This is a nine page catch up of the last seven weeks! Ahh!!! My recommendation: read the first two paragraphs, then just skip to the pictures! Love each of you!
Hello!
Life is flying by at an alarming speed, and way too much in the Leake home has gone undocumented! I have not written since February 10th…and here we are! Yikes! Every week I tell myself to write, but then I feel completely overwhelmed, so I push it off, and here I am, seven weeks later. Gulp.
In a nutshell, here’s what’s happened the last seven weeks: Richard and I went to Paris, I wrapped up five very intense weeks of the elementary school musical, Rachel and Gretchen performed in said musical (12 performances for Rachel and 6 for Gretchen), Bridget turned 14, and the night before her birthday, we discovered a leaking water line for our kitchen sink that was soaking her carpet, wall, and ceiling! Ahh! We have also had four straight weekends of dance competitions. 
This should explain my overwhelm! Haha! So, here is another novel, in bullet list form…
*Paris! Richard and I went to Paris in February, this now seems like a lifetime ago! We went for an early celebration of our 20th anniversary in May. It was a whirlwind of a trip. We took a direct flight there on February 13th, and had the direct flight home on February 18th! Haha! But, we had four full days in that lovely city. Here’s a quick rundown…the first two days we were with a tour group, which in many ways was nice because they provided all our transportation and we didn’t have to try and communicate with anyone. The downside was we didn’t get to do as much as we could have done on our own, but some of the things we did with them, I don’t think we would have done on our own! Anyway, we arrived in Paris on a Friday morning. We met up with our guide and group in the airport and then did a 3ish hour drive to get into the city from the airport and then we drove around the city, getting off the bus at all the stops around the city: Hotel National des Invalides, Eiffel Tower, and Arc de Triomphe. We also drove by some other places, and the bus didn’t stop, but honestly, Richard and I were so tired, we could hardly keep our eyes open on the bus. Haha! We got a little rest at our hotel before heading out for dinner, a dinner river cruise on the Siene. That was magic.
The next day we walked to the Eiffel Tower and took that beauty in from all distances and angles. After a long line for security, we were within its gates, and let me tell you, to be standing under that creation is amazing. You do not understand how massive it is until you are right next to it! Incredible. We took the elevator up to the first floor (187 feet above ground level) and had a most delicious lunch up there! It was so good, and hello, such a fun place to eat! After lunch, we were in a bit of a hurry, so instead of standing in line and waiting minutes for the elevator to take us down, we opted for the stairs. The stairs are housed within one of the legs of the tower, so far from completely enclosed. I was totally fine, but for someone (Richard) with an intense fear of heights, it was terrifying! But, he did it, nice and slow, and holding onto the handrail for dear life! He made it down 327 steps! Yay! After that, we all got back on the bus and drove to Versailles. Our time here was more rushed than I would have liked, but that place was still amazing. We had a guided tour inside and then about 15 minutes on the grounds on our own. That place is sprawling and just a huge masterpiece. The Hall of Mirrors! Incredible. We got back to our hotel that evening and were on our own for the rest of the trip. We ventured out by ourselves for dinner that night. We found a delicious, like very delicious, Italian restaurant for dinner and loved every single bite.
On Sunday we started our morning at church, and that was really cool. We didn’t realize until we were leaving that we could have grabbed a headset, but the French language is beautiful, so we did not at all mind listening to it for an hour! Everyone was so friendly, and it was packed! Literally no empty seats. After sacrament meeting, we stopped at a café for literally the most delicious chocolate pistachio croissant I have ever eaten and then walked to Notre Dame. The bells were tolling and it was very quintessential to be standing in front of that majestic cathedral. After that we did more walking and just enjoyed the streets of Paris on a Sunday afternoon and did some souvenir shopping. We then took a quick Uber to our hotel, dropped off our things and changed into warmer clothes (it was high 30s and low 40s for our entire trip, we were prepared and always bundled, but church clothes do not provide a lot of warmth!) After we were dressed warm, we ventured out again and walked to the Musee’ de Orsay. I had multiple people recommend this art museum to me instead of going to the Louve, since our time was so short. It was incredible. Housed within those gorgeous walls are works from Van Gogh, Monet, Seurat, Rodin (paintings and sculptures). It was busy, but not overly crowded and it was so incredible to stand in front of such famous works of art. After the museum, we made another quick stop at a café and then took an Uber to the Sacre-Coeur Basilica. We did not go inside, but enjoyed walking around. It is set up on a hill and overlooks all of Paris. We got there late afternoon, and it was just milling with people, we guessed it was a fun place to take in the sunset. We did not stick around for that, but we loved walking the cobblestone streets and eventually made our way to dinner at La Mere Catherine-a restaurant a friend recommended, and it did not disappoint. A classically French restaurant. We were in the Montmartre neighborhood, artists were literally painting outside, live music inside and outside and we had the most leisurely and delicious meal. After dinner, we opted to walk our way down through the neighborhood on the narrow cobblestone streets before catching an Uber back to the hotel. We did a lot all on our own that day!
Our last day was spent at Disneyland Paris! How could we pass this up?! We went to Disneyland on our honeymoon, so it only felt right to give a whole day to Disneyland Paris. It was delightful. It is definitely smaller, less rides, but the castle is incredible. Less crowds. Some same rides, like Pirates and Haunted Mansion, but done differently. And also rides that are not in California. Way less souvenirs, and way less food! Also way less people driving motorized wheelchairs and much smaller family groups. It really was fun to experience it for a day.
Then we were up bright and early the next morning, got back with our tour group, who got us to the airport, and we flew home! It was a whirlwind, but a great way to celebrate 20 really incredible years.
*All things dance! The night before we left for Paris, Rachel and Gretchen had a dance recital. It was their competition showcase, so all the competition teams got to perform their dances. It was fun to finally see these dances I have been hearing so much about! Both girls did great. It was definitely a long evening of dance though, and lots of costume changes! Haha! Since then, Rachel has had one competition and one convention/competition. And Gretchen has also had two. These things have literally consumed our last four Saturdays. It is so fun to cheer them on though and their dances are getting better and better each week. We do have a bit of time to breathe, before more competitions start again the middle of April. My parents were so kind and came to Ogden to see Rachel’s first competition. Four of her five dances were in a small time window, so it was ideal for the audience, but stressful and fast costume changes! Fun and exhausting Saturdays.
*Track! Marshall wrapped up his indoor track season right after we got back from Paris. He and I headed up to Pocatello for the Simplot games. I had a van full of high school kids on the way up and it was hilarious. They literally played name that tune for almost two hours straight! It was fun to be there to cheer on Marshall in such an iconic setting, but he was still stuck at his mental wall of a 5:22ish mile. He had been running at that pace for over a year and was feeling the frustration. He finally had his mental breakthrough on March 7th in St. George at their first outdoor meet. He ran a 5:09, shaving a solid 12 seconds off of his PR. We were so proud of him! Not only did he have a great race, he had a super fun weekend with his teammates. They left Thursday after school, drove down, and played, swam, and ran all weekend long, getting home late Saturday night. We hope the rest of his outdoor track season goes well and he can get a couple of more PR’s.
*Family Valentine Dinner and Family Fondu Night: Since 2014, we have had a tradition of having a family dinner for Valentine’s Day. It is very rarely on Valentine’s Day, and this year was no exception because Richard and I were in Paris! Before we left though, we set the date of our family dinner for a Friday night. I asked everyone to just be home by 6:00 pm for dinner and promised the kids they could all scatter at 7:00. They were all so nice to completely comply without a complaint and we had a lovely dinner together! Bridget and Gretchen also completely made our dessert for us that afternoon, one of our favorites, dirt cake. Anyway, super fun evening. Family dinners are rare for us these days, so to all be together on a Friday night dinner was very special. Everyone also pitched into help clean up and then by golly, ALL the kids left at 7:15 pm. Marshall dropped all the girls off at their friend locations, and then he met up with his friends. It was surreal! All the kids gone on a Friday night. I was completely giddy about it! Richard and I celebrated by talking, taking naps (at 8:00 pm!) and then watching a show. Dreamy, right?! Haha! A couple of weeks later for Sunday dinner we did a fondu night with the kids and it was so fun. Richard and I used to host fondu parties with friends frequently during our first few years of marriage, we even hosted a few in Wisconsin. But aside from chocolate fondu one New Year’s Eve a handful of years ago, we haven’t done it at all. But we changed that on that Sunday evening and we had so much fun! We did a cheese fondu (so good!) and we dipped French bread, cauliflower, crackers, pretzels. Yum! We also did a chocolate fondu and dipped fruit, marshmallows, and more pretzels. It was such a fun evening!
*Ankle Recovery! I am now officially seven months post ankle break and surgery. The week after we got home from Paris, I had my final follow-up with my surgeon. More x-rays and a check-up. Everything has healed great and all my hardware remains firmly in place, which is exactly what I want to hear! They gave me the all clear to be done with PT, and told me I could come back anytime for an x-ray. While I hope I never see anyone in this orthopedic practice again, I sure am grateful for the excellent care I have received over the last six months with them. I also said good-bye to all my wonderful PT people that week as well. Dereck Hope has now helped Rachel and me SO much and I am grateful for every bit of it. He literally gave us our lives back and confidence in our bodies and their capabilities once again. While I have not at all missed the six hours a week I was spending at PT, I do miss all the happy people there. My ankle has gotten so much stronger. My balance on that leg is not what it was, but is still improving. And my mobility and flexibility in my foot and ankle is still getting better too. Just the other day I pointed my left foot and could tell a noticeable difference, and that is huge for me! It is looking closer and closer to my right foot. Once again, so, so thankful for a body that is capable of healing.
*Band Concerts! Both Marshall and Bridget had school band concerts, back to back nights! My Dad was so kind and came to both concerts with Richard and me. The high school band concert was super interactive and that was a fun twist. They played music for an old silent film, and also set all the other music to other short films. It was fun! It has been great to see the junior high bands progress through the year with their very young band teacher, who looks like he could be in high school himself! In March, Bridget also attended the district jazz band festival and a festival for symphonic band. Marshall was at the high school region band festival on Thursday evening. All bands did well! Marshall is planning to be done with band after this sophomore year and Richard is a little sad about it.
*Snelgrove Ice Cream! I love that this is getting its own paragraph, but Snelgrove has come to Centerville and opened up just a few weeks ago. I will not tell you how many times we have gone, but it has become a new favorite spot. We actually haven’t been there all together, but many trips have been had, and as of this writing, each of us has been there at least once. It is delicious! And we are all loving their classic cone which has two different spots for two different kinds of ice cream! Amazing!
*Leaking Water Line! Ahh!!! The night before Bridget’s birthday, on Monday, March 10th, Richard and I were sound asleep in our bed. Bridget was in her bedroom, but was so excited for her birthday the next day, that she was having a hard time falling asleep. Plus, she kept hearing a sound in her wall. We did have a slight mice problem in the blessed year of 2020 in that bedroom, so she was on edge. She eventually got out of bed and walked toward the sound, near her closet. And upon reaching her closet realized her carpet was wet and water was dripping from her ceiling. She came upstairs about 11:20 pm and told Richard her ceiling was wet. You can bet that Richard literally flew out of bed and was in her bedroom in seconds! Not what you want to hear at any time…day or night! By midnight we had cleared out the affected area of her closet (thankfully not a huge section) turned off the water to the house, put Bridget to bed, and had decided it was most likely coming from something having to do with the kitchen sink. Again, not what you want to figure out less than three months after a massive remodel has finished! Ahh!!! Thankfully, from everything we could tell, everything in our kitchen was dry. We eventually made it back to our beds and had a very rough night’s sleep. I called Paul Davis early in the morning on the 11th and by about 9:30 that morning we had Paul Davis here ripping out everything that was wet and a plumber here to repair the leak. It was determined it was a leaking water line for our kitchen sink. It was the tiniest drip! But, I am guessing it had been leaking for a while, and finally saturated everything. Thankfully, the leak was below the subfloor, so just like we had hoped, everything on the main floor was dry and totally fine. The plumber was able to repair the leak from the basement, going back and forth between working in Bridget’s closet and the basement bathroom. Paul Davis just had to rip out some ceiling from the closet and bathroom, some sheetrock in the wall, some carpet pad and a bit of baseboard, so nothing terribly major. Also, because it was clean water that was leaking, the clean up just involved drying everything out with big fans and dehumidifiers. Bridget was such a good sport about being displaced from her bedroom for four days. She slept in the loft and she and Marshall just used other bathrooms. We are just waiting now on everything to be repaired. Thankfully, we have a 12-month warranty in our contract with Bluerock, and they have been great to work with. The plumber (who we actually really loved) will pay for all of this, thankfully! I will admit though, I am living in paranoia about another water leak, and every few days check rooms for water damage!
*Frozen Jr! This elementary school musical has borderline consumed our lives since November. I am so glad it is done! Haha! Rachel shined on stage as a member of Elsa’s snow chorus. She was such a trooper being double cast, it made for such a HUGE performance week. She did 12 performances in 6 days…it was a lot! Bless that little snow chorus though, that was who I did choreography for. Five out of my six dancers do competition dance and have very demanding schedules. For our earlier rehearsals in January and early February, I had all six of them, but at our last dress rehearsal, that was the first time all six of them had danced together in probably six weeks! They were so patient with me as I slowly got my choreography hat back on, and they performed so well! It really was so fun for me to watch them from the side of the stage or out in the audience each night. And darling Gretchen, oh my, that girl literally beams on stage. She was in Olaf’s summer chorus as well as a townsperson. She just radiated joy each time she was up there. It was beyond fun to watch her. Both girls really performed so well, and on top of all of this, they navigated very demanding dance schedules, especially Gretchen who had dance competitions both the weekend before the play and after. Both girls had three weeks straight of pretty much going back and forth between the school and the studio with a lot of changing and eating in the car on the go. We are so grateful for every person who came to watch the play and support these two little stars. And on opening night, Richard, Marshall, Bridget and myself were all able to be in the audience-a real treat!
*Stake Conference with Elder Gong: A couple of weeks ago we got a real treat and had a special stake conference with Elder Gong. On Saturday evening there was a special meeting for all RS women in ten stakes. Elder and Sister Gong spoke, along with other men and women in church leadership roles. It was exceptional. Elder Gong was the last speaker and didn’t speak at the pulpit, but instead came down and walked around and led a great discussion, while also speaking. Sunday morning our three oldest kids were awesome and left the house before 7:30 am to get to the Regional Center for the 8:00 am youth meeting, again including ten stakes. I was so proud of that choice they all made and their willingness to get up so early on a Sunday morning. Then our stake had our conference and it was so good. Before the meeting, Elder Gong walked down the aisle we were sitting on. He wasn’t shaking many hands, but waving and making eye contact. He paused and made eye contact with me and Marshall (Marshall was on the aisle), he took a step back, and then took a step toward Marshall and gave him a fist bump. At the end of the meeting, Elder Gong said he would stay and shake hands with anyone who wanted to stay, and we did! It took almost an hour of waiting in line, but it was completely worth it. He asked each of our names, made great eye contact, and shook our hands. Sadly, Richard had to work this whole weekend, so he was home, but at least he was able to view it virtually. For a while now, Elder Gong has been Rachel’s favorite apostle, and this experience has completely cemented that for her!
Okay, just a quick update on individuals, with things not already mentioned!
*Gretchen: Gretchen did have a bunch of friends over for a pajama/movie night the end of February. They watched Rocketman and had a blast. Grizz was in heaven. Gretchen also had her first eye appointment. She has been thinking that she might need glasses, and while her vision isn’t 20/20, it is not super far off, so we will just keep visiting the eye doctor every year, and with the genes she has, she will definitely need glasses eventually!
*Rachel: Rachel has gone to multiple birthday parties these last several weeks. And also after a whole weekend of a dance convention/competition, we dropped her off at a trampoline park on a Saturday night where she and her friends jumped around for 3 more hours. Incredible! She did come home completely exhausted though, but very happy. Rachel is also trying to make the switch to contacts, and while she was successful getting them in at the eye doctor, she has not had the same success getting them back in. Also, it took her over 90 minutes to get them out that night, so needless to say, it has been traumatic! I had them switch her to the brand Marshall and I use though, and we will take a deep breath and try those after Spring Break. Rachel did get to take a visit to the farm a few Mondays ago. She loved seeing the new baby goats and reuniting with her favorite cat! Haha!
*Bridget: Our sweet, sweet Bridget is 14 years old. It literally blows my mind. Bridget, even as a teenager, remains our calm, level-headed, sensitive soul. She is our eternal peacemaker. She and Gretchen have developed the sweetest relationship the last handful of months. Most Sundays at church, Gretchen is laying on Bridget’s lap and Bridget just loves on her the whole time. She is SO reliable and our most independent child. Bless that girl! She is an awesome student, begrudgingly still taking piano lessons, and is still loving band and jazz band. She actually just quit horseback riding the beginning of March in anticipation of track season starting, which will closely be followed by the cross country season. She is fully committed to both! The other Saturday I came home and Bridget and Cambria had moved their homemade hurdles outside and had set up a whole course for themselves. They were both in heaven. Bridget has had a rough school year of friendships, with significant growing pains, but Cambria has remained her one constant through it all. As the school year has gone on, she has solidified some real solid friendships, and I am so proud of her. The weekend before her birthday, she had a bunch of friends over for pizza, a movie and just hanging out. It was awesome to meet all these girls I hear her talk about and I loved having them in our house. They had a really great time and I was so happy Bridget could have a great birthday celebration with good friends. Bridget’s happy place is still the farm. I think I wrote, back in January, that she saw a goat give birth and loved it. Well, not only has she seen more being born, she delivered a baby goat just a couple of weeks ago! That girl continues to amaze me!
*Marshall: This kid continues to surprise us with the things he is all of a sudden stepping into. He wants to grow up in all the ways, except in making his own sandwich. The beginning of March he applied for the pilot and aviation program at the Davis Catalyst Center. He found out just a couple of weeks ago that he got in! This will be for next school year, his junior year. He met with the school counselor to accept the spot, he is now just crossing his fingers that all the scheduling works in his favor. If it works out, he will be at the Catalyst Center for two class periods on either an A Day or B Day. At the end of the course, he will have his ground school portion of his private pilot’s license. Heaven help me if this is the career path he sticks with. A few weeks ago Marshall asked a girl to Prom, so crazy! He had a bunch of friends over on a Saturday night and they all asked their dates. I loved that our house was home-base for that. Just last night, Marshall and his friends went and got tacos at a new place in Centerville, went to an art museum in Salt Lake, and ended the night with Nielson’s Frozen Custard…this sounds very grown up!
*Jenny: I was so excited when PT was done because I felt like I was going to get so much time back, but then I remembered I was in the thick of things with the musical, so I was drowning even more than before! Needless to say, I have very much enjoyed this last week with time at home during the school day! I did get to go to book club a couple of weeks ago, and also enjoyed a combined YW/RS activity and that was super fun to go to with Rachel and Bridget. I am loving seeing my plants and flowers poking through the dirt in my front flower bed and I look forward to baby-ing that again this year. Oh! How could I forget?! This last Monday I went to Plunj with Stacie and Audrey and it was so much fun! We did two cycles through 15 minutes in the sauna at almost 200 degrees, and then five minutes in 55 degree water! It was completely exhilarating, and I am certain my ankle was less swollen when I went to bed.
*Richard: Despite being very busy with work, Richard has managed to swing a couple of trips to Provo for sporting events. Sadly, he has gone alone to these, but regardless, he has still had a great time! He went down for the BYU vs. Utah basketball game and also a men’s volleyball game. Richard also spoke in church last Sunday and did a great job!
Okay, gosh, I think that is it. This has been exhausting to write! Haha! Here’s hoping I will be better at this with PT and the musical off of my plate! Fingers crossed!
Love,
Richard, Jenny, Marshall, Bridget, Rachel and Gretchen
