On our way...

First of all I cannot believe that this is really happening.  It has been a year in the making.  Most of our vacation time is spent in St. George since that is where our home is.  I really wanted to take a trip before Luke's senior year.  I started a savings account over a year ago to save for this vacation and here we are!  Today was a long day of traveling but the kids were champs!  We flew out of Salt Lake at 8:30 am to Los Angeles where we had a 4 hour layover.  Joey, Luke, and Har were super lucky to be upgraded to Comfort Plus.  I was in the cheap seats with Nash, Gray, and Tag. Everyone did great.  After lunch and hanging out in the L.A Airport, we were on our way to Hawaii.  It was a little rough with six hours in cramped seats for my tall family but we did it!  They were all so excited to arrive.  We got our luggage, upgraded to a sweet suburban, and then went to Costco.  We grabbed some cheap dinner and some food to get us through the week.  The AirBNB we are staying in is on the North Shore in Turtle Bay.  It was a bit of a drive but so worth it.  The condo is really nice complete with air conditioning.  By the time we arrived it was around 8pm Hawaii time which is midnight for us.  We were all exhausted.  Cannot wait to explore and see Hawaii in the daylight.  Such an amazing experience!

Summer Sleep Over

It was a long time coming!  The boys wanted Kai to have a sleep over but it was difficult to find a time that worked for everyone.  Finally it worked out for a Monday night.  Kai came over after lunch and the fun began.  They decided that they would stay up all night.  Gray was the first to fall asleep around 1:30am.  For his punishment the boys continued their tradition of drawing on the face of the first to sleep.  So funny!  Nash made it until about 4:00 am and Kai fell asleep around 6 am.  Regardless of the lack of sleep, they were all up and ready to go around 8 am.  I love this friendship they have.  Such cute boys.

Beehive Meet

Our amazing fish qualified again for the Beehive meet.  So proud of them.  They both qualified in the 50 free.  For some reason they signed Gray up for multiple races.  So Gray started with the 50 Back.  He had never swam this event before in long course and did great.  His time was 45:41 and got first place.  The next event Nash and Gray actually swam in the same heat for the 50 free.  They both did so great.  Nash got a PR for long course with 35:23 which he also got 1st place.  Gray had his googles slip but even with that he got 3rd place at 37:90.  Gray's last even was the 50 Fly.  I love watching the boys swim this stroke.  It is so hard to do but so beautiful to watch.  They both did an amazing job!  I love watching them swim.

It's growing!

Several months ago we started a garden and I was hopeful but nervous.  Harlee and I have learned so much thanks to the help of Mindi.  At first we thought we just needed to water the plant itself but Mindi taught us to water all of the soil.  She also mentioned that we should buy miracle grow and feed the plants every 7-14 days.  These tips have really helped and I actually ate two very yummy cherry tomatoes that we grew.  It is so fulfilling.  The cucumbers are not doing so well but at least some of the plants are growing.  I cannot wait until I can eat more of the vegetables.  Next year- at least two more garden boxes and Gray wants us to try fruit.

Loving the changes

 It has been a few months in the making but we are almost done!  We got rid of the big entertainment center which meant we needed to do the tile where there was still carpet under the entertainment center.  We also had to repair the wall and paint.  Mindi was so nice to help us with that.  We then bought a couple of chairs and an amazing bookshelf.  Harlee and I did some shopping and decorated the bookshelf.  Joey suggested that we put my books on the shelf.  I was a little apprehensive but I really love it.  We hung the family up on the wall.  Mindi taught Har and I how to do shiplap. We worked together and did shiplap on both of the half walls.  I also sanded and repainted the top shelf of the walls.  We cleaned everything off and bought some cutes plants to have on the shelves.  Joey has been painting the fireplace and it is almost done.  I seriously love all of the changes.  It feels so bright, open and current.  I am so grateful for our beautiful home.  I am also so grateful that over the 20 years of being married to Joey I have come to love change.  These changes really make me happy.

Nash's Deacon Camp

On Wednesday Nash left to go to Deacon's camp.  He was so excited.  I was not as excited as he would be gone until Saturday afternoon.  We sure did miss him but he had such a great time.  The first night there they tie dyed shirts and did the low ropes course.  The rest of camp they had devotionals, gross food, swam, played games and hiked.  Nash's favorite activity was the high ropes course.  I am so glad that he gets to go and have these experiences.  Such a fun time.

Monday in our favorite place

This morning was perfect!  We had scheduled the boat and tube from 9-12pm.  We really could not have picked a better time to go.  We were one of maybe 4 boats on the lake.  The weather was perfectly overcast and the water temperature was perfect.  We spent the first hour and a half on the tube.  It was so fun to watch all of the kids. The smiles on the face were pure joy.  I may have screamed a bit when it was my turn.  It was the funnest! The second half of our boat rental we tried kneeboarding.  I was so impressed with how well all of the kids did.  We used the trainer board but most of the kids were able to pull the rope out and hold on.  It was so much fun.  Mindi was able to show us up with her tricks.  It was great to watch. We stopped at In and Out on our way home for some lunch.  When we got back Joey and Luke left to go home.  They both needed to be at work on Tuesday.  We decided to stay until Tuesday just to have a little more time.  We got the kids some dinner and then Mindi, Har, and I went to Don Pedros for dinner.  It was so yummy.  After we went to Dutchman's for some cookies.  It was a great night.  We plan on getting up to clean and hope to take off before lunch tomorrow.  

Another amazing trip down to the SG

I left on Friday morning with all the kids except for Luke.  We drove to Filmore and grabbed lunch before driving the rest of the way.  We arrived around 2pm and it was pretty warm.  The kids spent the rest of the day swimming and then hanging out inside in the AC.  We played games after dinner which was so fun.  Joey and Luke made it down around 10:30pm and it was so nice to have everyone under my favorite roof.  On Saturday we got up early to go to some garage sales.  After the sales we went to the store to make sure that we had enough food to get us through our trip.  Harlee and I went shopping at Old Navy and DI.  It is so fun to go shopping with her.  That night we ordered DoorDash for dinner thanks to Alison for gifting us a giftcard there.  It was 116 degrees so it was great to not have to go out.  Today we convinced Mindi to come down so she could go on the boat tomorrow.  We relaxed all day and she arrived in the afternoon.  We had a BBQ for dinner and then took turns riding the electric scooters.  We finished the night finding the Sister Wives episode where Joey and Har made their acting debut.  Seriously the funnest night!  Tomorrow deserves it's own post!  So excited to spend a few hours on Sand Hollow tomorrow.  

Luke's patriarchal blessing

What a beautiful experience!  I feel so blessed to have been able to attend Luke's patriarchal blessing tonight.  As soon as the patriarch started the blessing the spirit filled the room.  Joey and I both started to cry.  The blessing was full of amazing promises for Luke if he can keep on making good choices.  It was so comforting to feel the love that Heavenly Father and Mother have for him.  The patriarch had asked us to fast that day in anticipation of the blessing.  In my prayers I asked Heavenly Father to say something personal to Luke so he could know that the blessing was not just the thoughts of Patriarch Wallace but that those were words from our loving Heavenly Father.  Before the blessing closed, Heavenly Father gave Luke and admonition that was so personal that there was no question that the blessing was directly from Heavenly Father.  I am so grateful for the love of Heavenly Parents that share their love through these blessings.  I hope that Luke feels the truth of this blessing and feels so much love.  I am so excited for his future and so proud of the young man he has become.

Sunday Hike

 After church and lunch Joey suggested that we go for a drive up to Big Cottonwood Canyon.  The kids only groaned a little before agreeing to go. On our way up we drove through the neighborhood of HUGE houses that we use to drive by when the kids were little.  It was so fun to reminisce.  Then we drove up to Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  There is a paved hike around the lake.  It was so beautiful.  The crazy thing was that there were a couple of moose and they were so close to us.  It was so neat to see them.  The kids were all in good moods and we had the greatest time.  I am so grateful that Joey always gets us out doing things and seeing new places.  Nothing like family time.

Fourth of July

The kids have been talking about the Pleasant Grove fireworks since we went a couple of years ago.  We decided to bring back the fun.  We went to Jamie and Mindi's and had the Pie for dinner.  Such amazing pizza and the keto peeps took the night off so we all enjoyed it!  Then we drove to the baseball field where we played cornhole and badminton.  It was so fun.  At 10pm the fireworks started.  It is so amazing to watch the beautiful fireworks right above us.  This was Luke's first year and he was so impressed.  I think this will be the new tradition.  Love spending time celebrating freedom with my family.