End of stuff for the girls

Well today is the last day for the girls - finishing up 1st and 4th grade.  It's been quite the year!  Lucy's year has been pretty great all-around - she's learned a lot, has had an excellent teacher (who is retiring now!), and has made a lot of good, fun friends.  Emmy has had some issues with her class - just a lot of drama-filled girls, etc.  But she's enjoyed her year, too, and has had fun with her classmates and Mr. Scott.

 Hahahahahaha!  This was a project Emmy did about when she's 100-years old (the teacher used an app to create the image).  She wrote about eating donuts and cake for lunch and dinner "because I am old and going to die soon."

Emmy's class.

Lucy's class.

 At the GOTR 5K.

 WAHOO!  The last day of school!

 I had to zoom in b/c I love their expressions!  Priceless.

Aw, sweet!  If only they were always this sweet . . . (I don't know where is Emmy is looking?!  I was the only one out there!)

Miles

Well Miles' last day of 8th grade/middle school was today.  So crazy!  He's done!  Centennial has been a great experience for him and he's learned a lot.  Teachers always had positive things to say about him and enjoyed having him in their classes.

We were invited to an assembly yesterday as Miles was going to receive an award.  Luckily Ben was home and so we checked the girls out of school (the assembly was during the time the girls would get out of school) and all went.  Miles ended up receiving two awards:  one was for Academic Excellence in Science (four kids received that award and were nominated by the two science teachers) and the other was for the President's Award for Academic Excellence.  Anyone who had a 3.5 or higher GPA for their three years of middle school received that award.

Go Miles!

 Miles receiving his Academic Excellence in Science award.  Mrs. Waschbusch was his teacher.

 Miles receiving the Presidential award from Mr. Simo, the principal.

 The 8th grade Presidential award recipients.

 Miles and his good friend Michael.

 Wahoo, the last day of school!  The 8th graders were going up to Delta to their Rec. center - swimming, biking, fishing, BBQing, etc.  What a fun way to end the year!

Off he goes on his last bike ride as a Centennial Brave.

Trampy Girls (haha)

My girls needed some direction last Friday night and so I told them to come up with a trampoline routine.  They rocked it!

More Bella . . .

Sorry . . . but not really.  :)

B&B - Brigham and Bella

Well they are definitely warming up to each other and having fun together!  But we can't leave them yet unsupervised in the backyard because Brigham is so big and Bella is so tiny.  Brigham would never do anything purposely to hurt Bella - but he has rolled on her and knocked her over a time or two.  But these two are fun to watch. 

 Bum in the air = let's play!

 This was the first time I'd seen Bella be submissive . . . she rolled on her back with her belly up.  "Truce," perhaps, she was telling Brigham?!

 Checking each other out . . .

Apparently a big, hairy beast doesn't frighten Bella!

Brigham is so good and tolerant of Bella!  He's an amazing gentleman (gentledog) and I hope my boys learn a thing or two from him.  :)

Another dog . . .Why!? Introducing Bella . . .

So this is a sort of long story that I will try to condense.  I had some facebook friends from Montrose post some pictures of puppies that they were selling.  I said to Ben, "Should I ask if they still have some?"  And Ben was like, "Sure."  Huh!

So I contacted them and were told they did have a couple left.  Ben and I talked and just decided against it.  Mainly because it was a bigger dog (well, medium compared to Brigham) - but a similar dog.  Well-mannered, outdoorsy, etc.

Months ago Ben had brought up how we should get a pug.  I think he even mentioned it around Christmastime that it would be fun to get one.  I was resistant because of the shedding that pugs do and that we already had a great dog! 

So after we decided against the local puppies and brought up pugs again . . . I went and did a dangerous thing.  I looked up pugs on ksl.com. This is what caught my eye:

And I was sold.  Ben thought it was adorable, too (we didn't know if it was female/male at this point).  The next morning I texted the gal and was told the white-pawed pug was a female.  What, a female!?  I've never owned a female dog before.  But, after chatting with Ben at work, we bought the little pug!  (One of the rashest things we've done in a while!)

My ever-so-accommodating parents agreed to pick her up for us.  The boys were then going to head out from their temple trip to my parents' place and get her and bring her back home.

The kids didn't knew what we were picking up - just a "Mother's Day Surprise."

When I told my parents, my mom exclaimed, "Whhhhy?"  Ben's parents asked the same question. . . :)

I'm not sure we have the answer for that - except that we just love dogs, I guess!  Plus my kids have just kept begged and begged for me to have another baby - and that I'm not doing.  So a puppy is the next best thing.  :)

I am super happy we got Bella at this time in our lives.  Our kids adore her.  Some day my kids won't all be at home - that wouldn't be the time to get a pug!  Now is definitely the time.  Brigham has already been such a wonderful addition to our family and our adventures, and I know Bella will, too.  Plus, kids help train puppies to be fabulous dogs - at least that was true in Brigham's case and I'm hoping it'll be true for Bella, too.

 Jonas and Bella's first meeting!  So cute! 

Both boys were very excited to have such a cute, little, girl, pug puppy!

Ben woke the boys up on Sunday morning my bringing Bella in to their bed.  What a fun wake-up!

 Ben got a few adorable "portraits" of Bella on Sunday morning at my parents' home.  So adorable!

 She's as sweet as she looks, too.  Though also acts like a puppy!

 The girls were super, super, super excited for Bella!  What a fun surprise!  She was even cuter in person.  :)

 Love.

 I like this picture because someone is always wanting to pet, hold, or love on Bella.

And what did Brigham think?!  Who knows.  But he was good and funny with Bella. A little scared and skittish, too, perhaps.  :)

Boys to the Temple

As we left on our bikes for the race, the boys headed out to Monticello, UT on a ward/youth temple trip.  This was Jonas' first time going.  Of course I wanted to be there, but I also knew the 5K was important, too - especially since I was a coach.

So the boys made the 3-hour trip with Jonas riding up with another deacon boy, Kaden, and his mother.

Jonas told me it was great and he enjoyed it.  It also told me it was cool because a 16-year old in our ward got to do the baptizing.  So awesome!

GOTR 5K, 2018

We had a busy weekend, full of the girls doing one thing and the boys doing another.

The GOTR 5K was on Saturday.  The girls and I rode our bikes down to the race and that was a good, little warm-up for Emmy's legs.  :)

I was a coach again at Northside.  Out of the 27 girls on the team, 26 of them were there for the race.  We have never, ever had that many show up and so it was pretty awesome.

I ran with Emmy - who told me that her goal was to run the entire race.  Last year she walked a little bit at the top of the "hill" (incline) and a bit afterwards.  But, even though she complained of a stomach cramp, I kept her running and she was able to accomplish her goal.  She felt pretty great.

She was the first one from her team of girls to finish - at a time of 30:20, beating her time from last year.  It was definitely motivating to her as we passed many of her teammates still heading out (a bit of the course has going-out and coming-back traffic - but just a small section) and they would exclaim things like, "Wow, you're already there Emmy!"  "Whoa, look where Emmy is."  :)

When we got back, we got some snacks, and then headed back down the course to find our Northside stragglers.  :)  We went quite a ways (at least 1/2 a mile) and then Emmy and I ran in with a group that was the last girls from our team.  It was another fun run!

 Sporty Emmy!  Her gymnastic's fitness really pays off!

 So does running with a mother who can pace her!

Our cheering section!  My good friend Heather helped watch Lucy (and a couple other extras, too) while our girls ran.

Go, Emmy, Go!  As we were getting closer and closer, I told her she should sprint when we saw the finish.  She was getting pretty tired and was like, "No, I am not doing that."  Well she did!  :)

April's Calendar and An Update

So there was April!  Another busy month . . .

It's only been a month since my last update, but whatever . . .

Ben - He is still super in to organizing the "Lewis and Clark" scout camp.  Hopefully he doesn't get burned out the week before camp!  But this is something he talked about doing even as bishop, so it's fun that he now has the chance to put it in to play.  I think it will be great and that the boys will have a fabulous time.  Work is going fine-ish for him.  No big changes there, really.  He is really enjoying his post-bishop life.  :)

Me - I am maybe in Phase 3 of my whole medical "thing."  It turned out not to be mumps, so who knows what it is?!  Most likely some virus - although if so, it's weird that none of my kids or, especially, Ben have come down with anything.  Phase 1 was my swelling cheeks - my chipmunk cheeks, peanut head, or moon face.  That caused some serious pain - mostly in my ears at night.  Definite discomfort.  And huge humiliation in public.  :)  Phase 2 (the phases overlap) was the feeling of actually being sick!  I was super tired (naps were my friend) and just didn't feel well at all.  Medicines would help out and I was thankful for that.  Phase 3 is what I'm dealing with mainly at this point - loss of hearing.  My ears just feel so clogged and I feel like I am in a noise-fog.  So annoying!  I just want to be done with everything and feel my "normal" again.  But by day 12 my cheeks were finally improving!  And today, day 16, my right cheek is almost done to normal size and at least I have a jawline on my left side now.  I'm still a mystery to my doctor.  I think at this point, as things are finally getting better, we aren't going to do anything.  If, God forbid (please forbid!), this were to happen again, we would start looking at auto-immune issues.  Let's just pray it was some weird ONE-time fluke.

Miles - He is super close to finishing up middle school - how crazy is that!?  He will begin BYU HS in the fall and we are all excited to give that a try.  We are still trying to get him in to this one class at the high school - it's called Project Unify and it would be a great class, I think!  We'll see about that.  He's a good kid and a smart kid and a sometimes annoying kid.  But he is definitely maturing and it is neat (and a little weird) to see.  We (Ben and I) are making him be part of the Montrose HS Mountain Biking club.  There is a meeting tonight for it - which Miles balked at.  But, whatever, sometimes parents just have to make their kids do some things.  Especially good, fun things that you know they'll like and will be good for them . . . :)

Jonas - He quit swimming.  Actually, I forced him to quit swimming.  It wasn't something I wanted to do, but I couldn't deal with his complaints of having to go any longer.  He had even had a 3-week break and then complained the week he started back.  I was done and so I told him he was done.  It's such a bummer because I think it's good for him, but at the same time, it's not like he was really good nor even getting much better.  He never really tried hard at practice, etc.  I'm still bummed about it.  I think he's totally fine with it at this point.  He is going to early-morning 6th-grade football practices.  I guess you only can play as 7th/8th graders and so this is a little pre-season practice.  I don't want him to do football for too many reasons to state here.  But we'll see what happens with it come next fall.  He tried out for the Jazz band yesterday.  I'm not sure he'll make it . . . the jazz band at their middle school is super good.  I didn't even know he'd want to try out - but he did!  I told him if he didn't make it this year, to try to get really good next year (and stay in the regular band) and try out again in 8th grade.  The middle school has a fundraiser going on and Jonas has sold 20 cards - meaning he'll get to miss school and go to Bananas Fun Park in Junction.  He is super excited about that.

Emmy -  She still deals with a lot of drama at school . . .  The principal stopped me the other day and talked to me in her office.  There was an issue at lunch . . . I guess a bunch of girls were gossiping about "K" and how she had sex with her cousin (gosh, why would they even talk of such things  :(  ).  Emmy got up and told the principal.  The principal was very proud of Emmy for standing up for "K," a girl she doesn't even like (principal's words and very true; "K" is the source of 90% of the drama in Emmy's life and Emmy can't stand her).  Of course the next day Emmy has to tell me all sorts of things about "K," like, "She's acting like she sprained her ankle, but then we all saw her running at recess. . . "  Ya know, that sort of stuff (not sexual crap).  But it's still crap and I still tell her all the time to just ignore "K" and stop talking about her.  It hasn't worked yet . . . I guess I need to come up with something better.  She's frustrated at gymnastics because she can't get her kip - a move on bars. 

Lucy - She's a pretty happy girl and is excited about a birthday party she's going to on Saturday.  Her reading group at school is reading a lot of Cam Jansen and Flat Stanley books and she's enjoyed them.  She'll finish up music with a little recital - playing a piece of music that she composed (with a lot of help from her teacher).  It's about her rats.  Lovely.  She's a great student and has lot of friends at school.  I hope her grade will have less drama than Emmy's grade!  She's getting skills at gymnastics and so that is fun.  She's learning her routines.  I'm not sure she'll compete this year, though, and so we'll have to wait and see.

Brigham - The birds are all coming back from the south and/or having babies.  That makes it crazy on our runs.  Also, sprinklers are coming back on - and Brigham just adores them!  It's so annoying as he yanks me away to stick his face in a sprinkler.  I'm trying to teach him . . . But he's cute and we love him so!

Ben and Miles on the Mary Fern

Ben is working on putting together a DIY scout-camp for our ward's troop.  He is doing it with a "Lewis and Clark" theme.  He is trying to find the perfect spot for it and so last Saturday he took Miles with him to explore an area he had researched via Google Maps.  (I still wasn't feeling great, the girls had gymnastics, and Jonas had bought himself tickets to the Montrose Truck Rally that he was going to with friends.)

The day before, Ben and I had gone over to Ben's co-worker's home because she was selling her canoe.  We bought it.  So we named it after her:  Mary Fern.  But maybe we'll call it the Merry Fern?  Anyways, Ben and Miles got to try it out first - fun for them!

They drove up to the Blue Mesa area and hopped on to the canoe and paddled 5 miles.  That took them 2 1/2 hours and, per Ben's report, Miles did awesome.  From there, they hopped out of the canoe and hiked up about 45 minutes - checking out areas Ben had seen on Google Earth.  They had a good hike, ate their lunch, and unbeknownst to them at this time, picked up a couple of ticks.

They hiked back to the Mary Fern and started paddling again.  This time, they had quite significant winds and weren't going anywhere too fast.  After some time, a nice fisherman with his nice pontoon took Ben and Miles in to his boat and towed the Mary Fern behind.  :)

All in all, the two boys had a great day!  A perfect exploration day.

 Miles looks good on the Mary Fern.

 So does Ben!  It's a big canoe - it states it can fit 5 people, up to 690 pounds.  So our whole family can ride in it (as we met at least 1 of the 2 criteria . . .)!

Can you see what's on the shore?  A dead, bloated elk.  Gross.  There was another one close to this one.  Ben thinks they were walking along the frozen Blue Mesa . . . and then the ice broke and they drowned.  Who knows.

 Beaching their canoe.

 Hiking on the "trail."

 At the top - I think.

 Of course Miles had to start a fire - on the water.

And push it out!  He loved it!  Boys.

And, as I said, the boys came home with ticks.  Luckily Ben found one on him, so then we made Miles check . . . and Miles didn't find one.  Until I sent Ben up to check his hairline/neckline - and lo and behold there was one that slightly engaged in Miles.  Ben used tweezers to get him off - but the thing hadn't started sucking blood yet.  Lucky Miles.  Ben had two on him - but he was able to just brush his off.  Gross.

Boys Camp-Out

The boys went on a scout camp-out in April.  Even though it rained the whole night, it was still a success!  The young boys all loved it - and I think even Ben enjoyed it.  In fact, I think Ben said it was one of his favorite scout camp-outs.

Ben had the Friday off and so he and I went up to the camping area and hid 2 "treasures."  The first treasure was for the first night - marshmallows.  The kids had to rely on their compass skills (or Ben's . . . as they, themselves, don't have much . . .) to find it - which they eventually did.  The next morning they found a metal box with silver dollars in it.  This time the clues were fu and tricky.  Anyways, a good time was had by all (I heard one mother tell another that her son thought it was the best camp-out!).

 Miles' friend Malachi came - good thing he brought his shades.  That fire was bright!

Jesse, Julian, and Jonas.  This was their shelter.  They got wet . . . shocker.  They might have learned the value of a peaked roof for next time?!

 DJ and Miles making . . . something.

 Miles' 2 friends came:  Michael (in red) and Malachi (as already mentioned).  Apparently this fire was not as bright. Also, I guess there were lots of fires in the morning - it was probably cold, kids were wet, and duh - camping + boys = as many fires as possible!

 They did a little archery in the morning.  Michael looks like a natural.

 Go Miles.

The gang of boys - minus photographer Ben.  Julian, Braden, Malachi, Jesse, and Dusty.  Next: Kaden, Miles, Michael, and DJ.  With Jonas front and center!