The Leake's Week-June 19, 2023

 Hello!

A Monday edition!  But, I could not let a second week pass me by, so here we are!  Our last week was a good one.  A pretty quintessential summer week, and it was wonderful.  Here are the highlights...

Last Monday morning I went on a walk with two friends in my neighborhood, a great start to the day.  Later that morning, Bridget helped me pack lunches for everyone and we left just after 10:00 am headed for a park in Kaysville.  My Mom arranged a park day for those of us in town and we had the best time together.  Stacie and Audrey were also there with their boys and the weather was AMAZING.  I am loving, I cannot emphasize enough, how much I am loving this cooler June weather!  We played at the park from 10:30-1:30 and we only left because we had to pick up groceries by 2:00 pm.  The kids ran and ran and there is no way they could have lasted that long in 90 degree weather.  All the kids were fairly independent, and my Mom did play with them a ton, but I loved sitting and talking with Stacie and Audrey.  My Mom really was a fantastic grandma on Monday, as she always is, but she soared to new heights last Monday, including playing "Monkey in the Middle" with a soccer ball and Marshall and Jaxon!  It was honestly such a fun day.  After picking up groceries, we had some downtime at home during the afternoon.  Bridget worked at the farm that evening and I took Rachel and Gretchen for the last bit of it.  They all had a great time!  Once we were all home, we roasted smores out on the deck and had a great evening together.  Yay for summer!  

Tuesday morning I went to yoga and loved that!  Rachel had dance from 11:00-12:45.  After getting her home and she and I grabbing a quick lunch, I took the girls to go see the new live action "Little Mermaid".  Bridget had already seen it for a friend's birthday two weeks before, but she insisted that all of us would love it, so I bought tickets and took all the girls.  Bridget was right, we all loved it!  And I stayed awake the entire time!  The Little Mermaid was my favorite cartoon movie for so many of my growing up years.  My grandparents lived in a condo with a pool and I spent hours in that pool pretending I was Ariel, so of course I loved this movie.  The girls all loved it too.  It was so fun watching Gretchen during a part with Max, the dog, as Prince Eric rescues him from the burning ship.  She was literally on the edge of her seat with her hands in her mouth.  And when Ariel changed back into a human so she could be with the prince Rachel reached over and gave Gretchen the biggest hug.  Ah, it was so fun to experience it with them.  And don't tell, but Bridget definitely has a crush on the actor who plays Eric.  Ah!  To be young!  Such a fun afternoon.  That evening I finally talked Marshall and Bridget into going on a bike ride with me, something I have been begging them to do all summer!  They finally agreed and off we went.  It was delightful.  However, when we were headed home, on the east side of Main Street, so it was all uphill, Bridget's gears started acting funny.  Marshall was ahead of us, so I stopped to help Bridget.  When we got going again, on the uphill, I didn't have great balance or momentum on my bike, it tipped over, I fell over, and sprained my ankle!  Ah!  Third summer in a row spraining that darn right ankle.  Geez.  I was able to walk my bike to a flatter part, and then ride it all the way home with the assist.  A lame end to a wonderful summer evening bike ride!  I spent the rest of the evening with my foot elevated, rotating ice on and off.  Richard was a saint and did all of bedtime, including reading a very long book to Gretchen.  :)  

Wednesday morning Bridget cooked breakfast with me-German pancakes, the kids loved them.  I had a temple appointment that morning, so I hobbled through the parking lot to initiatory.  The kids faired well here at home without me.  Rachel had dance that afternoon and Marshall, Bridget, Gretchen and I went to the orthodontist!  Gretchen just got to sit and observe, lucky girl.  Marshall had a check-up and Bridget got braces on her top teeth!  She did such a good job.  It took about one hour, start to finish, and she did so well, especially considering her first experiences at the orthodontist back in 2018!  She has come a long way!  Once we were finally done, to celebrate we stopped at Chick-Fil-A and used a gift card to get shakes and frozen lemonades.  Later that afternoon Bridget had horseback riding and Marshall had his first soccer practice with his new team.  Richard was able to go straight from work to the team meeting at the end of practice as well, very helpful!  That night Bridget went to YW's, a kick-off for Girl's Camp, which she loved and then she went straight to her friend's YW/YM activity-night games at Freedom Hills Park.  Rachel was also invited to this same activity with a friend of hers.  So both girls were there and they had the time of their lives!  They haven't ever really played night games before and they loved it, especially Rachel.  They got home after 10:00 and told us all about it.  While the girls were off having fun, Marshall and I were having fun de-junking his room!  It actually was pretty fun and I enjoyed my time with that kid.  He is so sentimental that it is hard for him to get rid of things, but I just kept reminding him we are trying to transition his room from young boy to high school boy.  :)  

Thursday morning Rachel had dance and then went straight to her piano lesson.  Bridget spent the morning at Lagoon with Avery.  It was a rainy morning and Bridget's mouth was in a fair amount of pain with her braces, but between Tylenol and keeping a warm rice bag on her mouth, she made it through her morning and still wanted to go to Lagoon.  She and Avery had a great time.  She was home with just enough time to eat some soft mac and cheese for lunch before leaving again to go see "Little Mermaid" for the third time with her friends!  I took the younger two girls to visit Mark Erickson in our ward.  Mark is a wonderful man in our ward with severe disabilities.  He helps with the music in primary, so our girls know him well.  He has a serious infection and will not be at church for quite some time.  We signed up to visit him on Thursday and it was so great.  My girls are used to seeing him in Sunday clothes in his fancy wheelchair, so to see him in pajamas, in a hospital type bed was a bit jarring for them, but they were so good to still talk to him.  It was a good experience for us all.  That evening Richard took Rachel on her summer date-dinner at Waffle Love and then a trip to Target, Rachel was in heaven.  :)  Bridget was home for less than 30 minutes after the movie and then begged me to take her back to Claire's where she spent the rest of the night...such a social butterfly!  If only we could get Marshall to live like this.  :)  

Friday morning Rachel had dance again, so she was off early.  Several days ago, Gretchen declared that she wanted to do a cookie and lemonade stand.  She was so adamant about it, I decided I should commit to it and help her fulfill this dream.  We decided Friday would be the day, 1:00-3:00 pm.  She was also adamant that it would be free-no one could talk her into charging money!  She and I made snickerdoodles on Thursday night and chocolate chip cookies on Friday morning and I mixed up some lemonade.  Funny story, when Gretchen and I were baking Thursday night she begged me to let her crack the eggs.  I agreed, helped her with the first one, and then talked her through the second one.  Of course she got egg on her hand and she was SO disgusted!  She said, "I will never crack an egg again!  I will always have my children do it!"  The girls helped her make signs, and I posted it on the neighborhood Facebook page and texted it out.  We got it all set up and she was so excited.  She had a pretty good turnout!  There were obviously lots of kids who came by, but also several adults and she did make a $1 tip.  She was super shy with the adults, but loved when the kids came.  I went into Friday dreading it, but all in all, it was quite fun.  I just sat out there with my ankle up and read a book when people weren't there!  Rachel had Eily over as well, so the girls played in between customers and it was a great afternoon.  Bridget went to Cambria's at 1:30 and didn't get home until almost 11:00 pm!  This girl!  Cambria's mom did manicures for the girls and managed the farm with them, so it was a very full day for her!  Marshall had soccer practice that afternoon as well.  That night, once all the fun was done, Richard and I went to the temple for ward temple night and then enjoyed pie at the church afterward.  A great evening.  

Saturday morning we had breakfast all together before Rachel had dance and Richard started working.  Richard is in the middle of working 12 straight days, so he spent the bulk of the weekend sequestered in our bedroom.  After lunch, the kids and I went to my parents' for the afternoon.  It was the best time.  Danny and Kevin were there with their families as well.  We feasted on delicious strawberry shortcake and just had a laid back afternoon together while the kids played.  It was dreamy.  Sadly, I did have to come home and make dinner, but I survived.  :)  The kids had planned a sleepover for that night, so they had fun playing together all evening and then they slept in the movie room.  The next morning we heard that Gretchen was crazy and they don't think they fell asleep until around 11:30 pm.  :)  

We had a good Sunday.  Richard had to work again, but not until 10:30, and with no church meetings thanks to Father's Day we were able to have breakfast all together and tell Richard why we love him.  The primary kids sang in sacrament meeting and Rachel and Gretchen did great.  The kids and I had a relaxing afternoon while Richard worked, bless him.  I couldn't bring myself to get dinner going, but I finally made it!  The good thing about a late dinner is Richard was done working and he was able to eat with us.  :)  We enjoyed FHE around the kitchen table while we ate ice cream, a good end to the day.  

Today I drove Bridget and Cambria to Fruitland where we met Becky.  Those girls are spending the entire week in Vernal and none of us were happy to see Bridget go.  As you can imagine, she could hardly wait to get out there, so it was hardly a sad good-bye for her as she hugged her siblings this morning.  It is definitely a different dynamic with her gone, but considering she was hardly home last week, this week will not be much different!  Becky has been so kind to already send me pictures and videos and I cannot wait to hear of all her adventures.  We will try to muddle through life here at home without her.  

Thanks for reading!  We love each of you!

Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel and Gretchen :)

Dance pictures came in this week, so I have included them here.  Also, why is Marshall looking so old?!  :(

The Leake's Week-June 12, 2023

 Hello!

It is almost the middle of June, two weeks of summer are behind us, the weather is AMAZING, and we just got back from six glorious days in Island Park and Yellowstone.  Don't tell Richard, but I think I could move to Idaho.  That beautiful part of the country provides mountains AND water and I could ask for nothing else.  In an attempt to get this email out this weekend, and because I have two weeks to catch up on, I am going with a bullet-list approach of the highlights of our trip and the previous week...

*Church last Sunday.  We went to the Island Park sacrament meeting at 10:00 am.  It was just a very short drive from the cabin we had rented.  When we pulled into the parking lot, we saw that there was a regular looking church building, and then an A-frame log building.  People were walking into both buildings, and both buildings had men greeting people as they walked in.  We were closer to the A-frame building, so we decided to go in there and I am so glad we did.  In the summer Island Park is flooded with people on vacation, so they use this A-frame building in the summer to accommodate.  I have heard that in the height of the summer that there are so many people that the two buildings can't hold everyone and so the congregation spills out onto the grounds.  Amazing!  Anyway, we walked into the chapel, with log walls, minimal lighting, and found a place to sit.  We had been sitting for less than a minute when a young man walked right up to Marshall and asked him if he would be able to help pass the sacrament.  Marshall was one of ten young men/men to pass the sacrament in the A-frame building.  I am so glad he got that experience!  Anyway, the first part of the meeting was broadcast from the building next door.  After we sang the sacrament hymn, the broadcast ended for the sacrament.  Once that was done, because it was a testimony meeting, the broadcast did not resume so that both buildings could have their own testimony meeting.  With the exception of the member of the bishopric who bore his testimony first, I am pretty sure every other person who shared their testimony in the A-frame church where we were was a visitor, including Becky!  It was great to hear her share her testimony, and I am so grateful our kids were able to listen to her too.  All the testimonies were short, to the point, and testified of Jesus Christ.  It was such a special meeting to attend and I hope that at least our older kids always remember it.  

*Big Springs.  Sunday afternoon we visited Big Springs, it was almost exactly as I remembered it!  Gorgeous.  Peaceful.  We walked all around and saw all the different places water bubbles out of the springs.  The kids, and Bob, found it quite fascinating!  We spent time looking over both sides of the bridge and the girls and I saw what we are guessing was a river otter.  We also saw some nice, big fish!  We walked around the path that leads to Johnny's Sack's cabin.  Wildflowers were blooming, the water was peaceful and still and reflected all the scenery around it.  It was a great way to spend a lovely Sunday afternoon.  

*Midway Geyser Basin.  We spent our Monday in Yellowstone and our first stop was Midway Geyser Basin.  This is the home of the Grand Prismatic Spring as well as several other large geysers.  This was my first time ever stopping here and I am so glad we did.  It was other-worldly.  No other way to describe it!  We parked in the parking lot and then made our way to the boardwalk path.  As soon as you get on the path, you see water running down these huge rocks in fairly flowing streams.  And then you start walking on this boardwalk path in this almost constant cloud of steam.  It was so bananas!  The steam made you warm and then a split second later made you cold as it receded before another wave of steam came.  It left us ever so slightly wet and at times really hindered our visibility as we walked.  It was really so cool!  I have no idea if it is always like this, but it sure was amazing to experience.  The first geyser we saw was Excelsior Geyser.  It was huge and the most beautiful blue.  Our cameras did not do it justice.  That is the geyser that had the most steam coming off of it as we walked along the boardwalks.  It was surreal!  After that we made our way up to the Grand Prismatic Spring.  As we got closer and watched the steam coming off of that one, it was blue on the left, then the steam was green, then orange, then pink.  It was so cool to stand back and see that array of color.  The best view of the Grand Prismatic is from a hike that takes you up above, and we never did get to that hike, but we caught glimpses of its bold colors as we walked along and as the steam cleared for a moment or two.  We could definitely see the bold oranges and yellows of its outline, and that was stunning.  Next stop was the Opal Pool and then the Turquoise Pool, those were both gorgeous.  After the Turquoise Pool, the boardwalk put us back by the Excelsior Geyser so we were able to bask in its intense steam again as we finished our walk to the car.  Every once in a while, this steam carried a whiff of sulphur with it, which the kids did not love, but overall, it was mild.  It was such an amazing place to stop and see!  

*Old Faithful.  We got to see Old Faithful for its roughly 4:00 pm eruption.  It put on a great show for us!  We had great seats on some benches and waited for about 20ish minutes.  In the distance, while we were waiting, we saw another geyser erupt, which was almost as spectacular as Old Faithful!  It went on and on and it was fun to watch it while we passed the time.  Old Faithful fooled us a couple of times with some water spitting and bubbling out, but once it got going it was fantastic to see.  The kids were awed by it!  After Old Faithful, we walked along quite a path of boardwalks just to see a fraction of the other geysers that were there.  We walked on a bridge that went over Firehole River, flowing with all that hot/warm water from the geysers.  We saw some pretty cool little geysers and pots, including one that was bubbling and bubbling and Rachel and I loved watching it, at times wondering if we were standing too close with all that bubbling water.  The earth, and what it produces is amazing!  One thing that was fun to see as we drove all around Yellowstone were all the geysers and pools and whatever else steams there.  Sometimes we would be driving, and there would just be steam rising up from different points on the horizon.  So peculiar and fascinating!  

*Rafting down Henry's Fork.  Some of my most favorite and happy childhood memories happened while canoeing down Henry's Fork and I could not wait to do this again!  Richard, despite some hesitations about this, agreed to go and we all had so much fun!  We rented a raft for eight so that we could all go together and it was the best time.  We had a bit of a rough start in shallow water, so Bob had to hop out a couple of times and drag us into deeper water, but that was the only glitch we had!  We floated five miles down that beautiful river and took in all the beauty possible.  We saw loads of pelicans, a blue heron, and towards the end, a deer.  I was so hopeful for a moose, but it was not to be.  As we floated and paddled, I forced everyone to tell stories and it was a great way to spend time together.  So, so beautiful!  Once we made it back down to Mack's Inn, we ordered pizza and ice cream for The Parlor, right there on the river, and ate outside on the deck.  It was honestly the perfect afternoon and the pizza was delicious.  

*Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  We went back into Yellowstone on Wednesday and spent the entire first half of our day exploring this beauty.  We started on the North Rim and made two stops there, Lookout Point was our first.  At Lookout Point we had an amazing view of the Lower Falls, which is a 309 foot waterfall.  Amazing.  It was a bit of a walk from the parking lot, but of all the stops we had, this walk definitely gave you the greatest view of the canyon itself.  This made Richard incredibly nervous, so he did not join us and stuck much closer to the parking lot.  :)  It was also very scary for Becky, who walked all the way with us, but stuck very close to the center.  But, the rest of us took in quite a magnificent view.  It was a sight to behold.  Our next stop on the North Rim was Brink of the Upper Falls.  We walked to the Upper Overlook, Middle Overlook, and the Lower Overlook.  Each stop provided a different view and when we got to the Lower Overlook we were just slightly above the Upper Falls, which is a 100 foot waterfall.  So beautiful!  All eight of us were able to go to all these overlooks and take it all in.  Once we were done there, it was time to head to the South Rim.  Grandpa Bob talked Marshall, Bridget, Rachel and myself into walking/hiking to the South Rim, he was quite persuasive!  But I am so glad we did it.  Richard, Gretchen, and Becky drove and met us over there.  For our walk on the North Rim, we were up higher above the river and did walk across a beautiful bridge, which Bob suspects used to be a road.  It was gorgeous.  Then we just walked across a short bridge, which is the current road that connects the two rims.  Once we were on the South Rim, we were down in the forest, closer to the water.  It was so shaded and quiet and peaceful.  We eventually made our way to the first stop on the South Rim, Sunset Point.  Bob and I got here at the perfect time with the three oldest kids because we were able to see a rainbow!  I had read that sometimes you can see rainbows by the falls if you are there in the morning.  We hadn't gotten to any of the stops as early as I was hoping so I had assumed our chances for seeing rainbows would be zero, but I was wrong!  The kids and I were able to see a beautiful rainbow cast by the Upper Falls!  Sadly, by the time Richard, Becky, and Gretchen found us, clouds had come and the rainbow was gone, but I am so glad the rest of us were able to see it and get pictures and videos.  But, even without the rainbow, it was still gorgeous.  We eventually made our way back to the parking lot and ate our picnic lunch there before driving to our last stop, Artist Point.  As soon as we pulled into the parking lot it started to pour rain and hail.  We weren't in a hurry, so we waited out the worst of the storm from the car.  The kids were great while we waited and we just took pity on all the people we saw running back to their cars in a hailstorm!  Once it was just sprinkling, we all put on our rain jackets and hopped out of the cars.  We had about a five minute walk to the iconic view of the falls.  You are far away, but the waterfall is framed perfectly in the center of the canyon and it is just gorgeous.  We took loads of pictures and took in the views from every angle possible.  What a morning!

*Hayden Valley.  We had high hopes of seeing a bear for our Bear Cub, but that wish never came true.  But, we did drive through all of Hayden Valley in search of one.  We did see loads of buffalo, far and very near, as well as a coyote right by the road.  We did stop a lot to see buffalo, and that was always fun.  We ended our drive through Hayden Valley at Yellowstone Lake and that was breathtaking.  The most calm, still beautiful thing, with the Tetons in the distance and it was stunning.  We went into the general store to get ice cream and refill water bottles.  We ate our ice cream outside, despite it being a bit chilly.  We couldn't find a good way to get down to the lake, so we stayed on the bluff up above.  We took pictures and took in more beauty before getting back in our cars.  We had a long drive out of Yellowstone, but enjoyed every minute.  We kept our eyes peeled for bears, but to no avail.  Both our days in the park we had heard people talking about bears and how many they had seen, but everyone I had heard talking had come in different entrances than us.  However, when we got home on Friday we went to our ward party and found out another couple in our ward had been in Yellowstone the same days as us and had seen multiple bears right after coming in the west entrance.  What?!?!  She took pity on Gretchen and showed her all the pictures of bears she had on her phone.  :)  We will just have to return another year!  But, despite zero bear sightings, Yellowstone was completely breathtaking and I am so glad we went.  

*Hike.  On our last day, after breakfast we drove to a hike in Island Park, the Upper Coffee Pot.  It is just the other side of Mack's Inn and follows Henry's Fork.  We hiked over two miles in and back again.  It was gorgeous.  We were right along the river and saw pelicans in abundance.  It was just gorgeous scenery and all the kids, including Gretchen, did absolutely awesome.  That night, just before sunset, we drove back to the river and got ice cream at The Parlor.  We ate ice cream, skipped rocks, threw rocks and tried to take in the sunset.  Sadly, a huge cloud was blocking it, but the sun was still casting a beautiful soft pink in the eastern sky, so we enjoyed that instead!  It was a great way to end our trip.  So much beauty.  

*Other random trip notes.  The only downer of the trip was Gretchen got the stomach flu Sunday evening.  She had avoided all stomach flus that went through our family during the school year, but her luck ran out last Sunday night.  Poor thing was quite miserable, and just kept saying she wished she was at home and that she had Ziggy.  :(  She was such a trooper though.  She was just sick from about 8:00 pm to 3:00 am, and even then, it was not awful.  She was able to sleep most the night, even though I did not!  She felt well enough to want to go to Yellowstone with us on Monday and she did so well, despite not feeling 100%.  By Tuesday she was completely back to herself and no one else ever got sick...praise the heavens!  In happier news, we found out just as we were pulling out to head up to Island Park that our rental cabin had just had a hot tub installed!  We ran home and grabbed our swimsuits!  The hot tub was lovely.  The girls got in every single day/night I am pretty sure, and the rest of us were there often as well!  A wonderful surprise!  

Okay, a couple of quick highlights from our first week of summer:

*Soccer tryouts.  Marshall had a big week of soccer tryouts before we left.  He tried out for his club and another club and both teams had two nights of tryouts, so that is how he spent his evenings Tuesday-Friday.  Friday night his coach called and offered him a spot on his higher level team.  Marshall was thrilled and relieved and we are happy for him.  Marshall has played for Tyler for five years, and really likes him.  I kind of stopped liking him as a coach this last year, but it was a rough year with a rough soccer team and Marshall is relieved to be off of that team.  We will see what I personally think of Tyler as we start this new season!  Regardless though, proud of Marshall for sticking it out during a rough soccer year, proud of him for going to tryouts for another club, and happy that he got what he was hoping for.  

*Baptisms for Marshall and Bridget.  Months ago I snagged a baptism appointment for Marshall and Bridget on June 1st.  We didn't have Richard's work schedule yet, but I took a gamble on it.  Turns out, Richard did have to work, but my parents were so kind to take Marshall and Bridget, and I am so thankful.  They had a wonderful morning together and my parents treated them to donuts afterward.  

*Logan goat show.  Bridget was in the Logan Goat Show the first Friday in June.  We made a girls trip out of it and I took all the girls up to Logan for a night in a hotel.  Melanie also took her four kids, so it was a big party!  Bridget and Cambria had to feed the remaining farm animals before we left, but they did a speedy job and we were on the road by 6:00.  The girls and I packed a dinner and ate in the car so as soon as we got checked into the hotel we got in swimming suits!  Our room was right across from Melanie's and that was perfect.  The kids had fun swimming in the chilly hotel pool and moving back and forth between the pool and hot tub.  They played for a solid two hours.  We all slept well that night, thankfully!  We were up early the next morning and got to the fairgrounds at 8:30 am.  Last year this show was long, and while I was mentally prepared for a long day, I was hoping it would not be so.  Well, it was so, and we were there until 6:00 pm!  Man!  But, Rachel and Gretchen never complained and had a lot of fun playing with the other kids and cheering on Bridget.  Bridget showed three goats and did great.  She is learning more and more with each goat show and I am proud of her.  There were many participants this year, more than last year, and for showmanship Bridget is now in an older age group.  She didn't place in the top 3, but there were 15 kids in her age group, so that is just fine!  Even though she walked away empty handed this go around, she still had a wonderful day and had fun with Cambria and all the other Garlick grandkids.  We got home about 7:30 pm, dropped off Rachel and Gretchen and then went to the farm to feed the animals.  She did not complain once!  I don't know where she gets this, but she sure does amaze me.  

Well, that is it!  We are jumping back into summer routines this week and here's hoping we can all get along and be happy the majority of the week.  :)  

Love each of you.

Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel and Gretchen :)

How could I forget?!  We are currently without Ziggy.  We decided to send him to boarding school for three weeks!  It is technically called board and train, a three week intensive dog training program.  Gretchen and I dropped him off on May 31st and we pick him up on June 21st.  Surprisingly, Gretchen did not cry when we dropped him off, but I did!  Though she has been missing him the most and asks for him multiple times a day, especially when we were on vacation!  Her answer to almost anything was, "Ziggy!"  We are all definitely missing him though and cannot wait to be reunited on the 21st...which is not that far away!

The Leake's Week-May 29, 2023

 Hello!  We have made it through the end of another school year.  We have never had a busier May, and by the time Friday afternoon rolled around, it all hit me!  Talk about physical and even emotional exhaustion!  I was spent.  But, the kids all had a fantastic, fantastic Friday, and we are all having a good weekend.  Here's a recap of the last two weeks...

May 15th:  This was such a wonderful day.  The whole week of May 15th the kindergartners didn't have school because they all had individual testing appointments with Mrs. Conners.  Gretchen was happy to have a week off of school, and I was able to fill it with fun for her, and some for me!  On this particular day, Richard didn't have work either so after we got the kids off to school, the three of us drove down to Thanksgiving Point for the Tulip Festival.  We also met Danny, Stacie, Cal and Chase down there and spent the morning with them.  We loved walking through all the beautiful gardens and seeing all varieties of tulips.  It was all so beautiful.  Cal and Gretchen had the best time together, as they always do.  And Richard and I loved talking with Danny and Stacie.  We also ran into my cousin Liz down there, and she lives up in Tremonton!  That was a special treat to catch up with her for a few minutes.  When we were done at the tulip festival, we had lunch at JCW's with Danny and Stacie before driving home.  Such a wonderful morning!  Rachel had a fun night at dance that night.  Instead of her full 3.25 hours of dance class, it was only 2 hours, and they rehearsed the finale for the upcoming recital and had a pizza party.  Rachel had a blast!  

May 16th:  We had cute little Charlie Atkinson over for the morning.  Charlie and Gretchen played games until it was time to go to the park.  I had organized a kindergarten get-together at Freedom Hills Park and we had such a great turnout.  Almost everyone in the kindergarten class was able to come and most people stayed for over two hours!  The kids were so cute.  Every time another kindergarten friend would come, they would be greeted with sincere jubilance from the other kids.  It was so fun to watch.  The moms sat and talked, and got extreme sunburns!  It was nuts.  When we got to the park, it was cloudy and sunscreen did not even cross my mind.  After we had been there for a while, and the sun had come out, a mom sprayed all the kids with sunscreen, but I don't think a single mom used it.  I, along with many other moms, got scorched!  Yikes!  I honestly don't think my forearms have ever been so red.  I was wearing jeans, but they have ripped knees, and my knees got sunburned!  Later that night, Gretchen looked at me and said, "I'm so glad a mom put sunscreen on me so that I don't look like you!"  Seriously!  After school, Rachel had dance, Marshall had soccer practice, and Bridget had the farm.  It was my turn for the farm, but in hopes of expediting things, I dropped Bridget and Cambria off at the farm at 5:15, told them I would be back in an hour, and to do their very best.  Cambria's mom and I have been hoping against hope that these girls could pull off doing the farm chores mostly by themselves this summer, so Tuesday was a bit of a dress rehearsal for that.  I got back to the farm at 6:15, and while they hadn't finished as much as I had wanted them to, things seemed to be going okay.  I helped them finish watering the animals while they finished feeding, and then we walked over to the chicken coop so I could help them finish watering over there.  The girls had fed the chickens first thing.  As we got closer to the chicken coop, I started noticing there were chickens everywhere, except inside the chicken coop!  Ahhh!!!  The girls realized after they had fed the chickens, they had forgotten to lock the door!  Ah!  The Garlicks probably have about 40 chickens and about 20 had gotten out.  Oh my.  We then spent the next almost 30 minutes herding those chickens back in.  Cambria was the only one of us who was willing to pick them up, and she did pick up a few, but picking up a chicken is no easy task.  The most successful thing I discovered was to have Bridget and Cambria make a wide circle around a group of chickens in order to get behind them and then slowly walk behind them to move them along, in hopes that they would just keep walking, come around the corner, and then I was there to open the door to the chicken coop.  Each one of these attempts was successful one chicken at a time.  It was just bananas.  We eventually got all of them in, but I am certain Bridget and Cambria will never make this mistake again!  My word.  Due to the chickens and some other factors, the farm took a LONG time that night.  When the girls had finally finished milking, just before 9:00, they realized they had forgotten to feed and water the baby chicks...so back to the stinking chicken coop we went.  By this time, I just wanted to be home.  The girls could not figure out the water contraption for the chicks, so in an attempt to help, I grabbed it from them...with my bare hands!  I never touch anything at the farm without gloves on, but I had already put my gloves in the van, and it was a minute before I realized I was handling this thing, covered in chick poop, with my bare hands.  Ugh.  I half screamed, half moaned, when I realized what I had done!  Another low point in life at the farm for me!  We finally figured it all out and left the farm at 9:15.  What a night.  

May 17th:  Wednesday morning was Gretchen's kindergarten testing and she did a great job!  She has learned so much this year.  When she started kindergarten, she knew most of the letters and sounds, but she was still a little iffy on a few.  Now, she is reading, and reading SO well.  Numbers were a little tricky for her and even in March she was still getting 12 and 20 confused and at the beginning of 2023, she hadn't quite figured out the number patterns to get counting past 20.  She now rocks all of it!  I am so proud of her!  Anyway, after testing, we drove up to Layton to Danny and Stacie's.  Grizz and I had lunch up there and then I left her to play while I ran to a quick doctor appointment in Kaysville.  Gretchen and I got home just before kids started coming home from school.  After school, our life was busy, busy.  Bridget had horseback riding and my wonderful neighbor brought her home for me because I was at a cross country meeting at the high school.  I thought it would be a quick 20 minute meeting, nope, one hour later it was finally done!  But, we are excited for Marshall!  Richard got home from work shortly before he needed to get Marshall to his soccer game, and I was still at the high school.  When Richard got home, he found a bunch of neighborhood kids in swimsuits at the top of our yard running through our sprinklers up there.  Upon a little investigation, he realized that the sprinkler zone had been on ALL day.  Yikes!  I had not really been home since 10:00 am and clearly had not noticed it, plus it really is the one at the top of our backyard, so you can't see it or hear it from inside our house.  Man.  It hasn't happened since, so we are chalking it up to a glitch in the timer/valve that day.  Yikes.  After dealing with all of that, Richard got Marshall to his soccer game and I covered dance for Rachel that night.  Bridget went to the combined YM/YW activity that night where they played gym games.  Another very full day!

May 18th:  That afternoon was parent day in Gretchen's dance class, so I was able to go and watch her ballet and jazz class.  I will admit, I dozed off a couple of times and I was crossing my fingers no one noticed.  But later Gretchen told me, "You slept for a few minutes in my class!"  Clearly, my dozing off did not escape her!  But, all the parts I was awake for, I loved!  Gretchen has not been loving dance class for the last few months.  She always goes, and she always has fun, but when I tell her it's time to get ready for dance, she is not thrilled.  I have been on the fence about signing her up for next fall, but I did love being there to watch her dance.  She does love her jazz class, and smiled through it all.  Rachel had a group piano lesson after school, and Bridget and Cambria once again had the farm with me!  I tried a different approach with them this time.  We got there at 5:05 and together we did all the chicken stuff together, with which the three of us only took 10 minutes!  I then left them and told them I had no idea when I would be back, because our evening was once again crazy.  I finally made it back there about 7:15, with Rachel and Gretchen, and I was shocked and over the moon happy to find that they had just finished milking and everything else was DONE!  I could not believe it.  I double checked that they had milked all 11 goats, fed everyone and I checked everyone's waters.  Done!  I cannot tell you how happy I was and how much hope this gives me for the summer!  I honestly feel like I have gotten years of my life back!  Haha!  To reward such an amazing focused and determined work ethic, I let all four girls play for 30 minutes, and they were all very happy about that.  When we were headed home Bridget and Cambria told me their goal was to stay totally focused, work fast, in hopes that they would be done before I got back and their plan was to tell me they hadn't started milking yet in hopes of making me mad!  Ha!  The little jokesters!  Turns out they made my night!  

May 19th:  This was a day!  And I am beyond lucky that Richard just happened to have the day off; otherwise, it would not have been possible to manage!  I was up at 5:00 am and out the door at 5:40 to help judge the junior high dance company auditions that started at 6:00 am.  This was my third year doing this, and I love it every time.  A great start to my morning.  Richard managed the morning at home seamlessly.  On my way home, I was able to see Bridget and Rachel walking to school and stopped to give them a hug and a kiss.  My heart.  I love them.  I was home for just a bit before leaving again to go back to the junior high.  Marshall had his band solo that morning and I was his accompanist.  This solo had been hanging over both our heads for the entire week.  Marshall was much less diligent about practicing this year compared to last year.  We had been playing together since Sunday, and let me tell you, our Sunday and Monday practice sessions were ROUGH.  I am pretty sure on Monday he yelled at me to just follow him and match what he is doing.  I kindly pointed out that if he does not play the right rhythm it is near impossible to follow him!  We got better and better together though as the week went on, but I was still very nervous!  I am happy to report that it went quite well!  He played the first page so beautifully, maybe the best he's ever done.  There are some incredibly high notes on the second page, and he didn't quite get a couple of those, but overall, we stayed together, ended strong, and played one of the best we ever have.  Win!  We were both so relieved to have it done!  I zipped out of there and drove to The Coffee Shop downtown.  Richard had dropped Gretchen off at Genevieve's house and we were meeting Ricky and Katie for brunch.  We spent the best two hours with them, and we could have easily spent two more.  We ate delicious food and talked all about parenting, kids, the highs and lows, summer vacations, work, and just the craziness of life in general.  It was the best morning.  After that, I was supposed to drive down to Lehi to have lunch with Lara but her son threw up at school that morning, so she cancelled, and I will admit, I was quite happy to get the afternoon at home, even though I definitely missed seeing Lara.  I picked Gretchen up at Genevieve's, came home and snuggled her and promptly fell asleep on the couch until Richard, Becky, and the girls all came home.  Bridget had a wonderful afternoon and evening.  Soon after getting home from school, she went with three friends to do baptisms at the Bountiful Temple.  She and her friends have been trying to make this happen since January and thanks to a wonderful mom who snagged four open slots that morning, it was finally able to happen!  After the temple, they went back to her friend's house to change clothes and then they all went to Boondocks for a 6th grade DARE celebration.  They had a great, great afternoon and evening.  Cambria's mom picked them up at 8:00 and then the girls played laser tag outside in our yard for a long time.  That evening, the rest of us, including Grandma Becky, were cheering on Rachel and Gretchen.  Rachel had her spring piano recital at 5:30 and then her dance recital at 7:15.  Gretchen's dance recital was at 6:00, so it was a busy night!  Becky, Richard, and Marshall went to Rachel's piano recital and her piano teacher was so kind to accommodate us and had Rachel first on the program so she could leave right after.  Richard got a video of her playing, and she did a wonderful job!  She loved her recital song and played it totally memorized with wonderful dynamics.  As soon as she was done playing, they zipped over to Viewmont and were able to walk in the auditorium with me.  Gretchen performed great in both her ballet dance and her jazz dance.  Despite claiming that she does not like dance, when we got to the high school she was so excited to get back with her class, she and I both forgot to put on her ballet shoes!  I had them with me, we just spaced putting them on.  But, regardless, she did great and is darling and I love her.  Rachel came back with me to get her after her jazz dance and those two sisters were so cute together.  Rachel is a master at showing affection, and those two just ran to each other and Rachel picked her up and gave her a huge hug and told her she danced so well.  My heart.  I wish I had my camera out!  After Gretchen's recital, I stayed in the hallway to finish getting Rachel ready for her recital.  Gretchen stayed with us and had fun running up and down the halls while all of Rachel's teammates kept telling her how cute she was.  :)  Becky, Richard and Marshall stayed in the auditorium and sat through another recital that didn't have any of our kids in it.  :)  They are wonderful sports!  I finished getting Rachel ready just in time for her recital (still hate false eyelashes) and then Gretchen and I went back to the auditorium.  Rachel was in four dances, so she had a big night, and I left the auditorium after each of her dances to help her change, and Gretchen always followed.  It was a night!  Rachel and her team did SO well.  At their first recital before competition season in March, all the dances were good, but now they are amazing.  Even Richard, the non-dancer that he is, saw great growth.  And I also loved looking over and stealing a glance at him through the night-he was always looking at the stage, whether he had a daughter up there or not.  He is a great, great dad, and is turning into quite a dance dad!  This spring he has done more dance pick-ups than me I think!  I love him.  Okay, back to the girls...Rachel did so awesome.  I love watching her.  Her team also performed a ballet piece, special for this recital, and she danced beautifully.  And even though Gretchen was in and out with me helping Rachel change, when we were in the audience, she was captivated.  She never sat on my lap, never complained, never asked when it would be done, and when we got home, informed me she wants to keep dancing!  Yay!  I immediately signed Rachel and Gretchen up for a summer tumbling class at the dance studio.  :)  It was a long night of dance.  I think Richard, Becky and Marshall were in the auditorium for three hours!  But the girls were so grateful for their support.  Richard bought two bouquets of flowers for the girls at Coscto that afternoon and here I am typing ten days later and they are still beautiful!  Rachel's bouquet has three lilies in it and one still hasn't opened but the two that are opened are the strongest smelling lilies.  I am loving it, their scent is seriously permeating our entire main floor.  Richard and Marshall don't love it and push the vase away from them each morning when they sit down for breakfast!  

May 20th:  Saturday morning was filled with yard work and planting flowers.  We all went to Marshall's last soccer game of the spring season.  This has been an interesting soccer year for Marshall and the spring season was rough.  I think we are all kind of happy to see it come to an end and Marshall has soccer tryouts this coming week.  He is trying out with his current club, but for the first time ever will also try out for a different club.  We will see what all that holds.  Anyway, the girls were great sports about going to his game, which was nice since Marshall sat through three hours of dance the previous night!  After the soccer game, I took Bridget to an end of the year party for student council.  One of the boys on student council has a pool and his family was kind enough to host those kids for five plus hours that afternoon and evening.  Bridget had the time of her life!  They swam and swam, went down the slide, had dinner, roasted smores and she just had the most wonderful time.  As a whole, this 6th grade class is full of really great kids and the twelve kids on student council are no exception.  Bridget got home shortly after 9:00 pm, showered, went straight to bed and slept for 12 hours that night!  While Bridget was gone, the rest of us went out to dinner at a new place in Woods Cross (it was pretty good!) and then had a relaxing evening at home, which is exactly what we all needed!

May 21st:  This was the kind of day we all needed.  Slow and relaxing!  Richard did have bishopric meeting and ward council that morning and Rachel and I actually went to the sacrament meeting before ours, so our morning wasn't that relaxing, but still so wonderful.  This year Rachel has had a dance teacher who graduated from high school last year and has been teaching at the studio this year.  She got her mission call a few months ago and she actually lives in the neighboring ward.  She invited Rachel to come hear her speak in sacrament meeting and Rachel really wanted to.  I was happy to take her and it worked out perfectly.  We walked over to the church just as the ward was finishing the sacrament.  We snuck in the back and found two chairs.  The chapel and gym were packed, we were in the last row just in front of the stage!  The youth speaker was another girl who dances at Project Move and she referenced dance and Rachel was riveted.  The next speaker was Rachel's teacher, Liv.  She gave an amazing talk, and even though we were so far away and Rachel couldn't see her, I could tell she was listening to every single word.  When Liv was done speaking, we went back out to the foyer in search of some comfier chairs until it was time for our ward's sacrament meeting.  When the meeting ended, the bishop for Liv's ward asked that people who wanted to talk to Liv do so in the east foyer, which is exactly where we were.  Within seconds of the closing prayer, Liv was out in the foyer and no one else was and Rachel got a good minute with her.  She was able to give her two hugs and it was just the sweetest.  This Liv has left a lasting impression on Rachel in more ways than one and I am definitely grateful for it.  

May 22nd:  Sadly, sweet Rachel woke up with the stomach flu on Monday.  Oh I felt so bad for her.  This was her third stomach flu since the beginning of the year-zero fun!  I had a student council breakfast with Bridget at the school that morning at 8:00 am.  I gave Gretchen the option of coming with us to the breakfast, or staying home, getting ready and then going over to the Atkinson's at 8:30 to get a ride to school.  She opted to get a ride with the Atkinsons.  I got her breakfast at 7:45 before I left with Bridget.  I told her to get totally ready for school after she was done eating, and then I set an alarm for 8:27 and told her when the alarm went off to get her shoes and backpack on and walk to Charlie's.  She did it all!  My goodness, I was so proud of her!  A growing up baby bear cub!  Poor Rachel slept all morning on the couch, and I am glad nothing terrible happened with her while I was gone.  I am so glad I was able to be at the school with Bridget for the breakfast.  The student council advisor gave each child an award and shared the nicest words about each of them.  As I was helping to clean up and leaving the school I was able to hear Bridget doing the announcements over the intercom.  It was so fun to hear her darling voice.  I spent the rest of the day planting flowers and helping Rachel.  Poor girl.  Thankfully, after school and lunch, Gretchen played outside with neighborhood friends the entire afternoon!  Aside from the misery of having the stomach flu, Rachel also missed her first night of dance tryouts.  The director of the studio was so completely understanding, and Rachel seemed okay with it until that night when she broke down in tears.  Sweetest Dokie.  I tried to put all her fears at ease and she was able to calm down and sleep well that night.  

May 23rd:  Tuesday was a wonderful day.  Rachel woke up feeling 100% better and everyone else was healthy too...always a relief when stomach flu germs are lurking in your house!  I didn't have anywhere to rush off to that morning until I volunteered for the last time in kindergarten.  I have loved volunteering there once a week, and Gretchen has loved it too.  I got so much done that day around the house and that felt wonderful.  The kids all had good days at school and Bridget spent the better part of the school day swimming at the Farmington Pool.  She went off the high dive four times and I am so proud of her.  Thankfully Rachel felt well enough to go to the last night of dance tryouts that night.  I took Rachel and Sara, got them checked in, gave them both hugs and then left.  I was there to pick them up 2 1/2 hours later and they gave me the full rundown.  The hard thing is that because Rachel and Sara are on one of the current teams going to nationals in July, they don't tell the nationals dancers what team they made for next year until after nationals is over.  I totally agree with this, but the waiting is killing Rachel and me.  July 10th seems SO far away.  Bridget worked at the farm that night and thankfully Cambria's mom took them!

May 24th:  Wednesday was another slower day...felt so wonderful!  I ran errands while all the kids were gone that morning.  The junior high passed out yearbooks that day.  I gave Marshall some money and told him to sign yearbooks as long as he wanted and then walk to a restaurant with Johnny when they were done.  It took some convincing, but he finally agreed.  He and Johnny had fun hanging out at the school and then walked all the way to McDonalds!  After eating a late lunch there, Johnny's mom picked them up and he hung out at Johnny's house for the rest of the day.  The rest of us had a chill evening at home.  The girls and I took Ziggy on a walk and then I stopped for a primary visit at someone's house and told the girls to finish walking Ziggy before heading home.  Well, those sweet girls and dog got caught in one of our near daily thunder and rain storms and got home soaking wet!  Rachel loved the whole experience, the others, not so much.  :)  A memory for sure!  

May 25th:  Marshall spent his school day at Boondocks and had a great time.  The elementary school had field day and I had signed up to help with the morning session...face painting!  My girls were highly skeptical of my decision to sign up for face painting, but I was all about sitting in a chair, under a canopy, and just working with one child at a time instead of masses of children!  I am happy to report that face painting was a complete success and all my darling clients seemed absolutely elated when I showed them the finished product.  I only asked one girl to change what she wanted...a fire breathing dragon...I knew I  could not pull that one off!  Rachel and Gretchen were in the morning session too.  Gretchen did come to me to get her face painted, bless her little heart.  I kissed her cheeks once, but I stopped myself from kissing her 20 more times!  She made my day.  And she also just asked for a heart, so that was nice and easy!  Rachel didn't get her face painted at all, she claims zero confidence in my artistic abilities, but I was not the only mom doing face painting!  I just saw her from a distance, but at least she waved to me!   The rest of our Thursday was chill, and that was wonderful.  

May 26th:  Last day of school!!!  Marshall actually didn't have school, but he was still so good and got up for scriptures with us and let me take his picture.  Gretchen had kindergarten graduation that morning, so soon after I got the girls off to school, I was back down there.  Graduation was darling.  The kids sang a few songs and then they got called up one at a time to get their diplomas and shake the principal's hand.  Gretchen gave a great hand shake.  She has had a wonderful kindergarten year!  After graduation, we went to lunch with our neighborhood kindergarten buddies, Charlie and Jackson, and their moms.  Jackson's family moved on Friday and we are very sad to see them go!  This little kindergarten three-some has been great and listening to their carpool conversations has been hilarious.  We went to Chick-Fil-A for one last hurrah and we all had a great time together.  On our way home from lunch, we picked Bridget up from school who had shed a few tears about the school year ending, bless her heart.  But, she didn't cry long because it was time for the 6th grade party!  The party was from 2:00-7:00 pm at Freedom Hills Park put on by some really wonderful moms.  Bridget and her friends had a blast, despite a downpour and thunderstorm around 5:00.  After the party, the girls decided they wanted to go to Target and shop.  :)  My neighbor was so kind to take them and those four girls had the best time wandering the aisles of Target.  :)  They came home with matching stuffed animals around 10:00 pm, what a day!  Rachel went home with friends after school and went to go see their friend's seven 5-week old puppies.  After that they jumped on the tramp with the sprinklers, played in the hot tub, did each other's nails, had pizza and just had the best time.  Marshall had Johnny over here all afternoon and evening and finally at 5:00 I invited Naomi to come over and hang with Gretchen.  It was quite the afternoon!  By Friday afternoon I found myself exhausted!  May has been so, so busy and I think just knowing that all the school craziness was over depleted all my adrenaline!  Plus, it also seemed that I was hit with the realization that though Marshall will still be at the junior high this coming school year, he will be in 9th grade and officially in high school with his graduation just four short years away!  What?!  Also knowing that I will have two kids at the junior high and Gretchen moving into first grade makes me feel all the things...happy, sad, excited, old, the list goes on!  I will soak up this summer for sure, and then I can be excited and sad all over again come August 17th.  

We have had a different weekend, but it has been nice.  Richard was on the road by 9:30 am Saturday morning with the three girls to head to Vernal.  We finally found a time for Bridget, especially, to get out to Vernal to see the baby horse!  Midnight is about six weeks old by now, but better late than never!  The girls were all so excited.  By all accounts, they have been having a wonderful time and I have loved all the pictures and videos.  They come home this afternoon and I can't wait to hear all about it.  It has just been Marshall and I here at home, and that has also been nice!  I have spent hours, literally hours, cleaning up the loft and throwing away A LOT, boxing things up to take to DI, and boxing away some things we will save for grandkids.  I found 11 socks up there from Rachel.  :)  Marshall has been kind to help me when I have asked him for it.  He has spent a lot of time outside playing soccer, which has been good.  He and I have also played games, watched The Office together, and Saturday night we went to Maddox for dinner.  He has been fun to have around.  

Here's to summer!  We kick it off with a goat show on Friday for Bridget and Saturday we head up to Island Park!  We are excited!

Love to each of you,

Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel, and Gretchen :)