August 2024

Lilly came and stayed with us for a couple day while Michelle and AT were in Europe.  Michelle bought the girls each a little miniature room to build.  They worked on them for hours, each little piece being built and decorated.  It was a super fun activity for them.

The day we left on our trip the girls got their school schedule.  They are so excited to start middle school and it was fun as we heard about friends they have classes with.  Siena and Aria don't have any classes together but they do have the same lunch time so they are excited about that.  The day before school started they had a back to school where they could go into the school, find all their classes and meet their teachers. It was total chaos for me trying to find 16 classes in the right order.  We walked from one end of the school to the other and I was totally exhausted by the time we were done...and I think it took 1 1/2 hours!

The girls started 7th grade the day before everyone else.  They get to go to each class for 5 minutes and they also had an assembly about middle school stuff.  I think they liked going and it was nice because it was only for 2 1/2 hours.

Jaron started 6th grade the day after the girls.  Last year in elementary school.  Jaron has Mrs. Clifford who is his good friend Beckham's mom.  Hopefully that will go ok and they won't goof off too much.  The first day of school they took a class picture and you can already tell how comfortable Jaron feels in his class!

Jaron had a soccer game in Roosevelt (2 1/2 hours away).  We had to wake up early to get there and glad we won.  So we celebrated with some pizza before driving home.  Jaron's team is really nice and he doesn't know the boys super well.  I think he still misses his old team but he gets to score and play a lot which he loves.

AT invited me to a BYU football game last minute.  It was so fun and I love going to BYU football games. And AT always makes things fun and entertaining, hence the weird faces and laughing pictures.

Glovers go Cruising

 For our family vacation this year we took the kids on their first cruise.  We had so much fun and although the destinations weren't that amazing or exotic we went for the ship and cruise experience and we loved it.

We drove down to Christy's on Saturday all day and hung out with her Saturday night and went to church Sunday.  Sunday afternoon we went to the tide pools that my kids always love doing.  

Out cruise left Monday afternoon but we were able to board at 11am.  That was fun because even though we couldn't get into our rooms yet it was fun exploring the ship, they had lunch out on the deck where the kids learned they loved their fresh grilled hamburgers.  Then we set sail that afternoon, found our rooms and had a great dinner.

Tuesday we stopped at Catalina Island.  We rented a golf cart and drove all around the island for a couple hours.  It was fun to see the island a bit and after we hung out walking through shops and the kids played on the really tiny beach there before we headed back to the ship to enjoy the activities on board.

Wednesday we were in Ensenada.  Without a really long side trip and lots of money there wasn't a lot to do there.  So we got off walked around the little vendor shops and then got back on the boat so the kids could swim, go down the slides and do the ropes course more.  They had parrots as we got off the ship that Aria loved holding.  

Thursday was an at-sea day and we spent it eating, swimming, playing games and doing some fun ship activities.  Some of the fun activities the kids loved was going to all the trivia contests they had.  We ended up winning 2 of them.  The girls loved the towel animals in our room each day and so they loved going to the towel folding class they had.  Jaron loved the miniature golf course and they all loved the ropes course.  The pool slides were fun for a little bit but then they thought the water was cold.  

The kids had a soda pass and in less than 4 days I think Jaron had 25 sodas and the girls weren't too far behind.  Add in the free ice cream 24 hours a day and they never were without one of those in their hands.  They all tried some new foods at dinner but loved the free cheeseburgers and pizza that were always open.

Friday we disembarked and drove home the whole day.  It was a long day but good to be back home.  We had such a fun trip and it's definitely something we want to do again as a family.