February 2022

February was a whirlwind. That began with Covid. It was Emmie this time. We have no idea who she got it from but I do know that we were getting multiple emails everyday from the school about exposures at school. So we got it with the rest of the world. Literally everyone had it. 

After Emmie was done quarantining (her symptoms were super mild) I quarantined myself so that I could go visit my Grandpa and Bonnie. On Christmas eve my grandpa was admitted to the hospital and transferred to St. Lukes in Boise. He was ultimately diagnosed with (gallbladder or pancreatic) cancer and given 3-6 months to live. He was eventually released from the hospital after a few days and sent home to Twin Falls. He was 94 years old. It made me really sad, but Grandpa would be the first to say that he lived a good life. My goal is to live like him, so that when it's my time to say goodbye I can leave feeling at peace and contentment and like I lived my best life.  I drove down on a Sunday afternoon and spent a few hours with him. Bonnie was gracious as always and fed me and we had a really nice visit. Grandpa talked about his grandma's house in Lund and recognized the picture that is on Family Search of the old house. He told me about working as a golf caddy in Sun Valley and of how he thought that growing up around Lund and Ketchum when he did was the best place possible for a little boy to grow up. He got to have adventures and explore and golf and ski and run track and had a great childhood. He was doing well when I saw him and I'm so glad I got to go have a nice visit. 

Emmie also had a frenectomy surgery. Her upper lip was connected to her gums, and we knew we'd have to do it eventually. Her orthodontist recommended we do it when her front teeth were held together with her braces so the scar tissue worked in our favor. And so that's what we did. The procedure was incredibly quick and her recovery was fast as well. 

Ains and I also made a trip to Logan Utah for a tour of Utah State. She was still waiting to hear back from BYU, but we knew Utah State would offer her a full tuition scholarship and thought it would be worth checking out. I have to say, I was impressed! Utah State offers their students a lot of opportunities, and they are a tight knit group. If Ainsley didn't get into BYU I new that she would have done well there also. 

As soon as I got back from Logan I flew out for San Diego the next morning. I had planned a trip to visit Syd and to meet Melanie and help her out for a few days. 

We had a lot of fun and it was a great visit, but on my second day there we got a call from my mom that my uncle Mark (Kelly's husband) had had a stroke and he wasn't going to survive it. Our mood and our travel plans quickly changed. Syd was originally going to fly home with me and visit Boise for a week or so. But now we knew we would be driving down to St. George for a funeral. So plans were tweaked. 

Sydney's trip to Boise was just a couple of days. The big events were Mae's pizza in a cup...fun to make, but disgusting, fancy doughnuts from Albertsons, laundry, and lots of walking the dog. 

Within a couple days we were packed in a car on our way to St. George. Syd, her kids, me, and my dad were making the trip down this time. My mom had already driven down to go help Kelly. While we were on our way I got a call from Ainsley...she had gotten into BYU! I was so excited for her! Shortly after that she found out that her friend Elisabeth didn't get in. So we were thrilled for Ainsley and heartbroken for Elisabeth all at the same time.

This is the beautiful picture John took of Ains after reading her acceptance. She is clearly thrilled.

Mark passed away Feb 15th and we drove down to St George for the funeral on the 19th, We stopped in for a visit with my grandpa. It was so good that Syd got to see him (that was most of her original reason for coming to boise). We had a nice visit and he talked with Syd about his service on the USS Uvaldee, and his time spent in China during WWII. Saying goodbye was hard because Syd knew that was the last time she would see him. The death and sadness in our family has been a little hard lately.

After our time in Twin Falls and a 2 hour traffic delay near Cedar City we finally made it to St. George. Feeling there were so tender. We learned after we arrived that doctors were guessing that Mark had had a head injury at some point in his life that had caused a blood clot, and for some reason it had recently dislodged. He and Kelly had been working on a home project, adding weathered wood planks to their wall and there were still his fingerprints and the one last board they needed to install before they had stopped to go to the stake meeting where he ended up having his first of three strokes. Miraculously all of his children we able to get home before he passed away. Chloe was on her mission in Long Beach and she got on a flight and got to her house the same time as the ambulance with Mark. And to make the situation even more sad, his grandson was born the day after he passed away. And his daughter is getting married in September. He truly was too young...the whole situation is just so sad. 

All of Marks kids spoke at the funeral, and they did an amazing job. Their talks were all some of the best funeral talks I have ever heard. They are going to miss their dad so much, and they paid him the best tribute. I was incredibly impressed. Syd even got to be apart of the program and played a song that his boys sang. 

Cy drove through the night and made it there for the funeral. My parents were supposed to go down to San Diego the following week for Melanie's blessing, but since there was so much family around, they ended up blessing Melanie there, which I thought was a really nice ending to a sad event.

I drove home with my parents the day after the funeral and Syd drove back to San Diego with Cy and Kort and Dan drove back to Denver. I hate saying good-bye to family. I stopped at my Grandpa's again on our drive home. Lucky for me I was able to see him more in the month of February than I had in the last 3 years.

February ended with a little bit of fun. Owen's friend Clara was putting together a group of friends to go to a Sweethearts dance. Owen got asked by his friend Emma. 

The date ended up being a little weird because Owen's date couldn't come to any of the day portion because of a volleyball tournament. So Owen hiked table rock, played floor hockey, and made a painting of his date all by himself. Then he found out that his dad hand't bought tickets and the dance was sold out. So we were making a plan B, in case showing up at the dance with cash didn't get them in. Luckily the guy a the door let them in (but charged them more than the tickets were worth and then I'm sure pocketed the cash) so the kids had a fun night after all. Luckily Owen is always just up for having a good time with friends and doesn't worry about the details.

January 2022

January was a bit of a blur. The month started off with a youth activity I drove to in Nampa where we saw what I think looks exactly like the tree of life. This might sound corny, but it was gorgeous. The rest of the night was a bit of a bust (weird concert, snow storm on the way home, cars sliding off the road, and the girls getting home too late. But we can't say it wasn't an adventure!

Emmie and Owen had season ski passes this year. And John and I had night passes. John took advantage of that and took Emmie up for an afternoon and evening of skiing. Emmie started off the ski season lacking confidence, but after a few visits to the mountain I couldn't keep up with her anymore. I am officially the slowest skier in the family. 

Owen got cleared to start skiing in January. But he was told to take it easy. I think he took it easy for his first visit. But after that I think he threw caution to the wind he was back up and skiing at full force. Sadly, his ski season was cut short after a fall where he twisted his knee badly. That kid just can't go for more than a few weeks without being injured! After his fall his knee was swollen to at least double the size it should have been. His doctor said that nothing was torn and that he just needed to take it easy. Which meant....no more skiing.

Other random happenings in January:

• Ainsley went on a date where she made cakes and delivered them to random people from school. 
• Ainsley also started hanging out more with her "french group" from school. Which was awesome! They are such a great group of kids. 
• Owen spends all of his time with friends. Which is great, but we miss him.
• Owen was ordained a priest the first Sunday of January.
• Owen started acutane. Which is super fun for him. 
• Emmie's indoor soccer team took 3rd place!
• I started teaching 6 classes, it took up more time than I wanted, but the money was nice.

The biggest event of the month was that Ainsley turned 18! Our first child is now an adult. 

Ainsley has developed a love of plants. She's had her eye on this string of pearls plant for quite some time. So she got that for her birthday, so college stuff, and a glass blowing class. Which she loved!

The highlight of the month for Ainsley was when she got to go do some glass blowing. She has been watching a show on Netflix called blown away and has become fascinated with it. We thought it would be a fun thing for her to do for her 18th birthday and would give her a nice little keepsake. She had to wait a week or so after her birthday for an available slot, but eventually the day came and she and I went down and she got to make 2 glass peices...with a lot of help, but the process was so cool! I'm glad she got to be a part of it.

Emmie also started indoor soccer in January. Her team did great! And it was good for her to have something to do on Saturday mornings other than lay around and watch TV.

Emmie also quit piano in January. I was a little sad about it...but she really hated it. Emmie seems to have a talent for art. So we swapped the piano lessons for some art lessons from a friend/artist in our ward, Brittany Hall. Emmie has loved it. She goes over twice a month and gets to create some art. She really is talented and I hope she continues to develop her talent!

Also, we got a new couch. Super exciting. 

Leo loves to perch up on is and look out the window. And clearly we love to take lots of Leo pictures....

December 2021

 

Christmastime is here!

December always starts off with a huge mess. The excitement of decorating for Christmas carries us through for about an hour. Then, the house is an absolute disaster, and we're all ready for lunch, and the excitement wears off. This is the point at which I usually get cranky and yell at everyone to help me finish. But when we're all done it feels amazing!

We kicked off the Christmas season by inviting the Demars and my parents to go see the lights on the River Walk in Caldwell. They were beautiful. And it was an especially warm night, so it was actually pleasant to walk around!

We also managed to get in plenty of holiday baking. I don't want to brag...but I made the most amazingly perfect caramels. I have tried and failed for years to get them just right. And this year I tasted the sweet success of victory! They were amazing!

We also made a knock-off version of a swig peppermint cookie that was so delicious we made a million more batches so we could pass them out to our neighbors as well. 

Ainsley also made her traditional gingerbread house. Which I'm currently struggling to find a picture for. I'll hunt for it so I can add it. Because as always, it was amazing.

Not a great picture, but zoom in at her gingerbread house on the buffet. The piping she did this year was amazing.

I've been volunteering a this year for the IRC (international rescue, comittee). Natalie Ball invited me to come with her one day and I decided I could use some community service in my life, and what a better way to help my community than by helping refugee families that are sent here and are rebuilding their lives from nothing. They asked for a few families to sponsor families for Christmas. So I signed us up for a family of 6, a mom and 5 kids ranging from 4-18. It was a great experience for my kids to shop for others during the holiday season. And my mom helped us out and bought some gifts for this family for Christmas as well. 

December 16th means celebrating John and I's anniversary, and my mom's birthday. December birthdays and and anniversaries are hard. I'll just leave it at that. 

And only one band concert this year! But Emmie nailed it.

There was a new spider man movie that came out this December. Which meant that John had tickets ready for us the moment it was released. Owen was too cool to join us this year and chose to spend time with friends instead (which I understand) but the girls joined us. We had a great time and got to see the lights at the village.

And then some old guy was nice enough to hit us while we were stopped at a stoplight on our way home. He tried to flee the scene twice, but police were able to get his insurance info and we were able to get the minor damage to our bumper fixed.

Hamilton also came to Boise in December! We had to go in two shifts but the show was still amazing. John took Ains one weekend and Emmie, Owen, and I went the next weekend. The show was fabulous and it was fun taking Owen and Emmie to their first Broadway play.

While I have no photographic evidence of this, Ainsley got invited to a traditional French Christmas dinner by the mom of one of the kids in her French class, (Max). Max's mom is from France and it was incredible of her to do that for these kids. Ainsley got to go hang out with the kids she has been in French with for the last 4 years and got to try fun french foods like Escargot. And, as luck would have it, that night was the start of a great group of friends deciding they all really liked hanging out together, and was the first of many fun nights.

Last but not least, the main event. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The day was a little heavy because my grandpa was admitted to the hospital and driven to St. Lukes in Boise. Although we couldn't go see him because of Covid.  

While there was sadness in the air, there was italian food, christmas poppers, pajamas, Muppet's Christmas Carol, and Santa still came.

Ains got college stuff and a new phone. 

Owen got new fancy-schmancy shoes.

And Emmie got bedroom decor and decor pillows.

Oh, and we wend skiing on New Years Eve!  We had plans to go to the Flakes new cabin with them to celebrate the new year, but they got covid. So we settled for skiing  and Owen went to the NYE stake dance/party at Centennial and the girls and John and I did our annual tradition of watching the new Little Women.  Even with the bummer change of plans it was a great way to end the year.