Happy 17th Emmy

Happy Birthday Emmy! You've got a few hours left of your birthday and so I better get this letter written . . . 

Seventeen seems pretty old - I remember thinking when Miles left for his mission how Jonas was then 17 and how you would be 17 when Miles came home. How crazy is that? And now you are the big 1-7. 

You've had another up and down type of year - full of hard stuff and also some good things. You had a couple of best friends one moment who then turned on you the next moment . . . and this probably happened a couple of times. Ugh. Exactly what you did not need. So those times and days and months were pretty hard for you.

But from those low-of-lows you were able to find a group of good friends who you felt comfortable with and who showed you good friendship in return. It just so happened these friends were all freshman . . . but whatever. But that's not all - one of them, Nixon, was Lucy's ex-boyfriend, ha! But you two stayed friends after the breakup and you had a lot of fun with Nixon, Alaina, and Garyn. You guys had a good summer together hanging out, going up to Junction for various reasons (mall, water park, thrift shopping, etc.), and what-not. Lucy got to join you on occasion - but not always. And that's okay. It was good to see you in good, healthy, and happy friend-relationships. 

I still hope for you to make friends in your classes so that you don't hate school so badly . . . Sigh. It is tough being a teenage girl. You have your good and bad days.

You don't think you're strong, but you are. You say you're not because I think you think things are hard and so if they are hard for you, you aren't strong. But you do these hard things all the time - and that's what makes you strong! You get up every day and go to school even though it's hard - because you are strong. You reach out to others even though you are in need yourself - because you are strong. You push yourself physically, like this year doing a real spring-triathlon - because you are strong. You get certified as a life-guard (something you were terrified to do) - because you are strong. You work on giants at gymnastics - because you are strong. You enter situations that are uncomfortable to you (i.e., BYU Cross-Country camp) - because you are strong. Indeed, you are a girl full of strength in many areas and I know you'll get stronger and stronger as you continue to push yourself to do these hard things. Hard work always pays off . . . eventually.

You love Lucy and you love driving. And you love driving with Lucy. A lot of times I can't tell you love Lucy, but you always say she's your best-friend. Which is sweet - I just wish we saw that more manifested (by both of you!). 

Getting your license has probably been your favorite event of the past year. I just wish it would have been less-eventful . . . You got pulled over oodles of times - mostly for a light out, but once you were speeding . . . You've gone through your share of cars, too. You started using our Flex. It had some problems and so while that was being taken care of, a very kind and generous man in our ward let you drive around his oh-so-cool red Jeep. That was fun for you! Then you got the Flex back and enjoyed a good run with it - until you crashed one spring morning. So sad! For all of us! We loved the Flex (but it was just barely hanging on, really). So then we found a cute car in Utah - a Mini Cooper - that you wanted and so I took the train to Utah to pick it up. You liked it at first. . . but that soon faded. I am not sure why - teased maybe a bit? And it just kept having "issues." So I think you were just always nervous about driving it - but not scared enough to actually stop driving, of course, haha. Well the problems with the Mini just kept on coming until it just started smoking everywhere. So we're trying to get that problem all sorted out. Which comes to the latest car you're driving - a 2006 Subaru your dad just bought last Saturday for a whopping $1K. It was being sold by his co-worker and was just too cheap to pass up . . . You thought it was the ugliest thing ever . . . but now you don't hate it. It's still to-be-determined if you'll buy this car, the Mini (if it can get to working), save for a different car, etc., etc. Oh it's been a ride!

Great things are in store for you Emmy! You just gotta keep putting in the effort. The Lord (and your parents) loves effort - and you will be greatly blessed by the effort you put forth, I promise you! Keep on keeping on. Good things are in store for you.

I love you.

Love,

mom 

Our Very Own Wolverine

A cute throwback to Jonas' first day of Kindergarten.

Well Jonas is now officially a Wolverine - a UVU (Utah Valley University) Wolverine. Jonas and I drove out last Monday for UVU's Freshman Convocation. We meet up with a friend from Montrose, Gabe, and as we went into the auditorium, I was told I had to go one way and the students another. I was glad Jonas had Gabe to sit with since he couldn't sit with me! The convocation was just fine - maybe a bit cheesy and pep-rally-ish, but good. My favorite part? UVU's president - she's just adorable! She grew up in the Philippines - the slums - and ended up getting an education. She eventually made it to BYU (undergrad), then Harvard (grad), and then M.I.T (doctorate). So impressive! She's maybe my height and maybe 90 pounds - wet. But just so cute and so real. She was a delight to listen to! After the convocation, we enjoyed a free BBQ. Then I drove up to my parents and Jonas dropped Gabe off and then checked out his apartment and roommate. (The official move-in day was the next day but Jonas' roommate has been there all summer and they'd been texting and he, Braden I think, told Jonas he could come by that night.) When Jonas came up to my parents, he seemed excited about the apartment and said his roommate seemed really nice. Yay.

Tuesday was a busy day and by the end, I was exhausted! We started out meeting up on campus a little after 9 or so. Jonas had picked up Gabe and he hung out with us for a little bit. Gabe and Jonas found their math class - which they have the same class and same teacher, but different time. Then Jonas and I went to find his diesel mechanics classes/labs. It took a lot of walking around the campus, but we found it. Basically a big garage with engines, cars, etc. and classrooms in the perimeter. We eventually found someone - and he turned out to be the instructor. He seems really nice and told us that UVU's diesel program has been in the top-10 for the past 20 years (excepting two years) and so that was cool to learn. He let us drive up my car and enter the garage area so we could drop off Jonas' 200+ pound tool box, plus tools. That was a relief to get rid of that! After that, Jonas and I checked out a few other places on campus.

By about noon, we were done trekking all over campus. It was hot outside and so I was hot. We ran over to Jonas' apartment to drop off some meat - Jonas bought a ton of meat from some truck vendor in Montrose! We filled up the freezer with the meat and Jonas was pretty embarrassed . . . but what can you do!? The apartment has 2 fridges w/ freezers so I think there will be space for the other 5 guys. I don't think I ever kept much in the freezer when I was going to college. . . 

Anyways, after that we met up with our favorite Sister Missionary, Blythe. :) She's the best and she got us delicious food at where she works - Ono's Malasadas. I got a kalua sandwich and it was delicious. We caught up with Blythe and just had a good visit. So love her.

From there we ran all over Provo to Orem and back to Provo again. We had to stop at several hardware stores to get a few more of the tools Jonas needed. Then we went to a Super Target (fun!) and got some basic kitchen needs, bedroom needs, and food. It was a lot and it cost a lot. Aiyiyi. Then we went to his apartment and moved all his stuff in! I met his roommate and he seems like a nice and cool kid. I met maybe one or two others real briefly and they all seem nice. Jonas thinks the same - that they are all nice. Yay. 

After that I left Jonas. It was a bit sad . . . I mean, Jonas is hardly ever home when he's living at home, but still... I think he was both excited and a bit nervous. His instructor told him that it's a difficult course load and will entail a lot of homework. Jonas can intellectually handle that - but he didn't quite master those skills in high school and so there might be a bit of an adjustment! But I think he'll do great and I am excited for his college years!

Freshman convocation was a party! :)

Jonas and the mascot Wolverine. 

Our fav - Blythe. :)

Firsts

Jonas' first-time home since completing his A.I.T at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri:

It was so great to see him and he was beyond happy to be home, i.e., to be done with his Army training! :)

Next up was school. So, of course, I took the obligatory first-day-of school pictures:

Lucy Dee, 9th grade, Freshman at Montrose High School. 

Emmy Ryan, 11th grade, Junior at Montrose High School.

Ben and Jonas both ran their first-ever 1/2 marathon - the Mt. Sneffles half. Ben thought he might as well since he'd been training well this year for various types of races. Jonas came back from A.I.T. and expressed how he loves running and so Ben invited him to join. Jonas thought about it for a couple of days - vacillating between the 10K or 1/2 - and two days before signed up for the half! His training included no more than 4 miles this summer - but he's an 18-year old boy. Still, Ben and I were a bit worried. But Jonas did great! He didn't beat his dad, but looked so good and felt great - even saying he was ready for another one as soon as he finished. :) He felt he could have pushed it more those last few miles, but needed to, ummm, poop and so just basically and literally had to hold it in those last few. Sorry, it's graphic - but that's running for you. Pee and poop become big issues! Anyways, we were super proud of Jonas! Ben rocked it and met his goal. He ran it in about 1:44 and Jonas came in at 1:52. (All the while I have done many a 1/2 with a lot training . . . and have never gotten a sub-2-hour. Oh to be a man, ha!)

Go, Ben, go!

Ben's all done - yay!

Go, Jonas, go!

Jonas is done - yay!

Like father, like son . . . someone recently commented how similar they look. And I guess they do! I am proud of and happy for them both. :)

There were a lot of runners from the Black Canyon Surgical Center - Lisa, Stephanie, Amy, and Ben. Love it!

And just to include me - I got my first perm. Just kidding, I am a kid of the '80s. Definitely not a first perm for me! Let's just call it my first perm in my 40s. :)

August has been super busy - but full of lots of good stuff!

The Day Lucy Turned 14

So I literally ended up with one picture I took on Lucy's birthday - and it didn't even have Lucy in it. In fact, it didn't have anyone in it - it was just a picture of the silly-looking cupcakes I made. Ha. So Lucy sent me a few, thank goodness. :)

I think Lucy ended up having a pretty fun birthday - "fun" for 1. being a teenager and 2. being a teenager who has to go school that day. Seminary hadn't started yet and so at least she didn't have to get up super early! Emmy and their friend Alaina took Lucy to Starbucks for a drink before school. Jonas checked out Emmy and Lucy and took them to lunch at Lucy's favorite place - Tacos El Gordo. Lucy said it was a lot of fun and that Jonas and Emmy are funny together. I was like, "Funny, funny? Or funny-mean." It was definitely more of the funny-mean-to-each-other type. Haha, but at least Lucy enjoyed it! 

After school, Lucy had three friends come home with her. They joined us for dinner (chicken salad on croissants and Olathe sweet corn - yum) and were included in our tradition and going around the table and saying why we love Lucy. Lucy loved that - but not really, ha! Lucy opened her gifts - pretty much all of which she knew because she had specific requests (7s jeans - had to buy a used pair on Ebay to afford those, Birkenstocks - thank goodness she fits into a child's size still because adult-sized ones cost twice as much, and Nike socks.) She got a wax candle thing and that was pretty much the surprise. Plus cash from grandparents - yay! We did ice cream and cupcakes - even though Lucy told me she didn't want a cake, just avocado ice cream. But I am glad I made the cupcakes because they turned out yummy (I even caught Lucy eating hers, ha) and she had friends over - who all claimed they like the avocado ice cream, but you never know . . . 

After that she and her friends got ready for their first high school activity - a "Red Dance." You wore white and were blasted with red powdery stuff. They all had fun and made for a fun birthday for Lucy. The friends walked to Dairy Queen after the dance and then we picked them up and they came back here and watched a movie, I think. Ben and I were asleep by then, ha!

Fun times at Starbucks. Lucy in her cute, new Birkenstocks. :)

Everyone thought the avocado cupcakes were cute - I think they were cute if made by a 6-year old. :) But fun and they were yummy, so win.

At the dance at school. Lot's of red, that's for sure. The friends, from left to right: Lizzy, Jordyn, Lucy, and Ruby. Those were the girls who came over and ate with us. I don't know who is on the far right.

Post dance - lots of redness!

Cute and fun new high schoolers!

Here's to being young and 14!

San Diego 2024

So it had been awhile since we'd been in San Diego - just about 7 years. But ever since Ben joined the Army Reserves, my Uncle Randy has been encouraging us to go and enjoy the lodgings of the Naval Base on Coronado Island. Well this summer was the summer to do it - because Ben is trying to get out of the army! (Yes, trying . . . he applied for the IRR in December and is still awaiting final "approval" . . . ) 

The tricky thing about making a reservation at the Navy Lodge is that during the summer months, non-active military can only make them 2 weeks in advance. So we were unsure of what would happen - and what happened was that initially there were no open rooms. But I kept calling daily and slowly a day appeared, then a few, and then I was finally able to secure the whole week - a Monday night through Saturday morning. Yay! (The cost is just incredible and unbeatable for that area - $110/night for a place right on a private section of beach on Coronado!)

We headed out on Sunday, July 28th and stayed that night in St. George. We then drove on Monday to San Diego and got checked in to our lodge/hotel. We ordered pizza and ate it on the rooftop terrace (as recommended by Randy) and that was awesome. We walked around the beach that evening and just settled in to our home-away-from-home.

Tuesday was beach day. We spent the day on Coronado beach - playing with the boogie boards and we also rented a corn-hole set. So fun! The unique and awesome part of the beach was that Navy aircraft were constantly flying overhead and landing practically on the beach - the runway was literally right next to the hotel. Sure, it made it a little noisy - but it was just so cool! Ben ended up bleeding on his foot . . . and we decided later that evening it must have been a sting-ray bite. It hurt him, but he didn't complain much and just went about our activities. After the beach, we cleaned up and headed to Old Town San Diego. We walked around, shopped, and ate dinner. It was a fun evening!

Wednesday we went to SeaWorld. Ben was able to get 4 FREE tickets, via his military status, and so that was amazing and saved us like $500. SeaWorld was just great - the animal exhibits and shows were just so fun and the girls enjoyed the super-crazy and super-scary roller coasters - aiyiyi. Ben and I went on one roller coaster - thinking it would be mild. Which it probably was, but it was still quite exciting and sickening to us old people haha. We also all went on the log ride and it was way scarier than a log ride should be, haha. But fun of course. It was a super awesome day. That evening we drove out to Point Loma and enjoyed a seafood dinner at a restaurant recommended by Randy. :) We had fun practically eating on the dock.

Thursday we went out to La Jolla. We rented a few wetsuits and snorkel gear on base in San Diego and made our way to La Jolla shores. Ben and I put our wetsuits on and it was so lovely - in fact, we even wore them at the beach and they were a game-changer. It was pleasant and enjoyable in the water - we weren't freezing the whole time. Amazing. Anyways, Ben and the girls explored for a bit with the snorkeling gear while I tried to "practice" close to shore. I failed years ago at snorkeling in Hawaii with my family; I couldn't do it in Costa Rica either. But I didn't give up and I just kept sticking my face under water for 2 breaths, then 3, then 4, etc. After switching to a better snorkel set, it was much easier and Ben and I ventured out a few times and it was so very cool! I loved it so much! The girls didn't love the idea of seeing fish when they swim, so they finished up and just walked and talked along the beach. But Ben and I had a good time and a sea lion swam 10 feet in front of where we were snorkeling. We also saw tons of cool orange fish - California's state fish, apparently (the garibaldi). The sea lions were all over! Anyways, a super fun time. We enjoyed some ice cream at La Jolla Scoops and then drove back "home." Before we got home, however, we did some school shopping at the bases' department store and it was pretty awesome! Great brands (Roxy, American Eagle, etc.) for decent prices. The girls each found quite a bit of clothing and so that was fun. We picked up dinner at the base food-court area and took it home and ate it on the beach's patio table. Awesome.

We wanted to stay close to "home" on Friday and just enjoy our last day there. So that morning we went to the Maritime museum - Ben's request. :) We enjoyed walking in the cool old ships! The girls and I even found some jewelry at a Farmer's Market across the street and so that was fun. :) When we got back, we  went and enjoyed the beach again. We again rented boogie boards and a corn-hole set. 3 boards and the set for like $25 total - I so loved base-pricing! The snorkel gear cost us like $20 for 4, plus 2 wetsuits. Crazy cool. We had fun at the beach once again - but were a little weary of sting-rays . . . In the first 15 minutes we got there, we saw three kids carted off in the lifeguard's truck with bleeding feet. The couple next to us had summoned the lifeguard and so we asked what happened - sure enough, sting-ray bites! A young girl visited with me a few minutes later and told me 7 bites had happened that day. Aiyiyi. But we did the shuffle-walk and that supposedly lessened the threat of the bite, and managed to still have a good time in the water. We cleaned up that evening and went out to dinner in Coronado. It was a great dinner and then we just walked around the town - including the Hotel Del Coronado. We got a few sunset pictures of the girls and then made our way back home. 

We checked out Saturday morning and made our way up to the L.A. area. We met my Aunt Karen at her lovely home and enjoyed seeing it and where she lived. It is really a beautiful home. We got to meet her sweet cat and see his cute trick of opening a door! :) Karen then took us out to a delicious Mexican restaurant for lunch and that was really enjoyable. It was so great to see Karen and she looks so good - she never changes! :) We then made our way to St. George - stopping in Vegas for some frozen yogurt. We went to church Sunday morning and then drove back home to Montrose. What a fantastic week!! I am so glad we finally went. Now I am playing Uncle Randy and keep encouraging Jonas to go . . . haha.

Other things to mention. . . we enjoyed watching the Olympics - particularly the gymnastics. So fun. Ben and I exercised each morning and it was awesome. Monday we both rode the hard part of Ben's 1/2 Ironman ride - Snow Canyon (in St. George). That was fun. Tuesday in San Diego we ran this loop on Coronado and it was awesome - thru the cool parks, by beautiful homes, near the golf course, under the bridge, etc. It was a perfect 10K route and we both enjoyed it. Wednesday we biked - Randy had recommended this path and so we took that and had a great ride along the bay and down close to the border. Thursday we ran our loop again. Friday we took the day off from exercising and enjoyed sleeping in a bit. Then Saturday Ben ran the loop twice (prepping for his 1/2 marathon) and I did a 15-mile bike ride along the bay, plus ran the 10K loop. Fun stuff and we enjoyed getting out in the mornings and exploring the area on foot and bike. :) Every morning the four of us got our hotel's breakfast and took it outside to eat on the beach. It was lovely. The girls loved how Ben got saluted at and called "Captain" every time we had to go thru the gate. The girls also loved the "hot" soldiers we saw all over, ha.

Monday/Tuesday pictures:

Dinner on the rooftop!

Our view - so pretty!

Our hotel, Navy Lodge on North Island, right on the beach. Lucky us!

Girls and their boogie boards. They did great!

Corn hole - super fun.

Old Town.

Old Town night life. :)

Wednesday pictures:

The girls were so excited and not-at-all scared for their rides! Go them!

We watched the dolphin show, the orca show, and the sea lions. Fun. :)

Dinner at Point Loma Seafoods.

Thursday:

Check out the sea lion in the back. :)

Our dinner table for the night - not too shabby!

Friday/Saturday:

The girls dancing in one of the ships' ballroom.

A cool part of some cool ship. :)

I loved having corn-hole out there! I am not a total water fan and so this made the beach really fun for me. Although I do have to say, with our wetsuits, Ben and I were definitely out in the water way more than normal - at least for me!

A picture taken at the gorgeous Hotel Del Coronado. I told the girls they should honeymoon there! :). A mere $600-700/night!!

 

The girls loved taking pictures . . . :)

Lunch with Aunt Karen! 

A little movie made of the videos taken during our trip.

Such a wonderful week! I {heart} San Diego.