YW's Tea Party

One of the activities our YW really wanted to have this year was a tea party. Since I have so many boxes of herbal tea and a big enough gathering space I offered to host at my house. Liz Huntsman brought decorations left over from a niece’s wedding and we set up these gorgeous table setting. I miraculously had enough tea cups for everyone. 

 We made so much lovely and delicious food. I made scones, pulled out left over mint brownies from the St. Patty’s Activity that I had been storing in my freezer, chopped up veggies and made dip, and made cucumber tea sandwiches. Liz made more tea sandwiches and macroons and Shana brought fruit. 

 We ate, visited, and the girls made some make and take Easter packages for the ladies they minister to. We played a game where the girls all wrote two things they thought people wouldn’t know about themselves on strips of paper and put them in a bowl. We passed around the bowl, took turns reading them and guessing it was. It was super fun and great way to get to know everyone better. Then, we ended the night with an Easter video cast onto my tv and spiritual message from Liz. It was a lovely evening.

Liv's Start to 2024

Liv’s really good friend Lilleigh moved to Arizona in January, but before she left Liv gathered all her friends and threw a going away party. They had snacks, watched Legally Blonde (Lilleigh’s favorite movie) while they made bracelets. Liv collected a bunch of pictures and made her a photo college and they took polaroid pics at the party and taped them into a book and wrote favorite memories with Lilleigh. Liv also wrote Lilleigh a song and played it for her at the party. It was a great send off! 

 For Christmas last year, I gave Liv tickets to see Six the broadway touring show coming to the Eccles. We got tickets with Katherine Clark and family. We all met for dinner first at a Vietnamese restaurant which was yummy. Then, the girls really enjoyed Six! 

 Liv loves the super bowl and has started a traditions of making a snack-adium every year for the event. She was particularly invested in the game this year because she had some bets with boys at school and if the Chief’s lost she had to be their valentine. But if the Chief’s won, the boys had to dress up in uinicorn onsies. The chief’s won which made every Taylor Swift fan happy and she is still waiting for the boys to deliver on their unicorn onesie promise. St. Patrick’s Day was on a busy Sunday this year. Filled with meetings for me. Liv totally helped me with a YW event at our house right after all the church meetings. She made this rainbow fruit platter for me. 

 She has really been enjoying learning about graphic design in school and is always happy to design a flyer or invitation. Julie Riley asked if she would design a door poster for the boys’ teacher for Teacher appreciation and she agreed. She did a great job. 

 Liv gang bustered her way into prom dress shopping with Emma Watkins. She totally found a perfect Prom dress for herself during the time. She had so much fun trying on dresses. I received picture after picture of all her finds. 

 Liv continues to be a great supporter of all her friends in all their shows. The most recent was seeing Summer play the Wicked Witch in her Centennial elementary school performance of Wizard of Oz. 

 The show was actually so great for an Elementary school play. It was at Orem high and free and the high school student stage crew ran the lights which was cool.

Starting the Year with a Bang

I took the boys skiing at Sundance 3 times. We had a blast each time. Two of the days we ditched school which was fun. 

 One day we took Liv and Savannah with us. We met for lunch at the top of the mountain. 

 This day had the best powder- the great snow gave the boys the opportunity to ski their first black diamonds. They did great. Our 3rd Sundance trip of the year I got both boys down the Bishop’s bowl and Camden and I ventured down a few other blacks as well. Carlos had his adopted BYU player (Fouss) over for dinner one Sunday. It was lovely weather so we were playing some family pickleball. He brought Fouss over to play with the kids They were totally in heaven. He was so kind and encouraging of the kids.

 I drove all the ward kids to the Provo City Center for temple baptisms one night. These are such fun nights. 

 And they always end with ice cream from McDonalds. One of my favorite PA school buddies, Sunshine, drove through town with her family. We met them for lunch and she came to see my house then they continued on their way to see the Utah National Parks. It was so good to see her again though. 

 Kota loves tennis balls the very most. If it was up to her, she would always have one in her mouth or near by.

Boys' Start to 2024

The boys were ordained to the priesthood at the start of January. It was super neat- Steph, Jon, Tanner, Karlee, and Chase all joined us for it. Now they pass the sacrament. They do a fabulous job and really enjoy doing this every week.

 I got to go on the boys’ 5th grade cross country field trip.

 It was super fun. They pretty much just let the kids go free all morning at soldier hollow. I spent some time skiing with Carter and some time with Cam. Carter particularly loved it and braved lots of down hills. I felt completely out of control on cross country skis compared to downhill skiing. But, it was a super fun day. The boys did a fantastic job in their 5th grade patriotic program. I didn’t take any pictures only videos, but they were awesome. I especially loved their dance it was a country swing dance and Camden particularly killed it- he was twirling his partner all over the floor. The Morgan’s invited us to hike Rock Canyon in the snow on a school break day. 

 It was gorgeous. 

 We brought Kota- she loved it. 

We saw a bunch of mountain goats, so that was cool. 

 There were several recent avalanches we climbed on top of. 

 Then, we sledded down (that part was frightening) and I didn’t love it as much, but the boys loved it. They went on their first winter campout with the young men. They build snow caves- Camden slept in one and was the warmest of all the boys. 

 Carter slept alone in a tent and froze. It got down to 5 degrees. But they came back in good spirits and are excited to do it again. In preparation for a week long back packing trip this summer, the boys have a campout every month this year. 

 Every campout included a testimony sharing time which is always a highlight. Derek plans to go on the back packing trip with them. So he joined them on their Hidden Valley campout. There was lots of snow still at the camp spot. 

 D says the boys were mountain goats and zoomed up the mountain as if they didn’t even notice the 20 lb packs on their backs. Carter did say in the way down he slipped on ice and fell on his back and was like a turtle on it’s back/shell that couldn’t get up for a minute.

Annie's Birthday

This year for Annie’s birthday she invited us and the Watkins to joins us on an adventure to Crystal Hot Springs. It was quite a long drive, but Tyler let us all stop in his house and pack snacks for the ride. The older girls and Annie and Amber and I all rode up together. The hot springs were pretty pricey to get in. We all tried not to think about how gross it was to be sitting in these warm hot springs with masses of people and hair and bandaids and scabs floating around. I actually thought it was quite lovely sitting in the warm water. 

 We grabbed dinner together at Golden Spike Café/Burger joint afterwards. They had a gyro that was actually quite delicious. Then, we all climbed into our own cars for the ride home. Overall, an enjoyable adventure together.

Freaky Friday

Liv got into her first HCTO youth production- Freaky Friday. Kelly Coombs directed, Ashley Carlson choreographed, and Bailey Morris music directed. They were all so fantastic to work with. This cast was one of the best Liv has ever been in. 

 She felt like every member of the cast by the end was considered a good friend. They hung out outside of the show often and still do now that it’s over. 

 The show was fun and made me cry every time I watched it- storyline was just too close to home I guess. Babi and Papou came up for the show. George, as usual, fixed all the broken things around the house so in return I made him homemade rye bread. 

 On closing day, it was so cute to watch, before exiting the stage after final bows they all joined together for a big group hug on the stage and seemed like they never wanted to let go!

First Trailer Campout of 2024 to Arches

Derek has been wanting to camp inside Arches at Devil’s Garden for years. He is always looking for openings and finally found one. 

 Chase, Uncle Jon and Daniella decided to join us for the weekend. Derek, the boys, Chase and Daniella headed up earlier. I stayed back with Liv who was finishing her tech rehearsal for Freaky Friday and when she was done she, Uncle Jon and I headed out. We had the greatest time; however, it was so windy and even snowed. The boys slept in a tent the first night, but the second night was so windy that we brought them into the trailer to sleep on the floor. We slept 7 people in that trailer and Uncle Jon slept in his car.  Cam and I went on a hike to an arch close to the campground.

    We spent lots of time hiding in the trailer playing games. We abandoned making J. dawgs as planned and instead went into dinner Saturday night. Chase was still injured from his car accident, but we were able to do some fairly level shorter hikes to Landscape Arch, Sand Dune Arch, and Broken Arch.

 It was so miserably windy that we decided to drive past the other arches rather than hike them. We visited the visitor's center.

Sunday morning, we drove home. Jon took all the kids in his car and D and I had the car to ourselves. We stopped for lunch in Price at KFC- everyone thought it was delicious. 

 On the way home the kids stopped and found 6 different geocaches along the way. Now Camden is hooked on geocaching. We had all the family including Steph and Steve and Tanner and Karlee meet at our house for dinner and we cooked up the J. dawgs that never got used on the campout.