Our amazing young women!

We've had so much fun this month with our young men and young women! So many activities and such fun when we get everyone together.  Here are some highlights:

Where's Waldo Walmart hunt (bishopric dressed up in disguises)

Karaoke night with the Priests

Camp kick off with an amazing special guest

A night at Menchies celebrating Amelia's engagement!

And one of our favorites was Cupcake Wars with lots of creative projects and a whole lot of fun doing it! What an amazing group of girls!

 

Desh's 8th birthday

Mr Desh turned 8 this week and we had a Fat Cats party with a bunch of his friends.  Bowling, cake and arcades make for a perfect 8 year old birthday party and these kids had such a blast together!

8 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 4'8" - 98%

Weight: 71 lbs - 86%

My favorite things about Desh at 8 years old:

1- Desh is THE SWEETEST boy and doesn't let a day go by that he doesn't give me a hug, tell me he loves me or helps me around the house.  I can't get enough of his snuggles and don't mind when he wants to cuddle up next to me for no reason at all.  I know I won't have that forever, so I'm taking it while it lasts!

2- Desh is a true and loyal friend.  He loves the boys he hangs out with and never wants to hurt anyone's feelings.  He is thoughtful and kind and a good friend to everyone.  That's a quality that I hope he never loses because it's a good one!

3 - Desh doesn't like to do anything that he thinks might get him in trouble, so he tends to be a pretty obedient boy.  He follows the rules at school and his teachers love him because of it.  And if he does something at home that he feels bad about, he's the first one to apologize and make it right.  We talk a lot about having integrity in our house and I'd say he follows that pretty closely.  He's such a good boy and I know there's a lot of good coming from him in the future!

Happy Birthday big 8 year old! We love you more than you know!

 

Ogden Marathon 2024

Marathon day is always so great!  I love almost everything about it - other than getting super nervous about running 26 miles.  I love going to the expo, picking up my number, eating at Olive Garden (a tradition), laying out my clothes for the morning, going to be early and waking up even earlier to get ready to go!  I've gone through the routine so many times now that I just get excited for it all.  This year I was a little more nervous than I have been in the past because I've been nursing a calf injury for the past 5-6 weeks.  I stopped running for almost a month trying to rehab it and not hurt it any more than it already was.  2 weeks ago I ran a couple mid distance runs just to test it out but that's about all I've done.  I felt nervous that I wasn't going to make it, taking off that much time.  But I told myself I'd just start and go as far as I could or as long as my leg didn't start hurting again.  

Marathon morning came and that's what I went with!  I loaded the bus early and got up to the starting line with plenty of time to use the bathroom, stretch, use the bathroom again and get ready to race.  It was a chilly morning but I knew it was going to be a beautiful day for a run!  

When I started running I told myself that I was under no pressure to run it in a certain amount of time and I was just trying to finish the race.  In the back of my mind I really wanted to qualify for Boston again but didn't know if I could even finish this one, so just tried to stay positive.  I felt pretty good throughout the run and was keeping a pretty good pace.  Most of all my leg wasn't giving me any problems and that made me happy! I made myself wait until at least the halfway point to stop and use the bathroom so I didn't slow down.  After the half I came up around the reservoir and felt myself slowing down a little bit as the route goes uphill.  The 3:35 pacers passed me on that hill and I was silently a little disappointed that I couldn't keep ahead of them.  That's my qualifying pace that I needed to stay at and I saw them run past me and out of sight within a couple of miles.  I kept talking myself into keeping up my pace and doing what I could to just run as fast as I could, even if it wasn't a qualifying pace.

It was a mental battle for those miles up the back hill but by the time I got to mile 20 I was at a race time of 2:44.  I knew I had 6 miles to go and just under an hour to do it.  I felt a surge as I felt like that was something that was do-able if I kept up my pace.  Even though I couldn't see the 3:35 pacers, I knew I wasn't too far behind them.  Luckily the last 5 miles are in the town and a pretty great part of the course as it winds through downtown Ogden.  By the time I turned onto the final stretch I just kept running and I was so happy to see my family not to long after that!  It's always my favorite part of the race when I get to see them all cheering and ready to let me collapse into their laps!

I crossed the finish line with a time of 3:36 - 4 minutes under the Boston qualifying time! I was overjoyed that I finished, first of all, but secondly that I was able to do what I wanted with my run!  Such a miracle and a mind battle that race was. So glad to have it over and mostly glad that I was able to do what I had trained for. 

 

A few things happening around here...

Mid month update:

We attended the MCO concert that Hayley's kids were in and it was OUTSTANDING!

The boys just being boys and practicing their mewing

Our yard all ready for summer!

Tilly sneaking food behind the garbage can

And I snuck in an 11 mile run this week after taking over a month off with my calf injury.  I'm hoping its enough to get me through the marathon next week!

Tilly is such a lazy dog and loves to sleep in the sun

We helped Hayley with her amazing race

Love my Beck - he's so cute

 

Herriman Hawks choir concert

Beck and Desh have been in the choir at school this year and have been practicing before school once a week all year!  It has been a sacrifice for them and for the most part they haven't complained too much about going to school early.  Today was their final concert and it was AWESOME!  I love seeing them do their thing and see their hard work come to life.  Beck had a speaking part and both of them did so good with all their songs.  What a year the for the Herriman Hawks!

 

Rease year end band concert

Rease was emotional tonight as she wrapped up her band for the season.  She has some good friends that are graduating this year and she's going to really miss them!  She has such a great group that she has found over the years and it's getting to where she's one of the oldest in the group.  Senior year next year for this girl and I think it's hitting her hard!  So proud of the year she's had!

 

Finishing up track

The girls wrapped up the track season this week at the region track meet.  They have both loved being on the team and have improved a ton in the past few months!  I love going to watch them and am so proud of their hard work for the team.  Go Sentinels!

 

Finishing off April

A few more things from this month...

I hurt my calf playing basketball.  I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, just a simple layup and landed weird.  I'm not sure how bad it is, but it sure hurts.  The doctor put me in a boot to keep the pressure off of it for a while but it's really poor timing with my race coming up in a few weeks :(

Alice finds treasures all over the floor as she cleans up and once in a while I have to relieve her from choking on them

The boys found a Mountain Dew Mustang and now we can't go anywhere without seeing it!

Snow is still coming and we keep feeling the urge (and following it) to get up to the slopes for another day.  We'll take it as long as it keeps coming!

Liev found a new chair that was being given away on the street and snatched it

Beck still loves Activity Days

Soap handprints on the mirror.  Why?

Along with the snow, there's also blossoms on the trees.  Utah can't quite make up its mind what season it is yet

Beck and Desh aren't too old for mom hugs - thank goodness

 

Cruise Day 7

Our last day on the ship and we spent another day outside by the pool mostly!  We knew our days of relaxation were coming to an end so we took it while we had it.  In the afternoon we played one more game of Sardines and Dad ended up with the best hiding spot - just sitting by the crowded pool with his feet in the water. Hiding in plain sight! We laughed and laughed when we finally found him!

That night we said goodbye to our servers and cooks who have been with us all week and have been amazing.  The food has been fantastic and we have loved the time we got to spend on this fun ship together! What a fun vacation that we'll never forget!

 

Cruise Day 6

Back to sea for Day 6 and we spent the day out on the pool deck soaking in the sun!  Hayley got pretty sunburned on day 2 so she hasn't been able to be in the sun much, but today she ventured back out to hang with us.  We also made our way to the bingo lounge and played a few games before hitting the other game shows happening around the ship.  A few of the boys took a tour with the ship captain and saw all the inner workings of the ship which sounded fun.  We've had such a fun time and have reserved the ship chapel a couple of the nights to get together and play games.  It's a perfect quiet spot for us to gather and we've been invited to bible study more than once since using the chapel! Our day at sea was a fun and relaxing one!

 

Cruise Day 5 - St. Thomas

To get to St. Thomas we only had to go a short way from San Juan, so day 5 we woke up and were already pulling into the dock.  St. Thomas is a really beautiful island with an amazing bay with homes looking over the water.  It was very picturesque to see from the ship.  So beautiful!

We didn't have any idea what to do on St. Thomas but heard of the 99 steps and decided to do that.  It's a pretty little walk up 99 steps and overlooks the town from the top.  It was really fun and not too hard although it was a really hot day so that ended up being the hardest part.  It was even more fun walking down the 99 steps back to town :)

We spent the rest of the day shopping for souvenirs and took a little bit of time at a small beach that was way overcrowded.  We didn't last too long there before we decided that was enough and headed back to the ship.  Overall such a fun day on a beautiful little island!

 

Cruise Day 4 - San Juan

We've been excited about Day 4 of the cruise for months because it was a stop in San Juan for the day!  What a treat for us to be able to be back home for a few hours and enjoy our favorite island!  Watching from the ship as we pulled into the the harbor was so fun for us.  I've never seen the island from that view and it was really beautiful to see the fort from the ocean side.  

Because we knew we were going to be stopping there, we closed La Brisa off for the day and got to spend some time there in the pool and hanging out around the house for a few hours.  Justin and Steph had never been so they were excited to be able to see the house and all the work that had been done.  It was SO FUN for us to be back there with our family!

We didn't have to be back on the ship until 9:00 pm so we spent the evening in Old San Juan shopping and stopped to eat at Bari and of course dessert at Anita's.  All our favs.  Carlos and Laura met us downtown and we got to spend a couple hours catching up with them.  It was so good for my soul to be back there!  Just the perfect day for us to relive some of our favorite spots!

 

Cruise Day 3

Day 3 was a "Sea Day" so we filled our day with anything we wanted!  We walked along the upper deck in the mornings and watched the sun come up and looking out at nothing but ocean.  It's a weird feeling to feel so small in the middle of a huge ocean! 

We also had an epic game of Sardines throughout the ship, ate dessert all day long and loved dressing up and spending a couple hours together at dinner in the evening.  Watching the shows, playing games late into the night and falling asleep to the tv rounded out our day and it was a good one! 

 

Cruise Day 2 - Princess Cays

Day 2 we made a stop at Princess Cays island for a day on the beach.  It was a beautiful day out and we rode a small ferry from the ship that docked out a little ways to the shore.  The island is a private island of the cruise line and had some good food and a pretty beach to lay out.  We stayed out there for a while and enjoyed the sun that we haven't seen for the long winter months!  It was really fun to relax and then headed back once we were ready to get back on the ship.  The funnest thing about a cruise is doing whatever we want to fill our schedule with - so we did!  Dad loved the nightly show and Josh and I found a jazz lounge that we hung out it in most nights.  The best part of it all is being with family that we don't get to see too often!  The best things in life...

 

Cruise Day 1

It's the year for our sibling/adult trip and Papa and Grammie's turn to plan the trip.  They booked us a 7 night Caribbean cruise and, with just a little bit of juggling to get kids sorted out, we all met in Fort Lauderdale to board the ship!  Off we were on a vacation that we all didn't know we needed so much!

The first day is always just a settle in day and we got our rooms, luggage and nap in before we met for dinner that night.  After flying all night a nap was important and we took advantage of the time!  Looking forward to the week ahead and all the good times to be had!

 

Prom 2024

Rease got asked to Prom by her good friend Colin and she was so excited to go with him.  We had so much fun picking out her dress and we found this AMAZING sequin one that looked stunning on her! It was just what a prom dress ought to be :)

What a fun day to help her get ready and see her off to the dance.  We laughed at the fact that her dress barely fit in his Mini Cooper, but off they went and had a great time!  He is such a nice boy and she had so much fun with this good friend of hers.  What a beautiful night for all these beautiful people!

 

Young women happenings

The fun things we get to do as young women in the world...

Temple trips, service projects, painting activities, temple open houses and so much more!  How we love these amazing youth!

 

A visit from Carlos and Laura

We had the absolute privilege to welcome Carlos and Laura to Utah to spend a few days with us this week!  They have been wanting to come to visit and the opportunity came up for them to come for general conference and a mission reunion for Laura.  We got busy making plans to do everything they wanted while they were here.  We had tickets to Saturday general conference which was amazing.  We haven't been to the conference center for years and it was so fun to go back and be there with them.  We took a quick trip down to Manti to see the open house - Laura received her endowment at that temple years ago when she was a missionary so she was really excited to be able to go back and see it.  We even got a snow storm in while they were here which was a little unexpected but fun for them to see!  It was such a fun few days for us and we hated to see them go.  But absolutely LOVED every minute they were here!

 

Field trip to the aquarium

Desh invited me to be a chaperone for his field trip to the aquarium this week.  I love being with my kids and being a part of their class and the fun things they do!  We had a cute little group of kids with us including his best little buddy Ike.  We loved looking at all the cool thing and especially hands on in the wave pool touching the anemone and other sealife.  Such a fun day for all!  

 

Rease Quarter 3

 

Rhen Quarter 3

 

Liev Quarter 3

 

Keen Quarter 3

 

Beck Quarter 3

 

Desh 3rd quarter