. Too bad that when she gets a chance to play catcher she is not at her best. She had a fun day though.

Preston and Mike worked on a present to make for Mrs. Chung. It turned out super cute! The horse was a little tight, so Mike adjusted it and printed it again. Preston loves it. They are printing a bottom to put the pieces in tonight. It will say Mrs. Chung and Preston. He loves it.

 Extra horse

Tonight was the Pepperwood party. Stockton decided not to go this year. When I brought Jorja back from softball practice I went through the East gate. So glad I did. The West gate was completely blocked with kids lined up to get into the party. They were early, so weren't allowed through the gates yet. It was weird because a police car was blocking the residents entry into the East gate. We are always asked to go through the East gate on the graduation party night. I went to the guest and told the guard that I was a resident. Which was obvious because the resident gate automatically opened because of the sensor in my car. He wouldn't open the guest gate for me but made me do this weird maneuver to get around the police car and through the resident gate. Bizarre.

Yearbook Day

Today was Stockton and Jorja's last day of school. Not officially, but the teachers don't like it if you come back after yearbook day - especially in high school. I tried to take a picture of the kids pictures, but they are kind of blurry.

Jorja ~ 8th grade

 Stockton ~ 11th grade

The worst part of Stockton's yearbook was the diving page. It looks fine and the pictures of Gavin and Stockton are great. The only problem is they called Gavin 'Zach'. YIKES! I wonder who messed up on that one. At least Gavin didn't buy a yearbook this year. That's kind of annoying and sad.

Gavin & Stockton

Preston had field day today. He was really excited about it and seemed to have a lot of fun. We let Stockton choose where to go out to eat to celebrate the end of school. Stockton got to choose because he had the hardest year ever! Stockton choose Leatherby's. He said it is tradition. I didn't know that, but sounds good to me. We played Scotland Yard when we got home. We defeated Maysen, the criminal. It was fun.

Drinking Fountains

I taught Natalie last week about how you can push the button on the drinking fountains over and over and make the next drinking fountain hard to drink from. She thought that was hilarious. As soon as we were excused from sharing time today she asked if we could go get a drink. She was excited to teach this trick to Alex and Andi. I'm teaching my primary class great things.

Stockton had his seminary graduation tonight. Well, he didn't graduate yet. He earned his certificate. One more year to go. We were the first to the dessert table. This time it wasn't even a contest.

Yard Sales and Swimming

I woke up this morning realizing that I forgot to go to my Dad's house like he asked me to. My dad's neighborhood was having a massive garage sale today. He had taken a lot of things from his parents house and he wanted me to look through and see if there was anything I would want. I hurried over there early this morning. I was able to help my dad and Matt pull things out to the driveway. I had just placed a fancy glass candy dish on the table when my dad came by carrying something long. He knocked over the candy dish with the long thing he was carrying. The dish is now in 1,000 pieces. Matt was teasing him that Grandma was able to keep that dish for years and years and Dad breaks it first thing. Anyways, I brought home a few boxes of knick-knacks. They had a lot of African stuff which would look great in our jungle room. They also had a lot of Oriental stuff, which Jorja and Preston might like. I also took this chandelier. Jorja used to have a chandelier in her bedroom, we haven't hung it up since her room was painted. She's asked for it back several times. I thought it would be more fun to have a chandelier from her great-grandparents rather than a chandelier that was here when we bought the house.

We also found some old pictures. I took pictures of a few of the pictures. Here is one of my grandpa in his swimming suit on his mission. Haha!

Grandpa Millburn

Grandpa took a 6 month trip home. He went through Germany and took a picture of one of the buildings, I think this was 1943. The crazy thing was, he walked through Germany right as the Nazi's took power, but before they went super crazy. Well, they were probably always super crazy, but this was before they started invading other countries. I'm guessing he had no idea what the symbol meant on those flags.

 Olive Branch (Grandpa's mom) ~ she met Grandpa in Hawaii

 Grandma Millburn

Matt's kids had fun playing outside. Jeff is funny. He was running around in circles laughing and laughing. Life has gotten so much better for him once he decided to walk!

Anne, Greg, Jeff

Gregory

 Anne said, "I've never seen a baby pray before!"

 Anne, Greg, Jeff

I felt better today, but not great. I procrastinated doing my chores. I would work on them at a super slow rate. I remembered BYU was playing in a tournament game for baseball. It was do or die and on ESPN3. I decided to watch that and finish up the dishes later. Stockton had a friend that was opening his mission call up on Traverse Mountain. I helped him leave for that. (His diving friend, Matt, was called to the Fort Worth Texas mission.) As Stockton was driving away I started wondering when Harry was getting married. (Harry is our bishop's son and he is Maysen's age. Crazy!) I found the invitation and felt so sad when I saw the wedding was today. The reception was up at Traverse Mountain. Well, that would have been helpful to remember about an hour earlier. I couldn't get anyone to go with me. Mike was covered in sprinklers and my family was supposed to be over soon. I just jumped in the jeep and hurried up there. They had pizza and ice cream for the food. I thought that was fun. I didn't have the pizza, but the honeycomb gelato was delicious!

My family came over for a swimming party tonight. The kids were really excited the pool was finally open! I stayed out of the pool. Didn't want to get any sick germs in there.

Stockton & Gregory

All the kids love the ice machine. What's not to love? Don't worry. I got all the ice Jeff was digging in out; but look how happy he is!

Jeffrey

I finally got cheese for Maysen's nacho bowl. We have put salsa in before, but Maysen has always wanted cheese. What service she provides for the swimmers.

Maysen, Anne & Matt, Stockton

 Maysen, Dad, Anne & Matt, Max

 Maysen, Dad, Stockton

 Stockton

Amelia, Jorja, Anne

 Millie & Anne swimming by themselves!

 Night swimming is always a lot of fun. Not sure these guys have tried it before. 

 Last fun of the night? Snowcones!

Amelia, Anne, Abby, Ella, Preston, Lincoln

Sick Day

I felt awful today. Jorja and Preston had the day off of school. I didn't get to enjoy them. Luckily school will be out for the summer soon. I love it when my kids are home. Stockton was annoyed today. He checked his grades in the morning. All As. By lunchtime he had a C+ in physics. What? He added in a random pre AP test that Stockton took in April and did poorly on. He said Stockton could get his grade up with test corrections. Why does he wait until now to put it in? Stockton could have worked on this for over a month. I am not going to miss this teacher at all. He has been awful. The sad thing was Stockton had a test in Engineering today. He thought that was the last thing he needed to do and then he would be all the way finished. Nope. Now he will need to work on physics all weekend.

Mike and the kids went to our ward dutch oven bbq. I stayed home sick. Later one of my primary kids told me they were looking for me. That's sweet. I'm glad I didn't go because she had a cough and I would have felt guilty thinking I gave it to her.

8th Grade Lagoon Day

It's June! I'm so excited. I hate May. I apologize to Mike's birthday, but I pretty much hate everything about May. I have a hard time dealing with things in May. I remember years ago getting my feelings hurt and snapping at my friend Teresa. I wrote her an apology note. I just don't deal well with anything that happens in May. Luckily we are now in June! Yay!

Today was 8th grade Lagoon day for Jorja. She was pretty excited about missing school and being at Lagoon with her friends. Westin is in 8th grade, but he doesn't get to go because 9th grade is still in middle school at his school. Luckily that meant that Jacob would be there! I challenged Jorja and Jacob to try and get a picture of the other person. Jorja saw Jacob and panicked. Luckily one of her friends knew about the challenge and ran and took a picture of Jacob for her. Probably why Jacob looks so confused in this picture.

Jacob

The weather was great today. Perfect day for Lagoon. I should wait until Jorja is here with me so I could write some cool stories; but she is sleeping. She likes to sleep. It is weird. I could not sleep that long if I tried.