Update - Especially on Emmy, ha

Alright, I guess we're due for an update . . . 

Ben and I are going to be combined. We're both working - he way more than I. We're also both training for the triathlon that will be this coming Saturday (Oct. 1st). We are hoping for improved times from last year. Ben will beat me - and will crush me on the bike. Sigh. Other than that, I am not sure what else is new with us. Oh, we got a hot tub. I found a great deal and then Ben did a whole lot of work to get it to our home and get it all set up, hooked up, and working, etc. We're excited for it to get cold and to use it - but the girls and Ben have already used it a decent number of times.

Miles seems to be having a most excellent time up at BYUI. We Facetimed him on Sunday and that was pretty fun. He's liking his classes and seems to be enjoying the social life up there. He seems to really enjoy his roommates and they do a lot of stuff all together - especially with another apartment of girls (their "FHE Sisters." They have another apartment in their FHE group, but they have yet to really meet those girls . . . ). He even hung out with a friend from Montrose, Jentel, last weekend - go Miles. Miles sent me these pics at 2:30 am last weekend - he, his roommates, and FHE sisters went to a cool cave/lava tube thing. Fun!

Jonas hated (hates) his job at Crash Burger - did I mention he got a job there back in August? I can't remember . . . But he did. And he hates it. As in HATES it. It's crazy how Miles works there for 2 1/2 years and by the end of the first week, Jonas couldn't stand it. Different kids for sure. But Jonas hated it enough to go beg his job back at the Rec Center as a lifeguard. He met with the Aquatics manager, HR lady, and some other lifeguard manager last week - and he got his job back. He's thrilled! (Actually, I don't even know if I mentioned on my blog that he was fired. But he was. Back in April, I think. There were a few reasons why, but the final straw was some dumb prank of hiding the head lifeguard's plastic ducks all around the pool areas. There might have been some not-choice words on those ducks as well - which Jonas claims he didn't write . . . He and another lifeguard did this and it was this other lifeguard's last shift. Apparently she was the only one writing the foul words, but I don't put it past Jonas . . . ) Anyways, hopefully he'll enjoy and respect his lifeguard job a little more now realizing fast-food is not his genre. :) He's almost done paying for the truck, so that's exciting. Other than that, Jonas is hard to handle and really only cares about his friends and trucks.

Emmy is doing okay - she has her ups and downs. But I definitely get loaded on with all her "downs" and it's a lot for me to take. School, for the most part, is okay. She likes her classes okay - doesn't love them, but doesn't really hate them either. She got in trouble last week for leaving campus at lunchtime (freshman are not allowed) and then lying about it . . . As I explained to her, I wasn't really mad about leaving campus - but lying was lame. If you're going to break a rule, you're going to own it. I am pretty sure she'll continue to leave campus at lunch because the only good friends she have either 1. Are freshman who leave as well (sneaking off, using siblings IDs, etc.), or 2. Are not freshman. Most of her friends are not freshman. She doesn't have many friends in her grade, especially any that she feels comfortable with inviting herself to sit with. Sigh. So I don't know. I have talked/emailed the administration, but I am not sure anything will come of it. I was already told they would not allow individual permission for freshman to leave. So Emmy may end up with detentions . . . if she gets caught . . . Sports are going okay for her. She's enjoying gymnastics and cross-country, but it's also a lot. She's not quite reaching her goals in cross-country and just feels dumb and slow most of the time, especially at races. Her girls team is made up of 4 juniors (all pretty fast) and 4 freshman (the other three are exceptionally fast, especially for being freshman). So it's hard for her not to compare herself to all those super-fast girls. For her races, Emmy usually ends up in about the 50% - which I think is pretty great for a freshman. But her teammates are all pretty fast and so she gets a bit discouraged. I think she likes it overall, but it depends on the day. :) She went to homecoming a couple of weeks ago - a lot (most? or about half?) of kids just go stag. So Emmy went with her current best-friend, Jerica. They went with a big group, including Jonas and his friends. They all had a fabulous time, I guess. Here are a bunch of Emmy pictures:

Emmy's Freshman school picture.

Cross-country pictures.

Oh yeah! Emmy got her permit - yay!!! She took a bit longer to finish her 30-hour course, but she finally did, took a few practice tests, and then I took her to the DMV yesterday and she passed her written exam. Yay for her - boo for us parents. :)

Her practice test. :)

Emmy had a race up in Crested Butte last weekend. Ben was on call so I headed up there myself (Emmy and I had to get up at 4:30 for it . . . aiyiyi). But it was a beautiful place for a run - I adore mountain towns! Emmy cried when she was done because she wanted to get a time in the 23s - and she was tired. But 24:01 is pretty dang close - and her fastest race-time so far (it's her 3rd race of the season). After a few minutes she felt better, was happier, stated she loved the race, etc. Her emotions wear me out. :)

Homecoming 2022. 

Okay, now on to Lucy . . . She's doing well in 7th grade. I put her in advanced math and since she wasn't in it last year, she's got some catching up to do. But she does catch on quickly so it's going okay. I think she enjoys her other classes just fine. She's doing the triathlon as a team again this year. She'll be biking it again as well. She's riding my old road bike and so she should get a pretty good time. :) We'll be making her team shirts today after school. Fun, fun. Other than that, she's pretty much the same. Still a bit impatient and so hopefully we can work on that each day. But she's generally happy, loves hanging out with friends (as soon as one leaves, she wants to meet up with others), loves gymnastics, etc. She and her good friend/neighbor ride their bikes to school each day and that's been going well. She likes watching the BYU games with her parents - and sometimes Emmy if she's home.

And that's us for now.

And Miles is Off to BYU-I

This is a picture of Miles *finally* finishing up high school! About 10 days before starting college . . . ha. But he did it and he did it well! He took his last final (American Government) on Saturday, September 3rd. It was a huge relief - for us parents as much as Miles!

When Miles bought his car, the British flag on top was old, faded, and cracked. So at some point, Miles purchased a new vinyl flag . . . and then it sat on our piano for months and months. Finally Miles began the laborious project of scraping off all of the old vinyl. It took quite some time. Then when it came time to apply the new vinyl, he and Ben discovered it was way too big. But the two of them were able to cut it down to size. Then a good friend/leader from the ward/branch came over one afternoon and spent hours helping Miles apply it. The friend, Gary, had all the tricks and knowledge and DIY chemical solution to help with the project. Miles was lucky to have had Gary come and help for sure! He even designed Miles a new vinyl "license" to put on his Mini. 

Tada! The sticker looks beautiful! (Oh, and the Free Bacon signs. Miles got them from work for free because they are broken. They are magnets and he has one on each door. It cracks me up.)

The "new" European license plate. So awesome.

Miles' last day in Montrose (for a few months) was on Thursday. Miles wanted to eat at Crash Burger one last time and since we all love it, we all readily agreed! So we got the kids all out of school for lunch and enjoyed a tasty meal. 

After lunch, it was time for us to start making our way up to Idaho . . . but first some more pics, because why not?

And this picture shows . . . Ben "buying" Miles' Pontiac . . . Oh yes Ben did. Hopefully it's a fun project for Ben - and will make Miles proud. :)

We got up to my parents' place late on Thursday evening. (My parents were still in Europe and so we didn't see them that day.) We got up bright and early Friday morning and drove the 4 hours to Rexburg. Our first stop was to his apartment: The Cedars. None of his roommates (he has 5 of them) were there, but several had moved stuff in already. We moved all of Miles' stuff up to his room (which he ended up switching later) and then headed to campus. We walked around, said "hi" to nephew/cousin Sam, Miles picked up his ID card and books, and then Miles was off to a few hours of some freshman orientation activities. The rest of us (all of except Jonas - he was lame and decided not to come at all on our trip) just hung out around the campus - visiting the campus store, checking out some things, etc. 

That evening we went out to dinner and then headed to Walmart (with the whole town) to pick up some miscellaneous items and get Miles started on some basic groceries. The place was packed and the items were scant - no PB, pasta, etc. It was a bit chaotic and seeing as I hate Walmart on a calm day, I did not love this outing. 

We then helped bring up everything to Miles' apartment and ended up meeting a roommate - Mark. Nice kid, a freshman, just returned home from a Spanish-speaking mission to the Chicago area. Mark and Miles are now room-roommates. We left and a few tears were shed . . . at least from some of us in the car. I don't think Miles shed any. :)

That night, Ben and I and the girls stayed at a cute little RV in Rigby:

Saturday we got up and Emmy and I went for a run. (Oh, by the way, we all ended up getting Covid - Emmy, Miles, and Lucy had it the week before. Ben tested positive on Labor-Day, which was a blessing in disguise. . . it excused him from his Army weekend and thus he got to spend it with us helping Miles move in. So great. We all felt pretty good. Emmy felt pretty sick for about a 24-hour period, then was okay. Lucy barfed a few times. Miles had a bit of a cough. Ben was less sick than what he normally gets from the common cold. I felt pretty good overall - a bit tired, perhaps. But, for me, the worst was the nasal congestion. I have never had it so bad ever in my life. It was incredible.) Anyways, Emmy and I ran and then we came back, ate some breakfast, and headed back to Utah.

It was sad leaving Idaho and Miles behind . . . but so exciting for Miles! It just kind of sucks for the rest of us. Plus, I am super-duper jealous of Miles - I want to go back to college! Best times ever.

Our friends, the Coons, had moved to Layton. As Lila Coon and Lucy are besties, we decided to make a stop to see each other. So we met up at Layton's Classic Skating (there is one in Sandy that I went to quite a bit in my tween/teen days) and the kids had a good time. Ben went shopping and had a great time. :) We sure miss having the Coons in Montrose (literally all my closest friends have moved . . . I want to, too!), but it's nice that they are in Utah and so we'll be able to actually stay in touch!

Cute kids. Holly, Emmy, Lila, and Lucy. The girls all really struggled on roller skates . . . but were able to cruise on roller-blades. For my girls, roller-blades are very similar to ice-skates and so it was much easier. If it wasn't so expensive, I would have tried some roller-skates and (at least what I envision) showed up my girls. :)

We got back to my parents' place and had a hour or two of some downtime . . . Then it was time for the BYU football game! Wahoo! I had gotten tickets for father's day - plus birthday and Christmas. Haha, but they were ridiculously expensive and they weren't even the expensive seats. In fact, they were second to last in cheap seats. 

Waiting for the game to begin . . . Man it was loud. The electronics, music, announcements, etc. are all HUGE. And we were like 10 rows from the speaker/screen. It was intense. My whole body felt/heard it. Ben and I may or may not have plugged our ears a time or two . . .

And, wowzers, what a game! I doubt we'll ever experience a game like that again - certainly not live. It was so intense!!! In the end and after a double-overtime and several (like 3-4) missed field-goal attempts, #21 BYU came out with the win against #9 ranked Baylor. It was CrAzY. What a fun game to go and see!

We enjoyed a nice Sunday of going to my parent's ward and then eating a nice Sunday dinner - but it was really lunch because we needed to head back home. I had made a rhubarb pie for their birthdays (they each had their birthdays while in Europe!).

And, last but not least, Miles' "first day of school (college!) picture." Since I couldn't get one of him, I told him to take one. :) Yes, I also told him it might be time to take off his name sticker on his helmet . . . but I doubt he will. So far, Miles is loving it all - his apartment, student life, classes, ward, etc. And while he's exactly where I want him to be for his sake - for my sake, I miss him. He's pretty great to have around. But go, you, Miles! I will relive the glorious days of college through you - so you better make the best of it. :)

Miscellaneous Summer Pics

 Random pics, hopefully in not totally random order:

June - an amazing month!

Ben's garden. The crops are like twice as big now! It did really well this year. Go Ben.

I didn't post this picture on my Alaska post, but I really like it. 

Ben and Lucy were goofing around one night on the cruise. Haha.

July, you were pretty busy and pretty great, too.

Joe and Britt's family were camping over in the Ridgway area - so we were blessed to have them over for dinner one night. Lucky us! Emma, Grace, Emmy, Lucy, Jonas, Nicholas, and Miles. Such great kids. 

Emmy ready to go to the Elk's dance. I guess it was sort of lame and thus they ended up at Denny's. 

I went hiking with a group of ladies one Monday. I was supposed to backpack it (same area that I went with Lucy and friends), but plans changed and one of the moms could only day-hike it. So I day-hiked it with her. But  . . . someday . . . I will camp at the basin of Middle Fork! Jessi, me, and Shara. And Jessi is carrying along Dessa. She was the greatest three year old I've ever met! Just adorable, sweet, and so easy-going.

Dessa was my car buddy on the way home. She wanted to take a picture of me. :)

I then wanted to take a picture of her. She's too cute. She asked me if I had any "boo-boos." So I checked out my arms and said no. She asked why. I said I didn't know, I guess my "owies" had all healed. She then pointed to her "boobs" and told me her mom has big ones but that she has little ones. Hehehaha. Ohhhhh. Then, yes, I have "boo-boos." Maybe she was saying "boobs" all along. Riding home with her was a highlight of my hike. :)

Emmy's running woes.

This past week Miles and I headed up to Utah on Tuesday afternoon. We got up to my parent's place that night. My parents, however, were not there as they had just flown out on their Europe trip that day. The next morning Miles got his wisdom teeth out (it saved me about $1000 taking him to Montrose). It was a quick 1 1/2 hours - in, x-rays, IV, procedure, wake-up, and all done. I was a little distracted when he came out because I had realized about 5 minutes before that I didn't know where my keys were. I retraced my steps and figured my keys must have fallen out when I sat down outside on the curb. Sure enough, another patient's father told a nurse (they were all looking for my keys) that he had seen a gentleman pick up keys by the curb and then walked down the sidewalk. We checked all the offices in that building complex but no keys had been turned in. Miles was smart enough to suggest calling the police station - which I did, but still no. I was beyond frustrated and just wanted to cry. I eventually called a locksmith, who, after 2 hours of waiting, arrived and made a new key for me. Luckily my insurance reimbursed me, yay. But it was still a frustrating experience and I have no idea why that man kept my keys . . . 

Getting ready for his wisdom teeth to come out. The actual time of taking out the teeth was like 10 minutes, I guess. He had a really good teeth-situation - they were not impacted, already coming out, bones looked good, blah, blah, blah.

Anyways, on to Miles. He did just dandy. We left straight (well, straight, plus 2 hours for the locksmith) from his appointment and headed home. I bought him some ice packs and frozen yogurt before leaving Orem and he iced himself all the way home. (Oh, he drove all the way from Montrose to Provo on the way there. It was horrible for me. I mean, Miles is a fine driver. But he's 18 and so it's terrifying no matter what.)

Miles' "dinner" the next night - he had some applesauce and this was instant mashed potatoes with gravy. Yummy. He's on to more solid, but soft, foods at the moment. He didn't swell up too badly and he's doing pretty darn great.

The YW activity (which I ended up missing because of our 2-hour delay) was a photo shoot. We had two photographers (one our YW secretary and the other a sister-in-law to a leader) come and take photos of the girls. I don't have Emmy's yet, but here are Lucy's. I love them and think they turned out so cute! 

Miles - feeling like a free man! On Saturday, September 3rd, Miles finished up his last BYU high school class. He took his last final and was FINALLY done! YAY!!!!! Now 9 days until college classes begin . . . :)

Emmy hasn't finished up her online driver's ed course (she HATES online and it really is the LAMEST - it makes you sit on a page for 6 minutes, even though it takes 45 seconds to read . . . but you have to do "30 hours" of the course and so it drags it out and is pretty unbearable. At least for Emmy. She complains about it to no end. The boys? They were more than happy to deal with it if it meant a permit). Emmy wants her permit, but just so detests the boring course. I agreed to let her drive around the church's parking lot. It was . . . kind of scary. Haha. But, really, she did okay. But I'll let Ben take her next time. Hopefully she'll get her permit soon, too.

Miles has been working for a while on the British flag decal on his Mini. When he got the car, the decal was cracked, chipped, etc. So he, with a bit of help from Ben, scoured and scrubbed and got the old decal off. Then a leader from the YMs came over today and helped Miles apply the new decal - that Miles had bought months and months ago (it's been a long time from start to finish). It took them awhile, but Gary had all the right knowledge and DIY supplies and so we are grateful he took the time to help Miles out! It looks awesome! (Oh, notice the "Free Bacon" sign on his door? He has two on both sides. They are magnets he got from his job, Crash Burger. They are cracked and so Crash Burger didn't want them . . . so Miles took them . . . and put them on his car. I think they are hilarious.)

And, finally, goodbye August! August is missing a few things - like Miles' wisdom teeth, etc. Whatever. :)