New Cabin

It was a lazy day for me. It was nice. I read and played games and went on walks. Mike had to work and would go outside to do his video calls. Jorja had Step to the U and did her video class inside. Nice to be up here even those two still have commitments.

All that is left of Weston's snow fort

Jorja taking pictures of Bear ~ he has loved it up here

Jorja

Mike and Bear

Terry and Debie stopped by. We weren't expecting that! Terry told us that they just closed on the cabin next to Steve and Sharon's. He bought the cabin with Tyler. Yay! We are going to have more Idaho cousin neighbors! I'm so excited! I went on a walk with Bear to check it out. Pretty awesome.

Roe's new cabin

Tops of the cabins. Left one Roe's, right one Parry's.

Driving Bear

Jorja got her yearbook today. Super anticlimactic. The juniors were supposed to pick up their yearbook from 10-11. Jorja was doing step to the u and asked if I would get it for her. I put her name in my windshield and headed down to Alta. They had it super organized. I found the S line and they gave me a ticket when they saw Jorja's name. I went to the next booth, still in my car, and they exchanged my ticket for her yearbook. So, that was that. Jorja finished her classes around 3:30 then hung out with Drew for a few hours. They made necklaces and played volleyball with a bunch of other people.

Jorja and Drew

Mike spent the day working and getting ready for the cabin. He had to get the motorhome inspected. He took Bear with him who liked to pretend to drive when Mike wasn't in the car.

Driving Bear

We headed to Idaho around dinnertime. We went through Idaho Falls because Mike was still on call and we didn't want to go through pockets of no-service. Bear loved being in the passenger seat. Mike was listening to a book that he needed to read for work. So, I slept on the way up there. We got to the cabin around 12:30, just in time for bed. It is nice to be back up here!

Climbing Rocks

Jorja went rock climbing with her friend Lucas today. She said it was so scary! She has never been rock climbing outdoors before, and it has been years since she has done it indoors too. She said it was a lot of fun though.

Lucas and Jorja

Lucas

After rock climbing she went to the Alta/Bingham lacrosse game. She saw Ivan there and was able to talk to him for about fifteen minutes. She was happy about that. She went with her friends to In-N-Out and then they came here. There was a lot of them! Bode, Kelsey, Aiden, Ella, Gabby, Leah, Elle and a lot more. I can't remember everyone and there were some I didn't recognize. Jorja was in heaven. They loved all of Mike's magic things around the house. They played Jackbox until it was time to go. Today was a good day for Jorja.

Aiden & Jorja

Tin and Beans

Stockton is doing great! We got to talk to him today. There is a mountain on fire near him. Hope they get that taken care of and hope no one gets hurt. Today is Sam's birthday. I dropped off Kaylee's stocking today. I even got to hold her! She is all the way off of oxygen now! Woohoo!

Stephanie and Kaylee

Jorja had a mostly good day. She got up before 5 to go watch the sunrise with Hailey and Allison. She also started Step to the U. It was long. She had zoom calls from 9:00-3:30. Long day, but after she had a date with her friend Ben. Ben lives in Alta boundaries, but goes to Jordan for the Spanish Immersion program. They have been friends for years, but became close friends when they had drivers ed together. They had talked for years about having a Webkinz date. So, today was the day. Unfortunately they could not find anywhere that sold Webkinz. So they just had to play with the ones they already had.

Ben and Jorja singing Hunk of Tin ~ throwback to Drivers Ed

I asked Jorja to send me pictures of her day... she sent these videos...

Jorja showed me this cute tiktok she is making to the song Fine. Jorja is lip syncing the first line that says 'I'm going to be fine.' She is crying as she said that. That was from yesterday. Now, as she videos other lines with her friends that she has been hanging out with. She showed me how much she has and it is super cute.

Jorja got added to a group chat the day Bode and Luke found her. Jorja has wanted to be in this chat for years. She even asked if she could be in it in 8th grade but was told no. (I'm guessing the person she asked maybe didn't know how to add people. I can't imagine them not letting people in, but that was the impression Jorja got.) Then she was afraid to ask to be in it again. Anyway, she is now in it and is so happy. One of the girls, Ella, asked if anyone wanted to get Bahama Bucks with her. Jorja said yes and she was off on another adventure. It ended up being Ella, Luke and Aiden I think. They filled a piñata with beans and destroyed it. Weirdos. Jorja loved it though.

Riley and Jorja had planned on talking today after he got off of work. They met at our church parking lot and talked for over an hour. Jorja was able to ask him about the different things she had found out about. It was good closure for her. She ended up telling Riley she didn't think she could be friends with him anymore, that it just hurt too bad. Maybe one day they can be friends again, it will never be like it was though. Jorja told him that she wished they were never more than friends. This is exactly what Jorja was worried would happen. She will be fine though. Just like her song.

Note

Jorja was sad today. We had a great day. We watched a Hank Smith talk for part of church. Jorja was in the audience. She was sitting next to Brynlee, who isn't her friend anymore. That made her a bit sad. Riley stopped by and dropped off some things Jorja had left in his car. He dropped them on the porch, with a note. The note made Jorja sad. Technically it was a nice note. It was telling Jorja how wonderful she is. How she has the best personality. Always made him feel important and made everything ten times better. On and on with things like that. Jorja was sad the rest of the day. Jorja went and dropped some tithing off at the bishop then she drove around for awhile. I was pretty annoyed with the note. I know how Jorja thinks. So by telling her that he loved her personality and that she made him feel important and loved, what Jorja would hear is 'you weren't pretty enough'. 

Jorja decided today to do Step to the U. She was accepted awhile ago, but didn't know if she wanted to do it once she found out it was all online. Now that she quit her job she decided to go for it. She said she knows she is going to hate it but would probably regret not doing it. It is four college classes, so that will be awesome. Plus, she won't need to take English next year. Anyway, hope it is better than she thinks.

Side note: This is what Rachel's stocking looks like today

Kaylee's Stocking

Jorja went out this morning with her friend Kiana. The plan was to go painting in the park. She brought the picnic blanket my grandma gave me and a lot of paints. Too bad it ended up being cold and rainy. Instead they just talked.

Kiana and Jorja

Jorja left her wallet in Brenton's car on Thursday. She picked him up today and he gave it back to her. I think they ended up going to Walmart and maybe somewhere to eat. It's funny because Brenton usually would sit in front of us at church. There was a good long stretch that when Jorja and Brenton sat next to each other, from behind they looked exactly the same. Then Jorja cut her hair a bit. I wonder if it looks like that again. Brenton's cutting his hair soon, maybe they should try and get a picture from behind before he does that.

Jorja and Brenton

For Jorja's last adventure today, she went with her friend Jake to Dessa's birthday party. She sure had a great day today and was so happy. It was awesome.

Jorja and Jake

Mike, Maysen and Preston worked in the duck pond today. It is looking really good. Matt and Sam bought a house and are moving to Rigby, Idaho. Sure going to miss them living close by. They have five kids now and have outgrown my dad's basement. Five kids in one bedroom. Wow. Sam is working her dream job as the head editor at Covenant Communications. With all the problems with Kaylee and then corona, she has been working at home for the last eight months. Well, this week Sam got permission to permanently work from home. So, they are going to move to Idaho. They will be close to Sam's sister and Sam's mom is also moving there. The housing prices are cheaper and they think the air will be better for Anne. It makes sense, just going to miss them. Luckily they will still be relatively close by. It's not like they moved to Virginia or Ohio or New Mexico. Anyway, I got obsessed with finishing Kaylee's Christmas stocking. I wanted Matt and Sam to be able to pack it away with the rest of their stockings before things got chaotic. I had been splitting my time between Kaylee's and Rachel's stocking. I was so close to finishing Kaylee's though. I spent a few hours and finished it today. I am happy with it. Hope Kaylee will like it too!

Kaylee

Last Day at Chick-Fil-A

Today was Jorja's last day at Chick-Fil-A. I'm excited to have her home more. I know she wants to get a different job, but I'm trying to talk her out of it. We have one more year with her and I don't want to miss a thing. Mike and I went and saw Jorja one more time. She is beautiful.

Jorja

Usually she has her mask on, she just took it down because it was us. We grabbed Jorja's keys when we went through the line. I waited in the car with Bear while Mike took her car and filled it up with gas. Bear was not happy to see Mike drive away. Jorja stayed after for about an hour saying goodbye. She has made some really good friends here.

Jorja and Abby

 Note Jorja left

 Goodbye presents

Mike declared victory as he was able to get the giant stump out of the duck pond

Layla came over and hung out with Jorja for awhile. Layla seems really nice and I'm thrilled Jorja will get to know her better this year as they serve as student body officers together. Later Alex and Paige came over. They went swimming. I didn't get a picture though. I talked to Alex for a long time when she was leaving. I'm glad she will be in student government again. Jorja picked up Hailey and they went to Jake's birthday party. Jorja had a very good day.

Jake and Jorja

Chalkboard Telestrations

I got to talk to Stockton today. It was great. Things are going well for him except the connection problems he has in his apartment. Hard to do zoom lessons when they don't have a reliable connection. Stockton sent me these pictures from his district council meeting. I can't remember when principle he was teaching, but he sure can make everything fun. Anyway, they played telestrations on the chalkboard. Everyone was facing the other direction reading a scripture chapter Stockton had assigned. He had them come up one by one to do this.

First Elder and Stockton

From trophy to exotic Pillsbury dough boy. Hahaha. Stockton also sent me this picture. This happened while they were sleeping and they had no idea. Nothing was even plugged into the charger at the time. Glad their apartment didn't catch fire!

Speaking of fires... Mike has been trying to get a tree out of where he is building the duck pond. He had it down to the stump, but it is super heavy. He tried burning it today. He sent me this picture.

I ran into my high school friend Julia (Brande) Jenson at the store. We ended up talking for a looooong time. It was so great to see her! They were in this ward when we first moved here. They are still in the neighborhood, I'm just not great at reaching out. Hope I can run into her more often.

Jorja had to film her student government dance today. She had to dress in silver. I hope she did okay. Hopefully I will be able to see it sometime. Brenton took her to school and they went to McDonalds after. Jorja worked her last night shift today. Ahhhh! Almost finished with the chicken restaurant! She had a lot of fun making a Sponge Bob video with her friends. She doesn't realize it yet, but she's going to miss this place.

Sam and Jorja

Luke and Bode

Maysen and I took a walk tonight up to the Pepperwood pool. They have redone it and it is beautiful. Although it turns out that I only took pictures of the diving board. Hahaha. I sent these to Stockton because they changed the fulcrum. They also got better boards. This is so much better!

Maysen and I saw Yolanda walking her dogs and talked to her for awhile. She is so nice! We also saw Jacqui. The weather was perfect and it was so nice to be out there with Maysen. Hopefully the world will open up soon! I guess open up more....

Jorja had a hard day today. She worked from noon to nine. Student government was getting together at noon to work on their dance that needs to be recorded tomorrow. Jorja had to miss that. Hopefully she can pick it up quickly. Jorja hung out with Hailey after work for just a bit. She was waiting until 10:00 because that was when Riley was off. Hailey kept her company. Jorja has been wanting to talk to Riley for awhile. She could tell something was off. She was right. Riley met someone else in Lake Powell. Jorja wasn't surprised at all. She was hurt that he didn't talk to her about it. Hurt that he kissed her after he came home. She couldn't understand why he would do that if he liked someone else. Hurt that she was lied to. He told her he never kissed the girl, just caught feelings for her. The next day Jorja found out that he had kissed her and once again she was lied to. Jorja was hurt because Riley tried over and over to kiss her and she swerved him so many times. One time Riley flat out asked her if he could kiss her. She said that she was scared of kissing boys. She hadn't kissed anyone for seven months and in her experience once a boy kissed her he didn't want to be her friend anymore. Still, Riley was persistent. Right before he left for Lake Powell they decided they were more than friends, but not quite dating. Later Jorja found out that Riley had been talking to this girl the entire time he had been talking to her. She felt like he played her, and she was right. I'm frustrated with Riley because he made all of Jorja's insecurities a reality. Jorja was extremely honest with him and it still blew up in her face. I know she is going to be stronger because of this. She knows it too, but today she is sad.

Jorja was proud of herself for not crying when she was talking with Riley. Once she drove away she broke down. She was driving home about 11:30 and was bawling. She was on Draper Parkway by Walmart when she could tell people in a truck next to her were waving trying to get her attention. She looked over and it was Bode and Luke Hillstead. Once she looked they could tell she was crying and Bode motioned for her to pull over. She parked in the Walmart parking lot and Bode and Luke talked with her for an hour. They were so nice and kind to her. Jorja has known Bode since 2nd grade and they have always been in student government together. They are really great friends. Luke is Jorja's co-captain in PLT and has always been super nice to Jorja. I know Heavenly Father sent them to Jorja today. They were just what she needed. They took this picture to replace the screensaver Jorja had of her and Riley.

Luke, Jorja, Bode

Jorja came home around 12:30 and talked to me for a bit. Bode and Luke were going to sleep at Alta and had invited Jorja. She asked if she could go. I told her she could. Even though Jorja was the only girl, I felt like these boys would take care of her and keep her safe. I felt that it would be better for her to be with them then home tonight. What started out as a super sad night ended up being so fun. Thank goodness for good friends. These boys were so kind.

Luke, Jake, Aiden, Bode

 This is where they set up their hammocks

 Luke

 Jorja and Bode

Bucket Hat

Jorja and I have been looking for her student government bucket hat. We had no idea where it could be. This morning it dawned on me that we had my dad wear it for the amazing race so the kids would be able to identify him. I couldn't remember if he had given it back or not. I texted him and asked if he had it. He sent me this picture. Hahahaha

Dad

Jorja was out with Hailey. I sent her this picture and she went and picked it up from my dad. Glad that mystery is solved! Jorja worked today. She is starting her last week at Chick-Fil-A! Hope it is a good week for her.

Maysen and I went shopping. We dropped off her phone with a cracked screen to get fixed. We went to Scheels and got Maysen a new water bottle and shoes. She is happy with both. We picked up Zupas on the way home. It was a good day.

Almost Sunrise Hike

Jorja and Riley had plans to go on a sunrise hike. Jorja woke up at 4:30 in the morning. Riley didn't wake up. She asked me if she could hang out on the roof. I helped her get up there. Riley showed up about an hour after they had planned. He had fallen back asleep. They weren't able to go on the hike anymore, but they did hang out for a bit.

View from our roof

 Jorja

Jorja had a zoom meeting for Step to the U. She had some questions. Too bad she fell asleep during the meeting. Guess I shouldn't have let her get up so early. Jorja hung out with Aubrey today. She is her friend she met at ACT camp. She really likes her.

Jorja & Aubrey

Mike and I went to the store. We saw this bug parked there. We had to take a picture of the hubcaps for Jorja. She would love them!

Jorja had a student government party at Sadler's for all of the seniors in student government. She had a fun time. It was also Dallen's birthday. After the party she stopped by home to drop off her car then Riley drove her to Dallen's house.

I got to talk to Stockton today. It is so fun to hear from him. He wasn't able to talk very long. He had to go to the other missionaries apartment because it is hard to get service in his. He sounds happy and that he is getting along with his companion. Yay! I hope he enjoys this area. He sure loved his last one.

Mike and I dug a lot in the duck pond. Mike worked a lot more than me. I waited until it wasn't super hot outside. The tree is still there, but it is coming along.