May 2025

May is the month of all the end of school year activities.  Right in the middle of that, I was asked to speak at a conference for a Vendor we use their software.  We are going through a major upgrade to their new platform and they wanted my co-worker, Jeff, and I to come speak about our project to all the other customers.  They flew us to Orlando and got to attend their conference for free.  The last night we went to Universal Studios for an all you can eat dinner and then they reserved/opened one section of the park for us to go on the rides.  The conference was really good, the night at Universal was fun and the speaking assignment wasn't too bad.  Everyone was really nice and thought we presented our information great.  It was a busy few days but a fun little get a away.

All the kids had their end of year performances.  Siena had her band concert, which I missed because I was in Orlando, so I was sad to miss but got to see the video of it when I got home.

Aria had her Orchestra concert, which was fun because it was outdoors and they had some food trucks there.  She also had her choir concert which I missed as well.

Jaron had his class play, Taming of the Shrew.  He had a speaking part and although I missed the actual performance, I was able to go to the dress rehearsal and I was the only one there which was so fun.

We got tickets to see another taping of Studio C.  I think it's fun to watch the filming of shows and the kids always like it too.

First snocones of the summer

Jaron had his end of year Wolf Run and Color blast.  The last 2 years Jaron has gotten in the top 10 of the 6th grade and he just missed it this year due to a side ache.  He does want to try cross country this fall so we'll see how that works out.  The color blast is always so fun and Jaron has had such fun friends since moving schools in 4th grade.  Grateful we made a great decision 3 years ago.  He also had his end of year dance festival.  All the lasts of Elementary School for us.

And then of course 6th grade graduation.  Jaron's school actually did a little graduation ceremony which was fun and then I helped out with their 6th grade party afterwards.

The girls had their last games for soccer.  They had a fun team this year and won quite a few games.  They both decided to try out for AA this year.  They both made a team but different teams...so that should be interesting how it all works out.  They will play each other as well.

Aria still rides horses and gets to go help out with Aimee when she can.  She's been training a new horse, Aurora, which is such a good skill to learn.  It's fun when I take the time to go watch and see how calm and confident she is on these horses.

We love when it starts warming up, and we took a nice Sunday afternoon hike up in Alpine to enjoy how green it is right now.  Our garden is also producing strawberries which is fun to go harvest each day.

Jaron had his last games as a Surf player.  After 3 years we have decided to move on from Surf.  He had an end of year party and then tryouts right after school got out.  It was a crazy week, as tryout week always is.  I had him try out for 4 different teams and we felt really good about moving to Lehi Fury.  We thought he would get on a team his classmates have been on but after all worked out we just felt better about this route.  It's a drive to his practices but a boy in our ward is on the team so we can carpool.

And that's a wrap for a lot of school and sports.  Onto summer, with more lazy days, bored kids and hopefully some fun memories.

April 2025

Spring break was the first week of April.  I always have good intentions of planning a family vacation and then it sneaks up on us and we don't.  But we did a few fun activities.  We went and saw the live action remake of Snow White that I really liked and thought it was cute. I bought the kids an all day pass to Airborne/Labrynth.  They went all day, took a break for dinner and then I dropped them off again and they stayed until almost closing.  We also got tickets from Brigitte last minute to go to Saturday evening general conference.  The kids weren't too thrilled to get into Sunday clothes and not sit on the couch and watch but they had never been and I think they liked it more than they thought they would.  One day we also went to the Nikelcade and the kids had so much fun there.  Jaron randomly won 500 tickets at this spin game and they said they want to go back sometime soon.

Jaron started flag football.  He was on a team with his friends from school, Hank, JJ, Luke and others.  They lost every single game but it was the first time all these boys had played football (they are almost all soccer players) so they just liked learning a new game.

Siena and Aria went to their first stake dance.  They not only had dancing but games in other rooms, JDawgs and smores so it was a fun night to just hang out with friends.

Our stake put on an Easter walk at our stake center which was cool to walk through and read different quotes about Jesus and his Atonement for us.

We celebrated Doug winning the basketball trophy this year and he donated a chest full of quarters ($25 worth) to celebrate the 25th anniversary of doing these trophies in the family.  Everyone played a huge game of left, right, center and Siena ended up winning the big pot!

Easter was fun.  The kids still like dying easter eggs and the easter egg hunt for candy is a lot harder and takes a lot longer.  In fact this year one egg wasn't found until the next day.  We always have Easter dinner at my parents and it was fun Christy was in town this year so we had to get a sibling picture.

Jaron had to do a wax museum and he did his report on Guy Fawkes...who I had never even heard of until Jaron came home with that name for his assignment.  haha.

Siena has been doing a ton of crocheting.  She basically taught herself with some help from Shane and has made so many animals that are so cute.

March 2025

Siena and Aria had career day at their middle school this year.  It was kind of last minute and we scrambled a bit but they both ended up having a great day.  Siena went to my sister Michelle's school where she is a reading aide and helped her and then helped out with the STEM teacher labs.  Aria wanted to do something animal related so we got her paired up with Lori's dog groomer and she went and helped out there, washing and blow drying dogs.  She loved it as well and it was a perfect fit for both of them.

Jaron went on his first young men's overnight camp.  They went down to Goblin Valley, spent one night and did a really cool hike the next morning and came home that afternoon.  It was super fun for them, even if they made a huge scene as they pulled into camp.

Siena finished up her basketball season. She did Jr. Jazz this year and it was fun that she was friends with  couple girls on the team.

Aria and Siena both had their 3rd quarter Orchestra and Band concerts as well as Aria's choir concert.  They always fall close together so it makes for a busy week but always fun to hear their songs come together.

Shane got me tickets to Les Mis that was here on tour.  Our seats were really high up but it was so good and the talent is always amazing.

Shane got me a TV for my birthday last year and so I was super excited when March Madness started that I could work and watch the games at the same time.  Go BYU, who had a great year!

Jaron had his last year of Battle of the Books.  His team did great but unfortunately didn't quite make it to the finals.  It's always been harder for his team to advance but I thought he did great and was proud that all 3 of my kids read all 20 books all 4 years of Battle of the Books!