WOW. Life has been nuts, I have had zero motivation to write, and seven weeks has passed me by, undocumented in word form! Ah! I am going to try and do a quick catch-up person by person, trying to remember as many highlights as I possibly can. Here's hoping I can get a handle on this email as we step into summer. Speaking of summer though, the kids are officially done with school. Thursday was the last day. Holy bananas. Summer and a home remodel is upon us, and if I am being honest, I am losing it! Okay, back to the children...
Gretchen: Gretchen remains the biggest opposer to the home remodel. She hates it. And lets us know it daily. If she could play with friends all day, every day, she would. She doesn't get why she can't have a late night with friends every night, and stay out as late as her older siblings! She has had lots of fun though. Her little besties remain Afton and Evelyn, her first grade teacher's twin daughters. They are the sweetest and most delightful girls, and actually, from a distance, look like they could be triplets! Gretchen has had a ball with them lately. On two Fridays after school, which is early out, Gretchen has stayed after school to play with Afton and Evelyn in the classroom while their mom works, and Gretchen LOVES it. Then just last Saturday, she got a real treat. Mrs. Hope is moving classrooms in the school and wanted to get a head start. She picked up Gretchen last Saturday at 10:00 am, along with Afton and Evelyn. The girls got to play, and helped some, and packed lunches to eat at the school. They were there for five hours and had a ball! After that, she went back to the Hope's house and played until the evening. She is still talking about this! I actually hope she always remembers it, being at the elementary school on a Saturday playing and helping her teacher move classrooms. Gretchen played with the Hopes again on Friday and Mrs. Hope mentioned to me she might have the girls' friends come help her this coming week and Gretchen would be thrilled if that was the case! Gretchen was also able to go to a pool party with a bunch of second graders (a friend from dance class hosted) and she had zero hesitation about going and came home feeling like she had a bunch of new friends. Our little socialite. Gretchen had her dance recital a couple of weeks ago and also her Let's Play Music recital. She did so great at both! Gretchen was real brave and tried out for a competition dance team on Monday and Tuesday of last week. I was so proud of her. She had to try out with the 7-10 group and was at the studio Monday and Tuesday for big chunks of time. When I picked her up on Monday she told me she had fun! She is so nervous about making it and asks me daily if I've gotten an email from Miss Melanie yet. Sweet Bear Cub. Other cute and funny current things about Gretchen...she has done some bike rides around the neighborhood by herself, and always comes home a bit miffed if people say hello to her. Richard and I think it is the funniest thing. She doesn't want anyone to acknowledge her presence! She just wants to ride her bike in peace. :) Gretchen was super sad that school ended. I will attach her last day of school picture. It honestly just looks like a backpack on the steps, but I promise you, she is under there. :) Her class took care of caterpillars, which became butterflies and they released them on the last day of school. She LOVED that. I did face painting at field day this last week and Gretchen and her friends came to see me at least five times. By the end, I had painted kitty noses and whiskers on every single one of them. Sweet Bear Cub. We have sent her life into complete upheaval with this remodel. Here's hoping that things can be somewhat put together before the new school year starts.
Rachel: Rachel had one last dance competition after Spring Break and her team rocked it. Shoeless Joe and Knock on Wood both won first in their category, and then Shoeless Joe won Grand Champion for the afternoon and Knock on Wood was runner up. This meant that out of all the dances that afternoon, and there were dozens of dances, those two dances got the highest scores! So exciting! The other happy thing about this is that before each award ceremony, the girls on Rachel's team decide who is going up to accept awards for each dance, since they only want one dancer per dance, not the entire team. Rachel was chosen to go up for Shoeless Joe so her day was made. She got to go up three times, talk in the microphone, strike a sassy pose (right up her alley) and hold a giant trophy. At one point the MC asked Rachel who her favorite baseball team was (Shoeless Joe is a baseball dance) and after a long pause, she finally said, "I don't know!" It was great. Such a fun, and rewarding afternoon, for all those girls and coaches. Super proud of them. Rachel also had a piano recital in April. She actually had to memorize her piece for this recital, and she did a great job! I really wish her teacher required memorization for all recitals, but at least she makes them memorize for the spring recital. Rachel also had her end of year dance recital. Her team performed all four of their competition dances, a ballet piece, and had a dance for the finale. Rachel had a ball and it was so fun to be in the audience with Richard and cheer her on. So another year of dance is done. Rachel tried out for competition again and was a great little cheerleader for Gretchen. We should know the end of this week the results of these try-outs. Crossing my fingers Rachel stays with Sara and that for the most part, her team stays together, always stresses me out! Rachel has been trying to fill all her free time with friends lately, and she has garnered quite a boy following at school lately. Most of the Saturdays around here are spent with boys in our yard playing with Rachel, or trying to track her down at a friend's house. She has been having loads of fun though! Swim parties, walks, playing at the park, riding scooters, watching movies, and just running around playing. Makes me happy. After some prodding from me a few weeks ago, Rachel decided to tryout for student council. She had to fill out an application, attend a group activity and interview. She just got the results yesterday, and she made it! Yay! Bridget did student council last year and it was so good for her so I am thrilled Rachel gets the opportunity now. Sara also made it, as well as another good friend, and a boy in our ward. It should be a great group and a great experience for her. Go Dokie!
Bridget: A couple of weeks after we got home from London, Bridget ran in her first junior high track meet. The conditions were miserable! It was raining/snowing and obviously very cold! Bridget had been training for the hurdles since track started, but the coaches messed up the entries and she ended up being in the 400 and 200. This was the first track meet, so new for so many of these kids and it was slow. Bridget didn't end up running the 400 until almost 5:00 pm, and she had been at the track, in the freezing cold and rain and snow for almost four hours! In true Bridget fashion though, she handled it like a champ. She said she couldn't feel her feet, but she ran, never stopped, and I was so proud of her! Bless that sweet girl. She ended up completely skipping the 200-we would have seriously been there until after 7:00 pm. We got home, got her out of all her wet clothes, bundled her up, she had hot chocolate and I'm sure something else for dinner and then she was off to the farm. Once I could tell how slow the track meet was going, I asked someone to cover feeding for Bridget and Cambria (bless that person!) and Bridget and Cambria (who also did track) did the milking on that cold, wet night. These girls are tough! Bridget's second track meet was loads better. It was just one week later, but the weather was warm and sunny, and Bridget got to run the hurdles. I was so nervous before her race. She jumps over things all the time at home, but as I sat there waiting for the meet to start and I realized how close those hurdles are and my mind started spiraling to a lot of what if's! Ah! Bridget ran so well though and put all my worries at ease! She never fell, no one ever fell into her lane, and she took second in her heat, and she was the only 7th grader. Super proud of her! She had a great time. Unfortunately, she was recovering from the stomach flu for the last meet, so she missed that one, but she is already looking forward to summer cross country and next track season. Love this girl. I really was so proud of her with those hurdles. She didn't let Marshall or anyone else dissuade her from jumping those hurdles. She worked hard, practiced every day, and just went for it. Love her tenacity and courage. In other news, Bridget also had her piano recital and did so great. She plays so delicately and I just love it. A couple of weeks ago, she had to play a trumpet solo for band and I was her accompanist...something I dread! She did a great job, despite my mistakes! Why do I get so nervous for these things?1?! She has also decided to join jazz band for next year. She is very excited, and her band teacher is thrilled to have her. Bridget also had her last band concert of 7th grade. We dragged Rachel and Gretchen with us and the only thing that made the two plus hour concert bearable is that the band teacher had every band play one Taylor Swift song. Genius. Other than that, Bridget has spent all her free time with friends. She has walked to restaurants many a time after school with friends these last couple of weeks and has had lots of late nights. Though, I will say, she has made some real fun with Gretchen on our warmer nights blowing bubbles and drawing with chalk in the driveway. It has been so cute to watch. Bridget really is such an amazing older sister.
Marshall: Three days after getting home from London, Marshall got on a bus with all the 9th grade band kids and drove through the night to California. :) Sounds miserable to me! They got to California Thursday morning, played hard through Saturday, and then drove the night again and got home Sunday afternoon. They did Disney Thursday and Saturday, attended a music workshop at Disney, and hung at the beach on Friday. He obviously came home exhausted, and with a terrible cold! He missed three days of school and basically slept, blew his nose, and did some homework. This trip and getting sick really began a slippery slope for him with school work. He got so behind in classes and it just snowballed from there! He has spent the last three weeks of the school year doing hours upon hours of homework each day. He also had two AP tests mixed in there-so he was pretty stressed! It was far from an ideal situation for him, but we are SO proud of him for not giving up, communicating with teachers, and getting his grades to where he wanted them...straight A's. A few weeks ago we went to a 9th grade awards night at the junior high for Marshall. He was recognized as one of 18 students who has maintained a 4.0 for all of junior high. He was also awarded Spanish student of the year. And speaking of Spanish, weeks ago his Spanish 3 class went down to BYU for a competition. Each of them had to compete in one area and they also did some group competitions. In the end, they ended up winning the one and only sweepstakes award, which is better than first place. As far as track goes, Marshall missed the first meet because that is when he was sick. He was able to run in the second meet, but because he didn't have a seed time from the previous meet, he ran in the last (slowest) heat. He did awesome and led, by a very wide margin, the entire way. He had a goal time, which he didn't make, but it was still a cool experience for him to win his heat. I totally missed his third meet, and he didn't run as well as he wanted, but still qualified to run at the South End district meet. Richard, Bob, Becky, and me were all there to cheer him on at that meet. He ran well, but is mentally stuck at his current PR of 5:23. He didn't run fast enough to advance to the district meet, but considering all the factors that played into this junior high track season for him, at least there was not a backslide!
Jenny: Highlights for me! Less than a week after getting home from London, my Mom hosted her annual tea party and it was simply delightful! Being freshly back from across the pond, my accent was on point. :) We ate delicious food, Jeeves was wonderful, and the best part was that my Grandma Toney was still visiting! It was the best to have a four-generation tea party and to share that fun tradition with her. My Grandma was in town for a month and I loved every single visit with her. I did resurrect my sourdough start Willa and made sourdough bread one Saturday evening while playing cards with my Dad and Grandma. It made me so happy. Speaking of happiness, Ziggy LOVED having my Grandma around. The day after we got home from London, we went to my parents' house and no one was upstairs. Ziggy took off down the stairs and immediately jumped onto my Grandma's lap. True love. :) Okay, back to me, because I am not the dog! I got a real treat the middle of April and got to go clean the Bountiful Temple! I have honestly wanted to do this for years and years, but have never had the opportunity, so when I got an email about it, I jumped at the chance! The Bountiful Temple was closed for the entire month of April, but they were still bringing volunteers in every night for some deep cleaning. I think there were about 16 people from my ward there, as well as other wards. I worked closely with two other people in my ward and we cleaned for about two hours. They let us talk and visit as we cleaned and it was honestly so much fun. Also, because some major work was being done, we got to see the temple in a bit of disarray, which was honestly so fun to see. The celestial room got new carpet, so all the flowers and trees from that room were shoved in the sealing office! Just such a unique time to be there and serve. We left shortly after midnight and I am so glad I was able to go and do that. I took my girls to the Layton Temple open house a few Saturdays ago. Rachel and Gretchen were stinkers, but we made it through! Bridget and I loved it. It is a gorgeous temple. Then, just on Friday, school was done and Richard had the day off, so we all went back to the temple. It was so great to be in the temple with all of us and the kids did so well. The beginning of May I got to judge dance company tryouts at Farmington Junior High, so that was a lot of fun! I went on a hike up Millcreek Canyon with an influencer who I actually danced with for years at Clytie Adams! Haha! Richard thinks I am nuts for going on a hike was an influencer and her following, but it was actually so much fun and the views were breathtaking! And just a couple of weekends ago I went to the Lauren Daigle concert with my friend Shannon! I have really been into Christian worship music since September, so this was a real treat to be in an arena with thousands of people listening to a woman sing all about Jesus. Loved it. The night after that Richard and I went to go see Ira Glass at the Eccles. He is the host of This American Life, a podcast I have been listening to for years! Richard hasn't listened to a single episode, but he still enjoyed it. It was such a fun evening. Funny and poignant. Richard and I have made quite a few home decisions the last couple of weeks and that has felt so good, but also has me super antsy for this massive project to just be DONE. Update on home remodel...we still have weeks and weeks ahead of us I think. Insulation just finished last week. With any luck, drywall will FINALLY start next week. Sigh. I have decided that since I can't control any part of this home remodel, I will focus on improving my front flower bed. I am taking it in small chunks, but it has been very therapeutic to be weeding and planting.
Richard: Let's see...what has this guy been up to. A handful of weeks ago he went with work friends to dinner and then the Johnson Files stand-up comedy show. He had a great evening and I am glad he could go do something for himself! He has also had a handful of work meetings/dinners in the evenings lately. He has had several random days off in May, and that has been wonderful. He has been beyond helpful running kids here and there, going to Costco, and getting things taken care of. We also celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary on May 6th! We went to the temple and did sealings on the 4th and then went out to dinner. We had so much fun at dinner. Spur of the moment, once we were seated at our table, I had an idea and we ran with it. We took turns asking each other questions that made us reflect back on the whole time we have known each other. For example, "The most stressed you have ever been." "A happy moment with each of our kids." "Most awkward moment with an in-law." Etc. We each had to answer, and we each just answered with the first thing that popped into our minds. We laughed so much and just had so much fun reflecting and it got us out of the rut of naming all the usual highlights of our lives. It was SO fun. Highly recommend. I don't know that I could ever re-create it, but I am so glad we spent that dinner talking in that way. Then on our actual anniversary, we went out to breakfast at Sweet Lake Biscuits and Limeade. It was raining/snowing this day! So bananas. We both got hot chocolate with breakfast! After that, we went and looked at quartz for our countertops. :) Oh, one more thing...which I should really put in my paragraph, but oh well! Weeks ago, Richard and I went to the symphony to see an ABBA group. It was SO MUCH FUN. Never have I ever seen Abravanel Hall with so many people dancing and singing-it was honestly like a real concert. Richard stayed seated the entire time, but I was on my feet and living it up!
Okay, by golly, I think that is it! Seven weeks, in six paragraphs. Ha! Here's hoping I can be better at this this summer...
Love each of you.
Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel and Gretchen :)
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