September 2024

Birthday month for the girls in our family.  My birthday was great.  It was on a Saturday and so we got to wake up early and go to Jaron's soccer game.  He won so that was good!  We got doughnuts and had them when we got home.  That afternoon we went and saw the movie Twisters.  It had been out for a while so we were all so excited when we had the entire movie theatre to ourselves.  The kids went and sat in the luxury seats, after doing cartwheels in front of the screen and Shane and I sat in the back doing shadow puppets.  That night we went to dinner.

Grandma and Grandpa always coming to support the kids at their games

Jaron was one of the narrators for his last ever Primary Program.  He did a great job reading everything clearly and he is more than ready to be done with Primary and is excited to become a Deacon.

The rest of the month was busy with school.  2 girls in junior high has been quite an adjustment.  They each manage 8 classes and it has felt so busy, along with soocer, doctors appts and other stuff going on.

Siena and Aria are Teenagers!

I can't believe we have 2 teenagers in the house...Siena and Aria turned 13 this month.  They are so fun to have around.  It's fun to hang out with them and they have really turned into the cutest girls who are happy, responsible, fun and loving girls.  Their young women's class heart attacked their door which was so cute and fun.

They have been begging for their own phone so I finally decided it was time.  They are responsible enough and I trust them to be good about when to use and when not to.  They were so excited to get their own phone.  They had to go to school that day (even though they didn't want to) so I checked them out at lunch time and had McDonald's for them and we went to the park next door to the school and ate (they didn't have a lot of time and didn't want to be late to their next class).

That night we went down to Provo Beach and did the ropes course, laser tag and played some arcade games.  We ate at DP Cheesesteak and then after that we met the Pace's for ice cream at the BYU Creamery.  

That weekend the girls had a little get together with friends.  We ordered pizza and they played night games and watched a movie.  They have a cute group of friends that all get along and have fun together.  They are a bit crazy but what else would you expect for 12 and 13 year olds.

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.

July 2024

Some fun summer activities.  

Siena and Aria went and did baptisms with Lilly and Collin at the new Taylorsville temple.

A bunch of cousins went and saw Inside Out 2.

4th of July in Riverton with the family.  We swam and Whitney's parents house earlier and then went to Riverton Park to watch fireworks.

We got to go to Splash Summit with some free passes and we invited cousin Lilly and Graham, Jaron's friend.

Jaron got to be a seat warmer for the RSL game that we also happened to have tickets for.  He did it with his former teammate Archer and it was fun for him to be on the field and watch the warm ups up close.

Siena and Aria went by themselves (well just with each other) to a Brighton Girls camp that I signed them up for.  They left early Monday morning and got back about Noon on Friday.  It felt like such a long week with them being gone and having no contact with them at all.  I was nervous they were going to be homesick or not have fun but when they got off the bus they had the biggest smiles on their faces and had the best week, made friends and were so tired because they had gotten up at 2am to go on a sunrise hike.

Jaron meanwhile had a great week playing video games and doing nothing.  Ok kidding, he had a soccer tournament, the first with his new team that did not go well.  They got put in a bracket way above them and it was not a fun tournament.

We went to Lagoon a few times, this time was apparently the first time I had ever bought them dippin dots...so we had to document it.

Aria got a little internship this summer helping a man train 2 young horses.  In return she got to go on a very long trail ride one Saturday (6am-3pm) up Provo canyon and had a few others chances to ride some horses with him.

We didn't go camping this year but the kids wanted to sleep in the tent in our backyard one night.  They watched a movie and they slept in the tent all night but woke up pretty early.

Took Siena and Aria's friends to Lucky's for snow cones one afternoon.

I baked my very own razzleberry pie for Pioneer Day.  Siena and Aria had fun helping me and it actually tasted really good!