Thursday, August 31, 2023

Emmi and Carter

Lu and boys stayed for a week and we soaked up all the little boy fun we could. 

Jeanne and Christian came to town Friday and Christian brought his motorcycle which was super fun. 

Emmett didn’t want a ride, but this brave guy did. 😍 

I cooked a lot and we played a lot of games and did not take a lot of pictures. 

On Saturday the crew met up with alli in DC and they all went to the Museum of Illusion. 

They all said it was smaller than they thought it would be but still worthwhile to go once. 

They had photo opportunities where they’d tell you where to stand and what to do to create illusions. 

I had a stake relief society temple day already scheduled, so I couldn’t go. 

And then on Friday night Matt decided to go to the temple with me. He did initiatorys and then set up the refreshments in the basement break room. 

I think this one is my favorite. 👇🏻 

After the museum they all went to Cheesecake Factory - #jelly. 

And then after CF they went to a few more Smithsonians.

They stayed out all day and had such a good time. 

I love love love that they like spending time together. It’s been over a year since I had all my babes together and it was wonderful. ❤️

We had 9/40 relief society presidency members, and 2 more were planning to come but got sick. A few had to leave early and then a few went to the distribution center, so we grabbed a pic with who we had left - McKenzie, Tracie, Susanne (my new counselor!), and me. 

Bubba and Damian picked up a dozen crabs that night and we spent the evening cracking away. 

They were delicious!

Matt took Emmett to the pool - it was unseasonably cool the whole week Lu was in town, so the pool wasn’t the most fun. Emmi still loved it, but Carter, and Mimi aren’t fans of cold water swimming. 

On Sunday after church we played games and we encountered something I’ve never seen before - a stalemate where both teams had the same number on their dominos. 

We sent this to papa and he weighed in on our quandary. He voted in favor of bubba and I, because bubba was the one that blocked the game. We ended up winning. ⭐️

Emmett loved Delaney’s magic set!

Matt and Damian took a ride on bubbas bike. He said he was super nervous at first, but then it was fine. 

Since we were all together we decided to take family pictures. We quickly coordinated colors and Sunday evening was our time, only it rained and threatened to rain all afternoon and into the golden hour. It was like 90% chance of rain when we wanted to go, but it held off. We finally decided to head out with umbrellas and even though it was soupy hot, we got it done! We just went up to the school, so the girls rode in the back of bubbas truck.

Damian took our pictures and the first 2 shots were the best of the bunch. 😂 This one wasn’t included in the best category. 

Jeanne gave everyone haircuts in preparation and then jeanne straightened my hair because Lu wanted it straight, and within 5 minutes of being outside it was giant and curling rapidly. My hair is a mess! 🤣

Delaney set up her best magic show yet that night. She made awesome tickets and we had a seating chart to choose our seats. She played recorded instructions for us in English and then Spanish, and it was seriously so creative. Everyone loved it!

Bubba and jeanne made the long ride home Monday morning, right after Lexi beat all of us at Skull King. Starting in January bubba’s gonna be busy busy at school and with no time off, so I’m especially grateful they came down. 

Lexi went out with friends that night and we loved on the boys. I’m grateful I had time with them in Montana, because we all share them when they come here. 

I had wanted to read them stories and put the boys to bed that night, but the girls wanted to so I let them. We've all got to share. 

That night after 9:30 Delaney came up and told me there was a cat on our deck outside our sliding glass door. I had seen our neighbor 2 doors down had lost their cat so I told Laney to grab it. After a few minutes we finally got him inside and he flipped out - running around and meowing loud as heck. I texted Erin but she didn’t respond, so we walked him over but she didn’t answer. At this point Matt wanted to let the cat go, he is an outdoor cat, but on her Facebook post she asked I that if anyone found him to hang onto him. Adi and Emmett have pretty bad cat allergies, we don’t own a cage, and Mr. James Bigglesworth was scratching furniture and being *loud.* I replied to the post on our neighborhood page and asked if anyone could keep him for the night, and wonderful Maria came right over with her cat carrier. He was hiding under the couch, so Damian lifted it and we all tried to coax him out when Maria grabbed his scruff and showed him who was boss. She did it nicely and firmly and we’re so grateful. Erin ended up texting at 11 that she’d fallen asleep on the couch and they were all so grateful to have their cat back. It was a cray cray night!

Early Tuesday morning I took the crew back to the airport. It was a quick and wonderful trip and I miss them already!

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

First day of school 2023

Our first day of school was Wednesday, August 23rd. 

Delaney started 6th grade and she was excited and nervous for middle school. 

I’m feeling v old because this particular group of 6th graders seem especially young. I know that’s an old person thing, but still 🤷‍♀️.

These two are together again! They don’t sit together on the bus though. That’s a bridge too far. 

Frankie is in 8th grade. She does not love school and was not excited to go back. She doesn’t like it because it’s hard, but also she’s foreboding joy of being an 8th grader by dreading, in advance, being a freshman. 

We laughed about one of her signature poses here. 

Unfortunately their bus came v early and they missed our stop and had to run to one of the later bus stops in the neighborhood. Not the most auspicious start to middle school, but we did get a morning prayer in so they at least had that. 

And our high schooler is in 10th grade now. 

So goofy. 😂

Seminary doesn’t start till after Labor Day, so she gets to sleep in for awhile. 

She was so excited to start classes at the tech center, but so far has been a little disappointed. She really hoped to find like minded friends that were excited to be there, but she’s getting a sense that some of them are just there for the field trips. 

So many prayers that these girls have a good year. That they’ll be brave and confident and kind disciples of Christ. They each have their own unique challenges, but also so many strengths. My goal is always to make home such a wonderful and comforting place and sometimes I am better at that than others. 

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

The last day of summer!

We had a super fun last day of summer at Ann Marie Gardens.

We met up with Alecia, Nola, and Joni drove down to see us! We weren’t sure if she’d make it and it was the best surprise.

I love crafty people decorating trees!

It was a beautiful cool day and the kids played together for hours. 

They took a little while to warm up to the each other, but then had fun running amuck. 

The kids found this log and were being pretty sketchy with it. 

Curtis climbed to the top of this structure and was throwing the log down, then the kids would throw it back up to him. Kind of amazing no one got hurt. 

😂

These guys spent hours in the cafe mixing up pebbleccini’s and pine spaghetti for all of us. It was pretty cute. 

The moms didn’t even walk around, we just let the kids go and for 90% of the kids and 90% of the day everyone was happy. 





We were all so sad for summer to be ending. I don’t even feel the back to school organization bug yet because we had visitors and I’m so behind on life from being out of town. 

Some pretty amazing ladies. 

Then Nola busted out her full size tripod and remote and we got a group picture. She’s incredible!

Silly shot. Always. Especially the kids. 🙄 

Then we let everyone ride where they wanted and only had to do a little bribing and we all hit Mrs. Moo’s for celebratory ice cream. 

Extreme milkshakes are crazy expensive, but you only go back to school once a year, so we went all in. 

After Mrs. Moo’s we headed home for beginning of school fathers blessings. It was a perfect day. 

Soon Delaney will be as tall as Adi and Frankie. 

After our little family night I headed to the airport for our next crazy adventure with this guy and his family!

All the way from Montana to spend a whole loud, silly, fun, and crazy week with us. ❤️